Snowbirds in Quartzsite launches.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
My magazine project is complete. (This is when I’m told it’s safe to breathe again.)
One main multimedia piece. One photo gallery. One embedded map. One time-lapse. One website. All in the blur of one quarter.
It was the class of ones for me.
One step at a time, I wore the many hats that the class calls upon you to wear. I was the publisher who wrote the mission statement for my publication. I was the assignment editor who researched and wrote up the shooting assignments. I was the photojournalist out in the field shooting, which was the highlight even if it left me exhausted. After shooting came the tedious world of production and editing. Days spent hacking away at php files and hours cutting audio and video.
It’s a great(well somewhat great not fully satisfied with things, but who ever is?) feeling to see the end product and how all the hats eventually brought us to one uniform package. It’s no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but it’s a quarter I’ll never forget.
It doesn’t feel like I’m done yet, but hopefully tomorrow when we have our show and tell I’ll be able to look at everything my classmates and I accomplished and be proud of what we did.
Is it on caliber with the multimedia newspapers produce? Hopefully.
See what you think for yourself.
Tags: me, multimedia, photojournalism, Quartzsite, school, web
Editing multimedia.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under me, multimedia, school
Since returning from Arizona I’ve lost what little tan I had, narrowed a boatload of images down to a “tighter” edit of 60, designed a mock layout to only trash it for a WordPress theme, ingested a lot of bad video and pushed off editing audio and video until tonight.
As I type this my first rough, very rough two minutes of my project are exporting. 10 days of shooting boxed into a Final Cut window. The start to what will hopefully be the essence of a place in a shorter than Spud Webb timeline — only to awake in the morning to find the exported piece like nothing I dreamt and wonder just what my sleepless mind was thinking.
The joys of late night editing.
Forgive me for shooting this silhouette, but I couldn’t help myself when
I came across this couple dancing outside their RV sunset.
Tags: editing, me, multimedia, ou, Quartzsite, school
Sharing “War Stories”
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
Monday was our first day of class since returning from our 10-day shoots, which meant it was story time. Everyone returned OK minus Megan who came down with a bad case of the flu. No equipment was lost or stolen. Whew.
The class was a chance to hear how everyone dealt with the many things that can happen or evolve while you’re out on assignment. The constant fear and reality of rejection is always big for me. Its the same reason why I’ve never asked a girl out.(Thanks Jenn for taking the initiative.) I can’t tell you how many times I’d drive by a situation and try to talk myself out of stopping. It’s not as if they were going to say no cause everyone in Quartzsite is very warm and welcoming. That didn’t stop my mind from telling me otherwise. Eventually I would get out of the car and strike up a conversation and be thankful I did.
Sometimes all the planning in the world can’t prepare you for the spontaneity of life. Every shooter hits their highs and lows during a shoot. It’s a given. The low came for me on the very first day. It wasn’t justified since at that point I didn’t even have a single frame in the bag. The key for me was to start shooting and a bag of Red Vines. Discouragement can come easy if you’re looking for it. It’s a roller coaster that’ll take you to the highest of highs and darkest of lows. The low serves as a reminder that nothing comes easy. The high tugs at my heart and reminds me instantly why I do this.
I love it.
Even in Quartzsite Naked Paul is one of a kind. He owns a local bookstore and is a must-see for most of the snowbirds who call Quartzsite home for the winter.
Tags: photojournalism, Quartzsite, school
