Craft Improvement Archives - Outdoor Writers Association of America

Pitch perfect: how to sell more stories

OWAA Developer — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 22:14:52 +0000

BY JOSEPH ALBANESE
John Gierach is likely the only person who can send just about anything in and have it published. I’m fairly certain he could scribble “Fish on!” on a cocktail napkin and it would receive top billing in whatever publication he sent it to. And why not? The man could make the phone book interesting — and people know it. But his byline likely didn’t carry the same weight until he was established. That means even he had to pitch at some point.
Pitching to editors is many writers’ least favorite part of freelancing, but it’s a necessary part of the job.
Editors want to hear from you. They need quality content. But theirs is a busy job with a variety of duties and an often overflowing inbox. If you give them enough information to make a decision quickly you will receive more positive responses.
The quality of the content you present is one of the most important parts of the puzzle, but it is not the only one. There’s a long list of what can make a pitch more attractive to editors, from when it’s received to how it’s crafted. But good pitching starts long before you hit send, or even draft your proposal.
In this issue of OU I’ll offer some insights into preparing to pitch. In the August/September issue I’ll tackle drafting and sending the query.
While not a comprehensive guide, these are insights I’ve gained after making a lot of mistakes and could help you avoid similar blunders, and sell more stories in the process.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
If I learned anything from my limited time in retail sales, it’s that you need to be less concerned with what you find appealing and more with the interests of your customers. If you’re a freelancer, your customer is not just the editor, but the publication’s audience. The two likely have similar tastes, but in the end, the editor is looking for material the publication’s established readership will find interesting. If you are a long-time reader of the magazine you are likely the target demographic, or you understand who is. Otherwise, sit down with back issues of the publication and thoroughly read them, noting tone, style and topics.
CHECK THE CALENDAR
Many of the larger publications have a media kit hidden somewhere in the recesses of their website. This is usually designed to attract advertisers, but oftentimes the editorial layout for the following year is included. This is your Rosetta Stone. Knowing that October is elk month, you can send in all those rigging tips you have learned over the decades loading pack mules. May is the top water bonanza? Turn in your favorite popper tying instructions.
READ THE DIRECTIONS
Sometimes you will be fortunate enough to find a set of instructions for submissions on the publication’s website. Follow them. This is the roadmap to getting published in that magazine. This will tell you if the editor would rather have a completed piece or just a query. If there’s a style guide, study it. The easier you make the editor’s job, the more likely they are to hire you. Pay close attention to the requirements for each section of the publication; unless you are Gierach they will be unlikely to deviate from that formula.
RESEARCH
You won’t need to fully report the piece, but you do need enough research to show an editor why it’s newsy and why their readers will be interested. A simple social media search can provide data to indicate the popularity of the subject you can cite as “a recent Facebook search showed that hunters in the Midwest were actively discussing the rut at this time last year.” Statistics and facts also help. “The summer was the hottest on record, with surveys by the Bureau of Land Management indicating less standing water in the arid Southwest than any other time in the last 15 years. This fall, if you find water you’ll find the pronghorn.”
NETWORKING
Social networks can be powerful tools to help market your work and find more. Carefully timed posts can draw attention to your recent stories, build interest around your body of work and increase your credibility. Building a network of publishers and editors allows you to share your articles and lets people review them at their leisure. This will highlight your areas of expertise.
In addition to helping promote your work, you can often find and reach out to the decision makers at a publication directly. LinkedIn is tailor-made for this approach, creating a who’s who right at your fingertips, often with email addresses.
Facebook can also be a good way to score some work. Trophy photos that are not appropriate for a professional networking site may pique an editor’s interest into your secrets for pulling greenheads when no one else can seem to buy a duck. And that outsized brown may just make an ideal cover for the “All About Trout” edition coming out next spring.
It’s also a great way to find publications that might be perfect for your pitch, which I’ll talk about drafting in the next issue.
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Joseph Albanese’s tenure in natural resources has taken him from the shadow of the Empire State Building to the Alaskan bush, with experiences as varied as the terrain. He now works as an outdoor communicator, creating text and video for publications including Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and The FlyFish Journal.

