Tag Archives: CDA Press

Day 31

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Today started out with an in-person portrait of a member of the GOP community in Coeur d’Alene. That took all of 2 minutes. There was some good news afterwards, I’m going to be reimbursed the miles that I’ve driven since Tess left and from now on! That was really exciting to hear! So I started work on calculating my past miles and in the middle of doing that, one of the reporters asked if I could get a few shots for him. The first set would be a story that he was doing about a housing developer that is selling a lot of lots in our area, and the last photo was for a story he was doing about a new Tesla Motors supercharging station that was recently built near Hayden. He’s having a really hard time getting info on them which is strange, it’s like they want to keep them a secret when they are so blatantly public.

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Day 30

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Today was another low key Saturday. My day started off with a feature story about a therapeutic ranch that rescues and trains horses, it was a challenging experience because it was new however it was really fun and a great change in scenery. The kids that I was working with in these photos were a hoot, totally okay with the camera and really fun to work with. I’ve found that I really like working with kids because they are usually less camera shy than adults especially when they have their friends around; and when they hear you are from the paper all they want is to be in that photo. Maybe it’s just my inner kid feeling at home. Maureen wanted me to get 5 shots to go with the story since it would be running Monday and that is usually a pretty thin paper.

Next, and still in Hayden, there was a Girl Scout’s automotive 101 class that we were doing a story about. It was less about the class and more about the girls in the scout troop… these were all older girls, high school juniors and seniors who had been in this troop since kindergarten and elementary school.

Lastly, there was a GOP Lincoln day dinner going on at the resort. This was fun, but it ended up being a waiting game because our information was wrong. I was told that the keynote speaker was going to be going on at 6pm, when in reality the dinner started at 6 and the keynote speaker didn’t get up to speak until 9:15pm… it was kind of a fun party though. There was a lot of auction items and raffle items, mainly a gun raffle, I thought that was a little stereotypical of them, but it made me laugh anyway.

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Day 29

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So since I worked nearly a 12 hour day yesterday, Shawn told me not to worry about coming in until around 2pm today and that was really nice. However, when I got to the Press all the photo assignments were taken and so I did some resizing of photos for the boss, and some editing for an upcoming story. Also, a mom of one of the girls I photographed at the Gymfest wanted some prints. Good news!

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Day 28

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Shawn was off today and so I had a long day ahead of me. There was a keynote speaker that I needed to get at the resort but first, Emma has had me printing out photos of the cities that we’ve lived in or visited that I’d taken; so I went up on top of the parking structure at the resort and got some shots of the city for the set that I’m printing. After the keynote speaker I went on a tour with one of our reporters to Titan Spring. Some students with the STEM after school program took a tour to see the facility and get information about possible jobs and internships. They needed a couple for daily and then a couple for the NIBJ. And yet again, there was basketball.

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Day 27

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I got to feed squirrels out of my hand today! We did a story on some unlikely mascots that the county courthouse has had around the grounds for about 10 years. They feed them each day and give them water. It was really fun! These photos are in city park which is across the street from the courthouse, the guards will feed them over in the park and the squirrels will follow over to the courthouse eventually and they get quite a group sometimes.

That’s not how today started however, I first went to a middle school career day and got some photos of the kids for that. And the day ended with a high school robot demonstration. It was a good day!

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Day 26

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Today was a nice but challenging day I went to a dress rehearsal for a youth play Pocahontas. It was challenging because I’d never shot a play like that before… but I learned that I can’t be afraid to get in people’s faces if I have to, they’ll usually live through the experience. And then there was basketball.

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Day 25

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It was the first Saturday that I’ve worked here at the Press and it started out really weird! When I walked in the employee entrance all the lights were off, I was expecting it to be a joke! There was no one working, so I got to my desk and thank goodness there is a window in my cubicle because I didn’t know where the light switch was. A little bit later I got a text from the reporter that was working and she asked if I was on my way to the legislative meeting down at the library… I was never told a time so I wasn’t on my way, but it was just down the street and I figured I’d go a few minutes early so I could walk. It was a legislative meeting alright.

