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EXPERT ALERTS
- Capturing Flattering Portrait Pictures With Your Point-and-Shoot Camera
- Tips for Videographers
- Pairing Wine and Sauces
- The Science of Gourmet Cuisine and Wine Pairings
- Wine: It's All About Tannins
- Playing Games to Keep You Fit
- Virtual Personal Trainers
- What to Expect When You Are an Empty Nester
- Working Stiffs: The Legacy of Ernest Borgnine
MEDIA JOBS
- Editor - Lubbock, Texas
- News Reporter - NYC
- Arts and Culture Editor - Richmond, Va.
- Public Safety Reporter - Huntsville, Ala.
- Regional Sports Editor - Hampton, Iowa
OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES
- Do You Have Confidence in Television News?
- Wedding Blogs: Unveiled
- 5 Things You Might Not Know About ProfNet for Reporters
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EXPERT ALERTS
Expert Alerts are listings of ProfNet members who are available to discuss timely news topics. If you are interested in interviewing any of the experts, please contact their media representative at the end of the listing. You can also find Expert Alerts online at bit.ly/pncalerts
Capturing Flattering Portrait Pictures With Your Point-and-Shoot Camera
Brian Colkitt
Lead Digital Photography Instructor
The Art Institute of Phoenix
"Most people have a pretty good point-and-shoot camera; it’s just important to know the modes. By putting your camera in portrait mode, you set the flash on the camera, giving a good blend between the lighting in the room and the lighting on the subjects."
Colkitt can speak about taking flattering family portraits. He advises keeping your arms away from your body, resting hands on hips or keeping hands in pockets with just the thumbs out. This gives a nice angle to the arm and almost guarantees a flattering photo.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
Tips for Videographers
Ben Gottfried
Digital Filmmaking and Video Production Instructor
The Art Institutes International Minnesota
"Get familiar with your equipment. Read the manual, test different lighting conditions. It will increase your comfort level with the camera and make for better shots. Shooting a live event can make you anxious to get shots of everything. Keep one eye on the viewfinder and the other on the action going on around you, and strategically move the camera when necessary."
Gottfried can provide novice videographers expert tips. He suggests you try to rest on a shot. Don't excessively zoom or pan, and when you decide to zoom, make sure it's a slow one. Jarring shots are hard to look at and even harder to edit later.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
Pairing Wine and Sauces
Larry Canepa
Chef and Culinary Instructor
The Art Institute of Phoenix
"If you’re serving a heavy white sauce like an alfredo, choose a crisp white wine with some acidity to balance out the richness and fat of the dairy-based sauce. Conversely, if you’re serving an acidic tomato sauce, balance it out with a tannic red wine. If you’re cooking up northern Italian fare, pick out a wine from that region in Italy. Wine is not a luxury or an indulgence, it’s an ingredient."
Another rule of thumb Canepa uses is to pair the dish with a wine from the same region.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
The Science of Gourmet Cuisine and Wine Pairings
Jane Nickles
Chef and Culinary Academic Director
The Art Institute of Austin, a branch of The Art Institute of Houston in Texas
"Food changes wines in very predictable, scientifically proven ways, and that can be for better or for worse. The bottom line is simple: food and wine go well together. You can serve any food with any wine and have a better meal."
Nickles can speak about the science of gourmet cuisine and wine pairings. Take acidic foods like salad dressing, ceviche or anything vinegary, if you pair them with an acidic wine like a sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio or riesling, it will make the wine less acidic -- and that’s a good thing. If you’re serving sweeter foods, don’t serve a dry wine like a cabernet sauvignon, merlot or chardonnay, since the sweeter food will make your wine taste less sweet.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
Wine: It's All About Tannins
Lucia Miltenberger
Chef and Culinary Instructor
The Art Institute of Colorado
"Tannins love a nice marbled rib-eye. If you haven’t had a lot of wine, you could be turned off by the dryness, so a nice balanced riesling or a vouvray from the Loire Valley in France is a good start. For reds, try an Oregon pinot noir, Beaujolais or Rose d’Anjou from France. Not only will your palate be happy, but so will your pocketbook."
