I’m impressed that anyone can capture a sports moment with a Canon Rebel. Those photographers should get honorable mention for effort in the face of equipment adversity. Is Nikon giving away free D3s? Everyone seems to own one.

According to the judges’ blog, D3 college shooters opted for a 300mm and a 1/1000 f/2.8 combo. Now go shoot some football.

-Sarah Evans

Do 1 Thing is a non-profit that uses multimedia to publicize the blight of homeless youth. The group relies on all sorts of contributors from photogs to volunteers to folks to donate cash. Their website is clean and easy to read. For those visual folks working behind a desk, is your work flow this pretty?

That is such a fabulous work chart. I dream of such a work flow running seamlessly in the background of a busy day. Sigh.

Photographer Andrew Zuckerman is a bird nerd. Audubon featured his newest images. Haggart wrote about the publicity. Zuckerman has a slick and streamlined way of distributing his new book published by Chronicle Books. Cost is $60 and you can buy via Amazon. So simple his media PR applications.

(1) Zuckerman created his own bird book site: http://www.birdbook.org/. (2) He added behind the scenes videos on Vimeo. (3) Publisher Chronicle is using Scribd to give viewers peeks inside the book. (4) he is, appropriately, tweeting on Twitter (http://twitter.com/zuckermanstudio). And Facebook. That is taking new media by the horns and telling it what to do. Easy, streamlined, effective.

The streamlined happy nuggets go to Do 1 Thing co-founders Najlah Feanny Hicks+Pim Van Hemmen and Andrew Zuckerman. All cutting through the noise in the most effective ways.

-Sarah Evans

A Vermont TV station quoted publisher Harry Hartman as saying “Our belief is that a local paper, with hyper local coverage as we say, is going to be very successful in Claremont and we are looking forward to that.”

About 20 of the 62 staff laid off three months ago were hired back. Check out the WCAX video coverage about Monday’s work day as the front page headline declared: Your Daily Paper is Back.

Sample News is a family-run business based in Pennsylvania. The  founder, George “Scoop” Sample, and his wife published The Morning Times in Sayre, Pa., for 14 years before creating their media empire of dailies, weeklies, magazines and printing plants.

In 2008, Sample News bought that Sayre newspaper and another in New York according to an AP article. Scoop wasn’t the only person scooping up new titles. 2008 was an active year given economic pressures. By the third quarter, 16 papers worth a total of $883 million had been sold.

The Star wrote that Sample ‘had finely honed an efficiency model against which the papers were measured on the 15th of each month and which rested on the simple equation that, for each employee, the paper should draw $100,000 in advertising revenue annually.’ He passed away at 84 in the summer of 2008 but was remembered as a cost-cutter with a jolly personality.

The Eagle Times is jumping out of the blocks with 8,000 subscribers. Fly eagle fly.

-Sarah Evans.

The result to all the moving, shaking, weaving and bobbing? “With the Party-shot personal photographer, you no longer have to worry about taking photos when you are with your family or friends,” said Shigehiko Nakayama, digital imaging accessories product manager at Sony Electronics.

So party around a brightly lit conference table with your closest friends. New media is about automated decisive moments. With wowwee’s Rovio mobile webcam and you can be “just a click away from the people and places that are important to you.”

I’m seeing great potential for feature photo hunting in the best multi-tasking way. Strap hundreds of Party-Shots all over a city. Send out the Rovio to monitor activity levels then you’ll know which camera to download images from first. All before deadline! 

-Sarah Evans

Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images actually found a pink car backdrop as two people wearing pink sorted belongings in a suburb of Manila. The ability to color coordinate your disaster coverage is taking photography to a whole new media level.

What about New England? In May of 2006 the area experienced the worst worst flooding since the New England Hurricane of 1938. Back then Rhode Island did not fare well against 40 foot wall of water.

Now I’m storm chasing from my chair cruising through Flickr. Check out Mark Johnston of the Daily Herald. Little girl taking a break after dancing in the rain a week ago in Utah.

Another fabulous after rain moment by Hau Si Yuan Julian.

And then I found a link to a photographer who runs quickly toward the storm. Jim Reed.

I’ve run with gear. Mostly at parades or marathons. And I just ran into the kitchen for some Skittles. Last weekend I walked in the rain. Jim and I are practically twins. Though my preference would be to wear pants while rushing a tornado. Or tornado pants - a popular base layer in extreme sports. Jim looks too casual and exposed for a date with a swirling storm cloud.

Reed gave an interview with PopPhoto when his “Storm Chaser” book came out in paperback in early 2009 and said “Trees were coming out of the ground” during a dangerous photo moment.

Lightening tips: set focus to infinity, shutter to bulb or 10-30 seconds, aperture between 2.8-5.6 (anything higher than f/8 will get you many bolts of lightening in frame). More tips on the difference between night and day lightening - check out the weather photo tips.

Now go chase after a good weather feature.

-Sarah Evans.

Not to be outdone, Reuters’ photog Dominic Ebenbichler matched the ball impact and added sweat and three athletes at the womens’ Euro 2009 quarterfinal.

I saw a speed skater with a nasty blade cut and a horse flying in the air after being hit by a race car. Then Michael Dwyer of Boston saved you all from the gorefest with a brilliant golf image.

Shooting for AP, Michael caught the sun in Tiger’s club at the Deutsche Bank Championship here in Massachusetts. Since the sun now sets at 7pm in New England, even seeing a reflection made me happy. Which lead to pretty paragliders floating in air at the world championship near Rome by Tiziana Fabi/AFP-Getty Images.

Why not stay in Italy? Mark Rossi of Reuters was at the Italian Grand Prix watching bikers take curves.