Next on the agenda was a gymnastics event happening down at the resort, apparently there were athletes from 11 states and also a bunch of locations in Canada. That was really fun to see, but gymnastics photos are tricky to take! Very different from the other sports that I’ve shot. I went yesterday too and determined to go back because I didn’t like any of my photos. This time I got some that I liked alright.

Thinking that since Shawn was still gone and it was still only me taking photos, I went to look for a stand alone after the gymnastics thing. It was a really sunny day and so I went down by the beach and the City Park to look for people. I found this guy with a metal detector and a go-pro on his head looking for stuff in the park and so I got a photo of him, he was actually pretty nice.

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Day 24

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The first assignment of the day was actually pretty fun! Not that they aren’t usually, but I didn’t think I’d ever photograph a welding competition. This made for some fun photos, the shooting of those photos was pretty tricky though, I had to wear a welding hood so I couldn’t really see my camera and that meant I had to spray and pray. After sorting through the mass of photos I got a couple good shots. Next it was time for an update on the construction of Winton Elementary which is scheduled for completion at the end of this year. I feel like I’ve shot more construction photos lately than anything else… but that’s ok, the environment and the lines, dynamic lighting and unusual subject matter can be really fun some times.  And then, there was basketball.

Oh, and I shot our vending machine.

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Day 23

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Today was the first day that Shawn would be out of town in Boise for state basketball… I was the lone photographer. It started out with an interesting assignment though, Maureen got a call from a gentleman who just sold some of his property to a developer but on the property was an old stage coach station and an old post office, like 1800s old. So a reporter and I drove out to Hayden and got some info and photos, sadly both buildings would be torn down and so we were trying to document the area before that happened.

Next, the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center was filming a public service announcement about domestic violence that will go hand in hand with the ads that aired during the super bowl. The lighting was such a treat! And the last assignment for the day was a teen dental party in which teens can go and get dental screenings and sealants for free which would normally cost $400 a person. It was a good day today. Lots of prayers today and I was feeling it.

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Day 22

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It was a really busy day! On the bright side though, I got a free printer! A Canon Pixma Pro-100! There were two that came free with the new 1Dx cameras that the news room purchased, they wanted to reserve one for a photo contest but Shawn and Mike gave me the other for the good work. I was so stoked! I’m excited I get to print more now!

The first stop was a safety fair; this was a double assignment. The first assignment was to get a shot of this enthusiastic instructor teaching about combustable dust safety. This was for the North Idaho Business Journal. I also had to get two other shots for the daily paper which was nice, I learned a lot about combustable dust and overhead utilities! Next I had an “In Person” appointment with a pastor of a local church. Then there was a request for a photo at McEuen Park for the story that was being written about the parks reclamation. Last but not least, I was getting ready to go home and Mike comes in and asks if I can go to a bridal expo and bring back four photos to do a spread on the event… I had never needed to bring back that many before! That was nice and then, I finally got to head home… it was a long day but a good one, I learned so much and saw improvement.

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Day 21

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Today was AWESOME! Prayers answered. It started out with Jeff, one of the reporters, telling me that the construction next door was a few months ahead of schedule. Shawn and I went promptly out to the site and took some photos and got some video. When we got back inside, he let me know that I could use Tess’ camera and her key and her parking spot, and lenses… wow. I was a tad overwhelmed but stoked! A 1Dx and a 24-70mm f/4 make for way sharper photos and better low light performance, and I’m all for that! So, like I said, today was off to a really good start, then I was off to a health awareness activity at Lakes Middle School. I then went to Cricket’s Restaurant to try and find someone with a dog, they were having a viewing party for the best in show dog show. That was on my way to basketball. It was Lakeland vs. Lake City tonight. The best part about the day though was that I felt like I had improved.

