July 23, 2008: The Rant for Today

[venchka]

I don't look at the Houston Chronical very often. However, on the few occasions when I do, I am usually saddened by the state of the photographs published in the newspaper. Today is no exception.

Look at the front page of the Business section. Photojournalism, as I knew it, is officially dead. The standard of quality...well, there is no standard anymore.

This makes 3 rather large section cover photogrpahs that I have seen that should never have been published. The first two were full page covers of the Fashion-Entertainment tabloid within the main newspaper.

A damn shame.

Thus concludes the Rant for today.

[kenw]

Wayne, I read the online version every day, but am not sure if the particular pic made it online or not. Was the pic associated with a particular story? if so, which one?

[venchka]

The photo today was a long vertical of a land based drilling rig. It looks like a 0.1 MP phone camera image enlarged about 500% too big.

[kenw]

not seeing it in the online version, but based on your description I can imagine the butchery.

[venchka]

I looked. I didn't see it online.

[venchka]

Based on the photograph published in the print version of this article, y'all need to hire someone who can recognize a quality photograph.

Do you suppose anybody at the H.C. will see that? If so, will they care?

[toverman]

Up until May, I was editor of a small weekly newspaper north of Fort Worth. I reported/wrote regular news and features, took photographs, edited all the news and wrote all the headlines, designed Page One and paginated all or most of the news section each week. After I left, it took four people to replace me, all doing about one of the four main functions I was doing. I still work in the city where the paper is, and people have told me they notice a drop in quality. It's not just the photographs, but that's a major part of it.

So you're ranting to a member of the choir here. Our local metro has been running bad photos for years. The hits just keep on coming!

/end my rant of the day

[venchka]

I hear you.

[Corrie]

So sad. I expect a lot more out of a big paper like that. There are a lot of lame photo's put in. When I gripe about them over coffee my husband thinks I am losing it.

[venchka]

The worst part: They won't accept any digital image from an outside source that has ever been anywhere near Photoshop or similar software. "It might spoil the authenticity."

Meanwhile, publishing manure is ok.

[Atfulldraw]

Originally Posted by venchka

Meanwhile, publishing manure is ok.

Classic!