I have the 2-light kit if any group needs it

Hey all-

Kelly had the 2-light kit checked out of the lab so you couldn't have gotten it Thursday, but since she won't be in town this weekend, she left it at my house. My group already has a kit checked out, so if any groups need the 2-light kit for their project for this coming Thursday, you can get it from me. I live just outside of campus. I'm shooting football tomorrow but otherwise will be around all weekend, just give me a call and come pick it up.

Lindy

Flash Group Project

Here's the deal ... to get everyone more comfortable with the light kits, you're going to be broken into groups. Each group will need to produce a portrait of each member of the group and have it posted by 10:45 a.m. on October 4. (No class that day, we'll review the following Tuesday.)

Each member of the group needs to shoot one of the portraits - so, if there are three of you, one is the subject, one the shooter, one the assistant, then rotate.

These should be fairly formal images - good light, clean backgrounds.

The groups:

Group A: Ashley, Lindy, Becky, Richard
Group B: Kristen, Sarah, Josh
Group C: Tyler, Emily, Sara
Group D: Waites, Rene, Jenna

Examples:

Freed Photography
Kit Noble (go to portfolio, then corporate)
Gary Parker

Post questions, comments and concerns ...

Greenville News and American Le Mans Series Visitors

Jam-packed Thursday ...

Chris Weston, managing editor at the Greenville News in Greenville, S.C., will with us for the first hour. They are doing lots of high quality multimedia stuff - check out the video galleries and the restaurant guides. Be prepared to ask questions - specific questions.

After Mr. Weston, Jamie Sellers, Broadcasting & Public Relations/Media Services Manager for the American Le Mans Series will join us. Go run through the ALMS web site so you have an idea for what they're doing. (And, btw, they are desperate for video editors there - and I cannot get any telecomm kids interested. Learn to edit. Fast.)

Assignment: Feature 2

For Thursday, September 27, please have on the server three stand-alone feature photos. These should be from found situations that talk about life in Athens.

A few notes ... proof your pages after publishing, to make sure everything made it up there ... please be on-time ... keep shooting well - there's been improvements across the board already, keep at it.

* I will be on the road for the next few days and without Internet access, I'll send out critiques Sunday evening or Monday morning. Sorry for the delay but I can't alter this schedule.

Assignment: Story Proposal

For Tuesday (in lieu of photo requests), please have your first draft of an in-depth story proposal ready. We're going to use the Alexia Foundation's standards for this - so 750 words maximum length, the first 25 as a summation.

About the foundation:

Alexia Tsairis, an honor photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, was a victim of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. She was returning home for the Christmas holidays after spending a semester at the Syracuse University London Centre. Alexia was known by her peers and professors as one of the most promising photo-journalism students at SU.

During the summers of 1987 and 1988 she interned for the Associated Press Graphics and Photography departments in New York City. Alexia was a dedicated supporter of Amnesty International and Greenpeace. She had a deep commitment to world peace.

The family of Alexia Tsairis has established the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, Inc., a non-profit foundation. Alexia's abiding beliefs were in the capacity and responsibility of individuals to shape and advance peace in our time. The Alexia Foundation is dedicated to providing students and professionals the means to do so.

And about the competition:

The Alexia Competition was not created with the purpose of rewarding the best picture takers -- this is not a portfolio competition. The awards will go to students who can further cultural understanding by conceiving concise, focused, and meaningful story proposals. There is no mathematical formula for determining the winners, but the story proposal is the most important part of the application. All proposals are read and ranked by the judges before any portfolios are reviewed. You are encouraged to have your application reviewed and proofread for accuracy, clarity and conciseness. You may confer with your teachers on topic selection and proposal writing.

You are also encouraged to consider stories that explore cultural understanding in or near you local community. While we do not discourage proposals on foreign topics, the judges give no extra weight to foreign topics, and indeed, think that you are more likely to complete a story near home than one abroad.

When evaluating your portfolio, the judges consider your technical ability, your ability to work with your subjects and your style. The winning entries will be those that provide strong story proposals with portfolios that exhibit the photographic ability to execute a story at a high level.

National Press Photographers Association Student Chapter

The National Press Photographers Association (which you are all members of, right?) has an option for creating student chapters on campuses with photojournalism programs. There has been an NPPA "club" on campus in the past, but I don't believe there has been a formal chapter.