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Paddling for a profit: How to turn one trip into multiple stories

OWAA Developer — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 04:27:42 +0000

BY KRIS MILLGATE
It’s that time of year. If you haven’t already committed to attending OWAA’s annual conference, you are probably weighing the pros and expenses. But if you plan it right, OWAA’s annual conference can be a money-making opportunity you don’t want to miss.
Last year’s conference in Duluth, Minnesota, led me to multiple stories on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, making the trip not just valuable, but also profitable.
Here’s how I turned conference expenses into income-generating stories.
ONE: HOW THE STORY REACHED MY RADAR.
I attend my first SHOT Show in January 2017. Katie McKalip, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers communications director, invites me to a conservation dinner while at the world’s largest gun and ammunition trade show. The food is fabulous, as is the discussion on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and what’s at stake if the Minnesota watershed is mined.
TWO: I’M INTRIGUED BY THE STORY, BUT I’M SO FAR AWAY.
It’s March and I’m looking at almost $2,000 in expenses for OWAA 2017 conference in Duluth, Minnesota. I’m upside down on value before I arrive in June. Conferences must justify themselves in opportunity (work) or I don’t get to go.
Duluth is closer to Boundary Waters than my hometown of Idaho Falls, Idaho. If I’m going all that way, I might as well go a bit farther and touch, portage, paddle and fish the Boundary Waters. I report more strongly when I know the resource firsthand anyway.
THREE: NONE OF THE CONFERENCE TRIPS SUIT MY STORY NEEDS.
By April I can tell I’m going to have to grab this bull by the horns and create my own post-conference trip. Duluth conference trip coordinator Gene Shaw helps me connect with Boundary Waters outfitter Steve Piragis of Piragis Northwoods Company. He’s fighting the mine. So is his fly-fishing buddy, Reid Carron, who offers to come along so I can pick up a fly-fishing story in addition to the mining story.
Piragis knows the outlets I work with, including Field & Stream, so he knows I have legitimate assignment potential. He offers one day in his canoe at no charge as a media trip with lodging in his guest house the night before.
I also line up Lukas Leaf of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters. We met at that SHOT dinner in January. He’s in Duluth for the OWAA conference too. I interview him before I head to the Boundary Waters. I also pick up the other side of the story, the pro-mine side, during a conference panel discussion. A lot of heated statements erupt during panels. Don’t skip them.
FOUR: HOW TO GET FROM CONFERENCE TO MY STORY.
I don’t have a car in Duluth. I need one for the two-hour drive north and back to Duluth for my flight home. I mentored fellow OWAA member Emily Stone at the OWAA 2016 conference in Billings, Montana.
Emily’s a Midwesterner. Turns out, she’s going to conference in Duluth and she lives close enough to drive. Guided canoe trip in the Boundary Waters covered as media with additional expenses covered by me, her mentor? She’s in. My transportation is taken care of as long as I keep her gas tank, and her belly, full. I also happily answer any questions she has about the freelance life and the work I do.
FIVE: MAKING GOOD ON MY PROFITABLE CONFERENCE COMMITMENT WITH A STORY.
I don’t take advantage of my media status and I don’t expect handouts, not even from polite Midwesterners like Steve and Emily.
If I say I’m on assignment, I really am. Free media trips are great, but trips don’t pay my conference expenses or my mortgage. Stories do.
I turn multiple stories for print and video media outlets as soon I return from Minnesota. Gene knew I would. Steve and Reid knew I would. Emily knew I would. They kept their end of the deal. I keep mine. I write stories on fly-fishing for Sporting Classics and on mining, the original reason Boundary Waters sparked my interest, for Field & Stream.
SIX: HOW MY STORY KEEPS ON GIVING.
I wrote and sold three stories from my trip, but that is just the beginning.
I now have a personal connection with a natural resource that keeps surfacing in the news as the mining issue progresses. I’m ready to cover updates. I have established sources a convenient call away. I also have extra photos and video so I can offer new visuals every time I update the story.
As for Emily, she found a new angle for her weekly column during our trip. She also made two new friends. She lives much closer to Steve and Reid than I do and sees them more often than I do. And her book “Natural Connections” sells in Ely, Minnesota, our canoe trip launch city where she pitched a bookstore manager.
Moral of the story; Go to conference, request a mentee or be a mentor and put your own elbow grease into covering conference expenses by creating an assignment-worthy trip.
—
OWAA member Kris Millgate is an outdoor journalist based in Idaho. See more of her work at www.tightlinemedia.com.

