I believe this is the first week that I’m ever missing work. In my previous jobs, when I wanted to call off, I just did. I was nonessential enough for day to day operations that no one would really notice the workflow change if I was out for the day. This was not an option for my job this year. If I want days off, it is still a rather simple process, I just need to ask a little in advance. Regardless, missing a Monday despite being in a different state felt quite weird. I had a fair stack of work waiting for me the next day, and although I happily completed the stack very handily, there was a lingering feeling of incompleteness for me. I had triple checked that everything was complete, and it was, but I was paranoid and since I hadn’t been there on Monday, I ended up spending a couple extra hours hitting my checklist and retracing my workflow, only to find that I had done it perfectly the first time around. I would rather be safe rather than sorry, and since I was already done for the day, it was no harm done. The Thursday after I got back, there was another house to be photographed for Kuula, so it was right back out the door after I got in for the day, and after a few minutes, I was at the job site, the Berglund Residence. They’ll be moving in within a few months, so I was largely there for record keeping and visual documentation. Within a few short hours, I was done and back in the office.

I know there are a lot of very different companies out there. I’m aware that many of them choose to treat their employees poorly, in order to cut costs or boost profits. After being treated like an actual person, I think that many companies are ignoring or simply choose to disregard the increased productivity from a happy workforce. I see so many of my peers complaining about poor working conditions, bad pay, rude upper management, etc. genuinely day to day. I count myself rather fortunate to have a job that not only provides a day to day structure, but also provides a large number of amenities for day to day working. Water jugs for free water, free snacks, daily catered lunch, and donuts on Fridays add up to an extremely satisfying job. It genuinely doesn’t matter to me that I’m not the best paid in the world, I don’t care when they take care of this much stuff for me. But for many employers and those in upper management, then if they see I’m not paid as much, they think they can get away with paying their employees less than that and not provide any of the amenities I get. There needs to be a genuine ebb and flow in the grand scheme of a job. If the job doesn’t provide in a certain area, I’ll expect it to excel in another area to make up for its shortcomings. Thankfully, this site provides a truly obscene number of amenities. It’s genuinely not like I’m poorly paid either, I’m promptly paid and the rate is quite competitive. Combined with the amenities, its quite the diamond.

This week has been a good week when it comes to preparing for the camp. Right now I have my camera packed and ready to go and tomorrow I will have my clothes packed for next week. I am excited about the camp and helping out the students who are going. I had a meeting Monday with Dr. Wolek and Eve Paylor. In the meeting, we went over a general idea when it came to expectations that are expected of me, and I gained a more detailed schedule for the week. We also briefly talked about how to record sound for the promotional video. Dr. Wolek mentioned having a stand-alone microphone to record everything and using the in-camera microphone as a way to sync the video to the audio. I also learned more about what is needed for the promotional video as well as the estimated length of it. I created a shot list with ideas of what I am thinking of recording for the week and got a list of expected shots. When bringing up the idea to interview some of the students and it was well-received, however, it would be used in a longer video the organization has planned. I don’t have any interview questions left, but I plan on making it in the first few days of the camp after I am familiar with what is going on. I am excited for the coming week and cannot wait to meet students and help them out throughout their time learning.

