Podcasting vaults one's voice to the masses

    Podcasting is a great way to get your voice “out there” for the masses. People can listen to podcasts at any time of the day or night, during the morning commute to work, while cooking dinner or while on a road trip.

    But it takes plenty of work to put together a podcast. This block of instruction call for a simple recording, about two minutes or less, with no editing. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

    The final product for this assignment, which you can listen to below, was the 15^th take. One must first write a script before commencing to record audio. I did this with relative ease, but what wasn’t so easy was following that script. Distractions persisted throughout the process. I kept hearing “puffs” in the recordings from words that contained certain letters of the alphabet, such as “f,” “p” and “t.”

    I used an old iPhone 3 for my recordings, much as I do work other work-related interviews and projects. On that iPhone is an app called “iTalk,” a full-featured recording app with a streamlined and intuitive user interface. It allows the user to adjust recording quality, append recordings, and contains an easy management system so you don’t lose track of where they’re located.

    The iPhone I use has wonderful recording capabilities – almost too good since it captures those “puffs.” However, I used a washcloth and placed it over the microphone to serve as a pop screen. As an added measure, I positioned the microphone to the side so that I was not speaking directly into the mic.

My iPhone 3 I used for recording podcasts.

    Using Audacity for this portion of the assignment was relatively easy. I used the free shareware program to clean up a few leftover “puffs” that my pop screen didn’t catch, using the “silence” feature to erase occasional breathing noises as I attempted to catch my breath between sentences.

    In all fairness, I’ve produced several podcasts, beginning in 2007 and as recently as Feb. 9. They are extremely fun to record and produce. The aim of a podcast, if it’s used to complement a newspaper feature or hard news story, is to provide content that differs from what is already presented in writing. No one wants to read the story and listen to the same regurgitated content. The idea is to tell the reader/listener something they don’t already know.

    The key to producing a successful podcast, aside from possessing the necessary computer hardware and software, is knowledge of the planned topic. For those who are unaccustomed to podcasting, it is best to write a script and follow it as closely as possible. I am a writer by nature, and a script helps me immensely.

    It’s best to perform a dry run, so to speak, before one starts the recording process, or you will be like me and use 15 takes to get it correct. Dry runs will also get the time (length of a podcast) down to a manageable level.

    While I have previously recorded podcasts, there is always something new to learn. A professional-quality podcast is my ultimate goal.

Nikon D3300 creates vivid, crisp photographs with all ISOs, shutter speeds

   My third assignment in photography was supposed to be an easy one, but little did I know how difficult some aspects of it would be.

   I am accustomed to turning out halfway decent photos. As editor of three small daily newspaper staffs, I sometimes slip on my reporter’s hat, photographer’s vest or pick up my mouse and delve into layout and design. The third assignment in my Teaching Multimedia graduate course at Kent State University required me to pick up my camera and “circle the wagons” around various subjects using multiple techniques (shallow depth of field, stopped action, panned action, blurred action, wide depth of field, rule of thirds, silhouette, extreme perspective and extreme lighting) perform some basic photo editing, and create a slideshow and blog post.

Shallow depth of field

   I don’t typically think about such things as depth of field, blurred action and panned action. During my work, I do think about stopped action and wide depth of field – the most common and quickest photos to snap. Time constraints due to a small staff don’t allow me much time for creativity.

   

I had the most trouble with depth of field. Most of the time, I create depth of field shots without really thinking about it. During this assignment, I had to think about it – and it seemed complicated. I eventually photographed an image depicting shallow depth of field after about 40 attempts at getting it “just right.”

Stopped action

   I recently came into ownership of a Nikon D3300 camera and am learning its incredible capabilities. The ISO can go as high as Hi 1. I used ISO 12800 for outdoor nighttime photography (silhouette) and ISO 6400 for indoor high-action photography during this most recent assignment. While attending the Ohio-Miami (Ohio) NCAA Division I men’s basketball game yesterday (Feb. 20) in Athens, Ohio, I came away with some pretty eye-open

ing shots I never was able to snap with my seven-year-old Canon Rebel XSi. I began my journalism career as a sports writer and became accustomed to taking my own sports action photos. This part of the assignment was the most fun. Even though my camera is set for continuous burst, I found myself snapping an action shot or three, then stopping to take a look at what I captured.

Silhouette

 I also enjoy landscape photography, and this assignment gave me the opportunity to get outdoors and away from the four walls of my office. Astrophotography is also one of my interests, so being able to experiment with various ISOs and f/stops for the silhouette portion of the assignment was quite fun.

   Getting acquainted with my Nikon D3300 was probably the most difficult, yet this assignment helped me locate the many functions I will need to access for various types of photos. With my Canon Rebel XSi, changing the ISO, shutter speed and f/stops was quite simple. With the D3300, I have had to learn to press different configurations of buttons, in conjunction with other mechanisms, to get the desired shot/effect.

   This assignment has been beneficial in that I can now better relate to two camera models and their operations (Canon vs. Nikon). While both are virtually the same, there are minor differences. This will better enable me to incorporate photography into a multimedia class, should I ever get the opportunity to teach it.