Don't make excuses: Embrace photo stories if you want a job

Aaron Mora, 7, son of the Johnston's Fruit Farm owners, inspects his bees. This was taken on the second shoot. These three photos are a sampling of the photo story I am doing on the farm, which ran in October in the Toledo Blade magazine page.

Johnston's Fruit Farm customers pick their own blueberries. Taken on my third shoot.

   Shoot ‘em and leave ‘em. Don't make this your shooting style.

   Students no longer have the option of strictly shooting single assignments. You should be shooting a photo story at any given time.

   There is nothing wrong with being a daily shooter. However, shooting photos stories is important to be competitive among your peers and competitors. These are a few of the excuses that can prevent photographers from doing photo stories:

·      Don’t have enough spare time to dedicate to the project

·      Can’t find a story to like enough

·      The subjects don’t call back

·      Fearful of becoming a pest

·      Getting bored easily
·      It's been done already

   Don't let these excuses hold you back.

   A photo story is the use of multiple images shot over an extended period of time to tell a complete story. It can be as simple as a photo essay of a county fair, or as complex as a multimedia documentary on spousal abuse that includes the use of video and audio.

   These are two reasons I have been dedicating more time to shooting photo stories:

Johnston's Fruit Farm workers in the strawberry field. Taken on first shoot.

1.     I have never entered the Ohio News Photographer (ONPA) Photographer of the Year (POY) competition because one of the requirements is to include at least one photo story.

   Here are the contest rules regarding the George Smallsreed Jr. POY entry:

“Portfolios must contain a news picture, a sports picture, a picture story and pictures from at least two other categories of the entrants choosing.” 

   It’s the lack of a picture story that prevents me from having a chance to win. A friend of mine always tells me that to win you have to enter, and she’s right. So I can only blame myself for sitting back on the sidelines and watching my terrific Toledo Blade colleagues (Katie Rausch, Jeremy Wadsworth and Andy Morrison) win POY contests.

   Contests aren’t everything, and they don't always define your overall skills, but they certainly help get better jobs, better assignments and increased self esteem.

    2. This second reason is actually the driving force to me upping my game. It’s for the students!

   How can I teach students long-form visual storytelling when I hardly did it myself?     

   It is crucial for me to push students to do photo stories. Dig a little deeper into the story. Go back again and again. Develop a relationship with the subjects. Build trust.  
   Shooting photo stories will get them jobs. There is no doubt in my military mind that the photojournalism jobs and assignments will always go to those who do not have commitment issues.  Photo stories, Photo stories, Photo stories. 
   Photographers who can write stories, shoot stills and shoot/produce a video will be much more employable. Actually, if you don't do all of those things you might be unemployable in today's multimedia-cultured world.

    So, now I must make the time to find stories I care about so I don’t get bored and thus will pick up the phone to call the sources so that I can tell their stories. 

   Storytelling is good.

   Here is a story on Mich Fest I did this year. It's a week-long music festival for only women. It was a story I had to tell because it was the last festival, ending after 40 years. 
The video:
 
The written story:

Why an old dog can teach young smartphone pups new tricks of the camera

   On cellphone photography.

   Once again I ponder this question while updating the syllabus: Should I teach cellphone photography to students when it’s already so much a part of their lives?

   Considering my tech addicted teen daughters are still teaching me about my own iPhone6, does it make sense to add a cellphone lesson to a syllabus for college journalism students?

   I don’t doubt that most of my Wayne State photojournalism students are also tech addicted, so what could I possible teach them that they don’t know already?

   Quite a bit, actually. In fact, social media is such an essential part of journalism these days that many universities are now offering entire courses dedicated to mobile reportage.

   Here are a few lessons that I think might benefit students:

Lesson One: Selfies

   This is the age of the selfies. Yes, our youth has mastered taking photos of themselves. I certainly don’t have to teach them that! In fact, this selfie lesson is about what NOT to do. Stop taking selfies!

   Yep, I advise to stop doing it, especially while students are job searching. Potential employers expect a high level of maturity. It is no secret that companies do background checks on social media accounts. Would you hire someone who excessively documents her own exploits?  This is a red flag.

   But, if they must do it, then I advise them to create two accounts: one personal and one professional, making the professional easier to find.

Lesson Two: Law and Ethics

   Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Students need to know what’s right and wrong when publishing and sharing cellphone photos.