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Day 19

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Woah, today was a really busy day for a change! Crazy busy in fact, but it was a good change, that morning meeting business is working out. Shawn said that he would rather have too much and not need it all than have too little and have to run file photos. I agree. My day started out with a feature portrait for the NIBJ of the KTEC (Kootenai Technical Education Campus) student of the month, this was about an hour earlier than I usually start, which was fine, and Emma got to come with me because we had to go straight to the location; she’s such a champ for putting up with me!

After the portrait, I was walking from the parking lot to the front doors of the Press and I heard a jackhammer next door at the construction site so I went over for a second and got a photo of him. When I got in, I was given another assignment to go follow up on a story that was written for the business section and take a few photos of the location putting up their sign, this is for a super uppity car wash going in off of US-95, that was pretty cool to see, it gave me a mild heart attack though when I got there because I thought I had missed it. I saw their electronic display was already up and I thought that was the sign Shawn was talking about; thank goodness I was wrong.

Next I was off to look for a few things, either a city cop pulling someone over, parking on the side of the road to radar, or a busy street. I first had lunch with Emma like I do every day but this time she came with me on a “ride along,” it was really nice having her with me! During lunch though, Shawn called and let me know of another assignment to check up on before 3pm, it was 1pm. There is some possibly changing legislature regarding the concealed carry laws in Idaho and he told me to see if I could schedule something with the sheriff’s office to get a photo… I called, they forwarded me to the lieutenant and he wasn’t there so I left a message (so did Shawn) and he never got back to us. I guess that happens sometimes though. So back to the traffic or the cop, I figured that the chances of me finding a cop pulling someone over were going to be pretty lean, so I got the busy street first and then figured we could look around for police.

Time got away from me and it ended up being time for a “sportrait” that I had scheduled for a feature regarding brothers on the same basketball team. That was tricky without lighting, we are awaiting the go-ahead to get some lighting for the press and it, i guess, has been a long time coming, regardless, it will be nice when it gets here.

I resolved that we’d just head back to the Press but in driving back I still wanted to keep my eyes out for police, amongst silent prayers that I would be able to find something, I spotted some police lights… a lot of police lights. Emma and I drove over to see what was going on and there were probably eight squad cars, police and sheriff, police boats (it was over at the marina), a fire truck and a crowd of people. I pulled up right behind Shawn’s car and I was glad that the situation was already being covered however I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of my own. Apparently some guy decided he didn’t want to live anymore and so he was trying to freeze himself to death in the lake, he had been there for over an hour; he had to have had some mental disorder or maybe he was on some crazy drug because he was raging and twitching, just freaking out. It was crazy to witness, but not long after I got there the police got him out. I hope he recovers.

Also, kind of big news, AP wanted a couple of the photos that I took for the LGBT weddings story that we did back on the 30th. Cool! They will be using them in a weekend story that they will be doing on the chapel. this hasn’t ever happened before so I’m not sure what to expect but I still think that it is pretty cool.

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Day 18

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Today was another slow day, as you could probably tell by the amount of information in the post yesterday… it was probably the slowest. Shawn however came up with a really good idea, that I didn’t mention, to try and remedy the stand alone problem. Occasionally we are going to go into the archives and pick tomorrows date but an earlier year ie. 1975 and run a similar photo as what ran that day. I thought that was a great Idea! He also showed me the archives and I almost didn’t come back up… it was so cool!
Fast forward to about 10:45 this morning, we had a coordination meeting with the reporters to also attempt to solve the problem of not having art for the stories in time or frequently enough. This I thought was a very successful meeting because afterwards we received a a bunch of requests for this coming week, tomorrow especially so hopefully this keeps us busy!
After the meeting I went out and got a stand alone photo of a couple landscapers using a fire hose to clean up the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s loading area. Another slow day but hopefully soon to change.

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