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Portraiture Tips From a Pro
Clay Blackmore laughs about his early days as a photographer. Blackmore, who assisted the portrait photographer Monte Zucker for 25 years before going it alone, imitated the legendary photographer so completely that Zucker had trouble distinguishing between his photographs and those shot by his student. “I used to be so nervous, I would glue photographs to the tripod” and copy them, Blackmore told more than 150 National Press Club members and their guests at a talk “How to Photograph Everyone” on May 27. Blackmore isn’t nervous any more. “When you start to learn the technique, you get…
Type: News
Connelly Explores the News Biz in New Mystery-Thriller, "Scarecrow"
A police officer's story about an "almost perfect crime" was the basis for Michael Connelly's new novel, "Scarecrow," the author told an NPC audience Wednesday. Connelly said he fleshed out the idea after an FBI agent told him how the Internet has become a social network for people with aberrant desires looking for a community of like-minded people to explore their dark sides. After seeing an episode of the TV show, The Wire, about a newspaper story, Connelly said he put all the elements together and came up with the plot for "Scarecrow." He brought back his protagonist from 14 years ago…
Type: News
NPC Members Among Washingtonian's DC Power Players
Vanity Fair national editor Todd Purdum and Chicago Times columnist-bureau chief Lynn Sweet are among Washingtonian magazine's 50 best and most influential DC-based journalists of 2009. The publication's June issue carries thumbnail sketches of the two National Press Club members. The issue is on sale now. Here's what Washingtonian says of Purdum: "President Clinton may have called him 'sleazy,' 'slimy,' and a 'scumbag' after a particularly cutting piece last year, but most others would agree that Purdum writes what everyone is thinking." Washingtonian writes of Sweet: "It would be hard to…
Type: News
NPC Member Andrea McCarren Wins Emmy
Club member Andrea McCarren won a regional Emmy in the news special category for her 2008 story about immigration. McCarren traveled to and reported from El Salvador. She was laid off by WJLA (Channel 7) in January in a cost-cutting move by the station. She is the wife of NPC General Manager Bill McCarren.
Type: News
"Wire" Producer Laments Future of Professional Journalism
Clad button-down blue shirt, no tie, faded black jeans and black-and-white wing-tip shoes, former Baltimore Sun police reporter David Simon — producer of HBO’s The Wire — said professional journalism self destructed. Simon, who has earned awards and fame writing and producing NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street, the Emmy Award-winning HBO mini-series The Corner and The Wire, spoke at an NPC Luncheon Monday. “Don’t let anyone tell you that the Internet crept up on us,” said Simon, who said he is worried about the future of journalism since before he took a buyout in 1995. “We destroyed…
Type: News
Macedonia Calls for Full European Integration of All Balkan Countries
Ivica Bocevski, deputy prime minister for EU affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, argued for the “full inclusion and integration of all B alkan states into the European Union” within the next decade. At a June 11 Newsmaker, Bocevski acknowledged that Greek opposition over the name of the Republic of Macedonia is responsible for vetoing Macedonia’s membership into NATO. But he declined to answer specific questions about the name controversy, referring reporters to the diplomatic team currently negotiating that issue. He acknowledged that the name issue was the “800 pound gorilla in the…
Type: News
Marine Commandant Says Corps Fulfilled its Mission in Iraq
The nation’s top Marine says that next spring the US will “close the door, turn out the lights and end Marine Corps presence in Iraq.” Gen. James Conway, in a wide-ranging assessment of the Corps’ current role in two wars, told a Club Luncheon audience June 11 that “we’re coming out under a victory pennant, we have done essentially what the country asked us to do.” Conway, in his second Club appearance since becoming Marine commandant in 2006, noted that “we didn’t find weapons of mass destruction ... but we did do something there ... we have crushed the al Qaeda in the nation of Iraq.”…
Type: News
Hungary Wants to Keep Russian Investments Under Control, Foreign Minister Says
Peter Balaz, Hungarian minister for foreign affairs, said his country wants to maintain good relations with Russia, but at the same time keep Russian "investments" in Hungary "under control." At a June 10 Newsmaekr, he said one such investment is Moscow's interest in the planned Nabucco gas pipeline project, which would transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. This would be a diversion from the present method of importing the gas only from Russia, which makes other countries dependent on Moscow. Balazs also said Hungary wants to improve the "…
Type: News
Port Officials Discuss Economics, Environment, Security
Officials of America's second largest port in Long Beach, Calif., told a June 8 Newsmaker U.S. ports must remain competitive to succeed in the global market, should be environmentally aware and maintain constant security vigilance. James Hankla, president of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of Long Beach, said that while the port is working to increase its economic efficiency, it also is living up to its self-applied nickname of "The Green Port" by continually taking numerous measures to reduce its carbon footprint. One of the ways it does this, he said, is to send shipments from the…
Type: News
41 Million Refugees Uprooted by Conflict, Persecution, UN Report Says
The number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide was 42 million at the end of 2008, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said at a June 16 Newsmaker. The commissioner, former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, said the figure includes 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million "internally displaced" people uprooted in their countries, according to the report. His report also said a sharp slowdown in repatriation and more prolonged conflicts resulted in "protracted displacement." Guterres said that in 2009, "we have already seen substantial…
Type: News