So... what do you have to look forward to tomorrow? Well, almost nothing.

Not almost nothing like that's what I have almost nothing.. almost nothing as in that's what my project almost was... Nothing. I have spent ALL day trying to get a video into my computer. I tried connecting the camera to the computer. I tried using a card reader. I did a major re-organization of the media hoping the clean-up process might help in some way. Nothing worked and I wore the camera battery down to a bare nub in the process.

In a last ditch effort I went fumbling around in my bag of radio goodies and low and behold in a little container that my awesome mother gave me for Christmas last year is a tiny little card reater - the SanDisc MicroMate. I put the card in it - put it in my computer loaded up the image capture and Voila! In less than 10 minutes the massive video file was on my computer. Mom you're awesome.

So what does this all mean to you - I know the beast must be fed. Well, you'll be happy to know that this means tomorrow by 4pm you will be able to view the lovely video story of the Chabab al Andalous from Rabat, Morocco who performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the Arabesque event. Stay tuned...

Moroccan feet. Photo by Amy Walters

 

Amy Walters

This may seem familiar to you. It's the next step in the multi-media process. Many of the pictures are the same but the audio and video are new. I recorded the audio, took the pictures and the video and then produced it in Final Cut.

Let me know what you think...

Please enjoy and share your comments.

Amy Walters

This is a really basic video I made in Final Cut Express, using some footage I shot with the G10 on the DC metro. Just an exercise, but it was fun to do.

Today, we were trying some more advanced video production, but there's not enough time to really get my head into it.

-- Graham Smith

Hi again!

So the big news to day... "audio is the most important thing on the web."

MOST IMPORTANT good news for NPR. Good news for us. Good news for YOU!

More NPR-style reporting hot off the web.

Bring it!

Amy Walters

Richard Knox

-- Tracy Wahl

By Laura Sullivan

Graham Smith

My first slide show...

Ko Gi Bow ... lemme know what you think.

Amy Walters

That's right, I attempted to kill two birds with one camera. Both a slideshow, and a manicure. Which would have been good for my favorite salon, because business has dropped off, much as it has everywhere. I got tired, and begged off on the mani-pedi after shooting. Trying to get the camera to focus was, as you can see, challenge enough. I'm a verbal girl. Images are rough on me.

-- Barrie Hardymon

It's another weekday morning for PreK girls Annie and Veda Hedgepeth. They have two things to accomplish -- eat breakfast and get dressed -- but sometimes it seems like mission impossible.

--Justine Kenin

Keith Wagner loves a broken bike. Fixing bikes is his passion and his career. Wagner, 24, has been learning the trade since he was a teenager. For years, it was just a hobby. Now he is one of Washington, DC's most sought after bike mechanics working in the city's premier bike shop. He says to get the job done right, you have to understand the bike and its owner.

I traveled to Damascus to shoot a story about Brian Wilson's Parrot Foundation. Not only is this Mr. Wilson not in the Beach Boys but this Damascus is not in Syria.

The rescued bird's flutter freely in Wilson's Maryland house which requires a daily powerwash to keep the guano at bay. Brian Wilson is a retired firefighter who was critically injured in a car wreck that killed his beloved bird Tiki. Today a stuffed version of Tiki still brings tears to Wilson's eyes.

Shooting closeups of the birds was a challenge as they don't appreciate the G-10 the way the rest of us Knights do. At times one was gnawing my shoe, while another chomped on my camera strap and another tried to make a deposit on my head.

Peter Breslow

Hope is a thing with feathers.

Photo by Lisa Nichols

Kandula the elephant getting his daily bath.

Photo by Richard Knox

Today we worked on our photo projects. Yesterday we spent the day at a wide variety of places, using our new photography skills. Barrie went to a nail salon, Tracy went to a pie shop, Peter hung out with exotic birds, just to name a few. Really great fun to focus in on using the skills we've learned.

Funny conversation transpired between Dick Knox and Douglas Hopper. Dick's photo project is about feeding animals at the zoo. Dick was telling Douglas about how much elephants eat and said the zoo keepers vary the diets so the elephants don't get bored. Douglas said it's a good thing household pets aren't so picky.

"But of course," Douglas said, "You wouldn't have an elephant in your house."

This stuck me as very funny. Too much time looking at pictures?

Tracy Wahl

Miss Kay at her usual post.

