Words and Light

These are the shoes I wear most often:

In February.

They’re comfortable and light, and they’re usually what I wear when I do photojournalism.

XV: March 19.

On XV (March 19), I wandered around a developing neighborhood, which I’m covering for a capstone project. I’ll blog more about that project later, but that day took me about a quarter-mile out of the neighborhood, to make pictures of its proximity to East Broadway/WW.

Then a freak snowfall and some rain hit Columbia… but I still had to make some pictures.

XIX: March 25.

And when I went out yesterday (XIX), I got stuck in the mud.

And had to jump out of my shoes.

And then had to gingerly jump back into the mud to retrieve my shoes.

I spent the next few hours walking around in just my stocking feet — in a real estate office, in my car, on campus — because my shoes were so muddy and would have trucked still-wet clumps of dirt all over the place.

The thing is, these are my most waterproof shoes. Which means, I should really invest in some good photojournalism-y shoes. Soon.

Read Full Post »

In capstone, we’re all working on a a group documentary project about Broadway.

That’s Broadway the street, mind you.

I campaigned heavily for Broadway to be our project topic because I think Broadway epitomizes the city of Columbia. It’s got the eclectic/trendy downtown, City Hall, historic residential neighborhoods, student apartments, developing neighborhoods, big commercial strip malls and it’s the oldest street in the city.

My contribution to the project? I’ll be working on the development aspect. Broadway “began” where downtown is now, and ever since, it’s been expanding and developing on its western and eastern ends. So I’ve been exploring those two “ends” of Broadway.

Today, I went to the eastern end — past Hwy 63, where I’ve never been before. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was hoping to find a developing neighborhood whose growth has been stunted by the economic crisis and recession. Sure enough, I found that neighborhood.

The sales office at The Vineyards, a partially-developed neighborhood on East Broadway/East Hwy WW.

The speed limit on East Broadway past Hwy 63 is 45; I was going at 35 because I wanted to look around as I was driving. But it’s a two-lane road, and when I saw that the two drivers behind me were getting impatient with me, I threw on my turn signal and drove into a neighborhood. After a quick drive around, I observed that:

• each lot was fairly large and not every lot had a house built yet,
• mailboxes were completely identical to each other (much like those in the Village of Cherry Hill), and
• quite a few houses had signs indicating they were for sale or sold.

I parked at the clubhouse near the neighborhood’s entrance and approached a woman who was walking with her young son. After introducing myself as a photojournalism student looking into development in Columbia, I was pleasantly surprised when the woman — Becky — said she was a builder before the economic crisis hit.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

This evening, a few hundred bicyclists, unicyclists, hipsters, musicians and more marched through downtown Columbia to kick off the seventh annual True/False Film Fest.

It was the March March parade.

March March participants and onlookers gather in front of the parade's destination, the Missouri Theatre on Ninth Street.

Erin and I were editing at The Columbia Missourian when we decided to take a break and make some pictures of the parade. Accompanied by David and every other photographer in town, we went downtown and, I’m confident, had a great, fun time.

David (left) looks a little too happy to see a Teletubby at the corner of Locust and Ninth Streets.

For those of you who may not know, True/False is a three-day documentary film festival that showcases dozens of pieces and that has steadily developed a reputation as a solid film event. The festival attracts visitors from all over the nation and the world, and it tends to bring out even the more reclusive residents of Columbia.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

This afternoon, I returned to the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture‘s office/house to make more pictures for my one-day/five-points-of-view story.

Adam talks about how CCUA is keeping its six hens in a greenhouse until the weather is warmer and the coop is built.

Another photographer was taking photos of the hens inside the greenhouse while everyone was out in back to look at CCUA’s chicken tractor. The photographer must have left, because a few minutes later, someone said, “Hey — are the chickens supposed to be outside?”

The chickens were on the run!

And they almost made it to the road.

Adam herds the chickens away from the road and back toward the greenhouse.

So why did the chickens (almost) cross the road? — Because they were tired of being cooped up!

Ha. Ha. Ha?

I’m really loving how I can milk all these old chicken jokes and references. And I think I’m good for my one-day/five-points-of-view story for capstone… I think.

Read Full Post »