Back to the storyfying quest…As part of my morning get-ready-for-work schedule, I queue of recent audio posts on NPR to listen to and get caught up on the world, as NPR defines current events.   I recall listening to a piece about an “interesting” advertisement that Senator Mitch McConnell had recently released.  The article pointed out […]

For the Design Safari, carried my camera around with me this week, collecting images that aligned with the different the different themes we reviewed as part of this week’s topic material.  Below, I’ve embedded three images along with summary of the elements and what makes them effective.  I’ve also linked the titles to the actual Flickr […]

I will admit while this poster looks like it took about 4 seconds to make, it actually was more of an involved effort than first appears…First I had to think of a movie.  I looked through the past few year’s worth of Oscar winners and while I could think of a few sarcastic things to […]

We had a Netflix movie that needed to be watched, so movie night it was.  I had read some of the assignment ideas earlier that day, and while I hadn’t intended to make the movie I watched the subject beforehand, I started to think about as I was watching and began noting words that could […]

I kept my eyes open this week and snapped some designs that caught my eye as well as including a “design” of a building that I’ve always loved. Rhythm:  I am redoing the powder room in our house and was looking through wallpaper samples this past weekend (which is also a key marker I am […]

Adjusted April 13, 2014 Background A few weeks ago, I was browsing Amazon Prime On-Demand movie listing and came across the movie title graphic for Forrest Gump, an image of a man sitting alone on park bench looking up into space.  I remembered that this was one of my favorite movies for a lot of different […]

Adjusted April 13, 2014 Background For this week’s assignment, I chose to create a Children’s bookcover, I had a conversation with a friend the other day about the world of computing from our eyes and how it differs from what the current high school generation is going through.  One of the thing we noted was […]

I decided to do the Color Splash assignment – in this assignment I needed to remove all the color from a photo and then turn the color back on for just one part of it. I chose to use a photo from my trip to the ocean because kdlsjf;ds flkdsj f;dsa fd safd safdsa dsafdsafa.

This week we took our first step into the world of photo blogging.  We started with a few tips and tricks for composing a photograph, allowing us to appreciate the communication potential and dimensions of photography.  We started by reviewing different photography tips and including them in our own photography.  I took this as an opportunity to […]

Nike Run Write another blog post summarizing what you found that might or might not work for something that could use a story approach to make it more effective. Explain why you chose it. Even if you are not sure if it will work, keep the ideas going.   When I think about images that […]

Do you remember when you were little, out for the evening with the parents?  At the end of the night and the fun, they’d strap you in the car seat and before you knew it you’d be home, having fallen asleep in the car on the way there.   This post is like pulling into the […]

I have to be honest–I am really struggling with coming up with ideas. My classmates have some great ideas so I know it can be done…I find myself either shooting ideas down because they are too boring or because they have already been “told”. At one point during the week I had a few ideas, […]

I pulled this from my earlier Photoblitzing Safari exercise. It was the image that was “dominated by one color” and so I thought it would flip the original intent and mute that dominating color to see what was left behind. The effect was a blue emphasis on SunTrust shaded in the afternoon sun. Though the […]

I chose to use an image a friend sent me from the fresh fallen snow in the Alps and an image of my family in the sunny yet frigid winter in Durham, North Carolina. I combined them because the temperature was the same in both places, so the winter attire we were wearing in Durham […]

Five Card Story: Man ponders the fate of his pots a Five Card Flickr story created by Amos Cruz flickr photo by bionicteaching flickr photo by Serenae flickr photo by Serenae flickr photo by bionicteaching flickr photo by bionicteaching Early in the morning, a flower shop owner rinses down his shop before tending to his […]

    For this activity, I chose DuPont Circle because there is always a lot of activity happening there.  The interaction of the circle with asymmetrical, yet perpendicular lines creates an interesting dynamic of lines and curves.  Additionally, it acts as centralized social hub, bringing with it a variety of people, animals, architecture, and “noise.”  […]

Rule of Thirds   This picture breaks the Rule of Thirds by placing my nephew in within the box formed by the four lines, as opposed to placing him at the intersections of the lines as dictated by the Rule of Thirds.  I think its interesting how all of his neighbors (the stuff animal gang) […]

For this assignment, I wanted to use some pictures I already had. I started going through the many vacation pictures we have. I was looking for photos that offered some “space”over which to layer other images. I took a photo from our trip to England of the Roman Baths in Bath, England and combined it […]

Because I like to live dangerously, I chose the very first assignment at the top of the list: Splash the Color.  I don’t know if there was an “inspiration” for this per se–my thinking was more more “how am I going to get this done?”  I remembered the name Pixlr from the opening video for […]

I ventured outdoors again to the wilds of my backyard–in daylight this time–for this assignment.  I also re-used my trusty living room rug as I had done initially in my scavenger hunt post.  These shots incorporate the use of contrast, close-up, and interesting angles to alter my perspective.  For the first two concepts, I was […]

After a few draws, I decided to stick with this draw–the hovercraft sign was the spark that made it a bit easier to start something.  Clearly I would not have thought of a story involving a hovercraft on my own!  I think I went farther than captions, but I did not necessarily “do my research” […]

I chose my house because it was at night and I was already in my loungewear so I wasn’t really up to venturing anywhere except my backyard (and even then that’s a little iffy at night!) The time went much faster than I thought it would- hence my trying to squeeze 20 minutes into 15 […]

(Posted well after the fact but better late than never…I hope)   In week 2, I continued to poke and prod my blog with content and layout.  I half thought of posting an “Under Construction” sign on the landing page, but thought that might be tacky.  I listened to some comments and made an attempt […]

This week, I wrote about magical balloons, gutsy teenagers, and the lives of monks in three posts: First, I listened and mapped a Radiolab piece that explored chance in our lives–are random events just that, or something more?  The show used sound and music to convey action and tension.   The effect was to bring the […]

This past weekend I was at a retreat at a Monastery- 48 hours of silence and sitting in the abbey 7 times a day for prayers.   This little retreat took place at a Trappist Monastery about 45 minutes from Atlanta (where I live).  I joined a much more spiritually enlightened friend there last year […]

I love cars-driving them, watching documentaries about them, reading about them, etc.  So of course, it was natural for me to seek out a car ad to dissect.  If I am going to watch something several times, I should enjoy it right? I analyzed Audi’s 2013 commercial “Prom”: I’ve noted elements of “story code” (described […]

Our professor, Alan Levine, wasn’t kidding when he warned that the GMU Digital Audio/Video Design weekly assignments needed a lot of attention throughout the week. For a low-tech, late adopter, the litany of instructions, assignments and links was overwhelming and caused a slight moment of panic. The panic has now decreased to a low humming in the back […]

I feel the need to throw up jazz hands when saying “storify” (in an emphatic, but breathy Broadway-esque voice). Myriad of ideas come to mind when I try to hone in a qualified topic to storify per the final assignment for Week 1. What mundane, possibly overly complicated and perhaps uninteresting topic can I “storify” […]

I love this question and the license to associat freely (thank you!). The first image that rushes to my mind is my after-school public t.v. line up, which is kind of ironic since I associate stories and storytelling with books and not television shows. But, apparently, I do. 1) Unknown title and can’t find it on […]

The Radiolab Piece “A Lucky Wind”  alternates between narrative and reporting in four segments: 1. The story of the red balloon; 2. A piece on a UC Berkley professor who studies random acts; 3. An ASU piece who tells us that randomness really isn’t that random; and finally 4. leaving the listener to ponder it all […]