Things I learned this weekend: The Gold Nuggets

Dear Friends. I am writing to tell you what I have learned over the course of the weekend. I am choosing to see all of this wonderful new information as nuggets of gold that I have inherited after many hours of endurance... not as the product of blood, sweat and yes....tears.

Balloons: can be found at any one of these stores: Jo Anne's, Target, Dollar Store and CVS. They range in size and color. A lot have HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on them. If you're lucky, they have multiple packs in stock. Balloons make your fingers very dry and dirty. And as a result of having dry dirty fingers, sometimes they bleed. I BLED FOR ART this weekend, people. Seriously.


Video Equipment: There are new JVC HD video camera's available at the cage. Please note that very few people know how to use these cameras, so you will be left to your own devices. That being said, I figured out that...to put the camera in full manual mode you need to press down the full auto button for just a moment, not for a long time, not twice. Just a moment. Also, you cannot record video unless you have a 16GB class 6 card. Not a class 4 or a 8 GB class 10 (if you buy this card from Best Buy, open it up, cut the packaging and try it out and then realize it is worthless, Best Buy will take it back!!!!). The 16 GB class 6 card are not available at Best Buy.

Canon 5D Mark 11. This camera might have saved my life. Scratch might and replace with did. It takes three buttons to make a video and I could use the 4 GB Extreme 111 card I already had. The buttons to happiness are (1) the button to the left of the viewfinder changes switches the camera into liveview/video mode (2) The button to the right of the viewfinder label AF auto focuses on your subject enabling you to shoot (3) The set button, or the button in the middle of the dial begins recording. Leave some time at the end of the video before you stop recording, if you don't you might not be able to view the footage at the end of your recording. After about a minute of idling, the camera automatically changes back to camera mode. All of these things were generally easy to do once I figured them out was generally very easy to use. The audio is adequate. I highly recommend experimenting.

Studio and after hours:You can sign up for after hours up to an hour before it's time to turn your keys in, but you must look very desperate and sad to pull this off, so plan ahead if you don't want to put your defeated face on. After hours on Saturday means that I had access to the studio all Sat. night and all day Sunday. WONDERFUL!!! This also meant that I need to arrive at school by 7:30 to return everything I checked out. Note: You do not have to leave your strobes set up for inspection. In fact, nobody checks your studio. Your keys are due to the 3rd Floor cage by 7:30, not the 4th Floor like you would expect. Then you should turn in your studio equipment around 7:45. Immediately after this, head down to the 3rd floor cage and turn in your camera equipment. You must do all of this in that order to not get docked. They do not tell you any of this in the cage "orientation."

I hope this was informational for all my RIT co-patriots. Carry on soldiers.