Words and Light

Many photographers aren’t thrilled about event coverage, but I really don’t mind photographing events. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how pleasant a book-signing was.

Kent, the assigning editor, sent me to photograph actress Pam Grier’s book-signing at Outwrite Bookstore on Wednesday. I didn’t know who Pam Grier was — I’d never seen her blaxpoitation movies nor “The L Word” — but she was certainly very friendly. And so were her fans.

© 2010 by The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Click on the image to view the photo gallery on ajc.com.

Something else to note: This assignment was not the first I remotely transmitted, but it was the first I remotely transmitted while in my car.

(No, I wasn’t driving. I don’t think that’s legal, and even I’m not daredevil enough to attempt that.)

On a separate note: Usually, I do try to blog photos as soon as I possibly can. However, while I’m shooting for a newspaper and website, my personal policy is to blog photos only after they or the related story has been published by that newspaper/website.

This is sometimes difficult to keep track of, especially since I’ve been shooting a lot more than I’ve been blogging. But rest assured, you’ll see those photos — in due time.

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I shot my first major league baseball game on Tuesday night. Hell, I shot my first baseball game in two years on Tuesday night, too.

So you can bet it was a little rough.

© 2010 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Click on the image to view the game gallery on ajc.com. This photo was the one of the few good game action shots I captured, and turns out it's exactly the same moment as Curtis' fifth photo in the gallery. (This photo is not cropped.)

That said, I didn’t shoot very much at all. When I arrived at Turner Field for the Braves’ first of three games against the Rays, I decided immediately to take this game as a “learning by observing” experience. While I did shoot some game action — and wandered the stadium during the 2.5-hour rain delay — I mostly shadowed Curtis, the AJC photographer who shoots most of the Braves games.

© 2010 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (This ran in print but not on-line.) Recent Hillcrest High graduates Shane Thurston, Bray Clark, Brandon Burns, Kevin McKittrick and Perry Case wait out the rain delay at Turner Field before the Atlanta Braves began playing the Tampa Bay Rays.

Curtis taught me a lot, both in what he said and in what he did. The Getty photographer (Kevin Cox) and Pouya Dianat were also really helpful.

Next game I shoot — and I’ve been told I’ll be shooting plenty this summer — I’ll be making more pictures, and transmitting them live. It’s been a while since the last time I shot baseball, so I hope I can get my timing back!

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If not for the rain this morning, I might’ve done a ridealong with another Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer.

But because of the rain, that shoot was postponed and I was assigned last-minute to do a standalone assignment: World Oceans Day at the Georgia Aquarium.

Click on the image to view the on-line gallery at ajc.com. © 2010 by The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

One of the photos will also run in the Metro section in tomorrow’s print edition!

After that assignment and a social media training session, I talked to the other photographers until an hour past my shift. A lot of the conversation was good ol’ shop talk; a lot of it also consisted of advice and encouragement. I’m pretty excited to be working alongside these photographers.

That, and I feel very young among them. And being the only female daily shooter (the other female shooter works for the Sunday edition) as well as being the intern — well… I’ll just say that it’s probably a very good thing that I grew up as the middle child with two brothers!

Tomorrow will be great.

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