Category: multimedia

Be a conscientious coffee drinker–know who grows your coffee

by Stanley Learymultimedia

Every once in a while, you run across something that everyone likes. One thing that comes to mind for me is ice cream. Very few people don’t like it.

While not everyone is a coffee drinker, almost everyone who hears this story learns how just being a conscientious consumer can change the lives of a community.

In the small town of Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico, where they grow arabica and robusta coffee, life is much better than in 2001. Back then, the price they were getting for a bag of coffee was about $30, and today, they are getting $160 for that same size bag.

When you can help a community by just giving the farmers in that community the ability to buy a coffee roaster changes their lives forever.

They repaid that loan to the group of ecumenical churches that gave them $20,000. Now they are taking care of that community in so many ways.

Those small storefronts are full of supplies because those in the community can now afford to buy from them.

Coffee is the most labor-intensive crop one can grow. From the time of just planting a seed to your first harvest can take three years. Once your plants are ready to harvest, it can take a few months to finish the harvest and weeks to de-pulp, dry, husk, and then roast the coffee.

Every day while I was in Salvador Urbina, my host Pelayo spread the Robusto coffee to dry it before going to the roaster.

Just three years ago, since I visited the community, I could see changes. Most of all, I saw more laughter and smiles than even before. The reason was they were able to live as families in the community.

Nikon D4 Audio recording in video mode

by Stanley Learymultimedia / Nikon D4 / video

While I read all the manuals, it takes some practice to refine your results when shooting with any camera gear.

My first recommendation is to choose manual sensitivity on your microphone. When the microphone is set to Auto, and your subject stops talking, the Auto setting will crank up the gain [volume], introducing noise or hum in the background.

After much trial and error, I have noticed that if you move above seven on the microphone setting, you will introduce noise.

My recommendation is to buy an external microphone. I have two. I usually record all my interviews with two cameras. One camera that is pointed straight onto the subject has the shotgun Røde Video Pro microphone on that camera. The second camera, left or right of the primary camera, has a wireless lavalier Shure FP1 microphone. WL183 (Omnidirectional): Recommended for general purpose sound reinforcement, recording, or remote monitoring applications. Low handling noise. Pickup angle: 360 degrees. Clip on the subject and keep it close to their mouth. 

Both of these microphones work with DSLR video cameras. First, they have a stereo 1/8″ plug to put the mono sound on both channels. Next, both of these microphones let you boost the gain so that the sound coming out of the microphones, so you do not have to turn your gain up too high on the camera.

The Røde microphone has a +20 dB gain. I recommend using this setting and then listening through your headphones to adjust the input gain level. By doing this, you will avoid most of the time going above the seven gain level on the Nikon D4.

On the Shure FP1 lavalier, there are transmitter and receiver gain controls. My mistake early on was I only adjusted the receiver. If you turn both of these up, just like with the Røde microphone, you can avoid going above seven on the gain setting with the Nikon D4.

If you continue to find that you need more than seven regularly, you need to get an amplifier on the line to increase the volume so you can keep that number lower than seven on the Nikon D4.

You may want something like the Beachtek DXA-SLR PRO HDSLR Audio Adapter, which will let you increase the volume so you can keep the gain level lower on the camera.

Multimedia is the way to go when going back in time

by Stanley Learymultimedia / video

I am working on a project this year where I am interviewing graduates of the IMPACT 360 gap year program located in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

The audience for these videos is high school graduates who have not gone to college or have completed only one year of college, as well as their parents.

While there are many questions that this audience will have depending on their situation, there are a couple of questions that most will have for a person who completed the program.

I think the best question about anything you do is WHY? Why is the question that gets to the heart of most any story? Why should the audience care?

So the first question I asked Nathan McFarland was why he chose the IMPACT 360 gap year program.

The second question was how did IMPACT 360 help him in his ultimate purpose for college–getting a job.

The last question I wanted him to address was how this impacted his college plans. Did this one-year gap program add more time to his college years?

I wrote to Nathan, gave him the overall questions, and asked him if he could try and answer these questions in two or three minutes.

The first take was great, except for people walking by and talking over him. After that, the only reason I needed to do more takes was so I could get my assistant to help keep people quiet for the three-minute interview. So take a look and see what we did for this interview.

Thank goodness for the Ken Burns effect. While Ken Burns did not invent this technique, he made it famous with documentaries like the one he did during the Civil War.

Here is a screen grab from Final Cut Pro X, where I edited a still image into the video. The great thing about this technique is you can find photos of people before you talk with them. So, for example, we asked Nathan for pictures of himself at Florida State University that we put into the package, and IMPACT 360 had some photos of Nathan in the program that we also included.

