Vancouver Olympics, Entry 9
Photos by me. Photoshop work that is above and beyond anything I’ll ever be able to do done by this guy.
This may or may not be a rough draft- in the original photos, the bottom edge is kept in the frame, to give a better sense of height. We’re working on creating a “fish-eyed” version that shows this. Stay tuned.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 8
We’re off to the ski jump hill, then short track speed skating today.
I continue to be indebted to Donald Miralle for his help with pans (also, a BIG congrats to him for winning World Press – check it out HERE). I’ll get an OK panning shot at 1/60th of a second, he can get a tac-sharp shot at 1/4 of a second. No man knows how he does it.
How does one go about taking such preposterous photos as the last two? Well, let me tell you – you stick close to Al Bello and Don Miralle for the day, and you are bound to end of up a situation like the photo below…
Hanging out under the ski jump. The hands on the far left of the frame belong the Sports Illustrated’s Bob Martin. Left to right is Getty’s chief of sports photography for north america, Al Bello, former Getty-photog-gone-freelance, Don Miralle, and yours truly. I don’t want to make some ridiculous comparison for what it is like hanging out under a ski jump, but It is pretty eerie. You start taking photos when the whistling sounds like it is going to land on top of you. Then, only silence and shutters clicking.
Next, we’re headed to hang out with the Apolo Ohno, but first, some Chinese vs. Korean tension, slowed down.
This old chap was kind enough to leave his foot still (for the most part) for 1/8 of a second.
And now – Apolo Ohno’s seventh medal, with photos from the qualifying, semi and final round.
Apolo hangs out with friends.
His signature tactic – hanging out in the back of the pack, drafting, then making a mad dash for the front in one of the last laps.
Like everyone at the Olympics, these guys move fast. Also, they seem to be able to skate horizontally.
Apolo taking first place in the semi-final round to advance to the finals. I would dare to consider this a decisive moment.
Token celebration shot. To be honest, this guy is incredibly cool, calm and collected. The photographer next to me pointed out Apolo was skating around and yawning before the final race (he really was). When he skates, he seems to move slower, and much more gracefully, rhythmically than the other skaters, who look they are getting ready to collapse. Whatever he is doing, it is clearly working well for him, and it is pretty awesome to watch. My second favorite athlete to photograph these games, behind Shaun White.
Alexia Grant goes to Syracuse student
We currently interrupt our Vancouver Olympic coverage to give a big congratulations to fellow Syracuse student and friend Juliette Lynch for winning the Alexia student grant!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the grant, it was started by the parents of Alexia Tsaris, after their daughter, who was studying photojournalism at Syracuse, was killed in the terrorist attack on Pan-Am 103 on December 20, 1988. At the time of the attack, Alexia was returning home from a semester abroad at Syracuse’s London program. The grant of $10,000 is used to promote a photo essay, proposed by applications, which will focus on social injustices and cultural differences. This is the first time in a few years the recipient has been a Syracuse student, and on behalf of Syracuse photo-j students, I can happily say we couldn’t be more proud. Check out her work, here: http://www.JulietteLynchPhotography.com , and to Juliette, congrats.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 7
Downhill Skiing and Skeleton today. Everyone moves so fast.
This is how the skeletors start the race.
This is how the skeletors finish the race. They come up out of their own mist like serious bad-asses. Then they abduct you to their space ship.
This photo, along with the next two are going to tell you the same thing (guys going around a corner). This is bad photo editing by me at 1AM. But I like all three and this is my blog.
All the cookies in the cookie jar to the first person to figure out what this is.
My favorite skeleton photo at the moment. I’ll probably hate it tomorrow, but for now, I really like it.
A brief interlude before heading over to the ski-hill (where I could use some work). I took this photo while thinking of good friend AJ Chavar, seems like something he would shoot. that kid kills it – a very talented guy who I am excited to watch to see where he goes as we both graduate.
