Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Rain Dance, 4th of July

My favorite Holiday. 

-Stephen Alvarez

Nima Ha, Guatemala

A Maya petition at Nima Ha. The brujo says prayers to the spirits who dwell in the cave and asks their protection. 

This image is from an old (2004 here) story on the the Maya Underworld. The pictures have sat in a box until this summer. Now my intern is scanning the images, giving them new life. I had long thought, and been encouraged to put the Maya Underworld images together in a more extensive form than the National Geographic story. What that will be, a book or a long web piece I don't know. I do know that I should get it done before the world ends in 2012.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

-Stephen Alvarez

Jack Shafer on the Death of Journalism

Jack Schafer quotes journalist Mark Sullivan's memoirs Education of an American (on Slate here) to point out that journalism has always been in a state of decline. In 1938 the veteran newsman Sullivan laments the passing of the American newspaper as ad dollars flowed from print to radio.

Far from being depressed Sullivan says

I felt as if I were like one of those old monks, the scriveners, who continued to copy by hand long after printing had been invented. To young writers looking forward the lesson is as plain, and even more important, than to old writers looking backward. Learn the art of writing, of course, but learn also the art of the motion picture, and of the radio.

Sound familiar? Good advice for today's journalists.

Schafer is interesting on this subject, in a previous article he says (here)

If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

Personally I couldn't agree more.

Last year after Look 3 I came home more excited about telling stories than I had ever been but also more depressed about making a living as a journalist. The barriers of entry to story telling are now ridiculously low and there are many more stories being told. But how any of us -including Jack Schafer- will make a living? No idea

-Stephen Alvarez

Swimming, Yucatan Mexico

Underwater swimmers in Bolonchojol Cenote near Chunkusan, Yucatan, Mexico.

-Stephen Alvarez

Wild Chronicles interview

© Stephen Alvarez/National Geographic Magazine used with permission

I was interviewed on National Geographic Weekend this past Sunday about my Deep South cave story. Listen to it here.

-Stephen Alvarez

Joloniel Chiapas, Mexico

An old picture from Chiapas. It isn't really from the visual diary, but from an old NG assignment on the Maya Underworld. Its been sitting in a box for years dead to the world until my intern Lexi put it in a scanner yesterday. The image, the whole project is being resurrected by going from film to digital.

It is a mark of how much the world has changed that pictures don't seem to exist for me if they are not digitized. 

-Stephen Alvarez

Visual Diary September 15 2007

A frame from my visual diary. The pictures often sit around for years before I have the chance to go back and look at them. It is an interesting way to revisit the past.

-Stephen Alvarez

Magic Lantern: These folks are on to something

OK, right now everyone go to this site and give these people $10. I just did. Why? Magic Lantern is an open platform firmware add on that attempts to fix the major issues with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II video. Namely the awful sound quality.

I'm not suggesting that anyone actually load the beta version of this firmware. Not unless you have $2999.99  to throw away. But for just a couple of bucks we can all move this process along. 

-Stephen Alvarez

Deep South slide show from LOOK 3

Images © Stephen Alvarez and National Geographic Magazine used with permission

Canon 5D Mark II firmware upgrade

Firmware upgrade for the Canon 5D MK II is available here. It provides MANUAL EXPOSURE CONTROL while shooting video.

-Stephen Alvarez