The effect of moving around a still image helps create a motion that helps move the story along. You do not need to use this; sometimes, it works against you. I think sometimes we overuse this technique, but it is helpful.

Solving World Hunger by buying Fair Trade

by Stanley Learymultimedia

While traveling in Mexico, I was privileged to have a few meals with mole sauce. We gathered at one of the coffee farmer’s homes in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico, for dinner, and they prepared chicken with mole sauce for the group.

For those who love good Mexican food, this is one of the meals you can tell if they know how to cook good Mexican food. Unfortunately, the taste gives away the hands that prepared it as authentic.

Here are sacks of coffee waiting to be husked. The coffee can keep for years like this. Then, when the roaster needs more coffee, they ask the coffee farmers in Salvador Urbina to send more of the husked coffee. This is when they husk the coffee, which takes off the outer shell of the coffee bean just before it is roasted.

They do this before shipping to their cooperative roaster in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, so that the weight of the coffee also is less and saves them money.

The coffee on the left looks like before it is husked. On the right is what is called green coffee beans. On the right is what it looks like after being husked.

In 2001, coffee farmers who would later form the Just Coffee Cooperative were struggling to feed their families. Many farmers sold their land and crossed the US border, looking for work to survive. Unfortunately, coffee farmers were struggling as hard as the corn farmers.

Here is an excerpt from the Economy in Crisis story from February 5, 2011, Illegal Immigration and NAFTA

One of the largely overlooked aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement is the fact that the failed trade pact has been the catalyst for the massive increase in illegal immigration over the past two decades or so.

An influx of highly subsidized corn flooding the Mexican market has displaced millions of rural farmers, according to McClatchy Newspapers. Prior to the implementation of NAFTA, Mexican officials claimed that factory jobs would fill the void left by disappearing work on family farms.

Mexican officials had promised that NAFTA would result in the “export of goods, not people.” That, however, has turned out to be far from reality.

Since NAFTA was signed into law, illegal immigrants in the U.S. has increased to 12 million today from 3.9 million in 1993, accounting for an overall increase of over 300 percent. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 57 percent of those entering the country illegally are from Mexico.

“The numbers of people displaced from family farming were much, much higher than the number of new wage jobs,” Jonathan Fox, an expert on rural Mexico at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told McClatchy Newspapers.

Those displaced workers are largely the result of U.S. corn exports to Mexico. Heavily subsidized American Agribusiness not only put hundreds of thousands of American family farms out of business, but also dumped billions of dollars worth of American agricultural products into the Mexican market, putting millions of peasant farmers out of business.

Between 1994 and 2001, the flood of cheap, subsidized American corn caused the price of the crop to fall 70 percent in Mexico. The drop in prices caused millions of farm jobs to disappear, with the numbers falling from 8.1 million in 1993 to 6.8 million in 2002.

Those out-of-work farmers make up the bulk of the illegal immigrants entering the U.S. each year. Unable to compete with their highly subsidized American competitors – $10 billion in 2000 alone – rural Mexican farmers have increasingly sought employment in the U.S.

The fence along the border hasn’t solved this problem of lack of work for the migrant. However, those buying Just Coffee are helping those coffee farmers rebuild their community.

We can help solve some of the world hunger by just being informed consumers that when we spend our dollars are aware of where the products come from. Fair Trade certification is one way to know if what you buy is helping those at the bottom of the chain.

The Presbyterian Church USA has offered the Just Coffee Cooperative a grant to help them pay for the certification process. Hopefully, shortly after the cooperative votes on accepting this grant, they will be official.

Ruth Farrell, Coordinator for Presbyterian Hunger Program at Presbyterian Church, explains how Fair Trade certification works for the cooperative.

Bryce Wiebe, Associate for Enough for Everyone at Presbyterian Church USA, talks about how he now thinks about how Just Coffee lets him feel good about drinking it since he knows that the cooperative operates on the standards of Fair Trade.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no-aRv_hwjM]
While I appreciate a great mole sauce and know that it is authentic Mexican, the certification of Fair Trade lets me know that those who are part of the food chain are being compensated fairly and are no longer hungry like the Just Coffee Cooperative farmers were back in 2001.

You are either part of the problem with World Hunger or part of the Solution. Which one are you?

More than Just Coffee–It’s about a relationship with the grower

by Stanley Learymultimedia
David Cifuentes Velazquez, the coffee grower and member of the Just Coffee Cooperative enjoys sharing with a visiting group how coffee is grown.

The personal testimony is so powerful. This past week I was privileged to hear personal stories after another of how Just Coffee Cooperative was changing their lives.

