Holy crap life moves fast. Suddenly I’m working (basically) 9-5 seven days a week. Six weeks ago I had a job that made me physically ill, a boyfriend who bothered me for reasons I couldn’t pin-point, and began thinking that I would never break into the world of journalism. Now I have an fairly good if not incredibly easy job (although to save energy we now work in the dark–no lie), a new man I’m absolutely crazy about, and the internship of my dreams. Life sure is funny.

Sunday Colleen and I photographed not one but two arts festivals, an assignment they never should have given to girls because we spent more of our time wandering for our own amusement than for the paper’s sake. We met new people, saw new things, and heard great music. I shot with my own D70 again, and I really could have gone for the D3 due to the rainy and indoor situations we got ourselves into, but I’m a good shot regardless of technical help…

The Annapolis Fall Festival was pretty awesome, with people gathering together in the streets for music, food, beer, and oodles of handmade crafts.  I’m not sure if anything was actually published (as I’m too poor to subscribe to the paper) but some are available online here.

Other than that, I’ve homework to complete, dishes to wash, and a recenty-neutered cat to take care of.

Categories: Home, Internship, Photography
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Quaker meetings and dog shows. It makes a much better song title than a day at work. The dog show wasn’t a real dog show, it was a practice dog show for people who want to go to real dog shows. I went out with Colleen again and we met some pretty interesting (and rich) people. The best part (other than socializing with precious and well-behaved dogs) was probably junior dog handlers, who were absolutely ADORABLE. One six-year-old boy named his dog after his kindergarten girlfriend, who soon after dumped him. If the link works, you can see Colleen’s photo of he and Lydia here.

Since this is my personal blog and not a newspaper, please enjoy these shots without identifiable minors in them.

These shots were taken with a D3. My only complaint is that I didn’t encounter any low-light or fast-moving situations with which to really test the beast. The staff photojournalists shoot on Continuous, but I’m still in the mindset of “the decisive moment.” Even so, set on ISO 1000, and shooting shutter preferred at 1/600 of a second… holy crap. My D70 could have taken photos indistinguishable from these due to the lighting situation, but the settings used to achieve these shots just blows my mind.

Moving on.

The Quaker meeting was a silent vigil for United Nations Peace Day or something of the sort. When Colleen and I arrived there were THREE Friends in the room sitting, with their heads down, in silence. You can bet the paper didn’t run those photos.

I didn’t shoot anything worth mentioning, although I did really want to submit my wide-angle shot of the three old ladies in a very empty room. Not to win the Pulitzer, just to show the editors what stupid assignments they send us on.

All in all not an exciting day, but local news can’t always be exciting, especially on Sundays when Colleen, myself, and Frank the security guard are the only people in the building. At least we have the police scanner to keep us company and let us know if anything terribly important happens while we’re within hearing distance.

So far my first day was the most exciting, but everything is still great. I’ve not actually had the opportunity to shoot by myself, which isn’t a complaint. They already have staff photographers scheduled for all of the Sundays I’m oming in, so it looks like I may not get to shoot on my own until they’re understaffed on a day I don’t have class. Again, not a complaint. Interns are supposed to have training wheels, right?

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Sarah and I ventured downtown after I got home from work, only to find Paint Annapolis almost over, and both of us busy during their exhibition tomorrow. As an alternative, I followed her around.

We sat and admired the ducks (and boats) together.

And I did some wandering of my own. I’m trying to stay way from macro shots, and this is what I get. Next I will work on NOT blowing out the sky.

Expect photos of work and internship soon, and possibly some meaningful text as well. But definitely photos.

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Although less thrilling than last Sunday, today was still a blast. This time I followed Colleen (gasp, a girl!) to a local art gallery and the county fair.

The painters we met plugged Paint Annapolis, which Sarah and I were planning on attending anyway. They do painting competitions and just plain people getting together to paint, all to raise money and have a great time. All of the art we saw was amazing and the people were cool. Unfortunately the gallery was too small for both Colleen and I to shoot… so I was able to slack off and watch. We’ll call it a learning experience.

The County Fair was ridiculously, ridiculously hot/humid/miserable so basically we wandered far enough for a pig race and left back for the office in the THREE hours we had until the next event. I’d like to think that I have epic shots of the pig races, but who are we kidding? The important part about today was Colleen physically pushing me into people in order to make me talk to them and take tight shots. It worked.

So after this, I’ll be shooting on my own. Deep breath.

In conclusion, I’m not certain what the best part of today was… finding a press pass waiting for me in the photo office, finding a D2H ready for me to use (which I declined… WHY?), finding my name actually written in the assignment book, or breezing past Frank the security guard the second week in a row. You know, outside of shooting.

Photos chosen by the paper are here. I’m a little stunned they ran TWO photos of the pig race, but who am I to question authority.

Also, here is a pig that did not race. Adorable.

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Digital Photography went from a shooting course with one of my favorite professors to electronic media with a brand new professor. Our first assignment is to shoot 100 photos and from them make a composite that represents our vision of the future.

Sigh. But here are some of my favorites.

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Sunday began my internship at The Capital. I leeched off of the staff photojournalist normally assigned for the day, Josh, and we attacked a Catholic mass & picnic, old lady tea & concert, and a fish fry. Really I should have posted this yesterday for the full effect of my giddiness, but suffice to say being out in the field, and in the (near-deserted) news room was pretty much what I’ve been waiting to do my entire life.

Basically, I was worried that nothing would work out, because every profession I’ve ever wanted I have also HATED after trying it, or really really not fit in with the people working there. So after serious problems at work and home in the past few weeks I was worried that if this didn’t work out I was pretty much going to have to hide in a hole for the rest of my life… But, no! I loved it, my mistakes weren’t terrible, and one of my photos made it on the front page of today’s paper. There’s really no better way to put it: I needed this. I was so excited it was all I could do to keep the goofy smile off of my face.

I still need work with the whole speaking to strangers, asking them to spell their names, and then photographing them aspect of the job… But the travelling, shooting, editing, captioning and everything else-ing is AMAZING. When I saw one of my shots (one that I hated but Josh made me throw in) front and center on the website… I can’t remember the last time I was that happy. I didn’t win a Pulitzer or capture a highly memorable moment, but for my first eight hours, I’m impressed.

Some of the other photos I put in are here. You can BUY them. Crazy talk.

I called my mother to find out if she had seen the photo in the paper, and she did, but didn’t really notice it. I called Matt to remind him of how awesome I am, and he didn’t really notice. I asked him to call me back and he asked: “Like… tonight, or some other time?”

But I have this internship. One Sunday at a time.

Categories: Internship, Photography
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Me, to Bob:

“I’ll drop by tomorrow at 3. I just need you to read over my goal sheet
(they’re really simple goals, I promise) and sign that we can achieve
them. The other is a packet saying basically I will actually be doing
work and not picking up your dry cleaning that just needs one signature.

Also, Brian asked me to set up a shrine for him somewhere near his old
desk. I said that probably wasn’t going to happen.”

Bob, to me:

“OK, great. Say, on your way in, would you mind stopping by Admiral Cleaners on Taylor Ave and…….. (Just a joke, I swear). –BobG.”

Also, I love four-hour computer classes that are basically self-study. Not really, but I do appreciate the internet. Hopefully this will give me enough time throughout the semester to set up a real professional site, portfolio, etc etc.

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