A long time a coming….

I have a few things to add to the ever growing lessons learned. #8 live by yourself if you are doing an internship, the time alone and without drama will be much appreciated and needed. I have had a few cool assignments lately that actually makes me proud of the product. I don’t know if I will ever stop learning though. I arrived late to a time-crucial assignment, mostly because of the drama at my household and the fact that I thought the road I was supposed to be on was not where I thought it was. It was a race and well I missed one of the starts.

#9 Buy rain gear, even a little, before you actually need it. I had to photograph at a State Park opening on a very rainy day. These people are hardcore here, for sure 8 groups were camping-out still in spite of the weather. I had to buy a raincoat at Savers, in the boys section, the women’s stuff does me no good. I have been looking for a good pair of red rain boots… hard to find. I want and actually need them.

Anyhow here are some pics. Enjoy.

This is my favorite new photo. Being there, at the arrival of the 79th coming home, felt emotional for me also.

The Nerves

I worked Sunday, Easter, for someone else whom actually has family here. Anyhow the assignments consisted of, a church and another church. Hmmm on Easter Sunday… how appropriate. Anyhow it was the first time that i can recall feeling so nervous about taking a photo. I was planning on getting there a bit early to speak with the people i was supposed to take pictures of. But well i got confused with North and South … woops, a closer look would have helped. Anyhow I was 10 minutes late and the place was completely packed and overflowing. I had to speak with an usher and he brought me to the front. It was a Catholic church so it was not informal at all. Sometimes you can easily get away with taking photos in a laid back environment. Not here. I felt pressure and nervous. I had missed a few opportunities to take the photo as they usually do music at the beginning of the service. So I had to take the opportunity when the priest was going around with water for baptism and the couple (my subjects) were actually singing… it was now or never… who knew if there would be another opportunity. I could feel the sweat… one foot at a time I was on my way. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone…. just stooped on down in the front and shot away…. I sat back down, people pointed…. Anyhow totally relieved and if the picture wasn’t good it didn’t really matter to me… I did the deed and I thought it was stupid to have that particular assignment on Easter…. ok done.

here are some photos.

This lady, sadly i could not find to get her name and it turned out that no one from Wabasha knew who she was…. So I refer to this picture as the Strange Potatoe and sadly could not be used…

sports anyone? basketball is over……

 

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This was one of the cutest girls, not the subject of the story, but I still loved this picture. Do you think she knew that I was there?

Forget me not

I am here in Rochester and it seems it does not like me. Yesterday I was in a car accident, not my fault by anymeans but I was on company time and en route to an assignment I had to skip out on. I can no longer use my drivers side door, and thus it is unsafe for me to use my car… It makes this job a bit tough, and the other person involved did not file a report so it is taking longer then it should. i will hopefully get a rent-a-car today.

Anyhow I took so long to update this because I wanted to put a certain photo up. Lesson #7 don’t forget your memory cards! I went to an assignment got all ready, had to talk with some parents and teachers and took some photos and realized i had no memory! And I searched everywhere, even my car, only to realize they were at home. The office was closer then home so I had to swallow my pride and speak with the principal and leave and come back. I felt pretty dumb and like i had the word “intern” stamped on my forehead! It pretty much happens to everyone. I keep them in my pockets most of the time, so if you change clothes like i do, it might just happen.

I have been having some issues with authority figures wanting to mess with me recently. I have been “put in my place” a few times. Which was not the norm. I had to speak with a reporter who was my go between and he sorted things out and i did receive an apology. Just this week, at a place where I have been photographing a lot recently, after the first of two games, I was told to be off of the court floor area during the game. Usually i just have to be behind the lines. I told him i had never been told that before and his reply was “well now you have.” I spoke with co-workers and found out that never happens to them…. ever! Same with the other mishap… never. Do i REally look like a child!?

Anyhow here are some photos hope you enjoy!

fishing contest in Wabasha, he’s trying to get the fish to bite his line

the cutest girl ever, looking up at her father while fishing

this is the winner of last year’s contest, he had 8 fish in less then an hour so far!

