FEATURE.

Capture magazine, September-October 2012 issue

Mixed Media: Delving into stills and video

Incorporating video and audio into a series of still photography images continues to increase in popularity as demand for multimedia grows. This method of storytelling quickly engages the audience of web, smart phone and tablet devices. Today, photographers have access to high-quality technology that serves multiple functions, so combining stills, video and audio has never been more portable, practical or accessible.

The gear. Due to the greater accessibility to various forms of technology, it is no surprise that online media outlets and photographers are exploring with multimedia. DSLRs continue to be released with higher video quality to accommodate photographers who are expanding their repertoire. Canon’s new EOS-1D C for example, can capture 4K video and was developed with Hollywood and television broadcasters, while a particularly high-end offering from EIZO (the DuraVision FDH3601) allows you to see 4K in all its glory on a 36-inch monitor.

Dutch photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien and Dutch journalist and videographer Elles van Gelder both used a Canon 5D Mark II to shoot stills and video for their multimedia production Afrikaner Blood, which won the Picture of the Year International (POYi) Issue Reporting Multimedia Story award and World Press Photo Multimedia award. Njiokiktjien says the audio quality is crucial in a multimedia piece, more so than photo quality. “If the audio is shit, you’re not going to want to listen to it and no one will pay attention to the images and their details.” She suggests never using the built-in microphones in DSLRs to record sound because the quality is poor. They instead used a Zoom H2n recorder to collect their audio.

Ed Giles, an Australian photojournalist and videographer based in Cairo, Egypt, prefers not to use an external audio-device that is not connected to his DSLR because synching audio in post-production is tedious and time consuming. PReviously, Giles used a Marantz PMD660, which recorded high quality sound, but took too much time in post-production when creating multimedia for news organizations with tight deadlines. He now uses a R0DE Stereo VideoMic that connects to a JuicedLink DT454 preamp, which increases the quality of audio going into the camera. Although tripods are now made with heads specific for recording video, Giles sticks to his Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 carbon fibre tripod with a fluid head that he also uses for stills.

Giles carries two Canon 5D Mark II bodies: one to shot stills and the other for video. On the stills body he uses a 35mm lens, while the camera for video has a 24-70 f/2.8 lens. “If I have to, I can switch those lenses around, so I can do some stills with the 24-70 to get a bit more range, but generally you end up close to the people that your story is about, so a 35mm lens is perfect. It’s small and it’s light,” he says. “I can switch quickly between the two cameras and still get the up-close personal stills with the expressions and the compositions I want, but then also, I can jump over to the video camera and have the zoom range and get the kind of sequence done that I need.”

Audio exploration. While a powerful still image can tell a story all on its own, adding different media can strengthen the story even further. Njiokiktjien was a strong believer that photographs were enough to tell a story. However, a chance meeting with the main subject of Afrikaner Blood altered that opinion. “I met Franz Jooste in 2010. I did an interview with him and was taking pictures of him,” she says. “I thought what a shame you can’t hear all of the ugly things he says in just pictures. I was afraid people wouldn’t believe it if I just wrote it down. No one would believe how extreme and racist he was.”

She returned home to the Netherlands where she took a short course on multimedia, ordered the additional equipment she would need and researched successful multimedia pieces online. She returned six months later with Gelder to gather the audio, video and more stills.

Enhancing the story. Ultimately, a multimedia piece aims to report an issue by telling a story through an overarching narrative. Duy Linh Tu, member of the 2012 POYi multimedia jury, says the jury looked for pieces that contained classic storytelling techniques like character development and plot.

Jessica Dimmock, member of the 2012 World Press Photo multimedia jury agrees and says that World Press Photo was judging with a similar criteria. Dimmock says Njiokiktjien and Gelder accomplished this when telling the story of Franz Jooste’s camp in Afrikaner Blood. “They had a very strong narrative structure that really worked. You could tell that they hadn’t just gone into the situation and said, ‘Well, let’s shoot a bunch of things and see if we can make something out of it’,” she says.

To avoid missing an importnat narrative element, Njiokiktjien recommends that multimedia photographers review their images and video footage after every day in the field. “Every day we would sit down and look, even though we were so tired. If you miss something and realize it when you’re home, there’s nothing you can do,” she says.

For photographers who may be unlikely to be trained in auditory storytelling, it’s perhaps easy to forget the basics of a strong narrative that Tu describes. In multimedia, the reporting – interviewing your subjects – is as important as the visuals. “The demands of multimedia require that we go that extra step,” says Perth-based photojournalist David Dare Parker. “If we’re adding audio, the people have to have something to say and we have to know how to get that out of them.”

Photojournalist Conor Ashleigh suggests that photographers of all genres explore with the three mediums inherent to multimedia. “You should gather audio and video and see how it can support you and the type of photo practice that you do, whether it be wedding, documentary or editorial,” says Ashleigh. “How can it strenthen what you do?”

Your own worst enemy. In multimedia there are two types of editing: footage editing and story editing. Story editing is a crucial step of the production process as it is the teasing out of those photographs or video clips that are not important to the story. “Occasionally, multimedia producers are their own worst enemies,” says Tu. “They’ll have these great images that have no impact on the story, but they’re just going to throw them in because they are great images.” For Tu, every component of a multimedia piece – audio, text, video, stills – should serve a purpose. “If you just have a single image that looks great, we ask, ‘Why didn’t you just submit that into the single stills category, instead of trying to shoehorn it into a larger multimedia piece?’ The successful pieces are the ones that really do tie everything together,” he says.

Dimmock agrees, saying that good editing is what makes the piece cohesive and strong. “You kind of weren’t even aware that at one point you were watching video and at one point you switched over to a still photograph,” says Dimmock about Afrikaner Blood. “It all visually just worked really well, so you kind of forgot there was a differentiation. Instead, you were a viewer going through this visual experience.”