   The first lesson I teach them in class is about the NPPA Code of Ethics. This code should be adhered to, whether the photos are shot with a cellphone or DSLR camera.

   Consider No. 5: ‘While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.’ To me, that means no filters. Keep the image real.

   Also think about the ease of being sneaky with a cellphone, meaning that if a DSLR camera is not allowed (private funeral of slain victim, for example), then neither is a cellphone camera. It is not right, in most cases, to slyly record or photograph a subject when they are not aware.

   And lastly, you have the right to photograph police or authority figures in a public place with your cell. If they take away your device despite you following all of the rules (staying behind the police tape), they you probably have a case for a law suit.

Lesson Three: Available tools

   A smartphone camera has lots of options. So, let’s go over a few:

·      Get to know your shooting and editing tools, like flash, color correction, cropping and toning. But that's as far as it should go. No fancy stuff. Again, keep it real.

- Sometimes it’s not enough to simply point and shoot, especially if you’re publishing straight to a blog or social media site. Set your parameters first (color temperature, for example) to make your post-production work easier.

·      Download still and video editing apps, like Snapseed and Videolicious. Editing and producing your still photos and videos will make you more valuable (and hirable) in the field. Learn to use these apps, and then add this skill to your resume!

       ·      Taking a photo is part one, and writing the caption is part two. Captions are the journalism in photojournalism. So, figure out how to quickly write or transfer an AP style caption for every photo you post on Instagram, Twitter, blog, email to editor, etc. Also include your byline!

     ·      And don’t forget about #hashtags when posting to Instagram or Twitter. These can help your photos, or hurt them. Hashtags need to be smart and concise. They shouldn’t be overdone, like the Jimmy Fallon comedy skit #funny #thatisnothowyoudoit #photojournalism #cellphonelessons #oncellphones

   There are probably many more lessons and tips to share, and I'm sure I've left other important stuff out, but these are good starting points.

                                                                             #30

Summer: Time to reflect, rebuild and replenish the journalism toolbox

Screen grab of a social media tool search.

   Summer.

   For many college students on break, summer is all about relaxing, partying, traveling or working for tuition money.
   Unless they are attending summer school, there is no homework to ruin much-needed downtime for the brain.

   But for university instructors (and I probably speak for many), much of our summer is spent doing homework.

   I use summer to catch up on what’s new in the journalism industry, and to update lesson plans that reflect modern trends of storytelling.

   Thinking back, it seemed that being a journalism student was less tasking in the good ole days. Now I’m simplifying here, but we students primarily learned the traditional skills of interviewing, writing and editing. The basic tools included a typewriter, paper and pens for reporters; and a film camera and wet darkroom for photojournalists.

   And back then only editors had the capacity to design and disseminate news on a printed page. Oh, how I remember those design tools fondly: Xacto knives, pica poles and whiz wheels… oh my.

   I will never forget the beloved Xacto knife, which nearly cut off a couple of my fingers while finishing a page design for The Huachuca Scout military newspaper in Arizona. Not a fond memory.

   But journalism tools now a days? OH… MY… GOD!

   There are so many (countless, really) that I fear it’s impossible to teach students everything they need to know to succeed in the 21^st Century. How can we possibly keep up with the industry standards when there are so, so many tools?

   Social media tools are supposed to make our lives easier, right? There is no doubt they are a necessity. So, I’m thinking the best plan is to keep it simple.
   I recently read somewhere that journalists shouldn’t maintain more than three social media tools at a time. If I go by that advise, then I need to determine the most important social media tools that I think students should know. Are they Twitter, Facebook and Instagram? Snap Chat is wanting in on the game now, and You Tube is no slouch.  

   And how we need to contain them? Consider Rebel Mouse and TweetDeck.

  Need to congregate a bunch of similar topics together, or looking for similar topics to add to your story? Try Storify or Storyful.

  How about live storytelling? Download Evrybit or Periscope on your smart phones.

  Do you get my point?

   I decided to write this blog post because I was searching for new tools to teach my photojournalism students next semester, and I wanted to share that I’ve found more than I bargained for.

Journalism schools must provide photojournalism courses to students

Breaking news story and photo by Toledo Blade political reporter Tom Troy.

Feature story and photo by Toledo Blade reporter Matt Thompson.

   Journalism students beware: Expect to take your own photos someday.

