Tag Archives: Hans Koepsell

Day 6

Today my mentor came back to work! Also, the other press photographer had recovered from her 24 hour bug and she was back too! Today was a low key day, nothing too crazy happened. I started out the day taking a photo of a “check passer,” this is what we call it when one group or individual donates money to an organization or business in the community. The next assignment was a feature story about a high school senior who was just named Youth of the Year at the boys and girls club of Kootenai County. And that was pretty much it for today… except for when I forgot one of my lenses at the check passing and didn’t realized I’d left it there until I was on my way to the second shoot 3 hours later… it was still there thank goodness.

Day 5

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I really have to stop saying that the day was a trial by fire because there seems to be more that can happen to throw me into the photojournalism world head first. Not only was my mentor still sick today but the other press photographer came in, set up her computer, and not two minutes later was packing up her computer again and left, complaining that she felt like she was going to throw up! I wasn’t expecting this when I woke up this morning… but the CDA Press is a daily paper and I was the only photographer they had left, I had to get the shots that they needed and so the silent prayers commenced!

The first assignment of the day was a special U.S. Navy sponsored marine building program for students called SeaPerch, in this case middle school. During the program they built PVC pipe underwater remote operated vehicles that the kids will be able to control and use for class. This was really cool to see!

My next assignment was going to be college basketball, but the sports guys didn’t need shots for the game, so I was off the hook for that one. But the final shoot was pretty important for the city of Post Falls, the citizen of the year award along with other community awards at the chamber of commerce annual banquet.

Tonight was a late night, but that happens sometimes at the newspaper. I just hope someone gets better soon!

Day 4

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It seems like my mentor will never get well! Today I tagged along with the other press photographer on staff and we went to a few different places to get some shots.

First was another stand alone, Hayden Meadows Elementary School was having a special square dancing lesson for the fourth and fifth grade students. The school’s Parent Teacher Organization made the lessons possible through a grant giving the money necessary to purchase four lessons from the Coeurly Q Square Dance Club, two for each grade. The kids loved it! There was of course the awkward beginning where random kids are paired together and they have to hold each other’s hands… it was funny to watch how they handled it. Eventually though they all got the hang of it and they had so much fun.

Next we went to North Idaho College where the city of Coeur d’Alene was felling some fairly large trees that were messing up a large stretch of road. This art was for a story by one of our reporters. And finally, our Post Falls reporter was working on one of his pretty consistent stories about the city transit and he needed a photo for one of his follow up articles; so we drove to Post Falls in hopes of getting a city owned street during rush hour preferably with a pedestrian… well, we got the pedestrian but we were only able to get the start of the rush hour traffic before needing to head back to the news room. And that was day 4.

Day 3

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I was mistaken in thinking that yesterday was a trial by fire… when I got to the Press today I got an email from my mentor saying that he was having flu-like symptoms and that he wouldn’t be coming in today! I slightly panicked. But looking at the schedule I relaxed a little because there was no photo requests yet. The other photographer that works at the Press came in not too long after me which was good because I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask her. First was, what do we do on a day where there aren’t any photo requests; she then reminded me about what they call at the paper “stand-alone” photos. She then told me about a great place to look for stand alone-shots, on the CDA Press website there is a calendar of events going on in the city and the surrounding areas. So we started looking there.

I found a few events that I wanted to go to and see if I could get some shots there, one was an event at the city library called Tales for Two’s and Three’s where there would be stories read to children and activities for them to do. Once I was done there I went next door to the news room where there is construction being done on a new building for everyone. The boss wanted us photographers to get some photos and video to document the construction because when it is all done and they move in he wants to run a special about it.

Next I went to another event that I found on the calendar of events, a senior hula dancing class. Yes, I admit, there are a lot of assignments that aren’t very glamorous but I’ve got to tell you, these ladies were a riot! When I finished at the luau, I discovered that I had missed a text from the other photographer on staff asking me to go to an interview for a feature story with one of the reporters at 2pm, it was 1:59pm…Oi. So I rushed back to the news room to figure out where all of this was happening and thankfully it was just down the street. I didn’t get there too late so I didn’t need to worry, unlike most photo ops, feature stories usually just have a single portrait of the interviewee (at least in this paper). So that concluded my busy day. A great learning experience and also like yesterday and everyday full of prayers.

PS: Today was the day that the North Idaho Business Journal was published! This is another one of the many publications that the Coeur d’Alene Press operates and about two weeks ago I second shot with my mentor on a story about the Litehouse Foods company. That was my first big publish.

