My hard hitting news expose:
VIDEO
Take care yall, much love...
Dave
Sometimes I get in these moods where I question whether or not I want to be a photojournalist or not. I suppose, right now, I'm in one of those moods, but it's not as bad as it's been. So I question, why do I want to be a photojournalist? I have some skill with the camera, but what does that matter?
Skill means nothing if one's heart is not invested in the action.
Besides, skill is something that comes with practice; if I practice something else, I'll be skilled at that too. So whats the point? Well, I begin to think about America and what it stands for. Democracy, freedoms, information. Thats what I feel America is. Yet their is this looming shadow which shades us all. That shadow is the misconception that we are informed. There is a major problem with todays mass media corporations. All, to different degrees, slant the news in one way or another. Now, mind you, slanting the news can be done in various ways. Spin can be applied and opinions can be snuck into objective reporting.
However, this is not what scares me. Whats scares me is how the corporations make the news. Stories get priority over other stories or simply left out of the daily report. Why? Perhaps it puts a bad light on something the corporation is invested in.
So I think, again. Do I appreciate the news corporations thinking I'm another moron in front of the boob-tube? No, I don't. So what am I going to do about? I'm going document those stories which you other wise wouldn't here. It makes me extremely angry to analyze how the media is in the grass roots stage of betraying what America is founded on. I honestly believe that if we solve our problems in the media, all the building blocks of a better democracy will fall into place.
To me, photojournalism (Possibly even photography as a whole) is NOT about taking pictures or making aestically pleasing pieces. It's about making people FEEL what is in front of them. Think back to the reason people were so interested in photography when it first came about; it drew the lines that a painter could never replicate, colors that paints could never achieve. It became a portal into another world, a world that was contained between four lines and your imagination. Perhaps a photo does say a thousand words, perhaps more. I believe a photo should make you feel a thousand emotions. Look at any master of photography and you will see.
Do this: Look at the photo for a good 10 seconds. Stare at it and try to imagine what it was like to be in that situation or in that place. Even abstract photos can be seen in this way. The feelings, the texture, the emotions, the expressions. Its all there, in every photo. Put the photo down, do something else and forget completely what you saw in that photo. Come back, look at it again, it'll be a completely different photo. Do it over and over again, you'll see, you'll notice something new every time. Thats what makes a good photo. Feeling.
So, back to the point, why I do photojournalism. Well, honestly, I'm not sure. I kind of fell into it. I believe the reason I do this is because I love communication. Communication in it's broadest sense: writing, speaking, visuals, stories, myths, legends, everything. I love how we develop our own cultural perspective through the stories we encounter every day. Stories are what I love and photos are how I tell them.
But as long as I'm holding a camera, I'm going to do the best I can do. I've discovered that if you want to be the best at something, you have to dedicate your entire life what it is that you're doing, without exceptions. Everything you do has to revolve around your passion.
I'm not there yet, but soon. Soon enough, people won't know me as Dave, they'll know me as a photographer. You'll see. :) Soon enough.
Dave
 Here's a freelance story I wrote that ended up not being published. :-)
In 30 degree
weather and a flurry of snow, Victor Bofill stands at the cross section of
University and Agate, near the EMU amphitheatre, hands raised above his head
holding a sign saying, “Free Hugs.” When asked about his reasons and
intentions, he simply responds, “People need hugs.”
The idea
sprouted from the internet. The website freehugscampaign.com is committed to
the idea of free public hugs. Juan Mann, the founder of the campaign, is well
known on YouTube. His video story was posted on YouTube and quickly raised up
to internet stardom. 12th on the list of most viewed videos of all
time, Mann started the campaign in his hometown of Sydney, Australia.
The movement has since spread to almost every continent and across the United States.
On the website,
users are able to organize and start their own movements in their areas. Users
can also share their experiences on the message boards with other people in
their area.