David Cifuentes Velazquez was so excited that due to the cooperative forming, his son had returned from working in the states to Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico, where the family farmed coffee. David went on to tell about how each of his children lived next door to his home.

Every night we were there, the family all came together, singing long into the night. Many from the group that was part of a delegation to learn more about Just Coffee joined and sang along with them.

Each morning the delegation would gather and review what we were experiencing. For example, one morning Whitney Moss of Greer, South Carolina, said she had not laughed this much before. She was touched by how everyone in the community enjoyed one another and how the conversations were full of joy and laughter.

As we walked around the community, the people always smiled at us and greeted us.

Joshua Ediger was one of the participants in the delegation. He is from Reedley, California, where he works as a manager of a local café. As we saw the coffee in all the stages, from growing, harvesting, de-pulping, drying, and roasting, Joshua could not stop commenting on how exciting this was to see and experience.

In his own words, Joshua talks about how this experience has changed him.

To order Just Coffee, go to their website www.JustCoffee.org.

International Missions Photography Workshop for Students

by Stanley Learymultimedia

For many years a few of my friends have been discussing how to offer a hands-on workshop for those who feel a call to use their cameras in missions.

Jeff Raymond, ABWE Director of Visual Communications, called me, and we talked for a while about our dreams.

We still need a few things to come together for this workshop to work. First, along with James Dockery, ESPN Video Editor, Jeff Raymond, and myself, we will be helping to train college students in storytelling for missions.

Next May, we are taking nine students to Lisbon, Portugal, where each will work on a multimedia project telling a story about missionary work in Lisbon.

The students will go through all the stages of the storytelling process. Then, as they work on the project, they will receive instruction and opportunities to capture images and critique so that they can make adjustments the next day and continue to refine the story.

If you know of college students or are one yourself that is interested, go to this link [https://storytellersabroad.com] to learn more and register. We are taking applications, and those who register before December 1st are first in line. This first deadline is not the final deadline, but we encourage you to register early.

Why do you take photos and who cares?

by Stanley Learymultimedia / photojournalism / visual storytelling

If you enjoy the process of taking photos and are the primary recipient of all your work, then read no further. You are all that matters for your photos.

However, if you make photographs to share with others and help them connect to your experiences, then I am writing this for you.

Who and Where is your audience?

I grew up where we all gathered around the slide projector or movie projector and watched family slide shows and movies. Usually, it was of someone’s latest trip.

Later I would help produce slide shows about missionaries worldwide for a missions agency. These slide shows were more scripted and storytelling than random photos from vacation trips. We would sync two or more projectors and record audio that would run with the show.

I suggest thinking of someone in this group who is a good representation of that audience. For example, I know one photographer whose grandmother had never been 50 miles from her home. She had never dipped her toes in the ocean at age 80 and only lived about five hours from the sea.

Maybe the person you are thinking about is well-traveled and has been to more places than you have been. Hopefully, you can see that these two different audiences would impact how you tell the story.

Where will they see your work? If most of your audience is at one location, then maybe a presentation where everyone comes to a site is the best way to reach them. This location could be something like a civic organizations meeting or a company staff meeting.

Maybe your audience is a company, but they are worldwide and use an intranet as a way to disseminate messages.

Again you can see this can impact the packaging of your story for the audience.

I am on my first trip to Taos, New Mexico, around 1986.

What is your goal?

After everyone sees your package, what do you want them to do? Come up and tell you how wonderful of a photographer you are. Maybe you went with your Lions Club to distribute glasses in another country. While there, you decided to put together a package.

There are two types of presentations you can give. First is a vacation package. Here is what you saw while you were there. The second is the story of a typical person you were helping. The second story is where you go deeper and even give a call to action at the end of the presentation. For example, encouraging them to continue to help raise funds for glasses and volunteer next year to go and help people fit them with the glasses.

Pre-Planning

Once you have a goal and purpose in mind, sketch out a storyline based on what you know before doing the story.

Gather all the information you can and then put together your shot list of what you need to tell the story visually. Plan time for your interviews if you plan to write text for an account and put photos with it. The same if you choose to use audio or video.

You are now planning for a total package.

I know I need some audio to drive the package; the best audio I prefer is the testimony. The first-person narrative tells the subject’s story. With this, I can lay still images over it to tell the story. This is a much better story than just putting a bunch of photos in a gallery for people to see.

The Shot List

I have the shot list we worked from in the picture above to cover the Chick-fil-A kickoff. I was shooting for multiple outlets.

