Track and Field is not generally viewed as a dangerous sport, but every once in a while crazy things happen. That was the case a few weeks ago at the Robison Invitational when BYU’s Katy Andrews was competing in the 3000 Meter Steeplechase and got tripped up while attempting to jump the water barrier. She went head over heels into the water pit, hitting her head and bruising up pretty much everything else. I just happened to be there with a GoPro HD Hero 2 waterproof camera shooting video for a review I’m writing of the camera, and it caught the whole crash in High Def. I was also shooting stills with my Canon 1D Mark IV at ten frames a second, and I love how the still images give you a different perspective on the crash.
I wasn’t going to share these photos and videos because I didn’t want to embarrass Katy, but a couple of days later I saw this video that Katy posted a video of the crash on her Youtube page which was shot on a cell phone:
The video went viral immediately. She had over 100,000 views in one day. I contacted her and showed her the GoPro video and my photos and she loved them. She gave me permission to post them on Youtube, and since then things have been crazy. She told me that she’s been getting a lot of calls from newspapers and television news stations interested in telling the story. She even made ESPN Sportscenter’s Not Top 10 Plays in the number two slot. Her story was featured on Yahoo, Wired, The Huffington Post, Flotrack and Deadspin.
Two weeks later and her video is closing in on 400,000 views and ours it at 350,000. I think that the best part of this experience has been the feedback that we’ve gotten. People tell us that they are really proud of Katy for 3 main reasons:
1. She took a brutal hit, got up and kept on going.
2. She was smiling at herself even before she got out of the pit.
3. She was the one who uploaded the video, which shows what a great attitude about the whole experience.
Most importantly, she is feeling better and should be back out on the track soon. Katy Andrews is now officially the toughest athlete I know.
With the 2012 UPAA Symposium just around the corner, we thought it would be nice to hear a fresh perspective on what it is like to attend the Symposium for the first time and the great benefits that it can have for a University Photographer:
Photo by Patrick Wright/Clemson University
By Patrick Wright, Clemson University
First, a little background: When I first got out of college, I worked at a daily newspaper for about 9 years. I photographed the usual staple that was expected: the car wrecks, the Friday night football games, the store ribbon cuttings, the politician podium speeches and anything else that editors wanted. Nine years of that and I was ready to move on. Enter Clemson University, South Carolina. They were looking for a photographer with some photojournalism experience and I was looking for a change. So 23 years later and I desperately need new motivation before I burn out.
In Jan. 2009 I joined the UPPA and it’s been a motivator ever since. And this year, I finally did more than just enter the Monthly Image Competition; I flew to my first UPPA Symposium.
June 20, 2011 – Greenville – Atlanta – Denver – Salt Lake City
Flew into Atlanta, no problem. Flew into Denver w/10 minutes to spare for my next connection. Made that connection because plane was late arriving. Bad, since it was late arriving, it was late leaving for Salt Lake. Which made me miss the shuttle to Provo.
Nationally known speaker, Ron McMillan, presented Crucial Conversations. Photo by Glenn Carpenter
Waited at the airport for next shuttle but no matter; the drive to Provo was interesting. The Wasatch Mountain range was gorgeous viewed from Highway 15 to Provo. The snow was still on top of the mountains. The young man driving the shuttle said snow skiing is planned well into July. I observed a lot of construction all over the place: businesses and homes. Didn’t see any evidence of a recession here. Got to the Cottontree Inn just in time to hop in a van and go with a group to Tucano’s restaurant. First person I met was Mark Philbrick. He said I could register at the UPPA table when we got through eating. Tucano’s was the priority right now. Ate like a Viking, felt like a beached whale when I was through. Started talking to other university photographers right off the bat. Seems many of them have the same issues and concerns as I do. I thought I was the only one like this. Got back to the Cottontree Inn and later that evening was the UPPA 50th Anniversary Celebration complete with a Nikon-shaped cake (sorry, Canon) and champagne (alcoholic and non). Not a bad day so far.
