My Eye on Idaho: November 2007

For those of you who may not know it yet, there is a change in the wind. What is this change you may be asking yourself. Well it's not the coming change in season or the imminent transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Many of you may not even know it is happening, but everyday it progresses, continuing to change the way thousands of people do their jobs. Puzzled?

Well let me tell you what it's not. It's not business as usual.

In the course of about one month I have watched my profession change, right in front of my own eyes. It has been a buzz in the field of photojournalism for the past couple of years, but not until this week have I realized that web based content is changing the way I work.

In an industry that has been driven by the business model of advertising revenue and circulation numbers, it seems that the new industry standard is the mouse click or "hit". I have my qualms with it, but I'm not here to bite the hand that feeds me, rather share a few of my experiences from a pretty exciting spot in my career.

In the past week I have made four different attempts at what some would refer to as multimedia field reporting. On Thursday, November 8th I set out to produce a audio slideshow from the Northwest Linesman College just down the road. For those of you unaware of what students at a linesman college learn (which is totally reasonable) it is basically a trade school where students are trained to scale power poles and perform maintenance and repairs. I gathered the audio and stills that I thought would be necessary to create an interesting slideshow, however, upon returning to the office I discovered the information I had gathered really had no central theme.

As it turns out, it can take quite a bit of foresight to put together a project that keeps people interested throughout the whole show. I've made a few attempts at slideshows in the past, however, I don't think any have truly been anything i've been proud of, so it is my ambition to take that next step to make something I can hang my hat on. Unfortunately the Linesman project is still in the works. Here is a still to give you an idea of what to expect...

As for the three remaining slideshows, two were of high school playoff games which I covered this weekend in Northern Idaho. They are pretty much just event coverage slideshows but feel free to check them out...

Nampa Christian vs. Orofino Friday, November 9th, Moscow, Idaho
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071109_NCHS/

Nampa vs. Lakeland, November 10th, Rathdrum, Idaho
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071110_Nampa/

The last piece I put together was from an interview with an 86-year-old World War II and Korean War Veteran. Unfortunately he wasn't able to walk, and from the smell of his apartment and sound of his voice he has been a smoker for many years. Check it out...
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071111_WWII_Veteran

So I have to say it's been an interesting couple of weeks and assuming things continue in the direction they have been, you will more than likely see more of these multimedia projects up here.

Thanks for stopping to take a look!

Late Monday evening a group of 22 firefighters from Nampa, Caldwell, Middleton and Meridian Idaho returned back to the Treasure Valley after spending nearly two weeks helping residents of Southern California pick up the pieces after devastating wildfires raged through much of the region. The team of nearly two dozen took a total of five fire engines to California, almost a two day drive in one of these enormous rigs. I was able to catch a nice moment between the Captain of the Meridian Fire Department receiving a warm embrace from his wife and their 11-year-old son upon arrival back at the Meridian Fire Department. Unfortunately they didn't make their appearance until long after the paper had gone to press but oh well...