These hats are so, so pitiful – but can we really expect anything less from Americans? An epitome of over-sized, cheaply made, over-priced goods you can buy and then throw away to (not) remember your time at the Olympics. Naturally, they’re the hot ticket item, all the loud-mouth yanks have them, God bless. (Ok, sorry, my cynical rant is over).
Yard. Sale.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 6
I shot snowboarding yesterday. Words really can’t express what it is to stand on the edge of a 22 foot halfpipe and watch the best riders in the world launch into outer space two feet in front of you. Without a doubt, the most insane feats of athleticism I have ever seen -they charge harder, faster, higher, meaner and gnarlier than anything- floating and flipping through the air as if alien specimens. The first and only Olympic sport I would personally pay money to see again. Your head spins. (Again, Im posting more photos than I should – it’s a rough edit at 1AM)
Shaun White (who just won his second Olympic gold) is the only rider other riders stops to watch. The score from his qualifying run would have won him the gold. It was so blatantly clear from the very beginning. A composite image tracking White through the air on this boost is in the works.
This is white on his way DOWN. I have shots of him from this sequence at a higher altitude but he has gone into the TV lighting (cropped out because it is ugly).
Kazuhiro Kokubo was a real contender for silver or bronze, I was personally rooting for him – he charged super hard. Unfortunately he slipped out as he crossed the finish line on both his finals runs, securing a trip home empty handed.
I don’t even like this photo, it just seems so clean and mandatory though.
On the other hand, I really, really like this photo – I don’t even care that it isn’t sharp. I wish I had shot more guys this tight.
I hope photo people like this shot. I do.
Back to White to close us out.
The guy is a pretty big rockstar, and the story of how he first got sponsored and started riding is pretty cool Doesn’t seem like such a bad life to live.
The coolest part of the night was standing two feet from him as he ran over to his posse. He was incredibly genuine and friendly and polite with everyone. After all the hugs and high fives from teammates and friends and corporate schmucks and Olympic trolls, he took this quiet moment with his Mom, which I thought was pretty cool.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 5
I’ve never been one for facades or presentations – I tend to prefer straight-laced honesty. With that said, I would just like to express that I am not very pleased with myself tonight. I can shoot better. Today was weak. That is all.
United States rider Lindsey Jacobellis ignores pleas from an NBC correspondent for an interview after crashing during the semi-finals. After a heart-stopping crash only yards away from the finish line and a gold medal in Torino, Jacobellis was a strong contender for gold in Vancouver.
(As a closing note – I can’t tell you how often I make fun of sunset photos. But what the hell, this was the first time in a week the sun has come out long enough for a photo, and it was the end of the day on the bus – Vancouver, the ocean water and mountains looked amazing. This corner of the globe aint so bad.)
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 4
Posting lots of photos (too many) today. Two quick lessons I learned. 1) I really wish the sun came out in Vancouver more often. 2) Hockey pucks are really, really small and move really, really fast- ay?
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 3
I was lucky enough to shoot the men’s moguls qualifying round and finals tonight. These guys sure know how to huck themselves off mounds of snow. Enjoy.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 2
I have much less time to post than I originally thought I would, often spending up to 6 hours a day on a bus and an hour walking from house to bus center, bus to event and back. Here are a few from the first few days.
The opening ceremonies.
Austria’s Gregor Schlierenzauer during the prelims of ski jumping.
Apolo Ohno and JR Celski (left) pull into second and third place during the mens 1500 meter short track final. The silver medal Ohno won is his sixth medal, tying him for most winter Olympic medals ever.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 1
Lets get one thing straight: I suck (suck, suck) at blogging. It is pretty obvious. But as I get ready to shoot my second Olympics, I’ve promised some good friends I will blog every few days about my experiences. I’m determined to keep up with it, if only for my own work flow and memories. So here we go.
This will be my first Olympics as an actual photographer, not an assistant. I am pretty excited for it, though the amount of gear and prep time I’ve needed has been pretty astounding. For instance, I learned the Olympic committee won’t let photographers on the hill for the alpine skiing events without proper crampons – $300 and a few hours of research later, and I’m the proud new owner of Asolo mountaineering boots (reviewrs of the boots commented how they had just returned from the summitting a few of the Chilean Andes – the boots worked great!) and Petzl crampons (photos to come, I’m sure). Wahoo.
