Beyond Alaska Photo
Multimedia journalism in the Last Frontier

Fans line up to buy the seventh Harry Potter book last year.

It was a year ago that the final Harry Potter book came out and a number of stores in downtown Palmer celebrated with a release party. Over the weekend I dug out my audio slide show from the event and realized just how unlikely it is that we’ll ever see a literary event like that again.

I used my full compliment of multimedia gear while covering the Xterra Hammerman Triathlon this morning:

I ended up spending too much time on the finished project trying to balance the audio levels between the tape and the M-Audio but I prefer that to shooting a lame stand up (probably a habit I should break — but not yet!).

Here’s the final video:

A few random links I ran across in my audio research. They’re getting a little old now, but consider them notebook items:

:: I’ll probably be setting up something like this in the near future, either at home or at the office.

:: Long, three-part piece with a lively discussion at the end.

:: A 32-page comic book covers how to make a radio story, $5. It’s the last item on the page.

Just a little tidbit that didn’t quite fit in the audio tutorial I’m writing for the Anchorage Daily News newsroom. This covers converting to MP3 but it also works to AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or WAV.

To convert to an mp3:

•Import your file into iTunes.

•Highlight the file with a click, then go to Advanced > Convert Selection to MP3.

If it wants to convert you track to another format, you’ll need to edit the iTune’s preferences:

•Go to File > Preferences. Select the “Advanced” icon (looks like a gear).

•Select the “Importing” button. Under the “Import Using” drop down menu choose MP3 Encoder. Hit OK.

Another 4th of July, another holiday in Seward at the Mount Marathon race. Thousands turn out to cheer racers up the 3,022-foot peak and one lucky Anchorage Daily News photographer gets to climb the mountain to get pictures from the trail. Marc Lester always gets to go (I have to maintain race results on adn.com — honest!) and this year he shot some video with his Canon G9 to go with the video project I was working on.

I shot with a Canon HV20 and, despite some minor problems with the sizes, the clips blend fairly well. If the G9 had a a mic jack for my Sennheiser wireless, I don’t think I’d use anything else (some of Marc’s mountain clips suffered from wind noise — we’ll have to work out some sort of wind screen).