Fair / 3° F
Cellular phone came in handy
Published 7:21am Monday, June 11, 2007So you may have noticed a photo of severe weather in our newspaper (and several around the state) and on our web site (and several around the state) on Thursday and Friday. And other than the fact that it didn’t run very large in print, you may not have noticed anything different about it.
However, the cool part is that I shot the photo using my cellular phone.
Finally equipped with the ability to transfer photos taken on my cell phone to my computer at work, and then on to the web site and my computer, I previously had only used the ability to shoot and send photos of my 2-year-old daughter to other family members.
On Thursday, my trusty cell phone camera was a key photo in the statewide coverage of the tornado in west Otter Tail County.
Planning to enjoy lunch at home, I was told at the office that the weather might turn bad. On my way home, I looked to the west and saw a massive cloud formation. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, that looks like a good photo there.”
With no Journal camera on me, I turned to my only option: my cellular phone. In a rather crude fashion, I fired away at the cloud formation, e-mailed the photo to my laptop, drove home, and 10 minutes later, had the photo and a short story online. Our newsroom staff, also paying attention, had it updated instantly with reports that the funnel cloud was sighted near Elizabeth. The wire called and wanted it, so I shipped it off to them. About an hour later, my photo that I barely gave a second thought to taking had appeared on web sites throughout the state.
I have to say, it was quite the thrill.
But the reason I write this is not to brag, but to point out there was nothing special in my technique. Sure, The Journal has some fancy cameras. But they were sitting at the photographer’s desk in the office at the time of the photo. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Of course, funnel clouds don’t appear on our way home all the time. But there are countless other photo-worthy moments that often pass us by, simply because we have no camera on hand. Now, we do – at least I do – in our cell phones.
On my camera, my daughter happens to be the subject of many of those moments. Whenever you attempt to take a posed photo of her with a regular camera, she tends to smile cheesy, say, “Let me see!” and move quickly so the moment is gone. When I take a photo of her with the cell phone, she often doesn’t know what hit her.
I say this because I’m not the only one out there who can shoot good photos; anyone with a camera cell phone and an e-mail account can do so as well. As a newspaper, we, in fact, would like the opportunity to run photos from anyone in our community, of anything that’s interesting.
Which brings me to our upcoming project. On Thursday, July 19, The Journal will be taking the photographs for the section “One Day,” which will chronicle in photos everything that happens in our area in a 24-hour period, at work, at play, at home.
This section, of course, is not new. We do it every couple of years, starting in 1993, my first year here. (I was assigned the night shift, and pretty much all of my photos didn’t turn out due to darkness.)
However, this year, we are looking for help from our readers. We’re encouraging our readers to e-mail us their photos taken on July 19. It can be of anything (appropriate): at work, out fishing even feeding your children.
Simply send the JPEG version of your photos (the vast majority of photos from digital cameras are JPEGs) to HYPERLINK “mail to:newsroom@fergusfallsjournal.com” newsroom@fergusfallsjournal.com We ask that you only send photos taken on July 19 (and that you be truthful about it).
We’ll publish the best photos in our section and all of them online. We’ll include your name in the photo credit, and will be giving out prizes for the best photos.
With everyone on the lookout for great photos, we should be able to capture some great moments on that day.
