16 March

A walk with Rose. Last light

by Jon Katz
A walk with Rose

Sometimes, there is this special bond between a human and a dog, a connection beyond words or consciousness, a place of love yes, but more than that, a place of being known. Rose and I are connected to one another, in a way that even a writer can’t quite describe. I do love her, but it isn’t really about that, it’s about the experiences we have shared, the way in which we know each other. I love walking with her in the afternoons. We share the same space with great comfort and peace.

I have found my video camera. After weeks of trying, experimenting, returning, selling and trading I really like this Panasonic. Another thing to plug in, keep a cap on, figure out. But it works for me. It’s a small thing, not very expensive, encased in plastic. It just works. I love the way I intuitively know how to use it, and it seems light and shadow the way I do. I’m taking it to Saratoga to learn more. I couldn’t resist catching a brief glimpse with the video of our walk.

16 March

Cookie Time: My video revolution. One camera down

by Jon Katz
Cookie Time

Every afternoon, we feed the barn cats and check on the donkeys. Usually they come skittering down. If you don’t give them an oak cookie, they will come up behind you and tap your butt with their nose. And you feel it. So I gave them some cookies. And used my new Panasonic camcorder.

So far I’ve been through three cameras on my video revolution. I got a Flip,which was cool but the format was way too small for my style. Sold it. Then got a JVC Averio, better, but lost it somewhere in Glens Falls yesterday. If I find it, I will sell it (video photography is not nearly as expensive as still, thankfully). So I called B&H Photo and they told me why those were the wrong cameras for me and I bought a Panasonic. I like it. Big jump in ease of use and quality.

And a major improvement in sound as you’ll hear.

And I took it with me into the barn to give Lulu and Fanny a cookie. My first on the new cam. Tomorrow I head for Saratoga Springs for my video lesson with Dave Biger and his squad. And I’m getting a lot from my Imovie editing lessons with Sara Friedman. Lot to learn, lots of improvement ahead. I am loving it.

I’ll be taking a video in Congress Park tomorrow in Saratoga and we will edit it there. I can’t wait. I have a lot of ideas for neat videos of the dogs and animals.

Anyway, come along for cookie time with Lulu and Fanny. 30 seconds. Videos need to be short and dynamic, I think.

16 March

The social media coach

by Jon Katz
The Glens Falls Machine Works

Like everybody else, I am often overwhelmed by new technologies like social media. I have little patience for people who dismiss information technology as  frivolous and useless toys.  My Ipad is no toy. It helps me to do my work every day of my life.

This attitude is boring. I have to laugh when people say they don’t need to find their friends. That, to me, is utter cluelessness, the reflexive hiding of people who are afraid to change. It’s a perfectly valid choice to avoid this stuff – it is expensive, obsessive and difficult – but it can be life and death for people like me.

Technology like social media are much more than toys. Facebook is the most powerful, transformative and connective technology I have ever seen, and writers like me need to understand it, and if they choose, use it. It is no longer an option for me, but an indispensable way for me to survive and evolve as a writer. In recent weeks, I did a smart thing. I hired a social media coach, Sara Friedman, from Socialmomentum. She has been almost shockingly helpful and useful to me, sparking my overdue move to video and helping me understand some of the many tools social media has given me to connect with, understand and increase my readership.

Writers and artists can no longer live in indulgent retreats and hide behind seminars and the notion that they are apart from the working world. The subsidized world has vanished. My work is a business. And like everyone else I spent a lot of frustrating time with passwords, confusing directions, outrageously inept Customer Service and Tech Support and cables, batteries and commands. Hiring Sara changed much of this. She has helped me learn video (tomorrow I begin lessons with Dave Biger Productions in Saratoga Springs), edit in Imovie, create photo albums on Facebook, and is helping me archive my photographs and store them on the Web, where they will be safe and accessible. These are things I once thought I could never learn, and am now using almost every day to present my stories and advance my work.

Sara is helping non-profits and is now branching out to coach people and families. I love the idea of the technology coach. It is long overdue. In a world where Customer Service doesn’t service and Tech Support doesn’t support, there has long been an immense vacuum for people struggling to handle a wave of technological change. What kind of equipment do I need?  How can non-profits spread their message and raise money? How can I make good choices? Understand how they work? What’s good for my family? How much money do I need to spend?

Like Facebook, the Internet was once scoffed at by people saying it was a fad and they preferred to remain disconnected. Some technologies come and go. Some transform us, and we can squawk about them all we want, but those of us who live and work in the world need to use them. To me, it is long past being a choice. I am grateful for my technology coach. Get yourself one.

16 March

Where winter meets Spring

by Jon Katz
On Route 30

The snow is beginning to recede after this very long and cold winter, and there are places where you see Winter and Spring colliding, nose to nose. There can only be one winner of this contest, so it is a pleasant one. Spring and Winter colliding on Route 30, half of the fields already spread with manure, the rest still covered in snow and ice.

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