Njiokiktjien and Gelder worked with Thomas Knijff, a film editor at post-production company Metropolisfilm in Utrecht that specializes in documentaries to edit their piece. Using Final Cut Pro, Knijff combined Njiokiktjien’s photos and audio with Gelder’s video clips. The eight-and-a-half-minute piece took nine days to shoot and two weeks to edit.

Giles also uses Final Cut Pro for his own editing. He first does a quick color correction in Adobe Lightroom before exporting into Final Cut Pro. When working on a piece for a news organization, like the Sydney Morning Herald, he makes a rough log of his video footage after editing his stills. He writes basic notes about what his best shots and video sequences are, and then works on an audio script that coincides with the right images.

Dividing and conquering. What if you don’t have the budget to hire a team of videographers and editors? Fortunately, Tu says it is beneficial even to have just one extra set of eyes. “The photographer could always team up with someone else: one more trusted voice to make his or her work make a lot more sense,” he says. “You don’t necessarily need a team out in the field with you, but someone should be there looking at your work, suggesting to show some restraint here oor saying that this needs to be edited.”

Ross Taylor and Amanda Lucier, staff photographers at the Virginian-Pilot and POYi’s 2012 Feature Multimedia award winners worked together on their winning piece Home|Front. Taylor photographed while Lucier shot video and put the final product together. “I’m a big believer in collaborative work,” says Taylor. “If we function as a team, we can rely on each other’s strengths where we may be weak individually. I’m very limited in my video editing skills, so I rely on others to help produce it.”

Switching gears. A crucial moment in time only happens once, so if you miss the shot in that moment, it’s gone forever. When shooting multimedia, you must plan what you will capture in stills and what you will capture in video and audio so that you don’t miss that perfect moment for a photograph because you’re busy recording video. “The more things you’ve got to do, the easier it is to make a mistake. Knowing what to do at a certain time gets complicated,” says Parker.

Additionally, for a professional who is a photographer first and videographer second, it is hard to change modes and go from capturing stills to filming video. “The biggest challenge has definitely been from being just a dedicated photographer and seeing things as photographs to then having to see things in video, or put my attention on audio and think more about the different kinds of mediums,” says Ashleigh. “If I’m in photo mode shooting stills, it sometimes can be really hard for me to then bring my attention to video for a moment or cut back and return to stills.”

When working with a partner, other problems can arise, as Njiokiktjien and Gelder discovered. They stood near each other and Gelder’s camera would pick up the clicking sounds of Njiokiktjien’s camera capturing stills. “We didn’t know what to do; it was really difficult,” says Njiokiktjien. “I saw beautiful photos in front of me passly by and couldn’t shoot because Elles was videoing.” Njiokiktjien and Gelder decided to use video mostly for interviews and scenery and every thing else would be shot with stills. “You need to make a choice as to who is going to shoot what and when because otherwise you’re always in each other’s way.” says Njiokiktijien.

Know your audience. Like all other photography fields, part of making a living from producing multimedia comes from knowing your audience. Rodney Dekker, Melbourne-based documentary photographer, began exploring multimedia to broaden his skill set to appeal to digital media formats. He says that the USA has been producing multimedia for newspapers and training their staff on videoing and editing for more than 10 years, and Australia usually follows in their footsteps. “Before I started producing multimedia stories, I considered that my prospective skills would provide me with a diverse range of ways to future proof my employability,” says Dekker.

Dekker, after producing a commissioned multimedia story for one client, will then pitch the piece to a news organization by contacting the editor responsible for that content. He sends them a link to a Vimeo version of the story and follows up. “I always ask the editor if they have a budget; they always say they don’t,” says Dekker. “But things are changing.” The Age now has a budget for publishing multimedia pieces and their tablet editor has asked Dekker to pitch stories. He has had pieces commissione by the Red Cross published by the Herald Sun and pieces associated with Oxfam published by the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC, and Australian Geographic.

Giles takes a somewhat different approach to making money with multimedia. After spending two years at the ABC from 2009 to 2011, working with News 24 as it launched, and the online investigative unit, he experimented with multimedia and played with how it could be presented online in a non-linear approach. He now produces multimedia pieces as a freelancer for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian and a number of other Australia publications.

Competitions for multimedia are another money-making outlet. Njiokiktjien won about $6,400 in price money for World Press PHoto and an additional $1,000 to complete a follow-up project. As well as this, film-editing companies interested in sponsoring future projects have been contacting her.

Because multimedia for photographers is somewhat in its infancy and is still being explored, photographers may face challenges making money when first starting to explore multimedia. Parker says that many of his colleagues are spending hours on multimedia projects and getting paid very little for it in the end. “They’re not actually financially viable at the moment,” he says. But with the popularity of tablet devices and the increasing use of mobile phones to view video, Parker is confident that the market for multimedia is growing. “I think it’s a very dynamic time with the sort of equipment we’ve got and the platforms out there to present the work.”

FEATURE.

Capture magazine, September-October 2012 issue

Save your skin: Data recovery to the rescue

Don’t Panic. It’s the moment that every photographer dreads; when your hard drive fails or you unintentionally format your memory card before downloading the images. Or more frustratingly, when your computer simply does not identify your connected memory card and the images cannot be downloaded. But before you switch careers or change your name and address, there are data recovery options at hand.

Similar to most emergencies, the key is to not panic. Take a deep breath and step away from the media. If it is a memory card failure, your first instinct may be to try it in as many devices as possible, but Vicky Brauner, managing director of Sydney Data Recovery says that is the worst thing you could do. To prevent further damage, she suggests not trying to access the data by trying various computers and devices.