I must say that Wabasha, is so beautiful and i defenetly want to return on my own time. As well as to Lake City… beautiful areas. Wabasha is the home to grumpy old men… this was actually during their annual festival.

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House explosion, they called me at 7:15 after I worked until 11pm. The story with this one is sad. I think this photo was used for the associate press! woo hoo. They don’t tell me these things I just had something sitting in my mail box that said “Associate Press” on it! The firemen weren’t doing much because it was too ‘hot’ due to natural gas lines and such.

This was my first studio shot, Scott and Elizabeth helped me get the right set up for it. You have to lower the shutter speed to like 30 to get the screen to show up clearly. Two lights were used one diagonal front, one behind shinning on the backdrop. Cool huh? This guy plays backgammon on the net.

Who said?

I came to work one day last week to find a letter in my mail box… hmmm. neat. Actually it was more like hate mail, well not me in particular, this “person” who did remain nameless, gave the same letter to my fellow photographer who does sports and to the sports department. It seems someone was unhappy with the amount that we took pictures of one school over the other or one particular athlete over the other. This “person”, I think it had to be a mom, because only a woman would really care that much *opinion*, anyhow, the person sent examples along of our own photos copied with comments scribbled on it.

I showed the letter to my editor and she got a bit upset, because it wasn’t true. She pulled up a spreadsheet where she keeps track of how much they photograph certain schools just for this occasion. You see school sports are a huge thing in Rochester and it is covered pretty much everyday by the Post-Bulletin. I didn’t really mind getting the letter, it was kind of neat to see someone care that much to actually type a letter and send it 3x, but anonymous? Obviously they didn’t want to be proven wrong eh?

This week I also experienced a bit of rejection. I was assigned to take a picture at a particular school during a vote. I got there 15 minutes before the polls closed, due to misdirection, and spoke with an election judge and told them I was from the PB. They said I could not take photos during the voting process and I said “oh ok, how about the reaction to the vote?” Which is what I really needed anyhow. They said no again, I was a bit confused. They said I could wait for the end but with no pictures, I could take photos outside the building. They informed me how it was against their school something or another and how they had turned away other the tv stations also. I went and told our reporter who was there and while I was doing that this person found me and showed me the rule outlined. I believed her I just thought it was strange I was sent there and had never heard of it before. Evidently it is very valid, it just hasn’t been very enforced, it is a county law or something. whatever. One of my coworkers thought I should have got in their face, but really what did I care? It is a public school though. That day I took no pictures. 4hours of work with nothing to show for it.

How things change..

It has been a while, I am finding that I have no time to do anything.. because I am working another job, but I will not go into that now.

I have realized a few things. In different stages of my life things change, things about myself, what I like and dislike. When I first started college I decided to give pickles a try, so I fell in love with pickles. When I started college for the second time I decided to give oatmeal a third try and bananas and I like and eat them now. Now as I transition into this Internship I am starting to like some sporting events, gasp. I know sports are not that comparative to food but its a new thing for me. I really really look forward to photographing hockey, not girls mind you as it is no where near the same league, it hurts to photograph girls hockey. Sorry girls but it is not entertaining and they just don’t play well, slow and no real great goals occur. Now I got to photograph the Ice Hawks this week, boy was that interesting. The fans are freaks! Obnoxious sometimes and call the opposite team wimps and such. There were three fights that broke out and i think four players were ejected. Everyone wanted to see blood. I wondered why they had so many team mates as they are not a school team, but I guess they need the extras in case of losing your teams to fights…

A few things so far… I dislike photographing in dark places, pictures just look bad because you have to use flash, it just turns the subject white and a black background. Not cool, a few assignments I have come back with non-affective material. Sad, I have failed. Luckily I am an intern and they are always saying “you are learning” … wow… I had to photograph a property tax committee meeting… what? ugh. I could not get a shot unless I was to go behind the State Reps and that was not going to happen.

