Aaron Paul Vogel

Multimedia is the new hot topic in the news industry, and newspapers, network television stations and everyday shmoes are posting up audio and video to their websites. Besides being a fascinating and fairly novel pursuit multimedia in journalism seems to be the interest for a number of people I know. My new friend Joe Hollak has also taken up the pursuit of collecting not only photographs while on a story, but audio as well. While the two of us are fairly green in the field, the seeds for what we're doing has already been sown by many people; bloggers, podcasters and documentarians using MiniDV cameras and portable sound equipment. The fruit of their labor can be seen all over the Internet and is falling onto desktops on personal computers as software such as iTunes which has, since version 5, incorporated Podcasts into their music store. Newspapers such as the Ventura County Star are now posting video of major events such as the recent wildfire. While rough, this addition to their web-page shows that while newspapers are still a viable option for the dissemination of daily events, there ways to leverage the information capital that they have at their disposal.

Now it's up to people like Joe and I to learn from those who've made the first steps to pioneer the technology, figure out how we can best use it to tell stories and hone our skills in incorporating it all together to share the stories with the world. At this point there are so many possible directions to take things that I'm still testing the waters to see which pool(s) I want to swim in. Right now I'm really fascinated with putting audio with still photography. I'm in awe of programs like This American Life which routinely brings me to tears or puts a painfully large smile on my face with their compelling mix of narrative and first-person accounts. I don't know yet if adding photographs to the mix would add to or distract from the recipe, but soon I'll be finding out. Perhaps there are stories that are best told with audio only, or photos only, or video only. But I have a feeling that mixing them could create a concoction so powerful that one media alone would pale in comparison. Time to hit the kitchen to see what we can cook up.

I just wanted to boast a bit 'cause I'm feeling pretty good about my personal project and, a bit more importantly, the reaction I got from my teacher, Rick Ray:

"Great music"

"Good storytelling - great character"

"Black spaces are problematic, better for radio"

"Your narration is really great and structure is very nice"

"This could go on for 25 minutes. Left me wanting more"

"You have what it takes to be a radio producer"

My personal favorite is that last one. I ended up getting an A- on the assignment even though I turned it in late* and got a half-grade taken off, so I'm very pleased. I'll be working on this more, as I said, and hopefully I'll have version 2 up sometime in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone else who's said encouraging things and offered your advice and opinions to help me make it better. It's much appreciated.

*As I said, this project turned out to be much larger and intensive than I expected. Rick took into consideration the fact that I undertook a project much larger than anyone else and did a great deal of prep-work and audio editing in Soundtrack Pro (something not taught in the class). Also, this project was a bit outside of the norm for the class.

There's a great article that's been posted on one of my favorite how-to sites, Transom.org, about setting up a small home studio for recording audio. This is interesting to me in a "how did I do?" kind of way because I recently created just such a setup at my new condo. The article points out all the key equipment you may or may not need - there's some things like a mixing board that certain people such as myself can do without - and suggestions for which ones to get. While their brand preferences seem to run along those of a big studio (Pro Tools, M-audio, Yamaha, etc.) their suggestions for saving money are good for students, and small studios doing multimedia work. If you're interested in doing a home setup for whatever reason take a look at the article.Transom Tools: Setting Up A Small Recording Studio. I put in my 2¢ in the comments section with my setup which includes PreSonus Bluetube pre-amp, PreSonus Firebox, an MXL 990 mic and Soundtrack Pro.

Over the last year at Brooks I've learned at least one lesson: I'm no good at finding stories. Really I've learned a whole lot more, however that seems to be the one lesson that rears it's ugly head every session. You'd think that I'd take that lesson and learn how to not be no good at finding stories; learn from my mistakes, put in lots of hard work and make myself talk to lots more people. I have, in truth, become a lot better at developing stories and talking to people. I'm being more proactive about calling people and finding out when the good times to get the right visuals would be. I'm still a little timid about approaching individuals cold. I'm fine when there's an administrator of some kind to contact; it's their job to talk to people like me. But individuals are different. People don't have to talk to me. They don't even have to be nice to me for that matter. Not that there aren't plenty of nasty office people around, but in general individuals have much more breadth to the reaction I might elicit when approaching them. I'm really not sure what to do about this. It's fairly important for the continuation of my schooling - most of my future classes will involve doing this in some way shape or form - and I have no intentions what-so-ever of tossing it in for something stupid like this. But I can see this as a continued struggle, which I don't like. Does anyone have suggestions? I don't feel like I have a problem expressing myself (usually) but every time I get going on some great idea I have, and come across a situation where I have to just approach people I get very nervous and sometimes shy away from it all together. What am I to do?