When you first place a failed memory card in a card reader it will most likely ask you to reformat the card, but don’t. Bob Harding, of HDDRecovery Australia, suggests having your camera examined because there could be dust in the card slide or an electrical issue unrelated to the memory card itself.

Placing the blame. The most common hard drive failure is what’s known as logical failure. Logical failures occur when data being written to the disk fails and corrupts some or all of the disk sectors. Harding says that these failures usually have the best outcome in recovery. “The most complicated recoveries involve the removal and replacement of internal components,” says Harding. Solid State Drives (SSD) are made without moving parts to reduce the points of failure to environmental causes such as heat, water, fire and electrical strikes. “Because of the number of moving parts in the traditional hard drive, there are more points of potential failure,” says Harding. The SSD-disks are more reliable and faster, but cost much more than traditional drives.

“In both the traditional and SSD disk sets, if the storage modules are damaged, then the data may be lost,” says Harding. Storage modules are affected by the age of the hard drives, the way in which they have been handled and treated, and in some cases the manufacturer can produce a run of faulty disks. Software tools such as Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery can be used for both traditional and SSD hard drives should the unthinkable occur.

A faulty memory. Most data loss on memory cards can be attributed to hardware failure, accidental deletion of files, formatting the card before downloading the images, unsafe removal of media from your camera or computer or a virus attack while the card is connected to the computer. The most common memory card problems occur at the time of writing data to the card.

Mark Harris, a New Zealand-based wedding photographer, lost about 600 images on a 16GB card. When he arrived to his office to download the images, the computer did not register the card’s connection.

Christina Bohn, New York-based wedding and portraiture photographer, had a six-month-old CF card fail after shooting a wedding. The images were visible on the camera throughout the event, but when connected to her computer, the card was unreadable. Similarly, Terrance Bishop, a California-based wedding photographer, had a memory card fail on him before he was able to back the images up.

“For hardware faults, the data is unrecoverable if the memory chips are unreadable due to physical damage or electronic failure,” says Eric Northwood, data specialist at Data Recovery Services. “For logical faults, the data is unrecoverable when the media has been used many times without a reformat or total file deletion.” In these cases however, if data from the lost images has been spread across the media in fragments, images can sometimes be recovered when piecing those fragments together.

It is important to understand that like memory cards, flash drives also do not last forever. “Each time data is added or removed or the drive is formatted, it reduces the life of the flash drive,” says Harding.

Reduce the risk. Although media devices have a finite life, there are preventative measures you can take to lessen the chance of losing your data. You should never insert your memory card while the camera is turned on as it could result in an electrical shock to the memory chip, which can permanently damage the memory modules. Similarly, you should never remove your memory card from the camera while it’s on, especially if it may be reading or writing data. “When the camera is switched on, it may be reading and writing to the memory card and performing critical file structure updates,” says Brauner. “Removing the card at this time could result in a corrupted file structure only recoverable with specialized software tools.”

The age of a card affects its functionality and memory so you should always keep a couple of spare memory cards on you. Brauner suggests you store extra cards in an airtight and waterproof carry case. This will keep them away from water and high humidity and lessen the impact of temperature extremes.

At home recovery. Professional memory cards from both Lexar and SanDisk come packaged with data recovery software. Manisha Sharma, Lexar vice president of product marketing, says the Lexar Image Rescue 4 software can recover formatted, deleted or lost images from any type or brand of memory card. “As long as there is no physical damage to the card, there is a very good chance in recovering the images,” says Sharma.

Harris ran both Data Rescue software followed by Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery software with no luck. He sent the card to Recovermyfiles, a data recover company in New Zealand, who took the card apart, but could not recover any images. Recovermyfiles then sent the card to specialists in Europe, who were able to retrieve about half the images in RAW and the other half in full-size JPEGs.

If you have formatted your card without downloading the images first, the images can be recovered with data recovery software as long as no new photos have been shot with the card and the data has not been overwritten. “If the card has been reused then only old files left in the unused space after the most recent shoot will still be intact,” says Harding. If you format without overwriting, running data recovery software is safe and will probably recover most if not all of your images.

“Running recovery software on media with hardware failure makes things worse and may render the data unrecoverable. If the media is definitely not failing, there is no harm in running data recovery software, provided that the media is write protected or locked,” says Northwood. On most SD cards it’s possible to write protect the media using the small switch on the side. CF cards however, don’t have any method for write protection. Northwood advises not to run software if you cannot write protect the card.

Bishop used the professional recovery software that accompanied his SanDisk 8GB CF card. The software recovered about 50 out of 300 images. He lost shots of the groom and all the groomsmen. Luckily, his Photoshop expert reworked some images of the entire wedding party by cutting people out and creating new images. “A red flag would have come up if there weren’t any images of the groom by himself, but there still were,” says Bishop.

If you do not know why the data is lost and the images are important, you should skip running recovery software and go directly to a third party recovery service. “Without knowing what exactly is the root cause of the failure, the inappropriate use of recovery tools can often cause more damage than good outcomes,” says Harding. “If you cannot afford the cost of re-shooting, then you probably cannot afford the risk.

Importance versus cost. As data recovery services can be expensive, you should weigh the cost of losing the data versus the cost of service. Fortunately, most data recovery companies do not charge a fee if no data is recovered. Depending on the type of failure, Data Recovery Services charges between $110 and $330 for non-hardware recoveries that do not require the memory chips to be removed and read in a special reader and from $660 for hardware failures that require replacing broken connectors or other components.

Similarly, at HDDRecovery Australia data recovery starts at $100 for a flash or memory card and $400 to $700 for a single hard drive with logical damage. Harding says when recovering data from a RAID system, it is $1000 per disk needing recovery plus extra costs for replacement parts if necessary.

