S(urrender) L(aughter) R(egularly)

This site has moved

2011-04-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hi,

It's been a fun ride, but it's time to move on to bigger and better.

I've moved this blog to my new home at ShaminderDulai.com

There you'll find this blog and my photojournalism and multimedia portfolios all in one place.

Thanks to both my readers for years of good times and I hope you'll join me at the new house.

Later!

Bones and kids

2009-11-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

A couple of you saw me tweet this today and were curious about what I was up to.

"Walking around in the woods w/ boy scouts showing me where they found the dead body. Now I've nvr seen Stand by Me, but I imagine it's this"

Well it turns out a group of friends were walking through the woods, hunting for birds with a BB Gun Friday evening, behind their homes when they came across a pair of old pants and what looked like a bone inside. Being Boy Scouts they quickly recognized it as a human bone and then found other human remains.

It was later learned that the remains were that of a man who went missing on Mother's Day in May 2007 and police are still investigating a cause of death.

It was a surreal experience for me. On the one had a man had died where we were walking around. But on the other hand the kids didn't see to be bothered by it and they and their parents were sort of in awe of the whole situation. It was a strange mix of respect for the dead and sense of Indiana Jones style adventure.

I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Walking among the final resting place of the remains and the remnants of a police investigation. I guess that's what this job is like sometimes. We're not ever supposed to have an opinion on anything anyway.

Birds on a wire

2009-11-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

San Antonio seems to be under some flight path for many migrating animals. Last spring there were tons of grackles, I'd never seen them before but they look like something between a raven and a crow, and some of them are pretty mean to as you'll see in this video. A couple months ago we were inundated with moths, they were everywhere and around sunset they filled the sky. I never got a good picture of them though (sorry no link... sigh... I've failed you Roberto, Daniel and my mom... because seriously y'all are the only ones reading this), they were so small that by the time you got a good look they had already run into your face. Around that same time came the monarch butterflies.

Well, the latest critter to fill our skies has been these birds, which I am still not sure what kind they are, but they are everywhere. A year ago when I lived in Midland, Mich I had a very similar experience when groups of crows started showing up and filling every single tree around my home, and I thought that was amazing, but this now is insane. They're on every perchable surface imaginable, poles, signs, freeway mediums, buildings, wires, cars, post office boxes... you get the idea. It's like the playground scene out of the birds. And what fascinates me is how they all seem to keep an equal distance from each other on all those surfaces. It's like they all carry around a ruler to measure it out.

Nature huh?

Veterans Day 2009

2009-11-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

This year for Veterans day I was sent to a new GI Forum housing and a work center for homeless veterans. It's part of a larger campus called Haven for Hope which is all designed around aiding the homeless and low income folks in need of a hand. The campus isn't open 100% yet, they started building it last Spring (around March I think) and pieces of it have been opening as they are finished.

I've done a few stories down there but there's still a ton of real stories to be told still. Today I meet a group of Vets from a local VFW post in San Antonio, all very nice guys who have done more than their fair share for this country.

I thought that since today is Veterans Day, I'd share some of the pictures from the day.

Stopping by at Can't Stop Street

2009-10-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

Everyday as I leave for work I drive past a man who walks up and down my street with a broom. When I come back he's still walking.

Years ago I lived next to a women who every Thursday morning, before the sun came out, would cruise through recycling bins. A few months later the bank foreclosed on her home.

Last summer I found a man drawing with chalk on street corners. Everyone knew about him, but no one knew his name.

We've all seen them and everyday we look over our shoulder as we fly by and wonder what they're about. But we never stop to find out.

I think that's partly why I got into this field. I was always a shy kid. But the camera drew me out. The chance to communicate my thoughts and ideas, to show others the way I see things and to do so without having to talk to anyone sounded pretty good at the time.

It didn't last though. Walking anywhere with a camera in my neighborhood wasn't very inconspicuous, I might as well have hired a guy to walk around behind me with a spinning arrow. In hindsight that probably would have been safer.

I was getting noticed everywhere I went, people were coming up to me, curious about the clicking box in my hands, asking me to take their picture, wondering what I was up to. I was talking to people I would never have normally stopped to talk to; hearing their take on current events, sharing laughs and taking trips down memory lane. Sitting with them on a street corner, at the bus stop, walking in the park; I was finding stories and interesting people everywhere I turned.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. My camera had become my excuse to not be shy and before long I was finding my curiosity was taking over too.

Fast forward to today and I guess I'm still at it. Stopping at a street called Can't Stop, because my camera allowed me the excuse.

Butterfly Migration

2009-10-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Turns out there's a family of the monarch butterflies which migrate through south Texas and today I had the opportunity to make a two hour drive to spend the day in a sea of them fluttering all around me.

For a day, I feel like I'm back in California :)

There's more pictures if you're interested in the slideshow over at the San Antonio Express-News website.

Enjoy!

Sinkhole recharge

2009-10-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

A series of caves in Stone Oak City Park are part of the recharge zone for the aquifer.

Lost in translation

2009-10-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

When I was handed an assignment sheet to cover the San Anto Cultural Arts press conference, I was a bit confused.

They're going to crown King and Queen Huevo? "Eggs," I thought. "Am I losing something in translation here?"

It turns out my two years of bumbling through high school Spanish had once again come through.

It was their founders' sense of humor, I was told when I arrived. Even calling the event they were promoting a gala was part of the joke.

I liked the sound of that; I carried some of the same affinity for the absurd.

In reality, the 12th annual Huevos Rancheros Gala fundraiser taking place Oct. 3 is far from a formal affair, but instead a picnic style breakfast at Plaza Guadalupe. The gala features music, a silent art auction and, of course, a full huevos rancheros breakfast. Admission is 99 cents to $999 — i.e. pay what you can.

The press had been called to gather under the brightly colored La Musica de San Anto mural along Commerce Street. Flanked by depictions of other mifoto huevos 100209 05.jpglocal musicians, there was Cultural Arts founder Manuel "Manny" D. Castillo Jr. mid-song: eyes winced, mouth agape, pounding the drums with his signature print of Our Lady of Guadalupe lining the drum bass.

I have no idea who he is.

The locals look at me like I'm an alien when I ask about him.

It's not a look uncommon to me since I arrived in San Antonio a few months ago. The last time I'd seen that look, it came from David Robinson's father, Ambrose. I approached him to get his name.

Hey, what can I say? I'm not from around these parts. Plus that is one of the joys of this job — getting to learn something new every day.

As I hear tales of Manny from the volunteers, family members and the organization I look up at his mural and I am sad. I wish I would have met this man who touched so many lives and tried to make a change in his community, even when the odds were against him.

It's something we all aspire to — making a difference. In my line of work, I think it is what drives most of us photojournalists. It certainly isn't the pay. This job is not about getting one over on someone or making them look bad — only the bean counters care about that. Those of us in the trenches, we're just hoping to end the day having shined a light on a dark corner and maybe if we're lucky, once in our career, will report something that affects positive change.

The podium is moved into place and after the speakers make their announcements one by one, its now time for the crescendo. With Manny reigning over the event from his Technicolor stucco canvas, a crown of feathers and sequins are placed atop his mother and father.

Long live King and Queen Eggs.

Time out Tuesday: Art Heist

2009-09-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

This week I came across a piece of marketing for HBO that just had me hooked for hours. And it wasn't because of anything slick from the PR department, it was all about the storytelling.

"Art Heist" is an interactive website which invites you to explore a story in a non liner narrative. Each of the short films is told from four different camera angles and you can choose to flip back and forth and go back and replay portions.

Parallel story structure isn't anything new. The idea that many stories are taking place at once and only once you have gone back to see all of them will you come away with a better understanding of the whole story, has been toyed with in the arts since forever.

The entire story structure of one of our oldest surviving stories, Oedipus Rex, is built upon the device. Shakespeare knew of the emotional punch it could carry and devised the climax of Romeo and Juliet around it. The film Pulp Fiction hings on it as a device. It's the basis of pretty much every french screwball comedy ever made. In sci-fi aspects of Back to the Future 2 touched on it. I can make a list a mile long of other works that have used it: Magnolia, Timecode, 24, Rashomon, and NBC's criminally short-lived Boomtown all toyed with the idea.

I can't say for certain how this could translate into journalism, but it's all very inspiring and a nice alternative story form to play with.

Enjoy!

Time out Tuesday: Choosing Thomas

2009-09-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

When Deidrea and T.K. Laux learned during their first pregnancy that their unborn child had trisomy 13 (a rare DNA abnormality which makes it impossible for newborns to live more than a couple hours to days outside the womb) they were faced with a choice, carry the child to term and say goodbye to him within days or abort the pregnancy twenty weeks in. They choose Thomas.

"Facing death can be the hardest for a family expecting new life. Follow T.K. and Deidrea Laux's journey after they learn that their unborn son has a genetic disorder. They hope the intimate look helps others understand and cope with infant loss"

Dallas Morning News shooter Sonya N. Hebert produced Choosing Thomas with stills, video and excerpts from Deidrea’s personal diary to take us deep.

With the most intimate of moments, from welcoming Thomas into the world to saying goodbye to the young life. It's a heart-wrenching emotional story with many genuine lessons and a deep look at a subject that is often covered in the most superficial of fashions.

It's not often that something comes along, especially these days, that stops us in our tracks and makes us reflect on more important things; this piece does that.

Time out Tuesday: Journey to the End of Coal

2009-09-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

This week I've found something that is just cool. Very very cool.

Journey to the End of Coal takes a look at the exploding growth of China's economy and the new energy needs that have come with it. By visiting various sites around Beijing, viewers are invited to dictate the path of two freelance journalist as they seek out the stories of the millions of Chinese coal miners who power China's economic growth.

The "very cool" twist on the story however is that "dictate" part. If you ever read a "choose your own adventure" book as a child then the structure should feel very familiar to you. Through a series of choices in travel and how you go about asking questions the miners story is reveled.

"Your journey begins in Datong which is located just a couple hours away West from Beijing. You travel from there all around the region and visit its major coal mines, from the “best” state-owned complex to the worst private coal plants."

It's a unique way at seeing how journalism works, and it feels authentic.

It's so good I find myself forgiving the blurry photos and lack of visual variety. I think it's because I understand how difficult access was. Which brings me to a good point, as far as reporting and photography goes, the piece is lacking. We gleam a lot of knowledge by witnessing the information gathering, but in the end there is no reporting occurring, at least not in the traditional sense. I wonder if this is something the journalist behind the project recognized afterward and then came up with this ingenious idea.

Those concerns addressed however, as an experiment and an alternative story form, I think it works in a major way. For one it shows folks that there is a real issue here and the obstacles that come in the way when trying to shine a light on that issue. In another way, it uses the shortcomings of the actual reporting in a way that shows viewers what the story is really about.

Journey to the End of Coal is the closest thing to a teaching tool to show the public (and some confused college kids) what journalism is really about. Our craft isn't TMZ, Fox news and paparazzi, it's in-depth investigative feet-to-the-pavement walk-the-line hard work. On a good day anyway. But it's what we strive for in between Friday night football and city council meetings.

They came from over the hills

2009-09-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that scene from Jurassic Park where the Tyrannosaurus Rex first appears?

I never remember the dinosaurs or the car or the screaming kids from that scene, I mean I do eventually, but it's not the first thing I think of.

I remember the water, and how it vibrated like a door ringer to announce the giant bird/lizard/whatever-scientist-think-it-is-this-week that was about to make its grand entrance.

That water was on my mind Monday as I roamed around dense greenery and over mounds of upturned dirt at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, an arms length away from a small crew spouting out nautical terms as they hoisted a pair of 15 (or so) foot metal and wood beams.

"That's not starboard."

"Of course it is."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know where the holes are supposed to be," artist David Rogers concluded the exchange with a laugh before climbing a ladder to introduce two beams to a steel bolt.

I frame a shot of giant ants over the horizon and I could see them crawling from one flower to another, the soundtrack from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (the good one, not the Keanu "dude I only have one expression" Reeves train wreck) playing in my head.

I was told of a giant spider in a remote part of the park, and when I stumbled though the woods unable to find it, it found me, and visions from grade school of watching Jeff Daniels fight off the beast followed.

Around a 25 foot tall praying mantis I looked to the lady bugs crawling all over it, and I remembered the water. How the little details, like "the animals always know first," are important.

It was like being in a movie.

It's funny, well not funny ha-ha, but funny hmm how much pop-culture influences how you see things. I'm always reminded of something when I'm out shooting. Weather I'm looking for the perfect wide angle "Lawrence of Arabia" shot or the super compressed "Chungking Express" or the layers of "M*A*S*H" or the compositions of "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" or the details of "Jurassic Park."

I guess inspiration is where you find it.

Time out Tuesday: In Bb 2.0

2009-09-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

I sat in on a lecture about social media recently and a gentleman asked the speaker what was the point.

It was an interesting question, and answer seemed obvious. To explore new art forms and models of communication. To bring a simple medium to the people. And ideally to collaborate.

The first two have been happening, I don't always get it, but the 3rd one not to much.

It seems the premiere use of the social web has been to tell everyone how great they are, (BTW I'm great), or if you prefer PR jargon, to life-cast. Collaboration is in the minority. Like drinking tap water, everyone thinks its a great idea but no one does it.

Well this week I'm writing about something where people are doing it, and it's the most inspired I've been in weeks.

It's a collaborative music project where folks have recorded "instruments" and then, by employing YouTube and its pause/play button and volume control, invites you to come and create a mix.

