Check out Scott Stranzzante’s photo blog at the Chicago Tribune’s web site, Shooting From The Hip.

After a few unfortunate events set me back at work I missed the story I was planning on doing for my column. And now I was under the gun to find a new idea with less than a day to do it. So I was out and about looking around for a photo for our Our Town photo column and was thinking about different column ideas a newspaper could do.

One idea I liked I called Hour Town, a play off of the current column the Tribune does. With Hour Town a photographer would toss a dart at the map of the town and then go to that spot. Once there he or she would have 60 minutes to make a photo. If you are nice you could give them a block or two radius to work on. Or, tell them they can’t move from that spot. The rest is left up to the interpretation and creativity of the photographer.

I liked this idea for a few reasons. One it’s happenstance where the photographer is sent so the likelihood of being put in a place unfamiliar to them is high. Secondly I like that restrictions of time and place which can really drive the creative juices. Third it trades one type of stress, looking for a good idea and procrastinating about it, with another kind of stress, one that perhaps we’re not as much use to.

If you give it a try, let me know.

Vignette: Roanoke Times photographers share their best photos – Roanoke.com.

Just noticed Picture This from the Seattle Times where “photographers offer a glimpse into what inspires their best visual reporting.”

The view from The New Yorker’s photo department

via Photo Booth : The New Yorker.

The Salt Lake Tribune’s staff photo blog: blog.tribphoto.com

Eyes on Fire explores the story behind photos in the news by Michael Henninger of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I’m putting together a list of newspaper photo departments using twitter. Here’s what I have so far, including a few photo agencies at the end. If you know of any I am missing please leave a comment. You can also follow the list on Twitter http://twitter.com/gerik/newspaper-photo-depts.

Newspapers
Newport News Daily Press http://twitter.com/dailypressphoto
Austin American-Statesman http://twitter.com/collectivevis
London Telegraph http://twitter.com/TelegraphPics
Boston Globe http://twitter.com/GlobePhoto
Tacoma News Tribune http://twitter.com/Tribphoto
Indianapolis Star http://twitter.com/indystarvisuals
Atlanta Journal Constitution http://twitter.com/ajcphotos
Telegraph Herald http://twitter.com/Thphotodept
Seattle Times Photo http://twitter.com/SeaTimesPhoto
St. Pete Times Photo http://twitter.com/SPTimesPhoto
St. Louis Post-Dispatch http://twitter.com/PDMultimedia
Standard Photo http://twitter.com/StandardPhoto
LA Times Video http://twitter.com/LATimesvideo
Montreal Gazette http://twitter.com/GazetteImages
The Sydney Morning Herald http://twitter.com/smh_multimedia
The Missoulian http://twitter.com/missoulianphoto
Wichita Eagle http://twitter.com/EaglePhotos
Rapid City Journal http://twitter.com/RCJPhoto
Columbia Daily Tribune http://twitter.com/CDTPhoto
Cedar Rapids Gazette http://twitter.com/GazetteVisuals
LA Times Photos http://twitter.com/LATimesPhotos
Orlando Sentinel http://twitter.com/OSPhoto
Arizona Republic Photo http://twitter.com/azcentralPhoto
Denver Post http://twitter.com/denverphotos
Florida Times Union http://twitter.com/FTUphoto
New York Times Photo http://twitter.com/nytimesphoto
New York Times Multimedia http://twitter.com/NYTimesVisual
Detroit Free Press Video http://twitter.com/freepvideo
Sacramento Bee Video http://twitter.com/SacBee_Video
San Jose Mercury News Photo http://twitter.com/mercphoto
Sacramento Bee The Frame http://twitter.com/sacbee_theframe
The Free Lance-Star Photo http://twitter.com/flsphoto
Boston Globe Big Picture http://twitter.com/big_picture

Agencies and Others
Reuters Pictures http://twitter.com/reuterspictures
Getty Images Editorial http://twitter.com/GettyImagesEdit
Associated Press http://twitter.com/AP_Images
National Public Radio http://twitter.com/NPRPictureShow
MSNBC http://twitter.com/msnbc_pictures
Corbis http://twitter.com/CorbisImages

TimesCallMedia.com is a showcase of content produced by the photography staff of The Longmont Times-Call newspaper in Longmont, Colorado.

via Times-Call Media.

Just got an e-mail letting me know that the East Valley Tribune’s photo staff is keeping a photo blog.

Please keep sending in e-mails letting photocolumn.org know about newspaper photo columns and photo blogs. editor@photocolumn.org

In Focus – EastValleyTribune.com.