When searching for insurance, you may want to ask whether you are covered for data loss recovery due to equipment or media failure. Professional Photographers of America (PPA) recommended that Bohn use Drive Savers, a data recovery service based in California. They were able to recover every image from her faile 8GB memory card for about $500. Harris also paid about $500 for the recovery of his 300 RAW images and 300 full-size JPEG images, based on the failure type.

Protect yourself. Memory cards were not designed to be storage devices, so you should never use them as such. Immediately following an important shoot, you should back up the photos with a laptop or portable storage device. Once off site of the shoot, back them up again to an alternate media. “We tell everyone to have at least two copies of all critical data,” says Brauner.

Harding says that tape backup systems are considered to be the most reliable, but they are expensive. The next best option is to create multiple copies and arrange for at least one backup device to be stored in a secure data storage facility or offsite.

RAID systems provide extra protection when recording data because they provide disk mirroring and data redundancy is built in. In RAID 1, the data is recorded onto two drives, while RAID 5 relies on at least three drives. A mirrored system will still function after the loss of one half of a mirrored pair. Harding says that RAID 5 is more complicated to recover because the data is spread across a minimum of three disks. To rebuild the RAID, all disks in the set have to be examined. As soon as the damaged disk has been located, it can be replaced and the system re-built.

Bishop suggests that photographers shoot with a camera that has dual memory slots such as the Nikon D800 or D4 and the Canon 5D Mark III or 1D X. Bishop says that he would never us a 16 or 32GB memory card and prefers to stick to 8GB cards. This prevents an enormous number of images lost if something malfunctions with the memory card or you were to format and overwrite images not yet downloaded. He also backs up his images on four to five different external hard drives.

Northwood says that the only effective protection against data loss is to backup the data to a different media. “External USB drives are a better solution than memory sticks, but any second copy is better than none,” he says.

Harris suggests routine and using an off-site back up. “I spread my work over a couple of cards and download them as soon as I get back to the office, unless I have a computer onsite with me,” he says. “With computers and hard drives, back up, then back up again and get it off site. Be strict with yourself and do the same thing every time.”

Bohn labels each of her CF memory cards with a name, letter and symbol along with the date it was purchased. After downloading images from an event, she enters the job name and the cards used in a log, so that if there is a problem of any kind it can be traced.

In the worst case scenario, if all of your backup devices fail and the images are unrecoverable, you should protect yourself against litigation. Bishop revised his terms and conditions after losing images from his memory card. “It basically states that if I lose anything due to part failure, there won’t be any repercussions, so I have my butt covered now,” he says.

Although you cannot control the inevitable hardware failures, the preventative measures you can now take in backing up your images can save you, as can technological advances like dual memory card slots, SSD drives and SD cards such as the Eye-Fi that can transmit images directly from the card to a designated online destination. So if your media fails you, reach for that software or a data recover company instead of for the bottle.

PROFILE.

the Buzz – Fall 2012 Issue

John Battaglino Profile

On September 22, Boston University’s executive director of student activities and assistant dean of students doubled as a bouncer. John Battaglino’s 5’7” – 5’8” lean stature, light hair and strikingly blue eyes do not cater toward a career as a bouncer, but he fulfilled the role anyway. As the gatekeeper and executer of debatably the biggest and most successful fall senior event to date, Battaglino, clad in tuxedo, checked IDs and greeted seniors at the entrance to Eastern Standard.

Two weeks prior, he had asked Janette Martinez, student manager for SAO’s activities consultants, to help plan the event.

“All I did was show her this [YouTube] video: Heineken the Date. I said, ‘Janette, I want that scene for seniors’.” 

The Family Guy

John Battaglino Jr., 51, sits in his desk chair wearing a white dress shirt and yellow tie. Framed photos sit sporadically throughout his office on the second floor of the GSU. He points to a framed photo in the far right corner of his office. “That’s my brother in the middle, there. It was his fortieth birthday.”

In every sense, Battaglino is a family guy. His role model is his dad, John Battaglino I. He was an entrepreneur who started a business that rivaled Barnes & Noble. “My dad is just a beautiful human being, an overachiever, a true American hero. So, for a little boy, that’s what I wanted to be.”

His mother was a stay at home mom, who passed up a full ride to Boston University to take care of her family. “My mom had a beautiful way of looking at the world. She always looked at it in a very positive light.”

Battaglino laughs when asked if he followed the rules growing up, and says he followed anything but the rules. He describes his younger self as rebellious.

“My parents had this great way of raising our family that said, hey you should be curious,” Battaglino says. “I probably took that a step over the line to mischievous, but ya know, it’s okay to be curious as long as you’re respectful, and I was respectful.” Battaglino smiled and hesitated. “But I certainly did experience life,” he says laughing.

Battaglino is the middle child of five. He has two older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother. He says his brother, who is deaf and has Downs Syndrome, “affects peoples’ lives in a way that is just beautiful. He could be one of the most influential people I have ever met.”

He has shared best friendships with all three of his sisters at different stages in his life. He and his second oldest sister, who was a year ahead of him in school and currently teaches at Waltham High School, shared a lot of the same friends growing up.

“I have a lot of fun memories with her – too fun to talk about with the Buzz,” he says laughing.

In the next generation of Battaglino’s are eight nieces and nephews and three children: John III, Brittaney and Anya. “When we put everyone in the same room, man, it’s a fun time.”

Battaglino and his family live and breathe BU. John and Brittaney both earned their undergraduate degrees from BU and Anya is currently a junior here. His wife, Jennifer Carter-Battaglino earned a degree from BU and is Shelton Hall’s residence director. Battaglino and his wife have lived on the eighth floor of Shelton Hall for about six years now.  “We’re a BU family; we’re all terriers at heart,” Battaglino says proudly.