Oh, and it's addicting.

I've played this three times now, mixing the elements in different orders and each time it not only works, but it creates a sound scape that tells a different story, with different characters and different emotions.

It's brilliant!

When sound boards starting coming out they were fun but of little use once the novelty wore off.

Then came the beat pads and drum loops, my god I loved those. I've spend hours playing with them.

But now this, this is the next evolution! Turning it into a living breathing collaborative animal. Well almost, It lets me mix it my way, but I'd sure love an option to upload my own "instrument" to the mix and really make it a "social" experiment.

Late night drive

2009-08-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

The other night we finally had some rain in San Antonio and it brought along some lighting to boot.

In California lighting storms are pretty rare and I was feeling the itch to explore the light.

So I grabbed my cellphone, sent off a Twitter update-- "Going for a late night drive in the rain. I love the rain. The sound, the smell, the splashing, how the light bounces around... Ahhhh :)" -- and started snapping away.

It was freeing, just shooting for the joy of shooting. And aside from being chased off of a bike cop from under a freeway (I think he was just pissed that I woke him up to be honest), it was a pretty productive couple hours.

Here's what I came back with. Nothing earth-shattering I know, but it sure was soul-filling. :)

Time out Tuesday: ReTweet Revolution

2009-08-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

We all know the role Twitter played in the aftermath of Iran's elections. How tweets got the play-by-play news from the streets to the world. How it was used by some to organize protesters. How the White House asked Twitter to keep the servers online and push off scheduled system updates. And how it appears to some that the government of Iran tried to take down the service in an effort to squash protests. It was one of the first major tests for the young service that showed-- beyond a twitpic of a plane in the Hudson, a tweet about Tim Russert's passing, or of a student being arrested in Egypt-- its power to organize and become an effective means of mass communication, for protesters, spectators and detractors.

The ReTweet Revolution organizes the post-election communication. With time stamps and a rising bar chart shows how often a message was ReTweeted, visitors can see a living time line.

It's worth a look, if only to see how a series of tweets can go from fleeting one-shot blasts, to a collective document of a movement.

deer in the city

2009-08-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

The buck lifted his head and stared at me as I tried to move closer.

I was driving around Fair Oaks Ranch looking for a picture to go with a story on stage 3 water restrictions but wasn't having any luck. Some days are like that.

It also didn't help that my eight hour shift had turned into a twelve hour and counting marathon. It had been a very long hot day and after logging nearly 200 miles, I was tired and I was hungry, but the clusters of deers running across the street and feasting on lawns were an unexpected diversion.

He turned toward me and then another buck to his left stopped eating the grass on a manicured lawn and joined him in the stare down.

I stopped in my tracks. No more clicks now, don't want to provoke the animal.

Moments earlier I was crisscrossing the residential streets looking for anyone doing anything outside. As I rolled down one cul-de-sac after another at five miles per hour, I wondered which would happen first; would someone call the police to investigate a compact cruiser or would I happenstance upon a picture.

But the streets were empty. As one may guess, many folks had not come home from work yet and those that were home weren't foolish enough to leave the sanctuary of central air.

So when I turned a corner and about two dozen deer ran across the street, a part of wondered if I had really just seen that and another part was excited to take advantage of the setting sunlight.

I pulled over and walked closer to a small group that was grazing, trying to make the most of the crimson glow fading behind the horizon.

Maybe I can sell it on the "the grass is all dead and even the dear are starving" angle I told myself.

They were everywhere, encroaching on homes as if they couldn't read the no soliciting signs. Or maybe it's the other way around?

I fired off a couple frames and slowly and deliberately composed each shot, trying to make the most of it, but I'd gotten too close and now a pair of stags were eying me.

It was time to go, no point pressing my luck any further.

I slipped back into my car and slowly backed down the road, with one eye on the rear view and another on the bucks now standing guard.

I continued driving and the hunt for people doing anything, dodging the dears that were now amalgamated to their new surroundings.

I asked some folks what the story was, they all shrugged and looked at me like I was speaking Canadian.

As the sun was going down I approached a man who was squeezing in some practice on the putting green at a golf course.

"One more thing, it might sound weird," I said as we finished talking about water restrictions. "What's with all the dear?"

"Oh," he laughed, miffed at the seemingly silly question. "It's... the hill country."

Time out Tuesday: Ira Glass on Storytelling

2009-08-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

I don't even think I have validate this entry to time out, it's F'n Ira Glass, women like his style and men have been ripping off his hipster style for years.

The host of PBS radios "This American Life" has carved out a piece of the radio landscape and delivers each week the find of long form feature slice of life stories that local papers used to do before they cut back staffs and spread the survivors so thin that what you read now is pretty much, save for a handful of columnists and special reports across the country, regurgitated PR-releases disguised as event coverage and reaction stories, i.e. It's hot, a car crashed, someone shot someone, etc. etc...

But I digress, we'll save that rant for another day.

Ok, enough of me, peep some inspiration (in four parts).

Time out Tuesday: Dr. Horrible

2009-08-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ok ok, so two weeks ago I did kind of cop out by posting Spaced, but you know you enjoyed it. ;)

It's 42 min, but if you haven't seen it, you are so missing out on something awesome. The controversial ending alone is genius.

Created during the writer's strike in 2008, it was basically a couple of friends getting together to make sometime for fun and on the cheap. But what makes it really cool is that they distributed it on the net in three weekly installments, for free and completely gained an audience by word of mouth.

The lesson, if you put it out there and it resonates with people, it will find an audience. It also helps if you have a cult following like writer/director Joss Whedon (I'm not a fan BTW, sorry) or get your little silly musical antihero movie nominated for an Emmy.

Enjoy :)

Tea for 61

2009-08-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tea parties are pretty strange. I mean, if you think about it, they're pretty strange. Men in sharp black suits and polished shoes not going to the office. Women in flower-adorned hats and their Sunday best not going to church, well Sunday church.

Everyone stopping in the middle of the day and dropping all their cares to drink dried leaves given names like British breakfast tea and Earl Grey and snack on tiny crust-less sandwiches with slices of cucumber and sides of puffy balls with cream. They're all gathered around tables draped in linen and topped with floral arrangements while they sip from gold-rimmed teacups and ask each other about how their family is doing, laugh about theories on why young people don't wear hats and propose the best wisdom on beating the heat.

Slowing down, talking with friends and enjoying the day instead of racing from point A to point B like the rest of the world. What strange people.

Time out Tuesday: Letters to the President

2009-08-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

"Every day, President Obama reads ten letters from the public in order to stay in tune with America's issues and concerns. "Letters to the President" is an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the process of how those ten letters make it to the President's desk from among the tens of thousands of letters, faxes, and e-mails that flood the White House each day."

When Obama took office I posted that I would like to throw my hat in the ring to start adding videos to the press office's offering, I guess he didn't get my resume ;)

Blue Therapy

2009-08-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

I was in knots as I walked out of the office. So much on my mind. So much to process.

I looked up and saw a shade of blue sky that gave me an excuse. So for the next twenty minutes I walked around and thought only about blue. It was calming, for the time being.

Call it a barley started career crisis, or an idealist reality check or a size 10 to the netherlands. Whatever you want to call it, I'm at a crossroads.

Somewhere in the mind scape, I'm standing on an x with my thumb to the void. On one side, the desire. On the other, the reality. In the middle I feel like I'm failing.

I had one of those moments today, when you get shook up and start to re-examine.

There was a time when I thought I had the answers. Just work hard and do good. I thought all I had to do was shine a light on the s*** and the rest would take care of itself.

When I first picked up a camera I didn't take it to seriously, I just tried to have fun. The freedom of doing whatever I wanted was freeing. And it seemed I had a knack for it, at least my teacher thought so. "You have the upside down eye," my teacher Mr. Frankie once told me. That's what he called it when you see things different.

Fast forward and I'm here now. Working at a paper, doing something that a 16-year-old me could never imagine in his/my wildest dreams.

And at that age, you have some wild dreams.

Along they way I saw the power of the image. I discovered Gordon Parks, Eugene Richards, Alex Webb, Dorothea Lange, Raghubir Singh, William Eugene Smith and countless others that escape my sleep deprived mind at this hour,and I saw the potential of photography to effect change. To shine a light.

Coming from where I come from, it wasn't the roughest part of town, but it was only a short two min drive from it. If you can think of it, it was happening out there.

It's gotten better since those days, mostly thanks to the tech boom that brought folks with cash into the poor side of town, which lead to community organizations, which lead to councilmen and women looking to please said organizations which lead to clean-ups, a new park, stop signs, speed bumps, graffiti clean-up and what have you.

But that's now, way back when it was a different story. Now I'm not saying it was the worst of the worst, but we saw things and dealt with things that kids shouldn't have to. Hell adults shouldn't have to either. Drugs, gangs, stabbings, graffiti, police copters shining a light in your back yard, etc. etc.

A part of me thought that when I picked up a camera maybe I'd be able to be a voice for this community that never had one. At least not until the Mercedes-leasing, home expanding, political-organizing, girl-scouting crowd moved in to the neighborhood.

Maybe I'd be able to do something that no one was able to do for me and my friends.

But lately I don't know.

I feel like I'm failing to do what I set out to do. I keep visiting crime scenes, I keep talking to concerned citizens, I keep trying to bring attention to a problem... and today I comforted an elderly couple as I told them a man they knew had been shoot and killed.

Days like today... they make you think.

There's something that happens you're behind the camera. Everything melts away and the world becomes reduced to a 24x36mm window.

Some of the war photogs describe it as tunnel vision. It's only happened to me once, but it's real. I was caught in the middle of a quickly escalating riot in downtown San Jose a couple years ago over Mardi Gras. It wasn't until I looked down and saw I'd walked down a block and left a trail of bloody footprints, that it hit me.

It's like the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan when the soldiers go in and out of the water. Above the water, the sounds of war and total chaos. Below, there is silence, stillness, solitude and a sense of calm.

Tonight I needed it. I needed the tunnel vision. The calm.

The pics above, they come from the tunnel vision.

I wonder still if anything we do makes a difference. "You do it because you love it, there's no money in it so you have to," I joke with people still.

On days like today I tell myself that what we do matters.

That it makes a difference.

But I wonder.

I wonder if it even matters what we do. Are we like the tree in the woods that feel over? Are we just pissing in the wind? Does anyone even care?

The press has power. I'm in a place where I can do something and I try. But nothing changes.

I feel like I'm failing. The reason I got into this business is because I felt like I could make a difference. I thought I brought a unique background to the job, something that added to the discussion.

Maybe I'm just naive.

Right about now you're probably wondering what happened, or more likely you've stopped reading like 20 graphs ago. If you're still here, you're probably getting pretty upset that I haven't told you... well... anything really.

What happened isn't the point. It's what isn't happening.

(But I'll meet you half way. If you're a decent journalist and your curiosity is too strong, a simple search on the the Express-News site should quench your thirst.)

So at this point, let me turn it over to you. If you have this job and you have the medium of the press and you have the desire, if you have all that, let me ask you now... what would you do?

Time out Tuesday: Spaced

2009-07-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

What? You say I'm phoning it this week? Look, Spaced is about showing respect for your audience to get it without spelling it out, telling an honest story, making it entertaining and most of all, understanding your consumer and how to reach them. Sounds a lot like journalism no? Aren't we all trying to figure out how to reach a new audience and getting them to value our craft enough to want to pay for it? Plus, I think you'll agree, we're a much more cynical America then the one of of just ten years ago, people are more media savvy, they demand transparency and they demand to be included in the discussion and they want to feel like you get it, that they get it (even if they always don't, sorry, but it's sometimes true).

But seriously, inspiration is where you find it. If you're not listing to music, visiting art museums, sketching, cruising YouTube or looking at some other form of creativity other than inside the journalism field, then you my friend are only cheating yourself.

Now go enjoy a kick @$$ show. :D

body/percussion

2009-07-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

The Third Coast Rhythm Project visits the youth program at San Juan Community Center to teach kids to make music using their bodies as instruments.

The promising, the inspirational and the dumb@$$

2009-07-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

The promising NPR.com is undergoing a redesign. A very clean design with simple navigation, lots of white space and tons of information without the need to scroll or click through. Plus customization like picking your local station helps to really create a "home" for the user. Plus the demo video itself is very well put together to! Could the conversation (i.e. Web 3.0) be here? Well... almost. But this is a step in the right direction?

The inspirational Stop motion goodness and with some ok tunage behind it. Creativity up the wazoo, slightly made less cooler knowing that's it's not a shoe-string indie video and instead the official music video. But still... wow o_0

The dumb@$$ This is just silly. Silly delicious. But what do you expect to find on dem internetz?

Enjoy.

To the moon: The flagmaker

2009-07-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Some days you just have to stand back and realize it. There's no money in it, all your friends are looking for jobs, the doomsayers are becoming prophets, it's long hours with sometimes little thank you, and most days it seems like no one even sees your hard work unless Michael Jackson or Britney Spears are involved, but some days, you remember it. You remember why you love this job.

I met this really amazing gentleman on Monday for a story to tie in to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

Oscar Torres reflects on his part in creating the American flag that astronauts placed on the moon.

What a character. :)

Time out Tuesday: We choose the moon

2009-07-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

This site just started popping up over the last couple of weeks. It wasn't exactly clear what it was about at first, but it looked intriguing.