Here are some of the places the images were to be used:

  • Slideshow/Video to show internally to the company. The storyline here was to deliver moments people would be talking about for days.
  • PowerPoint presentations. The organizers use these images to help plan for the next big event, like the Chick-fil-A Bowl’s end of the college football year.
  • Videos. Often these images are part of other projects where some photos will show something that a department was a part of and needed that one image.
There were more places than this for usage, but you get the point–I know the audiences we had to keep in mind.
What you determine with the shot list is what is happening, when, and how you can capture all you want to do in the limited time. By pre-planning, we are now aware of two things happening simultaneously and deciding what takes priority earlier.
Shooting the assignment
As you work your shot list, things may fall apart, but now you have your list to go to. Each bullet needs good storytelling moments to help make the overall package work.
Post Production
After ingesting toss out all the wrong images using PhotoMechanic, I process them in Adobe Lightroom. Finally, I will narrow down those images to “Selects,” which I am considering for my multimedia package.
Next, I am editing the video/audio, which will be the foundation of the package in Final Cut Pro X.

Do you remember the old textbooks where they had the human body? Each page was a different part of the body. One page may be the skeleton, the next the organs and the skin. All were on clear pages, so you could see down through them as you peeled away the layers.

Layers are how the Final Cut Pro X Time Line works. Whatever is on the top layer is visible; if some parts are clear, you can see through them. A good example is a text that lies on top of titles.

Here you can see my music in green. The next level is doing interviews. On top of this are individual still images or titles that, when exported, become a movie that I post on YouTube, Vimeo, or another server for people to watch. Occasionally I make a DVD for someone to show to a group at a meeting.

Take Ownership of the Distribution

Today photographers must be hybrid photographers—mixing text, audio, stills, and video to tell the story.

Suppose you are just using still images and text for a blog. Then put the whole package together and post it. Suppose you are doing this for a client and offer to handle it to the end. You are increasing the odds of it getting used.

How often did I take photos for a nonprofit, and they sat in a drawer of some staff person? I cannot even tell you.

Don’t think of posting when you are all done, either. Instead, take advantage of social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As you shoot, send an image and keep it short with the idea that there is more to come. Grow your audience by posting throughout; this will help the potential viral message to take off.

The Family Historian

Maybe you are just doing this for your own family. I have many friends who have scanned all of their relative’s recipes and then put this into a book with short stories surrounding those recipes. Most of them include a photo of the person known for originating it with the family. Maybe you document your children, and then when they graduate from High School, make a coffee book for them of their growing up years. Imagine what that will mean to the generations to come in your family. I would have loved a book like that on my grandparents.

Remember, the key is having a plan before you start, which will help guide you.

Best advice to young people in professional photography

by Stanley Learymultimedia
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMUlWq7EImY]
Here is my advice to just about anyone who wants to do photography as a career. To illustrate my points I have included my coverage of the Guinness World Record for the most people dressed as cows from head to hoof by the Chick-fil-A operators in Northern Virginia this week.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 7200, ƒ/8, 1/100 and custom white balance using the ExpoDisc

Become an expert in a subject

Become an expert on a subject and learn to provide a finished product to be competitive today, which means more than just photography.

All my clients hire me today because I know a good deal about their industry—not just photography.

I am a visual storyteller using a photojournalistic approach helping organizations build customer loyalty. My social work degree and M.A. in communications makes me uniquely qualified to help people right in their own environment, by looking at all the different aspects of their life and culture.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 7200, ƒ/8, 1/100 and custom white balance using the ExpoDisc

You need to go to people with ideas and not wait for the phone to ring for someone to ask you to shoot their idea. The more you know about the subject and audience, the better you are positioned to come up with ideas to help your client engage their audience with content you create.

Diversify

Today I combine my photography, video, audio and writing to help put together complete packages that my clients can use right away. Too many of my colleagues just want to shoot and are no longer shooting because they expected the client to know what to do with their images.

I will use this coverage I did this week as an example of how I am using more than just “photos” as part of my business.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 10000, ƒ/8, 1/100 and custom white balance using the ExpoDisc

Breaking down the coverage into parts

What is the story? The reason Chick-fil-A sent me to cover this story was mainly we were going to break a world record. Had I stayed only on this story track it would have been a good story, but since I have become immersed into the culture I was able to see a few elements beyond the record that made the story better.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/8, 1/100 and custom white balance using the ExpoDisc

One photo showing everyone dressed as a cow is the obvious photo for a world record, but I knew the audience of Chick-fil-A franchisers would be asking themselve, “Can I do this in my town?”