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A new point of view: GoPro cameras can capture new angles and stories

OWAA Developer — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 04:03:00 +0000

BY JOSEPH DITS
I am a three-eyed monster. But, somehow, people don’t flinch when I come close. That little box strapped to my forehead with the shiny round eye — the GoPro camera — doesn’t seem odd to them. I’ve gotten way more stares and questions about the big red mirror that I used to wear on my bike helmet.
The GoPro is so common, people barely glance at it. It’s also a sleek tool to tell narratives, beyond an extreme sports video. I’ve shot my share of those, providing video to go with my weekly adventure sports column in the South Bend (Indiana) Tribune: biking across the Mackinaw Bridge with other cyclists at sunrise; shooting down the luge run (one of only four in the United States) in Muskegon, Michigan; and whitewater rafting in Tennessee while at the OWAA conference in 2015.
But I’ve also used the GoPro to make a cute video of a middle school teacher’s after-school bike club where, as they rode drills and hit the riverside trails, you could overhear a kid say, “I wanna be in this (video)” and what every fitness teacher wants to hear: “I gave her a Pop-Tart.”
I also used the GoPro to capture emotions as hundreds of people lined the roads near Kalamazoo, Michigan, for a huge bike ride one week after five cyclists were killed by an allegedly doped-up driver.
I’ve documented thousands of cyclists who converge every Monday for the Slow Roll through Detroit’s streets of burned out homes and neighborhoods starting to come back to life. My footage showed the fun, tricked-out urban cruisers and the creeping carpet of cyclists who filled the streets. For narration, I also used the GoPro to record one of the ride’s organizers as he spoke. When doing this, I always get closer than usual to the person speaking, since the lens has such a wide angle.
The GoPro also has a great capacity for macro video. I’ve taken the GoPro down low for a tour of spring wildflowers at my feet, moving slowly enough to let it record clear video.
I used the GoPro to give a tour of a weeping beech tree, a bizarre, droopy cultivar at the University of Notre Dame. With the camera on my forehead, I ducked under its canopy to view decades of student graffiti on the trunk.
I shoot all my stuff, then take it back to photographers at the Tribune, who edit my footage and piece it together using the Apple software Final Cut Pro. They sometimes speed up my biking videos for effect. It makes for a wild — albeit sometimes dizzying — ride, but it’s also a quick way to show an entire trail. At the Tribune, we aim for videos under three minutes.
Tribune photographer Robert Franklin placed a GoPro camera on an egg timer to take a series of still photos, using the time lapse function, as football fans filled Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend as the sun set.
He laid the cheap egg timer flat, removed the timer’s faceplate and fixed the GoPro so that it panned across the stadium.
Franklin also took a cool still shot, looking up at a fully submerged kid in a swimming pool. Franklin stayed dry as he plunged the GoPro, in waterproof case with a monopod, and used his iPhone to snap the shutter.
For B-roll footage, Tribune photographer Michael Caterina advises shooting an extra four to five seconds of video after I’m satisfied with a shot. That adds a little buffer to be trimmed, just in case a part of the video is shaky or has an intrusive sound.
Our photo editor reminds me to always keep the lens clean for clearer shots. It’s hard to avoid the smudge of a finger when you’re out playing, reaching for buttons in the snow or stream.
I was glad when, on Chicago’s Bike the Drive with 30,000 cyclists on Lake Shore Drive, I still had the GoPro on my head as I rolled up to a lady with a little pup, Cocoa, in her basket. I shot as we rode and chatted. But neither she nor cute Cocoa was bashful of this three-eyed monster and I soon made them Facebook stars.
—
Joseph Dits writes his weekly Outdoor Adventures column for the South Bend Tribune. South Bend, on Indiana’s border with Michigan, is just a couple of hours drive from this year’s OWAA conference in Fort Wayne. To see his columns and “Joe on the GoPro” videos, visit southbendtribune.com/outdooradventures.

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Making video magic by capturing emotion

OWAA Developer — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 19:12:20 +0000

