This week, I used the media on my blog to create social media content. I used this content to promote my blog on different social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram. After posting links to my site twice a day for four days, I noticed more activity and an increase in traffic on the page.
The Lights of the Ozarks is an event that takes place in Fayetteville, Arkansas and attracts thousands to activities, a light show, and fun holiday events for the whole family to enjoy. Locals can take advantage of the opportunities in the Fayetteville Town Square. I encourage everyone to participate in the Lights of the Ozarks because it is a cool attraction for everyone to experience this holiday season! The Lights of the Ozarks November 20, 2015 at 6 pm, locals in Fayetteville, AR kicked off the Holiday season by celebrating the The Lights of the Ozarks festival with the annual Lighting Night event. Families in the area came together to enjoy food, a parade, live performances, and pony rides. The event is hosted by the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Department as well as the University of Arkansas Hospitality Department. The event helps to promote local businesses through sponsorship and involvement in the community. The lights will be displayed nightly through December 31, 2015. For more information on the festival event and how to get involved please visit http://thelightsoftheozarks.com/
Alright, let me take a minute to brag about to my roommate, Sarah Cain. She is clearly a rock star because I asked to interview her and only had to film her once for each question because she did a perfect job the first time. Interviewing Sarah was fun because we are close, however I did not know everything about her and this gave me an opportunity to learn more about her life in a personal way. This week I did not have as big of an issue with the quality of the video, however if I could do it again I would position the camera closer to Sarah. I would do this so she was more of the focal point and so the audience could see her facial expressions more clearly. Everyone meet Sarah Cain, she is my roommate and an all around great person for agreeing to be the subject for this video. Sarah had a finite test this week, so I took advantage of her misery while she studied to shoot my scene. As you can see, we are actually in our apartment which was super convenient. After filming, I have a new found love... the tripod, it is so cool. Lame I know, but I never have used one before and the fact that it can adjust to your image is great. Putting together the scenes I shot was not too difficult. Understanding how to avoid a jump shot was a little confusing, but I think I got the hang of it. I filmed Sarah for approximately 40 minutes and made her hold it, not even allowing her a bathroom break, so I really did take my time when filming. I have an iPhone 6, so the quality of my video looks great on my phone, but when I uploaded it to YouTube, the video quality did not translate. I googled solutions to my problem, but was unable to find a satisfactory one. I had to delete a large number of apps, photos, and whatever else from my phone to keep filming, which made filming take longer than necessary. After the experience of using the iMovie application last week, I felt I was more prepared to use it this time. I found that iMovie was easier to navigate and I felt comfortable using the application. Instead of being frustrated while using the software I was able to explore and utilize the different aspects and editing shortcuts the app had to offer. For those of you who are not familiar with Pack Rat, it is an outdoors store where you can find gear and equipment for all your outdoor needs. Pack Rat is located off Gregg Street about 10 minutes from the University of Arkansas campus. The store is unique in appearance with a pond in front and a building constructed completely with recycled wood from trees that were destroyed in a forest fire.
What people do not know is how involved the owners and employees are in the Fayetteville community. Pack Rat hosts events and workshops, such as survival clinics, for children and adults that benefit the community. On Friday, I called the store and spoke to one of the managers and explained to him my intentions of profiling the store and he was more than willing to help. Next week I will visit the store to discuss Pack Rat’s involvement in the community. Stay tuned for next week when I reveal my findings! Fayetteville is known so have some funky culture and businesses, and what better place to experience that first hand than Dickson Street? I figured I would have a large number of photo opportunities with the unique style of Fayetteville. The first time I went to take pictures was at 11 am on a Wednesday and let me tell ya, there are just not that many people out exploring at that time so I found it hard to take pictures with people in the background. However, I was able to seek out people who I could photograph one on one. The most challenging part was photographing pedestrians without feeling creepy, especially those who were at a distance. I could feel the judgmental stares combined with curiosity of why I was taking photos of them, when in reality I was seeking a focal point. Their bodies were just used in my background. After taking profile pictures of the three people I met, I wished I had spent more time preparing the images so they would be more visually appealing. At the time I felt it was an awkward experience for them and I did not want to take up too much of my subject’s time. I needed to be more prepared! Miranda Sunderland was the first person I approached and she was a little stand offish when I asked if I could take her picture and why I wanted to do it, but I would probably have acted the same way. I love the background of this image with the train bank/ATM is in the background, which I think is a cool unique place that Fayetteville has. However I am not in love with this picture because you can tell she was uncomfortable based on her body language. I tried to maximize the background of this photo so the audience had multiple things to focus on other than the subject. Adjusting the contrast of this image enhanced the colors to allow the picture to be more visually appealing. Food trucks! Fayetteville has an endless supply of food trucks. I chose to photograph this truck because it was the one with the most unique design and really stood out from the rest. Adjusting the brightness and contrast up-played the color of this image. I wish I had gotten more people in the background because there were a lot of people out at this time, I just happened to catch this girl walk by. I tried to focus on the food truck more because I like it when photos have people in the background and they look almost blurred. I failed at trying to recreate that idea, but maybe she just needed to be further away from me. I took multiple photos of Bronwyn Davis and this was