Upcoming guest speakers: Carlos Gonzalez and Steve Rotman

We’re back from spring break and about to start a unit on video storytelling. I’m delighted to announce that today in class we’ll be joined by Carlos Gonzalez, staff photographer at The Chronicle and SF State alum who in recent years has expanded his already impressive visual journalism skills into the realm of video.

Also, the other day I got a message on Flickr from the talented Steve Rotman, local graffiti photographer, author of two books and former public radio journalist, offering to visit our class and talk about his work. What a nice surprise! He’s scheduled for April 27.

(Photo: Steve Rotman)

Using pictures and sound to tell a story

[Photo: Self-portrait of Troy Holden]

By now, students should have mastered the art of telling a story using nothing but sound. Next, they’ll be adding another layer — still photographs.

I’ve received a number of promising pitches for audio slideshows and can’t wait to see the finished pieces. Over the next week, students will be gathering their raw audio and pictures for their stories.

Next week we’ll talk about using Soundslides, an easy-to-use program for producing audio slideshows.