K-State Football vs. Kansas, October 22, 2011

Last weekend I headed to Lawrence with the sports reporters to cover the in state rivalry between the Wildcats and the Jayhawks. It was perfect football weather! The Wildcats ended up beating the Jayhawks pretty handily, 59-21. Here are some selects from the game. These are just the ones I turned into the paper for a photo page that ran on Sunday. Stay tuned for a few more selects that didn't make the final cut into the paper!

And the best part about the game.... My dad came over to cover the game for KMBC-TV, so we got to work together on the sideline for the first time ever!!

Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet

Yesterday I got to shoot probably the most exciting assignment I've had yet: Eric Stonestreet. He is a K-State alum and apparently comes back quite often to speak to theatre classes on campus as well as attend sporting events. He was very funny in person, and had great stories and advice to tell the students. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Stonestreet decked out in K-State gear at the beginning of his talk to students in Nichols Theatre on K-State's campus Mon., Oct. 17, 2011. 

Stonestreet smiles up at a high school student who admitted how shy and scared she was to ask him a question. 

After another student was struck speechless when she ended up with the microphone, Stonestreet wandered up the stairs to sit by her, which only seemed to shell-shock her more. 

Stonestreet's Emmy award held by a faculty member of K-State's theatre department.

Stonestreet laughs as he makes a joke about not carting the Emmy with him everywhere he goes as he wanders around the stage. Stonestreet gave the Emmy to his parents as a "thank you" for their support of him early in his career. His parents live in KC, so it was an easy stop for him to get it on the way to Manhattan. 

Looking Back: Occupy MHK October 15, 2011

I'm sure by now you all have at least heard of the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place in New York. Since they began almost a month ago, several solidarity protests have popped up around the country, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago, according to a NYT Topic page about the movement.

This past Saturday, Manhattan, Kan., joined the movement with a solidarity protest called "Occupy MHK." (For those who didn't know, like me, "MHK" is the airport code for Manhattan, Kan.) The event was held in Triangle Park, which is located on the edge of Aggieville, the downtown restaurant and shopping area in Manhattan, and also across the street from the K-State campus. Protesters lined up along Anderson Road, a main East-West street in town, displaying signs and showing their support for the 99%. All ages turned out, from children to seniors, with about 100 people in total. Considering how many other events were happening at the same time in Manhattan and a K-State football game on TV, I was impressed with the number of people who came.

Here are some selects I took of people preparing for the protest and the protest itself. It was a fairly straightforward assignment, so I tried to play around with light a little more than I usually do. Hope you like it!

This picture was from early in the protest. By the time I left the amount of people had doubled. 

The man in the orange shirt in the middle of this photo is Davey Rogner, one of the co-founders of a group called Pick Up America. They came through Manhattan and I photographed them picking up trash along highway 24 earlier in the week. His story is very interesting and he is a strong believer in grassroots movements and the ability of people to create change. For this reason, he came back to Manhattan to be part of the protest even though he and his group had already made it about 45 miles down the road to Clay Center, Kan. 

Looking Back: Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Oct. 16, 2011

On Sunday I went to my first ever Ultimate Frisbee tournament on K-State's campus to grab a feature shot for today's paper. I was shocked to find out how intense the game was! I had heard of Ultimate Frisbee, but never seen it in action.

I ran into a subject from another story I had shot on Friday while I was there, and he gave me the play-by-play, which turned out to be extremely helpful in learning the game. If you don't know much about Ultimate, here is a link the coach gave me to read up on: http://www.usaultimate.org/about/ultimate/default.aspx

The team I quickly became interested in  was the K-State Alumni team. This was a group of guys who have all graduated from K-State, where they played Ultimate at different times, and have formed a cohesive group. They played well together and were just some interesting characters to watch. The game I was able to stay for these guys who were 30+ were absolutely killing the team of college kids from Colorado. I guess it goes to show that you can be good at Ultimate at any age. I found myself cheering them on more than I was taking pictures.

I hope you all enjoy! Here are a few of my favorites!

Loooong Overdue

Well I'm finally getting settled in at my new job at the Manhattan Mercury here in Manhattan, Kan. I think I finally might have some time for a few blog posts. I feel the need to catch everyone up on what I have been up to for the past month or so.

Check back daily (hopefully) for updates and a few looks back at my time here so far!

Capstone Final Project: DIggin' in the Dirt

For my final capstone project I created an essay about gardening around Columbia, Mo. I've always had an interest in gardening, and I love flowers, but I'm terrible about killing them. So I wanted to meet some people who had great success about it. Some subjects turned out to be harder to get a hold of, and a very rainy spring also made for a hard time shooting. The essay seems to have ended up focusing a little more on the community gardens that are becoming quite popular around Columbia. I had the best access there and some of my best images came from these shoots. When it came time to edit, I had a hard time fitting the flower, beauty aspect into my pictures. So I added an article pretty late in the project to cover a little more of that part. I wish I could have gotten some better interviews, but I ran out of time since I'd decided to add it so late in the process. I'm happy with what I ended up with, even though it wasn't exactly what I'd started out hoping to get. Looking back, doing a story would have been a little easier, since I have no experience doing an essay. I had a fun time with the variety though. It was a challenge to keep some sort of cohesion throughout the photos, and I talked to several different classmates to help with my editing and the flow of the photos. Overall, I learned a lot from the experience and have some images I'm really happy with.