Photo by Richard Knox

In 1986 Bahegu Sereke and her husband, from Eritrea, started selling snacks from a mobile cart at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 7th Street NW. That was seven years before NPR took over the pie-wedge building she looks out on every day. Since then she's been known to denizens of that building as Miss Kay. She looks amused here because a gaggle of Knights in training have descended on her cart, armed with Canon G10s and hungry not for a candy bar but for a willing subject. She said I didn't have to buy something in return but I feigned hunger and bought a Hershey bar.

Richard Knox

Walters

Heather Murphy and Laura Sullivan enjoy purple rice with their Burmese lunch. Photo by Amy Walters

 

Remarkably, I was able to pull my attention away from the Chris Brown - Rhianna and A-Rod stories to do a little more photo taking and photo shopping.

No i wasn't shopping for photos I was Photoshopping. Because purple rice is always more delicious than white rice. Rest assured - we went over ethics as well, hence the full exposure.

Still fielding Slideshow ideas - twitter me awaltersNPR!

Amy Walters

Laura Sullivan

Local students ooh and ahh when paper thin noodles appear as if by magic from a hunk of dough. Photo by Laura Sullivan

 

If you're looking for fresh noodles, you can't get better than Chinatown. Noodle chefs take chunks of dough, twist them over and over, whipping, pulling and yanking until thin noodles form. The process usually draws a crowd.

- Graham Smith

Having survived much ribbing about being a photo know-it-all, I learned a lot in the last couple days. Re-learned some, but also unlocked some of the mysteries of those digital camera menus and sub-menus. It's been good to have assignments again - capturing movement and exploring angles.

Karl spent the morning working with us on portraits, and often served as model.

Karl is chopped and shopped, but he seems to have survived. Photo by Graham Smith

 

The last couple of days, it's been warm enough that I've had lunch on the steps of the Portrait Museum. No doubt the cold winds of February will be back soon.

Sleeping Dogs that may be lions.

Photo by Peter Breslow.

I thought I knew something about photography until the last two days. Karl gave us an overwhelming amount of info and I wish we had a few more weeks with him. However,I did manage to find these frozen dogs. Or are they young lions?

Peter Breslow

Navy Chaplain

Photo by Justine Kenin.

Ahh, the other side of my brain, so long dormant, has reawakened. It's a screaming infant, but it's hungry and ready to conquer the visual world. Or have fun trying. We just ended our second day with Karl Kuntz, photo editor of The Columbus Dispatch. He's a delight, and did his best to help us get more comfortable with fancy digital cameras. Here's one I shot from the US Navy Memorial -- he's a Navy Chaplain.

-- Justine Kenin

Peter says he was thinking "Did I leave the toaster on?" Photo by Tracy Wahl

 

Today was portrait day. We spent a lot of time next to the window to take advantage of the natural light. But in the end, it was the walls of the first floor that made the perfect portrait studio. But, really truly, this wasn't posed. This is just the way Peter looks when he is eating an apple.

Tracy Wahl

I call this one, Photo Of Kim That Accidentally Turned Out Well.

Photo by Barrie Hardymon.

Yes, the camera training is blowing my mind. I've always been imbued with a sense of terror that I will change a setting on my camera and all my pictures will suddenly be in fisheye mode -- that scenario haunts me NO LONGER. I am free from the tyranny of ISO and flash and whatever the hell that little flower is. Here, for your viewing pleasure is Kim Perry, who has done me the favor of being photogenic as well as helpful. Thanks, Kim, and I love your haircut.

-- Barrie Jessica Hardymon

I know the Jousting jokes were probably old on during the first knight session.. sigh...

Some Good: The Joyful Elizabeth Shogren

Photo by Amy Walters

Today there was a Lot of picture taking...

Some good...

Look how fun it is to work at NPR!!

Sometimes things got a little blurry though... and the pictures didn't turn out quite as good....

Some not so good: The Lovely Laura Sullivan - Sorry Laura!

Photo by Amy Walters.

It's important that there's room for improvement...

By the end of the week you should be able to see these skills in slide show form - wish us luck!!

Amy Walters

Knights on assignment with Karl Kuntz.

With a week of web literacy training behind us the Knights are spending the next two days learning photography basics with Karl Kuntz, managing photo and graphic editor at the Columbus Dispatch.

Justine seems a bit skeptical about the whole ordeal. Dick, on the other hand appears to be rather enlightened.

Photos by Becky Lettenberger

After a morning of learning the ins and outs of their new Canon G10s the Knights donned their P jackets and set out into the February afternoon to shoot a series of assignments practicing aperture and shutter speed.