Category: Storytelling

Read More

Please Support My Google Exposé

My mind is divided about Google, or is that Alphabet now? On one hand, I see the company as among the most innovative ever. I highly value many of Google’s products and they enable me to work more efficiently and to accomplish much more in far less time. On another hand, the search and services operation’s business model is hugely disruptive to people like me that generate content that is primarily consumed online. My profession is in shambles, with the “Google free economy” as the primary wrecking ball.

Overnight, I started an investigative report that will, in the early stages, primarily focus on how the information giant’s business disrupts the news media and some other content producers. “What Does the ‘Google Free Economy’ Cost You?” is crowdfunding through Byline. Should I achieve my modest milestone goal—$250 over 40 days—another milestone would follow with larger goal, and the reporting will expand into additional areas of concern, such as privacy or even how Google could influence the outcome of the U.S. 2016 Presidential election. 

Read More

Flickr a Day 237: ‘Free Ride’

Take pictures of your kids that look like the photostream of Amanda Tipton and you will make a memory book they will cherish as adults. Her art delights so much that picking one pick is misery. I could choose a dozen breathlessly. Self-titled “Free Ride” takes the Day for composition, perspective, candor, and as demonstration the importance of having the camera with you and using it!

“No he has never done this before and no I didn’t ask him to; lol”, she says. “But because I didn’t want my camera to melt in the hot car I happened to have it in the store with me. Of course, I probably looked like the worst mom ever snapping pictures before I told him to get up; haha”. I say best mom ever. Amanda captured the moment on July 18, 2012, using Nikon D700. Vitals: f/2.2, ISO 720, 1/250, 35mm. 

Read More

Flickr a Day 233: ‘Squint Eyed At Casa Coffee’

There is raw energy—emotional charge—behind the street photography of Ryan Raz. His style is unmistakably intimate and brazen. Composition often hides, at first glance, something intriguing on closer examination.

Self-titled “Squint Eyed At Casa Coffee” is unremarkable on quick inspection. But there is something about the motion of life—the women in and outside the shop—and the subject’s all-but-closed eyes that is immediate and unpretentious. 

Read More

The Paywall Problem

This week the long-dreaded Washington Post renewal email plunked into my inbox. So ends a glorious year of reading the digital newspaper on PC and tablet. My cheap thrill ride is over: “Your subscription will be renewed for a year on Aug. 26, 2015, at the rate of $149/year. As you’ve requested, payments for your subscription to the Post are automatically charged to your credit card”. I requested nothing. The Post imposed auto-renewal, which I cancelled the next day. My sub now ends on August 26.

Twelve months ago, the Post made an amazing email offer, good for just 24 hours: “Get a Full Year of Unlimited Digital Access FOR AS LOW AS JUST $19!” Wow, what a deal. We splurged and went digital on any device for another ten bucks. Washington Post is worth $29 a year—and it’s a good value for $149, too. But all the paywall news sites want that kind of cash or more from me. I’m willing to pay for good journalism, but my budget can’t accommodate them all.