solorio

Tropical Cheer Christmas 5x7 folded card

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getting down to the wire

As a digital storyteller, preparing stories in advance is key. Making sure you have the correct information requires a journalistic point-of-view in knowing that what you are saying is correct versus just saying it to just say it. Having valid information is what makes a story, a story. Throughout the course of this semester, we as a class have been given the tools to put out the correct information. It is important to understand that telling a story is not enough and through our final project we are able to present a story of a struggle which many college students go through, choosing the correct path through ones journey in college. It has been an exciting journey up until this point but through this story, in which we followed up with a graduate, I can tell my journey is not close to being over. 

on da web

To be a journalist.

what is a journalist?

Is it someone who just writes a blog post online about the dangers of eating expired lunch meat or is it someone who writes an article for the New York Times about the newest Crayola colored crayon?
The concept of online journalism has taken on a completely different tone with the concept of journalism and the ability to be able to go online, start a blog and tell a story simply fascinates me. To have that right to say what you need to say when you need to say and have as large of a potential audience as the world wide web is amazing. To be able to write well is an essential as a journalist but not a necessary as a story teller. Ultimately, I know that no matter what my career ends up being, I will always have the chance to say what I want to say to whomever is willing to listen

QUITE the comforting thought.

shoppin with photos

it is QUITE frightening how much one can manipulate a photograph. As much fun as it is to see the different ways a picture can look, the program is quite intimidating.

We are told to just sit there and work for HOURS and HOURS on end and mess around but how do we do that when we don't know what all the factors mean?
lynda.com is where it's at!
This comprehensive site which gives quite the tutorial is very helpful in order to understand exactly what one is doing which is a very exciting concept. Even the small difference of this picture:

to an adorable portrayal of  my pup!

p makes p.

InDesign is a very frustrating program. I have used this program before in high school but it seems to have gotten much more complicated with the new editions that have come out. I have however realized that this program, as well as photoshop, imovie and really an design program, 

practice makes perfect

I will continue to take what I have learned and apply that practice on my own time and hopefully be fruitful with my efforts at the end of this course and leave the class having learned above and beyond what I thought I would. 

patience is a virtue?

Patience is a virtue, keep it if you can. Seldom found in a woman but never in a man. 

yeah, I went there. 

As the semester keeps on trucking, we are being introduced more and more to software and elements way out of my... well, element. Working with photoshop was fun but working with InDesign was NOT. When I was in high school way back when, I used InDesign for all the spreads being on Yearbook staff yet, that really must have been a long time ago because I do NOT remember InDesign being as difficult as it is now! Docta Byers explained that it is a much more difficult of a program so I didn't feel like THAT much of an idiot. 

Practice makes perfect and nothing is farther form the truth with these programs, they are the ones that require patience and lots of work to fully attain, but I am not a quitter and am willing to go all the way. 

Hasta la proxima!

so it goes

The semester keeps on trucking as I keep on dozing ... JUST KIDDING!
Digital Storytelling aka Digi Story has put on quite the load to complete by the end of the semester and I could not be anything but EXCITED!
our story will focus, as of now, on the struggle
financially,
    educationally,
        future,
 with the real question being
WHAT
      IS
          EXPERIENCE?

STAY TUNED

to find out!

Hasta la proxima!

New Orleans, Louisiana 

October 2009

This gorgeous sunset represents the end of another exhausting day rebuilding the beautiful lower ninth ward in New Orleans but also shows that through hardships, there is always beauty as it shines down on the bridge by the levy's that broke the day of the hurricane 

So it begins ... or ends?

Ending a Thursday in the third week in the semester seems a little bit unreal. Was I not just making fresh flower Hawaiian leis yesterday?? Summer is a blur and classes are in full swing. Today in my digital storytelling class, I have been told that blogs usually take on a theme. And yes, I do believe that to be quite true especially since this is my second blog ever and my first one did take on the theme of my personal outlook on life. This blog has been created for a clas,s which would essentially mean that the theme of this specific blog would be photography (in a sense) would it not? Yet, as the third week in the semester of my junior (!!!) year ends, I find that photography will essentially be the theme of my semester with the taking of three courses:

digital storytelling 

newswriting

photography 

where telling a story goes beyond the text. 

Although, I can satisfyingly say, that I am perfectly fine with looking at life through a lens.