"Don't worry about it. Thinks always seem to work out for you anyway." That's what I heard from two people in the last 24 hours when I groaned about how poorly my stories were developing and how I haven't been able to get anything shot for one reason or another. At first I was indignant about my friends' lack of sympathy for my troubles, but in the end they were proven right: everything worked out. First, the troubles:

To begin with I've been on-again off-again with the first story I had proposed for my "Person Who Makes a Difference in the Community" assignment. Then I've been having serious trouble (see My Weakness) finding a good story for "Person of Journalistic Interest" - our final project. On top of that I found out that my "PWMD", Tim Goodrich, who I'm now on-again with shooting, was going to a boots display this Saturday - the day that I had promised the guy I shoot youth soccer tournaments for I would work on. That presented me with a moral dilemma because the guy is pretty much a jerk and I don't know if I'll be working for him much longer, and the boots display pictures would be great for my story. What to do.That last one was stressing me out the most. So much so that I ended up going to school to talk to my teacher and advisor for NPPA, Greg Cooper. In the end he told me to flip a coin because either way I came out behind.

That said let me tell you how things worked out. To start off the on-again off-again story is now for sure on, and I think it's going to be great. That made me happy this morning. Then I had some success getting out and getting a few errands done. I updated a few things on the NPPA website and added to some of the questions I'd thought up for our upcoming multimedia roundtable. Then the job/school conundrum reared it's head and I headed for school to talk to Greg. Well, after speaking with Greg I was ready to tell my boss that I felt really bad about it, but I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to get this photo that would mean the difference between an A and a B. A thought occurred to me though, "maybe I should double check that there are no other protests for me to get the shot I need." Well it's a good thing I called! Tim told me that he was just informed the protest was rescheduled to another date. So there isn't going to be a chance for me to get that protest picture, but that means I get to keep my job, work this weekend and get some dough! That pretty much put me over the edge and I was a little giddy for about 2 hours.

I was on my way down to Santa Monica to try shooting some "Coastal Living" (my current flop of an assignment) on the pier there. They have a small amusement park there and I thought that might make some good pictures that I could make fit a "Coastal Living" theme. That didn't happen. It's Wednesday, so no one was out at the park. I did however get to see a crane truck that had tipped over on the pier that morning. Apparently they're doing some restoration on the pier and the truck was unloading some wood when it passed it tip point and... tipped. It had taken all day for a larger crane to get there so they were just preparing the rescue effort as I got there. The pier shots were a bust, but I got one or two good spot news shots, so it wasn't a total waste of gas. On top of that there was a very helpful public relations person from the pier there and she gave me some good information about characters that worked at the pier; information I'll probably use for future stories, perhaps even my "Journalistically Interesting" assignment.

So in the end, things did in deed work out for me. I'm not sure why it is that they do. Maybe I'm just blessed with excellent timing and a bit luck. Maybe it's because I don't often stress about things, and even when I do I always try and think logically. Maybe it's because I never rush into action. I'm not sure. For now I'll just be happy with my new mantra:

Learning Through Mistakes:
A Reflection on What I’ve Learned This Sesssion as it Relates to Gilles Peress and Martin Parr

The one thing that constantly amazes me as I progress through the curriculum here at Brooks Institute of Photography is the speed and clarity with which I learn. Never before have I been able to look back on a year of schooling feeling proud of the amount of knowledge - not just information - but genuine knowledge I’ve been able to take in and utilize. My technical and aesthetic skills have grown beyond what I’d previously imagined in high school and my college years before now. The session I’m currently in is no exception to this trend, and I’m happy to say that I feel it has been one of the most eye opening, if not the most successful session I’ve had to date. I’ve stumbled a lot this session, and come very near to falling flat on my face. I feel that I have not been doing the work I’m capable of producing, and I’ve come short in areas I should already be strong in; like captions. I’ve been late turning in assignments - a failure that I’ve very aware will lead me down a short road to being jobless in the real world - and I’ve been slow to jump at the opportunities to display the talent I know I have. Despite my failures I feel that this has been a time during which I’ve learned more about both the subtle and simple skills required to truly excel as a professional photojournalist.

