The Beginning of New Adventures

After re-reading my first ever blog (which is a good one, if you ask me), I remember how many skills that I was hoping to take away from this class. Honestly though, I did learn a lot about photography and social media! I was expecting this class to be fun but not something that I would use in my future career (I say this because I thought we would be blogging the entire time), but it was so much more than that. I have learned to take pictures, use twitter, learn about Instagram, edit audio, take video and most importantly I learned that I kinda like all of these things!! But what makes all that even better is I know how to do all of those things in a business aspect. I know how to tweet a live event, promote things through Instagram and how to conduct audio interviews.

I even continued taking pictures, because I realized that I really enjoy trying to capture a specific moment. My dog is always the subject of my photo sessions, which I like to believe he enjoys it (even though I know he doesn’t). Here’s a cute picture I took of him just because!

I learned many, many soft skills throughout this course so I will only mention the biggest one and that my friends is…… patience. Fun fact about myself is that I don’t typically have a lot of patience, especially when it comes to technology. I had to learn how to create a blog, upload media content, embed media, create a google map, edit audio and create a digital video. Let me tell you something, all of these assignments tested my patience. I remember editing my audio blog and it took me well over an hour to just figure out how to delete parts. I thought that I wasn’t going to finish the assignment in time but I figured it out and actually really enjoyed it!

Patience is something that everyone needs to learn before starting their careers because a lot of the time things are not going to go as planned. You might think a project will only take a couple hours and then you end up working on it for days. Having patience with co-workers is also important because these are people that you are going to be working with on multiple projects so better figure out how to get along with them quickly!

The most meaningful blog that I created was by far my audio blog. I got to share someone’s story with everyone else, and I also got to see the interviewees eye’s light up when I asked her to talk about something that was so special to her. It was humbling to sit there and listen as someone describes a part of their life to you.

The most challenging blog was definitely the google maps blog. I had no idea that people could even create google maps, that was a complete surprise to me! I telling you, technology these days is super crazy! I think it was so challenging because creating the pins, a description and adding a photo, is a lot harder than it sounds.

If I could go back and give myself any advice about this course it would be to enjoy it more. Getting good grades has always been important to me but I was able to create some pretty amazing projects that I wish I could have enjoyed the process a little more. “Stop and smell the roses,” but seriously stop and enjoy the creativity of this course, its not every semester you get a class like this one.

For this assignment we decided to make a video about the addition to the Laramie Fitness center. We were able to learn about the new equipment that was added along with the addition to the gym space. We learned about the impact that the addition has had on members and some of their favorite new machines.

I enjoyed coming up with a vision about how I wanted to video to look and what I wanted to cover. I thought it was exciting to come up with an idea about what to show in the video and talk about. However, I did not enjoy actually creating the video. I thought it was incredibly hard to make my vision “come to life.”

The thing that surprised me the most about this project was how much it was like doing the audio project. We started our video by editing the audio files and then adding in our videos that we took. I was surprised that I did not find this assignment to be awkward when filming the videos. This might be because throughout this course we need to get out of our comfort zone.

I wish we would have gotten more videos to put with the audio but there just wasn’t anything else to take videos of. I also wish that the final product would have looked a bit more professional with the video and audio quality. I felt as though we were on a time crunch and didn’t have enough time to go back and redo some of the interviews and videos but I learned what to look for next time at the beginning of the project.

I could see myself using video in my future career, to cover important events and promote the business. I think knowing how to take good video and edit video is a good skill to have with any communication or journalism job these days. Hopefully by then I will have learned how to use the editing software better, and maybe use a better camera instead of an iPhone.

I have had an Instagram account for many years, but I tend to only post once in a while. I have always known the basics for posting on Instagram but I have never used Canva before. I thought that Canva was a very useful place to edit photos and create images once you become familiar with it. At first I wasn’t sure about how easy it would be to use it but after I edited one of my images, I found it very easy and fun.