   Military journalists do. Many small-town journalists do, too. And now, so do Toledo Blade reporters.

   Traditionally, reporters at larger newspapers have been shielded from the backpack journalist concept. When reporters move up to bigger papers, they aren’t expected, nor sometimes permitted by union rules, to also provide visual storytelling.

   But, alas, the times they are changing, as exhibited by these two  screen grabs from the Toledo Blade website. Sure, these photos were taken with their cell phones, but I suppose that still counts.

   As newspapers and magazines, like the Chicago Sun-Times and Sports Illustrated, as well as corporations like Gannett, axe their photojournalists, who, then, is providing the still and video images? The reporters, of course.

   Take the Fremont News-Messenger, for example. This small-town, Northwest Ohio newspaper, owned by Gannett, just eliminated everyone’s job. Current employees are being forced to reapply for new positions, with new titles and new responsibilities, according to a source at the paper who decided not to renew his position.

   This is being done to transform into “a newsroom of the future.” This transformation is putting the photographer out of a job, and replacing him with two reporter/photographer positions.

    Now, let me finally get to the point of this blog post. I don’t have an issue with reporters who take photos, and photojournalists who write. After all, I am a retired military journalist who was trained to do both because we were expected to do both. Key word here is trained. 

    Journalism schools of the 21^st Century must address this issue of additional training, and do it now. In this day and age of budget cutting and worker attrition, every basic journalism student should be taught the skills of backpack journalism.
   In my humble opinion, this is absolutely the best way to ensure that the quality, integrity and credibility of print and visual storytelling aren't eroded as modern-day journalists are expected to do more than their basic job descriptions (and for less pay).

   This is what I told my Wayne State University Digital Photojournalism students during class on Friday.

   The students, mostly print journalism and broadcasting majors, recently shot their first assignment on feature photography. They came to class flustered and confused, realizing that photojournalism is much harder than it looks on the published page.

   I reassured them that what they are feeling is completely normal because photojournalism is complex. Not only do they have to gather the facts for their stories, they also have to worry about the following elements:

·      Photo captions

·      Law, ethical and etiquette considerations

·      Camera controls (ISO, shutter speed, apertures)

·      Composition

·      Capturing the key moments

·      Transmittal issues

   Journalism students should learn these key skills before their first job, which is why I firmly believe journalism schools always have been, and always will be, necessary.

   We have to prepare students for everything. Walking into a city council meeting or a court proceeding with a pen and paper is one thing. But adding a loud clicking camera, and the necessary element of movement to get the best angle… well, that’s a whole other level of news-gathering.

  

Another link to a story on this issue:

Georgia journalists told to take own pictures  

Perspective and patience pays off with a front page Toledo Blade photo

Placement of this photo is front page,  top of the fold of the Toledo Blade.  Hydrant 3. (Photos by Lori King/© Toledo Blade)

Taken holding the camera over my head. Hydrant 2.

   Perspective. It is a compositional tool both my Owens Digital Pho 1 and Wayne State Digital Photojournalism classes are currently learning about.
   Perspective is one of many tools in a photographer's compositional toolbox, and I pulled it out for the above photo of a Toledo city worker digging out fire hydrants. Perspective is allowing the viewer to see a scene in a different way; from up high, down low, etc.

Taken from normal perspective. Hydrant 1.

   There's a lot going on in the published photo, so I'm going to break it down.
   This series was shot on a frigid, clear day in a neighborhood east of Broadway Ave. I was instructed to find a "rover," which is our slang for roving around town in hopes of finding a decent feature photo that would fill an empty space in the newspaper.
   I like to troll through the neighborhoods that are on the outskirts of downtown Toledo because people are more out and about, compared to suburbs. So I turned off Broadway and eventually found Ron kneeling by a fire hydrant. I got out of my car and asked if he would mind if I took a few photos of him doing his job. He was a little hesitant, as many people are when a Blade photographer approaches them, but with a little sweet talking he agreed.

