The New Face(s) of Photojournalism

A few examples of slideshows with audio:

• A Deadly Journey in Lebanon -- New York Times; photos by Tyler Hicks; audio report by Hassan Fattah.
• Wrestling -- by John Valenzuela and Thomas R. Cordova, at the Inland Valley (Calif.) Daily Bulletin.
• Coryn / Apple Festival Queen -- by Michael Rubenstein, a freelancer based in Portland, Oregon.
• Final Salute -- Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo. (Producer: Forrest Stewart; Audio and video: Sonya Doctorian; Reported by Jim Sheeler and Todd Heisler).
• MediaStorm -- new stories are posted from time to time.
• Money Power and Respect -- photos by Brenda Ann Keneally; production by the University of Miami School of Communication.

Learn to Gather and Edit Audio

• Why Photojournalists Should Gather Audio, by Brian Storm, June 2005. See also Part 2 of this article.

• Recording/Interviewing: The Basics, by Jay Allison.

Soundslides

The top advantages of using Soundslides to create a photo slideshow with audio:

1. You do not need to own Flash or even know anything about Flash.
2. The file you produce with Soundslides is an SWF file, which runs in the Flash player. More than 90 percent of all Web users already have (and use) the Flash player. See for yourself. Flash player version 7 and higher will run a Soundslides show.
3. Soundslides takes less than 5 minutes to learn. This is not an exaggeration. I have asked a lot of photojournalists how long it took them, and they all say this.
4. Soundslides allows you to produce an audio-driven slideshow of any length with any number of photos (your choice).
5. The functionality (such as pause, play, and a slider control) are all built in. You don't have to do anything special to get them working properly.

If your only motivation for learning Flash is to build a slideshow with a soundtrack, then forget about it and try Soundslides instead. If you want to do more later, then go ahead and learn Flash ... later.

Video and the Still Shooter

• MercuryNewsPhoto.com -- lots of video here, all shot by the still photogs at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News

• Video Journal -- and here too; this work is by the still photogs at the Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash.

• Work by Travis Fox, for The Washington Post.

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