Chapter Two

Pre-Digital Photographic Technology
Speed Graphic Cameras
The Speed Graphic Cameras were the cameras that had the highest quality of work. The first Speed Graphic camera was made in 1912 by Graflex, at Rochester, New York. In the article, The Graflex Speed Graphic FAQ, it mentions, "The Speed graphic was America's first and last great camera." People thought this camera was one of the simplest and most flexible cameras made. This camera, the "press" camera was made to capture images for special events such as weddings, documentary, advertising and any commercial photograph.
This Speed Graphic Camera affected photojournalists in a good way because back in 1900s it was allowing photojournalists to take wide range of different types of photographs. Who wouldn't enjoy looking at an image in different ways? It affected photojournalism, because it would be the way people viewed the images, it was viewed through an optical finder (which is the eyepiece that a person can look through to frame and focus on), a wire sports-finder (which is basically a simple frame were people are able to allow action outside the field of view), or on a sheet of ground glass. It was a job that had to be done the right way the first time with one shot. In the video, Weegee Tells How, Weegee says "News photography teaches you to think fast, to be sure of yourself, self confident. When you go out on a story you don't go back for another sitting, you got to get it."
This affects photojournalism because being able to own a camera as a photojournalist that takes good images, it helped financially, this is because people will purchase magazines or look more into the news. In the video, Weegee Tells How, Weegee explains, "I didn't wait till somebody gave me a job or something, I went and created a job for myself. Field as photographer and what I did, anybody else could do." He mentions that he did this without a police card and when there were stories that meant something or he knew that could get into the newspaper, what he did then was sell the picture to the newspaper.
Since the Speed Graphic Cameras, technology has grown and it will keep growing. The Speed Graphic Camera also called "press" camera, was a big hand-held camera, which had interchangeable lenses and had a choice of two shuttles, and in some the front cameras it could be tilted in different ways. But within time technology started to change. In the video, "Before There Were Pixels-Part 1" Professor Nordell states, "The cameras were getting smaller and easier to use, so photojournalist and all photographers has more flexibility and the ability to move around". With today's technology my experience with taking a digital photograph is pretty simple. As an example, "iPhones" are an easy technology to use to take pictures and it takes great images as well. With an iPhone you can take a regular picture, a portrait, or a live picture which is a moving image within a second. You can also review captured images and get feedbacks on image quality, and have an opportunity to make changes and modifications immediately. The only problem with today's technology would be the storage memory but we also have the option to delete unwanted images in order to get more space.

Photo by: Brittany Cox

Photo by: Nahiomy Martinez