The promotional strategy that I aimed to use was invoking an interest among my followers so that they would want to visit my blog. I focused on using a more personable voice, and making my images appealing to the eye. I purposely choose the images that I used because I thought that they were the best ones that I took, and you can view them below.

The challenges that I faced with this assignment was the struggle of making good captions that weren’t to long. I wanted to describe my entire blog but I know that the captions were just supposed to interest the reader so that they would then visit my cite.

I was surprised about how much I enjoyed this assignment. I thought it was very applicable to something I could be doing in my future career. I didn’t know that Instagram plays such a large role in reaching an audience until this assignment.

I can see myself using Instagram in my future career to promote my business and have a relationship with the society. Its important to have a transparent relationship with the society that is using your services so that they will continue to do so. Using social media allows companies to reach a larger audience and that’s a key part of any business today.

Wondering where to eat is always an issue and most of the time you just go to the same boring places that you always eat at. Trying new places can be scary too because your not sure if its going to be good or not.

This blog post is here to help! I have listed my five favorite Mexican restaurants in Fort Collins on an interactive <a href="

“>map, that way you don’t get lost either! There might be a few places that you’ve heard of or tried but hopefully there are a couple new ones! I personally love to try great new restaurants.

The Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

The Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant in Fort Collins is the original Rio. It’s location is in downtown Fort Collins so after your done eating there is plenty of entertainment and other activities to enjoy. The lively atmosphere makes this restaurant one to try on the weekends. The food here is outstanding and until your food arrives you get to indulge in chips and salsa. Their legendary margaritas are a must try, but you are only allowed three! Some people just come for drinks and visiting, either way you have to make a stop here.

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop is a great place to not only enjoy your meal but enjoy a great atmosphere. After ordering your food it’s ready in a short amount of time, and is steaming hot. “Their spicy pork tacos are the best,” says Tanner Dill. The tacos here are great because you can order however many that you want and they can be different kinds too. This allows you to try multiple kinds but not have to buy different meals. This is a place that many people enjoy going to get drinks at and hang out. They have a variety of drinks to choose from but are well known for their frozen beverages.

Qdoba Mexican Eats

Qdoba Mexican Eats is a chain Mexican restaurant so its surprising if you have never eaten it, however, their queso is iconic according to Dill. Qdoba is like Subway but for burritos, and you are able to customize your entire dinner, ensuring it is made the way you want it. They also serve breakfast burritos so you can stop by and grab one on your way to work or school! Here you are able to just take your food and go or sit and enjoy it in their dining area. Either way its made quickly and ready to eat.

Café Mexicali

Café Mexicali is a very unique Mexican style restaurant. It has the same set up as Qdoba but they serve very different types of food. This restaurant is well known for their sweet pork and personally that is my favorite. Here you are able to customize your food, and they also have a wide choice of sauces to choose from. Their food portions are huge, so you might want to consider sharing with someone or you can just have leftovers! Its made so that you can take it and go but there is a dining area if you choose to stay.

Inca Mexican Restaurant

Inca Mexican Restaurant is a sit down restaurant where you can enjoy a nice conversation with your guests. Here you will experience great customer service and authentic Mexican food. They have an extensive menu to choose from which allows for new choices every time you go. “They have huge portions and I personally like their fajitas,” says Dill.

Pueblo Viejo Mexican Restaurant

Pueblo Viejo Mexican Restaurant is not located in Pueblo in fact its location is in the heart of Fort Collins, Old Town Square. Here you can enjoy tons of entertainment and have a night on the town. There lengthy menu allows for any mood you may be feeling; taco’s, chile relleno’s, tamale’s and much much more. They are an authentic family Mexican restaurant and their food tastes homemade. The portions here are large as well but reasonably priced.

There are other Mexican restaurants in Fort Collins that are good as well but I just wanted to share these six with you because they are my favorites and hopefully they will become yours too.

As you can see there are multiple places to get good Mexican food from. This map will help narrow down the choices so that you don’t waste your time or money trying to find a good place to eat. Hopefully next time your out in Fort Collins looking to try something new, you will give one of these places a try!