They were giving away the signature Chick-fil-A sandwich and had even brought to the event the Chick-fil-A Food Truck to help cook all those sandwiches.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/100 

People were showing up to this event like they do when Apple introduces a new product. They are Raving Fans of Chick-fil-A.

I was able to capture the photos showing families enjoying the event. You can see how the Chick-fil-A Cows were engaging everyone.

How do you tell the story? I used audio as the primary storytelling element. I interviewed three of the key players in the story. I led with the operator who led the charge after his marketing director came to him with the idea. My basic question to him was, “Why did you choose to do this event?”

Thinking of the audience is key. This is a best practices story. This is an idea that could be done by any of the Chick-fil-A restaurants around the USA.  What I saw was this being like a challenge to the rest of the chain to beat the record in the coming years. This is why the marketing director is being interviewed. She is the one who had to organize the event and be sure it met the guidelines of the Guinness people to count as a world record.  My question to the marketing director is, “What did you have to do to create this event?”

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/8, 1/100 and custom white balance using the ExpoDisc

Sweetening—In sound design sweetening (“to sweeten”) refers to “juicing up” the video portion of a film, play, computer game software or any other multimedia project. Often this is done with string instruments.

For me the fine tuning comes in a few ways. First I was able to interview the area marketing director that added some bonus material by pointing out the event also gathered canned food for the local food bank.

The way I sweetened the interviews was I first let each of the people just answer the question. Then after they finish I help them shorten their comments to the core elements. For example I am often taking a five minute interview and brining it down to forty-five to sixty seconds.  When the marketing person first told me about contacting Guinness World  Record, she told me everything about that process. I just asked her to say she contacted them.

Music—I listened to a lot of Royalty Free music and picked something upbeat that I could use. I purchased that music and have the rights to use it with the package.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 11400, ƒ/8, 1/100

How to rise to the top

Once the idea has been created the execution of the idea takes place. The more you are part of the creation of the idea the more valuable you become.

When the client has a project thought out and just needs it executed, they are just contacting those creatives that have portfolios that show they can do the job. If the skills are pretty common then the project will often be price driven.

After being the guy called to execute ideas for about have of my 30+ years in the business I was realizing I was doing more than executing ideas.  Pretty regularly I would go to a job and things just didn’t pan out as planned by the client. It was thinking on my feet that helped me develop those creative skills.

Overtime I realized my conversations when I got those calls became different. I was asking questions of the clients to be sure we had everything in place to insure success. Those questions often caught people off guard and they realized I was more than a photographer, but an expert in their field.

After years of refining ideas for people I was developing my skills as a strategic communicator. Today I can help my clients by immersing myself into their business and helping them think strategically and come up with ideas.

It takes time to develop into a strategic thinker in the field. Start now by always asking yourself why are we doing this and how will this help the bottom line. Also learn how to deliver a complete package to your client. As long as you are just doing one part of the package you limit your opportunities.

Add at least one other skill other than photography like writing, sound, video or graphic design for example. But even more important than your communication skills be sure you know a subject so you know what needs storytelling.

The Photo Package

by Stanley Learymultimedia / storytelling / visual storytelling

The Package

This past New Year’s Eve in front of a national television audience and a sellout crowd in the Georgia Dome, Clemson capped a dramatic come-from-behind rally with a last-second field goal to defeat LSU 25-24 in one of the most exciting match-ups in Chick-fil-A Bowl history.

While many watching it on TV were enjoying the thriller at the Dome those in Atlanta were able to participate in more than just the game that day.

We assembled a team of three photographers to cover the days events which started with the Chick-fil-A Parade at noon and ran till midnight with the trophy presentation.

photo by: Robin Nelson

Robin Nelson is a seasoned news photographer who is  accustomed to getting the story. He started our coverage with the parade. Later Greg Thompson and myself joined the days coverage and around 6:30 pm Robin left to process some of the earlier coverage that we needed later that night.  Greg and I stayed to cover the game.

Audience?

One of the first things a photographer should be aware of for a coverage is who is their audience. Too many photographers shoot for themselves and sometimes this can work, but often this is what separates the seasoned pro from the amateur.

Our audience was the Chick-fil-A internal audience. We were not producing this package for the general public.

Purpose?

One of the most important questions to ask yourself is why are you doing a coverage. Our answer to this question was to inform the internal Chick-fil-A people as to why we do the Bowl each year.

Every year we try and tell this from a different perspective. One year we told the behind the scenes coverage of what it takes to produce 30,000+ sandwiches in a day.

One common theme is always there in the photos–Branding. You see for a company to buy media time (Advertisements) to run on National TV is very expensive. Time for the Super Bowl this year on CBS is running about 3.8 million for each 30 second spot.

