The Talking Pictures Podcast

Visual journalist Andy Abeyta sat down with me way back in September 2019 just before leaving the Quad-Cities to start a new job a the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Yes, I know it's been 9-months since we've posted an episode. Well here is the lost episode with Andy, hopefully there are more to come in the near future. Fingers crossed :)

Our guest is Tim Hynds, the visuals editor of the Sioux City Journal, in Sioux City, Iowa. Tim is also a the newspaper's beer columnist. His column started in 2017 and has chronicled the rise of the craft beer industry in both Iowa and around the country. If you like beer and photojournalism, especially beer, then this is the perfect episode for you.

Dave Marran, the retired sports editor of the Kenosha News and my old high school friend, talk about his successful and happy life after journalism. We also talk about the importance of adapting to the changing face of journalism. Usually, we stick to our guests being photographers, or the topic being photo-centric, but Dave's story is important for anyone working in journalism in 2019. We hope this is the first of the success stories we feature on the podcast. The landscape of the industry is ever-changing and having an open and honest discussion of finding happiness after the newsroom is important.  If you have a suggestion for a topic please email the show.

This week's episode is a master's class with photojournalism legend Phil Greer. He is currently the Photojournalist in Residence and Senior Lecturer for Southern Illinois University's School of Journalism. Phil tells great story after great story while preaching the gospel of photojournalism. From his assignments in Central America; to his friendly competition with Sun-Times legend John White; to the Iran/Iraq war; and his emotional meeting with Emmett Till's mother - every story teaches a valuable lesson. During his illustrious career Greer worked for the Champaign/Urbana News Gazette (Ill.), Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, The Courier (Champaign/Urbana, Ill.) and the Chicago Tribune. During his 24 years at the Tribune he served as a staff photographer, Chief Photographer, Director of Photography and Senior Photographer. "He was nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, and was a member of the Tribune team that won the prize for ‘Gateway to Gridlock’ in 2001." - SIU bio.

We're back and things get personal in this edition of the podcast. Todd M fired up the basement studio to thank listeners for sticking with the podcast, despite the long hiatus, and share his emotional story of change.

The team has recently experienced some milestone firsts but none bigger than Jess enduring her first mid-western snowstorm. She hails from Alabama and needless to say she is currently experiencing a little bit of climate-shock. Photographically speaking we talk about Meg and Jess successfully completing their first photo stories for the newspaper. Other highlights of this episode include Jess' first Pacesetter location portrait shoot and team surfing the blue wave on election night.

Jess and Todd sit down with veteran reporter Jonathan Turner to talk about his recent series of articles on the suicide epidemic. The series featured Todd's collection of black and white portraits titled: "Left Behind - The Pain of Suicide still haunts these loved ones."

In this week's episode Brian Powers, of the Des Moines Register, talks to us from his mobile newsroom outside the Iowa State Fair. Brian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University, talks to Todd and Jessica about some of his recent projects which includes a powerful series of video interviews dealing with abortion, a muslim TV reporter and an immigration ceremony. A fantastic photojournalist and storyteller Brian also shares his insights on how photographers should deal with criticism via social media. We also talk about pizza, baby pictures and RAGBRI.

This week's podcast introduces the newest member of our team - Jessicia Gallagher. The 23-year-old old ginger haired photojournalist comes to us from Georgia, by way of Alabama and seven other states. She brings a fresh new perspective to the podcast and we think "y'all" will really like hearing what she has to say and the images she makes.

We are back!!!! Todd and Todd get out of the normal studio and tape a late night podcast this week. Some of the topics include - beer, Belgian lawn games, how to avoid setting a high school athlete on fire, flop sweat, white backgrounds are all not created equal, B&W photography in photojournalism, nutmeg, cutlines and beer.