Red Means Go; Photos to Audio

The holiday season, well now post holiday season. What a wonderful time, snow on the ground for the fortunate, or unfortunate bunch that live where it falls all the time, freezing temps with sometimes blistering wind chills but got to go and get those awesome sales. NOPE. Not today. I stayed in and played with the new stuff I got to use in my quest for taking better photos, creating better photo essays, and just having a hell of a lot more fun taking photos.

RCA VR5220 vs Tascam DR-07

Live view, it's nothing super new, but still something worth noting.

So, I've been reading about making the jump to a camera that shoots not just stills but video too. Yes, in an earlier post I went on about the Canon 1D Mark IV and the AMAZING things it does and how I want one SO bad, but I really was just talking talking talking about it. Never really going into what makes the ability to combine the two, and then capture the surrounding world so amazing. Well, I think a little redemption is in order.

I'm not one to brag or promote that much one single brand, but I sort of do because it is what I know the most about, so I stick to it, and would rather do that, then sound like a complete moron when I talk about Nikon or Pentax that also have HD video capture, so I like to stick to Canon. There is the disclaimer, even if I read all sides.

Canon has four DSLR cameras that have the all mighty power to shoot in HD video, and they are the Digital Rebel T1i, 7D, 5D Mark II, and 1D Mark IV. Though the microphone on them isn't that great, at all, as you progress from basically anything other than the T1i, there are mini sockets for hot shoe mounted shotgun mics. The mic of the cameras looks like this....

canonrumors.com

Or there is what a shotgun mic looks like that will pick up much better quality audio....

bhphotovideo.com

Ok, so now that that brief little bit is out of the way, what does this mean for real world applications? Where does it play a role in journalism?

Simple answers.

Photography is great as it captures a single frame (get it?) in time, but being able to switch over when something big is happening and needs to have that extra punch that video has with audio and capturing the whole scene, then the role of a journalist has changed. There will always be the ones that carry around the broadcast cameras or miniDV cameras, but DSLRs that shoot HD video, that is the way of photojournalism. It is all photojournalism, still or moving, but with the ability to hold a camera that does both, it is a whole new ball game.

Nobody wants to fumble around with with cameras either. Imagine being out there with a DSLR and also having a video camera, but going back and forth. I've done it before, and it sucks. With the introduction of cameras like the 7D, that has gone out the window and there isn't a need to mess around going one to the other. For some, it is literally a press of a dedicated button and video is being shot. It is that easy. And photos can still be taken while capturing video, with a slight lapse in the video, but this is still very impressive. This is something that can't be taken from any video camera, only as a screen shot.

Here is an example of a real world application.

At a protest and take some photos of different aspects of it. The police, the protestors, the environment it's in, and then some other bits that may add to the story. Then having the ability to switch over to video, capture what it is like to be there in with sound and being able to move with the protest, capturing the same things as were with the stills. Sometimes the most dramatic things have to be captured on video rather than as stills. Say the protest gets violent and the police and protestors clash, having the ability to do two in one gives the photographer great power on how to capture the situation.

Bringing me back to my original point, being able to do both and not have to fumble around with a still camera and video camera is just awesome.

It's been a while since I've written anything, but I haven't found myself inspired to write about something, even about cameras and the advances that are coming out. Instead I've been finding myself dreaming about the sporting events that I was taking an average of 400 photos a game for bite your lip, palms are sweaty tournament action. Cloudy, sunny, total darkness (ok, there are the field lights), hell even down pour... I have my inspiration.

Ryan McKernan

The Genocide and Holocaust Awareness Club at Keene State College does more than get together and write letters. These passionate individuals go all out with speakers, concerts, and even the occasional dance party. This Friday, the club is putting on a dance party for the Invisible Children.

The Genocide and Holocaust Awareness Club was started three years ago as a way to create awareness on the KSC campus about the holocaust, but also global atrocities happening around the world, and it has been around ever since.

“We try and get our students more active in changing the things in the world that aren’t so great,” said club secretary junior Brittany Sousa.

Helping the unseen

They have put on a few events in the past ranging from helping with the annual Holocaust Memorial Series speakers to special concert events on the L.P. Young Student Center lawn or in the Mabel Brown Room in the L.P. Young Student Center.

This Friday the club was putting on a dance party for the Invisible Children, but is going to be rescheduled for a later date.