However when a company sponsors an event their logo goes everywhere in the event.

photo by: Greg Thompson

In the past they would take snapshots showing the logos being used. However we knew the images that help tell the story where you still see the logos take the images to a different level–Storytelling.

photo by: Greg Thompson

In the photo of the LSU player running, you can see the logo just as it might appear the next day in a newspaper or in Sports Illustrated. Do you see the difference in what else this is helping us in telling the story?

With photos that would be in Sports Illustrated the audience is seeing how Chick-fil-A brand is part of a world class event. You need world class photography to help communicate it and not a snapshot.

Photo by: Greg Thompson

In the photo of the Clemson player being tackled the logo is not sharp like in the earlier photo, but it is in the background. This helps to communicate the stewardship of the marketing department to place the logo strategically around the field in such a way that almost in every camera angle you see the logo.

More than a logo

photo by: Stanley Leary

Chick-fil-A likes to activate an event. What this means is they like to help take an event to a new level and be like the icing on the cake. They are not playing the game, but helping everyone enjoy it.

During the pre-game and post-game there is a Cow Parachute drop. As you can see from the photo the crowd loves this surprise. I remember the first time Chick-fil-A gave out the plush cows. There was a bad call, well for one of the teams fans and the cows were just flying onto the field. Now the cows they give out won’t go that far as easily. It was great publicity the first time the cows were all over the end zone, but they couldn’t continue that tradition.

photo by: Stanley Leary

Before the game the fans can go to FanFest to play games and just have fun. Chick-fil-A was giving out the new chocolate chip cookie for free. Just writing about that warm cookie makes my mouth water and wanting one. New Year’s Resolution is not to eat so many of those this year.  They are addicting.

photo by: Stanley Leary

Go to Chick-fil-A and you will be so thrilled with the customer service you will find yourself saying thank you and when you do you will hear “My Pleasure” in response. You see one of the other things we are trying to show in our package is how the Chick-fil-A team members enjoy serving with a smile.

Chick-fil-A also enjoys supporting our troops who are serving us with the ultimate gift of service.

photo by: Stanley Leary

In FanFest the fans could play games like the Ticket Tank where they try and grab pieces of fabric to turn in for free prizes.

photo by: Robin Nelson

Pool Photographers

In large events often agencies like Associated Press will only credit the photo with the agency name. This is because the reason one photographer has a shot and another doesn’t is due to the roles they have assigned.

Some photographers will be assigned to be in one corner of the track for that just in case photo.

Our team did a great job this year of covering all the days events. We split it up and also overlapped in some of our coverage.

Individual shots vs package

I believe every time we do one of these packages that the larger package is more powerful helping tell the story than the individual photos by themselves. However, the key is strong individual images.

For all those who enjoy shooting sports if you do this professionally sooner or later you will be told that you need to turn around and stop facing the field the entire game–there is a lot more going on to tell the story than the center of the field.

Now there are many photographers who make another mistake when covering a big event like the Chick-fil-A Bowl–they forget the action on the field. You need all of it for the package.

My challenge to you is to shoot all your assignments like they are to be used in a package. If you do the client has the opportunity to produce a package. You also will be giving them more options.

Multimedia coverage of a middle school service project

by Stanley Learymultimedia

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-0FPmaH_-4]
I drove up to Chattanooga, Tennessee yesterday to cover Roswell Presbyterian’s Middle School Youth Group on their summer mission trip.  They partnered with SonServents on their Work Projects that also partnered with Widows Harvest Ministry to include: building wheelchair ramps and landings, scraping and painting houses, putting new roofs on homes, or landscaping and yard work.

Technical difficulties

Two lighting problems are: 1) under porch in middle of the day the youth were in some major shadows and 2) when they are painting the house they are facing the house and are always majorly back lit. While the house maybe white and act as a reflector, it is still a major light fall off. (photo by: Knolan Benfield)

 My solution for this problem was to put two hot shoe flashes up on light stands to light under the porch and even out the light.

There is a Nikon SB-900 on the far left on a light stand with the PocketWizard TT5 to control the TTL output of the light. On the far right is a Nikon SB-800 on light stand using the same setup for TTL. I have on my Nikon D4 the PocketWizard Mini TT1 and AC3 to trigger and control the output of the flashes.  They output is set to 0.
This is my daughter being interviewed by me for the project. (photo by: Knolan Benfield)

You can see the two camera setup here for the video interview. (Photo by: Knolan Benfield)

Video setup

I have a Nikon D4 with 28-300mm lens as the primary camera. I have the Zacuto’s Optical Viewfinder on the back of the camera to help with focusing. The microphone on the D4 is the Rode Video Pro. My second camera is the Nikon P7000 and I have the Rode Video microphone on it.