I'm happy today for a number of reasons. First of all my school session is almost over; the final projects are turned in, the tests are over with, and now I can look forward to a short break in the action before the deadlines and pressures return. Also, I finally got an RA number so I could ship my Presonus Firebox off for replacement. For those that don't know, I accidentally installed firmware for a Presonus Firepod onto my Firebox, rendering it pretty much unusable. I've been having a heck of a time with their tech support people; getting bounced from one person to another, having voicemail and email alike ignored, and some generally sad responses when I did get a hold of someone. Well today I finally got the Return Authorization number I needed and promptly boxed up the Firebox and shipped it off. Hopefully I'll get it back quickly as I've got a number of projects I want to use it for. Last but not least on the list of reasons I'm in a good mood is that it's Thursday, and that means Midnight Cinema... well, actually Seven-thirty Cinema. Every Thursday night one of the smaller local movie theaters, the Regency Buenaventura, shows a single show of a classic movie. Last week it was Fast Times at Ridgemont High and a few weeks before that was The Blues Brothers; both movies I'd never seen on the big screen. This weeks selection: Spaceballs! A bunch of people from school are getting together for it shortly. May the Schwartz be with you.

It seems that everywhere I look these days I'm seeing Colin Mulvany's name popping up. Mulvany - who's Video Journal blog for the Spokesman Review's website is something I've reading and linking to for about 6 months now - just turned up in the SportsShooter.com newsletter as a featured interview in an article written by another SS.com member G.J. McCarthy. The dialog is really cool, and interesting and encouraging to see on what I'd say is a 99% still photography centered website.

In addition, Mulvany is serving as part of the faculty for the 2006 Southern Short Course which I'm sure has a lot to do with his previous 15+ years of photojournalism, but I can't help to think that his recent success with video, and the integration of audio and slideshows he's done had something to do with it too.

For my photo class this session we had to write a paper critiquing a photojournalism, or photography based website such as magnum.com, nytimes.com, sportsshooter.com and the like. I chose to do my critique on Mulvany's Video Journal. I wasn't going to post it, but since I now have a category (did you happen to see that addition on the right hand side?) for essays and articles, I think I'll post it now. So follow the link below to read my critique of Spokesman Review's Video Journal.

Sony MiniDisc recorders to support Macs - DV Guru

As Ajit Anthony writes in this post over at DV Guru, "I don't know why a company like Sony would take so long to include a major population of the creative community," but they finally have; or will be. For quite a while indie audio gatherers - journalists, DJ's, podcasters, etc. - have been using the MiniDisc format as a highly portable, fairly cheap, and big-on-storage means of recording good quality sound in the field. If they were working on a mac, however, they were pretty much out of luck for support. In order to get the music off the recorder and onto your Mac you'd have to plug the recorder into the mic jack and play the audio back as you recorded it... all of it... minute by minute... very slowly. so if you had 5 hours of audio from a protest or an interview, you had to listen to all of it over again. This could be good as you had a chance to make notes and stuff. But really...

I looked into MD when I was first looking to buy an audio recorder, but decided the lack of support for Mac was something I didn't want to deal with. It seems like with this tick off the con side of the table MD stands a much better chance against solid-state digital recorders like the Marantz PMD660 or my M-Audio Microtrack.

On the other hand, the MD format has been less than popular in North America - apparently it's huge in Asia - so many industry people seem to think the MZ-RH1 is the last of a breed. With price estimates from $275 - $325 it seems Sony is betting there's still someone out there that needs one. Perhaps all those Mac people they've been ignoring until now. Then again, Sony hasn't been know for good ideas as of late.

