Charlotte Lowrie Street and Editorial Photographer Telling the Story Article rating: 5.14

Veteran journalists say that once journalism gets into your blood, it is there to stay. Charlotte Lowrie, street and editorial photographer, can verify the truth of the adage. Given a choice between a shooting a commercial or an editorial assignment, she’ll choose the editorial assignment first every time. As she says, “It’s a great chance to tell a good story.”

Lowrie looks at photography as part of the total communication picture. For her, words are better with photos, and photos are better with words. So it’s not unusual for her to write the words and take the images. The philosophy is likely a result of her editorial background. For four years, Lowrie was the managing editor of MSN Photos, a popular Web site on the Microsoft Network that was recently discontinued. Her work has appeared in various Microsoft products, as well as in industry and trade journals, and in newspapers including the Dallas Morning News, the National Association for the Self-Employed and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) magazines, and on local television news broadcasts.

As a journalism student, Lowrie got hooked on photography the first day of a news photography class. From that day to today, she’s believed that images are as integral to telling stories as words are. Not surprisingly, Lowrie gravitated first to news photography and eventually to street and editorial shooting.

For Lowrie, street photography brings the nightly news to a personal level. “The homeless are no longer vague, faceless statistics. When you’re shooting on the street, the people in the news are the people sharing a street corner with you.” Lowrie feels a responsibility for leaving a visual legacy of our life, time, and culture. “For me,” she says, “street and editorial photography is a way to leave that legacy.”

Various editorial roles through the years required Lowrie to hone skills with a wide variety of subjects ranging from portraits and landscapes to product shots. As a result, her interests have expanded to include nature and landscape photography, although editorial and street shooting remain her first love. You can browse her images at http://wordsandphotos.org.

Through the years, Lowrie realized how much she enjoys helping aspiring photographers develop their skills and enjoyment of photography. Today she feeds both her passion for photography and for teaching by writing books and articles about photography. Her first book, Teach Yourself Visually Digital Photography, 2nd Edition, was published in early 2004 by John Wiley and Sons publishers. She is currently photographing and writing two new books scheduled for publication in 2005.

Charlotte's Equipment:

Camera-
Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
Canon EOS 30D
Hasselblad H1/Kodak Pro Back 645

Memory Card-
SanDisk Extreme III
Lexar

Tripod-
Two Manfrotto Carbon One 443 with Gitzo heads

Filter-
Circular polarizer

Software-
Adobe Camera Raw
Photoshop CS2

Camera Bag-
Lowepro

Printer-
Canon i9900

Color Management-
Spyder2 Pro

Monitor-
ViewSonic Professional Series P225f

Lighting-
Photogenic StudioMax II (combination of 160s and 320s)

Archival Materials-
Western Digital My Book
500 gig
Western Digital Combo 100 gig
DVDs of various brands

Portfolios-
My professional Web site

Computer-
Dell

Peripherals-
Kensington Expert Mouse

Storage-
Western Digital standalone hard drives

Paper-
Canon Pro Paper

Ink-
Canon

Meters-
Sekonic 

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