We’ve now posted a bunch of photos to the Presidential Reporting Project Weblog, and they’ve really added a lot to it.
Many of the pictures, such as those by Mark Murrmann, were shot with a digital camera. But the photos Jessica Munoz took at a John Kerry rally – photo 1, photo 2, photo 3 – were taken with her cellphone camera (a Sanyo 3rd generation smart camera phone), and the quality is surprisingly good, especially the closeups. They’re still not as professional looking as those taken with a regular camera, but certainly more than passable.
This lends credence to the idea that if a staff photographer is not available and a reporter doesn’t have a digital camera, taking a picture with a cellphone is worthwhile and does add something to the Weblog.
The other issue is placement of the photos on the blog. Right now the pictures are large, and when you add in all the other elements we’re posting like audio, video clips and text, the blog looks a little jumbled. But I think that also adds some appeal – more of a sense that the coverage is real time and constantly evolving. And it may resonate more with younger readers.
It reminds me of the first time I saw the old Wired magazine – I was repelled by the seemingly chaotic layout and large, gaudy graphics and photos. But that’s precisely what the younger, more hip readership of the magazine liked about it.
Still I think we might want to decrease the size of the photos a little, mainly because they do make it harder to scan through the postings. You have to scroll quite a ways to get past a picture to the accompanying text or to the next posting.
Take a look at how blogger Jeff Jarvis wraps text around an illustration, or how Kevin Sites uses smaller photos so the text and pictures flow together more fluidly.