Yunghi Kim is today's guest blogger. She is a highly regarded freelance photojournalist based in New York City. From 1995 until 2008 she was represented by Contact Press Images. She has also been a team leader at the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop. Learn more about here and follow her on Twitter.

I’ve learned from my 28 years as a photojournalist and the hundreds of stories I’ve covered, how to quickly recognize a big story. It was clear from the start that the Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS) had all the right elements to become huge. Unlike most of my projects, I wouldn’t be traveling to a far off war zone. This story was happening right in my own backyard.

I don’t recall a movement or an event in my career that has struck such a cord with so many Americans. OWS changed the dialogue in America and around the world as well. It successfully brought attention to runaway corporate greed and gave a voice to the working “99 Percent” of us. All of this only a subway stop away from my home in Brooklyn. How could I not pursue this story?

Like so many of my bigger projects over the years, like “The Comfort Women of South Korea”, the Rwandan refugee crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, my own desire to document the story in pictures would be my biggest motivation. To bear witness to history is a common drive among photojournalists. We want to capture actual events as they unfold and to create a visual story. Without this drive, I think it’s almost impossible to produce a meaningful body of work.

I was surprised to see the wide amount of support generated by OWS and enjoyed the creative ways in which they spread their message. Everyday there’d be a protest scheduled for both the opening and the closing bells of the stock market. Complete with the now well known slogans like, “The banks got bailed out, and we got sold out” Often the protestors would use humor, such as dressing up like zombies or taking brooms to Wall Street and pretend to sweep away the greed. I think this strategy hit a cord with Americans and helped to successful brand the movement.

Of course, other times there would be a more serious tone. As when the protesters would play “cat and mouse” with the police, or even outrun them so they could march the streets, free of escorts, as they saw fit. These tactics often ended in arrests.

It was no easy task for the NYPD, probably the biggest and best trained police force in the world. Mayor Bloomberg claims it’s the sixth largest army on the planet! During arrests, police officers would form huge columns which would block what you could see. Frustrating, to know something is happening and not being able to photograph it. They’d also use a technique called “kettling” where people would be locked into a certain area (protesters, journalists, whomever) circled by police. Anyone trying to leave would be arrested. It didn’t matter who you were, once an officer decided to arrest you, there was nothing you could do. Many times the arrests seemed random.

As a freelance photographer, the thought of spending thousands of dollars in legal fees and going through the court system became more of a concern as I spent more time working this story. 

The protests were quite physically demanding. There was a lot of running, backwards, forwards, and sideways, during marches that would cover half the length of Manhattan. One day I ended up flat on my back (with another photographer on top of me) after being pushed by a police officer. Luckily I was able to find my glasses so I could continue shooting. Having a few new bruises at the end of the day was common among photographers.

Bruises are better than handcuffs any day!

I was fascinated by how efficiently OWS used social media to communicate with their supporters. They had their own live video streaming team with protesters carrying portable wi-fi enabled webcams. Everything they and the NYPD did was documented and shared almost as it happened. Eventually, I learned to utilize @Yunghi pretty well myself.

Zuccotti Park was another amazing scene. You could see Noble Prize winners, celebrities, average Americans and homeless people all rubbing shoulders and making speeches to one another.

If you had something to say, Zuccotti Park was the place to be!

Overall, this was a lot safer than much of my work. You didn’t have mortars going off or bullets flying around, but, it was often frustrating having to navigate around the NYPD. Still, I think my images stand up well and serve as a visual record of what I experienced and witnessed.

(The text of this post was edited by another incredible photojournalist, Ken Jarecke)

Did you field a camera and attempt to document the Occupy Wall Street protests? Tell us your story in the comments below.

After nearly a month-long hiatus, I am thrilled to publish Ken Jarecke's guest blog post today. You may remember Ken's very popular (it received 133 retweets) first guest post, “A Photographer's Life Is a Juggling Act.” He is a world-renowned photojournalist and a founding member of Contact Press Images. Like before, I urge you read his blog, Mostly True.

As I search my memory, I find there was never a time when I was not a Cornhusker fan.

The awareness of the University of Nebraska’s football team precedes any understanding of the actual game of football itself. Around the age of five or six, when one starts to sort out how geography works. The idea that grandma lives in a different city, but the same state, or that although it looks similar when you cross over the Missouri River you’re really in Iowa, and that there’s a place called Oklahoma which is populated by people who are not to be trusted.

That's how it happened, not that there was much of a choice. Back then, before the internet, or cable TV the only other team you’d hear about was whoever the Cornhuskers were playing that week.

Normally, there’d be two games broadcast during the regular season. One early in the year and the Oklahoma game on the day after Thanksgiving (to decide who won the Big 8 Conference and got to play in the Orange Bowl). When the game wasn’t on TV, you and everyone else in the state would listen to Lyell Bremser’s unique color commentary/play by play broadcast on KFAB. If you walked down the street, into a store, or worked in your yard, you’d hear the game whether you had a radio or not. When the game was on TV, you’d turn down the TV set and try to reconcile Lyell’s interpretation of the game with what your own eyes were telling you.

