The New York Times has a very interesting multimedia project called "Surfing the North Carolina Coast" by Chris Bickford that I think everyone should see. Its an intense slideshow filled with all black and white shots of surfers, the ocean, close ups of waves, and people having fun on the beach. It also has an interesting article to go along with it about the Outer Banks' surf scene and what it was like for the photographer to shoot these photos.
I think the photographer wanted you to feel what is was like to be in the water and out on the waves. The photos were very impressive and made you want to go out there and try and surf and that's what attracted me from the start. There wasn't any voiceover, or link to someone explaining what was going on, Bickford let the pictures and small captions do all the talking which worked really well for this project.
The presentation is mostly made up of the photos that transition through clicking a button to go to the next, along with a text story at the bottom and a place for comments on his story. Some of the pictures include a extreme close up of a wave which is really cool, an airborne surfer riding a wave, surfers hanging out on the beach,and many shots done from different anglesso you can really feel that he was there and experienced what a day in the life of a surfer is like.
The layout of the page is broken up into sections the main one being the slideshow, a section for the story, and a side section with links to a surfing travel guide site, and a few advertisements which I found a little distracting but other than that the story was very fasinating and informative.
I'm not sure if any tools or web devices were used I think he just wanted to keep it simple so the viewer could focus on the still images which were amazing. The black and white slideshow gave it an edgier, more real look I think and some of the images were darkened a little so some of it was just left up to the imagination which was really cool. A very modern and interesting article that could be appreciated by a wide audience.
Created by Amy David on October 6, 2009. This project was for the purpose of my COMS 326 Web Production class at Radford University