June 21, 2011 – Due to popular demand, the BYU Staff taught a basic Video Production Class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning in the hospitality room at the Cottontree Inn at 7am. After this, we traveled to the Gordon B. Hinckley Center on the campus of BYU where speakers of wide and varied professions spoke to approximately 80 registered guests on Tuesday and Wednesday. Let me say right now, the campus of Brigham Young University, Mark Philbrick and all the others, staff and students alike, were remarkable. The campus was beautiful, the people willing to help any way they could, you just could not ask for a better, organized crew. The first speaker out of the block was Carri Jenkins, Assistant to the President, University Communications, who welcomed everyone to the symposium. Next up was Ron McMillan whose topic was labeled, “Crucial Conversations.” Ron is the expert on training people how to communicate better in stressful situations with stressed out coworkers.
Martin Vloet talked about the success of Photoshelter at the University of Michigan. Photo by Glenn Carpenter
After Ron came the print competition judging. Just like the monthly judging online, only nice, 11×14 prints on row after row of racks side by side. Many who judged said that this was some one of the best examples of photography they had seen. Lunch was at the Cannon Center on campus. The nearly 2000 young, would be athletes also there for sports camps made lunch interesting.
Dave Broberg, spoke later on “The Relationship between Photographers and Graphic Designers.” Dave directs the production of all visual communications for BYU’s 21 athletic teams including posters, ads, media guides and all other promotional materials. Martin Vloet, photographer at the University of Michigan, spoke on his school’s decision to use Photoshelter and the advantage of using this service. Then Andrew Fingerman of Photoshelter spoke on “Social Media for Photographers.”
Sports photographer Donald Miralle’s topic for the afternoon, “Seeing the Same Thing Differently.” An eye-catching multimedia show of past and previous work spoke for the person who has covered nearly every major sporting event including the Summer & Winter Olympics, Super Bowls, as well as the Ironman Triathlon, golf tournaments, rodeos, balloon races as well as sports portraits.
Dinner was on the Hinckley Center Plaza as conversations and friendships were formed over make-your-own burritos. Later, back at the Cotton Tree Inn, “Best Practices for Digital Asset Management (DAM) at Universities” was sponsored by the people at Cantos, David Diamond and Laurie Wagner. Canto Software, makers of the Canto Cumulus digital asset management system, Topics discussed was how applicable any DAM experience level can be so it was open for novice and expert. Also how others in Higher Education are using Cumulus today, and what’s most important when choosing a DAM system.
Nikon sent Mark Kenttenhofen to share the latest news. Mark also gave the assignment for the Nikon Shoot Out, Cooperation. For the third time Robert Jordan won the coveted award. Robert took home a Nikon 5100 kit. Many thanks to Nikon USA for their continued support. Photo by Robert Jordan
June 22, 2011 – First thing was the video production class and then first speaker of the day was BYU’s athletic trainer, Robert Ramos. He spoke on “Care & Repair of Photographers” ie: your back, knees and joints and how to care for them and treat them with a healthy respect now or pay later. This obviously sparked a cord with many as the Q&A session; Ramos was hit with question after question on how to lift correctly to how to take better care of yourself after a hard day of shooting.
Right after Ramos, the group packed up and traveled to Salt Lake City for “This Is The Place Heritage Park”, a Mormon pioneer town, where the Nikon Shootout took place. The theme was “cooperation.” Many scratched their heads on that one but went with it. So for the next few hours, the park was swamped with people who actually knew how to use a camera correctly. Many of the traditional garbed employees asked why there were so many photographers. After a quick explanation, they smiled and went about their work. After a bar-b-que lunch at the John Park Home, it was off to the Utah Museum of Fine Art (UMFA) at the University of Utah campus to hear photographer Art Wolfe speak. The 30-year veteran who has traveled the globe extensively showed his work he’s doing in the Himalayan/ Indian cultures.
Art Wolfe – Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU
The 263 seat Dumke Auditorium was to capacity to hear Wolfe talk about his camera gear, his approach to connecting with his subjects, his favorite and least favorite places to shoot, and how the business of photography has changed over the years. And not to mention his knock-out multimedia show. The night finished up with a trip to the Cascade Golf Course for dinner and a round of putt putt golf in Orem.
