Images of Eternity

Images of Eternity

A Few Philosophical Words about Photography

By Matthew Orion Stephens

July 7, 2014

A picture is worth a thousand words

At least that is what they say

The voice of an image cannot be heard

In an ordinary way

The eyes must read these stories of light

Such tales remain frozen in time

Freedom, unhindered like a bird taking flight

Reveal expressions so sublime

The mind may wander, the pulse begins to race

When viewing great photography

Some excite emotions, tears roll down the face

For Images of Eternity

This poem is dedicated to my mother Michelle Jacobsen

who passed away when I was five years old.

I only have one photograph to remember you by,

but I still love you mom.

Blog 11-1 Writer's Perspective

 

            Being a writer and having to write about the other writers and the writing process is a bit challenging in some aspects.  However, I really enjoyed an article by Walter Mosley, “For Authors, Fragile Ideas Need Loving Every Day.”  I enjoyed the way Mosley explains how writers basically need to nourish their inner scribe on a daily basis.  I tend to agree with his statements, because writing will become a second nature after a while.  Some writers struggle to come up with ideas, unless they practice a certain habit or ritual that gets the ideas flowing.  Many writers have different ways to incite their creativity, and for me it is nature.  The writing process can probably become easier if the author practices whatever helps them, then follow that by sitting with one’s ideas and putting them down on paper.  This is important regardless of how organized the ideas are, because some ideas may not be needed until future writings.  I wonder how many ideas are lost to distraction every day, because people don’t write them down.  Writing on a daily basis can also be beneficial, because it gives the author a chance to read and possibly edit his or her previous day’s work.  Mosley really uses some great comparisons to emphasize the importance keeping a journal of some sort. 

            One statement in particular stuck with me, as Mosley stated, “The next day you might write for hours; there's no way to tell. The goal is not a number of words or hours spent writing. All you need to do is to keep your heart and mind open to the work.”  I really think that is the key point he wanted to make, is for writers to keep their minds open to their work every day.  Some writers write in spurts in which they may produce pages or even chapters in days or weeks.  The worst part about this is that the scribe may not touch the work for several weeks afterwards, and the words may have become stale and uninteresting after sitting for so long.  No matter how you look at the topic, writers all have their independent ways and styles of producing words.  I think Mosley’s advice is good for any style of writing, because staying active with one’s passion will lead to greater successes down the road. 

 

References

Mosley, W. (2000, July 3). Arts: New York Times Website. Retrieved from New York Times Website: http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/070300mosley-writing.html

 

Blog 9-1 Multimedia Tools

            Multimedia tools can help people to pass messages more successfully.  The message sender needs to know what audience they will be reaching out to before deciding which multimedia tools to use.  I think the most obvious widely used tool would have to be videos.  That is because videos have drawn people’s attention since the dawn of motion pictures.  Movies, films, video, and television have always had a way of bringing people together as well.  When video accompanies writing within the same media platform, it can create a winning combination.  Many news programs actually have short segments allotted to viral videos, so anyone has a chance of being featured on local or even national news.  Videos are more than just multimedia however, as video is a recorded proof of events that can be used for making history books of the future.  Some people make videos for educational or professional purposes, while others just want to use videos as a creative outlet.   

            I tend to give my attention to more educationally aligned recordings, such as TED talks.  This brings me to my next point, as many videographers use other forms of multimedia within their videos.  Many speakers on TED talks for example use PowerPoint presentations as a backdrop for their speech.  Infographics can be a great way to give the entire audience something to focus on.  PowerPoint has been around for a while, but can still help a speaker deliver their message a bit more efficiently.  There are newer forms of infographic multimedia, such as Prezi.  Prezi seems to have a much better flow than PowerPoint.  I don’t know if Prezi is more user friendly or not, but it is very easy to use for beginners. 

            Here is a link to a video that compares PowerPoint to Prezi.  The video may seem a bit slow or boring, but the gentleman makes some great points. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BQHd4B3aW8

            I believe Jim Harvey gives a fair and adequate analysis of the two programs within the time he used.  Please comment and let me know what you all think.         

Practices for Creating the Best Blog You Can

            The blog I chose to research and study was The Nature Conservancy blog, and the link to this blog is http://blog.nature.org/

            This blog jumped out at me as I was browsing, and I like it for a multitude of reasons.  The main reason is because I try to do everything I can to be environmentally friendly.  I am an avid nature lover to begin with, and I also enjoy photography which happens to be one focus of this blog site.  This collection of community writings covers quite a broad spectrum of topics, but all of them relate to science and nature.  Information found through this blog has varying levels of importance, but all of the information is posted for the good of the planet and probably valid. 

            First and foremost, any blog that is presenting information, should do so honestly.  Any reader will want to read an honest thought, rather than a copied idea.  I think information delivery through a blog is more effective when there is a photo or a visual element to relate the words to.  I know it helps my retention when I analyze more than one type of data.  I think it can make the blog better when it has catchy headlines, and formatted similarly to the journalistic style of writing.  The reasoning for this is partially because humans are familiar with that style, and journalism tends to present the most pertinent information first.  Readers need to be drawn into the blog just like they need to be intrigued by a story or article.  It is a bit like fishing, because the author of the blog needs to put out bait words hoping the reader’s mind will devour and keep the reader attentive.

