Thursday, February 16, 2006

Here's a natsound piece I did a few months ago. I wish I could do them more often. A 'natsound piece' or 'photo essay' is a story that the photographer alone shoots and edits using only pictures and natural sound. In other words, from concept to completion-- it's all mine, MUAHAHAHHA! ;)

If by chance you are judging the Best of Photojournalism contest, do not watch the story. The entries are supposed to be anonymous. I'd love to hear what you all think! The NPPA QCC judges had some good constructive criticism for the story. Though their biggest--across the board--complaint surprised me. Pretty much what I thought was right with the piece was what they thought was wrong. D'oh!

7 comments:

Kenneth said...

Yes, Yes, now I remember. You were the lady from Las Vegas with the funny Olympic video. How are you? Doing well I see on your blog. I bet if I dig in my workshop notebook I could find your card too.

I loved your story on Zero Gravity. You learned a whole lot more from the work shop than I did. I love the nat pkg too. I bet the "die hard judges" gave you crap about the music and the eagle sound. I think all the pretty swamp shots set up the story and made it more interesting than most stuff you see on the news. I really like your work. Much better than a lot of stuff I have judged.

I end up doing a lot of spot news. I would like to be more creative like you but I always get sent to the stuff going down NOW.

I'm trilled to find out we know each other and glad you like my writing. I look forward to seeing more of your talented camera work on your blog. Soon I will get around to posting video. I have two young children around the house so I don't write as much as I want too. Keep up the good work and I'll talk with you soon.

Marie said...

So, I'm a novice in regards to tv video, so what exactly did the NPPA judges have a problem with on the piece. I thought it was great. I enjoyed the intermingling of the audiences reactions to the alligator tamer's narration...just my two cents.

AMO said...

Col Corn, haha, yeah that would be me. :) Can you believe it's been 4 years??

You know what, the judges didn't say anything about the music. They essentially didn't like the pacing of the story. They liked the fast paced middle-- but they thought the slow, pretty swamp shot open and close killed it. They did have a lot of nice things to say, too. I was just surprised nobody liked my open and close.

I saw an article in New PHotog magazine about your trip to the Middle East a while back. I hope you post some of your stories from there! Maybe after the kiddies goto sleep? ;)

AMO said...

Marie, Thank you for your 2 cents! I'm glad you liked the story.
The judges liked the intermingling of the audience into the story as well. In fact, a couple of them thought I should have had more audience reaction. The one uniform criticism I got from them was that my open and close 'killed the story'. They thought going from slow and peaceful to fast and action packed didn't flow well. They thought I should have had a quick pace thoughout the story.
They did award my story an Honorable Mention in Region 6.

AMO said...

Thanks Rad! I'm glad you liked my 'hard left turn'. :)

Bluedog Photog said...

Well, I've never been to the workshop, but as a photojournalist and a viewer, I thought the piece was GREAT! I love that you "teased" me with the open and brought it back in at the end. I hope the producers didn't kill the surprise by writing about the gators. Again, very nice work...

Unknown said...

Ah, those Region 9(Denver area) judges can be quite finicky. I thought it was a great transitional using the music and slower pacing at the front and back. It was kind of like the drive out to the Alligater farm and then being there. Great story.

I was trying to remember what my other 3rd quarter entry was, and can't. I got 3rd in 3rd Q in In-Depth with 'Chainsaw Justice'(can be seen at this link: WARNING TO BOP JUDGES).

Great job on the story anyhow. Good luck in the BOP.