...and no wireless access!?! And $9.99 a day for wired access?!? What the heck is this? I can't figure if this is some major new trend in hotels - I haven't traveled much lately - or just southern mentality, but I just checked in to one of the nicest hotels in the middle of nowhere I've ever checked in to. First thing I look for: internet. What do i find instead? A stupid little box and instructions on how to connect: 1) Connect cable - already a problem 'cause who carries an ethernet cable with them these days? 2) turn on your computer - duh 3) open your web browser. Now that third one is always a dead giveaway that there's going to be a problem. Next thing I see is a little stand-up sign saying that it costs $9.99 a day for high speed internet access. Lame!

After a few select words to no one in particular I called down to the front desk to inquire. The response was that there was free wireless in the lobby and the main club. No big deal. Only, there isn't free wireless in the lobby and main club. Nothing. Nada. Sucks. Fortunately, having been in similar situations before I know that there's always somewhere in the area that's bound to have free wireless. I mean, it's pretty much like air these days, right? I called up my mom - always my backup, "will you google something for me?" - and asked her to check out Jiwire.com, a website that lists hotspots, both pay and free, in any city across the country. Sure enough there is a Panera Bread somewhere around here, so you'll be sure to find me there tomorrow morning. In fact, I'll be posting this tomorrow morning because I'm writing it in the wireless-less club as a get my dinner. At 11 pm. I hate traveling.

Gripes about my restricted ability to geek out aside, the weather here is wonderful. Actually it's even better than in California. I left 60˚ weather and arrived in 70˚ weather. How great is that! Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this weekend. 8 a.m. sharp registration starts, and I plan on being the first one in line. Look for updates to the blog at least once a day, probably in the A.M. since I'll be hitting Panera for my daily coffee and internet fix.

Today I joined my friend Daryl Peveto at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., to record an interview with VII photographer Joachim Ladefoged. The VII photography agency held a seminar at ACC this weekend; which I did not attend after blowing a wad on Southern Short Course last weekend. I was, however, more than happy to drive down to meet Daryl and Joachim for the interview. I highly recommend you use the link above and take a look at his work. One of his primary focuses was Albania and the war in Kosovo. A few years ago he became a father and has since ceased his coverage of war, but has moved on to topics and stories no less interesting, including bodybuilders, mental hospitals, sex workers and a personal essay on his childhood in Denmark.

To gear up for the interview I decided to bring two means of recording so I could adapt to wherever we might be situated. I packed my messenger bag with both my portable setup - Microtrack, a few cables, and two wireless lavaliere kits - and my less portable setup - my laptop, Firebox, lots of cables including an extension cord, two dynamic mics, super-claps rigged as tabletop mic stands, and a small external hard drive. The reason for this was mostly education-driven. I had been considering the Firebox as a portable studio piece; something I could take with me to use for multichannel recording in a semi-controlled environment. The interview with Joachim seemed like just the place I might want to use such a device. It would allow for the use of dynamic mics over the lavalieres and should have drastically improved the sound quality.

Well it's been an incredibly long time since I've updated, and I don't really have anything of terrible interest for you even now. However, I wanted to let everyone know why I've been lax in updated, and that's because I've been working hard on creating a new design for the Brooks NPPA website. The new site isn't up yet, but one of the new features is: our podcast. At the moment we only have a few items up - one of them being an interview we did with photographer Joachim Ladefoged, which I engineered - though there's more to come in the future so subscribe now.

As for me I'll be putting some new stuff up soon. I'm taking MPV261, the second level video class here at Brooks. I'm working on a number of projects I think will be very interesting so stay tuned. I'll be posting them soon!