BY DAVID MAJURE
All great films and videos are full of magic. It’s in smiles and teardrops, heartache and euphoria. To me, the magic in moving pictures is all about emotion. That’s what connects with people and makes them care about the story.
As a video producer, I’m always trying to enchant my viewers. I’m no magician, but I do have a bag of tricks I use to try to capture emotion.
REAL MAGIC
Let’s start with what’s real, like the excitement of a child catching her first fish. This one’s easy. Point the camera in the right direction, hit record, and voilà. There’s always a temptation to get the shot of that beautiful creature emerging from the water. Resist the urge. You’ll be happy you did when you see the wonderment on that child’s face.
It doesn’t hurt to keep the camera rolling even after the primary action has ended. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped recording right after the kid releases her fish only to miss that heartwarming hug, enthusiastic yell, or triumphant high five.
EMOTION IN MOTION
The camera itself can be used to establish a mood.
Following a group of hunters through thick brush as branches bend and snap back into place creates a sense of urgency you’ll never get when shooting from a tripod. Sending a small action camera surging through whitewater rapids takes your viewers on a thrilling ride from the rafter’s point of view. Shifting into slow motion adds another dimension.
If you want viewers to feel uneasy, or maybe even slightly queasy, experiment with erratic camera movement or unusual angles. I like to vary my shots, but I’ve always been particularly fond of extreme close-ups that look directly into a subject’s eyes. The addition of slow motion can reveal subtle, fleeting expressions that say so much about a person.
When you want viewers to soak in the quiet solitude of a misty mountain lake, it’s time to put that camera back on the tripod.
NATURAL ENCHANTMENT
Filmmakers who cover the outdoors are lucky because nature is intrinsically magical. There is a reason that time near sunrise and sunset, when golden light produces dramatic shadows, is called “the magic hour.”
Take advantage of other natural elements like steam rising from a lake, dramatic cloud formations and tall grasses dancing in the breeze to set the mood. They all elicit an emotional response and play on that human desire to be close to nature. I rarely miss a chance to capture images of sunlight shimmering through the trees or sparkling on the water.
I’m also fond of silhouettes. There’s something simple, mysterious and serene about scenes of people in silhouette. It gives viewers an opportunity to attach their own emotions to the scene and imagine what the subject is feeling.
CONJURING A CONCLUSION
Beautiful images lose much of their magic without excellent audio, so don’t neglect the sound. A good wireless microphone provides a lot of flexibility. Put it on the person you’re covering and leave it there. After a while, people tend to forget they’re wearing a microphone and start to open up.
Making video magic doesn’t end in the field. The emotional impact of your video will be determined by the choices you make when writing your script, placing edits and mixing music and sound. Conjure just the right recipe, and your story will be absolutely spellbinding.
—
David Majure is an Emmy award-winning producer for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and its flagship Arizona Wildlife Views television program. Before joining the agency in 2013, Majure spent most of his career as a television writer and producer for Arizona PBS (KAET-TV, Phoenix).

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Get graphic in your storytelling

OWAA Developer — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 19:06:22 +0000

BY TOM WATSON
When an assigned word count limits the amount of information you can present in an article, most of us rely upon photos, the picture’s-worth-athousand-words, space-saving solution for presenting visual details that describing might consume too many column inches.
But sometimes not even a photo can do it. An image might not be available, practical, or really show what a reader needs to see understand the story.
Illustrations can come to the rescue.
You don’t have to have the talents of Michelangelo to create illustrations, nor do you necessarily need to buy additional graphics software.
Not to say that an artful eye doesn’t have its advantages, but even the basic drawing programs that come standard on most computers can be used to create illustrations that clarify, instruct and reveal information that would take hundreds of words of text to describe adequately.
I did an article on making emergency fishing lures out of common materials. I felt I could describe the steps more concisely and space-efficiently by illustrating the process. Using a few key instructive graphics that were created by using photos, clip art and basic geometric shapes from the computer’s drawing options, I offered my readers a visual guide to create a makeshift lure from a ballpoint pen tip cap and a Pepsi can.
Sometimes an illustration presents the information in a more concise and colorful manner. While writing a story on falling through the ice, I couldn’t find an image of a victim and the different rescue gear options defined in the article. My solution was to create the scenario and its components graphically.
Such infographics are often used to rely highlights of information with short bullet points and instructive graphics. Creating your own version to supplement information in a story saves space while enhancing the overall article with helpful visuals beyond — or in lieu of — photos.
I use graphic programs (the style menu in “Pages” on my Mac) in a couple of ways to create the illustrations. I often use a photo as a baseline shape to create an outline image that I can then alter (shape, color, texture) to fit the desired presentation I need. Using such mixed media bases, you can create the desired final image one section or component at a time, and then combine those pieces together for the final working image. Saved as a JPEG file, your illustration can be inserted just as you would a photo or PDF image. It does takes a little practice to learn all the nuances of even a simple “draw” program, and getting the right look is a matter of learning to highlight areas.
Creating publishable illustrations takes practice. I am constantly honing my skills and learning new techniques. I often create cartoons or experiment with shading and textures on different shapes to practice. As you become more comfortable with all aspects of your drawing program, you can start experimenting with combining treatments (colors, gradient fills, layering and effects) to create your own highlights.
You can also use a photo for a background format and enhance it with illustrated graphics overlays on the base image. This is a common technique in articles where graphics are combined with a bird’s-eye photo of the terrain highlighting wildlife habitat or hunting areas and also showing game movement.
It’s important to make sure there are no copyright issues with any images you use. Public domain artwork offers myriad opportunities to provide foundational outlines and shapes. Combining those base images into your own visuals is a creative complement to your writing skills and makes an article all the more informative — and appealing — to the reader.
—
Tom Watson, an active member since 1988, is an award-winning freelance writer and columnist specializing in a variety of outdoor topics, including self-reliance/survival, sea kayaking and camping skills.

