Slideshow on Chilean earthquake on USA Today's Web site

I liked the 75-photo slide show on the earthquake in Chile. The URL is:
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/8.8-earthquake-strikes-Chile/G1470

I thought this slide show worked well because all the photos displayed emotion and gave the reader a sense of the devastation of an 8.8 earthquake.

The first shot was an overall shot showing the massive numbers of families in temporary housing. A shot of volunteers rebuilding homes gave the reader a sense of hope in spite of the suffering. Other shots that were dramatic were of a crying boy getting a vaccination, a volunteer feeding an elderly man and the remnants of a circus. These photos told a story of the suffering the people are experiencing now under a backdrop of happier times, and pointing toward recovery and hope of better times to come.

Tina Irgang: A great slide show

The Washington Post ran a story today (March 31) about a young woman from Michigan who wrote a letter to the president and actually got a letter back. The story itself is excellent, tracking the letter's progress and giving some insight into the protagonist's life.

Online, it goes with a slide show that complements it perfectly. While the print version limits itself mostly to past events in the woman's life as described in her letter, the slide show gives us a much better idea of her current day-to-day routine. We follow her as she takes care of her children, attends a community college class and goes door-to-door to sell cosmetics. A transitional photo shows a White House employee at work - the very person who vets letters and decides which ones actually make it to the president. The final pictures show the president reading a letter to himself, reading it to others and finally responding to it. Thus, the slide show retraces the journey described in the story (the woman's life, her letter, the mail analyst and finally the president and his pen) while giving us some additional detail that the story was unable to provide.

You can find the slide show here.

Strong Slide Shows

We used the tool Soundslides today to create a quick slide show.

Please look on professional news sites and, as a comment to this post, add a link to one you particularly liked. Be sure to say what's good about it!