Miltenberger can speak to pairing the perfect wine with meals. It’s all about the tannins -- a wine’s pucker power, so to speak, which is derived from the grapes’ skins, stems and seeds. Tannins in red wine are powerful and, frankly, overpowering for something as light and flaky as a white fish. Miltenberger recommends some balanced whites and reds that both newcomers and wine connoisseurs can enjoy.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
Playing Games to Keep You Fit
Li Harmon
Academic Director of Game Art and Design, Media Arts and Animation, and Visual Effects and Motion Graphics
The Art Institute of Las Vegas
"Any activity you can do outside, like cross-country skiing or baseball, you can do with these gaming systems. Some of these games even make you feel guilty if you haven’t done your virtual workout in a while."
Harmon can talk about game consoles and keeping fit.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
Virtual Personal Trainers
Shannan Wheaton
Academic Director for Graphic Design, Web Design and Interactive Media
The Art Institute of Ohio in Cincinnati
"If you’re always on the go, start measuring just how far you are going with a pedometer application for your smartphone. And kick it up a notch with one that will post your results to your Facebook page. Not only does it track you, but it lets all your friends know if you’re slacking. We’re heading toward a video world and we’re going to see more virtual personal trainers in the future.”
Wheaton says there’s more of that kind of workout coming in the future. She can speak to interactive media and technology to keep you fit.
News Contact: Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, yhosseinzadeh@aii.edu or +1-415-565-9948
What to Expect When You Are an Empty Nester
Natalie Caine
Owner
Empty Nest Support Services
"What can you expect when you are an empty nester? Parents will experience joy and challenges. Here are some tips for parents: 1) like it or not, your children lead now; 2) pause before you text or call them; 3) now put you in the center of your circle; 4) find new meaning beyond parenthood; and 5) build a community, since the school days are over. Even if children are living at home because of the economy, parents' expectations need a course correction."
Caine, who lives in Los Angeles, is a parent who created and launched Empty Nest Support Services seven years ago, when her daughter was a senior in high school. She has been featured in Time, USA Today, Huffington Post and MariaShriver.com. Caine can discuss topics such as how to enjoy summer before you hug goodbye, how to plan for the big drop-off at college, marriage at this stage of life, how to reinvent yourself, where new friendships are and spiritual practices for the empty nester.
Website: www.emptynestsupport.com
Expert Contact: natalie@emptynestsupport.com
Working Stiffs: The Legacy of Ernest Borgnine
Kathy M. Newman
Associate Professor of English
Carnegie Mellon University
“As we reflect on Ernest Borgnine’s passing in 2012, it is interesting to consider that corporate profits are higher than they have ever been in our nation’s history, and that wages as a percentage of the Gross National Product are smaller than they have ever been. Is it possible that the age of the common man is behind us, and that the depth, sensitivity and pathos that Borgnine brought to his portrayal of ‘working stiffs’ is now only a distant memory of a better time?”
Newman, one of the country’s foremost experts on the life and career of Ernest Borgnine, is writing a book about the ways in which workers were portrayed in the 1950s, and many of the chapters in her book circle back to Borgnine, who played the “working stiff.” In Newman’s book, “Striking Images: Workers on Screen and in the Streets,” she argues that actors like Borgnine portrayed working-class people with depth and dignity during a decade in which workers were rarely represented in popular culture. Ironically, perhaps, if images of workers on screen were somewhat sparse in the postwar era, the 1950s was a very good decade for blue-collar workers in real life -- when they enjoyed significantly higher incomes than their poor and working-class parents, as well as better access to social services and government assistance, like FHA loans for buying houses and the GI bill for higher education.
News Contact: Shilo Rea, shilo@cmu.edu or +1-412-268-6094
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MEDIA JOBS:
Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: bit.ly/pncjobboard
- Editor - Lubbock, Texas
- News Reporter - NYC
- Arts and Culture Editor - Richmond, Va.
- Public Safety Reporter - Huntsville, Ala.
- Regional Sports Editor - Hampton, Iowa
See more listings here.
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OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:
Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line at profnetalerts@prnewswire.com
- DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN TELEVISION NEWS?: ProfNet Editor Evelyn Tipacti discusses some reasons why people may be losing faith in broadcast news: bit.ly/M6Qh5n
- WEDDING BLOGS: UNVEILED: PR Newswire's Thomas Hynes shares some of the best wedding blogs he's seen: bit.ly/MpcDNu
- 5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT PROFNET FOR REPORTERS: ProfNet Director Maria Perez highlights five things you might not already know about ProfNet for reporters: bit.ly/MlQjIp
