A Swinging good time

Had a nice change of pace from my recent mood of edging on being burnt out with my job that still has my journalistic juices flowing after a fun weekend.

At the end of last week an a capella group, the Swingle Singers, visited the local college for a performance while they tour Texas. The group did a workshop for local schools and singers the day before their performance. It took forever to start because schools that were supposed to show up didn't, which was a shame for them, because everyone else had a blast.



They made the audience warm up by jumping around and being crazy, played fun singing games and then listened to local groups sing and gave them critiques, then performed themselves.



I was shooting video through the whole thing, trying to balance video and still photo. Sadly they both suffered a little, but it all turned out decent.  It was really fun to shoot, I had the songs stuck in my head and when I went home at the end of the day and I started throwing the video pieces together.

Quickly I realized I should have done an interview with the singers.  There wasn't really time to do it at the event though.  So I vented my disappointment on various venues of the www.  One of the singers from the group saw it and said they would be up for an interview.

So the next day after I finished work and hurried over to the venue they were performing at, not sure when they were supposed to be done or if they were even still around.

But the god of journalism, I call him Journalisto, was smiling down on me, because I got there just as they were walking out of the building to load their gear.

I got some interview stuff with two of the singers, the sound level was a little low but it was way better than the nothing I had previously.

So I left there on a journalistic high and it has been carrying me until now.  I spent a large chunk of my day off on Sunday putting the video together. I have most of my recent "highlight" videos boiled down to an hour or so production time.

But because I cared about this video (and am using a crappy free video editor) I spent hours nitpicking the placement and overlaps and transitions.  Now I feel like I know these people, I've developed crushes on the girls and fascinations with all of their talents.  I've watched a few of their videos online, one where they do a flash mob style singing on a subway in London was awesome.

So I present to you, my Swingle Singers video. Enjoy, I did. :D

...And now for something completely different

In the last week I have created six videos for the newspaper.

I was doing videos fairly regularly during football season but, due to both my work computer and my home computer being slow, making the videos became very annoying. My home computer was slightly faster, so I did most of them here...until it blew up.

Some stuff fried inside my computer, luckily I didn't lose any stuff on my hard drives, but I'm trying to be a bit more focused on archiving.

But I had to fix my computer. Luckily there was a credit deal at newegg.com, so now my computer fasterific! That's right, I'm making up words.

What I really want to do is make a true journalistic video about something that matters. I was hoping to get some help as far as subject matter, but it's looking like I'm just going to have to go it alone.

Anyway, instead of a pile of photos I thought I'd change it up and post some videos.  Enjoy.











Since I started posting videos I was looking at The Facts Video channel on youtube. I realized they aren't really credited except for at the end, not saying you shouldn't watch Holly's, but you are reading my blog...so just in case you are partial to my work, here are a few of my better ones.

This was the one I had the most fun shooting so far with actual voice interview describing the event to go along with the video and photos. And there is...ya know, ZOMBIES!

Running

I've been floating day-to-day here. I'm feeling uninspired. I need a photo story to work on, like my Digmann or Jacob projects.  I told my editor I would like them to post a call for idea submissions on the facebook for me to do a story on, but it has yet to be posted.

I need this. I need something to occupy myself - to drive my work forward.  In Michigan at this time I would have just had my photojournalistic batteries recharged by attending the Michigan Press Photographers Association annual banquet.  Watching professional visual people judge the works of the best photographers in the state is unmatched in experiences...even if you don't win anything.

I didn't enter anything to MPPA for 2010, which was stupid, because I had some decent stuff.  But really it was the experience of watching as your photo comes on screen, hearing maybe a few rumbles of comments from the crowd and then having your hopes dashed when the "out. out. out" sounds out from the judges.  Having one win, or even be held to the second round of judging, is dizzying.

But mostly it is just seeing what all these great visual artists can do in a year will really kick you right in the face when you have settled into a kind of rut at your paper.

I always try, despite the toll it takes on me sometimes, to keep a fresh log of photographers that are better than me. These days CMU is cranking out classes that I would have a tough time of breaking into the middle of. It's cool, from my time there and at the Sun, seeing some of these kids after me become amazing photographers. It makes me feel like a piece of crap, but it's amazing to watch.

That said...here are some photos.








On a non photo front, I've been trying to run in the mornings.

My bike was broken for a little while and I was starting to get out of the habit, so I just went down to the track near my house and tried to run.

It's been slow going, because I'm out of shape. Riding a bike is pretty easy, so I've been diluting myself. Riding almost 20 miles seems like a lot, but I need to ride that many to really work up a sweat.

The big hindrance to running is my knees suck, but I've been trying to fight through it.  I got a brace thing and after a few days some actual running shoes.

Ran a few tour de stades or whatever the hell you call them, when you run up and down all the steps in a stadium.  Had to drive a short ways to the big football field to get some real steps, but it fits my running style better, I think.

I've always liked running up steps, I feel like if I stop I'm going to regret it. Running on flat ground is too easy to give up on.

I'm weird.