San Antonio Flow

San Antonio Texas – Lights, Camera, Classroom

I was invited to speak at the National College Media Convention at San Antonio, Texas. Held in a different state each year, this conference attracts radio and video outlets from colleges and universities from across the US. I brought along students from Greycomm, as I wanted to expose them to students from other schools to learn of their operations and get a chance to see my teacher/trainer style that I apply during conferences.

I always give my all when teaching these types of classes and hope that it makes an impact. I taught Advanced Video Production techniques with Adobe Premiere and After Effects at the San Antonio conference a few years back in 2013. A few years later, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the class session aided in changing a person’s career path. He is now a post-production editor at FUSE network.

To know that my impact had an influence of that magnitude affirms this passion that I have and is a reminder that I have more to accomplish in this education field.

One of my students, Mary-Elizabeth was originally from San Antonio, so she was able to show us the sights and help avoid making bad tourist dining decisions. She stressed the importance of checking out Whataburger, the burger spot best known in that region. The In-N-Out burger joint, which I have experienced many times in California, was over a half hour away, so I would have to rely on my experience from the previous month in California to determine which I liked best.

The patty melt was my meal of choice and it was good, but I’m still devoted to the Double-Double Animal Style that can be found at In-N-Out restaurant. 

I’m definitely down to go to Whataburger again though, since the food was quite tasty/good.

Afterwards, we did timelapse at the Alamo. In addition to DSLR, We worked with the goPro Hero 5 and DSLR to compare the similarities and differences of the results from the two cameras.   

I didn’t mention earlier that the conference date coincided with the weekend of Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This is a day where so there were many people there dressed in Halloween and skeleton costumes. It took a moment to get adjusted to that vibe, but I will say the clubs and events taking place that night were thriving. They were “getting their life in” that night for sure.

The next day was presentation time. I was excited to present my material from my new e-book, “What are those buttons on my camera.” We covered the advance features found on professional cameras and I shared techniques on achieving quality video through the use of those advanced camera features.

During some of the downtime, I decided to take the crew on a #backpackvideo shoot on the Riverwalk. They worked with still cameras and more goPro, while I decided to work more on my mobile video techniques using iOS and Lightroom.

My next session, The Basics and Beyond, covered the advanced features found in MILC (mirrorless interchangeable lens) and DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras. This was a hybrid course that provided a bridge from still photography to DSLR cinematography knowledge and professional techniques and features.

After the class, we ventured further around the city to bring the experience full circle. During that evening, we had the chance to do night photography of the neon carriages. The people were friendly and gave us the charming Southern hospitality treatment, with a special spur that encourages and enlightens you. It’s a great, rich history that was even more rewarding to behold a second time.

As this conference ended my fall teaching circuit, i must say that this year’s San Antonio experience was fulfilling. I had the opportunity to contribute to this educational flow and my lifelong passion of educating learners of all ages about technology and techniques. I’m looking forward to an awesome 2018 season of even more opportunities to connect and create bridges toward greater realms of learning.

His session gave me a lot of confidence to further my knowledge of these editing programs and create more cohesive and ambitious projects.

Walt Lily
Student - NC State University

I learned a lot from this session to help my fellow sta and me produce our ongoing video series, and I understand the intricacies of operating the equipment to a much greater degree, thanks to Dunmore’s excited and user-friendly approach.

Walt Lily
Student - NC State University