One in 8 Million

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html?ref=nyregion#/eliza_smith">http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html?ref=nyregion#/eliza_smith</a></p>

<p>John, That is absolutely terrific in so many ways that I won't even name them. Just "thanks" for posting it, and Happy Thanksgiving to you. I give thanks for Photo.net, and the chance to know you.</p>

<p>John, thanks for the link. That was a well done documentary story and made you feel good in addition.</p>

<p>I have always like the narrated slide show format, especially when the words are the subject. I need to dig out my recorder and learn how to do this well. I remember you having a recorder a few years back. Did you accomplish anything with it?</p>

<p>Bob, I've done a lot of recording for its own sake ("accomplished anything") but I've not managed to put a story together.<br>

Why? Because I've not managed to shoot a documentary. Recently I recorded a teller of Alaskan stories...I'd like to photograph him and his related artifacts but my problem is, like that of many of us, that I have to make a living and have not been determined enough to carve out the time. I've always got some kind of alibi. <br>

Check the other NY Times One in 8 Million shows on that website.</p>

<p>John: I have got to get my recorder out and do something. Never did anything but buy it and look at it. Frankly, I have been intimidated at the concept of real time editing. I have no problems shooting 10 rolls of film and reviewing 360 frames on the light table to select 3-4-5 to tell a story. But the idea of sitting down with 1-2 hours of audio and editing that into 5-10 minutes terrifies me. I have no excuses now that I have retired.</p>

<p>Oh, I do have an excuse. Most of my photography for the last year has been in Cuba over a number of trips. So any recording there would be in Spanish which I struggle with.</p>

<p>The Magnum in Motion part of the Magnum web site has some great narrated slide shows as well. Varying styles of narration but all of them excellent.</p>

<p>Like you I'm terrified by audio editing, but it has the advantage over photography of being linear, or at least it has the tendency to flow in one direction.</p>

<p>My Oly LS10 is definitely Leica-like. It works and works incredibly well, particularly wtr its mic focusing. It can almost be a shotgun mic system without the shotgun.</p>

<p>Paul Fusco, of Magnum in Motion, is one of my heros.</p>

<p>Bob, your photos and especially your way of relating to people put you high on my list. I just got back from buzzing around your website. And I occasionally look again at one of your prints. In fact there are one or two photos in my P.N portfolio that remind me of your work, wishing I could spend more time pursuing images around them.</p>

<p>You might want to read about Chris Strachwitz, without whom most of us wouldn't know about Delta blues or Cajun music. An article in todays NY Times talks about him. Arhoolie records.</p>