Creating "Santa’s lap has gone to the dogs"

At the start of the reporting semester I volunteered to help a reporting student create a multimedia piece for the Missourian. As photo major, it was not required that I make one.

We agreed then that she’d choose the topic and I’d assist her with everything audio/video.

On Sunday, Allison Seibel and I went the Lizzi and Rocco’s Natural Pet Shop to photograph a fundraiser at the store. For about the past two years the owners have invited pet owners to bring in their animals for photographs on Holidays. Thus, on Sunday, Santa’s lap was for dogs too.

The photo sales, which many people used for greeting cards, benefited the Central Humane Society and Columbia Second Chance.

Allison and I met around 11 a.m. that morning and checkout the proper equipment. I gave Allison a quick lesson on the marantz, and we decided that, photo being sequence, I would be in charge of making pictures.

The event was fun to cover. We met many different animals including some cats and a parrot. People were very enthusiastic about talking to us about telling us about their animals.

Also, the event itself being photo opportunity, there were a lot of great images for me capture, Allison did a good job collecting sounds.

I would say that collecting audio and video is usually the fun and easy part. Editing is where the tough work is.

We started by looking pictures find selects while also gaining a sense of the narrative of the event. We then did the same for our audio. While listening the nearly 30 minutes we collected, we took notes on where to find good quotes and sound.

We then sliced and arranged those audio gems for about four hours Sunday evening. I’ve found that voices provide the narrative to audio slide shows. Each person acts as a chapter in the story. Once we had assembled a logical order of quotes. We use ambient sounds fill in gaps or spice up moments with great photos.

By about 9 p.m. on Sunday we had a slide show ready.

So on Monday afternoon, with Allison home bound with a cold, all I had left was writing a caption and submitting the piece. When I write video captions, I use them to introduce the piece or fill in any gaps. Words do a good job of describing the setting and saying tedious details like how much was raised for charity.

So, it was fun project to work on, and a fellow reporting student knows a little bit more about multimedia.

Here's a link to the story at TomNagelPhoto.blogspot.com