WKUPJ

MSNBC featured the Mountain Workshops 35th edition of its annual fall workshop on its cover. In addition, two blog posts also were uploaded discussing the workshops and what takes place there. Go for a visit.

Western Kentucky University’s School of Journalism and Broadcasting welcomes Operation Photo Rescue co-founder Dave Ellis as its first guest lecturer of the 2010-2011 school year on Wednesday, September 8 at 7:30 in the MMTH Auditorium.

Ellis, a director of photography at The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA, co-founded the non-profit Operation Photo Rescue after Hurricane Katrina to digitally repair personal photographs damaged in natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods. Since then, he and a staff of over 2000 of volunteers worldwide have repaired well over 5000 images.
From OPR’s website, “Insurance can replace homes, furniture and automobiles in time of need. However, photographs, which are important pieces of a family’s history, are unprotected. Operation Photo Rescue (OPR) is a volunteer network of professional photojournalists and amateur digital photographers, graphic designers, image restoration artists and others. OPR’s mission is to repair photographs damaged by unforeseen circumstances such as house fires and natural disasters at no cost to the people who own them.”
Ellis and a team of volunteers will be working in Nashville on Friday and Saturday, September 10-11 to repair photographs damaged in the floods from earlier in 2010.

Operation Photo Rescue: Galveston from Operation Photo Rescue on Vimeo.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Operation Photo Rescue to Send Volunteer Photo Restoration Team to Nashville, TN

Operation Photo Rescue (OPR), a global not-for-profit organization, is gathering a team of volunteers in Nashville, Tennessee to digitally copy family photos damaged during recent flooding.

Hosted by Belmont University, the OPR team will set up operations at the University Ministries office at 1900 Belmont Blvd on Friday September 10 and Saturday September 11, 2010. Hours of operation Friday and Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Any Nashville residents with photos damaged during 2010 flooding may bring in 20 images to be restored free of charge. Those images that can be repaired will be digitally copied and later restored, printed and mailed back to the image owners at no cost.

On Friday, guests will find reserved parking on the 6th floor of the Curb Event Center parking garage. On Saturday, guests are welcome to park in any lot on campus. Guests who need assistance may call 615-460-6617 for an officer to give them a ride from their vehicle to Universities Ministries. University Ministries is located between the cafeteria and the Hitch Science Building. (See #22 and 26 on the map). These locations can be found on this map http://www.belmont.edu/campusmap/pdf/campusmap.pdf

Since OPR was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in January 2006, the organization has grown into a network of over 2,000 volunteers. Volunteers come from all 50 states and from 49 other countries. OPR volunteers have restored and returned over 6,000 damaged photos to date for victims of hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other disasters.

“We’ve had an unbelievable outpouring of support from volunteers who have joined our cause from all over the world,” Dave Ellis said, Co-Founder of Operation Photo Rescue. “What started out as two people trying to make a small difference has turned into a global effort that has helped more people than we ever thought possible.”

When disaster strikes, people often try desperately to retrieve their family photos, Ellis said.

“Insurance doesn’t replace memories,” he said, “but we do.”

For additional information:

Contact: Greg Pillon, Office of Communications, Belmont University at (615) 460-6645, greg.pillon@belmont.edu

Or

Margie Hayes, Operation Photo Rescue President
Email: mhayes@operationphotorescue.org or info@operationphotorescue.org
website: http://www.operationphotorescue.org

Hi folks – and welcome back to another exciting year at WKU! We just want everyone to know that we will have our annual photojournalist majors meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 8:00 pm in MMTH rm 166 (Auditorium). If you are a new student here at Western and you are seeking photojournalism as a degree you should definitely attend this meeting. If you are undecided and you think photojournalism might be for you then you should attend this meeting. If you are a grizzled veteran of this program you should attend this meeting. As always, we have MARVELOUS door prizes and we might even be done before 10 pm!

The first Advanced Lighting Class offered at WKU was well-received by the 12 student-pioneers. The weekly course featured studio assignments, pushing the student’s skills in the Big White Room. Assignments ranged from Motion to Issue Topic to Visual Poetry. Delayna Earley, a Senior PJ student in the course, said, “It pushed by shooting skills up to a whole new level.” Earley won first and second place Portrait in the student NPPA monthly clip contest with two of her class assignments.
The class also spent weeks researching studio costs and listened to a half-a-dozen guest speakers discuss freelancing and the cost of running a contract photography business. The class took a field trip to Dean Dixon’s in Nashville to see a working studio set-up.
The class is under consideration for a permanent home in the PJ line-up and will hopefully be offered again in the Spring.