Red Canyon Shoot with Robert Seale. Photo by Glenn Carpenter
June 23, 2011 – Morning started off with the last class from the video production crew and then our final visit to the Hinckley Center to hear Robert Seale. After majoring in both journalism and art, Seale began his photography career as a photojournalist, where he worked as a staffer at several major newspapers. He eventually landed at the Sporting News, where he spent nearly 11 years shooting Super Bowls and World Series games as well as cover portraits for the popular magazine. Then he switched gears and became a Houston based free lancer specializing in shooting people for magazines, prestigious design firms, corporations and advertising agencies.
Seale spoke on his professional life from photo journalism to freelancer. Lighting techniques, business practices, and how to deal with subjects and clients were also spoken on. And his multimedia show was top notch just like all the other speakers. Later, after our meal at the Cannon Center, the group checked out and headed south to Bryce Canyon. Before we checked in Ruby Inn, the group stopped at Red Canyon for our first exposure to the area’s land formation and had a box lunch dinner. After we did checked in from Ruby Inn’s three hotels, the group went back to Red Canyon where Robert Seale held a “sunset shoot” complete with model and strobes. Consideration of land, lights and gear were a few of the many aspects covered.
Eye-Fi sponsored Robert Seale’s shoot by supplying Eye-Fi cards for give aways and for Robert to use. The Eye-Fi cared transmits the image (JPG) to the iPad in real time. (l to r) Robert Seale, Joe Pallan and Jaren Wilkey. Photo by Glenn Carpenter
June 24, 2011 – Friday morning came early for a lot of us because we loaded up around 5am and headed to the rim of Bryce Canyon for a sunrise photo shoot. We were not disappointed. When the sun came up and hit the rocks, shutter clicks echoed the canyon.
After reluctantly leaving the canyon and heading back to the Best Western Bryce Canyon Grand, University of Buffalo photographer Doug Levere spoke on the uses of Smugmug. The final day finished up with a panel discussion, “What’s Next” for the future of photographers and universities. Then a business meeting with new members elected to the Board and an Awards Luncheon at Ebenezer’s Barn and Grill. Winners of everything were announced: The Nikon Shootout, 2011 Print Competition, Publications Competition, and others as well.
By Matthew Minard and Robert Rogers / Baylor University
Darrell Morris, Matthew and Robbie view footage on the back of a Canon 1D Mark IV during filming of the music video.
This project took seven days from the first day we began shooting until the last day of editing. Quite an undertaking considering this is the busiest time of the Spring semester for everyone, especially as SING, itself, opens this week. All-University SING is one of the largest productions outside of Broadway. About 10% of the student body is involved with putting it on every year. You can learn a little more about it here:
This being the 60th year – we wanted to produce something a little unique. We immediately knew we wanted to do a love story and thought of incorporating a dream sequence to kick off the actual music video portion of it. The whole running late sequence came about b/c we just plain thought it would be funny to have a student running around campus in a SING costume. Emily Pool blew away our expectations for the lead character. She is a student whom we met one day at lunch and immediately fell in love with her personality and smile! When we asked her to do it, she e-mailed and called us persistently wondering when we would begin filming.
Matthew sets up a camera to film Emily Pool who is setting up to run across a lunch table inside Brooks Residence Dining Hall.
The biggest challenge for the project was selecting the song. Because of time, we scrambled to figure out what music we could use without worrying about copyright. Coincidentally, the SING Anthem was arranged by the same orchestra director who directs SING every year. The song is used as part of the opening performance to kick off the show every night.
Unfortunately, the only recording that existed was a live version on DVD. To acquire a studio version, we had to record the vocals ourselves and lay them over the music. We used a Zoom H2 in our studio and edited using Garageband. It was a lot of trial and error, but was pleased with the final results. Two students – Darrell Morris was recommended for the lead voice and Clare Berlinsky for her strong vocals, with Emily doing a great job lip-synching over her voice.
Robbie sets up a Jib on loan from the Film and Digital Media department.
Another challenge was we had only one evening to record the actual music video segment. We only had about three hours for access to a stage and the use of a light tech. We also scrambled to wrangle a large casting call for dancers and singers AND to find costumes. Initially, we wanted at least 50 or more background dancers, but we ended up with about 20. Though, looking at it now…I think it is more fitting with a smaller number. We had a total of four photogs shooting video that night, which made it easier to not have to do so many takes, plus this afforded us more angles.