We choose the moon was an interactive site that attempted to relive for another generation what the experience of the first moon landing was for our parents and grandparents. It being the 40th anniversary of the moon landing it seems only obvious that it be this weeks Time out.

Played out in real time, the AOL, JFK Presidential Library and Museum and NASA designed site, followed the Apollo 11 mission from pre-launch to the final lunar landing encouraging visitors to explore the Flash site at whim and follow history.

By employing video, archival audio from the capcom, infographics, motion graphics and various twitter feeds, "followers" were able to get up to the moment "communication" from the mission.

It was all a very impressive effort and maybe a sign of things to come. I can see the next moon landing, we're on track to return to the moon last I heard, or even a mission to Mars being "followed" this way. Heck forget space travel, I'd sure like to see other forms of reporting done in this "sandbox" style.

40 years ago all they had was TV antennas, newspapers, and magazines. Today, well if you're in the business, I don't have to tell you, it's a whole different story.

Time out Tuesday: Lynda serves up FREE! training

2009-07-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

To tie in to the launch of the new version of Apple's Final Cut Pro, Lynda.com has decided to offer up some free training. No doubt to get upgraders quickly up to speed with all the new features, but that doesn't mean there's nothing in there to be learned by folks like you an me who can't upgrade or are (stuck with) using FCExpress.

The range of topics range from the basics like logging and capturing to the advanced like stabilizing video with "smoothcam" to the extras like color correction and an overview on Motion. And at nearly three hours of training, there's bound to be something in there that even the Bruce Strong's among us didn't already know or had forgotten.

So dive in, learn yourself some. :)

The Shriner

2009-07-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

The Shriner's were in San Antonio this year for their annual convention. They've been doing all sorts of things all weekend and ended their visit today with a parade past The Alamo and through downtown.

I saw this man sitting on a stool and it just looked so icon to me with his surroundings and that bright red hat that I couldn't resist a shot.

Staffer Tom Reel was assigned to cover it, but I decided to tag along. I kind of need the distraction right now. There's a full slideshow over at MySA.com (with a ton of Tom's pics and my own) it's not active yet or otherwise I'd provide a link.

Time out Tuesday: Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro'

2009-07-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what they are saying, but that is some inventive use of a worldwide fan base. There's not much to say about it, just watch and enjoy.

It's the Fourth

2009-07-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Enjoy :)

Dive bomb

2009-06-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

I tried to have some fun with this story about birds at a San Antonio deli that have taken to swooping down and attacking unsuspecting men. Odd to say the least. Hopefully my video matches the tone of the story.

A place for prayer

2009-06-01T08:34:00.001-07:00

I noticed her sitting out there all by herself. She seemed so at peace.

Sister Mary Louise Barba was sitting next to Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence’s new labyrinth with a book on her lap and her eyes to the horizon.

“It’s really special,” Sister Barba said. “To see them all on their hands and knees (to make it) … all the bricks came from (an) old house here,” she said as he points to the stones lining the pathway of the labyrinth.

She smiles and invites me to take a step closer to get a better look.

Sister Barba was waiting for member of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence congregation to join her for a blessing ceremony of the labyrinth.

Sister Ester Guerrero has suggested the labyrinth to the congregation when they were considering projects to undertake to beautify the grounds. "It was always a dream I had," Sister Guerrero would later tell me. "It was a healing tool for transformation, and I just wanted to provide this quiet place."

Now the project is complete and the Sister’s are caretakers of one of the only labyrinths in South Texas.

Sister Barba comments on how peaceful it is. Shaped by one layer of bricks, barely above the ground, is a winding dirt path that switches back and forth on itself. In the center is an open circle.

We both are still in our silence.

The wildlife chirped and hooted around us and as the white noise of freeway traffic dropped down. A slight breeze rustled through the trees and I watched the light dance across the ground.

Sister Barba was right; it was special.

Rocky Mountain News stops the presses

2009-02-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

Today the last issue of the Rocky came off the presses and as the ink dried on the page, the last truck left the facilities and the newsroom doors close, it marks the end of another great photo paper.

We've lost too many in recent years.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Also check out Who Killed the Rocky (for the last time, it's not Craigslist!) and a review of the last issue.

theBAG

2009-02-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

The bag from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The last of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Thank you

Allie Will

2009-02-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Will from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The second of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Later

021409

2009-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Happy V-day everybody.

Here's hoping you're with your hunny today. :)

Doubles

2009-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Doubles from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The first of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Thanks.

My how times have changed

2009-01-24T23:56:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing I've learned in my short lifetime and in my even shorter professional life, it's that everything changes. No matter what you think can't be changed, will in all probability, change.

Just thinking back at some of the things I used to believe, some examples of which I'm sure you can find by digging back in this blog, and seeing how much I've changed my ideas and convictions in just a few years, it surprises me. I can remember having debates, well debates is a strong word, with Ryan at SJSU about the future. I reasoned that print would be around in some form because there's just something about holding that copy in your hand over your bowl of cereal. Ryan wasn't so sure (but you already know that). Now I'm not so sure either.

Looking at the advances in ePaper and devices like ultra-portable net-centric laptops, the iPhone, Amazon's Kindle 2.0, Google's Android cellphone OS and a slew of other products that have brought about a new age of personalized communication on the go and it's hard to argue that we still need a printed version of a daily newspaper.

My how times have changed.

Back in 1981, a group of newspapers were sure online news was nothing but a curiosity.

It's funny to look at that video today knowing all that we know now. Online has pretty much taken over. And why not? It makes perfect sense. Even within our own industry's past we've seen this before. When TV news emerged as a new medium the afternoon newspaper was under attack then, just as morning print is battling online news now.

It happened then, and most likely it's going to happen again.

“We’re not in it to make money. We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we aren’t gonna make much either,” said David Cole, San Francisco Examiner, in the report.

My how times have changed.

But, there's hope still. The medium is changing, but there's still a hunger for good reporting and news.

I know blogs, Google news (which doesn't do anything but link users to your site), Criagslist, Twitter and blah blah get a lot of the blame, but if you really think about it, those guys have nothing to talk about without reporters and photographers providing them with the news.

There will always be a need and demand for good journalist and journalism.

Oh Christmas tree...

2008-12-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here's some more Christmas goodness (yeah, I got ALOT of time on my hands all of a sudden).

As I sit on the couch and flip though channels on the TV, finding nothing to watch as I fiddle with the rabbit ears to pull in a signal, I'm reminded of those days when I was younger and spending Christmas night with my family.

Playing with our shinny new pairs of socks and taking turns on the video games. We never had much growing up, but Christmas was always special. Even if we only got one gift each, or some years one gift to share among three brothers, or some years no gifts at all, it was still a time where we'd all be home and watching Christmas specials like Charlie Brown or Rudolf or Ernest Saves Christmas (when NBC still showed it and people knew who he was), eating the chocolate candies my mother would receive at the office party and cooking up some tasty Indian desserts or homemade pizza.

But the best part was always the Christmas tree. My parents had bought a fake tree after a Christmas while I was a baby and every year when we pulled it out it we'd make a day out of decorating it. Pulling out all the hand made ornaments we'd made in school, each of us taking a turn at trying to untangle the mess of lights, poking ourselves and getting cuts on the fake needles and sharp medal that housed those needles and all sorts of other mischief. It wasn't always easy putting that sucker together, but when we plugged it and turned off the lights in the room to watch the red, green, yellow and blue twinkles dance around, year after year, it was all worth it.

I miss it now.

This isn't my first Christmas away from home, and it probably won't be my last, but it still doesn't get any easier.

I was asking myself if I wanted a tree this year. But I just couldn't justify spending money I didn't have on one, plus I would be the only one to see it.

But still the urge to have something for the holidays was there, anything to not feel empty.

Until two days ago my only decoration was a velvet bow I had bought to place on a gift for a co-worker, when it didn't work out, I tacked it up on the wall. It was a little thing, but it made me feel good, made the room seem warm, made it feel like home, but I still thought about getting a tree each time I passed by a lot.

Sometimes I imagined that I would pull over and walk in to pick out a tree. "If I get a little one, it'll be okay, that won't cost much," I tried to rationalize it to myself. But each time I would start thinking about how I'd have to spend money on lights, ornaments and then I'd have nothing to put under it.

It just didn't make sense, but boy would it be nice.

Well then I got a package in the mail from a really awesome person. Someone who just seemed to know exactly what would make my Christmas.

Say hello to my tree.

I love my tree. :)

Now I'm going to go make some hot coco, put on a Christmas carol and sit under my tree, or at least put a toe under it anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas ya'll! (or, the year I celebrated my third annual Happy Thanksgiving part 2)

2008-12-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

Well another year has gone by, and this blog has been way too dead for way too long (again).

Since my last post much as changed, I'm now working at the Midland Daily News as part of my first rotation with the Hearst Fellowship.

While I'm learning to better my craft and learn a few things I'm also getting the opportunity to do some really personally fulfilling work. The type of civic-oriented long-form story driven documentary style work I always dreamed of doing when I first started down this path.

But more about that another time.

For now I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to remind you that as hard as it seems out there, it could always be worse.

I mean heck, even Santa has had to take on a second job.

Yet, as bad as it's gotten with the economy, with lay offs, with our friends losing their jobs and the future of our profession uncertain, it's important to remember to be grateful for the things we have and to always remember why we got into this business. (It certainly wasn't for the pay right? Ha!)

So, if just for today, relax, forget about your worries and just try and have some fun. :)

Boston Globe uses tag cloud for portrait of canidates

2008-08-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool if you ask me, I'm just wondering what took them so long.

Anyone whose been online over the last five years can tell you that the illustration is nothing more than a tag cloud, but in print it's a bold move. It's nice to see print taking chances and playing with typography, now let's take it a step further.

Although I do have one nit-pick about the continuation, deliberate or not, of the blue and red colors being used to define the two parties. Why are we still perpetuating red states and blue states? I mean we all know it's just states and fly-over states (zing!).

If you're wondering how they did it, John Schwenkler used the web app "Wordle to pull out the most prominent words from the official McCain and Obama campaign blogs" (And yes, McCain's most prominent word was the name of his rival, go figure)

Las Vegas Sun is hiring... GO!!!

2008-08-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

I bookmarked this on Delicious, which in turn was feed to my twitter, but it's just too big to leave it at that.

The Las Vegas Sun is hiring and if you're wise, you'd apply.

For one there aren't many places hiring, but bigger than that, the Sun is one of the few papers that "get's it" in terms of multimedia. And currently, IMHO, it's one of the quickest growing papers. Remember Roanoke about five years ago? That's the Sun today.

Just look at all those multimedia positions just ripe for the taking. I personally know at least a dozen of you out there that would be perfect for this.

Go apply!

You'll get to work with Rob Curley, Zach Wise, and my fellow Spartan and friend Kyle Hansen.

I'd apply myself, but I've already got something bigger cooking for my plate.

3 is the magic number, and 3 3s is mo magic-er

2008-08-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

It's my 333 post here on SLR!

Why does that matter?

Wow, way to be a jerk, but if you must know it doesn't really. But 3 is my lucky number and thus 333 posts is kind of something special for my neurosis.

You happy now? Feel like a big man taking all the wind out of my sail?

I hate you.

And... end scene ;)

333 posts! Wooo!

Later!

Still waiting for Photosynth 1.0 and now they're dangling 2.0 as well

2008-08-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

I wrote about Photosynth last year, with great excitement and at great length I might add (with too much length and excitement some of you might add) and after all this waiting and not seeing anything come out of it, I'm now getting all excited for the next evolution of this software.

The idea of a individual documentation being universally chained and bound to create a richer, deeper and more informative tapestry is exciting. And the new transition structure and ability to navigate "key frames" (my term, not theirs) around public images opens up whole new methods for structure and navigation. Plus now you don't just point at stuff and zoom around, now you actually walk though it in near real-time.

(Awesome!)

Check it out in the video below (I'd say more, but I really can't add to anything I didn't say last year.)

If that video wasn't enough for you, check out the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference paper the team submitted for all the jargon filled goodness.

Oh MS, I have a sneaking suspicion you're just using this as tech demos that will be implemented in other products (MS Live Maps anyone? Google Maps street view killer perhaps?)-- why do I let you rile me all up and get excited? Why?!

The resurection of the OG

2008-07-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

Interactive Narratives is back!

It's back and thank goodness! After the fall of MultimediaShooter I was itching for a place to see multimedia on a consistent basis.

Five years ago, IN founder Andrew DeVigal was snatched up by the New York Times and the web site slowly stopped seeing updates. But now its back and it's taken on a social media twist.

Now any registered user can post multimedia and share what they find directly m with the masses.

I experimented with trying the same thing on Ning, but it failed to take hold, and for a while was playing with Pligg, a digg clone, but I could not have come near anything like this on my own. The social media aspect adds whole new dimensions and will hopefully ensure that it doesn't go away again.

Drawn Together

2008-06-28T14:23:00.001-07:00

I'll go into more details another time, for now, take a look and tell me what you think.

Later

Goodbye ABQ, on the road again

2008-06-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Well I stayed longer than I thought I would (but I'm not complaining), but now it's time to move on. My ABQ chapter is officially in the books.

Whenever I go somewhere new, I always end up taking lots of pictures, noticing tons of things and writing a ton... I've been stepping aside, pulling over and writing a lot of notes about everything I've been thinking these last weeks. (I have a feeling another blog bug is incubating.)

