The Multimedia World...and Executing

This weekend I was given a test.

I had been anticipating shooting the Iowa vs. Penn State game for several months. It was different than all the other games because only one photog was going. The pressure had been building and relaxing at the same time as the first few weeks of football season came together quite successfully.

I was told an hour before leaving for the trip that I was expected to not only complete a photo slideshow as we do for all the other games, but also gather audio and video during the game and compile a multimedia piece. We do this for home games but because of the traveling and other distress of away games - in the past we have completed a solid gallery for away games and called it good.

So it was a test. Photograph, gather audio and shoot video of the first Big Ten football game of the season - where both teams are 3-0 and anything can happen.

I was nervous. I was unconfident. I was a wreck.

But I was also excited.

I came up with a game plan and made a decision on how I was going to carry it through - to make sure that I got the number one job down - still photography - but captured compelling audio and storytelling video so that it could all be brought together in the end. I had plan.

And then it rained....so goodbye any preconceived notions of using the 5D.

So I focused on photos and gathered some audio.

When I went to put the piece together I had to really think how I was going to execute it. The last thing I wanted to do was just slap some audio onto the exact same photo gallery I had already sent to the web.

So I decided to take my still photos and give my audience some movement without video.


Click HERE to see how it came out. Let me know what you think.

Football Coverage in 2009

Let me begin by saying that although I enjoy every aspect of photography, shooting sports is my favorite. There's nothing like the adrenaline rush of whether or not you are going to capture each key moment in a visually pleasing way - because those moments happen in a split second, and then they are gone. The only evidence is the photograph.

I shot my first football game a year ago - it was the Iowa vs. Iowa State game at Kinnick Stadium on September 13, 2008. I had "practiced" shooting football by shadowing a Houston Chronicle photographer, Brett Coomer, on a hot August day in 2008 during the Houston Texans training camp. Coomer gave me tips, and I took them to the field on Sept. 13.

Since then, as far as football is concerned - I shot a total of 3 games last fall and the Outback Bowl with my photo editor at the time, Lindsey Walters, on January 1, 2009.

Each time I shoot the sport, I learn something new - positioning on the field, how to anticipate and how to break away from what other photographers are shooting - in order to give viewers a new perspective. But here's the thing - as football continues to be the sport that essentially drives an influx of readers, our coverage as "journalists" has taken a turn towards speed. Last fall it tooks us hours to upload photos, edit through them, cutline, edit audio and send them through to get published. We would work on the slideshow from the time the game ended until midnight that night...and continue to work on it the next day. It would then be published Sunday for Monday, and up on the site Monday morning.

When Lindsey and I covered the Outback Bowl, we spent nearly 6 hours editing, cutlining, toning, editing audio, etc. and had our slideshow sent out to the web master around 2:00 a.m. It was then posted that morning around 7:30 a.m.

Although we're a college newspaper, however, we see ourselves as competing with the local newspapers and web sites. They surely get their slideshows up before the next day...and now, so do we.

After learning some invaluable techniques during my internship in Houston, I've had the opportunity to teach these to my staff. During the Iowa vs. UNI game we had 5 embedded photos up during half time, and the completed slideshow was up nearly 2.5 hours after the game. And the same was true for Iowa vs. Iowa State.

We have two photographers at every game but one. We're still learning and need all the feedback we can get, but we are in with our competitors, striving to get our content out first. That's part of what journalism is today.

10 BEST

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how things go at The Daily Iowan, here's a quick recap: Amy is our photo editor and I am the assistant photo editor. Our newspaper is run by students completely - up to the editor-in-chief. We don't get class credit for working at the paper and we don't have an "adviser."

The adults run the business side of it though. We have a publisher, Bill Casey, who's been there for years. We have an advertising crew, a business staff, a photo coach and a writing coach. The students put out the paper though, and we're critiqued by them on what ran. But the "adults" never see what runs before it does.

As a photographer, we meet with our photo coach once a week during a two hour long critique session. Our photo coach is Danny Wilcox Frazier. He is a documentary photographer who recently had his work put up on Mediastorm. So yes, we are lucky. Last week he asked us to bring in our best 10 photos we've ever shot. And he critiqued them.


Here's what I showed...What do you think?

Football Season Has Begun

First football game of the season. Iowa beat UNI, 17-16. Check out our slideshow with audio and video:
http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/09/04/Photo/12698.html

And our gallery:
http://www.dilibraryarchive.com/slideshow/905fb/index.html
Click Captions to view captions and credits.

Let me know what you think.