Often times Lyell’s version would win.

Sunday mornings, before church, before getting dressed, but at some point after Davey and Goliath, a mad dash, sans shoes or socks, would be made to retrieve the Omaha World-Herald from the mailbox. The sports section, its black & white images with player’s names (helpfully?) pasted right on the photos and the infernal white arrow chasing Johnny Rodgers down the field (maybe that’s why he was running so fast) would be studied. Special scrutiny would be reserved for the one or two plays, recorded with the high-capacity Nikon (loaded with fifty feet worth of Tri-X) from the top of the stadium, that would be sequenced across two pages in the middle of the sports section.

Heaven help that photographer if he missed a crucial fumble, or a long touchdown run. Perhaps that’s why the chief photographer would assign himself this duty?

Personal memories of experiences shared by generations of Nebraska fans. Sure, like I said, we didn’t really have a choice. There were no other programs, college or pro which could compete for our attention. Choice or not, a community was built. Someone coined the term “Husker Nation” which works well since we’ve now migrated across the country.

About a year ago, as the historic Big 12 conference was starting to break up (historic for no other reason than being born out of the Big 8), I decided to document the Husker’s final season before they moved on to the Big Ten conference.

The resulting 256 page, 12” x 9 1/2” coffee table book, Husker Game Day 2010 – Farewell Big 12 will be going to press in the second week of October. The book is designed and printed in Omaha. My publishing company, eyeQ Press will continue to take pre-orders until Oct. 11 at the discounted price of $49.95. We’re only printing enough copies to cover retail and direct orders and books will be shipped right after Thanksgiving.

You can see work by me from every Husker game this season at www.eyeQpress.com. There’s a link to the shopping cart on the lower, right-hand side of the page. Or you can just click here to go directly to the shopping cart.

The companion book, which I start shooting this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin will document the Husker’s first season in the Big Ten.

When I started this project, I didn’t think I’d be creating my own publishing company, getting a license with the CLC, or driving over 20,000 miles to the games. My goal was to create the perfect book for myself, or perhaps the fifteen year old me who loved photography and football, and it turned out exactly how I imagined.

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family. Projects like this keep a person away from home for too long. My beautiful wife Souad keeps our family and home together. I’d be nowhere without her.

Webster Design and Barnhart Press of Omaha have also been very supportive. It’s amazing that one can still produce such a high quality book completely in Nebraska.

Canon Professional Services has been outstanding. If you’re not a member, I would encourage you to become one today.

Be sure to check out the video below where Ken Jarecke goes into even more detail about this incredible, self-assigned project.

Tell us about your Cornhusker Football moment. A play-by-play works or wax nostalgic about what it was like to go to a Nebraska game. Either way, when you comment below, you may win a copy of Ken Jarecke's book, “Farewell Big 12”. Winner chosen on October 7. So, what are you waiting for?

Today's guest blog is by Melissa Lyttle. She has been a photojournalist for the St. Petersburg Times since 2005, where she is committed to documenting the lives of people in her community (and occasionally fulfilling her desire to travel and step foot on all seven continents by sneaking off to work on international stories). A native Floridian, Melissa was born in Tampa and raised in Jacksonville went to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville and got her first job at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. Her work has been recognized by POYi, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, the Southern Short Course, the Alexia Foundation, the Casey Medal and UNICEF. She is also the founder of APhotoADay, an online photo community comprised of over 1,600 members. Do follow her on Twitter and check out her blog.

Being a photographer in Pakistan is tough, but not for the reasons I was warned about. I kept up on the news, obsessed over old stories about Daniel Pearl and new stories about kidnappings and violence, talked to other photographers who have worked there, and tried to gather all the information I could before my trip. Once there, I never felt threatened or bristled with any of the anti-American sentiment that we, “the media,” seemed to be talking a lot about these days in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death and the Raymond Davis incident. Instead, what I felt was such an intense curiosity from the Pakistani people that it sometimes made working more difficult.

I can probably count the number of westerners the reporter and I saw during our entire trip on one hand, so when you went out on the street, we really stuck out — even when dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez and with a scarf. We had a lot of interviews set up, and specific story ideas we were pressing during our three week trip, but when we stopped at random (consider it feature hunting in another country, if you will), I generally had about 90 seconds from the time I got out of the car before I felt like I was in the middle of a mosh pit, with people coming out of the woodwork, crowding around, pushing trying to get a better view or hear what we were talking about.

