Wednesday, March 12, 2008

God Bless America

This kind of plays into my earlier post about pledging allegiance, but what this post is really about is military photography.

Just look at this picture:


080214-N-8298P-165 MICRONESIA (Feb. 14, 2008) Petty Officer 1st Class Julius Mcmanus, assigned to Mobile Diving Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1, plants an American flag on the site where an American WWII military aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Deep sea divers are assigned to Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) accounting of all Americans missing as a result of the nation's past conflicts. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Christopher Perez (Released)

I have worked for three of the four branches of the military and have worked closely with all of them at certain points of time. I was active-duty Army, a civilian Marine and now a civilian with the Navy. In all that time, I have worked in Public Affairs. Specifically in print journalism. I deal with photos all the time.

The most consistently outstanding photos I have ever seen any service produce come from the Navy. That's kind of hard for an Army dog to say, but just look at their photos page.

Not that the other services are slouches. If you check Defenselink's photo page you'll see that the military's photojournalists are top notch. But there's something consistent about Navy photography I seldom see in the other branches. Not only are their photos consistently well exposed (which could, and probaly is, due in some part to Photoshop) but they're also consistenly well framed. This can be a Photoshop thing also, but there are so many PJs out there who don't take the time to ensure they're cropping dramatically, either in the camera or after the fact.

Great stuff out there. Do yourself a favor and take the time to explore these sites.

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