Here's a few of the things I've been writing about that I was able to find on scrapes of paper in my pockets.

-East side... somehow I've moved over a thousand miles and I've managed to move from the foothills on the East Side San Jose to the foothills in the east side of ABQ. Somethings never change.

-Room with a view... I have a balcony (too bad I don't smoke) that looks out on the back of a tree.

-Creepy-crawlies... so there are scorpions here... like in the house... I just caught one today (a few weeks ago) in my roommates room... damn it! Okay, I'm fine with cockroaches, ants, flies and mosquitoes, but damn it, stuff that has poison or can kill me, I'm not so sure I want to play. And if that wasn't enough, there's also giant (freakin' huge!) spiders, these other spiders that burrow into your skin and lay eggs, which hatch and eat you from the inside, and snakes. I hate snakes, they're a stick with a mouth, that's all, they're designed to only do one thing-- bite stuff.

(post pic of the logo on the man hole cover)

-It seems people here really really love their state flag. I've seen the logo everywhere. EVERYWHERE! I was at Walgreen's and saw it on a packet of dental floss!

-Did I miss a memo... There are Hooters everywhere... I don't get it, why are there so many, I've already seen two and it's only been a week and I haven't even gone everywhere yet. Before this I've seen maybe one my entire life. I wonder if ABQ is a hot bed for hot wings. It must be. There's also a lot of car washes, you'd think it's the national pastime. And speaking of cars, there are so many versions of the license plates as well, I have no idea how many, but it's a lot.

(...POST GOOGLE MAP THING FROM ABQ TO GULF HERE...)

-Where's the ocean... there are a lot, I mean a lot, of sushi restaurants in ABQ. I have no idea why, but I'd be a little leery of eating sushi in a place that's land locked in early direction for at least 10 hours. I like sushi and all, but I really don't think I'll be having any while I'm here. Also what's the deal with naming things The Ocean or Beachfront? Why are you taunting me ABQ?! I already miss the ocean, I've checked how far it is to the gulf of Mexico, about 10 hours... that's the same as going to LA... maybe...

-Speaking of funny names, there are some strange street names around here. There's a whole section named after states, other parts have streets that stop and start again a few blocks later (there's a chunk of buildings in between... like Brokaw back in San Jose), there are streets that cross themselves (I had to do a double take) and around the University of New Mexico there are streets named Harvard, Yale, Stanford... It's like the city has decided to openly taunt UNM students about the schools they couldn't get into.

- A familiar face... this is actually pretty sad, but when I was walking around the University of New Mexico on my second day off, I saw a Pita Pit and actually was a little excited to see something from back home.

-I'm not to excited about the ethonal in my gas in New Mexico. I'm pretty sure it's hurt my fuel economy, but more than that, I just think the corn lobby in this country is out of control.

-Smile... there are cameras everywhere, as in at every intersections which monitor both red light runners and speeders. Hey, it's almost like being back in Milpitas.

-Just not as blue without you... We don't have the same shade of blue skies up here as we have back there in San Jose. The light is very different up here. The sunsets are a more golden red, the skies are brighter, and high noon is pretty much all day.

Photographing up here is interesting, during the day the light is harsh, very harsh. It's like constantly being in Alex Webb mode. The contrast you get is off the charts, we just doesn't get such vibrant color and rich deep blacks like this in San Jose. Then during magic hour, the light is so brilliant you just want to pull over and watch the world around you. You can't ask for a more perfect light, I wish I could show you, but somethings just can't be captured in photographs. I think I get why people travel now.

-Lightening... on Thursday (during my first week) I was sent out to cover a high school football game and on the way I saw some lightening during the day. I've never seen lighting during daylight hours. My first thought, "wow, that was awesome!" Then it delayed the football game three hours and while I was waiting in the rain, large balls of hail struck me in the back of the head... it actually kind of hurt...

-Insane in the mem-rain (you do better!)... It's monsoon season and it's rained everyday I've been here (it's gotten drier in the last week), sometimes for as little as ten minutes, other times all night. Oh and the size of the raindrops is insane. They actually hurt a little when they hit you, it's like the clouds watched the rain fight from the Matrix sequel and took it as a challenge.

-Thar she blows, or, Blown away... ABQ is in the high desert and that means windy conditions. Just now I was driving home and it was like a tornado outside. I'm not exaggerating, rain was horizontal and there were tree leaves and dust and I think I saw a cow (she was hitchhiking to Wisconsin... and would not shut up about it!). It was something I've never experienced before, but watching the trees sway to such violent extremes was a beautiful feast for the eyes.

-"Speed hump"... That's what they call speed bumps here... my roommate's friend has lived here nearly ten years and he still giggles every time he sees the signs.

- Smelly cars... The car I've been driving smells like ribs. And you might think that ribs are a tasty item so it can't be that bad, well sir you are an optimist. Don't ever change, you'll need that when you're older.

-Blow up your own piece of the American pie... I was sent out to a town over the east hills, about 30 miles outside of Albuquerque, to cover a soccer game and on the way I kept seeing signs advertising wholesale fireworks, and it's open year round! Sweet, come visit, we'll b!0w $#!t up, all year round!

- Another mini-rant... Here's a long held pet peeve, radio stations should not be allowed to broadcast anything with a police siren in it. It was barely tolerable when it started showing up in radio edits of hip-hop and rap music, at least there I was able to anticipate it. But yesterday I experienced the siren sound in an advertisement for car parts, I can't remember what the connection was but every time the faintly audible sound kicked in I started checking my mirrors. Seriously, isn't that like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater? Cut it out lazy radio guys.

-Amish-Nerdy-Weasel-Stomping-Day... Weird Al is on tour? What? That's what the radio said. I had no idea you could tour on other peoples music... then again the man did write the best version of "Trapped in the closet" at least a year after everyone else gave it a shot.

-Speaking of the radio... ABQ radio sucks! I've never felt the need for an iPod until now. Well at least the company car has an MP3 player, time to go buy some CDs for burning.

-And if you're wondering Ryan, I haven't tried the red chile or the green chile... I know, I'm a bad friend.

Albuquerque police officer attacks photographer

2008-06-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

You see that man in the picture to the left. That's officer D. Guzman. He is an asshole. The kind of cop that gives good cops a bad name.

Read the story and check out the video. And then try not being outraged like I am right now.

This is outlandish and should not be tolerated. I urge you all to contact APD to complain, contact their leadership directly and contact your regional and national NPPA leadership to urge them to file a formal complaint with APD.

This is bulls*th!

While in ABQ I dealt with the cops here on many occasions and I wish I could say this was a rare mistake, but it was more like something inevitable. Out of every city I've worked in: San Jose, Oakland, San Fransisco, Santa Cruz, Hollister, Los Angles, Houston, DC, New York, Miami, Orlando and many others... I can say without a doubt that the APD beat cops are the worst. Rude, self-righteous, arrogant and looking for any excuse to cuss you out, arrest you or in this case beat you.

I don't want to say every officer I've encountered has been this way (I can remember two that were pleasant and professional) but from my experience, 98% of them were bullies with a badge.

The issue I think isn't with the leadership within APD or with training, the issue is that like many police forces around the country, ABQ is facing a shortage of officers. Adding to the pressure is a voter mandated quota to have a certain amount of new officers on the streets each year. This had lead to the department, IMHO, hiring anybody with a pulse that's willing to do the job. The result is a lower quality of officer and well, you saw the video.

A disgrace.

Cornell Capa, dies at 90

2008-05-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

Life magazine staffer, Magnum agency member and founder the International Center of Photography, Cornell Capa, died Friday at his home in Manhattan.

He was also the younger brother of Robert Capa, but in many ways he'd made a name for himself outside of his shadow. Like his brother he had started with war photography, but soon left it, saying:

"two war photographers in the family was too much," the younger brother concentrated on "opening the door to worlds that people would not have seen otherwise," with a portfolio that ranged from scenes of political oppression to candid shots of Marilyn Monroe. He coined the term "concerned photography" to describe an emotional engagement with his subjects that often blurred the border of journalistic objectivity.

“I am not an artist, and I never intended to be one," Capa said. “I hope I have made some good photographs, but what I really hope is that I have done some good photo stories with memorable images that make a point, and, perhaps, even make a difference.”

Check out his Magnum page for a slideshow of his work.

Time out Tuesday... On The Road

2008-05-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

With MultimediaShooter down and out for the count, I haven't been able to get my Koci travelogue fix in quite a while, which is harsh because it's messing with my pre-trip vibe. See, I always watched some of those before a trip just to get me in the right mind set, but now those are gone. And I don't have an MP3 player (yeah, yeah, whatevz) so I can't even listen to some of my favorite "This American Life" episodes either.

So I'm gearing up to fly and drive from California to Florida for the Poynter Summer Fellowship and I've got nothing to get my creative juices flowing.

Luckily I happened across a road trip piece by Julia Robinson, a friend from SF State who also happened to be a Poynter Fellow last year and part of the reason why I applied this year.

Pretty awesome, and not at all cheesy as she was afraid it might be. Just the medicine I was looking for. Now... it's time for me to get on the road...

Ivan ends up on Time.com

2008-05-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Old friend and SJSU alum Ivan Kashinsky recently had a story published on Time magazine's Web site. Ivan documented Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer who represents 30,000 Ecuadorians in a lawsuit against the oil giant Chevron.

The lawsuit alleges that Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, left behind oil waste pits during the eighteen years in which it drilled in the region and that this has contributed to a higher rate of cancer and other ailments among the settlers and indigenous people who live there.

Take a look! I thought it was worth mentioning, besides his work always inspired me so why not share it.

I finally get Twitter! I believe! I believe!

2008-05-12T01:57:00.000-07:00

I was an early adopter of Twitter, signing up for it in the wake of the buzz it created at South by Southwest 2007, but I didn’t write anything for a couple weeks, unsure of what I could use it for or even who would care what I had to say.

At the time I was working at the Santa Cruz Sentinel as a shooter and Ryan was over in the web department making waves, so being old friends we naturally seek each other out to shoot the breeze for a moment or two each day.

One day the topic of Twitter came up and while we were both trying to figure out what was the best use for it, it was decided that I should at least post something instead of leaving it blank. So for about the next 11 months my status remained “I’m part of the Ryan Sholin generation” (an inside joke).

That was until a few weeks ago when I finally added it to my phone and started updating via text. All of a sudden Twitter made sense.

See the part that bugged me was having to sit at a computer to update, it didn’t make any sense when I already had a Facebook status bar for that. But now I was updating 2,4, 10 times a day from my phone and interacting with people all day via my phone.

I’m finally seeing the amazing power Twitter can wield and how it is/can be the tool we’ve been seeking at newspapers to help us reach out to people and have that dialogue that will make the newsroom interactive.

I’ve often said the future of news is a back and forth between the public and the professional staff, and if used correctly Twitter can take us one step closer toward that goal. (And why is this a goal? Because it’s human nature, we don’t want to just be talked at, we want to talk back. That’s why Web 2.0, maybe just Web at this point, has taken off. And it‘s always been that way from the get go, i.e. Geocities and Anglefire, vBulletin.)

With this tool and the publics love of cell phones, we've suddenly opened up a new means of direct communication with the public. It makes sense, everyone text messages right? I could go and point tothe stats, but anyone that has visited a movie theater know it's true.

Much like RSS feeds, Newsrooms can set up Twitter feeds to alert readers to new content. The President just declared war in Iran, ding! readers know of it right away and rush to read about it on your site thanks to the attached hyperlink. It can even go deeper with specific feeds for specific topics, such as sports (Sharks just got knocked out of the playoff 30 secs ago), weather (dust storms from China sweeping in, it's a Clean Air Day) or traffic (wreck on 101, take 280 instead). And all along, you're building brand recognition and loyalty. Not to mention fulfilling the newspapers role as a community commodity.

Reporters could look to it for story ideas in their beats-- lots of rumors about a new iPhone, maybe the tech writer should look into it. It's almost like watching the ticker in the old days for surges in "key words" like "flash flood" or "New Orleans is under water."

And that reporter, once they land the interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs to talk about the iPhone rumors, can allow the public to submit ideas for questions they want answered. That's what ReadWriteWeb, a popular tech blog, did to learn that data portability was the topic of interest for readers looking forward to their interview with Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW. Readers got to have a say in content while still letting the person of authority hold on to the reins. This allows readers to participate in newsroom 2.0, become invested in the result of the story (readership baby!) and still keeps the professionals in a position to accurately and responsibly report.

We can debate weather the questions were good or not in the YouTube debates, but I think we all agree it was a good idea to get the public involved, and besides the journalist is still the watchdog. Joe Schmo can never replace the ethically trained professional.

Then it's also help just to talk to your network for ideas on things to do when your in a new city (like I did in DC).

Even use it instead of text messaging in case you lose your phone to let people know you lost your phone (you won't exactly have all those numbers off the top of your head).

Twitter can also be set up as a plug in tool for other sites and used to update them. Such as the GoogleMaps mashup that allowed Twitter users on Super Tuesday to "tweet" in where they voted, who they voted for and any other comments they wished to share.

And if none of that sounds interesting, you can always just use it to get out of jail.

Twitter allows everyone to submit one stitch to the quilt, one verse to the rhyme, one dime to the march. It’s the delivery mechanism that will finally take us one step closer toward the promise of Newsroom 2.0.

I’m finally seeing Twitter for the tool it can be.

It’s exciting.