 Diggin' in the Dirt

 

After one of the wettest winters Columbia residents have seen in recent years, residents are finally able to get outdoors and participate in a variety of gardening activities around the city. For citizens interested in growing their own produce, the Community Garden Coalition offers people a place to grow their plants and the chance to learn a little more about gardening. It’s a great way to get to know neighbors, since many of the gardens are in neighborhoods. In addition, it can help cut grocery costs on expensive produce, especially since food costs commonly rise with gas prices.

Each of the eleven community gardens is set up a little differently, but many of them offer individual plots as well as some communal space to grow additional produce. The gardeners from the Benton-Stephens community garden added a large rectangular bed for growing corn, since it needs to be grown in clumps for proper pollination, said garden coordinator Kathy Doisy. The garden also has an established herb plot, which is cared for by all the members collectively. Doisy said in past years the entire garden has been communal, but it was hard to maintain, since everyone tried to rely on someone else to work on the garden, which meant that sometimes things did not get done. As a result, this year the garden structure switched to individual plots so people would stay motivated to take care of their own area.

The newest addition to the coalition is the garden located by the Health Department on Worley Street. The gardeners held their first workday on Sat., April 23. Plots were marked and gardeners of all ages hauled rich, dark compost to fill the beds about 3 inches deep, all the while chatting and getting to know each other. The following week, the group was back in action, this time tilling the beds to mix the compost and existing soil. Now it’s up to the gardeners to plant their favorite fruits and vegetables in their chosen plot. Like the garden in the Benton-Stephens neighborhood, this garden will have communal space, but instead they will be growing fruit trees and berries.

For garden lovers who can’t commit to having their own plot, or for those who are just starting to learn about gardening and how to best grow their food, the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture offers both workshops and hands-on learning experience.

Workshops vary depending on the season, and lists of available workshops are available on the organization’s website. For others just looking to help out, the Urban Farm, located at 1209 East Smith Street, has volunteer workdays three days a week, during which people can come help out and gain a little insight into the process of growing food in an urban environment, usually with limited space.
For some Columbia residents, the garden provides a social outlet, allowing them to network, learn more about maintaining a healthy garden and also how to use that garden to help improve the environment.

The Columbia Gardening Club, founded in July 1919, has 64 members, and meets once a month during the day. Karen Blackmore, the president of the club, said members participate in activities such as planting flowers at the historical society and nursing homes, as well as competing in flower shows such as Art in Bloom.

The Discovery Garden Club is much newer, having just been established in September 2010. They also hold monthly meetings, but they meet in the evening. They also have educational presentations at their meetings and are active around the city.

Both groups came together to put on the annual Columbia Gardening Club Flower Sale on Sat., April 30. Members of the gardening clubs divide plants from their own yards, and bring them to the Trinity Presbyterian Church, where the plants are then sold to the public. Blackmore said people like to buy their plants there because then they know that these types of plants can grow and thrive in central Missouri. The Discovery Garden Club held a bake sale to raise money for their group during the plant sale. Members brought in colorful homemade flower cookies, cakes, pies, and other snacks to sell. This is the main fundraising event for both groups, who use the money to operate throughout the year.

With so many opportunities to buy flowers at hardware stores such as Lowe’s and Ace Hardware, as well as from local nurseries such as Strawberry Hill Farms, located just south of town, it’s hard to miss the gardening fever that seems to be springing up all over Columbia. There are many great chances to get involved, so go out there and get your hands a little dirty.

Capstone Works in Progress

I'm starting to get a little freaked out about my final project. This week I kind of plateaued and wasn't able to work on it much. Some plans fell through because of the rain and people not being able to work outside marking plots in the community garden, but I'm forming a plan and have much more time to dedicate to it this week and next.

Monday: Today I'm planning on contacting everyone I've talked to so far and firm up plans with them for this week. I might also try to head down to the Benton-Stephens community garden to see if anything is going on this evening.

Tuesday: I'm planning on going to the Urban Farm on College Ave after I'm done with classes. This is my longest afternoon so I have plenty of time. Everyone I've talked to said I just need to go by instead of trying to contact the group since they rarely return phone calls.

Wednesday: I'm hoping to meet with either one of my garden club women or the leader of the Benton -Stephens community garden. If they are unable to meet I might try to head to Jefferson City to the wildflower nursery, which I was unable to go to yesterday due to the fact that I couldn't drive. :(

Thursday: My plan is to call some gardening/hardware stores and see about taking pictures of the commercial side of gardening as I'm making calls today. Hopefully this will be a good day for me to come.

Saturday: I know one of the community gardens is having a work day, I believe planting seeds. I also was planning on going to the farmer's market in the morning before heading home for Easter.

Thankfully I don't have many other things going on in my other classes for the rest of the semester, so I can focus all my attention on this. I'm still trying to decide what form I want to turn it into. I'm not sure if an article would work, but I do think I'd rather do prints than multimedia. I'm still trying to decide though.

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!