The chance of snow was 30 percent this evening, and while I was at work, several people were tweeting about flurries in Columbia. I was excited to take snow photos once I got out of work, but whatever snow had been falling was reduced to a very light mist when I left the building. Undeterred, I took a gander around downtown anyway.
Once, while staying at my roommate Chelsea’s house in St. Louis for a few days, her father pointed out the wet pavement in a movie we were watching. I asked him what he meant. He explained that art directors tend to wet the pavement before a nighttime shoot — regardless of whether the weather is supposed to be clear — for aesthetic purposes.
To this day, every time I see wet pavement during a nighttime scene in a movie or in real life, I remember what Chelsea’s dad said.
So tonight, I set about looking for wet pavement.
Wet pavement in an alley in downtown Columbia. The door is the employees' back entrance to Sycamore Restaurant.
I was crouching down and snapping some photos in this alley for a few minutes before a car drove up halfway. (You can still see its headlights in the righthand side of the photo.) I stayed put and noticed a figure approaching. All I could hope was that the person would enter the big orange-lit door — and, sure enough, she did.
Quickly, I refocused the lens and snapped the photo right when she was framed in the rectangle of light.
Here’s my runner-up for the day:
The Tiger Hotel entrance, shown from the stairwell of the parking garage on Eighth and Cherry Streets.
As I wrote in my previous post, I’m hoping not to have to resort to nighttime photography for every day of this 30-day challenge.
Today in Picture Story class, we watched a video chronicling photographer Jim Brandenburg’s self-challenge to take one photograph a day for 90 days in his extensive backyard near Ely, Minn. He undertook this project in 1994 — an age predating digital technology and 16GB memory cards, but photographers of his pedigree were unfazed by shooting thousands of frames per day while on assignment. I encourage you to check out the gallery. Each photo is technically and aesthetically wonderful, and the visual variety is stunning.
I’m not sure exactly what prompted him, but David suddenly proposed a challenge: Each of us should post a new photo to our blogs every day for 30 days. We accepted this challenge.
That’s not why I’m furious.
I’m furious because I have to read this book:
"Money-Driven Medicine" by Maggie Mahar
I’m in my final undergraduate semester, and only now am I taking my first-ever political science course. The class is Public Policy, and for our first paper, we are to read this entire book and write a book review.
That’s not (exactly) why I’m furious.
I’m furious because I’m learning, in detail, about the failures of the American health care system according to one author-journalist.
I’m furious because I procrastinated in starting this book, which has prevented me from going out and making pictures and blogging a real photo for my first entry in this 30-day series.
I’m furious because, although I’m far more interested in being a photographer than in being a student, my academics and work schedule this semester are severely limiting the time and opportunities I could have to pursue better photography.
My weekly schedule, not including my occasional photo-editing shifts on Fridays, Saturdays, and/or Sundays. The purple are classes; the green are worktime or photo-editing duties.
I’m excited about this 30-day challenge. I want to incorporate a theme or motif — and soon, so I can pursue that for the remainder of the challenge. I just hope I can find enough time to make good pictures to blog every day.
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.
I’m tired of seeing student photographers/journalists getting ripped off and taken advantage of.
I’m tired of knowing that companies — big and small — and individual clients think they can offer us little to no pay or, even better, “exposure” and a credit line in exchange for our hard work.
I’m tired of seeing fellow (photo)journalists willingly give up their work for little to no pay and/or not realize they should charge for their work.
I attribute my fury to two incidents/events in the past week: First, a large company’s trying to take advantage of another photographer and me, and second, a Twitter debate over content farms.
How a big-time company tried to rip me off
Almost two years ago, Esten, some other friends and I hopped in a car and drove 1200 miles roundtrip to Mangum, Okla., for the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby. For three days in this annual event, rattlesnake hunters comb through the nearby hills in search of rattlesnakes, which are brought back to town and butchered. We were there purely for the novelty of it all — and to photograph it, of course.
We produce and distribute one of the Web’s most popular travel guide products and have selected the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby to be included in the guide.
We are in the process of enhancing our listing with photos and would like to request an image from you (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_dunn/2458007330/) that can be used alongside the description of the event.
