What have I gotten myself into...

I've been searching for a theme that could help me understand how/why I'm doing this. Providing a journal of my experiences as I attempt to become more literate in the technologies available to me now seems to be it. Coming from my introduction to photography when I first picked up a camera in high school to where I am now seems to be a worthwhile effort.

Where I am now is learning how to use the "iLife" suite of products to capture, edit and share my photos, videos and my musical tastes. The primary audience is Glendale High School here in Springfield. I have nephew who plays on the team and the parents are more then happy to let me 'have at it'. The boys seem to enjoy the results but the primary feedback I've gotten (it's been limited, a common issue for all of us I'm sure) is that the musical choices I make don't really pump up the young men, or 'boys' in the vernacular of the soccer team.

I've branched out a bit, doing some shooting at some SMS Women's soccer matches, a Drury men's game and then tonight a Middle School match. I also have experimented with using my Nikon Coolpix 2100 in MPEG mode and it turned out pretty well although I miss the lack of audio. I've transfered some 8mm movies to DV and from there onto my homepage. That's going to become a larger part of my efforts as the soccer season slows down with the fall season's end and the upcoming holidays. I am a genealogist which is what really brought me back to my photography habit as I struggle to learn about the issues involved in archiving these important parts of my families history while also creating new ones as we go forward.

The biggest issue I'm going to face with this blog is finding the time to use it effectively. I spent the majority of the day today creating DVD's of previously edited videos while also working on my first photo DVD in an effort to find a way to get my work out to the folks who should most appreciate it, the families and friends of the players. Once I take the time to identify photos for the DVD covers, printing and trimming them it all adds up to almost a whole day of effort to create five copies of the video DVD and five copies of the photo DVD, in their final marketable form. When do I do this?

I did get some very positive reactions from the Coach and the few players that were around when I delivered a copy of each of my productions to him after practice today. It's definitely a step above what they have been used to in past years although the 2003 video was professionally done. The problem we ran into there was that there were some "mistaken identity" caused by the time constraints we faced along with the distance (our producer was in Chicago). I'm going to be facing some time constraints myself if I don't get started on the end of season video, I'm procrastinating on the final storyboard. So, on that note, I'll close this so I can get some rest and be prepared to complete that important task early tomorrow!

I spent the day in Columbia yesterday, enjoying some more HS soccer action. Glendale played Cape Girardeau Central at 10am followed by a match agains Columbia Hickman at 1pm. Winning one and losing one, it was a long day with a frustrating outcome. I thought the local paper provide a fair and insightful evaluation while focused on the local team. See it here:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Oct/20041010Spor011.asp

I also passed out information on my homepage to several of the parents who were unaware of it. When I asked the refs if they were interested in seeing video, I received a very positive response so there are now four fellows in that community who will be looking for video.

Today I took in the game between Drury and Missouri Southern which I was anticipating because I know folks on both teams. Brandon Donat graduated from GHS and is starting for Drury while the coach at MSSU is Kylie Cirillo, former Director of Coaching for Springfield Soccer Club and also coach for my nephew's U-16 team in 2003. Drury came out on top 2-0 which was a fair outcome. I chatted with Dale Donat about how I was hoping to measure my ability to capture the faster college match as well as I seem to be doing with the GHS matches.

I won't have time to work on the tape until later this week but I offered both coaches my card and an unedited copy of the tape on DVD if they email me a request. Both appeared interested so I'm looking forward to finding out if they follow through on that. Dale & his son Brandon will be looking for a copy as well and their thoughts will help me determine how well I accomplished my goal. Interestingly, Dale also seems to have anticipated my longer range plans which he was very positive about as well. His words were "I think you could make a name for yourself in Springfield with your soccer video". Wish me luck :)

I finally broke down and edited the website I've had for a year now. I decided on Rising Stream because I'm a sales guy by profession and we always want rising sales while a stream is a very familiar site here in the Ozarks.

Speaking of which, if you are interested in the origins of the region's moniker (Ozarks) the local library has a list of FAQ's that includes an answer to that question. Check it out here:
http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/faq/files/moozarks.cfm If my niece ever discovers this blog of mine I hope this post is buried beyond her interest in my ramblings. She's a bright young lady in the 8th grade who's always trying to stump me and she doesn't need any more sources for tough questions. For example, we all know that February has 28 days. How many other months do as well?

Now that I've got a business website to go with my .Mac homepage and this recent blog, the next step for me will be to figure out which ones make a difference. It's time to go back to work again, thus the reason for the website. The video production is a lot of fun but it feels like a lot of the other addictive behaviours I've experienced before and I'm definitely using it as a procrastination tool. Of course that means my loft apartment is a mess now since I've been neglecting that long established procrastination tool so... Time to rein it in somewhat and begin applying it more selectively I would guess. We'll see.

I just noticed that I need to keep an eye on the time/date stamp on this blog because as I procrastinate, in this case going to bed before a full day of selling followed by two soccer games to videotape tonight, I see that Blogger works on PDT. So consider this time/date stamp correct. Goodnight (or good morning)!

OGS Computer SIG

Had fun showing off my videos and photo efforts under the guise of a presentation tonight! I was wrapping up a four part series of presentation that John Carter & I provided to the membership on capturing digital images, manipulating them and sharing them. I used the evening to discuss how to use free homepages available from many ISP's, showing them my .Mac site as well as the Yahoo photo albums feature that allows family and friends to view and purchase photos. Security was an issue and we discussed how you can limit who has access to the photos as well.

Photo management with Picasa was demonstrated as was this blog. I showed off my friend Travis' site as an example of a grandfather/genealogist who is using a blog to provide a journal of the family activities and offer historical perspective occasionally as well. You can see it at http://travis52140.tripod.com/blog/

Finally we discussed the creation of videos and slideshows on both CD and DVD with the primary interest being in DVD because of the opportunity to show photos on TV's. A side discussion of transfering analog material, whether my recent efforts working with Dub Video to transfer 8mm to DV or analog camcorders/VHS tapes, also occured. The bottom line - videos require a lot of time and money due to the hardware requirements in many cases. Photo slideshows however are easily in reach using free software such as MovieMaker v2 in Windows XP or some of the consumer products available for <$50. A future meeting will probably focus on a demonstration of this capability.