long time no see

I guess it's been a while since i've written something "proper" so to speak, what can I say - moving to the other side of the world and settling in to a new culture is a bit time-consuming

I think something will come soon, i'm itching to write something I actually think is decent, something i've constructed and thought out... if you didn't know while i'm in Missouri i'm a columnist for AUT's student magazine Debate... I can't decide how it's going, i've only really liked my first story - the rest have been a kind of rushed and not up to my standard of what I like to send out. Ah well, it's a good learning experience. And I think my next column will be FANTASTIC. So hurrah.

I suppose the main reason for the lack substance is school - I can't even describe how insane Americans are when it comes to Uni, like, they are legitimately crazy people. Thank god i'm organized, i'm running around like a headless chook as it is, I can't imagine what i'd be like without my day planner hahaha.

Speaking of school - you may have seen several posts labelled with 4802 here popping up more frequently than anything else, that is because there is a blog component to my Convergence class, so don't feel inclined to read it, it's just school work ;)

That's it, just thought i'd say hi. I guess I didn't really realize that there are actually people who read this from time to time... who'd-a thunk it huh?!

x

4802 - Collecting Audio

Collecting audio has been a pretty interesting experience so far - my first Thursday on the field was both exciting and challenging for several reasons.

On a technical note, the weather was insane - really strong winds and random bursts of heavy rain meant I had to be really careful with what I recorded, and even though I used my body as a wind shield there were still several tracks I couldn't use because of the wind. Luckily for me, I found an unlocked equipment shed so I ended up using that to conduct my interviews - kind of strange but it was a good way to break the ice with my interviewee Maggie!

Technical issues aside, the most difficult thing for me was actually conducting the interview. I'm not the most outgoing person and situations like this can make me quite nervous and intimidated. However, for a first go at interviewing I think I did OK. Obviously a lot to work on, but it's a start.

I started recording for my NPR track last Thursday and luckily I didn't run into the same weather issues. I interviewed assistant-coach Mike McKeen, who was clearly very passionate about what he was doing which made it a lot easier to interview him - plus I feel like my experience with Maggie the week before served as a good lead up, I definitely felt more confident in not only interviewing, but in using the equipment. I also got a bunch of great natural sound, and I'm feeling like I can improve on my last effort so i'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my audio piece take shape!

in love with: anthropologie

they have some seriously cute stuff right now. seriously.

anthropologie.com

4802 - Three Photos

I've just got back from rugby practice at Epples field where i've been shooting my first 4802 assignment. I'm following Mizzou's women's Rugby team this season - the girls are feisty, and a little intimidating but the for the most part they were all really friendly and are in essence a great big extended family. Today was pretty much a recruitment day, introducing all the rookies to the rules and nuances of Rugby.

I'm not gonna lie - I was a little cocky coming into this one. I feel like I have an eye for composition, and i'm not new to using a DSLR so I thought it'd be pretty easy to breeze through it.

Boy was I wrong.

What I had also forgotten to take into account was the fact I was no longer shooting static images - sports photography is a completely new ball game and I found it extremely challenging in many ways.

While I was taking photos I tried to keep the reading on sports photography in mind by following the tips on vantage point and horizon... a couple of my favorite shots were taken while I was lying on the ground shooting the players above me - it gave me a clear view of all the action and on a more practical note helped reduce camera shake and blur.

Shooting in the fading light also produced some challenges. Because some of my pictures were taken with a telephoto lens I had to keep the shutter speed high which meant when I couldn't get the aperture down low enough I had to deal with under-exposure. When this happened I upped the ISO which often made a massive difference.

The whole time I was there I just tried to take as many photos as possible - you can only learn so much from a manual and i'm not going to get any better at sports photography by sitting on my behind. Yes, it was challenging, and certainly intimidating coming into a new environment like this, but it was a great experience and I look forward to moving forward with this team.