Shots from my EPJ Project

For my EPJ Project, I have been working with Romanda Walker, a 31-year-old PhD student.  Romanda has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which is characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons which results in progressive muscular atrophy (wasting away) and weakness. As a result, Romanda hasn't been able to walk since around age 6. But she's very handy with her wheelchair.

Getting to know her has really made me aware of how I take some things for granted. For example, being able to use the lavatory whenever I want. Because Romanda needs help moving in and out of her wheelchair, she's at the mercy of others when she has the urge to go. If it was me, I might feel bitter about things like that, but Romanda isn't like that. She's very kind and giving. Here's some pictures from my chapter on how she gets ready in the morning.

EPJ Photographer's Multimedia Website Review

I chose to review the multimedia on Patrick Farrell's website.

Patrick Farrell won 2009's Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography and was part of the staff that won a Pulitzer in 1993 for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew. He also spoke to our Business Practices class via Skype earlier this semester. I find his still images very moving and wanted to see how he handled video.

His first project on Haiti wouldn't load. His other project - on trash children in Honduras is the piece that I ended up reviewing.

The piece starts out with the title card and ambient - a lot of chattering in Spanish and the sound of big trucks. The title card is up for about 6 seconds - a little long. Then we proceed to see pictures of children climbing around the dump, wading through trash. The ambient continues but dies down some when the doctor begins speaking, telling up of the children's plight. I don't know how to spell his name because Farrell didn't include any identifier information in the slideshow. As the doctor began speaking, plaintive piano music began to swell and played while he was speaking. This use of music made it really feel like a UNICEF add. That and images like this.

EPJ News Multimedia Project Critique

As part of EPJ, we've been asked to critique a multimedia project from a news organization's website. I chose to critique "disabled in Vietnam" by LiPo Chung, on the San Jose Mercury News website. (Alternative link here.)

As you might be able to tell from the screen capture, the project, etc., was a little bit larger than what was allotted for viewing on my screen. When I scroll down slightly, I can view the whole thing, but not the whole page.

This, I think, is poor planning on the Mercury News's part, because in order to see the controls, the user has to scroll away from the identifying logo for the site. Yes, they may have gotten there, by choice, specifically choosing the website before the multimedia project, but often times links to articles or multimedia stories are forwarded. Having that name recognition there for the user to see, without having to work at it, is important. Most people are lazy and will find it irritating to have to use the scroll bar to simply see something very simple.

EPJ Photographer Portfolio Website Critique

There are some photographer's websites that I like. Such as:

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/ - Easy to navigate (menus stay on the left) and you see the pictures as you go, so there's no guessing. Very user friendly! And image information is provided.

http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/ - Easy to scroll over links, the menu remains at the bottom. The top right shows which portfolio you're looking at, thumbnail images in a pop-out menu show you your choices.

http://www.uwehmartin.de/ - Menu remains at the top, scrolling over images gives their caption information, bottom right provides a way to scroll through images (although I like being able to pick and choose out of order better), top right provides story info, font is readable

But here's one that I came across that I didn't like, the website for photographer Todd Hido.

EPJ Final Project Idea

I have two potential ideas for my final project for EPJ.

First, a project featuring a graduate student at MU, Romanda Walker. Romanda has muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheel chair. My roommate last year worked with her on the weekends, serving as her personal attendant.  At 30, Romanda has quite a few accomplishments under her belt, including Ms. Wheelchair USA 2008 1st runner up and being honored in the annual Jerry Lewis telethon. She also participates in a soccer league. I see Romanda as a good story because of how she has used what she's been given to the best of her abilities.

