Looking Back: Missouri v. Kansas State — Feb. 26, 2011

I'm basically the worst person ever at updating my blog, so I'm working on that while I'm on spring break. Plus I'm working on my website, so it's kind of like killing two birds with one stone.

Anyway, back in February, I made the long trek with the sports writers to Manhattan, Kan., for the K-State game since we didn't have a staff photographer available. I'm secretly happy that no one could go, because I loved every minute of it. The trip itself was quite an adventure, starting late Friday night to try to beat the storm. We drove to my house in Independence, camped out for the night, and headed out bright and early the next morning after a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and eggs my parents made for us. I'm glad we got the early start, because we heard the roads from Columbia to Kansas City were a skating rink Saturday morning.

The game didn't go well on two fronts: First, Missouri lost. Second, I had technical difficulties the whole game. My lens was just a little soft, so I spent the whole game feeling frustrated. As a result, I don't think I shot as well. So I have fewer selects for you all to see. I hope you like them anyway!

Thursday with Kaitlan

So last Thursday I went out with my sorority sister, Kaitlan, to help her take some photos for advertisements she had to make for her journalism class. It was really my first time trying my hand at portrait photography, so I hope you all enjoy it. 

None of these pictures have really been toned because my life's been a mess this week, but she was just too darn cute not to put the pictures up. (Even though she told me not to.) 

(FYI her advertisement was about the bag.)

First we tried some pictures in the alley, before the beautiful sunshine came out.

 

Then the sun came out, so we obviously had to try these again...

  

And of course we had to try the obvious jumping shot, just for advertisement's sake...

  

Hailing an imaginary cab in Columbia, Mo.

 

Then we took a trip away from The District to Stephens Lake Park.

 

Gotta try the jumping thing again.

 

It was refreshing to have a silly afternoon and take some fun pictures with a friend and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Treating Human & Horse

For my capstone job profile story, I worked with Jan Tracy, an occupational therapist who took her knowledge of therapy and her love of horses and turned it into a career. Jan and her business partner, Tamara Rapier, travel across the United States to horse shows and stables to treat both horses and their trainers. They have been working together for 13 years, making it a full-time career about 10 years ago.

Treating Human & Horse from Sarah Midgorden on Vimeo.

I had a great time working with someone who was so passionate about her job. The time it took me to edit the hour's worth of audio I gathered was worth it! I hope you enjoyed it too!

Bird by Bird Reading Reflction

The more and more I read this book, the more I enjoy Anne Lamott's style. She's very candid with her stories and reflections on what writing method works for her. I always enjoy looking for how it connects to our photography methods.

False Starts

This was another chapter about how you have to let your characters develop without having too many ideas about how you think it's going to turn out. You often start out one way, find it's a dead end, and then you have to start over again with your story. My favorite quote was about the best way to find out who your characters are. 

 

"So if you want to get to know your characters, you have to hang out with them long enough to see beyond all the tings they aren't."

You really have to get to the essence of the person, to the bare bones of who they are, in order to fully understand them as a character. Only when you do this can you truly tell their story accurately and in its entirety.

Plot Treatment

This chapter really became clear to me after we had our editing sessions in my capstone class last week. Sometimes you have your story laid out the way you think that it should go. However, that might not be the best way to tell the story. I always have to fight the urge to put my picture stories in chronological order, which rarely fits the way the story needs to be told. There are other factors to consider when you are putting the stories together, such as how it flows. 

Lamott talked about her experience writing a book, which had wonderful characters and events, but they simply didn't flow and allow the reader to get involved in the story. I guess I saw this in our photo stories when as a class we constantly were moving pictures around and changing the storyline. Even when people had put their photos up on the wall for the final critique, we were still moving pictures around so the story flowed better. 

How Do You Know When You're Done?

"Of course, there will always be more you could do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor."

There really is no better way to put it than that. There is always more you can do, but at some point you have to be finished and admire the work you've done and just leave it alone. She said it perfectly.