Other goodies have included Mountain Hardware ski bibs, weather shells for the cameras, extra batteries, hand warmers with gaffers tape for the cameras to keep warm, pocket wizards and mounting gear for remote shots, laptop cases, 4 terabytes of hard drives (back up your stuff!), a new watch, googles, etc etc. That doesn’t even get into the lens, cameras or finding and negotiating freelance assignments. All in all, it’s been a journey.
The photo above is a small portion of a weeks worth of packing. I’m pretty pumped. Feel free to stay tuned.
London Leftovers, Part 1
I recently went trolling through the tombs of my semester in London. Photographically, I had just finished the biggest shooting experience of my life (Beijing), and suddenly found myself shooting some of the worst images of my career. My friends wondered what was going on, my professors showed their discontent through my grades. Amidst the rubble, I found this.
Sometimes I Love Photos I Shouldn’t
And that is a GOOD thing.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given was by ‘Cuse prof Dr. Lawrence Mason (Doc Mason to us), who stressed to me that I need to have my own collection of photos which I love for myself. They shouldn’t always be in your portfolio, they shouldn’t always be shown, but you should love them and not let anyone else tell you differently (excellent advice we should all take).
So, on this cold, rainy Syracuse night, I present a terrible 1/2 frame, shot on the train to London Heathrow on expired, x-ray- riddled, Moroccan-back-street-bought Kodak film. It holds significance: It is the final photo I took in London, after a world wind tour of photographing the Beijing Olympics, living in London, hiking in Switzerland, camping in Morocco, hitchhiking in Ireland, boat-riding in Turkey, swimming in France, drinking Scotch in Scotland, bike riding in Germany and eating in Italy…
These lives we live. They’re funny things. I feel very blessed for everything I’ve been able to do. And I’ve gotten to make some really shitty photos along the way….
Three Hours at Homecoming
My photo work has taken a big shift over the past two years. It has moved away from daily assignments as I have tried to shape myself into a documentary photojournalist exploring social issues and sub-communities around me. However, during Syracuse’s Fall Workshop, I was given the assignment of covering 10 highschool senior girls going to homecoming – I spent about three hours with them, check out my rough edit below (in this nifty vuvox finder I’m messing around with)…
Aquatic Invaders
This has been a rough few weeks. Within the span of a month, I’ve had to tackle Syracuse University’s Fall Workshop, CPOY’s deadline, my first wedding shoot ever (in Hawaii, hard to complain, images to hit blog soonish), an internship application and the Eddie Adams Workshop. On top of this, I work as an assistant photo editor at the Daily Orange (Syracuse’s student paper) and thenewshouse.com – a brand new weekly web ‘zine run by Syracuse’s j-school. Amidst it all, I produced this…
Aquatic Invaders from Andrew Burton on Vimeo.
Aquatic Invaders from Andrew Burton on Vimeo.
Inspiration: Sol Neelman: A Photographer’s Style
One of the biggest criticisms I have towards my own work, is that I lack a sense of my own style. I worry that you can look at the different portfolios on my website, and see me trying to emulate different photog-styles in each portfolio, without ever really creating a voice of my own. I know I am still working it out: how I want to shoot, what I want my visual signature to look like.
A photography friend once told me a story, in which he watched James Nacthwey quietly review a student’s work. The veteran photojournalist turned each page of the young photographer’s book slowly, until he had come to the end, without saying a word. He then turned to the student, and, while clearly communicating that the portfolio review was over, said, “I’m sorry, but your images tell me nothing about who you are as a human being.”
I’m worried that would be said to me. Yikes.
With that in mind, I thought I might highlight one of my favorite photographers, and one who I think has his style down exactly the way he wants it.
Sol Neelman is one of the first photojournalists I ever met; he’s always been very kind and willing to lend a hand. More importantly, he’s a photographer who knows what the hell his style is.
© Sol Neelman
Sol has made a name for himself by choosing his niche (wacky and weird sports), going all over the world to cover his speciality, shooting exactly the way he wants to, and not giving a damn what others think about him, his work or his style. For me, that is huge inspiration.
At first glance, his loose, off-kilter, multi-layered photos can feel haphazard and un-cropped; yet the more you delve into his work, the more you realize, Sol knows exactly what the hell he is doing, and is damn good at it, too. He is a master at composition, framing, layering and capturing disconcerting moments in his subjects. He expects you, the viewer, to spend time in his photos, exploring them and finding the hidden moments he has captured in larger settings. For this, I am a huge fan – he skips the crop tool, and shows you life in a more raw and refreshing view.
I suppose I’m writing this to help convince myself to shoot as much as I can, until I settle into something that feels unique, original, and completely my own. I suppose I would encourage all young photographers to do this.
In the recent words of A Photo Editor’s Rob Haggart, “…If it wasn’t a struggle to find one’s own voice, what would be the point? Struggle is good! I think it helps to be an independent thinker. Be sure of yourself and your intention. Read and read more. The struggle is what makes it worth doing – what gives your voice the meaning.”
Happy shooting.
On Travel, Photography
A few months ago, a friend travelled to Africa for six weeks; It was his first time out of the country. While I’m no expert in travel, at the age of 22, I’ve lived in three continents, growing up in Sydney, London and New York City. I’ve also lived in Wisconsin, Connecticut, upstate New York, Oregon and Colorado. I’ve traveled extensively throughout Africa and Europe, and have spent time in China and central America, so I thought I might try and give him some advice. Portions of my letter to him are included below.
…Hopefully, everything I am going to say to you would already come naturally to you, and that you shouldn’t need to hear it. Nonetheless.
Obviously: Don’t be the loud American. Our country supplies the world with its tourists and we have made a terrible name for ourselves. Don’t contribute to this. Keep your voice down (we speak very loudly compared to the rest of the world), listen and learn. I’ve realized you learn absolutely nothing from hearing your own voice. Traveling is about experiencing other cultures and learning about them, so in my humble opinion, it is best to travel very quietly while keeping your eyes open. Ask questions and listen, don’t try to teach.
Be discrete with your camera. You are there to capture moments and to work as a photographer, but don’t forget your gear is worth more than many of your subjects will earn in 5 years, 10 years, their entire lifetime. You want to be respectful, subtle and quiet with your work. You aren’t there to be a superstar with a camera – you’re there to disappear into backgrounds, become a fly on the wall, observe, learn and experience their lives. You aren’t there to add a little bit of America to every scene you walk into, you are there to learn what other people’s lives are like, their struggles, hardships and joys.
Whether you like it or not, the people you interact with will impact your life far more than you will ever impact theirs. You will walk away from this trip with a greater understanding of the world, and better knowledge of how life and business and economies and humans and love and pain operate around the world. Be willing to be humbled by all of this. The more time I spend traveling and working in journalism, the more I have realized, both of these professions are about being humbled. They’re about walking into people’s lives and learning, changing your world view, recognizing how blessed we are and humbling ourselves to respect the different ways people choose and are forced to live life.
Take appropriate risks. Order a meal from a menu without looking at the english translation of what you are ordering. Try to shock and surprise yourself, walk down a dark alley when it feels right and you can tell something might make it worth it. Ask a local about where the best place to grab a drink or meal is. The best times are when you break away from the increasingly large tourist industry and you find the dingy local joints.
Keep your gear covered up. Bruce (my photo prof) tells horror stories (I haven’t had any happen to me yet) of men on motorcycles following people from the airport and mugging them at a stoplight, while still in their taxi, after the motorcycle men saw a rolex on the travelers wrist in the airport. You are white. You will be watched. You will be noticed. Be aware of this.
Travel light: the U.S. is one of the few countries that washes their clothing after wearing it only once. Push yourself to go days in the same outfit. You’ll smell more like the locals as opposed to a chemical daisy. Plus your pack will be lighter, and you’ll have less shit hanging off you that can get noticed and/or stolen.
Be mindful of how safe or un-safe your hotel/compound/apartment is. You need back-up-plans if shit hits the fan and your laptop or camera is stolen, if your external crashes, if your passport is taken. A lot of this turns into fly-by-the-seat situations, but it’s good to be mentally prepared if anything does happen
Finally, don’t walk around like a scared and nervous-nilly. The world isn’t out to get you, and most people are good, happy people who want to talk to you and help you out. Smile, be nice, don’t be confrontational, go with the flow, be a defuser of confrontation, not an aggressor. But like I said, in the back of your mind, be mindful of everyone, have eyes in the back of your head, sit with your back against walls, with your eyes on the door of any room you walk into.
I hope you have the greatest time. I hope this is the start of your international photography career. I hope we both make it to Nat. Geo. (because it will still be around in 20 years, hah!) and we live lives full of champagne and beautiful women (hah!). Keep your chin up. – Andrew
Accounting for time.
It’s ironic I write this blog post after a month of not posting, but I still feel these words are important, need to be said, need to be understood.
I recently spent some time with a good friend who mentioned that even though he was in a good summer internship, was in a great city and having a good time, he had not taken a single photo that summer. He just wasn’t doing it, even though it was his major in college, even though it’s what he claimed to love, even though it’s what he said he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
It reminded me of a lesson I learned a while back, which seems notable to share here.
As photographers, or musicians, or painters, or anything creative, we are accountable for the passing of time through our work. We need and must have work to show for seasons, months and years.
It is too easy to call yourself a photographer and not take photos. We must prove our passion and commitment to our trade through consistently producing work. We must be able to say, “in the spring of 2007, I produced this, in June of 2009, I produced this.”
Through this process, our work improves, we train ourselves to be consistent, we have a record of our actions, our portfolio grows and potential employers are shown a track record of skill.
If we are not able to do this, if we go through long slumps of not producing, then we are unnecessarily labeling ourselves something we are not. It hurts the industry, discourages people, and drags your own name through the mud.
This has been my thought for the day. Go take some photos.
The Vancouver Project, Eddie Adams
I have two big things to share tonight. I’ll keep it brief.
1) I’ve co-written a new-media journalism approach to covering events such as the Olympics: we’d like to test it out at the Vancouver Games. Check us out at http://www.VancouverProject.com, or download the PDF. If you like what you see, get back to us, spread the word, comment, criticize and critique. As we say in the document, this is the starting point of a conversation. Also: we accept checks for $100,000.
2) I’ve been accepted to the Eddie Adams Workshop. I’m pretty pumped about this, as only approx. 10% of applicants are accepted. I certainly was not expecting the invitation.
For those of you who don’t know, Eddie Adams was one of the most famous Vietnam photographers of all time (most famous for taking General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon), and started running a workshop at his upstate New York house and barn back in the ’80s. Since then, once a year, 50 professionals and 50 students are selected to be taught by 100 teachers (a 1:1 ratio). You can only go once. It is a huge honor to be chosen, and I hope I can produce at the legendary standards set. That goes on in October for four days, I’ll keep you updated.
That’s all for now, I have a long list of photos I want to share, photographers who are inspirations, and thoughts I have on the industry. I’ll be chipping away at that list in the coming months.
The Restless Struggle
Over the past few years, I’ve realized any artistic person, be it a photographer, musician, painter or architect, must commit themselves to an uncomfortable and frustrating, yet endless struggle.
One of the first people to describe this to me was Bruce Strong, who sketched out the graph I have reproduced below. As he said, “You’re raising the bar for yourself, attempting to produce a higher quality of work, but you aren’t quite there. You don’t want to rest on what you’re capable of, but you aren’t able to produce what you want to – and you find yourself very frustrated. My advice – don’t give up. Keep pushing yourself.”
His wisdom was an eye-opening moment for me. Bruce had effortlessly summed up so much of the personal struggle I was going through with my work.