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Shedding light on capturing the eclipse

OWAA Developer — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 22:39:52 +0000

How to prepare to capture the rare natural phenomenon

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BY COURTNEY BROCKMAN
On August 21, the moon will completely block the sun from coast-to-coast for the first time since 1918. A 70-mile wide path will stretch from Salem, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. Viewers in that pathway will see the corona, the outermost layer of the sun, which burns 200 to 300 times hotter than the surface at 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.
Sitting in the middle of the total eclipse pathway is Fremont County, Wyoming, and that’s where Jim Brown, an award-winning nature photographer, will attempt to capture it with his camera. He’ll have from 10:22 a.m. to 1:09 p.m. to make pictures, with totality, when the moon completley covers the sun, lasting about 3 minutes and 25 seconds.
Capturing this spectacle is a photographer’s dream, yet it is also challenging. Brown, who has photographed Wyoming’s skies for 40 years but never shot an eclipse, shares how he is preparing to capture this rare event.
PLAN THE PICTURE YOU WANT.
Ask yourself what you want to get out of the photo and whether you want an image with a foreground or just the eclipse in the sky. Study different locations and the surrounding landscapes.
Arrive at your spot a day or two before the eclipse at the same time it will happen and watch the sun move through the location. The totality of the eclipse will only last a few moments, and you want to be ready.
KNOW YOUR CAMERA.
For crisp photos, don’t shoot through a telescope because it will fuzz the edges.
The time lapse between when the button is pushed and when the shutter actually closes may cause problems when using point-and-shoot cameras. However, point-and-shoot cameras may be used for progressive images of the eclipse, such as the dropping light level on surrounding landscapes, as well as the horizon’s glow during totality.
If you have a wide-angle lens, find a beautiful location to shoot. If you have more expensive pieces of equipment, focus on the eclipse and shooting the corona. To capture the corona, the focal lens length must be at least 300 mm.
Brown plans to shoot with two cameras simultaneously: a 600 mm to capture details of the eclipse and a wide, 35 mm lens for shooting a time-lapse of the trail with a rock formation in the foreground.
PREPARE YOUR SETTINGS.
Brown will shoot with a wide-open f-stop at f-2.8 and an ISO at 800. Other typical combinations for eclipse photography include: ISO 100, f-4; ISO 200, f-5 or 6, or ISO 400 and f-8.
Pretest the ISO and f-stop beforehand because they will remain the same. Use manual focus and aim it at the sun. Take some test shots beforehand. You can secure the focus with a strip of tape over the focus ring to prevent movement.
During totality, the eclipse will become as dark as night. As the moon begins moving over the sun, covers the disk and moves away, you must manually adjust the shutter speed to capture each stage. Brown’s shutter will range from fast to fairly slow as the light changes.
The changes during eclipse totality occur rapidly. Run through the series of exposures during the eclipse with the fixed f-stop to capture the full range of the sun’s atmospheric brightness.
PROTECT YOUR EYES AND CAMERA.
Place a glass piece on the front of your camera lens to shield it from the brightness. Although Brown will use a neutral density filter, he suggests buying a 4×4 square of dark welder’s glass for about $10 from any welder’s shop, instead of purchasing an expensive filter.
The filter must remain on the lens during the partial eclipse to avoid damage. It should fit nicely over the front of the camera lens, but also be easy to remove. If the camera does not have through-the-lens viewing, put a filter over the viewfinder as well to protect your eyes. Make sure to remove the filter during totality.
GET A GOOD TRIPOD.
For clear pictures, a tripod is absolutely necessary so the camera is stable.
FIND A UNIQUE SETTING.
In Wyoming, Brown says the Castle Gardens Petroglyph Site will be a popular spot, as well as Hell’s Half Acre with its interesting rock formations along the highway. But the best places are the deserted areas.
“To sell pictures, you’ve got to have one-of-a-kind,” Brown said.
WATCH THE SHOW.
Don’t forget, once you have found a spot and set up your gear, to sit back and watch the sight. Photos will be great memories of the eclipse, but be sure to enjoy the moment while it lasts.
–Courtney Brockman is an OWAA intern and a senior studying journalism at the University of Montana.
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When, how to tag on social media

OWAA Developer — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 23:08:15 +0000

