"Hey Ben, how do you do this....?' "hey Ben, how do you do that?" A bunch of years ago we used to use this stuff called film. It took us twice to four times longer to do what we do---and most of it was after taking the picture. Then digital came along and we could spend more time making pictures because it was going to take us less time to process the images. Then learning digital processes slowly we were able to make illustrations for feature article. This was slow at first because we really didn't know how to do any of it. Photoshop in the newsroom was a delicate ethical maneuver to navigate and come to grips with. W at the Tribune developed pretty sound ethical platforms that clearly doesn't allow us to alter news images. But illustrations for stories that are not something we can visually tell allow us to use photoshop much like the graphic artist uses it or used a brush and pen. So for some feature article like 'how computers are affecting children's eyes' we were able to make an illustration. But I had only done one thing ever in photoshop before this and all it entailed was putting numbers on top of a picture---simple. This was a little more complex. I found this the other day looking through some old disc for something else entirely and realized how much more I know today about making use of photoshop. I laughed at this because its a bit crudely done and even though it did win an award(I think we were all pretty new at it!) I just wouldn't be satisfied with it today and would've been able to make this.... well way cooler. It is a quick read though and therefore affective I guess. Its fun to have it in my backlog of images...if for nothing else to show how much fun we can have making something...even when we really don't know what we're doing yet! Meadville Tribune photographic illustration from the archives or Richard Sayer.