Filed under: USA

Flash Project

For our Electronic Photojournalism course, we had to build a project in Flash, including a preloader, a menu and two chapters with audio and images. I decided to rebuild the hospice story and the barbershop story for that assignment. Take a look at it and let me know what you think!

October 27, 2009

The Mozzarella Maker

For our Picture Story and Photographic Essay class, we were asked to find a job profile that inspired us. I looked around a lot, and found a lot of stuff, some better and some not so good. Yet the one that I picked stood out in many ways. First of all, it was beautifully photographed – no surprise, however, as it was done by Todd Heisler, who is one of the best contemporary photographers in my eyes. I also love the story of this fragile, old woman, who at the same time has so much stamina and power – plus, she’s really into cheese, which is always a bonus for me… Anyway, here’s the Mozzarella Maker! Enjoy it!


Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

October 21, 2009

AIDS Orphans

For our Electronic Photojournalism course, we had to critique a multimedia piece on a news organization’s website. I chose the project AIDS Orphans on the website of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., based newspaper Sun Sentinel. It is a comprehensive piece in several chapters dealing on the AIDS epidemic in Haiti and its consequences for the entire society of the small Caribbean island state.


Copyright 2006 Sun Sentinel

AIDS Orphans is a piece of epic dimensions. After the pre-loader with a short introductory text, the viewer is taken to the main menu where he can choose between four chapters. The first three chapters each explore one aspect of the AIDS epidemic in Haiti while the fourth one tells the story of a Haiti native who died of AIDS at age 18 in Florida. Each chapter is again divided up in several parts, consisting of audio slideshows, interactive info graphics and links to related articles in the Sun Sentinel. At the bottom of each chapter’s submenu is a scrollbar with portraits that introduce on click the featured children with a short audio track.

The audio slideshows are very comprehensive in nature and provide rich explanations of the issues addressed in light of the social and cultural context. Detailed, interactive info graphics provide further information related to the topic and each chapter contains a link list to related articles in the Sun Sentinel. In two chapters (Houses of Hope and A Future With HIV), 360 degree panoramics introduce the viewer to the places featured in the slideshows and the people living in these places. The producers of this project did a great job in creating a multi-layered, interactive and comprehensive piece of journalism.

On a technical level, there is little to criticize. The menus are well thought of and intuitive, and the design is plain, simple and beautiful, without any distracting and unnecessary elements. The only thing that disturbed me while I was working my way through this piece was the music that accompanies the menus. It is the generic, depressive piano music that is featured in almost every other multimedia piece on difficult issues nowadays. I think that the piece could easily do without it. Also, it is very difficult to navigate to the piece from the main website of the newspaper, and even though I knew that it was there, it took me about ten minutes to find it. For someone who doesn’t know that it’s there, it is pretty much impossible to find. Apart from these two issues however, I think that AIDS Orphans is an outstanding piece of journalism that pushes the limits of multimedia.

October 18, 2009

Shoot ‘Em Up, Part I

Currently, I’m working on a story about model rocketry for an assignment in my Picture Story and Photographic Essay class. Once a month on a Saturday, the Columbia Rocket Club (CRC) arranges a rocket launch on a field near Sturgeon, Mo. Spectators and wannabe rocket scientists watch as the model builders shoot rockets of all shapes and sizes into the sky – up to an altitude of 6,000 ft. From the small rocket kits available in any toy store to full-blown, 6-ft.-and-over rockets – the CRC flies it all. The owners of the big rockets often spend months on building their aircrafts, and the equipment involved in launching and retrieving them reminisces of old science-fiction movies from the Fifties.

Model rocketry as a hobby dates back to the space-race era of the 1960s. It was developed as an alternative to the wide-spread amateur rocket activity that involved dangerous explosives and construction materials and was responsible for countless injuries and even deaths. The new model rockets were constructed from much safer materials such as cardboard, plastic and balsa wood, and they were propelled by professionally manufactured, replaceable single-use rocket motors. Ambitious rocket builders, however, still construct so-called high power rockets with motors exceeding 160 Newton-seconds of total energy contained. As these high power rockets reach extremely high altitudes and are propelled by highly reactive explosives, their use is strictly regulated by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

On Thursday, I spent the afternoon at CRC member Derek Kewley’s house to photograph him preparing one of his rockets. It was pretty interesting, although harder to photograph than I expected. He told me some pretty amazing stuff about rockets that he or his friends had launched. Some of them reached altitudes of almost 100,000 feet. Others reached only 4,000 feet – but did so in a single second.

I’m hoping that I will soon get to see an actual launch. Currently, the CRC members are waiting for the farmers to bring in their crop so that they can access the launch field. With all the recent rain however, this is currently a distant hope. The September launch had to be cancelled and if there is not a serious stretch of dry weather soon, the October launch might have to be cancelled as well (which for me would mean that I can’t make the deadline for the assignment). So let’s keep our fingers crossed that today’s weather was only the herald of a long, sunny late fall…


Derek prepares one of his rockets for launch in the garage of his home…


…which is stuffed with rockets of all shapes and sizes.


Folding the parachute that brings the rocket back to the ground safely.


An electronic altimeter measures and records altitude, speed and duration of the flight and sets off the parachute at the peak.


Putting all the elements of the rocket together requires some patience – and a flash light.


Once assembled, the rocket is an impressive 7 feet plus tall – I can’t wait to see that thing flying.


I’m not sure whether I prefer this shot or the previous one. I like the moment more in the one above, but this one shows a little more of the garage and all the rockets that fill it. I’d appreciate some feedback on this one!

October 17, 2009

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