I just read this blog post at PDNedu which referred to an article by Mindy McAdams called What I learned from the online photojournalists. For some reason it really struck a nerve - not in a bad way, just in as much as it really made me want to reply... which is what I did:

"As much as I'm in favor of Visual Journalism, I just don't see the video camera taking over for the still camera. While I'm certainly no expert on the subject, and this is all just my opinion... having done the kind of video that newspapers are starting to do, I can honestly say that I feel there's a big part of 'shooting' that a video camera doesn't fill as well as a still camera. My quick reasons:

• Shutter speed. You're always shooting at a 1/30 or 1/60 shutter speed, if you do otherwise the video looks funny. Sooooo.. do you really think a 'camera' that only shoots at two speeds can take over the industry? I don't. Yes, that $1500 HDR-HC3 shoots at 1/240.. great, you have 3 shutter speeds.
• Ergonomics. Can anyone you know hold a video camera as comfortably and stably as a still camera? I can't. I use a tripod for almost everything. Do you want to shoot all your assignments with a tripod?
• Speed of workflow. The new P2 cards aside, working with MiniDV tapes is a pain in the butt. Even with disc based recording there's a big gap between the speed of editing a folder full of stills and video clip where you're looking for the best still grab.
• Lens choice. Unless you're looking at buying something like the Canon XL series, you don't have the option of switching lenses on most of these cameras. While the optical zoom range is pretty large, can you really say that the quality of the lenses is up to par with L glass or the Nikkor glass? Ziess makes good glass, but do you really think you're getting their best stuff in a pro-sumer $1500 camera? Probably not.

Again, sorry that I seem to have gone off. It started to just flow once I got going.

I love the video movement, and it's cool to seem something new ruffle everyone's feathers. I would imagine it separates those that really want to work for their jobs and those that are just in it to work. I just feel that there's a lot of hype that's freaking people out when it really shouldn't."

I love being on the "inside"... that's why I'm a VJ. Maybe it's attributable to being on the outside in High School... hmmm... Anyway, weekend psychology aside, one of my favorite bits of "inside" knowledge was a way to conjure up one of the coolest Easter Eggs I've ever seen. Bruce the Wonder Yak was (is?) a cute little animation that will pop up in Final Cut Pro if the computer is left alone for a very long time. But there's another way to bring Bruce out of hiding. This from Eeggs.com:

In FCP, press [Option-J]
In the search field in the opened window, type "Bruce".
The search box will have "[shift icon]Bruce". Use the left arrow key to move the cursor left and delete the shift icon. Do not press [Return].
In the main field of the window, a button option will have appeared entitled "Call Bruce". Drag this button option into any window to add it to the customizable toolbars. Press the button.

Once you do this little Bruce will meander out to munch on a patch of grass while thought bubbles pop up with totally random thoughts. Apparently most are from some rambling notes embedded in the program's code by a frustrated programmer. For a picture check out FreshDV.com.

Anyway, the reason I lament right now is that I can't seem to find Bruce in the latest version - FCP 5.1.2 - of the program. I know it worked back in version 5. So I'm wondering where he went. If you know PLEASE let me know.. I need to get back on the inside!!

Audio electronics manufacturer Samson (not Samsung) has a new portable audio recorder out called the Zoom H4. Most of the announcements - there are yet to be any real reviews - are touting it as a cheap alternative to Edirol's R-09 and M-Audio's Microtrack 24/96, though at $300 (anywhere you can find one available) they're a mere $50 below the current street prices. Like all the others there are pros and cons to this unit and I felt I'd list them here for posterity. Mind you, this is all from reading specs and announcements from the company.

Pros:
• Combo 1/4" and XLR jacks - very nice to have options like this.
• Functions as a USB audio interface - helpful when you have the time and space to record straight to a laptop, rather than bother with memory cards and transfering files later
• Built-in mics - very similar to the Edirol R-09. Good for backups but that's probably about it.
• Uses AA batteries - very cool for long stints away from a charging source.
Cons
• Uses SD cards - For photographers who are already carrying around bunch of CF cards, having another card type to worry about is just a pain. On the up side though, get a 2GB card and you'll probably never have to take it out as you'll never fill it up, and you can use the device as a USB card reader.
• No 1/8" mic input. Not a major problem, but there are some useful mics (Sony, AudioTecknica) that use the miniplug, so that's kind of lame. (BTW, Sound Professionals has a module you can buy to make a miniplug work on the XLR inputs.)
• Small LCD. I can't say much about this because I haven't seen one in person, but it appears to have a screen similar to that of the PMD660, which anyone who's used one will tell you is absolutely useless. There is no good menu system that fits well on a 2 or 3-line display. Period. Obviously people can adapt once they learn the system, but I say the easier the better, and in terms of LCD screens, bigger means easier to navigate.

