First of all, James Nachtwey is not for the faint-hearted.  In my opinion, he is the best war photographer of the past several decades.  He makes tough photographs of horrible conditions all over the world.

“When James Nachtwey was awarded the TED Prize in 2007, he was given $100,000 and one wish to change the world.  He wished for our help in telling a vital story to the world, using powerful photos taken around the globe.  This photography project and this site are the result of his wish.” - XDRTB.org/

Here, he speaks about his wish:

And here is the wish unveiled, today (the beginning of which has a small clip of the above presentation):
 
 

Throughout the month of October and beyond, these photographs will be seen across the world in new and exciting ways: projections and LED screen displays in public spaces; film, music and creative arts festivals; human-rights festivals, fashion shows, art galleries and installations, art walks and much more.

Where to Watch

Well, part three happens to be the end of this year’s display of the “Tribute In Lights” and it marks a few firsts for me..

I made a somewhat spontaneous decision on Thursday night, abandoning my previous game plan, and electing, instead, to attempt to create a time lapse “montage” of photos of the display..
I will admit, that while I’m pleased encouraged with the results - I made a number of mistakes in hindsight - some of them the result of overthinking the project and thus talking myself into one setting when another would have worked better - and others just in the course of it being a “blind date” of sorts.  

In any event, I’m now planning to make another stab at it with a bunch of lessons now learned..

I’ve embedded the video below - you can also find it on YouTube (another first for me!)

Please, let me know what you think.

Special thanks to Michael Lawlor, Ryan Krieger and Drop Thud Oops, a portion of whose “Phrygian Waltz” is featured  as the sound track..

Hope you enjoy the show..

WTC Memorial Waltz by MDAVIDLEEDS

For those unfamiliar with YouTube, if you’d like to see the video full-screen, simply click on this button:    (in the video viewer above)

If you have comments or questions, PLEASE let me know.  Thanks! mdl

Here’s a great multimedia video by the Rocky Mountain News and Media Storm - produced from their 24 hour, round the clock, coverage of the Democratic National Convention..

It’s running time is about 20 minutes - I believe it’s worth the time when you have it, and suggest allowing the clip to load completely before viewing as it will help prevent some choppiness and streaming issues that may occur otherwise.

“At last, at last, a dream fulfilled.” - here- or below

Just a quick post with some links to share of images from the Olympics..

This is particularly cool - it’s been shown on the NBC broadcasts a number of times, but in case you missed it (or if you want to check it out directly) - it’s a frame by frame sequence of Michael Phelps 1/100th of a second victory in the 100 meter butterfly - by Sports Illustrated’s legendary Heinz Kluetmeier from an underwater remote camera looking straight up at the finish.. amazing.

Additionally, Sports Illustrated has an extended online photo gallery of the games - here

A very nice frame from the Laoshan velodrome, by Mike Powell, is Newsweek’s Picture of the Day - here.

If you like that one, look for the photo also from the velodrome, by Nick Laham of Getty Images from a couple of days ago - it is in this gallery of wonderful pictures from Stern Magazine - please note, some of these images are a bit graphic or risque and may not be “Safe for Work” viewing.. here.

Chicago Tribune staffer Scott Strazzante shares the experience of the 2008 Summer Games..  here.

Hope you will enjoys these -

mdl

PS - If anybody reads this that knows how trackbacks work, I’d appreciate any help you are willing to provide - I’ve had them work and had them not work.. I’d like to know how to make them work. Thanks!

This posting is a little late to the party, but if you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that it will be of interest to you.

Newsweek DOP Simon Barnett has assembled a “Dream Team” of photographers to cover the Beijing Games for the magazine - and in an inspired and original way they are covering the Olympics from a very unique perspective (an increasingly rare feat). The “Dream Team” as Mr. Barnett has deemed them, consists of three former Allsport colleagues of mine, Vincent Laforet, Donald Miralle and Mike Powell. When I first began working with Allsport (now a part of Getty Images), these four were staff members, whom I got to know and admire.

In the planning for Newsweek’s Olympic coverage, it was decided to create an “open book”, a behind the scenes, photographers POV coverage of the games. They’ve been blogging and posting their selection of photographs and telling stories of their trials & tribulations, successes and failures. It is a wonderfully honest look at life as a photographer, 3 photographers, as they cover the biggest, most organized event in the world.

For a bit on the story behind the blog please see this interview with Simon Barnett by Rob Haggart’s A Photo Editor blog here.

This is a link to the Newsweek blog Visions of China: A 2008 Olympics Picture Blog

Just so you know, the front page is the most recent posting, so you’ll have to skip to the end if you want to read their tales from the start, which I strongly recommend.

For those of you that may think that being a photographer is easy, I hope you’ll read some of the journal entries from Donald, Vince and Mike as well as the notes from Simon, Beth and the other Newsweek editors - it will be a real eye opener.

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