To help with lighting I have the LitePanel Micro Pro that helps with the shadows. The house behind her is in the sun and she is in the shade of the trees.  The light helps fill her face and by having her in the shade she is able to talk without squinting.

Editing

All the photos are edited using Adobe Lightroom 4.  I love this software because I can easily edit all the photos from a similar situation together.

For video editing I used Final Cut Pro X. I enjoy the simplicity of this software to help do things like synchronizing two cameras. I don’t have to convert the files from the different cameras when I import them.

I really enjoy combining the still photos with the video interviews. I think the stills help the audience have a visual pause to absorb a moment, whereas a video blows right through these moments too quickly.

Start to finish on this project

Got in our van at 7:30 a.m. and drove up to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Was at the first location by 9:15 a.m.

We wrapped up shooting all three locations by 12:30 p.m.  Drove back to Roswell and stopped by a Barbeque place for lunch. Was home by 3:30 p.m.

Finished editing all the still photos by 5:00 p.m. and finished the combined project by 11:00 p.m.

Took a dinner break for about an hour.

I had Final Cut to crash and lost about an hour of time.

There you have a quick one day multimedia project.

The power of the still image in video

by Stanley Learymultimedia
There are some differences of shooting still images and video. Here are some things that I have discovered in my journey.

First when you shoot stills you move around the subject looking for different angles, however with video you find a spot and let the action move and capture it.

The reason for the differences is with the still image you only need to capture a brief second whereas with the video you are capturing a timeline. You may start wide and zoom in during this time or just stay still and let the action move through the frame.

In the same amount of time given to a still shooter and a video shooter the still shooter will end up with more variety of shots.

Second difference is that with video you are capturing sound as well as the visuals. In general you are not capturing sound with stills. Many still photographers may choose to gather audio as a separate piece to later combine with the still images for a slide show, but you are not capturing this simultaneously as you are doing with video.

Due to the necessity of good sound for video you will spend a lot of time being sure you have the right microphones and levels set so you are capturing the best quality sound.

While I can go on about more differences, these are the ones that really have me thinking about how I work the most often.

The Package

What drives all my decisions on what I am doing and using is telling a story. In corporate work I do a good number of what I call best practices packages. This is where we are showing someone in the company that is doing an outstanding job that we would like others copy.

There are typically three things I am getting for content to help tell the story.

  1. Why are you doing this? I usually ask the person who started the new thing to explain why they are doing this. 
  2. What are you doing? While the person who started it can talk about it I try and get someone else to address what they are doing if possible. This helps mix up the packages and keep it moving.
  3. What is the response? This often is a customer who talks about how grateful they are for the product or service.

 What I have learned from the audience that watches these packages.

  • They often stop the video to study something. They may see a flyer and want to copy everything down so they can use something similar. 
  • They want to know what they need to make it work for them. 
  • They want to know if the people doing it would do it again and if they would make any changes.

The unspoken thing I have discovered is that the emotional excitement is what can trigger the best response. I get better emotional response when I use emotional moments as still images and not video. Video unlike text doesn’t have the ability for the viewer to pause.

Many wonderful moments that are captured in video go by so fast it is like having a sentence with no punctuation. You have no time to absorb what you are watching.

Still images capture emotion

A still image of an emotional moment allows the audience to have a comma, semicolon, colon or even a period to the package. These punctuations are used in writing to let the reader know when to pause or even stop. These pauses help you with comprehension and most importantly absorb the thought.

Video goes so fast that unless you pause or use slow motion you miss some of the most powerful emotional moments.

Still images typically are remembered better than any video. The famous photo from the Vietnam war was also shot on movie film, but it is the still image that is remembered even more.

 
Joe Rosenthal shot the famous flag raising at Iwo Jima, Japan in WWII and again there was movie shot, but it is the still image that is best known.
When it comes to emotion the still image captures moments due to their symbolic metaphors.
Entertainment verses News video interviews
When it comes to the evening news you will almost never see the camera doing moves during an interview or while the newscaster is on camera. However, in music videos and other forms of entertainment you will commonly see the camera moving around the person talking.
Why is this always taking place? I believe it is because movement can be very distracting to you comprehending audio.  While the still image is able to capture iconic emotional moments better than video, keeping the video camera still will help improve audio comprehension for the audience.
My takeaway
Whenever you use movement be sure it has a purpose. Use movement with the video to help move the audience through a scene. Use movement to help move the audience from one part of the room to the next. Use movement to help with transitions.
If nothing is really moving in a scene don’t introduce movement without purpose or it can distract.
If you want to entertain and create a mood and not necessarily is there a heavy message then movement of the camera can be quite helpful. A good example of this is the music video. They often use a story line even in the video, but since this will most likely be watched a few times by the audience you are creating an entertainment piece rather than an informative piece.
Whenever I want you to feel something I need to slow down and even use a still image. When I want you to listen and hear what is being said, I need to keep the camera still and not move. 
If my purpose is to entertain then using movement is less distracting and even welcomed.

