S.P. Sullivan. Media. Dot com. And so on.

I’m working on a preview for an upcoming production at City Stage in Springfield, MA. It’s a youth multimedia theater production that challenges some of the misconceptions about life in the inner city – specifically Springfield. It brings to task the alarmists who act like this underdog city of ours is some kind of warzone.

I’m editing the video package now, but here’s a brief explanation from director Magdelena Gómez:

Rumors of a New Day | PREVIEW

Matthew Larsen and The Documents live | DARK DINING ROOM

Matthew Carefully live | DARK DINING ROOM

Rosie and I had some fun this weekend doing videography at a really great benefit concert, put together by Matthew Larsen and held in Greg Saulmon’s apartment in Holyoke, MA.

Highlights of the night included Will Stratton and his 12 string guitar, Matthew Carefully’s awesome combination of mandolin and a suitcase full of loops and Greg’s iPhone slide guitar (photo!) during headliners Matthew Larsen and The Documents’ set.

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I like my job. But there are days I really like my job.

This weekend, I covered a sunrise hot air balloon launch at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA. My assignment was to shoot a lot of photos to be made into a gallery. On top of that, I wanted to experiment with combining video, photo and sound. The end result, posted above, was a pretty okay package made with my whole backpack of gear.

I shot most of the photos with my kit 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens, which I’ve been ignoring a lot lately in favor of the 35mm f.2 prime, because the subject matter (big, bright balloons!) called for wider shots. Video was shot with my handheld Canon HD camcorder, without a tripod, because I had too much equipment as it was. Most of the nat sound came from the camcorder’s on-board mic, but the interviews all came from my Zoom h2 audio recorder.

I went with the Zoom for two reasons: One, I had concerns about wind affecting the audio quality of my shotgun or the on-board mic, and two, I wanted to get away from an oft-used crutch in Web news video: the talking head.

Because the visuals in this story were so striking, I thought it would be best to ditch talking heads altogether. I still introduce characters with lower thirds, when I’d rather have done it with sound Radiolab-style, but I feel like the story moves along faster without people talking awkwardly into a camera. It’s amazing how much more comfortable folks are around my goofy-looking recorder than they are in front of a video camera.

The sound in the piece leaves something to be desired. Chalk that up to my lack of experience driving stories with audio. I had the foresight to grab the sound of the fans, and the propane burners, but any other sound you hear in there besides the interviews is just stuff I was fortunate enough to get with the camcorder mic.

It’s tough to be thinking about audio as you make sure you’ve got everything you need by way of photo and video at once, all while drifting 1,000 feet over Western Massachusetts. But you won’t hear me complain. The package leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s one of my favorites, and I think I took a lot out of the experience.

Also, balloon rides are pretty cool.

I spent the past week visiting my girlfriend and some friends in London, taking well over a thousand photos and collecting a little bit of sound.

I figured that rather than subject friends and family to my voluminous photo collection of Oliver Cromwell’s death mask and creepy dead things plundered collected from other countries, I’d distill my photos into a quick slideshow.

This slideshow is a variation on my 12 Hours in Photos Series, bringing roughly 700 photos – many of them taken in burst sequences – together with some natural sound from a St. Patrick’s Day parade near Trafalgar Square, street noise on Edgware Road and the sound of Big Ben just after midnight.

It’s not the best slideshow I’ve ever produced – but hey, I was on vacation. Feel free to browse some select shots over at my Flickr page.

All photos were shot with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSI using the kit EF-S 18-55mm and EF 50mm f/1.8 lenses. Sound recorded with a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder.