Photographers

"You know what I really wanted to do--my fantasy--was to do a scene in front of the American Embassy in Saigon and raise the American flag once again," exclaimed David Hume Kennerly, executive producer of the television film "Shooter." "Now that would have been a shot that would have gone around the world: 'Kennerly recaptures Vietnam.'

Gordon Parks spent the 1930s working a variety of odd jobs that included playing piano in a brothel and cleaning up after alcoholics in a Chicago flophouse. In the mid-1930s, Parks married a St. Paul woman and took a railroad job where he discovered the power of the camera. Here is Part III of a five-part excerpt from "Voices in the Mirror," the autobiography of the renowned photographer. I applied for a job as a waiter on the North Coast Limited and got it.

Almost every day, my in box fattens with e-mails from America's freelance writers -- adding their voices to those I quoted a couple of weeks ago about the devastating downturn in the writing market. In bemoaning the need for speed, the flight from quality and the persistent decrease in pay, it turns out writers have a lot in common with photographers. And graphic artists. And architects. And musicians. And, well, with just about anyone who sees his creative endeavors being commodified or who is exposed to low-cost foreign competition via the Internet.

Al Belson thinks that one of the problems with photography is that it's too easy to make a bad picture. "All you do is stick the lens out the door, press the button and you get a bad picture," Belson says. A bigger problem, the Costa Mesa photographer says, is that "the level of acceptance is so low. Everybody and his brother thinks he's a photographer." Belson says that because of technology, the only thing you have to worry about in photography is the subject.

Some photographers go out into the world and choose their subjects from ready-made material. Others go to extremes to set up compositions in their studios or reorganize outdoor subject matter. Barbara Kasten is a photographer of the second kind--and then some. Using a complex system of lights, colored gels and mirrors, she creates collage-like architectural portraits that contain key, identifiable elements of buildings.

Clyde Butcher thinks nothing of spending hours in an alligator-infested Florida swamp to capture the perfect image. Paul Nicklen will brave sub-zero temperatures while submerged in arctic waters for an up-close encounter with its unique inhabitants. Michael Nichols treks into African jungles and spends days camped out in a tree to get the perfect shot of a lowland gorilla. One gets the idea that these are not your ordinary shutterbugs. These photographers' unique and stunning images are on display in the exhibit "Extreme Exposure" at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Prosecutors have dropped criminal charges filed against a Los Angeles Times photographer who was arrested April 22 while covering civil disturbances that followed the federal seizure of Elian Gonzalez. Carolyn Cole, 38, faced felony charges of throwing a deadly missile. A police officer had said she was seen throwing rocks during an afternoon of skirmishes between police and protesters angry that the 6-year-old Cuban boy had been taken by force from the home of his Miami relatives.

Times photographer Carolyn Cole, who entered Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity on Thursday with a group of activists who eluded Israeli troops surrounding the complex, remained inside Friday for a second day. The collapse of an Israeli-Palestinian deal to allow food into the church was acutely disappointing to those inside, she said. Israel alleges that at least 10 of the Palestinians are terrorists and has demanded their surrender or exile.

Jurors in the assault and privacy rights battle between movie star Alec Baldwin and paparazzo Alan Zanger began deliberations Friday in a case one lawyer said will ultimately boil down to credibility and motive. "The only thing that matters to Mr. Baldwin is the principle of the thing," his lawyer, Philip D. Weiss, told the jury in closing arguments. "The only thing that matters to Mr. Zanger is the money."

Actor Alec Baldwin was charged with misdemeanor battery Wednesday for allegedly punching and kicking a photographer Oct. 26 at his Woodland Hills home, the Los Angeles city attorney's office reported. Baldwin, who is accused of hitting Alan Zanger on the day Baldwin and his wife, Kim Basinger, arrived home with their newborn baby, was scheduled for arraignment Jan. 9 at Van Nuys Municipal Court, officials said.