Magzalez’s eyes on media

More on what I think about this later, but check out how cool this interactive piece about Ana Ivanovic’s serve by The New York Times. It helps that Ivanovic is a cutie.

• Power in Motion – New York Times – May 26, 2008

Well I finally got a photo story done. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s good enough. It is of course another installment to the Gainesville Explorer series. The photo story is about the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail.

I’m only just starting to pick up photography. I know I have the eye for it, it’s just the technique I need to hone in on now. I took a photojournalism class a while back, and I did OK.

In this particular photo story, I tried to use some video techniques–multiple, sequential pictures that gave the illusion of motion. Hopefully I’ll have more time to work on this.

On an unrelated note, it has been raining in Gainesville for days and days. It doesn’t look like it’s ever going to let up. It’s put a real damper on outdoor videos and pictures. I never got a chance to shoot that video Friday, and these pictures were shot in really crummy, about-to-rain light.

On another unrelated note, Rafael Nadal, my tennis hero other than Gael Monfils, lost in the finals at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to Nikolay Davydenko. It was a bummer.

Yesterday was the start of the Sony Ericsson Open in my native town of Miami. It is considered the fifth most important tournament of the year, behind only the four grand slams.

The Miami Herald pulled through in creating a nice multimedia piece for the event, which attracts residents, tourists and celebrities alike.

First, check out the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open Fan Guide for yourself.

And now for my analysis:

The Good: 

• Making the package to begin with was a great idea. This tennis tournament is the sort of thing you get out of the ordinary readers flocking to your Web site for. If they see an interesting, helpful multimedia piece. That is going to keep them coming back.
• The information, including the map of the area, directions, what to and not to bring, etc.
• The overall presentation looks nice, sleek and interesting.
• Players to watch is a good idea for a section. Put some names out there that people are going to recognize or remember.
• The history of the event is crucial in giving context. This is easily my favorite section.
• Kudos on the right-side navigation. I love it.

The Bad:

• Whenever you click on a section, you have to exit out of it to get back to the main navigation. This is no good. People like to skip around, and you’re adding unnecessary steps for them with this design.
• The map in the “directions” section looks great. The way you put in the information works well. But I was very disappointed to be redirected to Google maps after I input my information. I know this could have been done differently and more effectively.
• The “Tennis 101″ section is no good. There is too much information in this topic, and as it is, it is underdeveloped here. I also don’t think it makes to include it. For the most part, people who will be looking at this, in my opinion, are those that are already interested in tennis, and if they are not tennis fans already, they are not going to go to a “fan guide” for an event to learn about the sport. This section was just plain silly.
• On the “Site map” page, I am not sure what the functionality of having the “Click here to use your mouse…” sign is. This looks weird and unprofessional, not to mention the whole “click here” faux pas.
• The photography seems to be uncredited, though I may have overlooked it.

The Ugly:

• Way more work could have been put into each players’ action shots. These photos just look poorly Photoshopped.
• The “Back to main” buttons don’t have enough of a contrast.
• I thought the overlay could have been a darker color. It would have looked nicer and the visibility would have been better.

Overall, it’s well done. There are some strange design choices, and the information could have been edited down. But it looks great and works well. I’m glad they took the initiative in doing this. Now if they could just put together some Soundslides instead of ugly photo galleries. Video would be nice too, but The Herald needs a lot of help in that department. You know, I could help you!

Yay tennis!

I’ll look later to see if The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is doing anything.

Yesterday, I decided to write my former roommate a letter. I had to mail him something he left in Gainesville, so I thought I would whip out the old pen and paper and start some correspondence.

It’s a lost art–letter writing. As easy as E-mail is, it could never be as good as a letter. Handwritten and concrete will almost always beat out electronic.

But, I digress. I wrote in my letter yesterday, as I gave my friend a rundown of how life has been lately, that it was too bad that Rafael Nadal had gone down in the semifinals of the Australian Open. My main concern was that I knew that Novak Djokovic was going to defeat Roger Federer. And he did! I was quite amazed. I also wrote to my friend that I thought that Djokovic would win the slam event and eventually take over Nadal’s spot as No. 2 in the world. I still stand by that statement, though begrudgingly, as Nadal is one of my two favorite players–the other is James Blake.

My point is, if I was a betting man, I would have made a pretty penny this morning. My other point is, it’s nice to have your psychic abilities/sports knowledge documented in hard copy sometimes.

Advice for today: Write more letters!

I hope to scrounge up some good online media pieces on the Open once it is all said and done.

*Check out this blog’s new address*

Rafa Nadal has a chance to pass Roger Federer as the world number one. Federer will have to lose to James Blake in the quarterfinals, and Nadal will have to win it all.

Go Rafa!

Check out the story.