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.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
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.
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!
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!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
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.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Hoping to Become an Idol
For my capstone 1-day project, I went to the Mizzou Idol compeition, following Monica Ayala-Talavera, a sophomore at MU. I met up with her at her sound check and stayed with her throughout the evening. I had a good time meeting her family, and enjoyed the behind the scenes look during the second year of the Mizzou Idol competition. I hope that you enjoy experiencing the competition with Monica as well.
Makeup sits on Monica Ayala-Talavera’s dresser as she prepares to compete in the Mizzou Idol competition on Feb.18, 2011. Monica, a sophomore, was one of 13 contestants in the second year of the competition.
Monica puts on her mascara in her apartment before heading to Jesse Auditorium. As she got ready, Monica relaxed with her boyfriend and mother, who was in town for the competition, by watching YouTube videos.
Monica sways backstage to calm down before her performance in the first round of the Mizzou Idol competition. For her first song, Monica sang “Listen” by Beyonce Knowles.
Monica claps for a fellow contestant as finalists are announced during the competition. Four wildcard entries sang for a chance to be the 13th contestant in the competition. Then each contestant sang one song, and received comments from a panel of judges. Then the contestants were narrowed down to four singers for the second round.
Monica stands and listens to comments from the judges after her performance in the first round. The judges had mostly negative comments, saying she chose a song that was too big for her.
Monica sits alone in the dressing room after her performance in the first round. She didn’t feel like she preformed well, saying her mouth went dry part of the way through her song. Monica didn’t make it to the second round of the competition, and went to sit in the audience with her mother and boyfriend after the finalists were announced.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
POYi Feature Picture Story
For the past three weeks, the University of Missouri School of Journalism has hosted the Pictures of the Year International competition. I spent a lot of free time there, but one of my favorite categories to watch is the feature picture story. There were well over 200 entries in the category, and it took several hours for the 3 judges to get through them all.
The picture stories that were voted in during the first round usually took a little more time for the judges to look at. Many of the stories that were voted out were called within seconds of appearing on the screen. That definitely made me think that a picture story that immediately caught the attention of the judges, either because it was visually interesting or it made them curious, were the ones that made it further in the competition.
The story needs to be strong without relying on the captions. It needs to interest viewers enough that they want to read the captions and the story, and look at the pictures more. If you do have a story summary and captions, you need to make sure they match the story. You can't insert missing information or try to change the meaning of the story by simply putting the information in the story. It causes a disconnect, and it made the judges quickly vote out the story.
They also strongly emphasized the importance of good editing. The story needs to be tightly edited. There needs to not be repetition in the images, but they need to flow together, like we have talked about in capstone. You don't want the picture story to be too much to get thorough, and there were times they discussed that the story just had one picture too many and they said it could ruin the story.
Another important thing they emphasized was to look at stories in a new way. They voted out many stories from Haiti just when they heard where it was from. They said they wanted to see a fresh take on it, instead of the same old predictable pictures. The edgy, different stories were many of the ones that made it into the final round and received awards. I think that's important to remember. You need to put your style into everything you shoot and make sure if you're covering a topic that has already been done before that it's new and different. The judges were also impressed with stories that required lots of access. There are stories that are in your neighborhood that need to be told and you could have the best access.
The final thing I noticed was important was the ending of the story. DON'T GO FOR THE CLICHE! Be creative and think about what is a fitting ending to your story, not just a sunset or a night picture. You have to be more creative. Sometimes it can be the make or break factor of your story.
The picture stories that were voted in during the first round usually took a little more time for the judges to look at. Many of the stories that were voted out were called within seconds of appearing on the screen. That definitely made me think that a picture story that immediately caught the attention of the judges, either because it was visually interesting or it made them curious, were the ones that made it further in the competition.
The story needs to be strong without relying on the captions. It needs to interest viewers enough that they want to read the captions and the story, and look at the pictures more. If you do have a story summary and captions, you need to make sure they match the story. You can't insert missing information or try to change the meaning of the story by simply putting the information in the story. It causes a disconnect, and it made the judges quickly vote out the story.
They also strongly emphasized the importance of good editing. The story needs to be tightly edited. There needs to not be repetition in the images, but they need to flow together, like we have talked about in capstone. You don't want the picture story to be too much to get thorough, and there were times they discussed that the story just had one picture too many and they said it could ruin the story.
Another important thing they emphasized was to look at stories in a new way. They voted out many stories from Haiti just when they heard where it was from. They said they wanted to see a fresh take on it, instead of the same old predictable pictures. The edgy, different stories were many of the ones that made it into the final round and received awards. I think that's important to remember. You need to put your style into everything you shoot and make sure if you're covering a topic that has already been done before that it's new and different. The judges were also impressed with stories that required lots of access. There are stories that are in your neighborhood that need to be told and you could have the best access.
The final thing I noticed was important was the ending of the story. DON'T GO FOR THE CLICHE! Be creative and think about what is a fitting ending to your story, not just a sunset or a night picture. You have to be more creative. Sometimes it can be the make or break factor of your story.
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