BY TAYLOR WYLLIE
It used to be that all it took to maximize social media was knowing how and when to post something. Since then we have entered an era where mastering social media is a profession within itself. Posts likely show up in your feed that have been carefully crafted in phrasing, timing and subject matter.
And they can look complex too — with seemingly random highlighted names of both people and companies.
This is tagging. It’s impactful, will keep you relevant and is surprisingly easy to master.
Think of tagging as bringing relevant people or companies into a conversation, like cc’ing someone on an e-mail that concerns them, or talking about someone while they’re in the room.
To get into specifics, you should absolutely tag:
When you mention a person, or company.
Don’t overthink social media. When you have a main subject that’s tagable, tag them! But don’t be too liberal — aim for one main subject and one tag in any given post. As journalists, you already know to keep your writing as concise and simple as possible. The same applies to social media.
When you’re citing your source.
Think of this as the social media form of attribution. Tag someone if you quote or
paraphrase them in any way.
When you want to grow your social media account.
Any person or business you tag will see your post in their notifications. There’s a good possibility they will retweet or favorite that post, which makes it available to all of their followers. The more people exposed to your account, the more replies, followers, comments and likes you’ll receive.
This becomes truer when the person you tag has a large following. That’s often why people choose to tag businesses or companies with a substantial fan base.
When you are being paid to.
There are people who are paid to promote products or brands. Usually it’s apparent when a post is sponsored. There will be a coupon code, a glowing review or other obvious indicators. These people, too, are usually professionals or semi-professionals in their fields: athletes, models or social media personalities.
How to tag:

On Facebook:
Tagging people on Facebook is as straightforward as social media gets. Start typing in the name of whoever it is you would like to tag. Their account will pop up in a little gray box beneath your cursor. Click on the pop-up or hit enter and you’re done.
On Twitter, Instagram and most other social media:
Type in the @ sign and their handle. Voilà, they’re tagged.Know the difference between a reply and a mention:
Twitter has very specific lingo. In the Twitterverse, a mention is when you tag someone in the body of your Tweet (after at least one character, whether it be a space, period, letter or word). It’s called a reply if you tag someone at the beginning of a tweet. A reply is directed specifically toward that person or business. Essentially it’s a digital conversation between two people. Only the sender, recipient and people who follow both accounts will be able to see a reply.
The same applies on Instagram.
If a person doesn’t have a social media account on the platform you’re
using:
You have two options. You can turn their name into a hashtag or use their name
without a tag.Not everything concerning the digital age has to be complicated. So go forth and tag away. Then maybe we can talk about analytics.

— Taylor Wyllie was an OWAA intern and is a student at the University of Montana, studying journalism and environmental studies. She’s worked for the independent student newspaper, The Montana Kaimin and her work has appeared on Montana PBS, Montana Public Radio and in the Missoulian.

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Recording audio on your iPhone

OWAA Developer — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:21:50 +0000

BY PAUL QUENEAU
You know there’s an app for that?
Those seven words have become cliché in this age of do-everything smart phones.
Make that almost do-everything. One of the more fundamental telephone accessories for outdoor writers — the ability to record an interview — remains elusive even on the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ big 2007 unveiling of the first iPhone.
I have long employed Radio Shack’s finest $5 handset splitter to tape interviews on my office landline, first recording them to mini-cassette and now to MP3 tracks using my handheld digital recorder. Easy enough.
Unfortunately, my cutting-edge iPhone won’t allow me to record a single phone call to its internal memory. I’ve researched the available “apps for that,” but all seem to involve per-minute subscription fees and offloading of audio to a third-party site. Way more complicated than it seems to me it needs to be.
The hang-up may lie in the legality of recording calls, which I’ve got a hunch scares off app developers since in some states callers are required by law to notify anyone they wish to tape. (Always remember to ask!)
I instead devised a somewhat ludicrous hack using my Macbook. Since Apple introduced OS X “Yosemite,” I’ve had the option to place calls on my computer using my iPhone’s cell connection over a Wi-Fi network (phone has to be running iOS 8 or later).
I do this by entering any phone number I want to call into my computer’s contacts app, which then displays a “call” button over the listing. Once clicked, the calls begin, and I use a Mac screen-capture app called Screenflow that also allows me to record computer audio. I use my Apple headphones with a built-in microphone, and in the end get an audio file of the conversation that’s about as high-fidelity as you could possibly get over a phone.
Granted, Screenflow costs $99, but never fear: there is a free download called Soundflower that allows you to record computer audio using Apple’s built-in Quicktime app. I use Screenflow because I already had it installed at the time, and Soundflower takes a couple more steps to get it to work, but it is a good option for an admittedly complex route.
Freelancer Aaron Teasdale has used a somewhat similar setup to record his interviews using Skype, his speakerphone and QuickTime’s audio recording feature.
But wasn’t the original goal of all this to keep it all within our smartphones? For that, a viable option is the Google Voice app, which allows one to record conversation with a simple key punch. The big caveat is it only works for incoming calls—a clumsy hurdle to have to ask every interviewee to call you right back, especially on a cold call.
From what I can gather, smartphone users on the Android side of things have an
easier time recording calls using free apps such as Smart Voice Recorder.
On the iPhone side, though, the best in-phone option appears to currently be the $10 TapeACall Pro app. It creates a three-way call between you, the caller and the TapeACall service. This creates a downloadable MP3 file, which your phone can grab off the company’s servers after the conversation. That doesn’t carry the same peace of mind as having a recorder there right in front of you, but probably your best option at this point. After a year, TapeACall requires an annual $8 fee.
Teasdale said he’s used this app rather than his Skype workaround in recent months, and largely likes it.
“It works well, but the setup process for each call isn’t exactly intuitive,” he said. “I have to refresh myself on the procedure each time. But it does make quality recordings. I still wish there was something simpler, but it’s the best I found.”
Another iPhone option is the NoNotes, which is free for first the 20 minutes, but costs 25 cents per minute after that, or $7 per month. One advantage, though, is that it includes a built-in competitively priced transcription service ($0.75/minute or $40/hour) to save you the task of putting words to text.
Whatever smartphone you use, it doesn’t appear that the level of ease-of-use we’ve all become so accustomed to has yet made it to primetime. That could all change with the next version of any competing phone’s operation system, but until then, we can rest assured that foreign governments and state intelligence agencies have long ago gotten this cell phone recording thing down pat, and like drones, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before it makes the leap to the consumer side.
— Paul Queneau is an editor for Bugle magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula, Montana. He is also a freelance and photographer with credits in Outdoor Life, Montana Quarterly and other publications.

