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Photos by Meghan de St. Aubin / Staff

By Meghan de St. Aubin / Assistant Managing Editor

If you type the word “Nee-Toh” into Google, you will end up with a bunch of links leading to one man and one man only. He has an account on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and, most importantly, BlogSpot. If you haven’t heard of him, chances are one of your friends has. His name is Irving Hillman and you are his inspiration.
“I was known for being the black kid that skates and wore skinny jeans,” Irving Hillman says. At first glance, one might wonder how someone could mistake this guy for nothing but an indie hipster. As soon as he opens his mouth, you come to realize that this soon-to-be graduate is not only your new best friend, but also one of the most inventive people you have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Irving notices the small things in life and appreciates details of the world that an average passerby might overlook. As an aspiring writer, cinematographer and photographer, he gets his inspiration from people around him. He notices talents in people and acknowledges what they are passionate about with only the upmost respect and interest.
“I’m starting to realize that I meet interesting people everyday and they are all searching for a way to express themselves through their work,” Irving says, explaining that this predicament is what led him to the idea for Nee-Toh.
Nee-Toh is still in its humbling beginnings stationed on blogspot.com. The basis of the company is to sponsor and expose artists to the world. Nee-Toh is a venue where creative beings are supported so they are able to network their art, music, photography or whatever else they do.
“I met a guy the other day that wants to be a news anchor, but the jobs he is going for are not calling him back. I met another girl who wanted to write for a magazine,” Irving explains.

After talking to these people, Irving mentioned Nee-Toh. Irving told the two people that once he gets Nee-Toh officially up and running he would give the guy his own news section in Nee-Toh. The same went for the girl; he told her he would help her start up her own magazine with Nee-Toh, allowing her to come up with the name and whatever else she had in mind.

The fact that people did not care about money and they just wanted to show their talents pleasantly surprised him. He was bowled over by the eager response he received from people who simply wanted to show their talents pleasantly surprised him. He was bowled over by the eager response he received from people who simply wanted to be involved in something that would allow them to demonstrate their craft.

Nee-Toh’s logo is a bunny designed by Irving himself. It is bright blue and magenta with a little white mixed in. He explains that, when he hears a good idea, “the bunny ears go up.”

While social networking sites may seem overused and over stimulating by some, Facebook, MySpace,Twitter and blogs is how Irving spreads the word about Nee-Toh. He plans to launch an offical website in the spring, but until then he uses BlogSpot to reveal other people’s work as well as his own. He uses Twitter and Facebook to provide updates of the new articles on the blog and he also finds his models this way.

Beginning Nee-Toh is not something Irving takes lightly. He explains that this process is slow, tedious and there is a lot of research and making new friends in the current stage. Nee-Toh is all about keeping the creative flame going so it won’t burn out while you have to take on a desk job answering phones.

After receiving his degree in Communications with a concentration in Media Studies, graduate school is next for Irving where he will master his own craft at either NYC,USC, or UCLA. Career wise, Nee-Toh will always be a focus for him.

“If someone asks me what inspires me I always say ‘you do!’ and then they say ‘me?’” Irving’s inspiration comes from a simple smile or a tree in his front yard that is reaching for the sky. Irving intends to keep building his crew for a company that he believes that will without a doubt take the world by storm.

You can heck out Nee-Toh at http://nee-toh.blogspot.com

By Rachel Goff / Staff

In a world where you can text, Twitter, Facebook, dial, e-mail, instant message and MySpace anyone you want, has fate completely left the dating world? Remember fate? It is that thing that most of us are all too young to remember. Fate has moved us to the online world, and now it depends if you and your sweetie are both on the same dating site. Is online social networking the future way to meet your mate? Communication professor Dr. Joshua Azriel seems to think so. “I suspect twenty years from now, it will be the norm to meet someone online. This conversation we are having right now will no longer be considered unique and will be outdated,” Azriel explains. “It will be the same as meeting someone through a church group, organization, or at a bar.”

Online dating has grown rapidly in the past 15 years with no sign of deceleration. According to datingsitereviews.com, in 1995 over half the adults in America met their spouses through friends, family or other mutual acquaintance. In 2005, that changed with over three million Americans finding long-term relationships through online dating. The number is now at twelve million Americans with a predicted growth rate of evelven percent next year.

For the skeptics, online dating is easy. “You can get to know each other a little bit, before you go on that first date. So when you do go on that first date, you already know a little something about each other,” said Azriel. That means no more awkward silences or talking about the weather. You can text, Twitter, Facebook, dial, e-mail, instant message, MySpace the person as much as you want before actually meeting in person.