I gave going live a try on Twitter this week and it was honestly difficult. Have you ever tried to pay attention to an event and record every part of it along the way?

The event that I captured live was the kitty de-stressor at the Half Acre Gym on the University of Wyoming campus. The wellness center puts on these types of events to help students de-stress from their crazy schedules.

For my tweets I used a journalistic approach because I thought that if I just informed people of the event that they would then want to come and attend. I did not think that a public relations approach would have been as effective getting the knowledge out about the event as it was going on.

The part I enjoyed most about this experience was tweeting real time facts. It’s really amazing that in real time everyone can see what you are doing at that moment. I did not enjoy that I was tweeting instead of being involved in the event. It was hard to tweet really quick and then get back to the event, I just felt like I was on my phone the entire time.

From this assignment I learned how to tweet because I have never used Twitter before this. I was surprised by the fact that people live tweet events and there is an audience for it. I have never found myself sitting at home following someone going live on Twitter.

The one thing that I wish I could have done differently is bettering the content of my tweets. I wasn’t sure what information should be put into tweets, but looking back there was better statements that I could have made.

In my future career I see myself using social media quite frequently in order to reach my audience. I do not see myself going live in my future career though because I think public relations is more about promoting events and talking about events after they occur.

Full Audio:

Edited Audio:

Interviewing someone with an audio recorder felt strange at first but after the interviewee began talking, I forgot that it was being recorded. It felt just like we were having a normal conversation besides that I was refraining from talking back. Editing the audio was a very difficult assignment because I was very unfamiliar with the program and didn’t know what parts of the conversation should be cut or not. I did enjoy hearing someone’s story and listening back to it, I thought that was pretty cool.

Capturing my portrait photo was fun because you could really tell that my interviewee was enjoying this whole experience. I would have liked to capture the photo in her accounting office but she is retired so I just wanted to capture her smile and her overall essence. It would have been good to capture her outside the college she attended as well but that was hours away from where we met.

This assignment surprised me because I never realized how enjoyable audio can be when you are interested in what is being talked about. I grew up listening to NPR, and despised it because it was boring to me. The stories that they told were not anything that I was interested in hearing about. Finding something that your interested in listening to is very important to enjoying audio.

I wish my interview could have been longer because there were things we talked about after the interview that I would have liked to recorded but overall I thought capturing the audio was the easy part but editing it was a challenge.

I think I could use audio in public relations by having the CEO of the company or a major public figure tell their story in a way that everyone can connect with them. This would allow people to feel connected and similar to these higher up people thus them supporting the company.

The cute face of a little puppy with big brown eyes looks up at you. You hear a little bark and then see it’s tail wagging. You can’t resist picking the little guy up and letting it lick your nose. You may think that you can handle taking it home, but can you?

The debate about owning a dog in college has been an up and coming topic for the past couple of years. The pros and cons have been long discussed about whether dogs are beneficial to college students or detrimental. A list of some of these pros and cons can be found here. Dogs can either be a good way to relieve the everyday stress that a college student faces or it can add to that stress.

Dogs can be helpful in reducing stress

Carolyn Hoyt is currently a student at the University of Wyoming, who owns a puppy named Tilly. While owning a dog can be a rather large responsibility, it can also have a rather large impact on your overall health.

“She [Tilly] is like the biggest stress reducer, whenever I feel overwhelmed its just nice to go over and pet a dog,” said Hoyt.

Going off to college can be quite the change, both good and bad however, college is a very stressful time for students and while there are many ways to help lower this stress, companionship (especially with dogs) is one of the best ways to reduce this stress.

“I think if you have time for a dog and you are home enough that you can take them out and commit to them and they won’t be in their cage all day long, then I think its okay [to get a dog],” said Hoyt.

Not everyone is cut out for owning a dog in college, or even in general, because these are animals that are dependent upon you for survival. Essentially, Hoyt thinks that owning a dog in college can be a great idea if you have the time and schedule to take care of an animal.