George Proctor, 78, of Bowling Green, Ky., has a need for action that has him walking alone down busy streets even though he is legally blind. Proctor’s story is about the battle between a man’s spirit and his health – and it’s one he is determined to win.

Sara John is a self proclaimed “bookworm” who uses reading and writing as an outlet to escape the reality of her parents not living together. Because of the difficulties at home, Sara said, she has put up a wall to keep people out, so when she is writing she can truly be herself without any fear of being judged. This is a story of the struggles of a little girl growing up with the absence of a father and how she deals with issues that it involves.

The School of Journalism and Broadcasting, through the generous contribution of Canon Inc., is bringing in internationally acclaimed photographer David Hume Kennerly on Wednesday, March 17, to give a presentation about his work and career that has spanned four decades. The presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Mass Media and Technology Hall auditorium. This is free and open to everyone, faculty, staff, and students, and anyone else you would like to invite!

James Earl Jones said, “David Hume Kennerly is like Forrest Gump, except he was really there.”

Kennerly has been shooting on the front lines of history for more than 40 years. He has photographed eight wars, as many U.S. presidents, and he has traveled to dozens of countries along the way. At 25, the Roseburg, Oregon, native won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the Vietnam War, and two years later was appointed President Gerald R. Ford¹s personal photographer. He has been presented with numerous other honors, among them the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award for “Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad,” for his coverage of Reagan and Gorbachev¹s historic first summit meeting in Geneva. He was named, “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine.

Kennerly was nominated for a Primetime Emmy as executive producer of NBC’s, ”The Taking of Flight 847,” and was writer and Executive Producer of a two-hour NBC pilot, “Shooter,” starring Helen Hunt, based on his Vietnam experiences. “Shooter” won the Emmy for “Outstanding Cinematography.” He is executive producer of the recent documentary, “Portraits of a Lady,” starring former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, which made the short list of films eligible for the 2008 Academy Award nominations.

Kennerly has been on the masthead of Time magazine, John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s George magazine, Life Magazine, and was a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine for 10 years. He has more than 50 major magazine covers to his credit. He has published several books of his work: “Shooter,” “Photo Op,” “Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld,” “Photo du Jour,” and “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford.” Most recently he produced ”Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book,” with Bob McNeely, who was President Clinton’s official White House photographer. He also provided someexclusive behind-the-scenes photographs of President Obama for the project.

An exhibition of photographs from the book was mounted in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., that was seen by more than a million people.

Kennerly is on the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and the Atlanta Board of Visitors of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). His archive is housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin. He recently directed a commercial starring former mayor Ed Koch shot for New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Kennerly has started The Kennerly Institute, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg Center for Communication & Policy. It will run from June 20-25 at the USC campus in Los Angeles.

The 2010 edition of the Mountain Workshops is pleased to announce the dates and location for this years annual photography extravaganza. Reserve Oct. 19-23 and come join us in Elizabethtown for another exciting year. The workshop, which offers training in photojournalism, picture editing and multimedia, will be accepting applications in the next few weeks. All participants in this year’s workshop will have the chance to win a tuition scholarship to a workshop at Maine Media Workshops! Be sure to stay tuned to this blog or visit mountainworkshops.org to learn more and to gain access to our application process.

“I don’t act the way that I act because I’m gay and HIV positive,” said Teddy Talyor, 22, of Bowling Green, Ky. Taylor was infected with HIV when he was 19, changing his life forever. Taylor contracted HIV after having unprotected sex with one of his partners. Since then he has decided to live life to the fullest. Most nights consist of drinking alcohol, doing drugs or having relations with new partners.

Mark, 48, lives in South Central Kentucky with his wives, Marian, 32, and Heidi, 23. Together they are raising seven children under the principle of Celestial Plural Marriage, also known as polygamy. Their beliefs about plural marriage are rooted in their faith, what they call independent fundamental Mormonism. Mark leads the family in a home church service each Sunday. Marian and Heidi home school the children. The family lives a life of sustainability, growing their own fruits and vegetables, and using solar energy to power their home.