My (In)Experience behind the camera lens

I think the advent of the tech-savvy have a lot to do with this multimedia boom. Something, I don’t claim to be. But I guess I wouldn't claim to be completely technologically incompetent either. here’s the breakdown on my journalistic materials and experience in multimedia:

GE A1455

Stats: This camera has a 14.1 Megapixel, 5x optical zoom. 18 MB internal memory. HD It uses 2 AA alkaline batteries.

Pros: This camera was a great choice while I was studying abroad. Its compact, lightweight and very user friendly. It has easy scenario settings for beginners and manual settings for more advanced users. It uses 2 disposable AA batteries and its much easier to swap out batteries while you're on the go versus frantically searching for a power source for a rechargeable battery.

Cons: I have to say, it eats batteries like candy though. A set of batteries will last a day or two at optimum use. It's also very sensitive to light. Bright light affects it negatively and distorts the image sometimes and sometimes the color is not always vivid even in sufficient light.


Olympus WS-400S

Stats: This handheld audio recorder records over 272 hours of high-quality sound.

Pros: One thing I love about this device is the "USB direct" feature. A USB drive slides right out of the bottom without any cables to fumble with or software to download. Very easy to use and stores a ton of audio.

Cons: This thing is extremely sound-sensitive. A good and bad thing in a recorder. The WS-400S picks up on things I hadn't even heard at the time: background noises, people talking across the room, echoes, etc. It should only be used in a silent (other than the interview) room, otherwise you're bound to pick up white noise.

These are my two primary means of capturing multimedia news. I have some recreational experience dabbling in InDesign, Photoshop, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Office software. I took a high school class in photography and spent untold hours fumbling with wet, slippery film in a dark room. It was for my final project that I built my portfolio on macro shots. For some reason, I've always been fascinated in seeing (and photographing) the world through a macro-sized lens. I'm interested in photography that allows us to see the world in a different perspective, and the every day things in our lives from a new, refreshing view. I think that's important in still photography: to see things from a different perspective we would not otherwise have conceived.