   He told me was clearing snow away from 20 hydrants, so I decided I would follow him to his next hydrant because I wanted the shoveling shot.
   Patience is another tool in the toolbox that is often overlooked, and it paid off here.  I had decent shots on the first two hydrants (seen above), but I envisioned him knee-deep in snow so I followed him to three hydrants. On the third one I had a plenty of blue sky in the background, so I set a narrow aperture on a wide lens, put the camera to the ground, waited for him to shovel near the hydrant, and shot blindly away.
   It's a little crooked because I couldn't see through the viewfinder. I initially straightened the horizons in Photoshop, but my boss Dave Zapotosky suggested I leave a little room around the photo. This made sense because when the layout people crop the photo, we didn't want them to crop the top of his head or any of the snow at the top or right side.
   There is also nothing I could do about the wire going through his back. It's an accepted fact that in photojournalism there are imperfections. We are bound by the NPPA code of ethics to not manipulate our photos in any way, so the line and the street lamp remained.
   I was rewarded for getting out of my warm car and spending time with my subject with a front page rover photo today!

Screen grab of the series of photos from a low perspective.

Owens Digital Video class learns to shoot video with new Canon Rebels

     The Owens digital video class has been learning Final Cut Pro for a month now, and are finally ready to hone their skills with their own video.

     Because of a $9,000 grant for the course, the students will all be issued (through checkout when needed) their own camera kits,  which include a Canon Rebel, Sennheiser hotshot mic, tripod and LED lights.

     The course also has its own YouTube Channel. Their first assignment, an animation project, is uploaded on the channel now. 

      This is a Storify lesson I curated for them to help them understand how to use a DSLR for shooting video.

Wayne State University student PJ blogs are now up and running

   I'm happy to announce that the photojournalism blogs are now up and running for the Wayne State Digital Photojournalism students. You can also find their Twitter and Instagram usernames on their blogs, as well.
   Click on a name and add to their page views!
Alexander Franzen
Lauren Seago
Melanie Entrekin
Halie Keith
Angelique Harrison
Hope Crenshaw
Michael Ference
Emily Ridener
Allen Jackson
Kyra Johnson
Kaitlin Fazio
Wayne Bussey
Janelle Payne
Ameera Salim Al Souli
Ashourina Slewo
Cierra Anthony

Recapping the first week at Owens CC and Wayne State University

   One week down.  And what a great week it was!

   The first week is always my favorite because I meet new students, and it sets the tone for the rest of the semester.

   Here’s a quick recap:

·      The Digital Photography at Owens has 12 students, and they are already learning the nuts and bolts of their digital cameras. But they won’t get into the specifics of shutter speeds and apertures for another few weeks. But they will be learning how to meter this week.

·      The Owens CRT Digital Video class has 10 students. I’m co-teaching it with a young, bright and recent film graduate from the University of Toledo, Andrew Jex. He brings fresh shooting ideas into the course, which we are designing a bit.

-  They learned the basics of the Final Cut Pro X interface, and went through the first two chapters of the textbook.

-  Throughout the course they will be shooting assignments that include animation and classic storytelling. They will also be shooting an assignment or two for the Owens Outlook student newspaper.  It’s exciting to add video to the online student newspaper. The photo editor, commercial photography major Sean Ferry, will determine what videos will actually make the online newspaper. 

 - The course was also rewarded a $9,000 grant for equipment. We spent that pretty fast. Within a month we should be getting new DSLR camera kits with video capability, Sennheiser mics, tripods and a portable light source.

·      My largest class to teach ever is the Digital Photojournalism course at Wayne State University in Detroit. Nineteen students, mostly journalism majors, showed up Friday morning, eager to use their cameras as another storytelling tool.

Screen grab of Sandra Svoboda's profile on the WDET website.

-       We also had a guest speaker attend the class. WDET radio reporter Sandra Svoboda has given us an offer we can’t refuse. The students will be ‘unofficial’ photographers for the radio station’s website.

-    They will also be doing assignments for the South End student newspaper. Practical experience is the best way to learn, and there is no better way to give them real-world experience.

    Let Week Two begin.

WDET reporter Sandra Svoboda explains shooting opportunities for the digital photography students. (Cell photo by Lori King)

On being busy, surviving the busyness, and enjoying it as you go

   The calm before the storm. That's how this week feels as I gear up for the start of this semester.
   This will be my weekly teaching schedule for the next four months:

• Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 - 11:15 a.m. = Digital Photojournalism (Owens)
• Mondays from 11:30 - 1 p.m. - Owens Outlook student media weekly meeting
• Thursdays from 5:30 - 7:45 p.m. = Digital Video (Owens)
• Fridays from 9:35 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. = Digital Photo (Wayne State)

   And this is will be my Blade schedule:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 - 10:30 p.m.
• Saturday from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

