“Every time that I am capturing photos, I am just enjoying the moment, I don’t think about myself, I always think the people that will look on it after it will be printed and published because if I will think of what I want to happen on the certain picture, I am manipulating it already.” –James Austria
Who is James Austria?
James Austria is the 4th year journalism student and an Editor in Chief (EIC) of the College of Arts and Letters publication known as “The Communique”. He’s role in the publication was a photojournalist before he became an EIC.
How it started?
He narrated that his passion in photo journalism started when he was in grade school where he belongs to the publication and he’s task was photo-journalism. The camera that he used was the Sony Cyber shot or a digital camera (Digi-cam). That time the usual subject of his photographs was trees outside their house and his cat.
When we think about the first time or how it started, we always feel excited and amaze of the things that we will know and it also happened to Austria. Back then he was amazed to blogs/ websites about photography and especially to the national geographic. The national geographic inspired him the most and he just found out that his already inlove with it and with photo journalism when his in College.
How he improved his skills?
- He just practice taking pictures every day
- He always watched youtube tutorials about what angle or what shot suits to this kind of events
- His elementary teacher taught him on how to capture good photos and that teacher was his role model in photography, the advised the he got to him is “when you are taking a shot capture the moving objects or the action, not the “Jose Rizal pose”
Who is the photo journalist that he admired the most?
It’s Mr. Jeremy Sandel that he admired the most especially when it comes to photography. Based on his interpretation Mr. Sandel photographs focus on the mood not on the subject, that’s why he idolized him in taking a shot. Austria cited an example where the event is graduation, some photographers focus on the student wearing toga but Mr. Sandel will focus on the mood of the event where he can find the emotion of the subject.
What are his favorites in photo journalism?
- Subject- Before trees but now people and their emotions.
- Shot or photo that he captured- the picture of Sir Dino holding his camera. He said that he like it because it’s Sir Dino and his subject did not know that his taking a picture of him so the emotion that moment was genuine and that’s great in photo journalism especially when your subject is people.
- Event that he covered- MTV Evolution (concert) because there are many kind of people that you can capture because they are having different emotions where you can experiment to your shots.
- Mood/Emotion- deep, very dark and it’s like melancholic because usually many pictures are showing happy faces so he preferred the unusual one.
PHOTO JOURNALISM AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Based on James Austria when we say photography, you have the freedom to manipulate the photos and you can edit the subject example you want to add more hair to your subject, it is possible to photography. While in photo journalism everything should be real you can only change the brightness, exposure and contrast but you can’t add something to it.
PHOTO JOURNALISM VS PHOTOGRAPHY
“You can’t dispose any of this two because it is fun to do both” Austria said, but he chose photo journalism over photography and he compared this to the mainstream and indie film. He said that the mainstream is photography while indie film is the photo journalism where much real, raw and more attachment with the emotions.
TIPS IN PHOTO JOURNALISM
- Save a lot of memory for your camera
- Burst mode so you can take many pictures as you can.
- Don’t let you miss the important moment to capture.
- Don’t worry about your memory just take a shot and choose on it when you’re home.
- Be unique with your angle, don’t take a shot what many people captures so find another place that you have different angle.
Related article: https://cleirevoyance.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/interview-with-a-campus-photo-journalist/
KaRouSEL 