Sousa said, “(we) wanted a fun way to raise awareness about human rights violations, in particular the invisible children of Uganda.”

She is referring to the children that have to go out and travel at night for fear of being kidnapped by the militias and rebels and either being killed or turned into children soldiers, never to return home again.

Sousa, along with Sophomore Mackenzie Davison who helped put it together decided to sell baked goods as well as take donations to raise money for the organization to help the children fight against being taken against their will and be able to travel in safety.

“It’s called ‘Dance for Diplomacy.’” she added, “We thought we were pretty clever.”

It was suppose to be on the L.P. Young Student Center lawn but because of possible inclement weather, it has been moved to the Lantern Room inside.

They don't just 'Dance'

Other events though are in the works though with the proven success of the group over campus.

They are going to have a showing of ‘The Devil Came On Horseback’which is a documentary about now former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle sent to monitor a cease fire in Darfur with a Canon camera, paper, and a pen.

Speakers are also on their agenda of events this year including survivors from Rwanda Sousa said. They come from across the country telling their stories of how they managed to survive the horror of living through civil war.

The Genocide and Holocaust Awareness Club meets at 8 p.m. Monday nights in the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies in the Mason Library.

For those that like to dance though, and those that want to support a good cause, the Genocide and Holocaust Awareness Club’s unorthodox actions of getting student involvement have proved more than successful to getting a large turn out when it isn’t speakers, it’s dancing and music.

Why we should really listen to the intelligence that is Henry Rollins.

This has been bothering me for awhile, I as a photojournalist can't express my opinion with when asked by those I photograph and they keep pushing me and pushing me and pushing me for an answer. It was painful. I live by a code of ethics, as all journalists should, I know that they unfortunately don't, but I know that I live by the National Press Photographers Associations (NPPA) Code of Ethics when it comes to going and shooting an assignment.

First year students have a lot to face leaving home, from making wise decisions about not abusing their new found freedom to staying healthy in their new cramped environment, such issues have never been more important than this year with the threat of the H1N1 virus on campus, including Keene State College.

The college sent letters over the summer to all incoming students about the dangers of swine flu, also referred to as H1N1. It contained information on what is H1N1, along with a list of guidelines to follow to incase it appears on campus. Also things to remember when in a new environment, especially the close quarters of dorm life.

Freshman Erika Warnick said she, “packed a ton of hand sanitizer.”

Warnick added, “my mom is a nurse, so she packed a huge bin of medical supplies. I feel pretty prepared.”

As for other freshman, that may not be the case. This is their first chance at experiencing true independence, but they still are finding themselves more dependent than ever, especially when it comes to diagnosing themselves.

Director of Health and Wellness Christine Burke said, “students are going to want to come in, but that is the last thing we want.”

The protocol that the Health and Wellness Center has set up is that anyone with influenza like illness (ILI) or symptoms should call rather than see them as not to spread germs. This helps students with conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and Chron’s Disease, as well as anyone that may have had a transplant or be pregnant since they are at a higher risk at being infected with the influenza like illness.

The Resident Assistants are doing there part too in making sure that the freshman are educated about swine flu in the dorms and the threat. They have posted in the bathrooms fliers, much like the cards that can be seen on the tables in the Zorn Dining Commons.

“The R.A.s haven’t talked about H1N1, they have only hung up the papers in the bathrooms,” said Warnick.

The R.A.s have though been given surgical masks for students to wear if needed. The purpose of the surgical masks is to catch any droplets from a sneeze or cough, but they must be changed frequently after being used more than a few times.

“The best way (to protect oneself) is sneezing into your elbow sleeve with your hand your shoulder,” said Burke.

The H1N1 virus can only survive two to three hours on a hard surface without a lot of contact, but on any warm surfaces or one that gets a lot of contact like a door knob it is easily transferable, according to Burke.

The bathrooms in some of the large dorms don’t have any antibacterial soap, just the hand sanitizer dispensers that has been seen around the college campus in various high traffic places. A promotion of keeping hands clean and killing germs across campus with the hand sanitizer dispensers is a strong push to keeping the college safe, but the bathrooms a important start, especially with the fliers warning of the dangers of the H1N1 virus.

The college has put forth all the defensive measures it can through e-mail alerts to making sure its students has the resources to be as sanitary as possible, but with the incoming freshman, they must find their delicate balance in keeping healthy against H1N1 in their new independence at Keene State.

“The best we can do is educate not panic,” said Burke.