Mark Hancock transitioned from being a staff photojournalist for for The Dallas Morning News (1996 – 2004) and The Beaumont Enterprise (2005 – 2008) to freelancing in Dallas. His work is distributed by Zuma and his blog shows he continues to work the the Dallas Morning News shooting a variety of news and sports.

Type photojournalism into Google and Mark’s blog comes up just after the Wikipedia entry. Not bad for an old Texas boy. His subjects range from Texas religion, that is, the lastest in football action, to how-tos on photojournalism. An update to his original Nov. 22, 2005 entry is a simple guide to reading his blog. The “Get stringer gigs” reminds me of an old ratty printout I have of “The Stringer Bible” by Kurt Muchler, a former stringer in Columbus, Ohio.

His latest venture is the soft launch of a non-profit publishing project hoping to “recover the media’s institutional knowledge resulting from an unprecedented loss of jobs.” Promising to assist freelancers and working journalists, Mark is creating a social group of photographers, editors, artists, and business people to build a network that fulfills the needs of creator, distributor, and reader. Take the time and read through his descriptions and expectations at Pro Freelancers Wanted.

A frequent contributor to the Black Star Rising blog, Mark’s most recent piece is helpful for people just beginning freelance careers or hoping to expand from semi-pro to full time work.

He recently took on work as an associate editor of books at Squadron Signal Publications, a publisher of military oriented books especially prized by modelers. Perhaps some of this new knowledge and work will enhance the chances for success of his non-profit adventure.

You can see some of his work at NewsEagles.

The Big Picture at the Boston Globe continues to amaze with its selection and display of photos. Best among the selection of stories is 35 photos showing President-elect Barack Obama campaigning and in victory.

The best of the best – - -

Leave it to The Boston Globe and The Big Picture to provide photos that we don’t ordinarily get to see. And, TBP give them to us big. This time it’s 30 photographs of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

With newspaper news holes so much smaller and news magazines more dedicated to entertainment and sensationalism than informing their readers, few of these photo will be seen. TBP is probably the only place you can see them together.

Oh yes, pay no attention to the comments. As usual, there are too many vocal flakes.

“Pictured here are ISAF soldiers throughout Afghanistan, many of them from Germany, courtesy of Reuters’ embedded photographer Fabrizio Bensch – again it’s impossible to portray every member nation in just a handful of photos, just see these as representative of soldiers from 43 countries, all undertaking the same tasks. (30 photos total)” … The Big Picture

Seattle Times photographer Rob Mar praises the Nikon D3′s lack of noise-grain with a single photo. Mar crops the image until the noise is finally a factor. Finally, a real world demonstration of the ISO sensitivity and low noise capabilities of this camera. I’ve seen the print ads and read all the praises by so many others that failed to convice me. I need empirical evidence and Mar provides it. Unfortunately there isn’t any EXIF-IPTC information for the photo so I can’t give you specifics on shutter speed and f-stop.

This is just as you imagined. The list has been around since 2004 but just as true today as the day it was compiled.

Chase Jarvis has a light take today about carrying a camera no matter the occasion. The results may not always be pretty [ the proof is here ] but the thought is a good one.

On a simple trip to the store I got stuck in traffic about six deep behind what appeared to be an accident at a traffic signal in an intersection near a neighborhood. I sat patiently waiting for a traffic pattern to develop so we could bypass what I thought was another rear end collision at the poorly designed intersection. A convenience store entrance at the edge of the oblique intersecting cross streets made passing through the lengthy open space in the middle difficult.

There didn’t appear to be any injuries as traffic moved around the accident scene. Just I as saw there was a single car in the roadway I saw a woman running in slippers into the intersection screaming hysterically loud enough for me to hear through the closed windows of my car. She was trailed by a slower woman.

The scene did not match any of the numerous accident scenarios I’d photographed as a newspaper or wire service photographer. No other drivers were stopping. No people with cell phones to their ears calling 911.

I was suddenly interested.

The woman fell to her knees in front of the car just as I passed it. I saw a man kneeling over the dog and knew the reason for her hysteria.

I pulled off the roadway into the grass just past the intersection popping open my trunk grabbing the camera with 70-200mm zoom. This is the second frame with an identical time stamp as the first frame. Can’t remember why I chose it over the first. There’s no significant difference.

I shot for 90 seconds as a bystander helped move the dog was moved into a cardboard box to get it off the roadway. The dog’s owner sat in the front seat continuing to wail.

As the dog was removed from the roadway I returned to my car. My anonymity had disappeared and focus was now on me. Everyone was very emotional and I didn’t feel the need to explain myself. It was simpler to get in the car and head off to the store.

My cameras, or at least one camera, are always with me. Sometimes it’s the G9. Other times it’s a full complement of gear with cameras, lenses, reflectors, scrims, lights and step ladder.