Fun with Photoshop

2008-05-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

The one thing I enjoy just as much, if not more, than photojournalism is film and animation (which is why I love LOVE multimedia so much)!

Here's a short film that combines photo(shop) and animation to illustrate the creative differences that can sometimes get in the way of progress.

Enjoy!

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviant ART

It's World Press Day, my friend says hi

2008-05-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

A good friend from Albuquerque reminds me today is World Press Day and sent me this e-mail to make the occasion. I thought was pretty awesome of her and thought I'd share the joy. (Plus it gives me a chance to try out the video capture function of my new image capture program.)

Enjoy!

*Edit/update... apparently the Jing Project needs to work on their video capture. There's no sound (save for mic in) and no simple way to resize the window (changing the code just resizes the viewing window, not the video inside it).

Where in the world should Shaminder San Diego go?

2008-04-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

So it dawned on me last night while I was sitting in the car before going into a friends home to crash on yet another couch, pretty soon I'm going to get very busy.

As I mentioned, I'm in for a Hearst Fellowship, which begins in mid-August. What I haven't mentioned yet is that I'm also a Poynter Fellow this summer (again, braggers aren't doers, blame my mom's upraising for not letting me talk about it sooner, I've known since January), which ends in mid July.

So... looking at the calender I have one free month in between these to amazing opportunities and I was thinking I haven't traveled much in my life.

We never took vacations when I was younger, actually come to think of it, I've never taken a vacation to this day. I hadn't really ever been outside of California or lived anywhere for an extended period. Heck, my first ride on an airplane wasn't until last June when Diana and I flew to Portland for the NPPA Summit workshops.

Point is, I haven't really seen much of this world, which is something I've always wanted to do since I was a child.

I remember turning in assignments of all the far away places I wanted to go to as a child. Florida and Australia held some sort of sway over me for some reason. I imagine because they were so far away and different. Or many I just really wanted to see Disney World and Kangaroos... iono. At the same time I always dreamed of one day taking a sailboat around the world and seeing everything (I kind of still have that dream, only now I have a crew on the sailboat who know what they're doing)

So today I'm thinking... I have a free month... who knows when I'll have a month off again to travel... pretty soon I'll be working and won't have the chance again... I've always wanted to travel... where would/should I go for a month... where?

So... I'm opening it up for suggestions... where in the world should I go? What's a good place to spend a month and experience something different? Where would you go if you were in my shoes (size 10 1/2 so they might be a little loose on you laddies)?

Give me some ideas folks! I'm listening!

I’m in

2008-04-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, family, colleges, mentors, random SLR readers, exs past, present and future, hangers-ons and one Yorkshire named Bentley… I’ve got some big (ahem BIG!) news to share.

Either someone is playing an elaborate prank on me, or I just became the newest Hearst Fellowship Recipient.

I just got the call on Sunday from Kenn Altine, the Hearst recruiter who encouraged me to submit an application last fall, informing me I am one of the four selected for this year.

I was literally speechless.

I think I managed to say, “are you kidding?” before I just went silent, unable to find any more words.

Is this my big break? It sure feels like it. I’m still not sure what to make of it all.

Over the last couple days I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I got into photojournalism in the first place, mostly because I kept getting asked that during the interviews. And now again, in the wake of this news, I’m thinking a lot about how random life can be.

I would not be a Hearst fellow if I hadn’t meet Kenn last summer as an AAJA Voices student project staffer. He would never have sent me an application if I had decided to head up to my room for a nap after my hectic week with no sleep, instead of downstairs to the job fair where I was only able to catch the last half hour of it.

I would not have chosen to make him one of the four recruiters I had spoken to, had I not had been a subscriber of The San Francisco Chronicle. We probably wouldn’t have had such a pleasant conversation if I hadn’t known that paper or the people that worked there so well or the stories of those people.

I would never have been at the AAJA summer convention if I hadn’t been accepted into the student projects and I never would have applied for the project had I not met Joyce Lin at the AEJMC convention the prior year, where she told me all about the summer ‘06 convention she’d just come back from.

And I never would have been at the AEJMC convention had I not been recommended for it by then current photojournalism instructor Thomas Rodgers, who would not have thought of me had I not earned his endorsement when I was photo editor and he was our adviser on the Spartan Daily.

And I would never have taken on the task of photo editor had the prior photojournalism instructor, my college PJ teacher, Dennis Dunleavly, not encouraged me to.

And… I can keep going further and further back… but my point is, as I think about these things now, it’s funny how one little choice can have a ripple effect on everything else you ever do.

What if… so many what ifs.

And today again, as I take down this new path, I’m thinking a lot about the coulda, shoulda, woulda and what ifs. I think that’s why I loved watching the “Back to the Future” movies so much as a kid (the seemed to always be on NBC in the late 80s and early 90s), the idea of how one thing can change everything fascinated me then and continues to today.

Life is an adventure, you only go around once, live for today. Life's always been more interesting without a road map.

I’m in.

Houston Highjinx

2008-04-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

Another one from the file "I haven't mentioned it because it felt like bragging," a few months ago I got a call informing me I was a finalist for the Hearst Fellowship. There are 12 of us now and they'll soon narrow us down to the final four selected (which kinda sucks! I've meet some really down-to-earth and smart people). They also tell me I'm the only photographer to make the finals and one of the few ever in the history of the program.

On Tuesday I was flown out to Houston for interviews at the Houston Chronicle. Today was the first day of the two-day process and part of my morning consisted of going out to shoot an assignment and produce at least two features and a short video for the web.

I ended up shooting the dedication of the new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which proved to be very... "interesting" (more about that at a later date).

Click on the above screen shoot of one of my three pictures that was featured in the story story slideshow (Smiley, the photog assigned to it is an awesome shooter- with an awesome name!- check him out) and also in the Editor's Pics slideshow (Steve Gonzales is a pretty nice guy).

To see my other pics from the shoot:

Go to: http://www.chron.com/

Scroll down to "photo galleries"

Click on "Today in Photos"

Later!

Dith Pran dies, 65

2008-03-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday. He was 65.

Dith died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.

Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.

Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.

It was Dith himself who coined the term "killing fields" for the horrifying clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered on his desperate journey to freedom.

The regime of Pol Pot, bent on turning Cambodia back into a strictly agrarian society, and his Communist zealots were blamed for the deaths of nearly 2 million of Cambodia's 7 million people.

"That was the phrase he used from the very first day, during our wondrous reunion in the refugee camp," Schanberg said later.

With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence, even wearing glasses or wristwatches, Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.

After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Schanberg described Dith's ordeal and salvation in a 1980 magazine article titled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." Schanberg's reporting from Phnom Penh had earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Later a book, the magazine article became the basis for "The Killing Fields," the highly successful 1984 British film starring Sam Waterston as the Times correspondent and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee from the Khmer Rouge, as Dith Pran.

The film won three Oscars, including the best supporting actor award to Ngor.

"Pran was a true reporter, a fighter for the truth and for his people," Schanberg said. "When cancer struck, he fought for his life again. And he did it with the same Buddhist calm and courage and positive spirit that made my brother so special."

Dith spoke of his illness in a March interview with The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., saying he was determined to fight against the odds and urging others to get tested for cancer.

"I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body," he said. "It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave."

Dith Pran was born Sept. 27, 1942 at Siem Reap, site of the famed 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat. Educated in French and English, he worked as an interpreter for U.S. officials in Phnom Penh. As with many Asians, the family name, Dith, came first, but he was known by his given name, Pran.

After Cambodia's leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, broke off relations with the United States in 1965, Dith worked at other jobs. When Sihanouk was deposed in a 1970 coup and Cambodian troops went to war with the Khmer Rouge, Dith returned to Phnom Penh and worked as an interpreter for Times reporters.

In 1972, he and Schanberg, then newly arrived, were the first journalists to discover the devastation of a U.S. bombing attack on Neak Leung, a vital river crossing on the highway linking Phnom Penh with eastern Cambodia.

Dith recalled in a 2003 article for the Times what it was like to watch U.S. planes attacking enemy targets.
"If you didn't think about the danger, it looked like a performance," he said. "It was beautiful, like fireworks. War is beautiful if you don't get killed. But because you know it's going to kill, it's no longer beautiful."
After Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in 1979 and seized control of territory, Dith escaped from a commune near Siem Reap and trekked 40 miles, dodging both Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces, to reach a border refugee camp in Thailand.

From the Thai camp he sent a message to Schanberg, who rushed from the United States for an emotional reunion with the trusted friend he felt he had abandoned four years earlier.

"I had searched for four years for any scrap of information about Pran," Schanberg said. "I was losing hope. His emergence in October 1979 felt like an actual miracle for me. It restored my life."

After Dith moved to the U.S., the Times hired him and put him in the photo department as a trainee. The veteran staffers "took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things," said Times photographer Marilynn K. Yee.

Yee recalled an incident early in Dith's new career as a photojournalist when, after working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, he was robbed at gunpoint of all his camera equipment at the back door of his apartment.

"He survived everything in Cambodia and he survived that too," she said, adding, "He never had to work the night shift again."

Dith spoke and wrote often about his wartime experience and remained an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge regime.

When Pol Pot died in 1998, Dith said he was saddened that the dictator was never held accountable for the genocide.
"The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot," he said.

Dith's survivors include his companion, Bette Parslow; his former wife, Meoun Ser Dith; a sister, Samproeuth Dith Nop; sons Titony, Titonath and Titonel; daughter Hemkarey Dith Tan; six grandchildren including a boy named Sydney; and two step-grandchildren.

Dith's three brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge.

I never had the opportunity to meet him, the closest I ever came was winning second place last summer in the AAJA sponsored Dith Pran photo shootout.

We lost an icon today.

Someone's trying to tell me something...

2008-03-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

A friend recently sent to me... I wonder if (the jerk :P ) is trying to tell me something?

Portfolio (singles)

2008-03-25T17:14:00.001-07:00

My singles portfolio. Multimedia, stories and graphic work coming soon...

There are some Happy Journalist out there Auntie Em

2008-03-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

A while back I (along with every other blogger out there?) posted about AngryJournalist.

Well, in those early days it seemed like a cool idea, but what I saw in the continuing weeks was very disheartening. I'm not talking about the few fights that broke out from people calling others out on not being more pro-active or vocal in the newsroom, I'm just talking about how much negativity it created. It made us look like all we do is complain about "idiot sources" "idiot editors" or "idiot publishers"... of course it's all them, and everyone's an idiot, never us.

It's like we're all just a profession of complainers.

What a downer.

(Although Ryan did make a good point... an annoying habit :P ... about the fact that so many journalist are finding it at least, which means they are online themselves or listening to someone who is... but still)

Well, thankfully someone else felt the same way because Happy Journalist came along and left us also talk about the things that are working.

Whew... I guess I'll take down that rope from the support beam in the living room now... (for now... dun-dun-duuuuum!)

Peep this yo! Happy Easter.

2008-03-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Normally I'd just throw this in my del.icio.us feed (look in the right column) and call it a day, but I figure it's Easter... and this pic really makes me laugh.

A bounty of mallow rained down on us this Lenten season. The Peeps came not like locusts but like meteors of great ambition and, yes, some arts-and-crafts psychosis. More than 800 entries choked the Sunday Source's inbox for the second annual Peeps Diorama Contest. Our cup runneth over. Thank you.

Happy Easter!

Time out Tuesday (extra!extra! edition): Looking back on Iraq

2008-03-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

Having lived through half a decade of living with the war in Iraq on the public conscience (for some of us that's all of high school or college) and upon the cusp of a sixth year... two questions come to mind: 1. What happened to the Afghanistan war? 2. What happened and what can we learn?

Here's a few of the stories I've been looking at while trying to find an answer...

MediaStorm's teamed up with Reuters for their latest collaboration, and produced a piece that looks at what experiencing war has meant for those reporters charged with the task of documenting history. "This is their testimony - bearing witness to ensure the story of Iraq is not lost." Very powerful, not to be missed.

MSNBC created an interactive timeline that looks at the key military and political moments from Colin Powell's UN speech in which he presented the US's reasons for seeking approval for military actions to Saddam's down fall and trial to Blackwater employees gunning down Iraqi civilians to a surge of US troops that is reported to be working. With videos for many of the key events instantly available in a pop-up slider, it's the best time line I've found yet. If only history books came this way.

Over at Magnum, they've decided to approach the topic with "WARS" a four part essay series that takes the work of Philip Jones Griffiths (RIP) in Vietnam, Christopher Anderson in the Middle East, Thomas Dworzak in Chechnya and Iraq and Paolo Pellegrin in Lebanon. With pictures, commentary and a slick design, WARS is one to watch and there are plans for future installments to the series, so stay tuned. (P.S. Hey Magnum, 2003 called they want you to add an RSS feed!)

I have a soft spot for cartoonist, in particular political cartoonist, which I'm sure is because for a time I gave it a go to create my own comic strips and spent a semester creating a few political cartoons for the college paper. Plus as a kid they were my first exposure to newspapers as I used to read after my dad was done with the paper, and you never forget your first. Cartoonist have always been the unsung contributors to newspapers, summing up the days hot topics in one panel and sometimes ending up on Nixon's enemies list or invoking the wrath of the Pentagon among other things (ever see Zodiac, they sometimes even become investigative journalist). Take a look at over a 1000 political cartoons on the Iraq war.

