Archive for October, 2008
Internship: Day Nine
October 27, 2008 8:51 pmPlease allow this image to speak as to my day as an intern at The Capital. Sundays bring the best and worst.
Yes, that is a helicopter dropping packets of candy over a football field while hordes of children (and their parents) wait in anticipation. Yes, it is five days before Halloween
For next week I was told “Bring a bicycle, we’re shooting a race.” Just when I think I get the hang of things, life throws a curve ball. Can’t wait until I actually get an assignment where someone is upset or injured.
CAT Career Panel
October 23, 2008 9:44 pmUsually I don’t go to these kinds of things, and when I do, I find the people trite or the message useless. This time, however, was completely different. So here’s a panel that 1) is relevant to my life 2) is required for class 3) I have to photograph 4) one of my internship mentors will be panel-ing. No pressure.
Free food aside, the panel was actually amazingly insightful. Those panelists didn’t give me enough time between revelations to get bored or to take stunning photos. The nerd in me even appreciated anecdotes from the video game producers and web developers of whose positions I understand little to nothing.
Most importantly, I learned that I have not screwed up my life yet. I learned that my existing degrees can only help me (a fact that seems obvious but I really do doubt it sometimes), my instinct to get out and shoot is completely correct, and that my internship will help me more than I know. I learned that all experience is good experience, and that the five years I spent at Medieval Times saying “taller in the back, shorter in the front, squeeze in real close…” like a robot has only helped me. Every time I get bored and try to take a stunning photograph of dirty dishes has only helped me. Every time I talked a guest out of calling customer service has only helped me.
I will say though, that the only panelist who mentioned income was Josh, and I’m very curious to know if these other artistic venues are extremely lucrative… Everyone mentioned that specialization was key, but how you need to be able to do everything, which really calls my attention (and fear) to how newspapers (and thus, photojournalism) are dying, thus lowering the possibility of me ever being able to do what I want and have a roof over my head. While game development and web design are exploding into the limelight, photojournalism is slowly fading away. Of course no one wanted to talk about that in an uplifting, you-can-do-this career panel.
Although, as most of the panelists mentioned, continuing education is highly important (which is what I’m already doing, right?). I just fear that for us journalists, our education is going to be learning how to juggle a video camera, still camera, notepad, and probably some other things that haven’t been invented yet at the same time and then editing it all into a story that is ready for web and press in just 60 seconds. Or something ridiculous like that. But at least I know I’m on the right path for that, or whatever it is that awaits me in photojournalism.
I just feel like… it took me so long to figure out what I want to do with my life, and then start to do it and realize yes, I was right, that the last thing I need is for my career field to disappear.
Don’t get me wrong, the career panel was highly motivating, very awesome, and thought provoking. Its just that the thoughts went in a more negative direction after the lights were turned off and assignments were turned in.
But I have this internship. One Sunday at a time.
Interning, Continued
October 20, 2008 7:51 pmThis weekend happened to be one of the most amazing things ever, which is needed considering that for the rest of the week I have two projects, a test, a cold, and my period. But I didn’t say all of that out loud. Also, the gear shift on my car stopped… gear shifting, which definitely made getting to those assignments Sunday interesting. Luckily I’m the youngest child so whining “Daddy, fix!” still works amazingly well.
Saturday Colleen and I rocked the Navy v Pitt game. We covered tailgating beforehand, which was a little lamer than usual, probably considering how many parents/grandparents were around. I hadn’t been to a Navy event in 10 years or so I was pretty starstruck, no lie. Before the game we hit up the press box, where I found that rumors of nice people and nicer pizza were in fact very good representations of the truth. I apologize to everyone who received a “I’M IN THE PRESS BOX AT NAVY STADIUM” text message.
Consequently, I also apologize to everyone who received a “OMG I’M ON THE FIELD AT NAVY STADIUM” text message, but we’re not there yet.