The image will appear alongside our editorial review of the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby and will go live on http://www.whatsonwhen.com, http://www.frommers.com and selected partner sites, reaching around 5 million unique users a month and generating 30 million page views. Continue Reading »
David challenged us to find another sequence for Picture Story for today. I hoped to emulate my earlier sequence and to expand on the Columbia nightlife. When work ran late on both Friday and Saturday nights, I was left with only Sunday.
My plan was to photograph the sun setting over the Missouri River, along the Katy Trail. Using the D3’s intervalometer, I did photograph the sunset at one frame every 20 seconds, but because I had been in such a hurry to set up my tripod, my framing was off.
This is one of the photos in the sequence, but after I straightened and cropped it according to the horizon line.
So I quickly switched up my tripod and exposure settings and shot another sequence as the sun’s light faded away. I shot on manual exposure at ISO 320, f/5 and 1/250, and took one frame every 20 seconds for almost 20 minutes.
The frames below were shot three minutes apart and do well to represent the passage of time.
I can’t find any vaguely objective sources for this factoid. But there’s little question in my mind that Columbia is a good college town, especially with downtown on the doorstep of three higher education institutes.
Yesterday was Thursday, which means last night in every college town and most bars was “thirsty Thursday.” Usually on weeknights, I stay in, but last night when I was out and about, I saw that thirsty Thursday also means the cops are on standby in case things get a little rough.
Thursday night.
Friday morning. Or any typical morning.
Is it strange that, for me, it was somewhat disarming to see two police cars (one is out of the frame) simply idling outside of downtown establishments?
Our plan, after hitting up lower Manhattan and Wall Street, was to cross the Brooklyn Bridge by foot, eat dinner in that borough and return to Manhattan after dark.
Our plan had to change when we were done with Wall Street just after noon.
So we went to Little Italy.
Touching up Marilyn Monroe, in Little Italy.
We walked around, thought about having a second lunch (we’d bought food earlier from the vendor with the longest line on Wall Street), decided against it, had gelato instead and then — upon realizing we still had at least three hours to kill before going to Brooklyn — took the train uptown for a detour to Columbia University.
Pretty big detour.
As we were changing subway lines in Times Square station, we heard the strangest music.
Edwardo Alvarado.
It was a wizened man on a keyboard. Whatever he was playing sounded like something you’d hear while on an animatronics ride in Disney World — it was lively, fast-paced and not something anyone would put on the radio.
The man was Prof. Edwardo Alvarado, and Jeff and I looked him up after we returned from the Big Apple. We found a Village Voice article about Alvarado, complete with Alvarado’s background and how he became a sanctioned performer with Music Under New York. We also found a video story by the Associated Press:
(You should really check out the video — this music is not to be missed.)
I’ve said it before: Black-and-white film just lends this beautiful quality to any modern situation. It’s almost something of a throwback effect. The motorcycle and NYPD car in the above photo give away the fact that the exposure was taken within the past few years, but the black-and-white impart almost a quality of romantic timelessness. It’s beautiful.
At least, I’d like to think so.
Jeff and I continued our walking tour of lower Manhattan by taking Broadway to Wall Street. Lower Manhattan is basically a series of canyon-like streets. I hope nobody has plants in their office windows — the buildings are so tall and close together that any window-side plants probably get no more than a few hours of even indirect sunlight.
Not quite the Great White Way… at least, not this part of Broadway.
After a quick stop at a Bank of America and a Borders bookstore on Broadway, we went down Wall Street. Be still my heart.
Three years ago, I was a freshman staff photographer for The Maneater student newspaper, and I was in enemy territory to cover the 2007 Border Showdown basketball game.
With former Maneater photo editor Ryan beside me, I was shooting only my second basketball game ever. Hell, it was also only my second sports event to cover as a photographer. I’d long overcome my timidity as a student photojournalist, but at that point, I had no confidence in my ability as a sports photographer.
But I came out of that game all right. And I captured this moment, which has remained in my portfolio:
Missouri forward Leo Lyons tries to hold onto the ball as Kansas guards Sherron Collins and Brandon Rush grab at Lyons' forearm on Jan. 15, 2007, at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan. The Tigers attempted a failed three-point play in the game's final 11 seconds and lost the Border Showdown 80-77 to the Jayhawks.
Missouri lost that game. And the Tigers have lost every Border Showdown basketball game since, with the exception of one in Feb. 2009. And the Tigers will probably lose tonight’s game against No. 2 Kansas.