Obviously I can't make any comments as to the actual quality of the recordings, which are more than just a function of what recording modes are available. In looking through the manual this thing has a gaggle of special effects that seem geared largely to musicians, not field recordings.

The one thing I will say is that competition is good, and price competition is even better. So in general the introduction of a legitimate competitor in the portable, semi-pro recording department is definitely welcome. Hopefully this will push everyone to continue to develop and improve their products as well as work on ways to hit that $200-$300 price point that consumers want.

It has recently been brought to my attention that there's no contact info on my blog. Ooops! As many readers know I'm fairly quick to respond to posted comments, but that's not exactly a reliable way to get a hold of someone. Thus, you'll notice that my contact information has been added to the sidebar. I'm very much available for internships, freelance gigs and assisting opportunities. So please, contact me!

Well there's been little updating to do, but I thought I'd share a few quick things I've been up to.

Project #1: Brooks NPPA website redesign

I've been working hard this last session to finally get the Brooks NPPA redesign I've been attempting to get done for about a year now. Inevitably some school project or another got in the way, but this session I have an HTML class, meaning it gives me perfect opportunity (I already know HTML) and mindset to get the damn thing done already. I'm a big fan of blogging CGI's for content management. Any site that has no more than 2 levels (top and secondary) of content makes a perfect candidate for this. Example: The photographic content on Brooks NPPA's site can be broken down into top level (Photography) and secondary level (Week in Pictures, Contests, Etc..) trees. Any further break down is done on an individual entry basis. So, I'll be using Movable Type, lots of CSS, Javascript and SlideShow Pro to put it all together.

Project #2: Moab travel project

I've twice traveled to Moab, Utah, now and I've put together a package of about 40 images involving most of the travel activities found in that area: 4-wheeling, mt. biking, hiking, camping, climbing and kayaking. On of my instructors, Rick Rickman has graciously offered to pass the project around to some people to try and generate some interest in it for purchase. In order to put out the best possible product I picked up Aperture a few weeks back. It's been a steep learning curve but I'm getting a pretty good handle on how to use the program, and it's been a huge help with this project. I've found gems that I missed using Photomechanic and I feel like I'm much, faster toning with the RAW controls Aperture provides. I had one particularly troublesome image that I just couldn't get right using the tricks I knew in Photoshop, but in exploring Aperture I found a setting (the Blue Levels option) that totally took care of the slight blue cast I just couldn't get out of my mid-tones.

I'll also be putting this project up on my Photoshelter.com space and soon offering them for sale along with my Laguna Seca Red Bull Moto GP photographs from earlier this year.

I have to say I feel kind of bad leaving Photomechanic because Camera Bits, the company that makes the software, and particularly the company President, Dennis Walker, has been incredibly good to myself, Brooks NPPA and the photojournalism community in general. There may be a future for it in my workflow when I import, but that'll only be found when I start shooting again - I haven't been lately.

Project #3: Resume and portfolio

I've been really behind when it comes to getting on the internship wagon. I have a few opportunities come my way recently - discussions with editors, publishers etc. that boiled down to, "yeah, we could use you. Send us something." I lost my resume recently when switching from my laptop to new iMac desktop - though it was probably for the better as it needed to be completely re-done anyway - so I've been working on putting that back together. I've also never had a really solid portfolio, and particularly one that included my two solid video pieces. So, I'm also working on developing either a DVD or Flash presentation of my stills, video and web work. I have to get that done with in the next week or I could loose these opportunities.

So that should pretty much get everyone up to date as to what I'm working on. Hopefully I'll get all these done in a timely manner and have a few hours left over to get my blog moved over to my new Movable Type server (I'm using Typepad, a trimmed down version that I've simply outgrown) and add new features like SlideShow Pro galleries of my work and links to my Photoshelter account.

Photoshelter is one of many websites that have cropped up in the last few years that allow photographers to post their wares online and sell prints. One thing that makes Photoshelter different from sites like Smugmug, Printroom, et al, is the ability to sell rights-managed content as well. The site is aimed squarely at photojournalists and offers some pretty cool features; not the least of which is the ability to upload your photos right from Apple's Aperture software.

