The semester has wrapped up, and Zeromile issue #004 is on the streets. It’s a wee cat-dog packed with thoughts on design for social good, performance art, post-post-post-post-, vinyl records, good music, and more.

For the lucky ones, you have a radical* (published) magazine in hand. The not-so-lucky ones will have to head to the Tattered Cover, Auraria Campus Bookstore, or the Denver Art Museum to pick up theirs. That means the not-so-lucky ones missed out on a cake-flying, Pabst-drinking, red light, dance party: the Zeromile issue #004 release party at the Meadowlark.

For those that joined us, thanks for supporting the effort. Thanks to the Meadowlark for putting us up in such a great space.

A huge thanks to Magic Cyclops and Joshua Novak for the sounds. If you haven’t seen Magic, you absolutely have to experience the…Air Guitar Legend, Award Winning Author, Sex Symbol & 3 Time Wimboldon Mixed Doubles Champion (from his Twitter bio). He came equipped with an insane British|Scottish|Mandarin accent, high kicks, killer moonwalk, stellar DJing and more ungodly dance moves. You seriously should go out and support this man.

Joshua followed up Cyclops with a more mellow, yet equally compelling, seemingly dark set. With Tiffany Meese on backing vocals and casio, the two beautifully rounded out the high intensity of the opening act. For anyone that saw Joshua Novak open at the Larimer Lounge for Turin Brakes last night, let us know what you thought.

One last thank you to the NERDA folks that supplied the awesome visuals. Ryan Pattie, Jeromie Dorrence, and all the rest – thank you!

This run was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. Good luck to those of you taking this on next semester…we’re stoked to see where you take it. For now, go grab another copy of Zeromile issue #004!!

*ZM issue #004 staff – you all kicked ass to get this thing together. It’s totally radical.

Zero Mile issue 004, has an article on how artists can capture their ideas outside studio using different techniques, this time I want to share some photography tips that are easy to do, and will improve any picture.

Tip #1: Tripod.

Simple and easy, I’m sure every photographer knows this, but I can’t enforce enough how important is to have a solid grip for the camera. Tripods can range in prices, but a decent tripod can be purchased for around $100 dollars, and do wonders for any picture. In my camera equipment I have a tripod and a monopod, the monopod might not as stable as the tripod, but they are very versatile and inexpensive.

Tip #2: Lighting.

This is going to sound like a lecture but here it goes: The word “photography” comes from two Greek words, -photo meaning light and -graphy meaning the process of drawing. So by definition photography is drawing with light, and that’s why lighting is so important. Even more important than having a stable tripod, is to have good lighting. There are many ways to archive this, the simplest one is to take pictures in natural lighting, but since this is not an ideal world, the use of other forms of light are almost always required, and because of that most cameras come with an integrated flash. The problem with integrated flash, is that often times are located on top of the camera and that can make pictures look flat or dull. A simple solution for that is to buy or make a flash diffuser, while buying a flash diffuser might be cheap, they are simple to make and can be made of different materials, like a piece of white card stock paper. There are many tutorials online on how to make a diffuser out of paper, so I rather not go in to details for this.

Tip #3: Light box.

This tip is not necessary for everyone, but it’s a nice option to explore, since it can be homemade and the little devil can enhance any object, since it produces a nice soft, and even light on the desired subject to be photographed. This is one of the tricks that pros use for product advertisement, and why not take advantage of this great tool, that can be made for a few bucks and can be made in different sizes.  The only problem with a home made light boxes is that once it’s built its hard to take apart, unless it’s made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes or some other materials that can be disassembled, but for most part a simple cardboard box will be enough.  The trick is to cut off the sides of the box making windows, and just leaving the top, and bottom flaps untouched since one will be used for the background and the other one will be the opening where the pictures are going to be shot. After cutting out the box the openings should be patched with tracing paper since it’s light enough to let the light in and will create an even light around the object. Like the previous tip, many tutorials can be found online, and should only take few minutes to make.

So far, the year 2010 has brought no news of newspapers gaining any popularity. While most people think the decline of printed newspapers have only just begun, the real decline began around 1987 and has slowly been decreasing as more computer technology, such as the I-phone and I-pad become more accessible.

There are many factors that have gone into the rise in online news. Many people believe that the rise is more cost efficient. This follows the belief that printing newspapers wastes paper and recourses. According to the Guardian UK, printed newspapers make much more money than online news. Selling ads for online news makes only a fraction of the cost of printed ads. But because of the rise in fuel costs and actual printer costs, the amount needed to create these newspapers is slowly becoming too high to produce. So is the economy to blame for this? Or are we all slowly slipping into the realms of digital?

The real problem seems to be the drop in advertising. With the major shift the economy has gone through over the last few years, there is just no money left for advertising. Its sad to say, but it doesn’t seem to be looking good for ad buying to bounce back as good as it once was. To ad even more, there is a large separation between analysts that claim that a newspaper is vital to the community and the analysts that say the online news and blogging will be sufficient enough for society to continue receiving their news.

A survey conducted in March asking people on Facebook whether they prefer online news compared to a newspaper revealed that fifty percent of young adults still prefer reading a newspaper to the thirty percent that read online news only. Twenty percent do both. So is there really a problem of people buying the newspapers? Or is it all in the decline of advertising?

So what is the conclusion? Is it worth the struggle to keep these newspapers afloat? Are people reading them? With the rise in internet accessibility in most american homes, the accessibility to online news sources has drastically increased. Is it wiser for large newspapers to downsize and focus more on their local news and leave the large papers like The New York Times to give the national news. Is it wiser to create a stronger web presence? As our economy slowly rises back, we are faced with this question and can only wait for the answer.