So, after eating free food like real women, Colleen and I lugged ourselves down to the field, which was surprisingly anti-climatic. We just… walked on to the field as anyone else would, only that security didn’t stop us, they smiled and said “Hello” instead. I would like to add at this point that Colleen was shooting with a fixed 400 lens bigger than her head, on a broken monopod, and that I was shooting with a fixed 300 on my little D70 on my little (and barely able to handle the weight of the lens) monopod. It was glorious. Cold, but glorious.
Colleen made a slide show on the Capital website, I think there are 16 of her images and three of mine but we basically shot the same stuff, so whatevs. Please experience the slide show here. Both the front page and the sports section had a big picture of Colleen’s and a little picture of mine. Published is published; I’ll take it.
Sunday I was finally able to go out on my own, not because the skill wasn’t there earlier, but because I didn’t have the availability to take extra assignments. I photographed some excellent Jews who donated a new Torah to their synagogue, and more excellent Jews who were happy about their new Torah. The (probably temporary) link to that article is here.
One little old lady came up to me, reminding me very much of my grandmother, and stated “You have a press pass.” I replied to her, “Yes, I’m shooting for The Capital today.” She says back to me “I can read, I just want to know if I should press it,” then chuckled and went along her merry way. Moral of the story, I cannot wait to be an excellent old Jewish lady one day. My brooch collection is already underway, but that has nothing to do with my internship.
From the Annapolitan synagogue I managed to get myself lost in Shady Side trying to find an oyster festival, which, by the time I arrived, was pretty much wrapping up. I listened to a little bluegrass, photographed some people (all of which had names I needed to hear spelled several times over), and hot-footed it out of there, fancying myself somewhat of a rock star for surviving a day on my own.
I know I did nothing spectacular, but the important part is that I’m fairly certain I didn’t make any mistakes.
Results of this weekend: While lovely pictures of white people graced the above-the-fold potographs for the past two days, my photos on the bottom of A1 each day depicted minorities preparing food. Oops.
Internship: Day Six
October 12, 2008 4:03 pmThe paper had no assignments for us today, so Paul and I trolled Annapolis for fun things happening. Despite a BEAUTIFUL fall day, very few people were outside for us to stalk. Rather, everybody and their mother attended the US Sailboat show this weekend and thus all of America descended on City Dock to ogle boats. But we found several people kayaking over to the boat show, and a random child or two tearing up playgrounds overlooking the boat show. Its Annapolis though, what do you want?
Honestly, these pictures SCREAM Annapolis, if not also beautiful fall weather. I submitted the second two for title banners for the paper. We’ll see. Saturday holds a Navy football game with Colleen and then probably actually definitely going out on my on for Sunday.
Internship: Day Five
October 7, 2008 9:06 pmObligatory blog post after interning… I think I’m getting the hang of things. Still haven’t gone out on my own yet, but that’s mainly because I haven’t had the time. Working six days a week at the castle (in the dark, with broken computers), interning Sundays, class Tuesday/Thursday, and trying to pull off this new relationship while maintaining old friendships.
Anyway. We photographed Annapolis’ Oktoberfest, a pet-blessing ceremony, and an awards ceremony. Some of my photos are in a slide show here.
This is one, of the Blessing of the Animals, that I did not submit:
The only way for me to have more photos published is simply to shoot more. I’m decent enough, I just need more practice and rotting at the Scroll Desk counting pewter dragons isn’t particularly helping. So I’ll add ‘getting out there’ to my list of things to do. I just need to make sure that I still 1) work enough to pay rent and 2) study enough to maintain my 4.0.
But I have this internship. One Sunday at a time.
Juxtaposition
October 4, 2008 9:12 pmIn case anyone doubted how amazing I am, please have a photo story. Keep in mind that I do not actually have enough time on my hands to do this for fun; the assignment is for Digital Photography. I really like the first two best, but it takes all of them to tell a story.