Battaglino’s favorite childhood memories involve family vacations. He tries to emulate his father’s way of getting the family together by taking his own kids on vacations and camping trips.

Do your kids enjoy them?

“I don’t know; you’d have to ask them.”

The Funny Guy

Anya Battaglino, 20, resembles her father. She’s around 5’5”, speaks with her hands and laughs in a high-pitched tone. Like her dad, conversation with a stranger comes naturally.

“I’m short,” Anya says in Starbucks on a Thursday afternoon. “And that’s his fault. You write that down,” she said laughing and pointing at my notebook. “Don’t let him lie. He’ll tell you that he’s 5’9”.”

Anya does an impressive impersonation of her dad. She says he has a reputation for saying “tremendous” followed by a loud clap of his hands. In an exaggerated way, she lowers the tone of her voice and demonstrates. “Whenever I say tremendous, I’m like: ‘I’m John Battaglino right now.’ That’s definitely his thing.”

When asked what kind of relationship she had with her dad growing up, for the first time, Anya speaks in a more serious tone. “He always did a good job at whatever it was that I needed at the time. He’s so dependable,” she says. “I could talk and laugh and do whatever with him, like anyone could do with their best friend. But, I could also go to him and cry about something terrible. He’s the perfect form of whatever I needed him to be at whatever time.”

When Anya and her siblings played video games growing up, Battaglino would make up accents for the characters. “He would get so into it. He would sweat and scream these things. He’s crazy,” she says laughing. “When I think about my dad and growing up, I always think about laughing. Him, my sister and my brother: We’d just laugh for hours and hours and hours. Think of anything stupid, and he laughs about it.” It’s no surprise that one of Battaglino’s favorite television shows is Family Guy.

Like her dad, Anya also can look back and appreciate the family vacations. “It was never like, he’s dragging us on this stupid vacation. It was always like, we’re going somewhere crazy with dad and it’s going to be cool once we get there.”

She remembers a time when Battaglino wore sandals to go hiking. They made it to a lookout point on the top of a mountain that overlooked water and more mountains. Battaglino, hiking in sandals, stubbed his toe. His toenail split open and blood gushed. Anya and her siblings tried carrying him back to the campsite. “It was the most beautiful hike I’ve ever been on and his damn sandals ruined it. It was so funny though; we were laughing about the sandals, laughing about the hike.”

Anya says her dad spoiled her with terrier gear growing up. Although he loves BU, he told Anya she could go to whatever college she wanted. “He didn’t necessarily influence my decision to pick BU; it just made sense.”

What’s it like having your dad on Campus?

“Oh my gosh, crazy. Can I use the word crazy? Two years ago my coach placed me with my team in Shelton Hall. I was like this little freshman moving into college and half my stuff I moved from upstairs to downstairs, and my dad was just laughing.”

The “Old” Guy

Battaglino graduated from Waltham High School in 1978. “Oh em gee. I can’t believe it,” he says, leaning back in his swivel chair, after recalling the date.

After high school, Battaglino, who dreamed of becoming an astronaut when he was young, tested a variety of different careers. First, he worked for his dad in his college bookstore business. Afterward, he managed a hotel and convention center, then managed a restaurant. Finally, he tried out retail for a few years.

Marc Robillard, executive director of housing, gave Battaglino his first job at BU for the position of assistant director of housing for residential safety. Battaglino credits him for first encouraging him to return to school.

“I knew how hard it is to get back into school again once you’ve stopped. I didn’t want to see John regret not finishing it off. I said, ‘man, you have got to do this. You have to find the time. You have to make it a priority’,” Robillard, who at the time was director of housing, said over the phone.

Soon after the request, Battaglino started taking classes. “I met Dean Elmore and fell in love. I was inspired,” says Battaglino. “He said, ‘I would like to hire you, but you’ve got to finish your degree and then also get a second one. So I did.”

Battaglino earned two degrees from BU. He earned his first degree from Metropolitan College in management studies in 2008, 30 years after receiving his high school diploma. “The 30 year plan is not for everyone,” Battaglino said laughing. But it worked for me.” Two years after earning his first degree, Battaglino received his second. He points to his left to two framed degrees hanging on his wall.

So, were you in classes with undergraduate students?

“Yes I was. It was fascinating! I hope the students appreciated having this old guy in the class, who had a different perspective to a lot of conversation.”

The Idea Guy

As the executive director of student activities and assistant dean of students, Battaglino is consistently problem solving. Essentially, he helps students in providing them with the necessary resources to fulfill a dream or idea that they have.

Battaglino spends most of his day hopping from meeting to meeting. “Most of the meetings now, I spend time with students talking about ideas, concepts, thoughts, programs and initiatives,” he says. “My role is to try to help them bring those ideas and concepts to fruition.”

Ask any member of Battaglino’s staff what his favorite quote is and they’ll tell you, “It’s not ideas we lack, it’s time and money.”

Robillard agrees with the saying. “John’s an idea guy,” he said. “He comes up with a million ideas. Sometimes we have to hold him back and say, ‘John, we can’t do that. It’s a great idea, but it’s not something we can do.’ We have to bring him back to reality when he’s off thinking of something that’s going to be great and work really well.”

Battaglino is someone who is easy to work with. “You ask him how he’s going and it’s, ‘I’m fantastic. I’m doing great.’ No matter how bad his day is, he’s got a smile on his face. Maybe inside he’s having a bad day, but he’d never let that show outside. He’d never let anything bad ware off on other people. He’s always positive, positive, positive. Just great to be around.”

Janette Martinez had known Battaglino for a year when he asked her to help plan the senior event at Eastern Standard. Martinez said she had never been given the opportunity to have as much of an input or say in what went into an event as Battaglino gave her. “He always wanted my opinion. He would ask me what I thought, then let me run with it.”