But, even though Jeff has turned the TV off with the Tigers down 20 points at halftime, I’m sure it’s at least a good game to shoot.
That I’m finally in my capstone is a little daunting. Fortunately, we’re going lightly — for now. David is encouraging us to be active equally in making pictures and blogging. For partly that reason, I’m going to try to inject a little more life into this blog. Not everything will be strictly journalism-related, as has usually been the case.
On Friday, David presented to us a few examples of photographic sequences. Although we don’t technically have anything due until this coming Friday, I played around a little with photographic sequences last night, starting with the ever-patient Jeff.
Before you get in a tizzy over how these photos look, let me explain something about Jeff’s bathroom mirror.
It’s divided into thirds. And the middle panel is on hinges, too.
Hopefully that will help you understand some of the mirrored wackiness in the following photos that illustrate a sequence of shaving.
My original plan was to shoot the entire process using one lens (an 85/1.4 on a D700) and from one vantage point. This became boring.
It’s fairly ridiculous how long it’s taken me to resume posting photos from my weekend in New York City last summer, but hey — at least it’s getting done, right?
I considered just producing a slideshow of all the photos and posting it on my Web site, once I’ve revamped and launched that. I’ll probably do that anyway. But the weekend can’t be summarized by merely a series of photos, so because I want to publish commentary and not simply extended captions, here’s the second of a few more New York City photo blog posts.
After hitting up Central Park on Aug. 7, Jeff and I took the subway to lower Manhattan and the financial district. Having strayed into economics dorkdom for a few months last year, I couldn’t resist not visiting this part of the Big Apple.
The directory inside the World Financial Center.
We also took a peek at Ground Zero.
This photo was taken at the only gap in the construction barriers that allowed any visibility straight into the construction zone.
I had visited Ground Zero the last time I was in New York, in 2004. I don’t remember much, but not much had been done by that point anyway.
Taken with a disposable film camera, from the deck of a lower Manhattan apartment building.
Missouri sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the Missouri players walk off the field after losing the Texas Bowl game.
Which means, on New Year’s Eve, I shot my last college football game.
Carrying two backpacks (one covered by the pink jacket), a camera messenger bag and a 400mm lens on a monopod, on the way to the media entrance at Reliant Stadium. Blame the wind for the bad hair. Photo by Jeff.
Okay — more accurately, the Texas Bowl game was the last college football game I’ll ever have shot as an undergraduate photojournalism student. And boy, was it a tough one.
But boy, did the Navy throw Missouri — and me — a curveball with the Texas Bowl game.
Marching Mizzou bandmembers Elysia Gooding and Alyssa Cowman perform as members of the Naval Academy band pass by and shout their cheer before the game outside the Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Going into the game, I had a few thoughts that shook me up a bit:
Being on winter break, I’ve had more time to patrol the Twittersphere than I do during the academic year. In the past day or so, I’ve noticed more tweets about unpaid internships and the dis/advantages thereof.
Earlier, @greglinchtweeted a link to a Christian Science Monitor opinion piece asking, “What if interns went on strike?” The author argues that hard-working interns are often not guaranteed or even tempted with employment with a company, despite their value in the workplace:
Interns are valuable. And as part of the workforce, they are expected to do many of the same tasks that professionals do (along with the menial jobs that no one cares to do).
Many people have, at some point in their lives, worked without pay. Some start businesses, others devote time to charities or nonprofits, and still more apprentice in lucrative mechanical fields. I am all for entrepreneurs, mechanics, and bleeding hearts.
However, conceiving of the unpaid internship as a means to secure paying jobs is as archaic as the corporate ladder model of employment itself. We no longer live in a society where hard work at one company ensures that we will someday reach the zenith of the American dream.
Greg also tweeted a link to a blog post with an internship opportunity offer from famed war photojournalist James Nachtwey‘s studio. Like so many other journalism internships out there, Nachtwey’s offer is unpaid. Unlike so many other journalism internships out there, Nachtwey is ultra-specific about what entry skills he wants his eventual intern to have. These include proficiency with particular scanning equipment and certain Photoshop tasks.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting a high standard for an incoming intern — but for those kinds of higher-end technical skills and know-how? For no pay? For at least three days a week for three months? In New York City?
Nachtwey is out of his mind.
But let’s back up and examine the general idea of unpaid internships altogether.
Many larger workplaces — such as big-name newspapers/magazines, law firms and more — don’t pay their interns for a variety of reasons. In many (or, I hope, in most) cases, these workplaces simply don’t have the budget for paid internships but still want to extend an offer so young people interested in that industry can still get good experience. In other cases, some workplaces justify not paying their interns by asserting that the internship experience is so valuable that the experience itself is payment.
It’s finals week at many universities and colleges, including Missouri. Because I’m not entirely engrossed in scouring the on-line Oxford English Dictionary for my History of the English Language take-home exam, I’ve taken inspiration from an old 10,000 Words post and am instead announcing my journalism-minded goals and plans for this winter break.
(For those of you not familiar with the 10,000 Words blog — it’s a great resource for journalists/journalism students where blogger Mark S. Luckie provides tutorials, pontificates on relevant issues/questions in the industry and frequently refers to other examples of good journalism and/or branding.)
Without further ado, here’s what this journalism senior is doing over winter break:
Revamping my Web site, especially the setup and some CSS. I’ll be changing some things around in my photo portfolio section and adding my written reporting clips. And nope, I’m not going to link to it now — once it’s more complete, I’ll post the URL and invite everyone and anyone to provide any feedback/criticism/praise.
Going through the last two months’ photos. Thanks to projects, I haven’t had time to go over my recent Missourian assignments or my just-for-fun photos (Texas Renaissance Festival?). But starting next week, I’ll have time to do that, as well as post them for you to see here.
Continuing/finishing posting New York City summer photos. Okay, so these photos are about four and a half months old now, but I’m still proud of and excited about them. So you can expect to see those soon, too.
Tweaking my photo final projects. For one photo class, I produced an audio slideshow about on-site beer brewing at the Texas Renaissance Festival. For another photo class, I created a two-story package about what happens on a dairy farm after the farmer is killed by lightning. Both these projects are complete and on-line, as of yesterday, but I’m going to clean them up a little more before linking them to my Web site and sharing them with the general public.
Covering the Texas Bowl game for The Missourian. As far as I know, Ivy and I are the only Missourian photo people credentialed to go — and she’s the designated editor, which means she’ll be in the photo workroom for most of the game. Which means I’m the only actual Missourian photographer for the game. Which is a lot of pressure. But hell if I’m not excited.
my final project for Electronic Photojournalism (about a dairy farm) and
my portfolio Web site.
These projects are the main reason why I haven’t had much time to continue posting New York City photos and other photography expeditions I’ve recently had. Rest assured, these blog entries will come soon. I’m hoping to unveil my portfolio Web site and share my final projects in the middle of next week, and to pick up the NYC and other photos during winter break.
But in the meantime, I’m thrilled to spend the summer in Atlanta and honored to receive the internship offer. I really can’t wait to work in a larger newsroom and be in a new city. And I’m pumped to photograph the bowl game — I’ve come a long way in my football photography this semester, and I’m excited for the opportunity to cover a big game.
the judge rejected my written apology and offered a second opportunity to send another apology,
I declined that second opportunity and did not send another apology; and
the judge declared a 30-day ban for me to enter the Boone County Courthouse effective Dec. 15 unless I filed a request for a hearing.
What the vast majority of those people do not know is this: I never declined that second opportunity. Additionally, the 30-day ban has — as of yesterday around 10:45 a.m. — been lifted.
In this entry, I will attempt the following:
explain how it was that I’d never declined that second opportunity,
divulge all relevant details, including associated court documents and e-mails,
discuss the importance of reporters’ getting ALL sides of a story and
express my gratitude to the many who helped me and supported me through this tough time.
This account will be told chronologically. As was the case with my first account pertaining to this incident, it will be long. But so many people have read my account about how I made my mistake and tried to atone for it, and I can only hope that at least half that many will read this follow-up.
How it happened
As was published first in aColumbia Daily Tribune article and then picked up by the Associated Press, I received a statement from the court on Friday, Nov. 20. This statement came almost a full month after the Missourian director of photography, the photo editor who edited with me on that assignment and I sent letters of apology to the judge.
Click on the image to view/download the full-resolution PDF file.
Two weekends ago, Jeff and I spent three days in Houston for my brother Matt’s wedding.