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Run and gun: The new industry standard

OWAA Developer — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 05:29:31 +0000

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BY ADAM STIELSTRA
If you’ve shot video with a 20-pound Betacam slung over your shoulder with only available light, you should be familiar with the term “run and gun.” At some point in everyone’s cinematic career we’ve had to bite down hard and wave production value for fast documentation, compromising art completely. Or in other words — sometimes we have to pay the bills.

I came from the school of big production. Rolling 35mm film was par for the course in Chicago in the 1990’s. By 1999 I had made it to cinematographer status and director followed close behind. Productions were robust and so were the budgets, but that’s all changed.

Digital media threw a rather large rock in the pond of video and still photography back the mid to late 2000’s. What seemed like a fixed tradition for the last millennia nearly bottomed out overnight. Everything changed. If you were in business then you might have felt the impact of YouTube, Facebook and iStock.

Television as a mainstay format was on the outs as the first outdoor websites where anyone could showcase their work- and amateurs happily did it for free — began to spring up.

The days of big production were nearly halted or immediately confined to a few large commercial agencies and Hollywood. The people in the middle, the working class artists and craftsman, were all scarred in some way by this surprise plague of shabby amateur video and low audience standards. Some of us lived. Some of us died. Some of us were reborn.

I took hard hits myself for a few years. Things were lean. But the novelty of YouTube wore thin as sites like Vimeo became the standard for new digital quality. Everyone noticed, including the companies who wanted this quality back, but the budgets never truly returned.

Manufactures of computers, software and cameras quickly saw dollar signs as they scaled down costs and increased availability and quality to basic production gear. Apple made exceptional nonlinear editing software. Canon and others made prosumer mini-dv cameras then quickly shifted by eliminating tape altogether with their digital single lens reflex cameras; simultaneously giving access to both the highest quality stills and high-definition video.

The digital revolution was ablaze, clearing new paths for beginners to attain production quality that appeared to match old-world budgets.

With post-production tools that could virtually fix anything, compact cameras that mimicked 35mm and young, willing pupils at the ready, why would anyone pay more for content? For the aged survivors, we had the skill set to make these new tools sing.

We knew how to tell a good story beyond relying on tech alone. For us, composition, lighting and wise editing were pre-programmed. Even with all the new platforms and advances, storytelling differentiated the amateurs from the pros and viewers knew it.

We just had to figure a way to do it lean. We had to go back to old school run and gun.

I recently completed video projects for Trout Unlimited and Yale University’s 360 website.

These projects’ budgets barely covered travel, meals and lodging, let alone the multiple days of dawn to dusk shooting. I was able to create videos that pleased the clients and audiences within that budget by taking on the projects as a one man band.

If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you learn to edit for video and sound; possibly go so far as to learn more sophisticated software like Adobe After Effects and advanced Photoshop techniques. Wielding these post-production tools is key to making money in this business. It’s more work, but it also generates more income for you, instead of having to spend chunks of your budget on hiring out help.

