“Nawlins, Dawlins!”

It was my first time traveling via airplane. Once I got over the initial fear of flying, it was enjoyable. I mean the view was amazing. Seeing the lights below, and riding on top of the clouds is definitely a bucket-list cross off!

Flying over the city-lights of Syracuse.
Our plane left Syracuse airport at 5:50am.

Photo courtesy of my Facebook  

New Orleans is just dripping with culture. My first impression was with the smooth-talking taxi driver, who drove quick, spoke slow, and had jazz playing in the taxi. Our hotel was on Canal Street, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Bourbon Street. The sounds of the 13-blocks of bars and adult-clubs can be heard from our room.

Bourbon Street is the main part of  New
Orleans, for a night life. It offers bars,
restaurants, live music, and street entertainers.

Photo courtesy of my Facebook

The sessions were filled with useful information that covered everything from photojournalism to ethics about writing. “Smartphone Photojournalism” was the one I found that was most helpful. It discussed the plus side to using the camera on a smart phone, rather than big bulky cameras.

Brian Poulter, from Eastern Illinois University, gave a list of his favorite apps that can assist the mobile photo-taking process. I found this to be really helpful, seeing how everyone always has their phone with them. You never know when news is going to happen right in front of you. Plus, when using a smart phone for capturing photos, people are more apt to more natural. Since there are so many amateur pictures taken with cell phones.

Camera+ is a good choice for a high
quality camera app.

Photo from the app's iPhone icon

Poulter gave some ideas on how to get above average photo captions. He would walk up to someone after taking the picture and ask either, why are they doing this, or what are they feeling today. “I've gotten detailed answers this way,” Poulter said. “Instead of the usual yes or no answers. They want to express why they are different.”

One app mentioned was Camera+ (iOS), which allows you to set the exposure separately from the focus point. You can control how much light is in the image. The sharpness of the photos are improved from the generic camera built in to the phone. I’m really excited to go back, and personally try these ideas, and put them towards the newspaper.