Dogs can be a stressor

Katelynn Johnson, is a student attending the University of Wyoming, she currently does not own a dog but wishes to after college. Dogs can add stress to your life in college by possiblily distracting students from school.

“Sometimes people might skip out on classes or homework or other activities because they have to stay home to take care of the dog and give it attention,” says Johnson.

Dogs need to have someone to care for them and in a college atmosphere many students may not have the time. A full time student is taking 12 credit hours, and might possibly have a job.

Beau Bingham, is a senior academic professional lecturer at the University of Wyoming. He knows the amount of work students endure and how much extra time they have.

” It’s a big commitment to balance who watches it while they are in class, who takes it when they leave for spring break and the financial responsibility to feed the dog or yourself,” says Bingham.

In other words having a puppy means that it’s needs come first, and that can be hard for a young adult to manage.

What type of college student could handle a dog?

While having a dog in college isn’t for everyone, there are some students that have dogs and it doesn’t effect them negatively.

“More responsible students [are better suited for owning a dog], the dog probably also teaches good responsible skills of having to care for someone else and be responsible, so maybe it would help all students if you think about it,” says Bingham.

Owning any type of animal can instill good responsibility skills in someone, but being a college student on your own for the first time is also a lot of responsibility.

“People who have roommates that can help take care of it [the dog] and people that also have a house and a yard for the dog to hang out in during the day [are the type of people who can handle owning a dog],” says Johnson.

While having a dog is beneficial to people, many tend to forget that the dog’s happiness matters too. Leaving a dog in a kennel all the time is not fair to the dog, so having a yard for the dog is also an important aspect.

“Just always having someone who is excited to see you, no matter what… it’s just the best thing ever,” says Hoyt.

This photo is a non-action sports photo. I learned about this event throughout campus all week, because it is the famous “Border War” game. Since this was a big time rival for Wyoming, the atmosphere in the “Dome of Doom” was intense. It was very difficult to photograph this event because as a student you are only allowed to get so close to the court. Therefore I ended up sitting behind the cheerleaders and I struggled to make sure to not get them in my photo. I wanted to get closer to the players in hopes of getting the emotions on their faces. When I was photographing this event I was looking more towards people who were watching the action, and reacting instead of being in the action. The creative device in this photo is symmetry because the two players balance the photo and are almost standing in the exact same position, it creates a mirror effect because the two girls have almost the same body structure.

This photo is a sports action photo. I had learned about the womens basketball game throughout the week from multiple people on campus. At this point in the game the score was close and the players were giving it their all. The crowd and atmosphere was holding their breath because we wanted the Cowgirls to score every time they had the ball. My experience photographing this event was challenging. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get any closer or get around the cheerleaders who are in the picture. I felt like my phone camera was a little slow because all my photos were coming out blurry. It was very difficult to get this shot and I still don’t think it is a great shot. When photographing action shots, I felt like I was getting very invested into what the person was feeling at that moment. I wanted to show the drive and passion on her face, but also the drive and passion in her movements. The creative device in this photo is rule of thirds because there is something present in each third of the photo. However, there is also contrast because the viewers eye goes to the one player in the different colored jersey since everyone around her is in a darker color.

This photo is a feature photo. For this photo I saw her hard a work but also laughing with a few other employees so I took out my phone and snapped a picture. This shot was easy to get because I didn’t have a picture in my mind of what I thought it should look like. When photographing this I felt like I need to hurry and get the shot, or else if they knew I was taking pictures it would have changed how she was acting. The creative device in this picture is focus because the main subject is right in the middle of the picture and in focus while the back round is blurred a little.

This photo is a portrait. I saw her walk into the same room that I was in and noticed her face was a little pink from the cold. My experience photographing a portrait was far different than other photos, I felt a bit weird and so did she. Obviously she knew I was taking this picture and asked what to do in it, and I replied just be yourself. It was easy to get this shot because I just talked to her and snapped pictures constantly, then when looking back through them I found this one and it seemed very natural. The creative device is focus because her face is very in focus and then you look at her hair and its become more blurred as you look around the picture.