However,what I have since realized, is that, as creative people,we should never, ever feel comfortable with our work. We should always be raising the bar, never feel content, always feel frustrated and wanting more from ourselves. In doing so, we consistently make our work better, push ourselves farther and improve our industry.
I was recently discussing a peer’s work with a good friend, and while we both agreed our friend’s work was good, we couldn’t quite put a finger on what we did not enjoy about it; and then we realized, they were content with their work. They were complacent towards improvement, they showed no progression over time, they were happy with what they produced. And this in itself was enough to turn us away from their work.
It is the life blood of a creative person to push themselves, push their industry, show they are striving for more.
Since that conversation with Bruce, I’ve heard these words echoed again and again. Legendary story teller, Ira Glass, explained it well in this series of videos (in four parts).
Through his blog and twitter account, Chase Jarvis is a constant supporter of this belief, and his work shows it. He has also referenced Seth Godin, who I have recently become a fan of. The recent Michael Jordan ad by Nike stresses this ideology.
So the point is: push yourself. Don’t settle for being content. Don’t rest for a moment. Explore areas of your industry that scare you or that you don’t think you are good at and work in those areas. Stretch your capabilities, and fail endlessly.
In the end, it will make your happier with your work, and with yourself.
Inspiration – Alejandro Chaskielberg
© Alejandro Chaskielberg (A Paraguayan immigrant travels together with an argentinian islander, who is his employer. They are loading 3 tons of Willows, taking them to the principal port of the Delta in order to sell the wood.)
A few weeks ago, Chaskielberg was awarded Burn Magazine’s 2009 Emerging Photographer’s Grant. Rightly so; I have had his images in my head ever since.
Working under a full moon, Chaskielberg has documented workers on the Paraná River Delta, which supplies water for over 100 million people throughout numerous Brazilian cities.
To me, this pushes far beyond standard photojournalism and completely excels. It shows a unique story, a totally original visual approach and an active mind for his craft. He steers clear of the standard photo-j crutches of grainy, black and white images. Rather, he has created beautiful, saturated images which utilize long exposure, artificial light and tilt shift lenses (I could be wrong here, but the DOF looks pretty skewed on many of these) he is able to blend day and night, dream and reality, photo-journalism and illustration.
His work is refreshing to look at and reminds me that outside-the-box thinking is still completely possible in photojournalism, you just need to open your eyes a little more.
View more of his work, here: http://www.chaskielberg.com/
In Defense of Twitter – An Essay
Precursor to the Precursor: These were a collection of thoughts bouncing around in my head that would often come out through unorganized, jumble/babble when twitter was brought up in conversations. A Good friend encouraged me to write them down. I had no idea I would write this much. Here we go.
Precurser: Twitter is a prime example of new media, social media, convergence and crowd sourcing. These topics are the source for endless research, debate and prediction. Experts send their lives exploring this stuff. What I write will briefly touch on these topics, but will be mainly for people new to twitter, for those who do not understand it, or for those who don’t like it.
In January 2009, I started a Carnegie-Knight-funded Fellowship focusing on the future of journalism. In an attempt to understand and become an active member of the ‘new media revolution,’ I joined Twitter- skeptically. However six months down the line, I have found one of the most beneficial and enjoyable advances in communications technology to date.
First, It needs to be understood that Twitter the company does not represent or advertise its product well. One of my best friends, who is an expert in social media, convergence and journalism likes to say, “twitter does not know what they have.” I have to agree.
Twitter advertises itself with the slogan, “What Are You doing?” But it it so much more than that. Their slogan elicits responses akin to the negative stereotype the website can generate: “Andrew is eating a sandwich,” “Andrew LOOOOOOVES coke!” “Andrew had a bad day.”
If this is your vision of twitter, your criticisms are correct. And if Twitter was used this way, it would quickly die. However, this is not the way it is being used. In reality it is being used in much more beneficial ways.