I began learning non-linear editing in 2002 using my own footage shot in my spare time to feel my way around the software. Learning color correction, motion graphics, 2-D animation and even some rudimentary web skills, became a natural next step. If I wanted to continue in this profession, I needed to evolve. I went so far as to enroll in community college courses on improving my web skills. The leg-up I earned for my diligence paid for the tuition and continues to keep me relevant, so long as I stay aggressive.

I had the experience to already know that story was at the successful core of everything I made. Without a story, you’re just spinning wheels while going nowhere. Any good writer knows there must be a narrative among all the information otherwise all you have are random words on a page. Without story in filmmaking, all you have are pretty pictures. While all the technological knowledge and sexy gear is nice, you must first learn to understand your audience. Moreover, learn what it will take to impact them and what you need to learn to make that happen.

Run and gun is now the industry standard for working-class production. It has to be if we are going to work within the minibudgets we’re presented. But with the advances in technology it’s more flexible than ever.

Look at some of the more innovative work being produced and study it. Is it just a bunch of well-placed GoPro’s and quick editing to intense music beats? Or is it documenting a powerful story enhanced by solid production that hooks us and pulls at our hearts while one lone writer/producer/director/editor stands there with a drone remote in his or her hands, ready to run and gun?
Adam Stielstra has been directing/shooting/editing films both large and small for 21 years. He resides along Colorado’s Front Range with his wife and two kids. Feel free to reach him with any video production needs. Visit his website, picturesheal.com and write him at picturesheal@gmail.com.
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Smart phone map apps that get you there and back

OWAA Developer — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:17:36 +0000

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BY PAUL QUENEAU

In my job I’m often deployed to remote places to photograph and write about parcels of land that have recently been protected or otherwise conserved.
I relish this chance to get to explore new country and try to capture its most appealing angles in photographs. Yet often time getting there becomes part of the adventure. Trying to navigate myself to the right spot can take me scrambling up dirt roads or single-track trails at zero dark-thirty hoping to catch good light at sunrise. My first line of defense has long been a collection of war-torn, coffee-stained Delorme state gazetteers. Then I switch to more detailed USGS maps. But lately those have started shacking up with my smart phone.
Chances are you’re already accustomed to a computer voice emanating from your phone telling you a take a right in 500 feet.
But what about when you leave the cell tower grid behind? The rule book goes out the window. Your GPS may still technically work, but mapping data doesn’t stream without a tower. This requires you to download and cache the maps for the area you plan to visit well before you leave the digital comforts of civilization.
Two summers ago at the OWAA conference, I was introduced to a superb app called GPS Topo USA by Gogal Publishing Company. For $7 it quickly delivers any USGS topographic quad in the United States to your iPhone at the same 7.5-minute detail that outdoorspeople of a certain age will know all too well. The app’s maps, though, are shaded to better show mountains and valleys, and it allows you to swap to a satellite image à la Google Earth, or to sandwich both map layers together.
But the killer feature for me is that fact that once you’ve viewed a map, it’s automatically saved in memory so you needn’t have any cell-tower coverage to pull it up again. Before I leave town I just run my route plans with my finger, and all my maps are stored and ready.
For fish-heads, Gogal also publishes a Colorado Wild Trout app that maps out the Centennial State’s steams by fish species, access points and other key data. Again, it is designed to work with or without phone service. The company is also hard at work on similar apps for the Northeast, Pacific Coast and other areas, and makes a mapping app for National Parks and Monuments as well.
Gaia GPS is a similar app for both iOS and Android with more bells and whistles. At $19.99, it’s almost three times the price, but includes world-wide topo maps, weather radar (if you’ve got cell coverage), and tools for printing maps, among other features.
If you need map layers for landowner names, property boundaries and hunting units, OnX’s HUNT app delivers. It requires an annual subscription of $29.99 per state, but if legal boundaries are a concern, it will be money well spent keeping you in the good graces of the law.
For photographers, another type of app worth considering is one that provides data on sunrise and moonrise times, angles and directions of light for any given date, and even what direction the sun or moon will appear behind a given mountain. The Photographer’s Ephemeris app ($8.99) provides all this and more, but suffers from an overloaded interface due to its smorgasbord of options. PhotoPills ($9.99) is another option with a better interface, and adds exposure recommendations for time-lapse, star trails and other photo-exposure techniques.
No matter what the app, though, it’s worth looking for the term “offline viewing” to assure you can store e-maps and other data away for the backcountry. Also remember that using the GPS can zap your battery, so leave with a full-charge.
Do you have an app that you’ve found especially useful in your outdoor storytelling work? Share it on OWAA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OWAAonline.
– Paul Queneau is an editor for Bugle magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula, Montana. He is also a freelance writer and photographer with credits in Outdoor Life, Montana Quarterly and other publications.
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