After scratching my head for a while to figure out what I was going to do for my final project in Staff Photojournalism, I realized that I should expand on the month-long architecture project that began back in October and ran in the Missourian last week.  And unlike the other slideshows this semester, I made this one at home, using Premiere Pro (the school only has Final Cut Express, which, unlike it’s bigger brother, cannot handle square pixels, meaning that all images are warped).  All comments welcome!

Tags: architecture, multimedia, slideshow
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This past Friday I was recording an interview using my Olympus recorder and a borrowed set of Sennheiser G2 wireless lavalier microphones, and the whole time, despite having the levels set well on my Oly recorder, I thought that there was some distortion to the audio.  Well, lo and behold, there was a reason for that: the Sennheiser’s sensitivity was set way too high.  Did I check this first?  No.  Did I think to stop the interview and re-check the settings on the wireless mic?  No.  Was that a mistake?  Yes.

I would have been much, much happier if its sensitivity had been dialed back to -30 dB, as seen on the left.  What happens if you don’t is that talking in anything but a  low voice/volume leads to the mic clipping the audio considerably.

And one of the problems with the Sennheiser design is that the microphone bodypack has a “peak” light to let you know that there is just too much sound for it to handle, but the receiving end, which plugs into the recorder, has no such light.  Does it have a level?  Sure, but the screen is small and is only illuminated when you’re manipulating the menu.

The take-away is that you have got to be careful whenever introducing a relatively unfamiliar bit of equipment into your work-flow.  When you aren’t so careful, the results can be pretty bad.  Not salvageable, but not the world’s greatest, either.

Tags: audio
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This afternoon I began the process of upgrading my RAID-1 mirrored system that houses my entire photo archive.  For the past two years, my photos have lived on a Sans Digital RAID box (just like this G-Tech model at B&H) consisting of dual 500gb drives.  The only problem is that I’ve been using a 5D Mark II for almost a year, and I capture in RAW.  With the addition of a 7D, and with Adobe soon to release an update to Lightroom to officially support its RAW files (there is a beta), I’m about to have 18 megapixel RAW files, too.  What’s kind of amazing is that I haven’t needed to expand the capacity of the drive sooner, but I delete a lot of my outtakes.

It’s two in the morning now and the process began around 3pm.  The new 1.5 terabyte drive had to be formatted (I don’t believe in the “quick format” to initialize a new drive), then my 410 gigs of images had to be copied over.  Now the drive is in the process of copying the image of one disk onto the other–it’s format, data, etc.

I would heartily recommend a RAID system to anyone–granted, RAID 5 or the Drobo would be even better.  However, either of those alternatives require more than two disks at a time, and I’m trying to save on money and space at the moment.  For the mean time, I’m just happy to have a terabyte to grow into on top of the 400+ gigs I’m already using.  Now to figure out my back-up solution for the 1.5 TB system…

Tags: back up, RAID
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I haven’t photographed much basketball before, so I didn’t exactly know what I was doing when I went to photograph Hickman High School’s women’s basketball team play Helias High School.  I have no doubt that I am at the bottom rung of the totem pole, but even so, I had fun.  Especially when Hickman’s junior guard Aqua Corpening dove down to the floor after shooting for a two-pointer with only a minute left to the game.  Just as she’s about to hit the hardwood floor, the ball starts to go through the net.

Hickman junior guard Aqua Corpening dives to the floor after shooting a two-pointer in the fourth period of the game against Helias High School on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. The Kewpies defeated the Crusaders 53-48. | Canon 1D IIn and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm; exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1250.

I also thought that the way that the Helias team was swarming around the same player, Aqua Corpening, was fun in this image:

Aqua Corpening, junior guard for the Hickman Kewpies, prepares to attempt a two-point shot during the fourth period of the game against the Helias Crusaders on Dec. 3, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. | Canon 1D IIn and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 38mm; exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1250.

Usually I’m told to find a good sports feature in addition to the usual sports action.  Most of the time I can find interesting people in the crowd, but I had forgotten that a better opportunity would come at half time, when people can go out onto the court and shoot baskets themselves:

Jackson Kespohl, 6, aims for the basketball hoop during half-time at the Hickman High School vs. Helias women's basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. | Canon 7D and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 81mm; exposed 1/400 @ f/4, ISO 3200.

Tags: basketball, sports, sports feature
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