Day 2

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Today was my first day on my own at an event, and I was a little nervous. After the fight for The Fish game Shawn, my mentor, said that he thought he was going to cut me loose on Monday (today) to get the feel for what it’s like to be a photojournalist working for a daily paper. Today at the Human Rights Education Institute they were having an event to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so it was my assignment to cover the event.

I wasn’t nervous because of my lack of confidence in myself as a photographer, but because of my lack of experience as a photojournalist, and with that style of photography. I shot on my own for the paper a week or so ago but that wasn’t for an event. This was a great learning experience! Trials by fire are pretty effective, and the best thing was, I’m starting to notice an improvement in my abilities; I’m not even close to the level of my mentor, but the fact that I’m seeing an improvement is a relief to me. There are many more experiences like this to come and as long as I see an improvement each time I’ll be happy with that and prayer will play a big role.

Day 1

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Coeur d’Alene Press Photojournalism Internship

FISH FIGHT

One of the loudest places that I have ever been was not a rock show, it was not Monster Jam, but it was at a high school basketball game. The rival schools of Lake City and Coeur d’Alene battle in a combination basketball game/spirit competition for a fish that the winning school gets to display as a trophy, showing their superior school spirit.

This was one of the first assignments that I was given as an intern. My mentor and I were there to get some action shots of the game, some celebration shots of the students and also of the school winning the fish. This was a fun assignment, it was a little challenging for me because I don’t have much experience shooting sports but a great learning experience. Next time I will for sure need some ear plugs.

IS DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY ART?

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There are those people out there who when they see documentary photography, or any photography for that matter, they say that it isn’t art. The only reason that I have been able to come up with for this reaction is that they must be unhappy with life. Documentary photography is a snippet of life. Regardless of whether it was intended to be beautiful/”artistic” or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we look long enough to stretch ourselves so that we can see the beauty that is there. These are humans; humans are beautiful. They are children of the almighty, the greatest artist. If the creation of the Master’s hand isn’t art or beautiful, I don’t know what is.

DRAWN TO LIGHT

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Isn’t it a wonder that one of the first rules in composition when dealing with art or photography is that the human eye is automatically drawn to the lightest part of the photo. If your intended subject isn’t the lightest part, your viewer may be confused or distracted, so it is best to use that to your advantage when composing; to make the subject and the light areas in the photo or painting related.

We are inherently drawn to light; it intrigues us, it inspires us, it triggers our curiosity and we often in life go searching after it. In the scriptures another way to describe truth is light; and God is described as being all truth and all light. Light chases out the darkness and shows us the way. It gives us comfort and broadens our view. We as children of God are inherently drawn to light and to Him. It is shown to us in everything if we would pause to notice.

IMPOSSIBLE.

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Recently I had the occasion to finally fulfill two of my dreams; I was able to finally get myself a pack of The Impossible Project’s black frame black and white instant film for Polaroid Cameras, and I was able to use it for a special occasion, my engagement photos with my better half and the love of my life. The engagement outweighs the film on the dream scale but I wanted to tell all of you about my experience with the film.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results. On the Impossible site, www.the-impossible-project.com, they make a disclaimer. They say that their film, although high quality, is different in chemical make-up than traditional Polaroid film that many of you are used to using–and they were right. There are a few quirks to be aware of.

The first few seconds after the film is ejected from the camera are CRUCIAL. Keep the film out of the light for those seconds; I taped the film box to the camera so the film went right in after the photo was taken. However I was a little impatient with a few and I paid the price. If you don’t leave the photo to cook for the proper time it ends up not being as sharp as you would hope, the grain structure is muddy rather than crisp, it also takes down the contrast to almost nothing. When you figure that each photo costs about $3.25 it’s worth it to leave it in the dark for as long as it needs.

The next thing to be aware of is the Dry Age Kit. One of the other differences between Impossible film and Polaroid is the need for a drying kit, after the photos are taken you can view them for a little bit but don’t get too attached because they will need to go right into a light resistant air sealed bag with two very large silica gel packs for, wait for it, a MONTH. Yes that’s right, a month…like I said, don’t get too attached. The drying process dries up the chemicals so they don’t continue to develop the photo over time and give it strange color and tonality shifts. But if that’s what you’re going for then by all means forget what I just said.

With those things in mind, I was very happy with the results like I’d said earlier. My pack turned out to be a little warm toned and when the photos were newly taken they were a slight purple hue that smacked of old albumen prints. They also turned out with a white almost hand drawn vignette around the border. Most of all though, it was so much fun! I really enjoyed shooting “Polaroid” again which I hadn’t done since I was 10 years old. The film is a little pricy but it is so worth it for a special occasion or for the successful lomographer. I plan to make this an occasional treat.

Thanks to IMPOSSIBLE for making instant POSSIBLE again.