Why would you do this? Given that there are only four active student chapters at the moment, creating a new one would garner some attention - and attention is a good thing when you're looking for jobs and internships. It would get you some money from the NPPA for individual programs (speakers, shooting events, etc.). It may also allow you to go to SGA for more money to fund, say, trips to the NPPA's Flying Short Course in Washington, D.C., in October. (HINT HINT)

Work Opp. - Georgia Magazine

Got an email from Kelly Simmons ( simmonsk@uga.edu ) at Georgia Magazine, she's looking for some folks to shoot for the magazine. They have some writing interns but don't have enough work to keep a shooting intern busy, so she's looking to hire some folks to shoot from time to time.

If you haven't looked at the magazine, find a copy and take a look. They light a LOT of portraits, so getting those skills down will be a huge help to you.

Assignment: Story Proposal

We're going to postpone the story proposal due date from Sept. 20 to September 25 (and it will be in lieu of photo requests for next week). We haven't talked about it enough yet, we'll do that this week.

Hey Getty, how about not hurting the industry?

Getty Images apparently just drastically reduced the prices of many of their images as much as 90% for licensing purposes. The main problem with this is that they apparently don't actually own the rights to many of the images they dropped the price for.

Read more here:
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9776022-1.html

DITL Project

As mentioned in class, the deadline for notification by your photojournalist is this Thursday, Sept. 13. I've only heard from about half thus far.

So ... chime in down in comments with who you're doing and I'll let you know if I've heard from them yet.

FYI - Guest on Sept. 18

Next Tuesday, Jim Alred, New Media Director for the Rome News Tribune will be joining us in class. Please poke around their web site and be prepared to talk about what they're doing.

Health/Medical Project

As discussed we'll be working with Prof. Pat Thomas' graduate health and medical reporting class. She's a little undersubscribed with just six (!) students, so we'll be double and triple teaming them.

They have created a class blog where they've identified different areas they'll be reporting on - along the left hand side are the six topic areas. Take a look at what they're talking about and see what interests you. By Monday morning, please email me your top three choices and then Prof. Thomas and I will work on pairing you guys up.

Also, remember we'll be meeting with her class at 9 a.m. on Wednesday in room 205 - note that's different from where I told you before.

Post questions here, comments there - start the discussion.

Student Discounts

Rusty Bailey asked in the comments yesterday if there were any software discounts for things like Adobe Photoshop CS3 and the answer is yes, big ones.

The university's eMSD program said they were going to offer Adobe discounts, the R&B reported that, then eMSD said the R&B was wrong. Yet ... they still have it listed on their FAQ page (What products are available?: University of Georgia students may purchase Adobe or Microsoft products.) ... so that's not really an option.

Regardless, Apple and Adobe both offer significant discounts on their software and hardware packages for students. The bookstore has the best prices I've seen, believe it or not. Perhaps the volume they're selling gets them a better deal, but I'd look there first. For Apple stuff, if you go to the Apple Store, look along the right hand side for education links and you'll find their discounted stuff. Again, check the bookstore first - I don't know why, but buying iWork and Final Cut Pro HD last year was cheaper on campus than online.

Some camera manufacturers have discounts, too, on gear. I get listings of those from time-to-time and post them in the lab.

(Sorry for the cross posting, but people need to know this stuff ...)

Thirdsies

On the bandwagon... I've got a photo blog thing too. Been keeping it up since April. I try to update a few times a week.

LindyShoots: http://lindyshoots.wordpress.com

It's not exclusively photos. As described, "LindyShoots: Photos, the business of photojournalism, and occasional musings on trying to hack it as a p.j. student in the South."

I have fun with it. I'm always trying to improve, so I whole-heartedly welcome any comments or critique on the photos or on content and functionality blog itself. No one likes a boring blog...

Thanks for looking :)
Cheers,
Lindy

Me too (Photoblog Link)

I guess I'll throw out my photoblog as well.

http://www.desktopcadence.com/photoblog.

Feel free to leave comments/critiques/etc...

-Josh

Check out my blog

Well, after months and months of procrastination, I've finally posted something on my photo blog
It's nothing fancy...yet.

Lab Hours - UPDATED

The photo lab is now open for business - enrolled students in either 3610 or 3710 can use the lab to work on their assignments. Hours as follows:

Monday - 3:30 to 6:30
Tuesday - 4:45 to 7:45
Wednesday - 3:30 to 6:30
Thursday - 8:00 to 10:45 (a.m.)
Friday - 10:00 to 3:00

Main Page is Up

The main page for links to each of you is up at:

http://mejohnso.myweb.uga.edu/f07_3710.htm

Share at will.