We circle back home with New Orleans Saints Troy Evans - sadly no relation so I pay full ticket prices at football games - walking onto the field for a preseason game by Sean Gardner/AP.

From pain to pretty in six easy steps.

-Sarah Evans

Feeling confident as a self-appointed web design critic and out to prove a point, I surfed other dailies for the LA Times twin. Lately, to me, I see a lot of boxy grids. Kansas City Star, Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury News, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Star Tribune. Bingo: San Francisco Chronicle (design twin!).

LA Times

San Francisco Chronicle

Sure, square square square with a rectangle thrown in for good measure. But both allow for a more flexible larger photo in the upper left corner. That is a win for the visuals team.

Not sure what to put in that high eye traffic corner? Listen to a podcast series on Adbase with art buyers.

-Sarah Evans

“We decided to do our part by developing this online home for resources, stories, and discussion about this sea change for photojournalism and photography in general.”

With Experts of the Day, Group Therapy and Resources, the series is full of useful, practical information you can use right now. Still not convinced? Topics include ‘Running your own business, ‘Commercial and editorial assignments,’ ‘Wedding Photojournalism,’ ‘Fine Art’ - aren’t you already doing some if not all of these things?

David Leeson, Bill Owens, Maren Levinson. Big names who have big tips. If you dream of starting a virtual newsroom or working with NGOs - more big tips from those who are on the ground working the angles.

Go ahead, give yourself the gift of free advice. Just what the economy ordered.

-Sarah Evans

For those Fantastic Four fans, Chris Evans, the photographer, has a celebrity twin - an actor who was born in Sudbury, MA. Photo Chris is eclipsed online by his famous name twin. If you want to check out his images at evansfotos. Neither Chris belongs in my family tree.

Sarah Evans: What does Chris’ style bring the Herald photo team?
Jim Mahoney: What helped Chris separate himself was the total package. Like most of the candidates he is very skilled at multimedia and has a good command of working on the fly, is a solid shooter with a good mixed portfolio. His prior training as a desk man and his level of newspaper experience really may have been a key in our decision to bring him. Chris also has an interest in pursuing spot news. So his all around experience and our desire to fill a desk shift and night shifts really fit our bill. We’re looking forward to seeing what he can do here after a nice run in Springfield. August 9 is his first day.

SE: How did you become aware of Chris? Any particular image or project that caught your eye?
JM: I got the word Chris had been laid off after 12 years from the Springfield paper and was very eager to see if he might want a shot at working here. His old boss Dale Ruff said he was great guy and excellent shooter. I’ve known Chris since he started at Springfield and used to see him at Pats games when I was on the street. So that was the easy part, he came in and tried out against a solid group of candidates and beat them out scoring a Page 1 pix along the way. Our other candidates put a great battle and we thank them for their interest in the job. Many are still freelancing here.

SE: As an editor, I’m both scared and inspired by the choice to use multiple extreme horizontals on the Herald’s homepage. The design definitely provides an adventure in editing. What strategy are you using to sustain the design and avoid composition repetition?
JM: I had input on the rebuild of the “Photos and Media” page but none on the front page. The front page design has evolved from the straight flat run to a design that looked similar to the NY Post to what we have now.  We’ve had good success with this page design so it has stuck. They have a couple of variations on it they use when we have the art or story that demands it.

SE: I’m very keen on the tab name “Photos and Media.” Celebrates the importance of the still image while incorporating other mediums. How do you decide what gallery goes in the top spot on the page?
JM: The photo page is about 2 months old and we’re very excited by it. It is a combination of features from other sites we liked and some in-house design. The huge gallery of galleries was a Dallas concept that you can scroll over and get the gallery or movie to pop into the player.

The still galleries are good sized and we are looking at a full screen option soon. The movies can be played full screen with a click. You can search by shooter, video and still and get the show you want. The galleries are by time loaded and have no particular sorting beyond last in. We also have the “photo of the day” idea and that is a select either by me or one of the web editors. You can also get linked to all the stories that go with the pictures and should have a link to our blog “Freezeframe” We don’t do enough blogging but it’s there.

SE: As the director of photography, what do you like best about the Photos and Media page? Flexibility? Showcasing talent?
JM: The opportunity to showcase all the various pictures and talents of the staff has been the best by product of the redesign. What a morale booster it’s been and soon we’ll be adding Pictopa for ecommerce purposes. As any photographer desires is to be publish that’s what we do!

Thanks to Jim and the Herald for doing their part in the recession.

-Sarah Evans

Enter Demotix. The U.K. agency has recently gained strength as a professional player in the world of citizen journalism. The website quotes non-exclusive images selling between $150-3,000 and videos for $500-1,000 per minute. Royalty split 50-50. As imagined, the philosophy is our website is your website. With 6,700 contributors in 110 countries that is a big community. Pro, amateur, come one come all.

Carter found Demotix himself a few days after his photo career began. I’m guessing that is exactly the way Demotix prefers contributions to be posted. According to a PDN article, Demotix launched last December to skepticism about the financial viability of citizen journalism. In the short term, the agency is proving doubters wrong after getting two NYT front page credits during the Iranian protests.

Demonic? Pix? Tickets? Dominatrix? What does that name mean? What are they getting at? The website answer: “We are named after Demotic, the form of writing used and most easily understood by the man in the Alexandrian street in 200 BC. The word ‘demotic’, meaning ‘of the people’, is still used to refer to the language of the people; today, it describes the modern language spoken by everyday Greeks.”

Photo agency named after a form of written script. I find that entertaining. For those Greek geeks among us, check out the Wiki definition. Now go out and make some money.

-Sarah Evans