Phone and Fire

There's a first time for everything. For all of the camera equipment I have for work, I had my first cell phone photo published in print this week. While going on a coffee run (without out my camera, foolishly), I passed an alley with smoke pouring out of it. I looped back to find an industrial dumpster on fire. After calling the fire department I shot a few photos and the nest day this image ended up in the paper. Ironically, I shot several assignments that day and the only one that was immediately published was the phone photo.

© STANDARD EXAMINER/Benjamin Zack

I recently spent a week at the Missouri Photo Workshop creating videos about the photographers and editors from around the world who annually descend on one small Missouri town. Most of the videos from the week are now posted online. They range from short documentaries to conversations on the state of photojournalism to whatever strange things came up in the midst of a stressful, sleepless week.

Special thanks and credit goes to the other photographers on the multimedia team: Parker Miles Blohm, Tatiana Fernandez and Nick Michael.