"Through the smoke: A soldier's story of recovery" was created last year for the fourth anniversary and comes from the family of a soldier where he speaks in his own voice on what his recovery was like. Where the pictures may lack in variety and impact (and I'm speaking in PJ terms here so don't get your panties in a bunch Stella) his voice makes up for it.

In another MSNBC piece, a wife, a father, a family looks at the life, military service and death in battle of Spc. Anthony A. Kaiser. "As America contemplates the almost 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, one family reflects on the life, service and legacy of their lost loved one."

*Time out Tuesdays is back on SLR for a while, until MultimediaShooter.com gets all the kinks worked out and I can start posting over there again.

5years: A number game

2008-03-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

5 years

127 journalists killed (84 by murder and 43 KIA, of which 14 killed by US forces)

400,00 - 600,000 (est.) Iraqi civilians killed.

55,000 Iraqi insurgents killed

548 Contract workers killed

305 Non-Iraqis kidnapped (54 killed, 147 released, 4 escaped, 6 rescued and 94 status unknown.)

164,481 coalition troops deployed (155,000 from the US, 4,500 from the UK, 2,000 from Georgia, 900 from Poland, 650 from South Korea and 1,431 from all other nations.)

3,989 US soldiers killed

29,395 US soldiers wounded (5,879 of which, afflicted with serious brain or spinal injuries.)

$800 billion and counting at a current rate of $12 billion a month.

$4.6 billion: Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported

1 Government that attempts to limit press freedoms

1 Civil war that no one is acknowledging.

0 Exit strategies

Worth it?

Philip Jones Griffiths, dead

2008-03-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Philip Jones Griffiths passed away yesterday (or early this morning, details are still sketchy), you might remember him from his work in Vietnam and the subsequent book "Vietnam Inc." which lead Noam Chomsky to comment on it that: "If anybody in Washington had read that book, we wouldn't have had these wars in Iraq or Afghanistan."

Magnum's Stuart Franklin wrote about it for the Magnum blog.

And after that, be sure to take a look at his Vietnam work featured in WARS. In a coincidence Magnum just published a new series on war and his is one of the first four featured. It's an amazing piece, not just for the pictures, but because we get to see and hear Griffiths talk about the experience in his own words. Not to be missed, and what a way to honor a fallen master.

Nice pants, oh and MultimediaShooter is back up

2008-03-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

After giving us all a huge scare last week when MultimediaShooter.com was hacked, and according to Richard they messed it up so bad that he wasn't planning on jumping back on in a hurry. (I know I couldn't log in to the user panel at all, so it musta been something major.)

"RIP... I do not have the time or resources at this time to
continue. I wish you all the best."

A little dramatic, but you can't blame him, that was his baby. Plus with all else that's on his plate, being an ambassador in the Merc newsroom, having to work in the lay-off ridden Bay Area and of course he's so in demand (it's nuts).

But all that doesn't matter now. Thanks to a community that poured out in support and offered aid, Richard decided there was no way he was ready to lay it to rest and now MultiMediaShooter is back! (Which is good, b/c there are some real goodies in store... let's just say, the site is entering a new era.)

Best of all, he took this disaster and turned it into an opportunity to create another short film (and his first foray into Vimeo)... correction, another AWESOME short film, with nice pants!

How to fix a Hack from richard hernandez on Vimeo.

MultiMediaShooter down... not if I can help it...

2008-03-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

MultimediaShooter is down... but I'm hoping despite what Richard, the creator of the Web site, says, it won't stay down for long.

RIP

I write this with a very heavy heart:

I am sorry to report that this website is down for the count. The site was recently hacked several
times this weekend and severe damage was done. I do not have the time or resources at this time to
continue. I wish you all the best. I only wish this hadn’t happened.

[To the ‘hacker’ I hope it makes you happy to destroy something that people put their heart and soul into for years, for the sole purpose of learning and creating a small community
on the web. Just to have you destroy it for no reason. You win. There is a special place in hell for you.]

To those of you who supported the site over the years, THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I don’t know what more to say, except, remember, it’s all about the STORY, not the TOOLS.

-r

I haven't said much about it (Mama's always said braggers aren't doers) but a couple months back I became a contributor to MultimediaShooter and was set up with a user account to enable me to post stuff. Why am I mentioning it now? Because I loved being associated with something that benefited the PJ community so much, and I'll be damned if it goes away without a fight. I've already e-mailed Richard to offer my help in getting the site back up, and I encourage anyone of you reading this (all three of you.. oh I mean 4, hi Roberto!), if you've at any point visited the site or turned to it for the latest on what's going on, or if you've got some coding skill, shoot Richard an e-mail and help the cause!

It's too good of a resource to let die like this.

Strobist thought it was cool...

2008-03-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ran into a big hunk of equipment complications today, basically I need a portable power pack, and so in my research I ended up heading over to see what ol' man David Hobby, aka the Strobist guy, was up to these days.

I see he's posted this video for Canadian rock group "Aquaplane" which was composed entirely out of still photographs.

The video, IMHO, is a utter failure, or as you l33t speakers say: an epic fail (seriously, when did that become a popular saying?!). It's not for the photos or the production value, it's because the style of the video does not match the band or the song. That old wisdom, it can look cool, but if it doesn't tell the story it ain't worth $#!t holds true here.

Nevertheless, this does give me an opportunity to start thinking about new tools for multimedia and how we can tell our stories with different techniques.

The process they are employing here is an old one. Basically a sense of depth and movement is created by placing different visual elements on different planes and then moving a camera in zooms and pans about the scene to give it that "inside the image" illusion.

Walt Disney first employed it in Bambi, by animating multiple glass plates with different layers of the forest and then sliding them in and out as the camera tracked in on the action. The result was very much the same and it never really moved beyond animation or Magic Eye toys until Adobe created After Effects and some animators and photo guys got curious. (In the simplest of terms you're cutting out each element and then placing it on a different layer that you can then slide around at various speeds in front of a camera.)

Recently I've seen the famous 1976 do this to great effect (1976 is also why I know so much about how it's done since I was obsessed with reverse-engineering it) and also the opening credits of the TV show "How I meet your mother" uses it as well.

In the last couple months I've seen lots of new developments in multimedia tools: Vumox, Animoto, PhotoSynth (still looks promising) and the video flash players keep evolving (the new BlipTV looks nothing like the old one)... and now that many of us have gotten past the hurdle of just learning how to do it, we can start thinking about how we present it.

Maybe After Effects is the next program to learn...

Joe Swan, former SJSU PJ professor dies at 78

2008-03-11T17:36:00.001-07:00

I never had the pleasure of meeting him, be even then, he was part of the San Jose State University family. And a man who helped make the photojournalism program at SJSU what it is and was.

I probably would not be a SJSU grad today if he hadn't been there to continue the work started by PJ program and School of Journalism founder Dwight Bentel.

According to Mack Lundstrom, a current SJSU professor and good friend, "He died Sunday night. Joe taught Steve Starr, Kim Komenich and Doug Parker, who individually or leading a staff have won four Pulitzers."

He clearly left his mark.

The Spartan Daily, my old college paper stomping grounds, published two stories on Swan. A Feb 20 interview with Swan shortly after he decided to take himself off kidney dialysis, a decision that he made knowing it would mean death. A second story, published today, announces his death at home Sunday.

At the time he said, "I just try to look at what's ahead as maybe an adventure." And why not, from reading the article, it looks like living for an adventure is how he ran his life.

All the presidents boys get mash'd-up

2008-03-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

This is just one of those things that is just too perfect for me to not post.

That part after the first drop beat is sheer brilliance.

I seem to have a weakness for clever editing, the Beastie Boys, good Robert Redford movies and engaging dramas based on journalistic endeavors. (Which reminds me I still need to rent "The Hunting Party" and that Daniel Pearl movie that Angelina Jolie apparently kicked major ass in.)

Enjoy!

Hello ladies, apparently me have something in common

2008-03-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Today is March 8th and apparently the ladies, or lay-dies as I prefer, and I have something in common. No, it's not that we both cry at weddings, like Audrey Hepburn movies or secretly wonder if we'd be able to stop ourselves from throwing ourselves at George Clooney and screaming like a school girl in line for a High School Musical reunion tour... (too much?)... it's actually, really, truly, just a cruel joke, really.

It's International Women's Day and it also happens to be my birthday.

Whoop... a yearly reminder that even though another year has passed, I still don't understand you guys.

Oh what cruel joke is this that has been bestowed upon me?

... and that's my random thought of the day...

SJSU Multimedia Academy launch

2008-03-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

I may not be at San Jose State University anymore, but last week one of our projects during my time finally moved from a great idea to the real deal.

The SJSU Multimedia Academy was brainstormed last spring as a multi-year, world-wide program to explore the stories that litter the planet, just waiting to be found.

And if that's not enough, we (somehow) got The San Jose Mercury News and National Geographic on board as co-sponsors and then got them to commit one staffer as a faculty member on each trip.

Like those ping-pong tables we raised money for in the 8th grade, I won't be around to enjoy the fruits of our labors, but trust me, if you have the cash as the desire, apply!

Here's the official word:

Students are invited to the SJSU Multimedia Academy. Jim Gensheimer from the Mercury News will co-teach in South Africa and Sadie Quarrier, Sr. Photo Editor, at National Geographic Magazine, will co-teach the program in Ghana from June 16 to July 4, 2008.

www.sjsu.edu/studyabroad

Students can earn three units of credit. The cost is $4,200.
SJSU Special Session Tuition (3 Credits @250/unit) $750
SJSU Program Management Fee $200
Program Fee $3,250

The registration deadline is March 3. The monies are due at a later date.

MCOM 180: SJSU’s Multimedia Academy
• Co-instructed by National Geographic Photojournalist
• Explore Real World multimedia journalism
• Produce compelling multimedia stories in the field and on deadline
• Learn the importance of discipline with time, shooting, and gathering information necessary to advance the story
• Learn the importance of research, organization, adjusting, adapting and patience
• Earn 3 units of SJSU credit

This program is open to all undergraduate and graduate students who are matriculated towards a degree at a U.S. university or college. Students who have successfully completed their advance photojournalism and or broadcast sequence courses are especially welcome to take this course.

Proudly co-sponsored by National Geographic Magazine and the San Jose Mercury News, the SJSU Multimedia Academy is an ambitious, three-year program designed to give photojournalism students and broadcast journalism students the opportunity to gain an edge in the competitive job market. The San Jose Mercury News has committed one staff photographer or multimedia editor to co-teach the three-week course in South Africa.

Besides Ghana and South Africa, the multimedia academy will explore Brazil, India, Bangladesh, The Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, China and Dubai. Each program location will have a National Geographic or San Jose Mercury News staff photographer or multimedia editor to co-teach the program. At the conclusion of the program, a coffee table book exhibiting the students’ work will be published, along with a behind-the-scenes DVD documentary. A photography and interactive multimedia exhibition featuring the students’ work will also travel the U.S.

The fee includes tuition, air fare (West Coast departure) and hotel accommodations. These estimated coasts do not include personal expenses as this varies among different participants.must take the following MCom 180 (INDIVIDUAL STUDIES) 3-unit course. http://jmcweb.sjsu.edu/courses.html

Prof. Michael Cheers, who coordinates the photojournalism sequence at SJSU, will lead this program. Cheers, the 2007 Faculty Fellow at National Geographic Magazine, worked more than 20 years as a photojournalist in Africa. Jim Gensheimer, an award-winning staff photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News, will co-teach this course.

More info,
D. Michael Cheers,Ph.D
Director of Photojournalism
San Jose State University
mcheers@casa.sjsu.edu
408-795-5062 or 408-924-3259

Study Abroad Office:
International Programs & Services San José State University
Located in Clark Hall, Room 543 One Washington Square
study.abroad@sjsu.edu
San Jose, CA 95192
408.924.5931 408.924.5976 Fax

Quick Hits: Kids with Guns

2008-03-05T21:02:00.000-08:00

Tim Hussin, who is interning at the Deseret Morning News, decided to fill in his time away from work with, what he describes as an opportunity: "I just wanted to go as overboard as I could with it. And I wanted to experiment with garageband."

And experiment he did with "Kids with Guns," a feature he found of a group of kids playing "war."

I shot (pardon the pun) some kids playing guns at what seemed to be an abandoned church the other day. These kids were serious. One of them actually knew a little history for some of the battles they were trying to act out. I realized that I don't need to go to Iraq to shoot war when it's right in our backyards...

The result is one of the most exciting and poetically crafted pieces I've seen in recent memory, plus the visual variety is impressive and keeps the vignette going.

http://thussin.blogspot.com/2008/02/kids-with-guns.html

I'm right here Roberto!

2008-03-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

That guy right there on the right who's hugging the hell out of me (or looks likes he about to tackle me?), that's Roberto Rosales, a staff shooter from the ABQ Journal, and apparently he misses me.

We're also flanked by Jim Thompson, center, and Greg Sorber, left, also staff shooters that had been great advisers and friends to me during my time at the paper.

The pic is from the wee hours right after my last night at the Journal. The guys decided to take me out to Hooters, which believe it or not, was the first time any of us had been there. Like many things in life, I found it didn't live up to the Shangri-La hype I've heard all my life (Andy, seriously, you like this place?). No one was really dying to go there, it was actually the result of a running joke in the office, I'm not dying to go back, and I don't think anyone else is either... but I digress.

I ran by Roberto's blog and saw his public "missing person" report and thought, why not keep the gag going by responding to him here. Hey, phone calls are expensive when you're unemployed! Plus it gives me a great excuse to link to his blog.