Sometimes it was overwhelming, and it made it impossible to be that proverbial “fly on the wall.” Sometimes the fleeting moment would be gone in a flash, with people overly aware of us and shouting that universal phrase: take my picture. Once I even had to go sit back in the car for a few minutes to let the crowd dissipate because I felt a little claustrophobic and a lot frustrated. But other times it was entertaining, people wanted to shake our hands, asked us to pose for pictures with families, asked us questions about where we are from, what we're doing in Pakistan, and perhaps the most common, how we like their country.

And truth be told, I really did like Pakistan. I can't imagine a country where people are more hospitable, and I can't count the glasses of hot tea with milk I was invited to have in the home's of total strangers who wanted nothing more than to know more about us, practice their English, and remind us that their country is more than what the headlines eluded to. It was also a great reminder for me to try and show that side of Pakistan in our own coverage.

Raghu Rai is India's most famous photojournalist. A retrospective of his work opened at Aicon Gallery, in New York City on February 18 and wraps up on March 19.

This is an invitation for you to join me and a small group of image makers interested or curious about India. Meet us on the 19th (this Saturday) at the gallery at 10.30 am, to take in the body of work Mr. Rai has created over the last 40 years. We will also meet up for a cup of chai or coffee afterwards. It's essentially a very loosely structured networking event that I want to start doing more often either in New York, Hartford (where I live) or in Boston. If you are interested in photojournalism or documentary photography, you might find kindred spirits among us to trade stories, referrals or more.

Shreeya Sinha, a multimedia journalist and producer, will also join us as well. Having lived and worked in India, for Undesired, I felt she might provide us the right perspective on Raghu Rai's own mostly domestic work.

Aicon Gallery is located at 35 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012. If you are lost, please call 212-725-6092. Take the #6 Subway line to Bleecker Street and walk North on Lafayette Street for two blocks, then a right onto Great Jones Street. Aicon Gallery should be on your right hand side.

Meanwhile, check out the recent podcast SAJA hosted with Mr. Rai. Also view his work on the Magnum website. If you are inclined to buy one of Raghu Rai's books, I recommend Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour. [aff]

So, tell me … are you already a fan of Raghu Rai's work? What can you tell me/us about him? Although I am familiar with some of his work, I know little about the man so I am interested in seeing this exhibit in hopes that it will reveal something about him.

I hope to see many of you there. It would be great to know of a headcount before hand so that there are no surprises. Would you please comment below if you are able to make it? Thank you!

If anyone knows who photographed Mr. Rai in the above photograph, please let me know. I would like to credit the image, if it is still ok to display the image.

I am a huge fan of photographers who can teach. Ones that do it with clarity and wit are a minority, however. Jason Groupp is one among them.

The first time I met Jason was at a photography convention where he patiently looked over my sample wedding albums, and played mentor for about an hour. It was a memorable discussion and we soon stayed in touch, especially as I attended workshops that his New York City studio hosted. More recently we have been in touch via Twitter. While we go back and forth about the Jets and Patriots (he is a Jets fan for some unknown reason – Ha!), he let it slip that he was producing a DVD about off-camera lighting. Now, if you have followed this blog along for some time you already know how crazy I am about learning to light – people, objects, scenes, whatever. I was intrigued but Jason kept a tight lip about it, until recently.

25! from Jason Groupp on Vimeo.

From Jason Groupp's website about his DVD called “25 Kick Ass Lighting Scenarios”:

“In this DVD, I will demonstrate 25 easy to remember, simple to complex, lighting setups on a LIVE SHOOT! Did I mention it will all be done with equipment that won't break your budget?

Have you ever struggled to take great portraits of your clients because you don't have decent light to shoot them in and are not comfortable with off camera lighting?

I will break down these 25 easy to use lighting setups that you can adapt and call your own. This DVD isn't about fancy hard to understand ETTL techniques, I'll show you my easy to use “shoestring TTL” techniques and how you can create your own “no excuses bag”.

Here is another clip from the DVD:

#12 – “25” DVD || Setup: “St Marks” (low res) from Jason Groupp on Vimeo.

Well, today happens to be Jason Groupp‘s birthday. He won't tell me how young he is, but he did say he would offer Tiffinbox readers a great deal on his new DVD.

How would you like 50% off? Here is the code you need to use: “imaging2011” to buy 25 Kick Ass Lighting Scenarios TODAY! The deal saves you 50%. Original price: $150. Your price: $75.

It lasts through 12 midnight tonight, that's EST. So hurry!

(Want the deadline extended? Jason has this challenge for me. If at least 10 people buy the DVD today – leave a comment below saying you did and I'll verify with him – then he will have the code available to us for at least one more day. But the catch is, 10 people need to step up and buy the DVD today! Personally, I think this is a terrific deal.)

Still not convinced? (You gotta be kidding me! LOL!) Jason is offering this exclusive viewing of another episode for you to check out:

Please let me know if you purchased this DVD. I do not make a red cent off of the sale. I just think it is valuable, useful information you can put to use right away in your photography. If you did buy it and watched it, please comment below with your thoughts. I'll try and get Jason to respond to them. Thank you!