Visually, the walk to my building this morning reminded me of my old campus (in any of nine different months). More experimenting with this Kodak Zi8 …
Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/196, f/2.8
Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/196, f/2.8
(The banding is some sort of byproduct from the camera – the lamp isn’t striped like that, showed up on multiple frames.)
Just waiting … you get tired of searching for patterns after a while.
When the Flip Ultra camcorder came out a few years ago, I made a comment that it was a good tool with great potential, but it needed one more feature. Flip has pushed out a few more generations of the camera, getting better with each revision, but not really pushing the envelope on what it could become.
A few months ago, Kodak (KODAK!) did what Flip should have done – they added a mic jack to the side of their version. They also added a few other things (removable memory cards, four video resolutions and even the ability to shoot a 5 megapixel still). It took me a while, but yesterday a loaner showed up from Big Yellow up north so I could figure out if this is the teaching camera I’ve been lusting after for an intro to multimedia class we desperately need.
There’s a lot of testing to be done, but I popped off a few stills on the way to the car. Will this rival a 5D Mark II or a D3s? Uh, no. But it also costs less than 1/15th of the cheaper of those options.
And having been raised on Kodachrome and Tri-X, there’s a certain warmth to opening a Big Yellow box again.
More to come …
Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/320, f/2.8
Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/213, f/2.8
This is it – last day of classes, final portfolios in progress. A little panic, a little relief, a sentiment shared with the students.
It has been a long semester. The regular classes have gone well, though the new classes have been a challenge. Returning to my normal courses in January will be a bring back a sense of normalcy.
For the students, everything is hopefully coming into clarity, the lessons of August and September should have been absorbed and sharpened into their daily visions. Some of what I’ve seen shows that, some thankfully have a bit of time left.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24 mm f/3.5 TS-E, ISO 250, 1/1250, f/6.3
They are rebuilding what is known as New College on campus. (New because it is allegedly the second building built, adjacent to what is called Old College.) Over the summer, while working in the basement, they found evidence of an even older building that was on the same site. (I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to go see that, but with no journalistic or academic reason to ask, I didn’t.)
But at certain times, you can see glimpses of what is a nearly 200 year old building.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24 mm f/3.5 TS-E, ISO 500, 1/250, f/4.0
Sitting in the back of the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar on Saturday, looking around at how intent everyone was. Students looking for glimpses of knowledge, professionals looking for glimmers of hope.
For me, these events are difficult … I want to attend to attend, to let the warmth and knowledge flow into me, rejuvenate my soul. But I need to be there to build contacts for my students, to find new people who can help them grow, be it through guest lectures or internship opportunities. And I need to renew old contacts, refresh friendships, for the benefit of the students and myself.
So the dilemmas … sit in for all the presentations or just a few … schmooze a lot of people or just a few … catch up with a lot of people or just a few. My day ended up being a lot of fews.
And, as we head into the holiday season, a season that will have us at home for the first time as a family and not on the road, I’m reminded of that same balance challenge of years past – if I’m back in New England, where there are old friends and family to see, do I choose a few to see well, or many to see lightly?
I leaned towards many lightly and always came away unsatisfied. At Saturday’s seminar, I saw few friends, but saw them well. And came away satisfied. I leaned into those conversations and let everything else disappear.
Canon PowerShot G10, 30.5 mm, ISO 800, 1/8, f/4.5