Sooooo... here I am Roberto, right here on a couch, watching Around the Horn on ESPN, still unemployed (but not for long...), still in ABQ, still wondering which way the winds are blowing today and still at the same phone number in case you want to call me the next time you have some Shaminder-withdrawal.

Peace

Re: I need a haircut...

2008-03-05T19:34:00.001-08:00

Ok... this is just too good not to share...

Arriving in my e-mail a few hours after my last post, my good buddy Daniel Esch decided to not be shackled by the distance between us and took it upon himself to share his razor sharp wit and knowledge of all things awesome.

A Biz Markie album cover, bravo sir, I am standing and applauding, how could I not share... now how about you update that there blog-i-ma-gigger of urs so I can get to reading up more these here nuggets of gold on a more regular basis?

Later!

$12, 12 hours, 12 musicians

2008-03-05T16:33:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've all heard about the 48 Hour Film Fest and a few of you may have heard of 24 House Comic Day, but I'm pretty sure not to many have heard of the inaugural Crate Digger Deathmatch, a 12 hour contest that challenges contestants to spend $12 on supplies and produce an album in half a day.

I love this kinda creative pressure cooker experimentation. The results aren't always stellar, but they're always fun. You can read all about one contestant's experience here and check out the tune-age here.

I need a haircut...

2008-03-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Ok... I'm giving in, once it starts whipping me in my own eyes, it's time.

That's me back in August when I first arrived to start in ABQ.

And here I am about 2 weeks ago.

In between zero trims.

So there.

Also, some people out there have expressed that I'm not posting enough pics, so there! (Yeah'huh! This counts!)

Later

PJ loses a friend

2008-02-20T16:01:00.001-08:00

I've talked about it before, joked about it and held out hope from the inevitable... but today it has come.

This morning the staff of the Albuquerque Tribune heard the news, Saturday would be their last day and after 86-years the doors will closed one last time.

It wasn't the paper of my internship, but I'd grown to love the Tribune over my time here, even gotten to know many among the photo staff to the point I'd consider them friends.

The first time I'd walked over to say hello wasn't until late Dec. Their photo editor, Mark Holm, was sitting at a desk working an end of the year homicide infograpahic. When I said hello, he just looked up and said, "It's about time you made it over here."

That's how everyone over there was, always inviting, always willing to stop and have a chat. Always willing.

Erin Fredrichs invited me as her guest to a party for the same night that I'd met her for the first time, while we were shooting the same high school football game.

Steven St. John was the quite guy who was always focused during an assignment but willing to talk about anything in between the cracks. His was also the first photo column I saw, the weekly page 2 feature of the Trib that become a part of my Monday ritual at work.

Craig Fritz was shooting the crash site from my left and talked to me at the scene of a fatal balloon fiesta accident about how he's had to deal with death and balancing the job with everything else.

I finally met Michael Gallegos last week after spending nearly the entire six months hoping to run into him at the office. He'd graduated from San Jose State University many (many) years before me and had e-mailed me out of the blue to say hello. Finally we did meet, and it turned out to be a really great conversation. He'd extended me an offer to tag along on photo shoots if I was interested, that sounded like a great time out.

It's funny how the paper and I were both on the same tracks, announcing their plans for a sale within weeks of my arrival and now closing up shop about a week after I had done the same.

My roommates girlfriend worked there and let me know right away which side I had to be rooting for. During my first full week of work, she'd decided to take a dry erase marker to my car and had tagged my windshield and driver side window with the phrase, "Viva la Tribune!"

It's still there today, maybe I couldn't do it, wash it off. Or maybe I just never got around to wash the car in the last six months, whatever the reason, looking at that window now... yeah...

It's like we both knew an end was coming and were trying to do our best work, because who knew when we'd get to again.

I'll never forget all the times I've looked at their front pages and said, "Wow!" or "I wish I'd seen that," or more often than not, "How'd they get away with that?!"

For the short time I was able to read it, I was inspired, but I guess all good things must come to an end.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to watch, read and experience all the multimedia, photo columns and slideshows one last time before the website is taken down and another storied chapter comes to a close.

Stop the presses! It's time to vent!

2008-02-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

Today I ran across the greatest Web site in the world and just had to share (and also because I know it'll get lost in my delicious and I wanna make sure I check it out later).

Of course I haven't really vented yet, for one I'm unemployed now so there isn't any job to vent about and B. I love my job!

Enjoy some of the funny... b/c who among us hasn't had a bad day.

Last day

2008-02-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day, and for my last assignment I had the pleasure of photographing these two critters at the metro pound.

I always thought Pets of the Week was a weird assignment. It felt like every week that I'd do it I was having to decide which animals lived and which died. Walking down those hallways past all the barking dogs and leaning down to say, "you, yes you shall live." It's a strange ritual.

I'm not sure if any of the other staffers over thought it as much as I did, but we had a lot of power in that animal shelter. The ones we snapped were almost always guaranteed to be saved, the others... yeah, not so much.

It was like Schindler's list-- Shaminder's list (yeah, a Holocaust joke... I'm going to hell...)

I wish I had more time, I could of saved so many more...

*Thanks to ABQ Journal tech Nick Layman for the pic, give him some link love.

And this is the end, the end my friend

2008-02-13T15:52:00.001-08:00

Well... it's nearing the end of my time with the Albuquerque Journal. It's been a long, winding, educating, eye-opening trip. Thursday is my last day, with Friday a check-out day. As of now my last assignment here is pets of the week for the metro section. Seems kinda fitting and poetic.

So what can I say about my time here... I'm not sure just yet I guess... bittersweet is the best way I can put it in one word. But in the end, how many people that walk this earth get to say that they got to live each day doing what they love?

Next door at the Tribune, they're also thinking a lot about why they do this.

Craig Fritz wrote about his thoughts in a weekly photo column they call Viewfinder. (I've been meaning to mention this for sometime, but leaving finally forced me to look it up on the website instead of the paper. If you like it, make sure you check out in the series, including this one, which became one of my favorites.)

Fritz pretty sums it up, I can't think of one more thing I could possibly add. It's true, it's the people we meet the stories we get to hear that makes this job what it is.

Fritz is on an eerily parallel path to my own, with his afternoon paper, The Albuquerque Tribune, also flirting with turning off the lights for the last time. It's odd, they announced that they were being put up for sale about two three weeks after I arrived, like we both knew an end was coming. And then for a moment it seemed that this Friday would be there last day as well. (Right now that's not an absolute certainty, fingers crossed.)

Like that paper, my future is also an uncertainty. What lies ahead is as good your guess as mine.

We'll see which way the wind blows, I find life is more interesting without a road map.

P.S. If anyone has a spare couch, hit me up.

A new way to waste time on YouTube

2008-02-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

Ooo... pretty...

You see that little red thing in the corner that looks like Brainiac's logo thing? Well it shows up when you go into full screen mode. Once you click it you get this nifty new way of browsing.

Nothing monumental, but YouTube is the most popular web video service and it's worth mentioning when they come up with some new (well not really new) way of interfacing with viewers.

With YouTube's popularity, can it be long before we start seeing adaptive GUI's such as this on other sites? Amazon? eBay? Best Buy? Facebook?

Heck in photo circles, vignetting is all the rage right? It could catch on.

Finally a use for Twitter I understand

2008-02-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

Scrolling by Google Maps the other day, continuing with my OCD fueled need to always check the maps before heading out for an assignment, I noticed a little button for Super Tuesday elections.

I thought about writing something about how Twitter and Google teamed up to produce this real-time update of election proceedings with Twitter comments feed to the map along with primary results as they come in. Hey, finally a use for Twitter I understand!

But then I saw this comment fly across the map and luckily I was able to quickly get a screen capture because it's way cooler!

It may be hard to read, but user "JPhilipson" of Hawaii is Twittering "When does Hawaii have their primary?"

A valid question or subversive humor of an outlander feeling left out?

It's a new age, just your average Joe is now able to chime in and be heard, and become more than just a consumer but share in the dialouge.

Plus it's a document of history and that's pretty cool in my book.

Quick hits: Medals of Memory

2008-02-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

A slick interface, a heartfelt story and few moments of laughter fuse to create Medals of Memory, a look at the military tattoo and the men and women who emblaze their flesh with the ink.

The Naples Daily News package features Army Specialist Jolene Wieber's path to having a cross tattooed on her right leg to honor the memory of her best friend, Cpl. Karen N. Clifton, who was killed under enemy attack in Iraq.

The result is a touching story that examines her reasons behind it and the simple truth that for military service men and women it's about never forgetting, because "time fades most things. Tattoos, sure, but not the stories."

Quick hits: Including Samuel

2008-02-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it Dan Habib of the Concord Monitor may be considering a second career as a filmmaker (but it's just a rumor so I won't dwell on it to much at this point) and after checking out some of his work on his latest documentary, that might not be a bad idea.

Including Samuel is Habib's examination of living with a disability and functioning in a society that isn't always accepting.

Through his son Samuel's eyes, who was born with cerebral palsy, we see a film that moves beyond merely the 'what is it' to the bigger question of 'why we should care' by looking at it as a civil rights issue.

While the film isn't online, a trailer along with slideshows and a list of upcoming screenings is.

Thinking out loud: Why not Divx?

2008-01-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

So it's a lazy Sunday over in the newsroom, I guess it's another effect of that buffer created by the holidays.

So naturally my mind has started to wander and I'm starting to Think Out Loud again...

How come Divx never took off with newspapers? Higher bitrates translating into higher quality, even web native HD. More standardized across the interwebs means a larger community behind it creating neat-o plug ins. You can even create DVD style menu systems and language controls to allow users to navigate. Plus instant full screen that doesn't interpolate the image, but actually maintains resolution.

I'm not saying we should all abandon Brightcove (which seems like the emerging newsroom standard), but I'm just saying I've noticed no ones experimented with Divx. And personally I think it's a pretty nifty conductive.

Again, I'm just thinking out loud, I've been researching Divx the last couple days and it just kinda dawned on me.

In other news, isn't it funny how we decide how to read a newspaper?

While flippin' the paper this morning I ended up reading a story not because the picture drew me in, or the headline grabbed me, or the San Fransisco dateline, or someone's lede or by-line hooked me... no I ended up reading a story about MC Hammer and his endeavor into viral videos because I know the AP photographer who took the picture.

Haha, kinda funny how when you're away from home, seeing a familiar name in the newspaper brings a smile to your face. (Hey Jeff Chiu, it's Hammer time indeed :)

Finally, can someone please tell me, why do birds suddenly appear, when you're near?

Seriously I'm getting tired of washing my car, can't you like... iono... turn it off?

Bhutto's last moments, a photographer's account

2007-12-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure we've all heard, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday after a rally just weeks before elections in that country.

John Moore was on hand shooting for Getty.

Someone at the New York Times must have been on the ball because by this morning they had Moore's pictures and his account of what was happening up on the website.

It's graphic at times, so you've been warned, yet powerful and not to be missed.

Keep an ear out for when he talks about where he decided to shoot and not shoot. That's experience talking, very brutal experience.

It may not be flashy or groundbreaking, but it shows the power of multimedia and it's ability to take us there and deliver a richer story. Plus you get to here a master like Moore speak. (I wouldn't be surprised to see his name up for another Pulitzer.)

Quick Hits: Uprooted

2007-12-27T11:43:00.001-08:00

I haven't been posting as often as I like, because while I see a lot of Multimedia out there, I don't always see a lot of good multimedia. And then sometimes I see something that just grabs the foundations and shakes it all up like a rag doll in a pit bulls mouth.

Chew it all up, spit it, change the game.

Dai Sugano of the Mercury News, along with reporter Julie Patel, worked on Uprooted for six months. Examining how land use in the Bay Area has effected the residents of a mobile home park in Sunnyvale from their struggle to stay to the aftermath of relocation as developers take over.

The piece is as moving as it is innovative and for storytellers like us, it makes us reexamine just what effective multimedia can be.

As Dai has shown, there is no formula.

This is without a doubt the most cinematic piece I've seen anyone do, anywhere! (Seriously, I'm convinced Dai is ready for Sundance.)

And on my personal list it ranks number two, right behind The Star's Noir-inspired piece on the Conrad Black trial, as my all-time favorite multimedia piece.

Dai took a brief timeout from partying with his son to say: "I don't know if you have seen it in the paper. My 6-month project on two mobile home families finally ran last Sunday. UPROOTED. When you have time, please check it out."

Don't ever let it be said that the man talks to much.

The warm embrace of Mother Jones

2007-12-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

A little shameless self-promotion (because personal cultural modesty isn't in keeping with the American way).

Wee! Another goal off the list.

Tracking Santa

2007-12-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's cold, I'm tired and there's a few cool things Santa related that I ran across... soooo... It's light and fluffy time.

Wired Magazine has a really funny article in the December issue that breaks down how one man can run such an empire and still do it year after year, the high tech way (it is Wired after all).

Unfortunately I can't link you to it, it's not online (it is a magazine for profit after all).

NPR however has a report on the article, and it's almost as fun.

Google is tracking Santa in partnership with NORAD again. Pretty cool use of Google Maps, man if we're not careful those two Stanford kids are gonna take over the world.

But if you're one of my new New Mexico readers, perhaps you prefer a more local provider of satellite surveillance. There's Los Alamos Labs.

Now, if you like your Santa's a little more edgy, here's a couple of stories for you.

