richardkong.com » Photos

Interviews with Photographers

Rich — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:39:33 +0000

Lately, I’ve made an effort to produce more video content for my library’s YouTube presence. Here are some video interviews with some of the top finishers from the recent teen photography contest. I shot each of these five videos in our Digital Media Lab against the chroma key wall (aka SPL’s green monster). It was a ton of fun meeting these students and hearing them talk about their interest in photography. I’m amazed at their talent and intelligence! Enjoy!

2010 Teen Photography Contest

Rich — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:11:52 +0000

For the past three years, mpow has sponsored a photography contest for teens. We had 42 entries the first year, 32 last year, and a whopping 67 entries this year! I was amazed at the talent on display by our local teens. It was incredibly difficult to choose the top three winners and honorable mentions. Let me know what you think of our choices and which ones are your favorites!

Fostering and Rewarding Creativity

Rich — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:26:24 +0000

I love hearing stories of libraries fostering and rewarding creativity within their communities. One easy way to do that is to have contests for photography, video, and other media. Last year, mpow’s teen librarian and I planned a photography contest and invited teens to submit their best work with the hopes of making it an annual event. The contest turned out even better than we imagined and I was amazed with some of the entries we had. We had over 40 entries and we picked a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner in addition to a few honorable mentions. We rewarded the winners with gift cards to Best Buy and uploaded all the entries to the Library’s Flickr photostream. We printed out the photographs and displayed them prominently in the Library and even ordered a poster from QOOP to make the collection of photographs a permanent piece of artwork on our walls.

This week we’re getting set to pick the winners for our 2nd Annual Teen Photo Contest and it’s going to be tough. We have some really strong contenders. Check them out!

If you’re thinking of doing something like this for your community, maybe our entry form (pdf) will help you get started. If you want to know more about our experience, just drop me a line and I’ll be glad to help out!

So what’s your favorite from this year’s photos?

Inauguration 2009 at the Library

Rich — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:01:11 +0000

MPOW broadcast the inauguration live on 5 plasma screens throughout the building. Lots of people stopped what they were doing to watch. It was moving to see our community sharing this historical moment together at the library. Check it out…

Animoto photo slideshows

Rich — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:17:34 +0000

Usually when I want to create a photo slideshow of a Flickr set, I use a Flickr slideshow generator or something like Pictobrowser. LibrarianinBlack reminded me of Animoto, which is a cool online tool that allows you to make slideshows that are a bit more interesting. Check out this one using pics from our Senior Wii Sports event. It’s not a full-length slideshow and the music isn’t very exciting (the selections in hip hop and electronica didn’t quite fit), but you’ll get an idea of what’s possible with Animoto.

Here’s another one using pics from our 2008 Teen Photography Contest