• https://www.shalomccop.org/index.cfm/PageID/1671/index.html 
• http://www.mvs.usace.army.mil/pa/mvs-news/RomandaWalker-2008.html 
• http://www.peopleonwheels.org/stlouis/?p=20 

Second, I'm thinking of doing a story on a pipefitter. My grandfather, uncle, and father all worked as fitters over the years (my father mainly prior to getting a job in finance, his true passion). Most people have never heard of a pipefitter is, let alone can describe what they do. And any fitter will tell you that they are not a plumber!  I see this as a good story because of the myriad of locations that construction can provide. The challenges to this story are: (1) manuevering on a construction site can be dangerous so permissions would need to be arranged, etc., (2) Columbia does not have a local union for fitters, so it may require traveling to St. Louis or Kansas City.

EPJ Media Organization Web Site Critique

The website that I chose to critique is http://english.aljazeera.net/. I first began reading stories on this website a year ago, when I was taking an International Journalism class. I appreciated its content, often finding the reporting to be balanced and in-depth.

But in taking a critical eye to its use of media, I found there are several things that I think should be improved:

1. While the website uses images and video, I found that I wanted more by way of these media. Typically, each story features a single picture or video associated with it. The lack of pictures made the articles seem a little bland to me. Websites like the New York Times and the Washington Post typically have more than one image or graphic.
2. Likewise, I found myself missing the imbedded links that the Post or the Times provide, which link to additional information. For the most part, each article was a dead end as far as ease in finding additional information. A few web pages did this, mostly for really big stories, but most stories do not include links.
3. The front page of Al Jazeera’s website was extremely jam-packed with links to news stories. But this plethora of data served to merely feel overwhelming rather than helpful. And I really hated having to scroll down, down, down… The sub-front pages for each category weren’t much better.
4. Unlike the Times or the Post, the quality of images was inconsistent, as though it was an afterthought, if that. As a photojournalist, the image quality really bugged me. It was if none of it was taken by professional photojournalists, but they just got an image to have one and possibly catch someone’s eye.
5. Navigation was one of my main complaints with the site. While its task bar remained consistent, sitting on the left side of the page, and a color change indicated which section of the site you were in, getting around after you select an article either means using the back button in your browser to starting at the main subsection page. There was no other way to leave a page. I greatly wished that it would have a ‘back to previous’ button or the like. The Times has links at the bottom of its article pages which include things like ‘Next post’ or ‘More Articles in XXXX.’ This set up seems to invite more surfing.
6. Both websites feature a ‘top news’ or ‘related news’ article list, which is nice for surfing. And both provide related articles. I preferred the Times way of putting them at the end of the article I’m reading rather than at the top of the page.
7. Both sites provide a list of ‘most e-mailed’ but the Times’s style seems cleaner, I think because of the color (or lack of color) used.
8. I’m not really a fan of the mustard color used on the site for headers, etc., but I think I understand the logic of it, since it is similar to sand and Al Jazeera is published in a desert region.
9. One other thing of note: the font on Al Jazeera website was sans serif, while both the Times and the Post used serif’d fonts. While sans serif is supposed to be easier to read, I find myself liking the serif’d font choice better. It may be from a reading background bias, but the breaking up of the font style seemed to make those sites more visually interesting.

My Future Professional Website

As EPJ is progressing, I will be working on my professional website. This week, we were charged with creating its front page. I don't know if I'm going to stick with what I've got, but I like it for now.

It was very frustrating, though. I accidentally named my cascading style sheet with a capital letter (Stylesheet.css), but in coding my webpages, I called it by a lower case letter (stylesheet.css). So, my
specifications for the font color and my background color weren't taking. I did finally realize my mistake after over an hour of coding and recoding, etc. And being very befuddled...

A Few Notes from Class

Blackstar Rising 

5 Questions to Ask Before You Redesign Your Website

Online Photography Portfolios: Answering Your Questions

Suggestion for ease in portfolio website: name your pictures 1-10, etc. Then, when need to change them, you can just replace the images with new numbers on your web server.

One other to consider: DSLR Blog: Adventures in Digital Photography

Animation Archive
Silliman's Blog 

Also, one for laughs: Web Pages That Suck