One thousand, seven hundred people showed up to the senior event Battaglino and Martinez planned. “I saw her coming out of that event. She had this huge smile on her face. That just made me so proud,” Battaglino says. “Man, I was just blown away.”

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

“The obvious one is when a tragedy occurs, because you take everything so personally and you’re so deeply attached to students that anytime a tragedy occurs, it affects all of us.”

The Sentimental Guy 

When a tragedy occurs at BU, as part of his position, Battaglino must react in a practical way. He has to first deal with it from the university’s standpoint. After that, he takes it deeply personally.

“BU is my home. I live in Shelton Hall. I’ve got three terriers for children. I’ve got two degrees. This place is my life,” Battaglino says. “I take such great pride in the institution, so when people take shots at it, I don’t like it.”

He expresses sorrow for the way the hockey team has been casted in the media recently. “I care about every student. And the ones that mess up, we deal with them. We either tell them they can’t be here anymore, or we get them the help that they need,” he says.

Shortly after, the tragedy in New Zealand occurred, taking the lives of three BU students. “You’ve got students doing exactly what you want them to do – going to see the world. They’re studying abroad, which I encourage everyone to do. They are in that experience and trying to see the most beautiful hiking place in the world. You can’t fault anyone for doing any of those things. In fact, you encourage that. That’s a tragedy,” he says with glossy eyes. “That was a tough time for the community. I’ve never felt sadder than that time.”

Battaglino is emotional, because he cares. Anya said her dad has always taught her that if you take care of your family, they’ll take care of you. “He does all he can for the people he cares about; that’s why he works so hard,” she said. “I can’t go anywhere without some person saying, ‘I know your dad; he’s a great guy.’ He treats everybody at BU like family, and to him, that’s the most important thing.”

Battaglino apologizes for his watering eyes and the small silence that followed. He collects himself, looks up and smiles again.

What’s your favorite book?

“Tuesdays with Morrie was of course a classic. It made me think and reflect quite a bit. I’m an emotional guy.”

The Young Guy

“My dad is the biggest little kid stuck in an adult’s body,” Anya said. “When I try to think about other jobs he’s had in his life, they just don’t make sense. What he does now: this constant social interaction and constant ability to laugh and talk with anyone, or cook these crazy dinners for these groups of random people. He just cares so much about everyone.”

Battaglino makes an effort to know as many students as possible. He can’t walk down Comm. Ave. without greeting 10 to 20 students by name. “John really loves having students around,” Martinez said in the GSU a Friday morning before heading off for work at SAO. “He’s just so giving. I really think he’s one of the most giving people here at BU.”

Additionally, his laughter is contagious and his positive energy rubs off on everyone he crosses paths with. “He’d never let anything negative ware off on other people,” Robillard said. “He’s always positive, positive, positive. Just great to be around.”

When he’s not in meetings or at work, Battaglino spends his time serving students dinner at his home and supporting students in their activities. “I spend an inordinate amount of time, my wife will tell you, outside at night events,” he says. “I like terrier athletics; I like going to the games. I like seeing dance groups and student groups performing. I like getting around campus.”

Although Battaglino already has his next job planned out as a vender selling hot dogs at a stand in Deerfield Beach, Florida, he loves his life right now. “I’m having the time of my life. I truly have found someone that I deeply admire and I love him dearly: Dean Elmore,” Battaglino says. “He’s so smart, so charismatic. And my job is essentially to work for him.”

What’s your motto?

“You only live once, folks. Make the most of it. Travel. See everything you can see. Have as much fun as you can stand.”

JO309 assignment

The young man sat hunched in the back of the trolley heading to Watertown from Boston.  The words from his teacher replayed in his head as tears dripped from his eyes onto the book on his lap titled “Warren and Warren: English and Grammar.”  “Mr. Cataruzolo,” she had said, “I think there is a class you should take downstairs:  English as a second language.”

Mike Cataruzolo, 21 at the time, was born and raised in Watertown.  English was his first and only language.

Cataruzolo, now 70, sits at the head of a long, rectangular table in the volunteer office of Perkins School for the Blind.  When he smiles, the 5’6” stout man’s face becomes rounder and three lines appear at the corner of each eye that stretch halfway to the tips of his ears.  He wears a black short-sleeved collared shirt that zips up the front.

“It was negative, the most devastating thing, but it was a thing that kicked me in the tush and said get going,” Cataruzolo says.

Cataruzolo grew up in the 1940s when mainstream education did not accept people with disabilities.  For 21 years, he attempted to learn with uncorrected Retinitis Pigmentosa, an uncommon condition affecting peripheral and low-light sight.

“As I went through school, I started to realize that I was not retarded.  I was not delayed; I just didn’t have the opportunity.  I started to realize I’m just like everyone else.  I became much more of an extrovert, and I realized I wasted 21 years of my life being a balloon head,” Cataruzolo said.

Today, Cataruzolo devotes his life to giving people with vision impairments an opportunity to learn at Perkins School for the Blind.  Perkins provides schooling for 207 students with needs, aged 4 through 22, through individual education plans, something Cataruzolo needed, but never received.

Cataruzolo’s teachers told him he could improve his vision, and punished him for moving the text toward and away from his face in attempt to see.  To correct this, the teachers gave him a measuring tactic, where he had to hold the text an index finger away from his face.

“You know what that did to my psyche?  Dropped it right down.  I started becoming very angry,” Cataruzolo says.

His teachers would pass him to avoid dealing with him.  He graduated high school without ever learning to read.

“I became very negative, and as I grew older, I never spoke.  I was very very depressed.  I had a very poor self-image.  I didn’t feel like I could do anything,” he says.

At this time, Cataruzolo, 19, heard about an attendant position at Perkins.  They offered him the position to assist two deaf and blind students during their off-school hours with daily tasks, such as dressing and getting to class.