Matt.
Emily. (With some negative scratches in her hair.)
Although we were not the wedding photographers, we both brought cameras. Of course. Jeff shot digital, which means his photos were up and ready the next day. I shot film, which means my photos are just now ready.
There’s a reason why I shot film, and particularly Tri-X 400 film. I’d grown up poring over photos shot by LIFE photographers. The black-and-white photos of JFK and Jackie’s wedding always struck me as wonderful wedding photography, and I wanted to capture a similar, candid look using black-and-white film.
In the bride’s dressing room an hour before the wedding, Emily reads a card sent up to her from Matt.
As a bridesmaid, I had special access to the bride’s dressing room at the Richmond House, where the wedding and reception were held. I knew the hired wedding photographer wasn’t scheduled to arrive until shortly before the ceremony, so I happily took it upon myself to capture some small moments among the girls.
A player (yet to be identified) embraces Missouri junior tailback Derrick Washington (No. 24) after Washington ran a 13-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
But I’m not here to ponder, consider or explain how or why the Tigers secured their victory.
Senior Leslie Horn reaches out to senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon after Missouri defeated Kansas State 38-12 at the Billy Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kan.
Rather, this entry’s title refers to the facts that:
I am (surprisingly) reasonably comfortable shooting college football now.
All this means that, now that I know the game and know I can get the action, I can and should focus on working different angles and getting shots unlike what editors, fans and readers expect to see from a football game.
But as it is for now, I’ve got a few action shots from the game I’d like to share with you.
As I have previously mentioned, Jeff and I escaped the clutches of the greater D.C. area to spend three days in New York City in the beginning of August.
Strawberry Fields in Central Park on Friday, Aug. 7.
We spent those three days seeing the sights, mostly in Manhattan and mostly through our camera viewfinders. Jeff had his D700; I had my 30D and Olympus OM-1.
Here’s the conundrum: I shot on black-and-white film. Which means I have color photos (from my 30D) as well as black-and-white. The color photos are wonderfully vibrant, whereas the black-and-white photos lend a more old-fashioned look at the city. Because of the different moods they present, I’ll post the color photos separately from the black-and-white photos.
But today, I’m starting out with a bit of each.
Our bus from D.C. arrived two blocks from the New York Times building. So of course we stopped by the NYT before doing anything else.
We arrived via bus in Manhattan on Thursday evening. After swinging by the New York Times building — no longer in Times Square — we dropped off our luggage at my uncle’s apartment in the Upper East Side and ate dinner at a small, nearby diner. Where I had homemade ravioli for the first time ever. It was incredible.
By the way, here’s a photo of fellow Review staffers and me at the New York Times building in 2004, back when it was still in Times Square. Did you know Times Square was named after The New York Times?
From left to right: Andrew (future business manager), Armin (future sports editor and managing editor), Mrs. van der Pol (adviser), me (future features editor and EIC), Chanel (future news editor), Morgan (future scrivener, features editor and managing editor) and Anna. As staff of our high school newspaper, we spent spring break in the city for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association conference.
Jeff and I started out the next morning (Friday, Aug. 7) at Central Park, which was only a few blocks from my uncle’s apartment. We didn’t spend that much time there, though — lower Manhattan and Brooklyn were calling our name. But of course we took some photos.
Panoramic view from the north end of the lake in Central Park West.
This will probably be the only entry with both color and black-and-white photos. I’ll be posting more photos over the next week or so. Stay tuned!
Third Eye Blind lead singer Stephan Jenkins likes to perform barefoot, apparently.
As I wrote last week, I photographed a Third Eye Bind concert last Tuesday. Two projects and a wedding weekend later, and upon the insistence of my friend Cat, I’m finally posting these photos.
Third Eye Blind guitarist Tony Fredianelli.
When I was assigned to cover the concert, one of the editors referred to Third Eye Blind as “everyone’s favorite band from 2000.” Since I’ve had my head (and ears) stuck in a 1960s/70s rut for the past 21 years, I wasn’t sure I was familiar with the band’s music.
So Jeff had me listen to six or seven songs. And of those, I immediately recognized at least five from the opening chords.
It was definitely a throwback to contemporary radio play during my adolescence, and it definitely helped explain why the concert at The Blue Note was sold out.
Words and Light 