http://stanleylearystoryteller.com/daddydaughter/_files/iframe.html

Tips for making video/audio interviews

by Stanley Learymultimedia

Over the past six years I have been doing multimedia packages for my clients. Some of these are still images with audio and others are video with some still images.  The one thing that is constant in everyone is the interview.

I have taken many classes from other pros and read many books, but most of my tips here are from what I use now for most of my packages.

I want to break down the tips into two lists: technical and content.

This is a Nikon D4 with the Nikon stereo microphone

Technical tips

Rode VMPR VideoMic Pro R with Rycote Lyre Shockmount

  1. Use a good microphone and recording device. With today’s iPhones and other smart phones you can use this as your recording device, but get a good microphone if you choose to use this. I prefer using a shotgun microphone on my camera/video and/or a lavalier microphone clipped onto the shirt of the subject.
  2. Use headphones. You need to hear what is being recorded and the only way to do that is to put on headphones and hear what your microphone is picking up. This will also help you set the recording levels. This is when you will hear hums from electronics and air conditioning units to water falls. When you hear these things you can then see about moving or turning off electronics for the interview. This also will alert you to any short in the line of the microphone.
  3. Pick a quite space. With your headphones on and testing your sound you need to listen and try and pick the quietest place unless you want the ambient sound of the background.
  4. With video watch backgrounds. Look for a background that is simple or compliments the subject. Be sure it isn’t distracting and taking away from the audio.
  5. Back light with fill. I prefer when outside to back light the subject. This helps give them a rim light and then I use a fill light. The rim lighting separates them from the background and keeps their eyes from squinting. I use a fill light off to the side to help shape the face and fill in the shadows.
  6. Set camera and have subject talk to you. I don’t always do this, but it does relax the subject.

Aputure Amaran AL-528S Daylight LED Spot Light

Aputure Amaran AL-528W Daylight LED Flood Light

This is an example of a package I did for our church. I drove up to Chattanooga, TN in between other work jobs and shot this in couple hours and drove home.  Posted it a little later that night.

Interview Techniques

  1. Get to know your subject before interviewing them. This will not just help them be more relaxed but help you know how to interview them and perhaps help them relax.
  2. Do the interview at the end of the coverage and not the beginning. I find it is easier to have someone sum up what we saw today than have them talk about a lot of stuff that by the end of the day I never caught on camera. This helps you from lacking in b-roll or images.
  3. Ask the subject to summarize what you have seen that day. While you may not use all of this, it will help you with a starting place for the narrative.
  4. Mirror them. Keep them going by nodding and smiling.
  5. Ask your questions then be quiet. No noises to affirm them. Affirm with gestures. Your noises will distract from the sound quality.
  6. Remind them what you have that they need not talk about. Often people will want to tell you everything not understanding you have visuals that will help the audience. You need them to tell the things that the visuals don’t convey. While you have a visual that shows something happening, it often doesn’t help the audience know why.
  7. Keep them on topic. If you have two or more interviews in your package planned, then each person needs to know what they are covering. Sometimes I break it down as to let one person tell me why something happened and the other to explain what they did to make it happen.
  8. Help them revise their comments. Often i need about 30 to 45 seconds of comments and a person may talk for more than 5 minutes. If I were to edit it later their will not be a good flow. I try and help them summarize what they just said or even edit. When I say edit–I mean cutting content.
  9. Get variety. I like to often record a longer comment and then follow up with them making it really short. Sometimes I use the longer comment. Get another direction just in case. After doing this for a few minutes often this gets their minds engaged and they find a new way to articulate themselves. Allow for this to happen.

These are just a few tips of things I am doing today with my multimedia packages. I am now adding a second camera to add a variety of angles to interviews.

Before I get on a plane and travel to do a story, I have a good idea of what the story is before I take off. After I get there I listen and watch. Often the story changes and is modified. I go where the story takes me, but I am ever mindful of two things: the audience and the subject. I am trying to connect them to each other. What can the audience learn from the subject? Why should they care?

I am constantly looking and listening for ways to tell the story in the shortest and most effective way possible. I hope these tips may help you.