The Digital Journalist November 2007 Issue Contents

Dispatches: Notes from the Field
Four November dispatches include Sandy Huffaker's and Sean Masterson's gripping coverage of California's horrific wildfires; Paul Taggart's before-and-after report of Benazir Bhutto's carnage-filled return to Pakistan, and Will Baxter's account of dodging bullets in Burma (Myanmar) alongside protesting Buddhist monks.

by Marianne Fulton

E-Bits: Right Brain,
Left Brain
and Perceptual Illusions
During the last three weeks of October, an extremely popular item swept through cyberspace via e-mail exchanges.

by Beverly Spicer

COMMENTARY

Impressions: The 2007 Online News Association Convention, Toronto

I arrived in Toronto Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 17, a damp day with unusually high summer temperatures similar to New York.

by Ron Steinman

The Life and Times of Ernest C. Withers

I was wandering down Beale Street in Memphis when I saw above a door a faded, torn piece of paper that read, "Ernest C. Withers, photographer." An hour later, my life changed.

by Eric Meola

The Situation Room

Sometimes in the gym, when on the treadmill or working the weight machines, one of the three TV sets is on CNN and its late-afternoon show, "The Situation Room."

by Ron Steinman

PHOTO JOURNALISM

Tech Tips

A local photographer here in California suggested I contact you to see if you could offer some advice.

by Chuck Westfall

Nuts and Bolts

A number of my friends and acquaintances are shooting digital professionally, but shooting their personal projects on film.

by Bill Pierce

Good Reputations Don't Come Cheap

Kudos to the Memphis Flyer, a newsweekly that broke the story about The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal's plan to "monetize" its news content.

by Mark Doremus and Karen Slattery

Common Cents: Angry Bees

Getty Images has stuck its finger in a beehive.

by Mark Loundy

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Letter from the Publisher

Welcome to the November 2007 issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism.

by Dirck Halstead

BREAKING NEWS

Help Free Bilal Hussein

On the morning of April 12, 2006, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was having breakfast in his Ramadi apartment. Suddenly heavily armed U.S. Marines burst through his door.

Of Access and Evidence: Why Bilal Hussein's Captivity Endangers Reporters and Sends a Poor Message About U.S. Intentions in Iraq

I only met Bilal Hussein once, in Ramadi, mid-September of last year, but the story he shared with me as we stood outside the bullet-pocked entryway of the Al Anbar provincial capitol building has stuck with me ever since.

by Matthew D. LaPlante

COMPRESSION SESSION

Compression Session: Pan and Scan on Still Photographs in Final Cut Pro: "Option-T" is Your Friend

Remember using the Motion Tab in the FCP Viewer to set keyframes in order to pan & scan with still photographs using a Cross Dissolve?

by PF Bentley

CAMERA CORNER

The Sony XDCAM Tapeless Camcorder

On Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007 I took delivery of a pre-production version of Sony's exciting new XDCAM EX-series solid-state camcorder: the all-new PMW-EX1.

by Nigel Cooper

In the Aisles - PhotoPlus Products Report

When covering a show as big (and noisy) as PhotoPlus Expo...

by Dan Havlik