Mother Jones has a collection of empty newsroom photographs by San Jose Mercury News designer Martin Gee. More can also be found on his Flickr page. I've seen the pictures before out there in the blogsphere and it's always depressing to see.

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Now this is what I call dedication.

Standard-Examiner photographer Ryan McGeeney was hit by a javelin while covering a high school track championship on Saturday. He returned to finish shooting the track meet. Check out the video interview about the incident.

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The PDN Annual 2008 is online. Check it out. Get inspired.

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I'm not a very religious person but I think the newspaper industry needs all the help it can get.

A blog called Praying for Papers was started to make sure we think of our fellow journalists who have been affected by the struggle we are in.

This is a troubling time in the newspaper business. Everyday we hear stories from papers who are laying off employees and struggling to stay afloat.

Our idea at Praying for Papers is to encourage anyone who is touched by this shift in our industry include it each day in their prayer life.

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Lately I've been reading David Tejada's blog to supplement my Strobist reading. Tejada has been a commercial photographer for over 25 years. He specializes in location in corporate photography, which he usually does with only lighting with Nikon SB800s. The above videos are from a couple of his photo shoots. Strobist has written that he going out on shoots with little gear and a lotta brain. In doing this he's coming back with some amazing work.

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I knew the beginning, the end and now with PBS's documentary , "Carrier," I now know the rest of the story.

The ten-hour-long series follows the lives of U.S. Navy personnel as they work and live aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz for a six month deployment in 2005.

Seth Nidever went to the Fresno showing before the series aired and posted his thoughts on his blog. Seth writes:

"...because they capture the fact that carrier deployments happen regularly around here even though residents often don’t know much about them...Which gets to the other thing that hit me: The disconnect between people in the military and the rest of society. As a group, the men and women who serve — and die — are largely invisible. They are known mainly as individuals to their family and friends....Here, we have soldiers living and dying in war, and it has no visible impact on our society. We go shopping, we watch American Idol, we gossip, we fawn over celebrities, and they … well, on that carrier in the Persian Gulf, there ain’t much triviality going on."

My father spent over 20 years of his life serving in the Navy. I have childhood memories as he left for a six-month deployment. I have lived on or around Naval bases most of my life.

As a newspaper photographer working less than 20 miles from Naval Air Station, Lemoore, I have photographed more than a handful of sailor homecomings.

But just like the people Seth talks about, what happens while they're out at sea is foreign to me.

The producers of this documentary do an excellent job of putting you up close and personal to life on a carrier.

It's well worth the watch.

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David Hobby of Strobist fame was recently featured in USA Today. Above are two videos that were featured with the article . Nice to see Hobby get the recognition for his work. If you want to improve your pictures with off camera lighting, Strobist is a great place to start.

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Man, I wish I had thought of this idea. Looks like it was a fun project to do. Google Me was done by Jim Killeen who Googled himself and went all over the world meeting people with the same name. I don't think I would meet as many people with my name, Apolinar Fonseca.

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Here's another attempt at video. I wish I had more B roll.

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WTF?!!! Brdigestone created a full size e-paper newspaper. I thought most people gave up on this concept. The "dead tree" newspaper publishers and editors must be salivating at the sight of this. It's mind blowing that it takes 15 seconds to turn a page. Brdigestone needs to stick to tires.

Found via MartinStabe.com

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