Anyone can date online, but it isn’t for everyone. Azriel believes it takes a certain type of person, someone who knows technology and about internet safety. That’s why a majority of people on dating sites are younger people, especially recent college grads. “When you’re in college you might meet someone in your classes, in an extracurricular activity or if you are a member of a club. But after you graduate college and you are in the work force, it can be difficult to meet some people to date. Everyone is going to try the bar or the cheesy singles club, but the internet makes it easier. You can input your information and the website tries to match you up with someone with similar interests,” informs Azriel.

What about safety? The horror stories of meeting someone from online in person can frighten people away.  Azriel states the safety issue is the same for someone going on that first date with anyone, no matter where they meet them. “Before there was even such a thing as online dating, boy and girl go on a date, and they end up dating a psycho. It happened all the time,” said Azriel. “A lot of these dating websites try to have security measures to prevent that.”  Azriel did give out some safety measures before heading out on that first datezzzzzzz;

· Don’t ride in the same car. “You don’t have to pick somebody up from their apartment. A date can be two people meet at a location.”

·         Pick a time to have a friend call or text you during the date to make sure everything is going alright.

·         Do something active. “A mall is a great place to meet because the mall has restaurants, places to shop, and arcades.”

·         Meet in a public place, not your apartment.

People can be whoever they want to be online. What happens when the person is not who he or she says they are? That’s the only apparent downside to online dating. “You can project a certain image online. Laws that help protect us never keep up with the pace of technology. Ethics do not keep up with the pace of technology. There will always be danger. Technology will always be a little bit more sophisticated,” said Azriel. The question now remains, just because you can…would you? Hopefully, after plenty communication, you can finally make that commitment to a first date.

By Carlie Gentry / Staff

From the beginning of the photographic age, the very creation of a still frame image has delivered heated debate. At the turn of the twentieth century when photography began to grab hold in a remarkable way, many artists viewed it as subpar in comparison to painting. It was not until much later that photographers such as Edward Steichen and Ansel Adams made way in the medium to secure a spot in the fine arts world.  But with the arrival of the technological age and the introduction of digital photography, the medium has again found itself to be at the center of controversy in the artistic world; except, now the battle is between the photographers themselves.

Talon sought out two student opponents to defend the turf for both digital and film photography. On the digital side, weighing in as a junior at Kennesaw, meet Micah Entrekin. For film, Wes Lowrance ranks as a senior.  Both of these Photography Majors are well acquainted with the opposing side and its techniques yet through a sifting of personal preferences are ready to fight on their chosen side of the ring.

The primary argument creating rifts between the two suggests the arrival of digital photography has “cheapened the craft,” as Wes puts it, “We’re on the outskirts of fine art as it is when it comes to our medium and I think that the further it gets digitized the more it becomes just written off as commercialism.” Micah, on the other side of the ring, argues he is less interested in the technical restraints of “fine art,” claiming, “Other than the fact that I can say it’s film, I can do something that I did with film faster with digital.”

It is true that the process of film photography is much more labor intensive than that of digital? For Wes, the creative process of obtaining the perfect photo is much more involved than one might imagine.  Often, he begins by using his Minolta SRT101 35mm to brainstorm, ending up with all the negatives, 5×7 prints and digital copies to scrutinize. “If he were to use a digital camera,” he explains, “the result is so instantaneous, I don’t have time to develop what the photograph should be like after I take it because as soon as I take it, I see it.” The time used to develop the photos affords him the opportunity to create an idea of what he wants the photograph to mimic. All of this is preliminary work building toward using his Calumet 4×5 Rail camera, which he says he only uses “when I know exactly what I want to shoot because every time I hit the shutter on the Calumet it costs me ten dollars because of how expensive the negatives are.”

For many photographers, the battle between film and digital is all about the final product one wishes to create. A master of Adobe Photoshop, Micah is largely into photo editing, a much different aim than that of Wes’ film. He finds solace in combining and manipulating photos he takes into a nearly unrecognizable finished product. Numerous works are often abundantly colorful and even psychedelic in their overall feel. “I just have this giant database of probably 13,000 photos now and I’ll just get in the mood to edit,” Micah tells Talon. “I’ll just open up some photos and see what I can do.” Much of his work is texture based and the final version consists of seemingly endless photographs built up layer-by-layer. “I will find a photo I like, pop it up and I’ll mess with that photo. Then I’ll open up some other photos and throw those on there and see if I like it. I’ll usually go through putting maybe fifteen or twenty photos into it until I find one I like.” He spends hours experimenting with various combinations of photographs and tweaking settings until he is satisfied with the image. “For a while it seemed digital was really looked down on, especially how the school only focused on film,” Micah says, “but now I am proud of the fact that I prefer digital.”

All in all, the battle of film versus digital is a passionate civil war between photographers. The ins and outs, rights and wrongs, are based solely on the artist’s personal desires for their artwork. Nevertheless, there is one common cord the weaving photographers together: Wes notes, “It doesn’t take a long time to learn how to use a camera, but it does take a long time to produce an effective photograph.” And isn’t that essentially what every photographer is straining to achieve?