As readers know I've recently made the jump to Aperture after trying out Lightroom and previously using Photomechanic in conjunction with Photoshop. And I love it! I won't go into another rant, suffice to say that I'll be sticking with Aperture for quite a while.

Getting back to Photoshelter, I just now am starting to use the service for a small fraction of its full potential. I had previously uploaded photos with the Photomechanic plug-in, just to test it out, but hadn't really explored what else I could do. I'll soon be setting up my Paypal account to accept orders of prints and licensing, and I'll be using Photoshelter rather than Flickr to display my work. The reason for that change is a little fuzzy to even me, but it mostly revolves around the idea that putting your work on Flickr is very similar to publishing it. And if you want to charge publications or advertisers for "exclusive" rights you might not be able to do that if your content is up on Flickr. I'm still debating that in my head, but for now better safe than sorry.

I just finished editing my first quality picture package and handed a CD of it off to Rick Rickman to toss around and see if I can't get some buyers for it or at least a few singles. In the mean time I've also posted the package on my Photoshelter account. You can view the gallery here: Moab Adventure Travel.

I started writing this on the first day of the Platypus Workshop this last week, and this is how it started:

This is the first full day of the 2007 Platypus workshop and so far things are looking very good. There's twice as many people here as last year so they're working in groups of two or three. There aren't the same big names as last year - Drew Carey, David Frank, et al - but there are some very important names as far as we students are concerned. There's Joe Palmquist and Dan Pelle from the Spokesman Review, Morris, Max and Chris from Detriot News and Robert from the Indianapolis Star. All of these are big name places that would love to have a skilled college student come in for an internship, which could very easily turn into a job.

This first day is a pretty simple one: the morning started with classroom time discussing video, the implications of it, some of the technique and an introduction to the cameras the students will be using; the Canon XH-A1. After that the students are sent out to do a VOX POPS exercise and get lunch.

Peter Riley managed to get a job out of the deal, and a few of us got offers and made terrific contacts for the future. I think that having a TA movie night on the fifth night helped with that since we were able to get up in front of everyone and discuss what we'd done in the past and where we wanted to go in the future. We also got out t-shirt design from something PF said afterwards. PF is perhaps our biggest advocate and salesman. He was constantly pushing us and the attendees to talk and get to know each other and hopefully find a way to work together. He really wants to see us succeed which is nice to know.

or, Why I Love Technology...
Take a look at the comment recently posted on one of the photographs I posted to flickr.com recently:

"WOW! I was surprised to see this online as Eleanor was my mother and I wanted to honor her memory. Limekiln Beach is one of my favorite places to visit and so on Mothers Day of 2002 my children and I went up there for the day. We try to do something fun and away from home each year on Mothers Day since her death. Thank you Aaron for the picture as it touches my heart to see it again. Roseanne"

I overheard an Apple Genius Bar employee (I'm not gonna call him an Apple Genius, 'cause he wasn't exactly adept at explaining the problem to this particular customer, but I guess that doesn't relate to being an Apple Genius... still not gonna give him the title) say that to a rather frustrated and clearly confused customer when trying to explain why apple would replace his under-warranty hard drive, but that recovering the data could cost hundreds of dollars. The man was probably in his early 50's or late 40's, and clearly a huge Muggle when it comes to computers. I'd gone in because of the exact same problem - my laptop's hard drive had stopped functioning a couple days ago - but only to see if the geniuses had some fancy diagnostics they could run that I didn't have (they didn't, they ran Disk Utility just like I had and came to the same conclusion: it's fried). However, I had already been to Fry's, picked up a new hard drive and got back in touch with my critical data. This guy, clearly, was gonna have to wait, perhaps forever, before he saw any of his precious photos, documents, emails, calendars, et al again. Why was I in and out of there while he was still trying to come to terms with his disaster? Why was he in a state of shock while I was simply shocked at how sad the Genius Bars' capabilities are? I'll tell you...