   Between classes and work I will prepare lesson plans, grade assignments, and spend a limited amount of free time with my family.
   They say that it's not work if you love what you do. I can attest to that.
   But I'm not alone. When I taught the Teaching Multimedia class last semester, most of the students, who are high school teachers earning their master's degree in Journalism Education, had other jobs: coaching sports and debate teams; teaching college classes; advising student media; raising kids.
   It's absolutely crazy how much we tend to pack into our days. Why, oh why, do I do this to myself?
   That's easy to answer - because I love teaching what I do for a living!
   It's certainly not for the money. Both the journalism field and the college environment are financially suffering. Both are cutting back on personnel and supplies. But both are so utterly and vitally important for our free society.
   Journalism, or the act of disseminating valuable (and sometimes not so valuable) information to our communities, is a civic duty that dates back to the beginning of the human race: think cavemen drawing pictures on cave walls.
  I'm often asked why and how I do it.
  Why? Because teaching feeds my soul. I no longer feel like I need to be the one who produces the work. My whole goal in my seasoned life is to teach others to do it. I am basically teaching the next generation to replace me. I'm proud to be able to contribute to the future of photojournalism.
  And how?  First and foremost, it's because I want to do it. To be able to handle everything, I have to be very organized and I don't procrastinate.
  I always get a kick out of those students who tell me they are too busy to complete assignments on time because they're too busy. Seven times out of 10 they don't even have full-time jobs or kids. That proves to me that success or failure isn't measured on how busy we are, but how we handle the busyness.
  Got that students? Let me summarize:

•   Love what you do
•   Be organized when you do it
•   Don't procrastinate with what you must do

  These three ingredients to success will help you ride out the semester with little or no damage to your GPA or mental stability.
   Now, before the storm rolls in and drowns me in busyness, please excuse me while I catch up on episodes of American Horror Story: Freak Show.

Three 2015 resolutions that I just might keep... with lots of help from students

Myself, center, with the Owens Outlook editors. (Photo by Sean Ferry)

 

    Resolutions are made to be broken, right? Perhaps because they often focus on ourselves, and without much help from others.

    So I won’t waste my 2015 resolutions on myself. Instead, my wishes for success will focus on my Owens Outlook newspaper staff. The success of my resolutions will depend on us all working together as a team. 

   These are my joint resolutions for 2015:

1. Submit the Owens Outlook online student newspaper and its staff for the Pinnacle Awards.

   Pinnacle Awards, handed out during the annual College Media Association Fall convention, honor the best college media organizations and individual students for their work throughout the year.

   I have high hopes for this ‘little engine that could.’ As I scan over their photos and stories from this past semester, how can they not be strong contenders in a national contest on the community college level? I would even pit them against four-year schools!

   The CMA conference next year is in Houston. I can’t wait to sit there during the awards ceremony and hear our school called out.

2.    Start paying the Outlook staff and buy necessary equipment through ad and photo sale revenue.

The Outlook has a new paid student business manager, and I hope she hits the ground running. We

are looking at several ways to generate money:

·       Sell ads on the Outlook website.

·       Sell their photography through sites like Flickr or SmugMug.

·       Create an end-of-semester hard print magazine that features the best content of the semester, as well as fresh, longer-form photo stories. We are banking that local companies sponsor it.

   We were once considering going to a bimonthly print edition, but with a skeleton staff of under 10 each semester, and no journalism program to support it, that’s no longer an option.

3.    Recruit deans, chairs, administration, students and community members to subscribe to the online newspaper.

   The Outlook staff works hard to cover the entire Toledo campus, but we can’t do it without the support of readership support. We need their tips for story ideas, feedback on how we can do things better, and website hits to justify our existence.

   Lofty goals, indeed. So the Outlook staff and the entire Owens community need to work together to help make these resolutions come true!

Owens' Intro to Photojournalism course: The little engine that could

Intro to Photojournalism class, featuring Bittersweet Farms marketing director Shannon Dane, center. The class went to Bittersweet Farms to shoot their team photo story, published in the Owens Outlook student newspaper. (Photo by Lori King)

Dec. 4 Screen shot of Owens Outlook student newspaper.

  The end is here, and what do students have to show for it?

   In too many college classes, final grades and a stack of textbooks are all that tangibly remain once the semester is over.

  Sure, most students gain a heightened intellect in every class they take.