Four Reasons why twitter works:
1. Crowd Sourcing:
Twitter works as an instantaneous conglomerating tool for social networks. Let’s say you have 10 friends following you on twitter, and you follow them. Now quicker than ever, you can ‘tweet’ out “pool party at my house tonight – bring swim suit and snacks,.’ Your can know about it the moment you send it out, they can reply, they can forward it, they can tell you about the other party everyone is going to. Or what about this:
You decide to drive to Blockbuster (even though Netflix is way cooler) and rent a movie. Before you leave, you tweet out “What movie should I rent – I’m looking for a romantic comedy?” from your computer.
By the time you get to Blockbuster, you check your phone and see that of your 57 followers, 23 have replied, and “Marley and Me” has won by a margin of 10 votes. Decision made.
Not a good enough reason for you? Consider this:
Iran recently hosted a democratic election which was open to the public for voting. The current president won by over 60%. The masses didn’t believe it and felt the results had been tampered with. Internet and mobile communication signals were shut off, international journalists were ordered to not report. Yet despite all of this mass riots still broke out throughout the streets of Tehran and Tehran University. How? Well, twitter helped out.
Consider this: at 10 PM sharp, from the roof tops across Tehran, protesters screamed out, “Allaho Akbar (God is Great).” This was the result of one Iranian tweeting out “ALL internet & mobile networks are cut. We ask everyone in Tehran to go onto their rooftops and shout ALAHO AKBAR in protest #IranElection” His followers received that, and passed it along to their followers, and so on. Sure enough, the media took note of a surprising 10 PM rooftop chant of Alaho Akbar, ringing out across the city.
Internet-based social media companies, such as twitter, are about empowering and gathering the masses in ways that no government, news source or business can control. Despite what the news was telling Iranians and what the government was trying to suppress, the masses were able to communicate and gather in ways never before seen. This is and will continue to change the face of democracy. These examples have been a mere inkling of how twitter can be used.
2. Real time debate, a limitless audience
Twitter encourages lively, real-time debate, in which anyone can voice in. Through keywords (signified through a # sign, as in #fail = keyword: “fail”) and replies (you can reply to a person with @THEIRNAME, to which they will be notified. As in, I send a message to username DaveM by typing “@DaveM blah blah blah). That way, you can follow and participate in debates as they happen in real time. There are consistently great debates and arguments taking place on twitter, with people debating and others pitch in. Knowledge is created, ideas are broadened, people are educated, good things happen.
Continuing with this Iranian example (this situation has been a gold mine for how twitter can improve lives), consider this: The tag #IranElection has become the keyword of choice for anyone tweeting about the Iranian Election. That way, anyone can go onto twitter and look at everyone across the globe commenting on twitter about the election, give their own thoughts and have their voice be heard (by searching for that keyword). Another popular keyword as of this past weekend is #CNNFail. @JeffJarvis noticed that the CNN Breaking News account on twitter has 1.8 MILLION followers, yet only tweeted 5 times throughout the entire weekend. The twitter community (known as the twitter-sphere) was livid and began keywording their messages about this with #CNNFail. Think about the ramifications of this: Crowd sourcing can work beyond debates and arguments, it can work as a way for businesses to hear what their audience wants. CNN’s audience was speaking directly to them, in real time, with real demands – imagine how business can harness that power).
3. Up-to-the-minute breaking news.
If you are a news junky, like I tend to be, you want to know what is happening NOW. After all, what else is news other than what is happening at. this. moment. Twitter fulfills this news-lust. I’ll follow stories for hours on twitter before I can find anything on CNN.com. And my knowledge about information is expanded. For an example: In the last 4 hours, I have learned about Obama’s comments regarding Iran, a foiled plot to kill Pres. Jimmy Carter in Palestine, two Spanish f-18s that crashed near the Canaries and information about a decision made by the International Olympic Committee regarding Kuwait. All of this from one news source (@BreakingNew). The majority of the time, when I want to learn more about a story, I’ll end up having to wait hours for CNN.com or MSNBC.com to show coverage of the event.