Bofill, a third
year sophomore, said he was inspired by his friend, “One of my started doing it
in Portland and
made these signs and here I am.” Many people took him up on his deal; Bofill
said all types of people, young and old, male and female, had given him hugs.
The snow couldn’t put a damper on Bofill’s hug-a-thon; he said even if it
rained, he’d be there. “People need hugs when it rains.”
-Dave Martinez Freelance Reporter
View all the photos here
 Home for the holidays, doing absolutely nothing. I feel worthless, but it's ok for now. I've done absolutely nothing for the last 3 weeks. Actually, I have done some things: play video games, sleep in till 2 PM, spend other people's money. Trust me on this one: Lesson Learned: Being employed sounds cool on the outside, but sucks on the inside. Anyways, this might be of some interest to the music lovers out there. Mozzila has just release "Songbird." It's still in the .2 stage but I think you'll enjoy it. It's open source and completely free. Who knows, if they make the right improvements, it might just replace your current music player. We'll see... I've added a few screen shots of it, check it out. Everyone have a great holiday season. (Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Hanukkah [I spell checked!], whatevs.) Peace yall, Dave Demo Video: http://www.songbirdnest.com/screencast/
Some of my photos got onto an internet slideshow for the campus newspaper, check it: Slideshow
 Story time. This one's about how Dave completely fucked up his Windows XP and how's he regained his computer with the help of a friend...
Friday night. I finish watching that Revolution OS movie (refer to: "On Open-Source" blog post) and was like, "FUCK YEAH! I'M TOTALLY GOING TO DO THIS!" so I begin the search for a good partition program. Hesitant, I backup my document and my music, just for good measure. Unfortunately, all the backups were put onto DVDs since I have no money for an external hard drive. So, I back up the documents onto 7 different DVDs. Shortly after (and by shortly, I mean a long while later...), I began to partition my hard drive.
For those of you not knowledgeable in the ways of partitioning, you must first resize the hard drive to free up the space. SO... I resize my C drive. I start around, we'll say, 8 PM. Takes till the next morning. When I wake up, however, it says "Error... Such and such file could not be moved... Blah blah blah, I'm a dirty tramp." So, I'm like, "Damn, didn't work. Back to windows!" I restart my computer, Dell Blue screen, little scrolly bar at the bottom, flash to the blue dell bar at the top... Wait... Wait... Wait... Nothing. I go through this a few times but the windows loading screen never appears. AHBWKJBHSKDJSDNGKJBBE!
So I try to resize the hard drive again in the program I was using (mind you, this program was on a bootable cd...). I try resizing and it says, "Cannot resize, such-and-such file is corrupted... Blah blah blah, I'm a dirty tramp." Now I'm like "WTFbdsfshbdisbsidub9874t394hbvwka*!ufn!!!" So I'm sitting there, about to completely format my hard drive while my room mate's computer is downloading Fedora Core. Then this guy, THIS GUY, who just HAPPENS to be visiting the guy across the hall, JUST HAPPENS knows every fucking thing about linux. He says, "Oh, fdisk and I'll help you install Gentoo." So, he does it. Takes all night, but he does it. And does it good. I'm on the KDE desktop right now. But my god, if it wasn't for this man-amongst-men, going through the setup process would have been HELL. If you ever decide to install ANY flavor of linux, get someone knowledgeable or have a guide nearby... My god it's hard. But it's well worth it.
Anyways, lesson:
*Don't partition your hard drive without a good, trustable program. (Especially not with Partition Magic)
*Linux is sweet, KDE makes it look sweeter
*Windows is a dirty tramp
Case closed. 
I'm slowly being converted into becoming an free man. And by free I don't mean without price... I mean without restrictions. The open-source movement is catching more and more of my attention and I think I just might partition my hard-drive tonight... Talk about drastic change. Check this movie out, well worth a watch if you're curious: Revolution OSFood for thought, Dave
I just stumbled on Multiply, and if this is as good as I think it is, I'm totally psyched to be here.
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