Anyhow the adventure continues as now, non work related, I have to move again. Housing issues have occurred, not my fault in anyway, but I have to find a new place. This is gonna be a blast!

some days…

some days it seems like you are digging to find something more to do, others you can’t find time to breathe! I went to Austin on Thursday to cover for a fellow photojournalist there who had the day off. It was a neat town, lacking coffee shops but I won’t hold that against it. Hockey again that night, not soo great of shots. some days are good some are bad. Friday was my first girls basketball game. I almost got ran into, I hope my presence doesn’t mess up their plays, like the girl could have hit the ball back in if my huge lense wasn’t in her way. I am afraid that I will get a bruised face soon, maybe that means your good at this photojournalism thing.

One thing I was doing when I first got here was waiting till the end of the night to do all my “processing” for the day. I am learning that is a bad idea. Then I would just end up staying later, but I would have time off in the middle of the day then.

I asked Scott, a smart guy in our office, about why we used the Canon EOS-1. Well i guess its kind of because its what we have. I asked about the difference you know between the Canon 20D and this one. Just because I was curious why we didn’t just use one of those. the EOS is old and its mega pixels are a mere 4.03, something like that, its metal, so its a lot heavier… a lot heavier. The batteries go really fast because the sensor is faster. Its a CCD sensor and the 20D is a CMOS. I guess the HIGH point of the EOS is that has more frames per second.. eight compared to about 3. Which is obviously good for sports. Also they have upgraded two of the department’s cameras because their were too many repairs.  So the paper does have two Mark II’s.  I went around town a bit on a cold day and realized my camera just fells like a cheap point and shoot now. Sad. I have a Nikon D80.

Last night I photographed a dance marathon. It’s for something our paper does that has a series of pictures about an event on one page. The people there were so nice and very happy I was there, I think they wanted me to be there the entire time. The bummer was that it was hard to photograph because it was so dark, being in a bar and grill type of location. I was having a lot of good pictures not turn out because I couldn’t see if it was focused properly (partially to do with the small LCD display). I retook some, later to find they still didn’t turn out. I realized at the end of the night, that I could just go back to the old solid way and manual focus. That’s what i did. I was upset with myself that it hadn’t crossed my mind earlier. Lesson #5 don’t forget where you came from USE MANUAL FOCUS. I am going to ask my office if there is a setting I have wrong or what is going on because it doesn’t look good!

A side note, after two weeks, I have driven over 350 miles on the job! Wow, huh? I hate the salt on the roads! ugh!

Also… I need to clean out my car a bit more. Reporters ride along at least once a week to locations, I feel I am always excusing my car. Its not bad, just not great either. Lesson #6 Clean your car.

I know it all…

I am dealing with an attitude adjustment. I feel that I am constantly trying to tell myself that I do have a lot to learn. I seem to always have this thought hiding in the back of my brain that I know everything and I can do the job better. I am definitely not saying that I actually do think that right now. But I kind of have this attitude that my way must be the right and best way. I am thinking about Photo-shop here, but truly when you think about how massive the program really is, there has to be things that I wasn’t taught. And there are. I hope to learn different ways then what I know; like channels and such.

This one is from an assignment “snow” a feature hunt really. I went to some hills and the nature center, but it was a bit cold for people to be out and about too much. Just people shoveling, but this lady definitely caught my eye.

Take your best shot.

Now if I was interning at a coffee house this could mean something else, but I am not. This was something the head of the photo department said to me yesterday and I took note of it. It was um… punny I mean funny. I believe it was when we were discussing taking photos at the hockey game.

It was the first hockey game I photographed (I use the word photographed instead of ‘shot’ in a kind gesture to Reggie), believe it or not three of them were used in the paper. I think they were at a lack for copy. It was a bit of an easier game due to the fact that I could photograph either side. I am going to another one tonight. I might become a fan yet. This time it is at a different arena and the challenge is that there will be only one team to capture and to try get some offensive and defensive moves rather then just goal shots… woops.

