OIL

Today, during our visit to Hall County, Autumn and I heard a clicking noise from her engine. While we both tried to suppress our laughter (since Autumn was making a very important phone call) the clicking noise began to get louder and louder esp. when she pressed the gas. We called all the self proclaimed mechanics on our contact lists. Only reaching her brother. I proceeded to hold the phone up to the car engine in the middle of a gas station parking lot while the taxi man who pulled in beside us stared in amusement instead of asking if we needed help. The noise stopped, so naturally her brother heard nothing. We continued until Autumn's mom gave her a call back to tell her the engine was going to lock up and we would be helpless.

So today Autumn and I experienced our first time extensively examining an engine. 3 quarts of oil topped out her car's thirst for oil... And like a good photojournalist we documented it.

Rocky Mountain News

I'm sure a lot of you all have already seen this. We watched it in 3510, but if anyone hasn't seen it you need to. Not the most uplifting of videos, but I think it's an incredible use of multimedia and very interesting to hear them tell their own story. Rocky Mountain News was the paper that did The Final Salute, so these guys obviously know what they're doing when it comes to multimedia. It's sad to see them go, but a great video nonetheless. I think it's also interesting, albeit incredibly depressing, to see what's happening to journalism out in the real world. Also, Mark you'll be happy to know that Autumn and I were sitting next to each other in class when we watched this and while everyone else was getting sappy about the story line, we were critiquing the matched action. You have gotten in our heads, congratulations. 

Carnival

OOO! Carnival!

If you have never been to a Carnival parade you should go.....

Child Caregivers

Here's an interesting New York Times piece about child caregivers. It talks about a training and support group for kids who have to take care of sick or elderly family members. I thought it was a neat concept. The video flows pretty smoothly--lots of really good natural sound and matched action.

Not exaclty photos

I just found this website. It's association to the subject matter of our class is loose, I suppose, but I think it's a neat idea. Enjoy.

Midnight pictures

I wanted to take pictures last night after the rain, so I did. This is just an intersection outside my apartment complex. I was tempted to submit one of these as a pattern today but I decided to just post them here instead. Most of these are at 30" shutter speed. Here are some of the better ones. Pause and click to see them big.

Poor in Illinois

This one's from the Chicago Tribune. It's shot nicely, but I can't decide how I feel about it on the whole. I know I don't like the way the segments are broken up by statistics that scream at you in big, bold caps. There's one spot at about 2:40 where the woman's child's voice comes in and says something indistinguishable that I would have kept at a lower volume since it doesn't appear to be of importance.

What do you guys think? Is the broad focus of this piece appropriate for what they seem to be trying to do, which is raise some awareness of the problem of poverty in the area? Or should this have been narrowed down to one or two folks who could tell the story in a more personal way?