Improving Audio on the Canon EOS 5D Mk II

Kevin Reylek over at B&H has done a fantastic review of options to record better audio with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Kevin writes: "While the onboard mic performs as advertised, I found it to be serviceable at best. Consisting of just 3 tiny pinholes on the front of the camera body, the mic doesn't have the greatest pickup distance or quality. It is capable of picking up general ambience and voices, but it also picks up a fair amount of handling noise, which can mar an otherwise suitable recording. So, if you're recording video clips with the goal of having them heard as well, then an add-on mic is a must." They did multiple testings with several mics, and you can listen to the results at the bottom of the article.  While some of the options might seem a little impractical and unwieldy, if you're serious about using a 5D…

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2009 World Press Photo Winners Announced

Anthony Suau, USA, for Time Congratulations to Anthony Suau, the 2008 World Press Photo of the Year winner for his image of an armed officer of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following eviction as a result of mortgage foreclosure. Jury chair MaryAnne Golon commented: "The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It's a double entendre. It looks like a classic conflict photograph, but it is simply the eviction of people from a house following foreclosure. Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages."  (you can watch MaryAnne talk about the photo here) You can see the rest of the winners in either a gallery or a list.  There's some amazing work in here from around the world, definitely worth checking out.  Congratulations to all of the winners!

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Worth checking out: The Arc Magazine launches new website

"The Arc Magazine is an online publication that shines a light on the authentic, independent experience. A fresh take on the "lifestyle" publication genre, it's a bi-monthly, creative cross-section of inspired living in the form of digestible stories and information that leads the reader to ponder their own inventive power (which we then encourage them to use for good and not evil)." This is a nice concept for an online publication (and not just because it features one of our projects this month).  It's a great compilation of totally different, but all interesting stories. Makes for some great Friday afternoon reading!

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Register now for the UNC Multimedia Bootcamp

UNC's Multimedia Bootcamp will be held May 17-22, 2009. With speakers and faculty including Len De Groot, Jay Heinz, Laura Ruel, Donny Lofland, Mike Schmidt, R. Scott Horner, and a keynote by our own Brian Storm, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss. From their site: "This workshop is designed for professional journalists who want to explore the various forms of multimedia storytelling and how they work together to create a cohesive package. The intensive, weeklong multimedia training program includes sessions on project planning, audio and video collection and editing, Flash animation and production, and ActionScript basics for journalists. While this multimedia training workshop draws many news photographers and visual journalists, reporters, web developers and all who need multimedia training are welcome." Registration is limited to the first 20 who sign up and pay, so don't wait.  For more info, visit their site.

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February Digital Journalist now online

"I have been a photojournalist for the past 25 years, and have had the incredible opportunity to witness many of the worlds’ defining moments of modern history; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989; the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela walking out of prison in 1991; and most of the worlds’ conflicts of the past three decades. When our bus pulled into Maryland, on the eve of the inauguration, I knew after hearing the words of my fellow passengers, in some sense fellow pilgrims, that I was in the midst of a moment of history like maybe no other in terms of its historic magnitude, that I had ever witnessed and certainly not in America." ~ Peter Turnley The February issue of The Digital Journalist is now online.  This month features some great inauguration pieces, including a gallery, posts…

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