Good Grief! Once I got started recalling the days before digital, more and more recollections began crowding my feeble mind.

OK I admit it, some days are slower than others and to pass the time I like to check out various web sites like Sports Shooter, Medialine and b-roll.net.

To continue last month's topic, Life Before Digital, I would be remiss if I didn't include a foray into the wet darkrooms that were required to process and print the films of yore.

On the Internet chat-rooms it was being referred to as the Jesus-phone, perhaps because of its miraculous properties. Like Jonah and the whale, we too spent several days in the belly of the beast as Apple Inc. unleashed its latest creation to the world.

It occurred to me the other night, just before sleep shut down my thought processes, that there is a generation of photographers out there who will never have made an exposure on film. Incredible, isn't it? It hasn't been that long since the first attempts at digital came on the scene.

Assignment Sheet brings you another in the "From the Pages of Damon Runyon" collection which are reminiscences of some of the strange and wonderful characters who were part of retired Newsday Staff Photographer Dick Kraus' long career. In "Gentlemen Jim" he talks about the colorful Irishman who was a staff shooter from the old school.

Assignment Sheet for May offers a speculative view of photos and stories that make the news. It's called "What If" by Dick Kraus, a retired staffer from Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.).

It is probably the same whether you cover a town or a county for a small, regional paper, or City Hall or the White House for a major market. See if the description fits you in this month's Assignment Sheet feature in The Digital Journalist.

It wasn't cold last week. There was no snow and ice. At least not aboard the cruise ship on which I was conducting my lectures.

"Y'know, we marvel at the advances being made with our cameras and stuff. But, look at the technological miracles that are taking place with our communication devices.

A floater is a photo that can fit anywhere in the paper where there is a hole to fill.

When you have been in this business for as long as I, you have to put up with changes in the way things are done, whether you agree with them or not. The changes will keep coming at you and if you resist, you are doomed to a life of misery and discontent.

This is not an easy assignment; writing about someone whom, after many years of working together, I have come to love and admire.

Newspapers had reporters long before photography made its presence known.

I pop out of bed at 7 AM, do some morning exercises, spruce up, plan for the day, stuff an orange in my mouth, and then bike down to Kinross, my art building...

First of all, her name isn't really Boop. This is a moniker that we all kind of pinned on her....

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned to cover a funeral.

Lately, I've been in a rut in my life and photography. I haven't been shooting as much as I want and need, and it shows in my work.

Dorie was a piece of work. She was also Newsday's Home writer.

Some of the most meaningful and most important images of my career as a photojournalist were made this past year.

Another holiday season has passed and I wax nostalgic thinking about the many holidays that I endured over my 42 year career with Newsday.

"Chirp, Chirp. Chirp." Those damned electronic cricket noises used to eat holes in what was left of my brain.

It was 1959. After spending about 18 months on the film assignment desk at night at NBC News, I was ready to move on, but to where I had no idea.

There were times when nothing you did went right. This journal is about one of those days.

There was Jack A. He was the City Editor when I was hired.

Dick Kraus' 'Through the Lens Dimly' stories have stirred these recollections of my first job, as an intern in 1969 for the now-defunct Baltimore News-American, an afternoon paper in the Hearst chain.

Quirky things happen to photojournalists. Here's a few of my experiences in Atlanta and Cincinnati.

Many years have elapsed since the incidents mentioned here took place and the subjects of these stories have matured and changed.

Greetings and salutations, youngsters. Let me tell you a story.

Last month I wrote about "Stick" (Dick Yarwood) and me and our adventures covering the Republican National Convention in San Francisco where Walter Mondale became the nominee for the upcoming presidential election.

It's hurricane season and this year the big news is about the two killer storms that tore up much of the US Gulf Coast.

As it is with any story of national importance, broadcasters in the television news business attempt to find local stories relevant to events happening thousands of miles away.

We all know W. Eugene Smith the famous Life magazine and Minimata photographer.

I came over, expecting to immerse myself in photojournalism and decide whether I truly want to do this for the rest of my life.

I love San Francisco. It's one of my two favorite US cities; the other being New Orleans.

A few years ago, I did a story on our own Dick Kraus for News Photographer.

My summer photojournalism internship lasts 13 weeks and is whizzing by, every day.

We really looked forward to his "Atta Boy's;" especially we newer shooters.

In the early 1960s, Robert Frost was making his annual visit to Agnes Scott College.

I don't know when he became known as Frootz. I'm not even sure if I'm spelling it right.