Staring out of the window of my seventh floor hotel room in Doha, I flashed back to the tenth floor of University Corner. As I would learn from my colleagues’ blog posts later in the day, the conversation in class was about recording voices.

However, I fear that I may have been caught by the photography bug. My mind ached to snap away. To satisfy my wandering mind, I set about taking pictures of the skyscrapers before me that seemed to be scrambling to touch the clouds.

After practicing on Sainte and his peanut butter biscuits, I felt, armed with my phone, I could as well document the very nice view am sure not many people would ever see. Take a look. I wish pictures gave an indication of the very high temperatures in the scenic view.

View one from Seventh Floor

View two from Seventh

View Three from Seventh Floor

View Four from Seventh Floor

Caught by my LG

 First of all, make sure that you have enough recording space before starting with the interview. It also helps to format and test the device, to avoid recording on top of other material, this will enable your to pick up any faults the machine might have.

Less interruptions makes for better sound

It is advisable to conduct you audio interview in a place where there is less or no noise interrruptions.

Positioning the recording device close to the interviewee helps to  capture a clear sound, the voice settign should be between minus 12 and minus 6.

Be confident in front of your subject and not appear as clueless about the functions of your equipments. This could make them feel nervous and lose faith in you.

While conducting the interview, try to ask open ended questions and avoid one answer questions. They are not useable. Allow your interviewee space to express themselves without interruptions, either from yourself or other parties.

You may just nod or use body language to show that you are with them and follow what they are saying. The recorder, which is also has a built-in microphone should not be positioned right in front of the person’s mouth. Try to put it slightly on the side.

Finally listen to the recording and download, then edit.

There are different types of voice recorders, here is an example:

an example of a voice recorder

My last blow came when I heard what I pitched yesterday was for monday and not for the final project.  I went into the city yesterday to take photos of the Ethiopians at work so I now need to rewrite my project plan for monday. For this weekend a need to focus on a another assignment that is due for monday … no rest for the wicked!

The most important aspect of recording is that you must never talk on top of the interviewee. Allow him to finish talking and if you follow the interview show it by non-verbal signs such as nodding.

This is really empowering!!

I was Sainte’s official photographer, snapping away as he prepared a rom peanut butter and biscuits and indulged. This is the story of a photographer. Take a look at the images I got.

Munching

Well, I admit, they are not the best of pictures, but these are definitely the best of snacks. Ask Sainte!

Dave Mayer ( course lecturer)  began reviewing  some key words in this course.

Dave the Rave-Oberlix..whats that..

HTML-hypertext mark-up language: The code behind most websites .Hyper linking: When you link a set of words or photo to a particular website.php: These are sites that update easily like news sites etc.CMS : content management system-this is the back end of the website used for updating and editing purposes. This website uses word press. Other CMS tools include Joomla ,Drupal etc.

I am busy conceptualising my photographic process piece which is due on Monday-decide to go with a Pakistani chicken dish

More on Monday…..

So we can’t fire it up and even if we could, we won’t get the photos off the camera. Hm. This afternoon I’ll have to check whether it pays to buy new accessories or whether I might best buy a camera for myself.

Although now, a few hours after I wrote those first paragraphs, my priorities have changed – I really want to buy an audio tool.

Nerd
It annoyed me to no end that I had trouble mastering the menu of the Zoom H2, being the nerd that I am. But now that I know how to do it I’m hooked.

I am so going to use this for paid work! I was totally fed up with writing and found out in the meantime that I am a much better sub-editor. But doing other things than writing and coding had not yet occurred to me. I love it!

We had the opportunity to test the equipment, see how we managed to use all that info whilst actually doing an interview. I noticed it’s quite hard to actually remember what the interview is about if you try to keep a good eye on the sound levels at the same time. Luckily Sibongile was helping me out by talking a lot without much prompting.

Surprisingly there is no wind on our recording – it is very cold today, the windchill makes it feel like 1°C and that wind is blowing as if University Corner needs to be swept away. Would be sad now that the refurbishing is almost done.

Photo: A Zoom H2 recorder. Copyright: Dotdean

Therein lies the purpose of today’s class. And it is for that reason that putting peanut butter on a Marie biscuit will be an occurrence that I will not likely forget. Not least of all that it woudl have tasted devilishly marvellous if I had actually eaten it.

I think that what I find most daunting about this course how Multimedia Journalism is proving to be an animal far ferocious that I envisioned. The process piece is not a piece that is assessed in terms of incisive reporting, or the ability to provide an in-depth analysis- it is to teach me teh ability to watch and give and in particular be able to show a blow by blow account of the topic one has undertaken to report on. I am coming to terms with the technical aspects of this online journalism, hyperlinking, editing pictures according to specific guidelines on Photo-Shop, and adapting my writing style to the medium in question.

It is proving to be a really challenging, but fruitful exercise.