While this week was not nearly as slow as last, there were a few slow points, which I suppose is just normal. I usually like to get work done as accurately as possible, this obviously leads to me not having to ever redo something because I do it right the first time. But with this methodology of working, then there is the danger of being “off-task” for too long, simply because there is nothing to work on. But, obviously, that description does not account for all the work that is accomplished, albeit early. For example, I was asked to do a weekly photography shoot-not of the staff, but some of our current customer’s job sites. I was told to find a good 360 degree camera and software that would let our customers easily tour their job sites with a full 360 degree view. After much deliberation and several stupid-expensive cameras being shot down by my boss, we landed on the GoPro Max as our camera, and Kuula Tours as our software. For my first field assignment, I was given the camera, the address, and a floor blueprint with markings for the “mandatory” spots, which is just where my supervisor absolutely wants a picture taken. However, I was truly given freedom for any other spots I thought needed a snapshot. After a 15 minute meeting in which I learned the majority of what I needed to look for, such as exposed pipes, wiring, etc. It’s rather pertinent to note that many of these sites are in the process of being constructed, so pipes and other things aren’t anything to worry about. Many of the team just like to have confirmation that the pipes have been laid there and laid properly. As for me, it took just over and hour to finish and I was happily trundling away and taking photos the entire time. Tour’s attached below, I’ll be ASAP with week 5, sorry for the delay.
https://kuula.co/share/collection/7v9FT?logo=0&info=0&fs=1&vr=1&sd=1&initload=0&thumbs=1

I haven’t done much preparing for the camp this week, but next week I have some goals I want to achieve. This week I got some field recordings on a bike path nearby my house at 11 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm. I want to put these recordings together to create a roughly 3-minute soundscape. I will finish the mix of the soundscape by tonight so that this weekend when I am free I can plan out the video for the camp. I also just got done booking a meeting with Dr. Wolek to help me come up with a way to record audio and video. Before the meeting, I will check the sound quality of my camera to see if it is good enough. I do not want to use the in-camera microphone but if it is a last resort I want to prepare myself for the quality. A good idea that I might do instead is rent a camera from the library at Stetson and use that since I know that has a 3.5mm headphone jack and use the wireless mics that I used in my senior project. I might use those mics since they are really sensitive and can pick up a lot. The only drawback that I can see is that they are wireless and I need to be aware of their battery life. I am not sure what the best option will be, but hopefully, after talking to Dr. Wolek I will know the best option.

This week was the first week where nothing really happened at work. My brother came home, but obviously that’s home, not at the shop. The majority of the week was spent updating the last few mistakes I’d missed in my first round. Any time I didn’t spend doing work tasks like swapping the water jugs or taking packages or letters to the post office was largely spent in front of the work computer. Not that I mind that at all, I just occasionally wish that the tasks were more challenging, not just more tedious. I understand that is largely the nature of internship work, but after a full 4 days, going on the daily lunch run is like an adventure. An adventure to La Oaxaqueña or Burgerfi for the staff’s lunch is a once-daily affair of varying quantity, as some staff choose to bring their own lunches instead. I apologize for the long slumber on entries, I genuinely didn’t know what to write about for 250 words and I still don’t. Again, I apologize, but this is just the kind of thing that sometimes happens in Naples. Nothing sometimes happens in Naples. I will be delivering on Week 4 by the end of the week and Week 5 at the beginning of next or over the weekend. Thank you for your patience.

Last week I talked about how I am preparing for the Young Sound Seekers Camp, and I want to provide an update on these preparations. First, I have been using Reaper a lot and recently finished a mix of a song I found online. With this mix I just finished I am sending it to Dr. Underriner to get his thoughts. I sent him the Reaper session and the bounced mix. Although I have gained some experience with Reaper I want to practice a little bit more. This practice is messing with a recording session I did with Dr. Underriner as well as getting some field recordings and seeing if I can make a clean transition between the different recordings. For the field recording, I want to go to a bike path nearby my house and record in the morning, midday, and later in the afternoon and try and mix them and have the listener feel the time changing. It isn’t just Reaper that I have been working with during the past week I have been using a free video editor called Hitfilm Express. I originally wanted to learn Davinci Resolve but after some time on it, I realized there was a lot locked behind a paywall, also there were a lot of unneeded add-ons. Hitfilms however, is very close to Adobe Premiere and After Effects, both of which I have tons of experience with. My time with Hitfilms the past week was taking a roughly 2-hour video I found of someone playing video games and cutting it down to 20 minutes. I also added light effects like screen shake and moving certain elements into the frame. Overall, I think I have prepared my technical skills for the camp, now I think this week I will prepare what I want to do while the camp is going on.