I attended the NSC because of my interest in adding audio to our AOL Visions photo galleries. I had heard a lot about the Soundslides program as well as the Audacity sound editing software, and since Will Yurman was going to be conducting a full day's worth of seminars on the subject, I decided to go.
Will did a great job in conveying the process of gathering and editing audio. It was a great starting point for the inspirational seminars in the days that were to follow. To see some of Will's work visit: http://willyurman.com/ and check out our earlier NSC blog.
The next day, I attended a lecture by David Leeson. His presentation was dramatic. When David talked about the need to start to shooting video, it bordered on a bootcamp-like experience. And when he extolled the virtues of shooting video, it approached a religious ferver. He teetered between being a drill sergeant at a boot camp and a preacher at a religious revival. He always kept your interest and was able to both surprise and challenge you with his ideas.
He spoke about the difference between still photography and video photography and said he moved to video because he was "sick of leaving moments behind." He feels that the role of the photo is to communicate a powerful message and to touch hearts and minds, and that if we replace the still camera with a video camera -- while continuing to use our trained photographic eye -- then we enhance the experience with moving images and sounds. One of the pieces that was edited by David is a citizen journalism piece that captured an ambush of Canadian troops: Ambushed in Afghanistan (click on "podcast" and then scroll to find the link). It truly makes you feel as though you are there, which is exactly his goal.
For more on David Leeson, take a look at his work on these sites:
The final day was a series of lectures. some of the highlights were:
▪
David Leeson, once again, talking about the creative process and displaying his 31 Days (click on top right "31 days" link) project, in which he created a self portrait every day for 31 days for a multimedia self portraiture project. An example:
▪ Preston Keres, from The Washington Post, displaying incredible sports photography and a couple of multimedia projects including this one: Drumline.
▪ Brian Storm, from MediaStorm, pushing the envelope of what can be done with multimedia as displayed in:
▪ Sam Abell, from National Geographic, who touchingly spoke on "The Photographic Life," displaying a lifetime of work of powerful photography. He still shoots film and prefers to use a simple set up of a 28mm or 90mm lens. Although his approach may seem to be in contrast to the multimedia-centric content of the conference, he simply drove home the point that it is not about the medium or the equipment, but rather about the "eye" and touching people and inspiring others.
You can read more about Sam Abell at DigitalJournalist.org. I hope you enjoy the great work you can find on all these links.
- Lee
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