photo

journalism / movies / photo / podcast / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on Somehow I made this all about cameras
8
Oct 15

Somehow I made this all about cameras

The park, the crack of the bat, umps making bad calls, managers doing their best to make the umpires look good. (Seriously, you don’t make the last out at third.) Ahh, baseball. It is a communal sport to me at this point. I’ve long since stopped watching it on television. I don’t follow standings or stats or side stories of any league at any level. But I will go to the park to watch a game. And I’m always pleased to do it if there are people around I know a little bit.

Mostly, though, I go for the peanuts. Peanuts are usually a springtime food for me. But I had a few today, and that seemed like something to take a picture with.

peanuts

This is the other side of having a camera in your phone. It sometimes creates the opportunity for an uninspired pic. I would have never brought my Canon to my eye, let alone changed the aperture or adjusted the shutter speed for that snapshot. But, it allowed me to get a few sentences on sport and legumes, so there’s that.

Here’s the podcast I recorded yesterday. This is with one of my students, and the features editor of the Crimson. He’s my first student guest on this program. Hopefully the first of many. Jimmy did a great job and this episode shows how easy it could be for others interested in such a conversation. If you like movies, you’ll find this a very interesting chat. And, he said, his mother was proud to hear it. Hi, Jimmy’s mom! Check it out.

It occurs to me now that I should have pulled out the phone to take a picture of him in action. I bet his mom would have liked that even more. Except the background would have been pretty flat. So I could dress up the room. At which point I would be inclined to take that shot with my DSLR …

In a mostly-unrelated story, this is at least the third television outlet to give this a try:

It is in play at a Scandinavian station. It underwhelmed in an American news shop. But I’m sure it’ll be tried again. We already have the technology to do this sort of thing from our homes on the cheap. I’m shopping for green screens right now. Someone, in their den or an extra bedroom or basement, is going to resurrect the phrase “When news breaks, we fix it!”

It’ll be all downhill from there.

photo / running / Samford / swimming / Wednesday — Comments Off on The perfect cuisine idea
7
Oct 15

The perfect cuisine idea

Over the weekend we met friends for brunch. I had the chicken and waffle. It looks pretty good, don’t you think?

chicken

I remember when I was young and was introduced to the concept of breakfast-for-dinner, an altogether too rare event. But that’s a different complaint. The thing I’m wondering about today is ‘Why isn’t brunch a meal we have at other times of day?’

I’m creating a petition.

Today there was class. And I did a podcast. I shot some video.

I got in an casual 1,300 yards in the pool. I feel like I’m at a pretty good spot in the pool just now. Then I took a deep breath and jogged out an easy two miles on the indoor track.

That last paragraph reads a lot more awesome than it really is. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am fairly slow.

After all of that there was a critique meeting. Wednesday nights never stop impressing me. Here are a group of people who were in the newsroom into the wee hours this morning and they are spending their free time looking at work they’ve already done in the hopes of doing it even better the next time around.

You have to respect that. I just wish I knew more jokes to entertain them with as it was going on. They deserve the respect and good humor.

photo / Samford / Tuesday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on News engagement day
6
Oct 15

News engagement day

Just another beautiful day on campus. This is the view from one of the plazas on the quad, in front of Cumberland Law and beside the Davis Library.

campus

The occasion was something called News Engagement Day. Students were out interviewing passersby and giving them a current events quiz. I strolled out to give moral support and took the quiz. (I passed! No pressure in getting that result.)

The students also produced some nice videos.

This story starts “When you’re in your 80s, rarely do you embark on a new profession.” But, really, you’re going to click this link to see the video. It is a wonderful four minutes.

This one will strike a different chord, Jason Gunter faces last shot at redemption in Ironman. Just your standard “double amputee looking to finish the race that thwarted him six years ago” story.

Every day since collapsing about four miles from the finish line Oct. 10, 2009, at the Ironman World Championship, the Fort Myers double amputee and attorney has plotted and prepared for redemption.

For the first five years, the unlikeliest of Ironmen would log onto the 140.6-mile race’s website in early April. He would survey the five winners of the triathlon’s physically-challenged lottery, of which there were 25 to 30 entrants. He would not see his name.

[…]

Gunter, 50, said this will be his second and last attempt to conquer Kona, the world’s most famous triathlon.

(Update: Did he do it? Yes he did.)

journalism / Monday / photo — Comments Off on How long does it take you to ride up Everest, anyway?
5
Oct 15

How long does it take you to ride up Everest, anyway?

Here is my social media practices class. They’re pretending to like me, I’m sure. Also, I was using this for an app demonstration, so they were interested in that a little. It is a fun group, and will hopefully be even better as the term goes along:

class

Things to read: They call it “Everesting.” You climb to the elevation of Mt. Everest. On our state’s highest mountain you’re going to have a 190-mile day in the saddle:

The cyclists returned to the base at about 35-minute intervals, after completing 9-mile laps around a segment of the mountain. For energy boosts, they took shots of maple syrup.

Hard. Core.

Here are two stories from Oregon that need to be read. These are the sorts that would sort of be diminished by excerpts, but give them a look.

‘Heroic’ Veteran Chris Mintz Was Shot 7 Times

Oregon shooting hero tells gunman, ‘It’s my son’s birthday today’

This is an interesting read for those interested in the craft of journalism, How a reporter captured the moment a fifth grader found out she was HIV positive:

THE MOMENT 10-YEAR-OLD JJ learned she has HIV had been carefully orchestrated for months. But for reporter John Woodrow Cox, documenting this moment and the events leading up to it were an exercise in not telling: not writing crucial details that would reveal JJ’s identity to the public, not attending events where his own identity as a reporter could compromise JJ’s privacy. “Our priority was not to expose her,” Cox says.

JJ, a fifth-grader, is one of the many children who have been born with HIV since the AIDS crisis started in the 1980s. She nearly died from pneumonia at birth. She struggled to take the medications necessary to manage her illness, along with ADHD and, later, depression. During all of this, her doctors at Children’s National Medical Center and her adoptive mother, Lee, worried over the appropriate time to tell her about her manageable but stigmatized disease.

Finally, this is said to be every photograph an astronaut has taken on the moon. You’ll like that.

cycling / Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off on I learned a new word
2
Oct 15

I learned a new word

This is called “phubbing.”

phubbing

(And, yes this is a photo of poor quality. I was trying to be casual about capturing an image of three people at one table all on their phones.)

It means you are snubbing others for your phone. I learned this word from one of our dinner friends. One of them also pointed out that I was doing the same thing by taking this picture.

Phubbing, I think, is one of those words that will be hard to forget, one that will rush right to the top of your mind when you see it happening.

Some of the latest Samford data:

stats

I found that poster on a wall in the administration building while on my way to a meeting. Pretty impressive numbers when you think about it.

Here are a few more numbers, but less impressive. This evening I got in a 21 mile bike ride. It was humid and overcast. It was 65 degrees. Almost chilly in the breeze. There’s probably a few more warm days ahead, and certainly a lot of pleasant ones. But this was the first day when the change of seasons became inevitable.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →