Photo Thoughts

Looking through my other classmates blogs, a lot of them entered there thoughts on the photography experience, so here is mine. I wasn't completely comfortable with asking strangers to take their portrait, so for that I stuck with my family and friends. I went home for the day on Sunday, and a majority of my pictures are from the Mt. Washington Valley. I played around a bit editing and cropping pictures on the software that came with my camera. I am definitely not a pro photographer yet, but I really enjoyed this assignment. There are some shadows and off lighting in my pictures, but I wouldn't say it adds distractions to the pictures themselves.

Slideshow

So, hopefully this works. I tried adding a gadget, but struggled..this was the best I could do.

Photography

I just purchased a new digital camera, specifically for this course, but also because I figured it's about time I get one. I always use my younger sisters, but I like having one of my own. For the in-class assignment on Thursday, I have to admit I liked taking pictures more than I liked getting my own taken. My favorite one wasn't even a full photo of Lindsay, but I just captured some of her features. I was impressed with myself, I won't lie.

New story idea continued..

So today I went and talked to the Athletic trainers at the field house to pursue my story idea. I kept getting redirected to different people, but in the end found out my idea has a "good chance of happening," I just have to get permission from certain people. One of those being the Head Athletic Trainer, Jon Dana who was busy getting ready for football practice, so I had to email him with my story topic. I am hoping to hear back from him soon with an answer so I can get the ball rolling with this. I even have a topic who I may focus this story on. Denise Beliveau, a sophomore basketball player who is out until January with an injury. It works out nicely because I intern with the athletics media relations department so setting up interviews would be easy, and I know the right people to set things up. Keeping my fingers crossed! Pictures will be posted in a few hours...

New Story Idea

Since my other story ideas were busts, I was a little nervous as to what I was going to do. Lindsay gave me an idea though, and it seems like one that has a lot of potential. I want to work on a piece about an athlete who has/is suffering a career ending injury, and there rehab process. I figured I can do a before piece, how they got to where they are, there love for the sport, and how things have changed since the injury. On Monday I plan on going to the athletic training headquarters in the field house to talk to the coordinator, to see if any athlete would be willing to be my subject for the semester. I will keep my blog posted with updates.

Off to take pictures, then watch the patriots and enjoy my Sunday.

Story Idea

Power Vote

With the upcoming election, youth’s voices are very important. Walking around campus the other day, there was a petition by Power Vote. After hearing a representative explain the group to me, it sounded appealing and like a potential story idea. The Who would be two factors: Power Vote itself, “a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition,” as stated on their website. The other half of the “who” would be the students involved on the UNH Campus. The What would be an explanation of the group, what it does world wide and what it does in Durham. I would focus the “when” on possibly when the group at UNH meets, when they will have people around asking for signatures, also if they are going to have informative meetings around the Seacoast area. Power Vote is world wide, so the where is to be determined, but obviously the main focus would be its impact in Durham. The current undergraduate and graduate population is America’s future, so our environment and future should be important to them. The power vote website has lots of good statistics that can strengthen my argument. For the multimedia part of the assignment, I could post audio, or video recordings of interviews with the UNH students who are involved in power vote. I don’t know if any photographs could be used, but you never know. I know the assignment told us to be specific as possible, but I don't really know the direction I want to go yet with the multimedia aspect. I want to talk to one of the student organizers on campus first, and go from there. Power Vote already has a YouTube account, where subscribers can upload videos. if I do make a video with the footage I get, I could not only load the video to my blog, but to the YouTube account as well.

web site reactions

Media storm was a really cool, unique website. The use of pictures is what first caught my attention. I was surprised to see the video and sound incorporation when you scrolled over the photos. Once upon clicking on the article, I liked how you could email the link to someone. It took me a little bit to figure out you had to watch the video in order to hear the story. I also liked the transcript available to follow along. It was obviously a very advanced multimedia project, but it allowed me to see the potential that multimedia reporting software has. Reading the comments though made me realize, the photos made the story, which is a unique feature of the multimedia aspect of journalism.


I expected the Mastering multimedia blog to be more than it was. I was really hooked at first, thinking I was going to learn some of what he knew

On the Concord monitor's multimedia page, once again the use of video and audio just makes the story much more personal, and it really had me make a connection as a reader. It almost reminds me of a book that gets turned into a movie. I liked how there was more of a story line to this rather than the story of the Ninth Floor on media storm. There was also the link to the original story, which was an aspect I liked.


The Web How To I found to be informative and helpful. It reminded you of the basics learned in 621, and guided you to not just write a story, but to have a purpose and incorporate whatever multimedia you feel necessary.

Knight Digital media center seemed helpful, but it appeared you have to create an account to gain full access, which I plan on doing when the course gets in full swing. The links for picasa, and audiocity should also come in helpful later on.

The soundslides you have to buy, which may be a good investment if I want to take a career in multimedia journalism seriously.

On Boston.com, where I mainly get my news from they have the multimedia feature of videos for some of there stories, and have just started watching them, and I have to admit it is a feature I like as it adds a little something more to the story.

Multimedia experience

My experience with multimedia is fairly limited. I am familiar with using a digital camera, and a basic sound recorder. I use the internet for school work, and pleasure mostly. This is my first blog, and the closest thing I have "given" to the internet is a facebook account. I know my way around the internet and am comfortable with it. My freshmen year in college I took CS 403 which taught me how to make a webpage, but I don't rememeber much from the course.

My experience with journalism is solid. This will be the third journalism course I have taken at UNH, my others including English 621 and 622. I just completed a part time summer internship with the Conway Daily Sun, a small newspaper from my home town. While interning there, there was no use of any multimedia for that paper.