I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now, but have been steadily distracting myself with other little inconsequential tasks for months upon months. It's amazing that I have 100+ feeds that I try to keep up with in Google Reader, but can't quite bring myself to blog about what I think I have to offer on a regular basis. And that's because, for too long, I haven't thought that I have anything to offer.

I'm 27 years old, a 2005 graduate of UNC's journalism school, and at this point I've worked in more media configurations and mediums than I can remember: first TV, then radio, then newspaper, then magazine, and now freelancing a little bit of everything. I'm a jack of all trades, but a master of none, and it's frustrated me for a while now. I keep wanting to pick a specialty, thinking that no one will read what I have to write unless I can speak with authority, so I avoid blogging. But thanks to a few people online and in the real world kicking my butt, I realized that what I certainly can blog about is something that transcends any particular medium: storytelling.

This passage in particular from a recent AEJMC conference got me thinking, where one of my former UNC professors, Rich Beckman, talked about rebooting the mindset of journalism education:

Teaching digital journalism is not just about knowing the tools. [Beckman] stressed he doesn’t teach software.

He described this as a waste of his time when students can learn by taking online courses.

Instead, he focuses on teaching the students about storytelling.

When I think back to my journalism education, I think I focused far too much of it trying to figure out how to use different tools of the trade - cameras, software, VHS tape editing decks (all those hours for naught!), which is a pity, because that's not really what's important. The reason I got into journalism was because I love stories, and I love telling them in new and different ways. I've made short films, done photo essays, written 3,000 word magazine articles, all in the pursuit of a great story, not because I wanted to master a medium and gain a following. I had to sleep overnight in a car in one of America's most dangerous cities. I've watched buzzer-beaters, Cinderella upsets and a Final Four. I've also done something as simple as spending a week in local barbershops trying to document the lost art of "shave and a haircut." I loved all of those experiences.

I really think that if you examined people in the industry, you would find two types of motivations: those who are hunting for a great story because they love uncovering the story itself, pulling the elements together and making something amazing and interesting; and then there's those who are on the hunt for a great story because it can make them famous. I certainly consider myself the former, and have noticed that the latter rarely last.

So in the hunt to both write a better story myself and share what I'm continually learning, I'm hitting the reset button on this blog. It's time to get serious about writing - so you can expect the following:

1. I'm committing to posting something on this blog at least three times a week.
2. The posts will probably center around one of the following: journalism, storytelling, photography, multimedia, inspiration and creativity. That or Dancing Panda videos.
3. I'm going to comment on, retweet or "like" at least a half-dozen posts every day that I think could benefit anyone who's trying to do the same things that I do. (So if you don't already do so, feel free to start following me on twitter @zekesmith!)
4. I'll be posting other various ephemera that I find inspiring or especially creative on my Tumblr. If you generally get a kick out of the same kinds of things that I do (great photography, interesting videos, outrageous mustaches), I'd love it if you followed me there, as well.

Writing this post feels like a relief. It's finally time I started getting more involved personally in the world that I've been a spectator in for a long time. It's down in writing - now I just have to follow through.

Yeah, it's definitely been a while since I've posted on this thing - sheesh, way too long. Especially for the amount of posts I actually thought about and wrote in my head during that time. It's been a busy few months for me as I've been shooting football and basketball with some assignments for Chapel Hill Magazine mixed in. It's definitely time to start this up again.

One of the main things that motivated me to start writing here again was calling in to the "On the DL Podcast" with Dan Levy yesterday (thanks to Dan and Nick for having me on, by the way). It's a podcast that often hosts a variety of media personalities - a great listen if you follow the sports media at all - and I called in to ask why they had never had a photographer on there. I wasn't trying to be overly critical, and the question was well-received, but the answer was pretty simplistic and straightforward, but managed to be very revealing. When I asked Dan why he hadn't had photographers on the show, he simply replied that it's natural to talk to writers and TV personalities because they already use words on a regular basis to tell their stories, and have become very adept at doing that which translates a little more naturally to an interview than someone who tells their stories through pictures.

First off, good observation, and second off, it immediately got me thinking - with the state of the photo industry and especially sports photography experiencing a variety of crises (see Vincent LaForet's most recent blog post, "The Perfect Storm has Arrived" for a reference of what I'm referring to and a conservative outlook from a well-established industry professional) one of the things we as individual photographers must be able to do is not just express ourselves through our photography, but express ourselves well verbally and in writing. These communication tools may seem extraneous but in all reality they're probably an essential element as so many types of media begin to blend together. Photographers have to learn to be able to communicate the story they're telling to get people on board, to sell themselves to potential clients, and to bring home what their work is about.

I've been struggling every time I think about putting up a blog post recently because I think there are so many more productive things I could be doing with my time. But that one simple interaction with the On the DL guys made me realize that what I do here is indeed important, if for no other reason than to keep working on my skills of expressing myself effectively.

Thanks for bearing with me.

And by the way, if anyone's interested, here's the podcast I appeared on: On the DL Call-In Show

Many thanks again to Dan and Nick for having me on.

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
Originally uploaded by Balakov

Because of the wide variety of things I'm subscribed to on Google Reader, I stumble across a lot of really random stuff, but oftentimes there are amazing gems like this one. Photographer "Balakov" posted a set of pictures on the photo sharing site Flickr that he titled "Classics in Lego" - basically, he recreated several of the most famous photographs of all time with Legos. As an aficionado of photography who also spent a LOT of his childhood playing with Legos, this set really made me smile.

The one I posted is a recreation of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint Lazare" and there are several others, including "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" and "VJ Day Times Square." The execution is pretty impressive, as it shows in each setup shot he links to under the description of the originals. Bravo, Balakov!

See a slideshow of "Classics in Lego."

H/T: Journerdism