  However, potential employers want to see visible proof that their hires are capable, dependable and talented. This is especially true for students who are expected to have a portfolio to prove their worth.

  I am lucky enough to have the type of course that can provide that proof: Ten students in my Intro to Photojournalism class are the  ‘little engine that could.’

  Not only do they have required classroom assignments, they also are staff members of the Owens Outlook student newspaper, which covers a campus with about 13,000 enrolled students.
   Let me make this perfectly clear - these 10 students are the ONLY staff members on the student newspaper, except for Kyle, who will be taking the Intro to PJ class next Fall.
   This small staff publishes fresh content, including stories, videos and photo galleries, every week, and they don't even get paid!

   The Intro to PJ class is very progressive and task-based.

• In only four months they learn the following theories and skills:
  • What news is
  • The Anatomy of a newspaper
  • How to caption photos using the Associated Press Stylebook
  • Create and maintain blogs, Twitter and Instagram accounts
  • Shoot feature, sports, portrait and photo stories
  • Write, write, write
      I’m well aware most of the 10 commercial photography majors won’t  go into the photojournalism field, but I’m confident these skills will benefit them in whatever field they choose.
     Alas, the end is indeed here, but their blogs, tweets and Outlook stories shall live on forever!
  

  

  Screen shot of Dec. 4 post by Owens Outlook EIC Katie Buzdor. #proud

   To view their individual course blogs, go to King's Klass Blog.

On shooting video stories: Learning curve is steep, but the climb is worth it

   It’s hard to define bad video technique until you actually see it: bad pans, bad focusing, bad fades, bad zooms, bad audio.

   The word ‘bad’ sounds, well, bad. But ‘making bad’ on your first few videos isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, we all have to start somewhere, right?

   A few weeks ago the KSU Teaching Multimedia class got started on their first video assignment.
   The goal was to get their your feet wet by handing the gear, practicing with moving images, getting comfortable with sound, and then developing a workflow to put it all together.

   Before they shot their story they were given a list of video news stories by established media to view. Then they had to find subjects that would lend to visual variety and sound (the assignment before this was learning how to capture sound and edit using Audacity). Finally, with a list of guidelines to follow, they had to shoot and produce their own stories.

  Keep in mind that this class is also extremely fast paced. In only four months they learn basic still photography and audio skills, as well as create blogs to post their timelines, interactive maps and opinion polls. They don’t have the luxury of time.   

  I expected bad video because most of the students took the class because they had no visual journalism experience and wanted to learn; and to learn you have to do; and the more you do the better you get.  This is why they are given a second chance, and are currently working on their second video, due at the end of the semester. I hope to see improvement, not only because they've done it before, but because they have the benefit of learning from one another's videos on our YouTube Channel.

  It's understood that the learning curve to shooting video is pretty steep. Still photography is hard enough, with camera controls, compositional rules and lighting techniques to worry about. But throw in the added elements of movement and audio, and, well, beginners can have pretty bad video! 

  The following two stories were chosen from this class because I think it’s important to demonstrate the spectrum of work students do. You will be able to tell which one works, and which one needs work.

  Sure, I can say in a classroom or write in a blog, "Don't do this, and yes, do that..."  But you really have you see it to get the picture.
   For this third bad audio video (click here), I demonstrate really bad audio, and it isn't a product of my students. It's mine!
Even us experienced types can screw up, as this brief weekly Dog of the Week video proves. Normally, the Sennheiser hotshoe mic on my DSLR cameras does a fine job of recording quality audio. But not this time.
   While producing the video using Adobe Premiere Elements 11, I was horrified to hear annoying static during the interview. Perplexed, I had a gut feeling it could be a battery issue, so I did a test. I recorded sound suing the old AAA battery, then replaced the battery and did another recording. The new battery fixed the problem.
   This bad audio makes it a bad video story, and even a cute puppy can't save it!
   Tips for recording quality audio include keeping the batteries fresh; record in a quite space, use a quality mic that minimizes distracting background noise; keep close to the subject or use wireless mics with a transmitter.
  Here's another video I did that encompasses decent shooting techniques and audio: Say cheese!
  A few tutorials on shooting/editing video:

·      U.C. berkeley shooting tips

·      NewsU on Video Storytelling

·      Lynda.com Video Storytelling

·      NYVS video shooting

·      Media College

·      DSLR Video Shooter