Last night I had a lengthy conversation from a good friend and fellow intern. She was bemoaning the number of things her editors were piling on her plate on top of already frenetic photo assignment schedule. Once they found out that she - one of two at the paper - knew how to do audio slideshows, they assigned her to compile audio slideshows for a number of other photographers currently working with her at the New York fashion week events.

This particular friend of mine is a quality over quantity kind of person, like myself, so I could completely understand why she spent an inordinate amount of time tweaking and refining two slideshows. What was astounding was that her editors, when told that the third would have to wait until tomorrow, couldn't understand why things that look good take time. My friend was unsure what to do as she'd already been working incredibly long hours and was paying with her health for doing so. You see, she has Lupus, and despite fending off the germs and struggling her way through arthritic joints thus far, The Wolf has finally caught up with her in the form of a cold. "I've touched subway railings and moments later eaten out of those same hands and been fine so far! Why now?"

This little anecdote brings up two points that I think are important for interns to think about. First, a complicating factor in her problems is her Lupus, though more so that she didn't remind her editors of her limitation after accepting the internship offer (she did state it on her resume), nor did she bring it up when it began to become apparent that her photography assignment schedule was exacerbating the problem. Had she been up front and built a rapport with her editor where she could let him know when the assignments were causing a problem and he could be ready for such a situation, the problem of her burnout may have been avoided. As it is she's worked herself sick.

The second half of the problem is unreal expectations by her editors. This is not, sadly, an solitary incident of an editor that's out of the loop. Instead it is a single example of an problem that is endemic in the industry: asking too much of too few people. There is, of course, something to be said for interns busting their butts to prove themselves and produce increasingly better results within their capabilities. It is an entirely different story when unreasonable expectations are placed on any staff member. As 30 year Daily News veteran Frank Van Riper writes in the August 2007 issue of Digital Journalist:

"The danger, though, is what happens when – in an increasingly bottom-line-hungry climate in which deadlines are constant – news organizations (or, more correctly, the suits upstairs who call the tune) feel they can pile various jobs onto a staffer who is in no position to complain, and still expect to get professional quality results in both words and images."

In the end I advised my friend to do what I think she knew she had to: stand up for herself and her body, and tell her editor what he can expect from her. With only 3 weeks left in the internship they're not going to let her go because of it and she won't come home three-quarters dead. She may not get a glowing review if another paper should call, but from what it sounds like, her editors didn't really pay much attention to her before this, so what kind of review would she get otherwise. Besides, if she (read WE) don't stand up for ourselves and our time now we (she) can't expect our editors to suddenly expect a reasonable amount of work. Once a precedence is set, particularly in new media, that's where the bar will always be. So in the end busting your ass and setting unreal expectations is not in your best interest

UPDATE: I got a little iChat update from my friend last night:

"[I'm doing] much better. Long story short I had a good talk with the editor. Said my quality work takes time, either give me that or I make so so slideshows faster. He appreciated my honesty and gave me 2 days off to recoup. He said I'm too valuable to him this week."

Well, I think I'm about done with going to expos to learn stuff. I've realized today that I need to start either paying full price for a professional, multi-day class, or suck it up, get a book and start reading.

The Motion Tips & Tricks session I did this morning was not entirely worthless; I learned where I could get a good DVD tutorial to watch and learn. Besides that I picked up a few little things, but I certainly don't feel like I could get a project started from scratch and come out with anything that looks good. I did get $20 off the DVD tutorial because, surprise, it's done by the same guy who did the workshop. The lesson here is that these 2-3 hour sessions are basically just shock and awe with little actual learning going on. I did take 2 pages of notes, but they're just notes, not anything really solid to work with. With this expo running $200 I guess you get what you pay for (Apple training sessions lasting 2-3 days run about $1K-2K) it's just a disappointment to go in expecting something worthwhile then feeling let down because you're barely any further along than when you started.

I'm hopeful the Digital Documentary Workshop will be more productive... will report back afterwards.

Riddle me this. Who's corporate rule book do you think this quote comes from:

"Rule #1: Use your best judgment.

"Rule #2: See Rule 1.

"That's it. That is the one hard and fast rule. Unless a serious mistake was made when you were hired, you have pretty good judgment."