For the entire week, we used a combination of Canon 1D MKIVs, 5D MKIIs, and GoPro cameras with various lenses ranging from 14mm to 70-200mm. We already had a rail for the lateral movement shots and borrowed a JIB from Baylor’s Film and Digital Media department for the dramatic sweeps. We shot the whole project at 24fps and recorded most audio in the camera since we knew we wouldn’t be using a majority of it in post. Matthew edited as we went along using Final Cut Pro X.
The stereoscopic photos shown with this article are anaglyphs. Each photo is comprised of two images of the same subject, each from the different perspective of the left and right camera lenses. The two views are superimposed and are assigned red or cyan, which are chromatically opposite. When viewed with the red/cyan glasses only the left (red) eye sees the left (cyan) image and the right (cyan) eye sees the right (red) image. The color matching of the image will help determine the amount of ghosting of what you view.
Anish Kapoor created “Cloudscape” or as it is commonly known “The Bean – Photo by Jim Dusen
In the beginning God created Man, Woman and a whole slew of other creatures. And for a great many of them He gave them two eyes and stereoscopic vision. OK, spiders have eight. So why the two eyes? It’s to give the View Master Company a reason for being, of course! Continue reading →
Instructor Todd Godfrey, left to right, gives instructions to senior marketing major Shandrea Evans as former CEO and Chairman of The Coca-Cola company, Doug Ivester gives instructions to senior marketing major Andrea Giraudo on the skeet shooting range on Ivester’s Deer Run Plantation in south Georgia as part of the Deer Run Fellows program on Saturday, October 15, 2011. Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/University of Georgia
By Dot Paul and Andrew Davis Tucker – The University of Georgia
Last summer my colleague, and partner in Multimedia production, Andrew Davis Tucker and I gave a presentation on Multimedia to a group of Strategic Communications professionals here on campus. Writers in the group represent each school and college on campus. We were trying to inform them as to what we’re looking for in terms of multimedia pieces in order to enlist their help in identifying potential story ideas. Normally, we would find out about an event that we thought would make for a cool multimedia piece after the fact, and of course then it was too late for us to act on it. The first few MM pieces we produced were self-generated story ideas, but we were getting way too busy to hunt through campus websites and do extensive research for story ideas and we needed some help in generating those ideas from the various school and college public information people. UGA has 16 different schools and colleges—there are a lot of stories out there to be told visually. Continue reading →
Compasses – An iPhone compass app and an inexpensive compass I’ve carried in my camera bag for 15 – 20 years. Notice the 8 degrees of west declination set for the Blacksburg area. The better the compass, the more accurate the reading. If you’re willing to spend the money, the Brunton Sight Master is an excellent choice for just under $100. Ones like I carry are about $12. Photo by Jim Stroup/Virginia Tech
Be-da-deep. Be-da-deep. The sound of my alarm clock breaks the silence of the night. I open my eyes to see it’s 4:30 a.m. Instead of cursing the alarm for disturbing me so early, I leap out of bed with excitement knowing what’s in store for me. Peering out the window, I see the full moon hanging in the nighttime sky.
MSU’s Gary Strobel responds to a question from Melissa Fuller as John Kabasakalis monitors video during filming Monday for the Modern Marvels program on the History Channel. Photo by Kelly Gorham/Montana State University
By Kelly Gorham, Montana State University
Most photographers with a news background are accustomed to gathering enough information to satisfy the 5 ‘W’s (who, what, when, where, why) for photo captions. However, we’re entering a new age of multimedia. Photo slide shows now usually include an audio soundtrack containing interviews. The interview is a key element to make sure the core message is communicated. Rambling, unfocused questions often result in rambling, unfocused responses. Since the interview is spoken and not written, it’s much more difficult to edit into something that will keep the viewer’s attention. Pretty pictures are great but if the audio narrative is off-target, the pictures won’t really matter.
I wasn’t going to share these photos and videos because I didn’t want to embarrass Katy, but a couple of days later I saw this video that Katy posted a video of the crash on her Youtube page which was shot on a cell phone:
