Crunch Time is here

It’s that time of the year again, everything is piling up, especially the stress.

I have to finish building my Web site, study for three exams and write a court paper.

Well the court paper shouldn’t be too hard, I went to the Clerk of Court today and found a case that had been pleaded out today.

I looked through the file and decided to write about this DUI case that was pleaded out for the maximum amount of fines and a list of other contingencies that go along with it.

My Web site is coming along. I finished looking up the quotes from “Fight Club” and I found my little niche to make it pastiche. I have decided to integrate my love for journalism with the project.

A lot of the issues in the book are issues everyone faces, so I archived several articles written about similar subjects and am putting up quotes and pieces of articles onto my site to make it pastiche, but in my own special way.

Ethics is almost done.

I wrote my last decision memo yesterday, ahead of time.

We had to decide what to do if you are the editor and one of your reporters comes in with a politically offensive article they had written, what would you do?

I decided to sit down with the writer and make sure that every point they make has a purpose and a reason, and the reader can decide whether or not to take offense, it isn’t my right to pull the article without letting the reader see it and take a viewpoint.

That’s all for now, but I’m sure within the next week and a half something else will come up.

The Law and Me

Let’s talk about copyright.

Copyright is a subject that can come up quite frequently in journalism, so to start off with we need to know that copyright is one of three categories under intellectual property.

By definition copyright is a right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions. So the person has the exclusive privilege of multiplying, publishing and selling works created.

Copyright has a life term plus 70 years, this number has continued to rise with each limitation on one Mr. Mickey Mouse.

Disney petitions to lengthen the amount of years after life every time their time is about to run out, and thus far it has worked.

Copyright protection can extend to original works, based on the U.S. Copyright legislation and the Comprehensive revisions to the law in 1909 and 1976.

‘Tis the Season

I love the season’s — the change in color on the trees and the contrast of the weather from season to season.

With photography the change in season means a change in setting on the camera.

When trying to capture the seasons you can’t just look at the center of interest, you have to look at the surrounding areas. For instance, when it’s winter try and capture some icicles or snow falling or gathered.

In the fall, try capturing some red and yellow leaves in the foreground. Then look to your center of interest, do they look bundled up in the winter, or are they eating a snow cone in the summer.

You have to capture as much as possible in the one photograph, you only have one chance, so get it right the first time.