This is a feature photo. I was with my dog at the dog park and these two were out as well. My experience taking this photo was very fun, and it was a little challenging because I wanted to capture the dog having fun too. I felt very happy taking this photo because I knew that it would turn out to be a fun photo. The creative device in this photo is color because her jacket is a very bright pink that stands out against the rest of the photo.

I was surprised that this assignment was pretty challenging. I thought it would be easy to capture certain moments, and I had this idea of what I thought each photo should look like but they turned out to be different. I wish I could have gotten certain pictures to be clearer or caught the right moment but I think that will come with time.

The dominant device in this picture is contrast because the puppy is black and the snow is white. The contrast of the white snow on his face creates a focal point and captures the viewers attention. The contrasting between the white and black colors is pleasing to the eye because these colors are very different from one another, which causes the black to stand out against the white. Thus drawing viewers to look at the black first and then the background of the snow.

The dominant creative device in this picture is symmetry and patterns. The pattern and symmetry are mesmerizing to the viewers eye. The viewers can immediately notice the pattern and become engaged looking at it. This photo is overall pleasing to look at because it is so simple. The pattern is very basic but one that people enjoy looking at. It is not a crazy pattern, it is simple and constant throughout the entire photo.

The dominant creative device here is leading lines. The line down the middle of the leaf draws the viewers eye into following in all the way to the end of the leaf. It causes the viewers eye to rest at the center of the photo, where the lines ends at. The leading line is pleasing to viewers eye’s because it draws them into following the line and wondering what will be at the end.

This photo is one of my favorites, and the dominant device here is color. Everything around the plant is a basic color and then you see the bright green plant and the blue pebbles. It draws the viewer to look directly at the color items and ignore the rest of the back ground. What makes this photo so pleasing is the color because they are so bright and they go with each other. Another device used in this photo is framing. The jar that the plant is in creates a frame for the plant. It looks as though the plant is in a picture frame but it is just the jar that the plant is growing in. Therefore it is a natural framing affect. This also causes the viewer to look directly at the plant since it is being framed and the viewer immediately notices.

The dominant creative device in this photo is focus because the flowers in the front are in focus while the ones behind it are blurry. The blurred back ground draws the viewer’s eye to the front of the picture which is very detailed. The viewer’s eye will be focused on the details of the flower, including the water droplets gently resting on the flowers. Its simplicity and detail make the photo pleasing to look at.

Throughout this multimedia production class I am hoping to gain experience with not only blogging but photography and social media. I know that your wondering why a 21 year old is excited to learn about social media because according to my mom I should be an expert since I am on it all the time but I want to learn how it relates to businesses. For businesses to succeed in today’s world they have to have a social media presence, and I am excited to learn what the most effective platform of media is for businesses. I have always thought that to be a good photographer one must have the expensive camera and have practiced using it for hours, but in this class we are just going to be using our phone cameras. Which means that anyone can be a photographer… even me! As you can tell, I am very excited for this!

But first I have to learn how to blog… This could be interesting because I have never been one to be good at using technology. Again I know this is surprising since I am 21 years old… but honestly how many people know how to blog? I haven’t heard a lot about blogging, and before this class I had never even read a blog. Shocking, I know.

Some topics for my blogs that I have in mind are, talking to people who watch day time shows (like I do, maybe the Maury show) and seeing what their thoughts about it are, also talking to others who are raising a puppy and what their struggles have been. My blog is completely open to discussing whatever I happen to run across for that week because I am someone who is not creative until I see something that sparks my interest.

There are some topics that I would like to stay away from and these are mostly controversial topics. This is simply because there is already enough of these topics covered daily and no one wants to keep hearing about the same topics over and over. I am not here to bore you or have you read the same thing that you’ve already seen a 1,ooo times, instead I am here to interest you in what interests me. I hope you all are ready for this adventure because I sure am!