Dispatches: Notes from the Field - The Digital Journalist

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	Election SADR CITY, Iraq: "He gave you a miracle..." by Chris Hondros
	Close to Home Mudslide: La Conchita, California: I thought, I gotta get in here, and I can't stand at the yellow tape. by Spencer Weiner
	Village of Lost Souls Sri Lanka: The scene was difficult to capture, even more difficult to comprehend by Doug Vogt
	How Much More? Band Aceh: You start to frame bodies into strong compositions. You justify it by telling yourself your images might make a difference. by David Dare Parker
	Father in Me Sri Lanka: It was harder to look at the eyes of a mother by Chang W. Lee
	No Lie Banda Aceh, Indonesia: They say journalists should witness and report; not cry. But how should you not. The only way is to kill your heart while you shoot your footage. by Delvi Sinambela
	A Second Wave Sri Lanka: As I photographed them, I wondered what to make of their smiling. by Todd Shapera

EDITOR'S NOTE:

How to cover the elections in Iraq? Of the many photographers trying to get somewhere to take pictures and witness history, Chris Hondros (Getty Images) had a small disaster "transformed" into success.

Although Iraq, for once, was exhilarating, journalists elsewhere seemed exhausted and drained by an overload of sorrow.

It was a painful "deja-vu all over again" for L.A. Times photographer Spence Weiner, called for the second time to shoot a mudslide in his California community, La Conchita.

In the tsunami zone, photojournalists Chang Lee of The New York Times and David Dare Parker wrote about carrying on during overwhelming circumstances. ABC cameraman Doug Vogt found a beach that was so devastated there was nothing to shoot. Delvi Sinambela, an Indonesian TV journalist, had the disturbing experience of setting up live shots, yelling downlink frequencies over a bad phone connection, while a tsunami victim sat waiting, in a chair in the studio, for a live interview. Freelance journalist Todd Shapiro, who also shoots New York weddings and bar mitzvahs, discovered something unexpected from the gentle souls of Sri Lanka.

A somber set of hardships, recorded by the dedicated.

AMY MARASH
DISPATCHES EDITOR
amy@marash.tv
www.marash.tv

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