Wednesday was one of those days… not too much happening. Thursday… well you’d all the jealous to know that I went to my first wrestling match. I must say it really is a good thing to know some lingo when it comes to sports. Writing the captions I kind of feel like a nit wit… John is wrestling Paul, instead of John pins down Paul, you know stuff like that. Luckily the copy editors write a thing or two onto my captions. One word of advice, try not to get emotionally involved in the match. I started to feel bad for the losing side, cringing when they were getting pinned or bleeding. I wondered if anyone saw me… probably not. Lesson no. 4 At a wrestling match… make some kind of tracking device for yourself. I have decided to write the photo number next to the name on the roster. There were no markers at this match, other wise you could photograph them also. The weight of course and roster changes so be sure to keep an eye on it. I had to do some scribbling.

Also here is a helpful like I got from Michele for rosters if you forget to get one. http://www.mshsl.org This is a Minnesota link with I do believe all the high schools on there, sorted by city.

Here is a link i got from Ken, all about lighting and how you can do it http://www.strobist.com Very cool link

Today I had a few assignments, a guy and his dog, (safe guard, take inside and outside photos). A One Act play practice, the director wanted me to photograph after the practice, but I told him I could do it during the practicing. I think sometimes people just may not even think of that option. He was game.

Anyhow enough of that here are some photos.

The Internship must begin…

1-14-08
The first day of my photojournalism internship reminds me of my first day of walking. After I took the first step I thought I knew it all, after the next I realized I didn’t know a whole lot, after falling on the floor I get up and do it all over again.

Well I think thats what my first day of walking was like. Coming to the Post-Bulletin I knew enough to know that I didn’t know much about lighting and that I could learn it well by being here, but what I didn’t realize was how much lighting is actually used in this newspaper business. I will be doing some studio stuff with lighting, for objects and mug-shots mostly. I got my mug-shot taken today, very bad photo of me, ugh.

I went with Michele, a photojournalist at the paper, to a high school basketball game in a neighboring town, there we used a lighting kit. She clamped it to the railing of the bleachers and bounced the light off of the corners of the walls with a slave connecting the light to the camera. She did a great job taking the photos and nabbed a good feature shot during a scrimmage between some youngsters. The product was definitely impressive to me. I like the use of the lights, it gives a good product.

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1-15-08
As the second day of my internship at the Post Bulletin in Rochester MN comes to an end I find myself tired and ready to find some sleep.

The day begun at 11:30 with a meeting, a “read through” of assignments for the days to come, I was a little late due to some of my own parking issues. It is hard to know exactly how long it takes to walk three blocks with a good load on your back. After the meeting I went along with fellow photojournalist Elizabeth, to take a picture at a sports bar. I have been doing a few shadowing outings to get used to the way things are done. This is very good to get ideas on how a certain job should be shot. In this case, there was no noon rush due to the climate (or so they said) so a picture of a menu item was taken as well, more for a safeguard. The lighting technique was very interesting, as it was dark inside, Elizabeth opting for taking the photo outside.

I took my first official photo today for the PB of a college band none the less. As if i don’t take a lot of band photos already. To my benefit the band only had two members. It was at a beautiful house, Ken, a fellow photojournalist came along to give me some pointers on my first outing. He was very helpful and didn’t try to take the camera away from me. We worked with the lighting a tad, there was some natural light through windows, but we also bounced light off of the white walls with a speed-light. Helpful to even out some of harsh light. Ken thinks about props more then I for sure. I asked him about knowing when to help set up a photo, pretty much whenever it is a portrait type of a photo, when the subject looks at the camera, then you can help the photo out. Lesson #1 You can never get too much advice.

Then to a hockey game I went that night. I think this was the first hockey game I have ever actually attended. It was a little hard knowing exactly where to be or what to do. We’ll see what the consensus is after tomorrow. It was a long night, cropping, editing, and creating captions. The other night photojournalist, Michelle has helped me a lot also. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time with her and bugging her with my many questions. Lesson #2 make sure you have the right roster for the game.

One thing that is surprisingly a little harder is the use of Canon cameras. I know I will get used to it soon, the weight with a telephoto lens connected was hard for me tonight. I noticed my photos starting to droop a little. Definitely a bigger camera with added weight. I use a Canon EOS-1 Digital. Advice: Lift weights prior to internship to help with the weight you will be holding in the camera and lens.

My day at the Post-Bulletin started at 11:30 and ended at 11:30.