the ONLY good shot I got. She was funny, but she thought this project was funnier. Davis could not stop laughing, which in turn made me laugh. Luckily, I got this shot, showing her in a more serious pose. I thought about posting the photo of her laughing but I really wanted to capture what she was doing without the distraction of me being present. It would be a little weird to have a picture of a girl smiling at her phone for no apparent reason. My favorite part about this photo is the atmosphere. This particular shop in Fayetteville really gives this big city a small town feel. I was really excited about this picture. I wanted to get a full shot of Dickson Street because there are so many cool things to look at. This particular shot was taken on the third floor of Kimpel and I was so pumped to find a place where I could get this perspective. However, this picture would have been a thousand times better if Fall was in full effect. This picture has a lot of green, and a pop of Fall colors would have made this photo more visually appealing. Anthony Bruce Cullum was probably the most approachable person I encountered and he was thrilled to help. I genuinely enjoyed talking to him and our conversation was very unique. His wife is living in Paris, France, and he finally agreed to move there so they could be together (kicking and screaming of course). Cullum emphasized enjoying the little time he had left in the United States, because he considered French people to be arrogant. He had me laughing the whole time and told me I smelled good (kind of weird, but I went with it). I almost forgot to take his picture because I had such a great time talking to him! My only complaint, it was a little overcast so I was not in love with the color quality of this photo, so thankfully contrast and lighting was invented. Here is Mr. Cullum again, however this was before I actually met him so at the time he was an “unidentified Fayetteville local.” As you can see there was not really a huge selection of people to photograph on Dickson at this time. Hog Haus Brewing Company is one of my favorite buildings on Dickson Street. I think the architecture is unique for Fayetteville. I wanted to take a cool perspective picture, but at the time Mr. Cullum was catching on to me and thought I was being a weirdo. Once I explained the project, he was really cool. I just had to reassure him that he would not be placed on America’s Most Wanted List.
Red is a color I find often mainly because I attend the University of Arkansas, but with Razorback logos off limits, I was at a loss. I resorted to finding objects around campus and even then it was difficult finding items where red was the focal point. It was incredibly difficult to find red objects that would stand alone, yet still be visually appealing. I found I am more drawn to images that are multidimensional with multiple objects which come into play, but have a focal point where one is trying to catch the attention of the audience. I have a huge gap between two of my classes and I usually head to the library to work on homework. As I was walking towards the library I noticed this bike rack with a dozen bikes and I decided that I could capture the red bike. The original picture I took was a line of bikes all in a row. However, I found the colors of the other bikes became a distraction while I was trying to make the red one the main focal point. For the red bike to be more visually dominate in this photo, I cropped the others out and jacked up the brightness and contrast and voilá! This photo was the one I had the hardest time with. Once in the library I was among rows and rows of books. The problem was finding a red book to stand out. I found a section I thought the color red was the focal point, but once photographed it appeared that the red blended in with the multitude of colors surrounding it. It took me a while but I played with the contrast and brightness so it appeared that the red color was vibrant and stood out more dominantly over other colors in the image. The red not only stood out in the one book, but you can actually find red in multiple places in the image. What better way to spend your day off than eating chips and salsa you ask? Well there is not one. I took this photo while I was at lunch earlier this week (shout out to Deluxe Burger). I ordered this cheese dip appetizer and out came the salsa as well. The first thing I noticed about the plate in front of me was the red so I had to snag a quick picture. At this point I saw a pattern forming. Adjusting the contrast and brightness really helped me out when I was putting these images together with the thought of having the audience center their attention on the red object in the picture. This is my roommate (Hi Sarah)! We were out the other day shopping and I noticed Fayetteville has really cool murals on the sides of some of its buildings. Unfortunately for me, a majority if not all of the red murals in Fayetteville are images of Razorbacks. This wall was located on College Street and the building was actually designed to use this red wall as an accent for the rest of the building. Due to the size of the wall, it was easy enough to capture the red color because I did not have to do much adjusting on the image for the color red to stand out. Finally, this is probably one of my favorite photographs I took this week. I like this picture so much because the arrangement of items is very visually appealing and there is not just one thing to look at. In this image I had the chance to play with my camera's focus and one will notice the ketchup bottle was the main object at hand. If you look deeper into the background the image becomes a little more blurred or distorted looking and I was able to capture that on my iPhone simply by tapping the screen. By tapping the screen the foreground, middle ground, and background became very present.
So for those who know me writing a blog sounds a little out of character. However, now that I have started I am excited to find my voice! for my goals, first I plan to gain a better understanding of journalism across all media types. Second, I hope to become a better writer. I will admit spelling is not one of my top 10 favorite things to do and I struggle with grammar a lot! Finally I hope to gain a love for multimedia and continue the use of this blog in the future.
I currently do not have a job lined up after I graduate college (I know, super stressful), but lucky for me my major is so broad I have many options. I can take the skills I learn from maintaining this blog to future career opportunities. There are now so many ways to communicate with an audience and this class will teach me how to appeal to others in a creative way. Heck, I could even put this site to use when I am applying for jobs to show off my skills (future skills I plan to have) to future employers, and becoming a better writer will help me in all aspects of life. |
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