First, a bunch of drunk Santas, they say 50, rushed into a New Zealand Movie theater caroling to "Ho! F*****! Ho!"

Finally, the desert, my good buddy Daniel Esch created this piece last year after attending Santacon.

I was supposed to go with him, but missed it, and after seeing what he came back with, boy did I miss it!

Well that's that.

Happy Thanksgiving part 2, III

Later!

The best layout in the history of newspapers (take a long hard look)

2007-12-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Do you see it?

No? Focus on the center. Take a look at the two pictures, and no they aren't from the same story.

It maybe hard to read here, but the top image is a stand alone feature and the one below it is a news story on a stolen wallet, the surveillance camera that caught it on tape and pictured the suspect whose identity is unknown.

One word: "..."

Checkout the PDF for a better image.

Enjoy.

Quick hits: Driving Detroit

2007-12-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

The Detroit Free Press photo staff decided to jump into the deep end with Driving Detroit, a multimedia piece that uses Google Maps as a foundation and lays over it videos, sideshows, flip book panoramas, written stories, a public forum and infographics to explore the streets, the homes and the people that make the 11th largest city in the US what it is.

The idea was to get a unique view of Detroit, a short-term, street-level survey of Detroit's 138 square miles, a once-in-a-lifetime snapshot of the city Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and others insist is coming back.

From downtown -- where the comeback is evident -- through the immense territory of Detroit's neighborhoods -- where the future seems less certain -- the trip was never boring.

The 4-month project explores 2,700-miles through 2,100 streets and journeys from the ritziest of digs to the lowliest of slums.

It's not perfect, but it's a huge stride forward in community journalism and using the tools and code available to create something that serves the community and takes a historical snapshot of a city.

Thinking out loud: We need some new tricks

2007-12-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

So here's a thought. When we were just starting out in multimedia a short 2 (3?) years ago, we were all giddy and excited and couldn't wait to play with our new toys. And very quickly we started experimenting and trying new things and after a short gestation period with the basics many of us started thinking about how we edit in four dimensions rather than just two, or three when it came to layout. All of a sudden we had Time to deal with, and that made everything a lot more interesting.

So we started doing fancy stuff like tiles, fades, cross-fades, pans, and then we got even fancier with split screens and flipbooks (or if you prefer a more avant guard, montages), but what since then?

It's like we're running out of tricks. Maybe it's just me, but I haven't seen anything new. When I started playing around I used all the basic film editing tricks I had picked up, and by the time everyone else was doing the basics I moved on to experiment with flipbooks, and when others started doing that, I had already started experimenting with split screens and selective crop-ins and other goodies.

I felt that each time I had managed to stay ahead of the curve and was trying something new, but now I'm just not seeing it. I'm still doing flipbooks and split screens and pans and whatnot, but now so is everyone else. It's like we've all run out of new tricks.

We're all doing the same thing, I mean EVERYONE is flipbooking today! And it's starting to get stale and homogenized.

I think that may be because we're still looking to film for our guide map. Perhaps it's time we stop looking to mimic everything that's come before and start creating.

We need some new tricks.

*Thinking out loud is where Shaminder just blabs about whatever pressing thought is on his mind.... so in other words it's just like Twitter, but he refuses to remember another pair of passwords and log into another program everyday. He also refuses to say 10-4 on the Nextel, but that's another story.

Quick hits: First in Line

2007-11-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

If you're working at a newspaper around the Thanksgiving holidays then it's a guarantee that at some point you'll be sent out to cover Black Friday, the annual post T-day holiday marked by long lines, shivering toes and AP video of grandmas being trampled in the aisles of some big box store as they mad dash for that last bagle sized wide slot toaster with the chrome accents that they'll later take home and eventually gift away when they can't figure out why they even bought it in the first place... I mean, I love commercialism.

Evelio Contreras of The Roanoke Times created a piece on a group of high school kids waiting in line at a Best Buy (They say there's nothing better to do in Roanoke, makes sense to me!) that's entertaining and shows that there are stories to be found everywhere. It's the best Black Friday multimedia I've this year, perhaps ever.

Steven Hutto, Andrew Tuck and Daniel Sarver, all students who know each other from Hidden Valley High School, played badminton, flew kites and sang songs to pass the time in order to be among the first in line when Best Buy opened early on Friday, Nov. 23.

Oh and be sure to keep at look out for your next American Idols at the 6 p.m. mark.

Quick hits: Out of Town

2007-11-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

It's the holiday weekend and that can only mean one thing, it's time to get Out of Town (ok, two if you're working at a paper: that you're working at a paper).

While Out of Town is not affiliated with any newspaper, that doesn't stop this web series from delivering short and sweet feature-y community news.

My favorite is the trip to a Wisconsin amusement park, good times. There are six installments up so far from the first stop in the series and there are promises for more from the second leg in Pennsylvania to launch in February.

The site itself, designed by the man behind the world's first internet fire, is a shmorgusboard of visual beeps and boops.

A very clean and well thought out presentation of a new take on covering local oddities. And if you think having a host in front of the camera is not in keeping with journalism, really it's nothing new, it's just the weekly columnist in multimedia form, and boy is it fun to watch.

Quick hits: Heroes of HIV

2007-11-17T17:15:00.001-08:00

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and The Palm Beach Post got together to create a very in depth exploration of an HIV/AIDS epidemic in our backyard, or should I say playground.

The Caribbean islands, a popular American vacation destination, has the highest rate of infection in the western hemisphere, with rates rivaling that of Africa.

Two hours from South Florida shores the island of Hispaniola has the highest rates in this hemisphere.

There, in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, heroes have fought the epidemic with little but conviction and courage – some with new help now from U.S. money, some continuing without, but all with optimism.

Heroes of HIV approaches the stories from a very classical documentary approach and doesn't get too fancy with its multimedia, but you don't need to when some of the pieces can have you on the verge of tears and rage at the same time.

Sideshows, articles, video, historical analysis, external links to additional information-- there's so much to explore, and still more on the way.

Also the piece moves beyond good journalism by including PDfs for the major statistics and a section for teachers, with handouts and everything an educator would need for the classroom.

Social documentary in a new media age done right.

Quick hits: Feels like fall

2007-11-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

It looks like Laurie Skrivan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch decided to try something different in painting a picture of the changing season in her corner of Missouri.

Experience the colors, sounds and feelings of fall in this esoteric look at the season. Marked by football, rain, the falling of the leaves, corn mazes and beautiful sunsets, Missouri's fall is distinct.

This is the type of moody pieces I personally love, and it's another good example of new-wave vignetting.

Who says everything has to be dry and boring or monumental and earth-shattering? Sometimes it good just to focus on the little things.

PhotoJournal: When in Rome, post a Veteran's day pic

2007-11-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

It was just another of those men in pressed suits giving speeches about how great they are things, but for the veterans that came out to hear them I could see it meant a lot.

Fred was very interesting. At first he didn't notice me, when he did he tried to force a smile and hide his tears, but after a moment he forgot all about me again. I stepped away after taking the picture, I felt that I had my image and could tell he wanted to let the tears out but couldn't with my lens there.

About 5 min later I came back to get his info and we had a pretty long conversation. Very nice man who has lived a hard life. This job doesn't pay much, but I love that I get to meet people like Fred everyday. (Ding! The more you know.)

Caption: Fred Cobley, a Vietnam vet, air force, tries to hold back his emotions during an opening prayer during a ceremony honoring veterans at Veterans Memorial Park, Sunday, November 11, 2007.

For more of my Veteran's day work, check out my Flickr feed.

CPOY 2008 winners announced

2007-11-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

The annual contest marking the best work coming out of college photographers announced their picks for 2008.

A lot of familiar names on there and a few really gripping images to.

Although some of the images left me scratching my head, I won't name names but how it is in one breath we denounce overdoing toning in photoshop (Patrick Schneider) and than at the same time applaud those who have obviously done the same with contrast ratios and levels?

And in some of the stories I can't see a narrative thread. Yes all the pictures are extraordinary and I'm better for seeing them, but where is the storytelling?

This is a touchy subject, and I'm trying to be very careful in what I say as not to appear bitter or elitist. Well, first I didn't enter so I can't be bitter and I'm a nobody so I have no reason to be an elitist. (So that's settled.)

All the folks that won are obviously talented and I'm very glad I clicked on the pictures, don't get it twisted, I'm just thinking out loud here.

On another note, it's nice to see some of the multimedia work coming out of schools these days. There is so much cool, moody, thoughtful, informative, intimate and at times inspiring work to check out. I haven't even got through it all yet (there's so much!) but I can see there are some really nice projects there.

Organizing photos goes all Philip K. Dick

2007-11-09T02:26:00.000-08:00

I don't write about technology often, I know, this coming from the guy that posts about video-hosting websites, new cameras, RAW processing and Microsoft's table computer thing, but honest I don't do it often, check!

Anywho I was looking at the Natchway speech from the TED awards again, and I saw this other video on the site for a software application called Photosynth, which presents us with a new way of organizing, manipulating and viewing digital images.

(They were recently acquired by Microsoft as well... It looks like Microsoft is positioning itself as a major player in digital imaging?)

Pretty amazing right?

I think it's cool to think about organizing and being able to move stuff around and arrange your files in a GUI that's both slick and fast, not to mention the amazingly innovative and revolutionary idea of, as its creator Blaise Aguera y Arcas calls it "creating hyperlinks between images" based on the content of those pictures. Which is like the Google Maps new local pictures tab (which got into some trouble) but ten times cooler!

Still not getting it?

Imagine all the pictures on Flickr of the Golden Gate bridge being combined to create a mosic of images rendered into a 3-D space that you as the user are free to move around, zoom in and out off, click on any point to see a real picture of that point, from that point and from virtually every angle allowing for you to generally direct your own unique navigational experience though the collection.

This is revolutionary and can change the way we store and call up information.

It creates a "collective memory" of the real world space and archives it for anyone looking to see it.

Think of it as a visual wiki (btw, if that term catches on, I coined it!)

I've seen some baby steps made into this area in journalism with data based multimedia, most notably Andrew DeVigal is steering some really intertesting experiments in this area at the New York Times, but after seeing Photosynth in action, it only hints at the potential and challenges us to go much further.

What I find really interesting

Now this is all new and as you can see, quite fascinating (for me) and "from the world of tomorrow!", but what I find to be really the most interesting thing is what's found at 1:42 of the video.

The video goes on to show how this technology is so developed for image processing and delivery, that it can not only store entire novels, but also newspapers; that can be zoomed in and out of and navigated from pages within a section or other sections all together within seconds. (Look just watch the video, I'm never going to do it justice by trying to describe it.)

My pal Ryan's been talking about e-Paper for a while and how it's going to replace printed newspapers, well, as much as I'll miss the smell of ink (maybe they can sell it in a mist?) and tearing out interesting articles, pictures, comics and ads that I'll want to place in my sketchbook or research more about (maybe e-Paper can come with del.icio.us.) I can't deny it.

E-paper is coming, assuming RSS and online delivery doesn't replace it as wi-fi comes to cell phones and everything from a PSP to TiVo to refrigerators with built-in screens (I've still got one on reserve Hanna ;) are starting to connect to the web and offer information everywhere anytime whenever.

I can see e-paper and something like photosynth combining and giving us the next newspaper, or newspaper 2.0 or whatever the techie marketers will call it.

What I find really-really interesting

Ok, that's what I find to be really fascinating, but what I find to be really-really fascinating is the new forms of multimedia we can produce with this technology on newspapers.

Yes folks, this is the most important part and the ideas that I think are relevent to our industry and to me as a photographer and new-media thinker.

Say we're sent out to cover another protest story (yes, another one) and we're looking for a new angle (just to challenge ourselves if nothing else) and of course if you're anything like me, you're thinking multimedia. So why not cover the protest and get all the killer pictures you always do (you're so good) and of course we'll get the ambient sounds and interviews (of course) but what about the presentation?

Many of us just throw it in soundslides or edit a video in Final Cut, Premier Pro or iMovie, but we never really think about presentation or what sort of interface the viewer will use to engage with our work.

Some of this can be caulked up to time constraints and impeding deadlines (I know every time I've done multimedia it's always been on my own time) but a larger reason is that everyone already at a paper is so busy trying to learn the new programs and tools used to make these new things that no one is thinking about how to show them off... because Flash is hard and many papers don't have multimedia editors (yet) to budget for these things.

So I'm looking at Photosynth and I'm thinking of that protest story and I'm getting excited thinking about all the possibilities.

Like rendering the photos into a 3-D environment and interviews could be mapped to the subjects with a picture of them where they were in the 3-D space when you spoke to them and then map the ambient sounds to their sources within the environment. Birds chirping in the tree, the plane flying over at the end of the street, the ding-dong of the cross walk sign, the wheels of the skateboard from that kid on the sidewalk...

This could allow letting people navigate their own way through the story and find interviews and story blocks and pictures in completely unique and innovative ways.

Copy from a story could show up in newspaper boxes, posters on walls could link to related stories, zooming out to a birds eye view could turn the scene into info graphics or other data-based multimedia).

And we can then take it one step further by inviting the public to submit their pictures from the event to further develop the archive of the collective memory.

How cool is that?

I know some folks on photo staffs will hear things like this and fear it, but I say embrace it. Embrace it before the kid fresh out of college (me) embraces it and comes into your newsroom.

Want more? Here's NASA's take on it.

There isn't any reason why we shouldn't be doing this.