Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Call me "Camera Magee"

The student newspaper, the Oracle, was in need of a Photo Editor. I already write for the paper through my News Reporting class, but decided to put my lack-of photo skills to use, and take the position.

Now, the position has few perks such as scholarship funds, resume points, and experience. One of those perks is a staff trip. Every semester the staff travels to a photojournalism conference that they choose. This semester, they chose New York City.

Being on staff now (with a handful of other staffers) makes me eligible for the school-sponsored trip. There is one important note about the trip, though:

It's a free trip.

So, in case you aren't, I'm jumping up and down right now, while maintaining a steady typing pace.

However, at the very beginning of the semester, when they booked the plane tickets, they did not have a Photo Editor, so they did not book a ticket for that staff member. I waltz up, and it's too late to jump in on their tickets. However, hotel and other expenses are not yet locked, and they will of course cover all costs there.

If I can get myself to LaGuardia on a separate but similar flight, they will take care of me from there on out. It's a four day trip.

My Dad looked up the flight info, and offered to pay the airfare both ways for me. Thanks Dad!

I've never been to New York City before, and can only imagine how fun it would be to go. Especially the concept of flying solo, like a grown-up.

Here's the kicker. We leave on a Saturday morning, and return on a Wednesday night. This means I will have to miss three days of classes. Here's the other kicker. My 19th birthday will be that Sunday, placing me in NYC with no friends and no family on my birthday. Here's the other kicker. After being gone MonTuesWed, I come back for ThurFri classes, and then it's Spring Break.

So, I ask you, should I stay or should I go, now? At the attempt to humor my Political Science roommate Taylor, I have posted this video for you. Please hit play, and enjoy the music as you weigh the odds below.

I've missed less than five classes since I arrived.
It is a once in a lifetime offer to go to NYC, basically for free.
I don't like the idea of missing three consecutive days of class.
I would be there learning from the best photographers in the world.
I come back just in time to get caught up, then break starts.
It would look really good to say I've attended this big conference.
I would be away from Aubrey for five days.
The solo plane ride would totally be awesome and way mature.

Should I Stay? Should I Go?
Please click the "# comments" button just below this sentence. Select Name/URL, enter your first name, and give me your opinion.
I have to have an answer by sundown tonight! (Wednesday, Feb 4)

iLife Face Detection

iPhoto 2009
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Apple just updated it's "iLife" suite of software. I have not got to tinker with any of the applications besides iPhoto, because once I opened it, I haven't been able to move to anything else. The new iPhoto 2009, rocks. IT ROCKS.

The upgrade costs $80 for one person, or $100 for five. I'll give you a second to guess what I did, but you won't need it. The Candy Man managed to round up four willing volunteers to pitch in, and we got the five-pack. So now, we each get the update for $20. TWENTY DOLLARS, PEOPLE. I'm working it. Sticking it to the man. Beating the system.

Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'.

My $20 bill went solely for iPhoto, and solely for one feature. They call it "faces".

iPhoto displays all my photos, all 16,827 of them, in a grid. I pull up a photo of say, my family at graduation. iPhoto draws boxes around what it detects as faces in the photo, asking you to tag a name to each face. I tag myself, my brother, and both my parents. BOOM BABY, iPhoto immediately searches the other 16,826 photos, drawing boxes around all the faces, looking for more photos of my brother.

It pulls them up in a new tab, listing out a hundred or so photos.I click the ones it got right, ID'ing them as Caleb, and double-click the wrong ones (it's kind of funny to see what it mixes up for Caleb). The more faces I confirm, the smarter it gets. Soon, it has found every single photo of Caleb on my computer.

From now on, when I add photos from my camera, it will automatically look for Caleb's face, because it knows his face REALLY well by now.

It does this for every single face on my computer. All it needs from me is a name to match a face. It can find all 12,000 photos of "person x", the only thing I do is say, "Oh, person x is my friend Aubrey", and it goes, "Oh, right, Aubrey. I know her!".