            When the writer emphasizes the substance, and presents it to the appropriate audience the story is more likely to be successful.  The writing should also correlate the work with different data platforms such as graphics, photos, illustrations, or graphs.  The visual element needs to be just as powerful as the message in the story though.  The reader may first become interested with the graphics then want to read the blog.  Either way the organization should be neat, uniform, and not too colorful or it can be distracting.  Blogs as a whole are judged mostly by opinion, so many perspectives exist about how a blog should be.   

Social Media Tools

Blog 6-2 Social Media Tools

            Although all social media tools have the possibility of being an adequate medium for sharing information, a few tools do have some advantages over the others.  Writers need to have an audience in mind before choosing which tools to use however, because different audiences will be drawn to different media outlets.  Efficiently conveying a message to an audience needs to utilize a medium that can present some sort of familiarity with the audience.  People will be more concerned about topics they can relate to.  I don’t have a lot of social media experience, so most tools have not even been broken in for me.  I kind of like having a sort of beginner’s aspect of the workings of modern media presentations, because it truly gives me an unbiased approach to almost all of the outlets. 

            The list of new media tools listed by (Aids.gov) seems to favor a few outlets over others, however I look at them individually and potentially paired.  I rationalize that utilizing a couple of media outlets simultaneously will lead to greater success than only using one.  For example I think that blogging is a good way to create a very professional looking website in which the writer controls the input, however some blogs don’t really reach that many people.  This is where I feel that writing the initial post as a blog is great, but then go one step forward and share this information over a broader social networking site.  It would prove to travel faster and further to make a publication available for mobile device users.  Just as it takes more than one tool and resource to build a good piece of architecture, it takes multiple writing tools to build a better story.  While some tools are good for certain aspects, I feel users should use complimentary tools to cover the weaknesses of other outlets. 

Although being overly enthusiastic sometimes can cause people to publish misleading information, and if the writer is not careful many ethical boundaries can be broken in the process.  This can cause harm or disrupt the lives of individuals involved in any certain situation.  Journalists do have the responsibility of keeping the public aware of newsworthy events, as long as they do so in a manner that is respectful of the parties involved.  I think different combinations of these media utilities will be more effective if they are presented to the appropriate audiences in a professional manner.   

References:

New Media Tools. (n.d.). New Media Tools. Retrieved May 11, 2014, from http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/index.html#tool-bookmarkingNew

Unrestricted Web Publishing

     Publishing articles on the web has become so easy that almost anybody can do it.  This is the main reason we need to do a thorough job researching which sites have good solid information, and which ones don't have all the facts.  Many online publications can be based more on opinion and less on information, and this can make it tough for a reader to filter.  I am always trying to keep up with anything scientific or environmental and I found and studied an article on the Huffington Post today.  The article, Supreme Court Declines Exxon Mobil's Appeal In New York City Water Pollution Case, didn't seem to have many cited sources, however Reuters had published the article about 20 minutes before Huffington Post.  Reuters has a reputation for being very professional and efficient for any news published. 
     Although this story is breaking news, it stems from an incident 5 years ago regarding chemical leaks into the water supply.  The appeal from Exxon was denied, because they had used possible carcinogens for a couple of decades.  Exxon claims to have used the substance methyl tertiary butyl ether as a fuel additive to help vehicle emissions.  However, they seem to have ignored the dangers of contaminating the backup water supply for Queens in New York.  This story definitely holds up to being valid, and has very credible sources.  However, if someone was to simply start mass posting this across social media outlets without showing sources the whole story may end up skewed after some time.  Although this article itself is well written and well researched, people have a tendency to start adding opinionated comments when publishing on social media.  If people were allowed to publish professional articles without regulations, stories and articles would be almost impossible to validate.  There is also the possibility that writers wouldn't cite their sources, which is ethically wrong to begin with. 

Hurley, L. (2014, April 21). Supreme Court Declines Exxon Mobil's Appeal In New York City Water Pollution Case. The Huffington Post. Retrieved , from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/supreme-court-exxon-mobil-nyc_n_5185486.html?fb_action_ids=10201966618792672&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210201966618792672%22%3A788439304518937%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210201966618792672%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Social Media and Truth

     How do people obtain information in order to know what they know?  I start off by thinking there are several ways in which we gain information, but gaining and retaining valid information may be a bit tougher at times.  The first step for any data exchange is for the subject to be exposed to the information involved.  This is where readers need to be a bit careful when choosing which medium to utilize as a valid information producer.  This becomes evident when looking through the stories and information posted or shared on Facebook.  Although at times social media can be a great place to find solid sources of info.  
     Just today my wife shared a link with me on Facebook, and I was very impressed with the actual source and content.  It was a story found on a Rainforest Action Network (RAN) site, and it is very good news for nature preservationists.  This article claims that JP Morgan Chase will no longer be funding any mountaintop removal operations.  I do believe this story, as the link was an organizational website, and most organizations hold high standards of integrity for data they post.  Of course I will continue to research the topic, but I definitely leaned to the side of believing this source as a valid example.  I was really intrigued by this story, because mountaintop removal is a highly debated topic in the area I live. 

     (Starbuck, 2014) explains how many financial institutions have been thinking the same way as of lately.  I am glad to know that mountaintop removal is beginning to lose traction, by losing access to some of the money that drives their operations.  I think this is one good example of how a social media site can directly led to a valuable source of information, although there is quite a sea of misinformation online as well.