photogs, snapper and chimping a list of photography jargon

parachute journalism – in this context, when photogs come to a location, shoot a bunch of images without understanding or capturing the real scope of local culture/issues/feelings/etc., then within 24 hours (or so) fly out again.

door stepping – old English newspaper slang for staking out a subject’s house or office.
a smudge – old English newspaper slang for quick and dirty street photo.

While we are on this subject, is there a recognised collective noun for photojournalits? If not, can I be credited with “a disaster” of photojournalists, or does anyone have something more aposite to suggest?

A redundancy of photojournalists.

“pushbutton” — i believe French term equivalent to “snapper”

“hail mary” — holding camera above head to shoot without being able to look through viewfinder

“chrome” — slide film, of course, as opposed to “neg”

“big-footing” — when a famous or staff photographer arrives at a story which has become big, pushing the freelancer who has been covering it for a long time into the background

“takeout” — a big spread or long story

“bang bang” — war or conflict, catastrophe, anything with violence, death, and destruction

“goat fuck” — when ten photographers all elbow each other to photograph one weeping woman at a funeral, for example. similar to “cluster fuck;” similar to “the pack” or “the scrum.”

“fuck job” — anything overly set-up, arranged, posed, directed, resulting in uninteresting and uninspired photos, worse than “hose job”

“flak” or “flack” — PR person or “minder” who makes it a “fuck job,” see above

“spec” — working without guarantee of pay

“guarantee” — some pay but not an assignment or expenses, similar to “first look”

collective noun, as used by NYPD at goat fucks and fuck jobs:

“cameras” — referring to photographers simply by their cameras, as in, “All you cameras, get over to the side, right now!” and “Cameras in front, TV line up behind.”

also “snappers,” “photogs,” “shooters” as already mentioned.

Goat fuck…I’d forgotten that term but not the issue. I’ve often wondered whether New York or Washington was capital of the photographer scrum. I do know that outside the US Courthouse in either city, you’d better have at least one camera with 70/80-200mm lens, not for shooting, but to swing around to protect your position….

Haha-we have goat fucks in the UK too :-)

‘Monstering’ is one of my faves…. pretty much the same as doorstepping.

‘A moan of photographers’ is a writer’s term for a group of photographers, but I prefer Preston’s ‘Redundancy of photojournalists’.

‘Complete tosser’…. clients who don’t pay or keep changing their mind about what they want !

‘Monkey’…. writer’s term for a photographer in the UK

‘Blunt’…. photographer’s term for a writer in the UK

A shooter can be anyone who shoots… sometimes people contact me for a video job saying they want a “shooter”. Then I always tell them sorry, I can refer them to some people who “just shoot”, but if they want a “cameraman” I’d be happy to oblige.

light monkey or shutter monkey – a term that albert einstein used for photographers, i gather he did not like our sort ;-D

j.

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Thanks for that one Albert. Nobody likes a clever Dick :-(

of course we should add some of the vocabulary of our recent wars:

“Embed” — no definition necessary by now.

“Unilateral” — the opposite of “embed”

“D-Fac” — dining facility; cafeteria

“FOB” — Forward Operating Base, usually not big enough to have a decent “D-Fac”

“MRE” — Meal, Ready-to-Eat. Actually not as bad as most people imagine.

“IED” — Improvised Explosive Device

“Suicider” — what Iraqis who speak English call a suicide bomber

“PAO” — Public Affairs Officer, a military “flak” or “flack” or “minder”

“AF-PAK” — Afghanistan and Pakistan

“BIAP” — Baghdad International Airport

“Gitmo” — Guantanamo Bay

“EPW” — Enemy Prisoner of War, replaced “POW” in American military usage. Not be to confused with:

“Detainee” — NOT a prisoner-of-war, not subject to Geneva Convention

“Thuraya” — handheld satellite phone

“BGAN” — satellite modem attached to laptop computer

“Immarsat” — International Mobile Satellite Organization, term used for anything to do with satellite communications

“Green Zone” — former Saddam era government district in Baghdad now used by US for the same purpose

“Red Zone” — the rest of Iraq

“Collateral damage” — killing 50 people at a wedding when the intended target was one sniper

“BDA” — Bomb Damage Assessment, when you realize that all you achieved was “Collateral Damage”

“PTSD” — Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, formerly known as “combat fatigue” formerly known as “shell shock.”

“Bradley,” “Stryker,” “Abrahms,” “Apache,” “Blackhawk,” “Chinook” — types of military vehicles and helicopters

“TOW” and “Javelin” — types of anti-tank missiles used by US infantry often to attack bunkers and buildings.

“Kevlar” — term for body armor and helmets, because that’s what they’re made of

“FUBAR” — successor term to “SNAFU” — Fucked Up Beyond All Repair

Other relevant acronyms:

“PLA” — Chinese People’s Liberation Army
“PAP” aka “Wu Jin” — Chinese People’s Armed Police (internal security)
“PSB” — Chinese Public Security Bureau (regular police)
“CCP” — Chinese Communist Party
“KMT” — Chinese Nationalist Party, on Taiwan
“JNA” — Yugoslav National Army, succeeded by:
“VJ” — Yugoslav Army
“MUP” — Serbian Ministry Of Interior troops
“MID” — Minstry of Foreign Affairs in any Slavic country
“FSB” — successor to the “KGB” and “GRU” in Russia
“Spetsnaz” — Russian elite troops
“GUM” and “SUM” — old state-run department stores in Communist countries
“IDF” — Israeli Defense Forces
“PA” — Palestinian Authority

of course there are many many more, I think these are some of the main ones

m4 – real leica rangefinder
m6 – leica rangefinder
m8 – not quite the same as leica rangefinder
m9 – still to be ditermined digital leica rangefinder
m16 – not a leica rangefinder at all
slr – single lens reflex
dslr – digital same as above
g11 – back pocket dslr
bbdb – big black digital body rather expensive same as above

“Grip n grin” – award presentation picture, bunch of people with trophy, check, etc.
“shoot n scoot” – a quick photo assignment on a busy day
eunuch (sports) picture – nice sports pic but no ball(s) in picture
four column (picture) usually refers to a horizontal pic (newspaper term)
two column (picture) on the other hand refers to a vertical (newspaper term)
darkroom – outdated – use to be place for taking naps, eating, gossiping, complaining, drinking, socializing, getting away from editors (or spouse) and occasionally actually making prints.

a friend of mine came with this one:
PhD: point’n shoot camera reffered as “push here, dummy”!

Double Truck — An image that spans two pages of a magazine

“the World” — home, First World countries; culture shock. landing in New York or Paris after weeks or months in some awful place. have to wear seat belts, not have to be afraid of the police.

And a few dirty ones from the commercial world:

“German” or “matress”- large reflector that unfolds to stand by itself and have similarities to the later.
“A nigger” – a flag.
“To put cream on” – to use a softbox.
“Giraffe” – a boom.