WVU SOJ Visiting Committee

I recently had the opportunity to photograph the WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism’ s Visiting Committee fall meeting in Martin Hall at WVU’s downtown campus in Morgantown, WV.

The Visiting Committee is a group professionals and alumni who serve in an advisory capacity to the School of Journalism.

Ryan and Megan at the Outer Banks

While at the Outer Banks in August I did a brief engagement session for Ryan Warner and Megan Aftanas. It was brief because I had fresh crab cakes at home waiting on me. Priorities.

Here is the full gallery

New York City following 9/11 – Photos by Alex Wilson

On Sept. 11, 2001 I was in grad school at Syracuse University and a few days later went down to the city to photograph what I saw…I thought I would gather up a few of those photos and make a little collection for the anniversary.

Follow this link to view the photos:

http://issuu.com/alexwphoto/docs/9-11-2001

Dr. Bryan Raudenbush Photos

I recently photographed Dr. Bryan Raudenbush, a researcher at Wheeling Jesuit University, for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WVHEPC). Here are a couple images from that shoot. I used 2 Vivitar 285s on stands and a Nikon D300s to make all the images.

WV Capitol Wedding Portraits

I got to do wedding portraits of my good friend Lisa and her new husband Rick in the West Virginia State Capitol. The Capitol is alway hard to shoot in because it’s very dark and every light source in the building has a different color temperature. For the interior shots I used a couple Vivitar 285s on stands and for the exterior shots I just used natural light. Here are a few samples:

PDF Photo Webzine – RoadTrip May/June 2011

I’m constantly trying to find new ways to present my work. I recently signed up for an Issuu.com account and realized it may be a good way to present my photography that breaks out of the traditional “photo gallery” set up. Issuu.com is basically a .pdf hosting site that incorporates a .pdf viewer that allows people to browse the content by flipping the pages of magazine-like spreads that can be built in layout software like Adobe InDesign. This platform allows me to combine 3 things that I love: photography, layout/design and somewhat useless facts about places I’ve been.

The name that I gave my web magazine is RoadTrip. Most of the fun personal photography that I shoot is taken on short weekend road trips. Follow the link below to the May/June 2011 issue:

http://issuu.com/alexwphoto/docs/roadtrip_05_06_2011

2011 Marshall University Crab Fest

On June 25, 2011 I attended the Marshall University Alumni Association Crab Fest and Cookout for the Greater Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD alumni clubs. I’ve gone to this event for the last several years and this year I brought my camera and did some photography. The event is at Walnut Grove Farm owned by Phyllis and Bill Eaton. The Eaton’s do a great job putting on this event every year and even though I moved from DC back to WV earlier this year I still made the trip to the eastern shore to eat some crabs and hang out with some Herd fans.

If you want to check out the rest of the photos go to the gallery on my SmugMug page. http://alexwilsonmedia.smugmug.com/Events/2011-Marshall-Alumni-Crab-Fest/17786594_htX6dp

To get a print of the group photo click here

WVU IMC Program Graduation video

The purpose of this video was to show future program graduates the value of attending the WVU School of Journalism’s graduation ceremony at the Morgantown campus. Students are not required to make any campus visits during the course of their studies but there are several events in which students can participate with graduation being one of the best opportunities. This video looks at the journey that several students have taken, not only literally from their homes to Morgantown, WV, but also figuratively down the path of successfully completing their graduate studies.

WV Homeland Security Summit and Expo Photography

I recently photographed the West Virginia Homeland Security Summit & Expo for Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation.
The purpose of the summit is to “examine the progress made at the national, state and local levels and combine dynamic keynote speakers, exhibits, and panel discussions on practices, coordination, funding and other issues vital to the security of our State.”

Also in attendance was Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner David V. Aguilar and many more.

The 2 day summit took place on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, WV.

WVU IMC Website

In late 2010 and early 2011 I had the opportunity to completely redesign and build a new website for the WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism’s IMC program. The new site is a near complete departure from the old website, everything from the design, structure and content was scrutinized and fine tuned over a 6 month period. Because there was an existing website I was able and look at several years of analytics to see how people used the structure and information and restructure the site accordingly. I also performed many interviews and focus groups with staff and students on what they thought worked well and what could be done better.

The old site was very static with no changing content and no place to post and display program news and features so we know we wanted that to change. The IMC program has also made a push to be more involved in social networking so I made it a point to include more portholes into our social media assets. The site is built in Slate, the WVU content management system built on Ruby on Rails.

Some of the new features of the site are:

• a program news feed
• a “quick start” link box that is consistent throughout the site and contains links that drive potential students to the places they need to information about the program and how to apply.
• greater integration with IMC social media channels
• more opportunities to showcase news and features about current students and alumni
• more places to feature images and videos
• retooled and more intuitive navigation and site structure based on student and faculty feedback