Nice pic, David. I know how much you like your squares but I like the wide or the vertical. The girl’s head almost touching the left side of the square throws off the balance a bit.

Thanks for the reply and explanation/clarification.

I would still beg to differ on the cropping, which I think is quite extreme and cropping to remove people is really not a whole lot different than just cloning them out. I would of just used a longer lens to keep the same perspective and/or turned the camera on it’s side to shoot a vertical. The moment will not be the same, but that is the art and skill of photography.

I am a self thought photographer and really learned through working at a local newspaper that really had no rules and since it was “pre-digital” you could not do a whole lot to break any photojournalism rules, except maybe when posing people, which I never did.

Thanks for the info on the 20mm Panasonic and I seem to read comments going both ways. I guess my main concern was using a Olympus lens on a Panasonic, since things like distortion and CA is software/camera corrected, but I guess firmware, in both camera and lens, should be correcting the cross brand use? I also just thought that the classic 35mm equivalent was a good way to go, but F/1.8 sure is tempting!

Also found your issue with the focus adjustment (and correction) with your 7D and 400mm DO very interesting. Makes me wonder that my 30D (yes, don’t laugh!) is out of alignment, but nothing I can do myself to correct it!

Keep up the great work!

Mahalo, Thomas

I do appreciate your concern in this case, but while there are many things one could do that would be unethical for a story-telling photograph within the context of photojournalism, simply changing the dimensions within the frame isn’t one of them. If I were to remove (or add) something from the frame–clone someone out, get rid of a tree branch or a power line–that would be crossing a line. I even believe that heavy toning (you see a lot of really bizarre toning these days that completely changes the content of the photograph by completely inverting its mood: making a light scene extremely dark, for instance. Indeed, the National Association of Press Photographers’ Code of Ethics states that: “Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.”

Your experience leads me to believe that the code of ethics at the paper you were at was even more strict than the NPPA’s guidelines. That said, I do appreciate the observation!

Oh, and the Panasonic G1 is a great little camera, regardless of which lens you put in front of it. The Oly 17mm is surprisingly good, but if you could dig deeper into your pockets (I can’t because I’m always buying other things!) the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 is supposed to be a significant improvement over Olympus’ pancake lens. Also, DPReview just put up their thoughts on the Panasonic G2. Maybe you can get a used G1 on eBay?

Cheers,
David