Now That's Media

So, this Winter ended up being a break for me but next week I’m going to be coming back to the world of media.  This Friday I’ll be attending IWA East Coast in Nitro, WV.  I’d though when basketball season rolled around I’d be busy but that changed after an incident with someone who’s perspective on me was rather disingenuous to me as  person & my character.  Also, my grandfather passed away & I took time to reflect on the past three months.  It all hasn’t totally blown over but that’s going to stop me from coming back to what I know how to do & contribute to back into what I’ve dedicated a majority of my life to.  The professional wrestling industry.

Last year I decided to join the Professional Photographers of West Virginia. This weekend I attended the annual conference & trade show.  Friday night we had a pizza party & worked with many people in out of state learning what correct lighting can do make the perfect shots.  Though I don’t have a studio, I now have a better understanding up how correct lighting can make the moments that are captured in still photography perfect.  Yet, still photography is changing from having to actually time the perfect moment to where the technology will introduced to consumers where shooting video at 120fps & during the captures process be able to save a portion of an important moment.  The depth & quality is almost past life like.  It’s nearly unbelievable what’s coming into the media realm.  Weather it’s audio, photography, or video every day people are going to be able to have media at their fingertips.  Which all in all will make it tougher for someone like me to transition from one career to another.  Honestly I think it’s all going to work out some how for me in one way or another.

Past that I got to listen to & watch two great presentations.  One by Nathaniel Dodson who’s the creator of Tutvid.com & a ridiculous composite shot editor.  Here, let me explain, back in college I took PhotoShop for my color specialization in print media also know as Printing Technology.  The newest version is so much better at being able to add subtle  details that make images look beyond real.  The thing is more & more people want this type of work but composite imaging or graphic art is a high dollar industry.  It also means that society is still heading the direction of unrealistic portrayal of people.  Both men & women looking more & more unblemished works of art than what we really look like.  It bothers me that I have to rap my head around more.  That’s why I’ve try my hardest not to do much post editing or adjust what the camera already captured.  Yeah, call me crazy that I like a flat image.

The next person I got to listen who has really worked his way up through media & for most of his career was known as the “Spider-Man” at the New York Times, Vincent Laforet.  Yes, I’d never heard of him & his work until Saturday.  Yet, he was one of the first people to ever try out the Canon 5D Mark II when it was only a prototype.  Once he tried it out, he realized it was going to be a game changer.  It also made him change his from photography into film making.  He’s really captured many things that I could only dream of capturing.  Including being up on the needle like tower of the Empire State Building where he took a mind boggling picture of to workers & the New York street below.  He also made a cool $15,000 for an image that Gatorade wanted.  His quote after that, “always retain your copyright.”  I only partially agree with his philosophy on social media because he’s right about it giving some people an unreasonable amount of self worth but to me it has opened the world up to what may be interesting about everyday life.  That stuff you though other people were or weren’t doing is now public.

A lot of people disagree on how it affects all of us & society but writing has been along longer than voice communication.  My brother once pointed out it is actually a higher form of communication than speaking due it existence since near the beginning of time & he’s double major.  My brother is extremely smart & usually right about these little things the world seems to get skewed.  Ultimately the media age that come upon us is causing old walls to fall & new ones to be built.  No longer do mass corporations control what we want to see.  We can now all go on YouTube & watch countless hours of the Harlem Shake now.  Something silly, yet easy to do catches on & you’ve got a sensation.  Who knows, what’s next?  I don’t know but its an exciting time to be involved in any form of media right now.  See you all through out the rest of 2013, where ever my travels may bring me.