Tuesday, November 24, 2009

1st Multimedia Piece: Just Juice It!


Psychology sophomore Anthony Vasquez holds up a glass of vegetable juice at his residence off Ashby Street Nov. 16. Vasquez tells people who don't like to eat vegetables or are afraid to try certain ones to "just juice it!"

Producing a multimedia piece can be a time-consuming, sleep-depriving and technically challenging medium to tell stories with.

Yet the supplementation of sound (and sometimes video) to still images enhances the story-telling capabilities of photojournalists, giving readers a better sense of what the aspects of life - the people, places and events that characterize history - are like by the greatest extent that they can be told.

After several evenings reporting, photographing and recording classmate Anthony Vasquez go through his juicing routine, it would be several evening-till-mornings of editing, splicing and writing before my first multimedia piece was completed.

And I don't think it's done, really.

My photojournalism professor, Dr. Edmund Lo, a former photo editor at many publications (including top Hong Kong and Taiwan magazines), has reminded me that it's never going to be perfect in the story-telling business. The story won't always be fully told and from every angle; A finite amount of time is allotted for our coverage of news that never stops and an infinite amount of other stories waiting to be told. "You've just got to get it done, and move on," he told me.

So I wish I could have photographed my fellow juicer as he serves meaty dishes at the P.F. Changs, the restaurant he has worked at for about as long as he's been a vegetarian (four years); I would have liked to spend an extra evening at his residence downtown, a kind of vintage-style pad, to maybe catch the carrot juice mustache.

But from what I did manage to present in writing, sound and visual images over the course of two weeks, readers can gain a broader perspective of the community and deeper understanding of, well, juicing!

View the published story and soundslide here


Vasquez buys produce from Finca Pura Vida at the Pearl Farmers Market Saturday, Nov. 7. “Produce that was recently picked has about 100 percent more nutrients than old produce,” Pura Vida said, adding that "produce loses most of it’s nutrients in the first three days."

A pill-minder sits on the counter of Vasquez's kitchen Nov. 9 at his residence on Ashby Street. "Vitamins can contain up to 4000 components, and your body just flushes it out,” Vasquez said, adding that nutrients in juice are easily absorbed and stored in the cells for later use. "An average size carrot has over 110 percent of your daily value of vitamin A."

Vasquez pours fresh carrot-radish juice. He said that a "12-ounce cup of juice is like four bucks" at Whole Foods, "and from what I buy I could make like ten of those and still have juice left over."

Vasquez eats an organic peanut butter and jelly sandwich with powdered green tea in Professor Jim Mammarella's Speech 1301 class Nov. 13. Kinesiology professor Andreia Brown said that vegetarians must combine food sources to create a complete protein (nine amino acids) for the body, which the peunut butter and jelly sandwhich can provide.Vasquez drinks at least one 32-ounce bottle of green tea everyday, which he says is a healthy alternative to coffee and provides more antioxidants.


Vasquez laughs with co-worker Matt Mauldan at P.F. Changs Nov. 13. Vasquez is a bar tender and server at the restaurant, always around meat but trying to "get people involved in eating vegan foods.” Vasquez will drink alcoholic beverages on occasion, avoiding those that are made with yeast or isinglass, a clarifying agent made from the swim bladders of fish.


PHOTOS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED BY TYLER K. CLEVELAND/THE RANGER

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