Even better, there are countless sources for news, from any niche or industry. If you love photography (like I do) there are twitter accounts specific to that industry (check out @PDNonline for photography). Whatever your niche, you can find more information on twitter. Your horizons can be expanded. You can learn about stuff that interests you. It can benefit your life.
4. One-on-One Contact with your heroes and inspirations
Perhaps I have saved the coolest reason for adopting twitter for last: twitter gives you a new level of access to the people you admire the most. This can include whatever that person wants to tell you: their whereabouts, thoughts, projects, dreams and/or work. People who love Shaq (@TheRealShaq) can follow him on twitter and get instantaneous messages from Shaq, direct to them, on his thoughts about losing a game. Fans of Arizona senator John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) can get his thoughts on the latest bill going through congress, or his thoughts about his favorite burger joint in Tucson. In my industry (photography), I love to follow @MediaStorm and @MagnumPhotos because they are the absolute gold standard for photography and multimedia. Twitter puts the me in social setting where I can hear about Media Storm and Magnum’s latest work the minute it is produced, if they are looking for summer interns, or if they want feedback about their latest project.
All up, it is pretty amazing. It breaks down barriers. You no longer need the nightly news to interview Shaq for his thoughts on the game, hear it from him directly. Don’t wait for Meet the Press for McCain’s frustrations with the president’s latest speech, look at his twitter – while the speech is happening.
I would note that, it is a pretty cool feeling when someone whose work you like, or whose thoughts you respect, starts following you on twitter. It is also pretty cool when they mention you – it means anyone else who is following them might look you up and start following you as well. And as you become a more active member of the social networks you associate yourself with, your audience will expand and your thoughts will begin to hold more worth.
Some last thought caveats:
Twitter is only as good as your use of it and the time you invest. A big part of twitter is the third party applications such as Tweetdeck and Tweetie. These allow you to monitor the people you follow, send out tweets and look up profiles (along with a bunch of other cool tools) all from your desktop. That way, you dont have to go to twitter.com and follow up. I for one, always have Tweetdeck running on my desktop so that when I am at my computer, I can read, respond and forward anything I see coming across the twitter wire. For twitter to work in your life, you must make it apart of your work flow. Twitter is about news/thoughts/happenings which are going on NOW. Therefore, twitter is not the type of site that you check once a day. It’s something that runs in the background, that you check up on, like your email.
Twitter is only as good as your own tweets. If you are on twitter, you want an audience, you want interaction, you want responses. That wont happen if you tweet infrequently or about useless stuff. You want to contribute to the conversation. You want to add something unique to the noise. You want people to notice and listen, respond and debate with your views.
Further more, you need to be following the right people. In the same way that you want to contribute to the networks you are apart of, you want to be following people who are doing the same. If I start following a person and realize they only tweet about the ham sandwich they just made, I will stop following them. You want a return on investment. If you are going to follow a person, they need to benefit your life.
The 140 character limit is a GOOD thing. Tweets are supposed to be short, sweet, snappy and simple. If you can’t convey the thought quickly, simplify it or tweet out a link to an expanded version of your thought. Twitter isn’t about rants (that is what blogging is for) – it’s about being able to update people and send out thoughts as quickly as you have them. And when you tweet a link to something bigger, make sure you throw some keywords into the tweet so people know what the link is about (your message will help decide if they want to open the link).
One of the most versatile aspects of twitter is that it is multi-platform based. You can check it on your computer, your laptop, your phone, your smart phone, and soon enough, your tablet. This is one of the reasons why messages were able to flow so quickly and easily throughout the Iranian people. If you didn’t catch it on your phone, it was on your computer.
And with that, I think I am done. Twitter is rad. It works. I have more thoughts, but they will have to wait until later. Social media and crowd sourcing is changing everything. Information wants to be free. And before you argue, check out my precursor.
Aint That America pt. 2
Yup, this has been done plenty of times before. Still disgusting. Still needs to be shown so people can think about it. Still terrfiying I ate this.
Aint That America
Aint that America, you and me! Aint that america, were something to see babe! Aint that america, home of the free…-Mellencamp