I love it. Love it.

my Story got to Print!

my Story got to Print!
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Today my first newspaper story was published in the Henderson Oracle, the student newspaper.

I posted the un-cut text from the article Wednesday, spoiling the fun. I couldn't wait to get it up, knowing that the paper wouldn't go to print until today.

The first cheer video was shot this weekend, giving me a little one-on-one time with my old high school friend Final Cut Pro this week. I haven't editing anything but photos and text for a while now, so the shortcuts are not helping.

Any Final Cut Pro'ers reading? I wasn't exactly a shortcut expert in my prime, sticking to the basic (shift+Z) and (ctrl+G). Post some favorites for me. I'm going to be in FCP a lot these next two weeks, and could use all the shortcuts I can get.

This week has a pretty decent load of to-dos. Luckily, tomorrow is my easiest day of the week, and I should have ample time to do productive things (like blogging).

Gambling Never Pays

toilet duty
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Normally, Taylor and I tag-team the bathroom cleaning responsibilities.  I'm not man enough for the toilet part, so he does that, and in return, I do everything else.  Taylor is a cleaning pro, by the way.  I just take the easy shower and floor part (which is Swiffer, so technically FUN not WORK)

Tuesday night, Taylor comes into my room. Here's a basic dialogue plot for you, to understand how it went down.

Taylor: "there's no way we're having school tomorrow."

Cameron: "dude, go get in your bed, because we're having school tomorrow"

Taylor: "the weather says it will get down to 26* tonight, and that we will get 1" of snow."

Cameron: "it's not cold enough.  that's not enough liquid.  go to bed"

Taylor: "SNOW, Cameron.  SNOW."

Cameron: "you are starting to sound pretty confident about this, should I not set my alarm?"

Taylor: "I'm pretty confident"

Cameron: "Well, the bathroom needs to be cleaned.  That's what I am confident of"

Taylor: "Are you asking me to bet?"

Cameron: "If you are right, and classes are cancelled tomorrow, I will clean the entire bathroom, alone"

Taylor: "If we have class, I will clean it"

Cameron: "deal"

I woke up to a beautiful morning, a dirty bathroom, and a MAD roommate.  He willingly cleaned the entire bathroom that night.  And did a FABULOUS job, too.  He had a good attitude, and learned, gambling doesn't pay.  I'll clean it next time, Taylor. :D

Home to ICE

_MG_0037
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Aubrey and I made the 4hr trek home this afternoon, after I finished up with Philosophy at 2pm (college rocks). This weekend should be a nice relaxing one after making it through the first few weeks of SSSS.

Semester-Start Syllabus Shock

I plan to attend a drum workshop here in town tomorrow afternoon, which should be a blast.

I'm not sure what it will entail, but I think the instructor worked with Maroon5 on their last CD, so I'll probably try and pay attention.

Also, Sunday begins the Cheer Video Season I was talking about a few days ago. It should be a nice, smooth start to what will be a rough 3-week shooting and editing run. It will be good to get back into Video Production mode, though. I haven't really shot more than about 3 frames-per-second in a few months. It'll be nice to be back at 30fps.

That's a photo-video joke, and a bad one.

Also, photos don't have audio, which might be my favorite part about video production. One thing I will struggle with, however is lighting. In photography, I can put up my little speedlight, and PUMP A GYM full of light for 1/200th of a second, on 4 AA batteries. To PUMP A GYM with much of any light for video is another story. For a flash, it's easy to HOLD HOLD HOLD all that energy, and then BOOM release it all for a split second. For video, a light has got to be CRANKING out constant light, which, as you can imagine, take a lot more juice.

It will be fun though, and I'm looking forward to it. Final Cut Pro has gone too long without doing any work.

I've got a snoring Lilly Pug in my lap right now, and her crescendoing snores are my cue to put the MacBook down, and turn off the light.

thanks for reading, and stay off the dang ICE!