Hi folks -- sorry, working a little slowly today; I'm still digesting what must have been a half a sack of onion rings from lunch. We'll get the Editor's Picks up later this afternoon.
In the meantime, here's a useful article that was linked off the CNN.com main page; they have a citizen journalism thing, CNN Exchange, where they're looking for user-submitted content ("I-Reports"): photos, video and audio.
In their I-Report Toolkit, they have a Tips Section that's a pretty useful summary of how to take to take better photos, video and audio, even if you aren't planning on submitting anything.
It's pretty simple but fundamentally important stuff like:
* Using the Rule of Thirds when composing photos and video shots.
* Avoid complicated backgrounds ("And don't forget to make sure your subject doesn't have anything sticking out of his or her head, like a tree or a utility pole.")
* When editing video, don't go crazy with pans, zooms and dissolves. ("An overuse of dissolves tells viewers that there just wasn't enough material to make the story work.")
* When you're recording audio, wear headphones ("...always wear headphones to make sure you're noticing exactly what your microphone is picking up.")
Like I said, useful stuff, even if you're not trying to be a citizen journalist (which, after all, is just gussied-up storytelling, and we all want to be better storytellers, right?)
Thanks -- Joe
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Joe last year I happen to be in the right place at the right time (sadly) taking pictures of major flooding in NH. I sent my pictures to a connection I had at NH.com and she wrote back, the local newspaper wanted permission to use my photos. We were caught in the floods returning home from a visit to our daughters in CT, one of most frightening times of our lives.
Betty
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