“This opened a door for me, but after a couple of years I wanted to find out, and started wandering: am I mentally not capable of doing anything?”  Cataruzolo says.

Cataruzolo wanted an education, but faced problems getting into colleges.  He enrolled in a public English course:  the course that led to him crying in the back of a trolley.  After he turned in an incomprehensible writing assignment, his teacher suggested another course: English as a second language.

Cataruzolo went to Mass. General for an eye exam, where Dr. Sloane prescribed him the Keeler Magnifier, which increased the size of print by 12 times with a magnifier and illumination device.

“I put them on, and almost fell on the floor, because I could see letters.  And I could see words.  It was just like, whoa,” Cataruzolo says.

He could finally learn.  After a year of classes at Newman Prep., he began taking classes at Quincy Junior College, where he completed his favorite course: Public Speaking.  After the completion of the course and his ability to see, he finally began speaking again.

Perkins asked Cataruzolo to return to teach Physical Education and coach wrestling.  He accepted on the condition that he could continue taking classes in the evenings.

Cataruzolo finished his education at Boston University’s Metropolitan College, earning a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education and Health.  Two years later, after receiving a Master’s in Education from BU, he began teaching a course on techniques and methods for teaching children with visual impairments at BU’s School of Education.

Now, Cataruzolo is solely the Manager of Volunteer Services at Perkins, giving tours and managing volunteers.

“Mike is known for giving the best tours around campus.  They are informal and fun, but still very informative.  He pours his heart into this place,” said Robin McCatty, Cataruzolo’s coworker in the volunteer office.

Cataruzolo’s goal is to make the faculty and students have a better day.

“The first time I volunteered at Perkins, I received an informational tour around campus led by Mike.  He looked me in the eye when he talked, he pointed to everything he was explaining, and also managed to throw in some jokes,” Julia Ladna, Perkins volunteer of 4 years, said.  “I had no idea he had a vision impairment until a year or two later when a staff member mentioned it to me.”

Cataruzolo receives a ride to work every morning from a coworker.  Everything else is done on his own.  His wife, Patti, lost her vision in early adulthood from a brain tumor.  They have two children and four grandchildren.

Every Sunday, Cataruzolo hosts a BBQ party to watch football in his basement, which he calls the “Men’s Cave,” for 12 of his closest friends, who are mostly blind.

Cataruzolo plans to retire in the near future.  His vision continues to diminish, a symptom of RP.  He still has the pair of Keeler Magnifier glasses, but they no longer work for him.

“My life has been trying to catch up, to try to get all the wonderful things there are available.  It’s gusto.  I love life.  I love doing what I’m doing,” Catarazulo says.

TRAVEL FEATURE

JO309 assignment

They may not appear grimy.  In some cases, they may even look shiny and clean.  They deceive.  They are lethal.  They are the “dirty dozen.”

The dirty dozen is a list of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables compiled by Environment Working Group, EWG.  Contamination is measured by the levels of pesticide residues detected on the produce.  Apples are second on the list, and are important to be bought organic or locally grown, if nothing else, reports the EWG on their website.

Eliza Royer learns the difference of taste and quality of eating locally grown fruit on her first visit to Honey Pot Hill Orchards.

“These are the most flavorful apples I have ever eaten,” Royer says in between two large bites of a red and speckled yellow Empire apple.  “They’re just so fresh.  I will definitely be back.”

Honey Pot Hill Orchards is a 200-acre farm in Stow that has rows of 20 different types of apple trees, which are divided by parallel grass paths.  The perimeter is lined by gray stone walls that reach about a foot high and double as a seat when waiting for the next hayride, which hauls customers to the northern most part of the orchard past the pumpkin patch and animal farm of pigs and goats.

It was one of the first farms in the country to offer pick-your-own apples, and has been family-owned for 88 years.  It is now operated by the third generation of Martins:  siblings Andrew Martin, co-owner and orchard manager, and Julie Martin-Sullivan, co-owner and retail operations manager.  They are currently in their busiest season.

“The public all wants to come apple picking the last two weekends in September and the first few weekends in October,” Martin-Sullivan said.  “We really wish we could spread this out, but this is how the business works.”

The two owners do about 75 percent of their business from mid September to mid October.  This is because 50 percent of their business comes from apple picking, which relies on good weather and ripe apples.

“We are 100 percent dependent on the weather,” Martin-Sullivan said.

The weather not only affects the number of customers, but also affects the crop during growing-season.  Wind machines and irrigation prevent frost from covering the crops in the spring.  In late February, three men come to help with the pruning, plantings, fertilizing, mowing, spraying, and frost control of the orchard.  Maintaining the orchard costs around $600,000 a year.

Honey Pot uses integrated pest management, IPM, which manages pest damage with “the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment,” according to its website.

“We monitor the orchard with traps that attract bugs,” Martin-Sullivan said.  “We can tell when the threshold of bugs is too high and causing too much damage, and then spray at that time as needed only.”

The pest controls used are targeted chemicals, such as phermones to disrupt pest mating, or mechanical controls, such as trapping or weeding.

According to Laura Hartung, registered dietician, IPM has the potential to reduce a farm’s use of pesticides by 80 percent, as done by Volante Farms in Needham, whose products show no signs of pesticide residue when tested unannounced due to IPM.  This is part of the importance of eating locally grown fruit, especially a dirty-dozen fruit.

“When you know where your food comes from, you begin to understand the importance of everything you buy and put in your mouth,” Hartung said.  “You could be buying food from people who don’t care about the ecology of the land, or from a gigantic farmer that exploits farm labor from different parts of the world that have tainted the food.”

The other 50 percent of Honey Pot’s business comes from the apple shop located on the same property, outside of the orchard.  Members of the 80-person staff hand pick these apples daily for retail.  Depending on the type of apples you choose, prices range from $9.50 to $10.75 for a medium bag, and $20 to $24 for a large bag.  They also bake and make fresh products from their produce including apple and pumpkin pies, caramel covered apples, and jams and spreads.

Food Day is launching this year on October 24 and will occur annually to push for healthy food produced in a sustainable way.

“If everyone bought a little more organic food and food from farmers’ markets, it would make a big difference.  Right now, only a small fraction of the population is buying these foods,” Hartung said.  “But the fraction is growing, and the food industry needs growth.”

Regarding the upcoming Food Day, Martin-Sullivan said, “as of now, no plans, but I’m rethinking it.  I think we could use the day to promote locally grown apples.”

9/11 FEATURE

JO309 assignment

A young boy sat at a campfire overlooking Lake Ashmere in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, with a pen and pad of paper in August 2002, the first summer of America’s Camp.  Each camper that sat around this fire shared a common bond: they had all lost a parent on September 11, 2001.

“Dad, I hope you can read this wish as the smoke comes up to you in heaven.  I hope you are comfortable, and I hope you are proud of me,” he wrote before reading it aloud then throwing it into the fire.

The boy’s younger sister, who also sat at the fire, moved closer to Jed Dorfman, owner and director of the camp, and rested her head on his shoulder.  She whispered, “I hope the same thing.”

“It was one of the most tender moments of my life, and will always stick with me,” Dorfman says.

Ten years later in White Plains, New York, Dorfman opens the white, wooden door to his home, carrying a crying baby in his right arm, and talking on a cordless landline propped between his left ear and shoulder.  A dimple on his right cheek, stretches down to his chin as he smiles, and his eyes squint behind his metal-framed glasses.  He mouths the word “sorry,” and disappears into the room right of the foyer.  “We miss you too,” he says.

In just three minutes the six-foot-three man returns, phoneless and babyless.  It is quiet.

It is 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon and Dorfman has just put his 19-month-old son, Cole, down for a nap.  His wife and 3-and-a-half year-old daughter, Addison, are away for the weekend visiting family in Canada, and Dorfman is left at home to take care of Cole.

“He may be a handful at times, but he’s awesome.  Spoken like a true dad, I know,” he says as he sits down at the kitchen table, chuckles, and leans deep into the chair.  A weekend alone with one kid is nothing he can’t handle.

Dorfman, 36, manages more than 425 campers and 225 staff members as the head director of Camp Walt Whitman, an eight-week-long summer camp for kids grades 2 through 7.  In addition he planned and executed the 10-year-old America’s Camp, a weeklong camp free of tuition for kids who lost a parent in the events of 9/11.

Dorfman started as a camper at Camp Walt Whitman 28 years ago.  Five years later he became a counselor.  In 1997 he graduated from Emory University, then received his masters in business from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management.

He used his business background a few weeks after 9/11 when watching a press conference with Hillary Clinton.  She mentioned the number of children who had lost parents on that day.

“As I listened, I had one of those light bulb ‘aha’ moments, and realized that there was something I could actually do to give back,” Dorfman says, while holding a finger in the air.

He proposed his idea of starting America’s Camp to CampGroup, Camp Walt Whitman’s parent company, at a board meeting the following week.  CampGroup agreed to fund the camp the first year, and two other camp directors agreed to co-direct the camp with Dorfman.

“We were determined to create a summer camp that would have the capability to handle whatever grief these children needed to process, but would first and foremost be a camp about fun,” Dorfman says.

To prepare themselves for the grief elements of the job, the directors partnered with the Center for Grieving Children out of Maine, worked with two child therapists, and joined by Father Peter Precourt, a priest from Massachusetts.

After assembling the staff, Dorfman contacted the Twin Towers Fund, set up for families of fallen police officers and firefighters, who presented America’s Camp to 50 of the widows.  Seventy-nine campers attended America’s Camp that first summer in 2002.

The directors formed a 501C-3 non-profit organization, The America’s Camp Foundation, and raised almost $4 million to keep the camp running and campers returning.

“I remember one parent calling on the phone and telling me that she was looking at the picture of her daughter online and almost didn’t recognize her because her daughter was smiling.  She hadn’t seen her smile in almost a year,” Dorfman says.

Success and respect in a business like this comes from passion and leadership.  Dorfman knows each of his counselors and many campers on a personal level and keeps in contact with them throughout the year on Facebook and through reunions.

“I realized how great of a boss I had the first week of my job,” Beatrice Phillips, camp nanny and counselor at America’s Camp, said, laughing for a solid minute before telling the story.  He could come home after a long day and make a completely inappropriate joke, which was just so normal for him.”

Dorfman had come home to Cole running around the bathroom naked before his bath was ready.  He looked at Phillips and said: “Look at that third leg.  That’s my son.”

Through humor, fun, and love, Dorfman was able to give these kids back their childhood.  Once, a camper explained to him why he loved camp:  for that one week, he could just be a kid.  The rest of the year he was “the 9/11 kid.”

“It’s amazing how these kids have grown and bonded over the course of the three years I’ve been at America’s Camp.  The camp provided them with normal fun and normal activities to help cope with their loss,” Phillips said.  “It’s a different approach than just sending your child to a psychologist, but it works; I’ve witnessed it.”

Dorfman’s smile remained intact as he glanced over at the refrigerator, focusing on the largest photo in the center, him with his arms around two kids laughing on a tennis court.  Ten years later, and the campers are now counselors, and America’s Camp has ended.

Dorfman’s voice softens and he says, “there’s a certain power of goodness that I witnessed at America’s Camp, which I can never explain to someone who hasn’t been there.  But it is real, it is strong, and it is life changing.”