Today I had another fun assignment, there were some high-schoolers from an AP environmental stewardship class working together with the BLM to plant a native plants garden at the BLM’s Blackwell Island recreation area. This was just a stand alone set.
Due to Shawn training the new press photog, there has been fewer assignments for me to do, and so today was a one assignment day again. It was okay though because it was a fun assignment; I went to a reverse job fair. Students from Post Falls High School made a booth for their career interest and different professionals came around to the different students and interviewed them.
Usually I start my day at 10am but today there was a feature story going on in Moscow at the University of Idaho campus so it was an early day, 8:15… oi. The story was about a fair going on at U of I called Invent Idaho. There were elementary, middle, and high school kids from all over the state competing against each other with their inventions, practical and not but all very very creative! That was pretty much all we had for the day, but later on I was asked to take a photo of a different hotel for that same NIBJ story because the reporter was only able to contact this particular hotel. And now, for an extended weekend!
Today was a busy day, it started with a trip to Post Falls High School regarding the Post Falls school levy that will be voted on soon. My assignment was to take a photo of the gym being used because one of the plans if the levy is passed is to build PFHS an auxiliary gym because of overcrowding.
Next, there were a few “just get them done” assignments. One was to find people enjoying the sun, another was for a story on the rising gas prices, and another was for a new wood stove regulation. I needed to get these all done by around 4:30 because I had an appointment with a place called Summit Cider to photograph the preparations for the grand opening this weekend. I also got a stand alone of some city workers trimming the trees near McEuen Park.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At the end of the day yesterday Shawn asked me if I could cover basketball today and of course I said yes, I want to improve everyday so any chance I get to do so I’m going to take. Basketball games happen late and so since I was covering the game I also came in late which was nice; sleeping in doesn’t happen much but when it does it’s wonderful!
When I got to the Press however there was a lot noise next door from the construction guys so I went over to check it out. They had a huge gravel truck and the whole thing was on a remote control! I’m sure it’s not that new of a thing, but I’d never seen anything like that before, I felt myself having little kid envy wanting to drive the giant RC car! Sadly that didn’t happen. So I went about my business snapping photos. The worker in the blue hard hat came up to me afterwords and he asked me if I had to “develop” all those. I then told him that it was all digital so it was pretty easy. He then told me that his wife worked in circulation at the Press and that I should print one of him and give it to her so she could have it at her cubicle. I thought that was a pretty funny idea so I made her a draft print and delivered it.
Next, some hours later came the basketball game. This was the first round of the 5A district 1 Tournament and it was between Lake City and Post Falls High Schools. To be completely honest, basketball after the Fight for the Fish game just isn’t the same… no one dresses up, there is hardly any noise, there’s way less people. But it wasn’t so bad I guess. There were a lot of pretty good falls and I almost got hit by the ball and players a few times and that was pretty fun! Now, it time for another nice weekend.
Much like yesterday, today had a slow start. There were no photo assignments until late and so we went out to look again for stand-alones and Seahawks fans, none of which I found… however I did get the idea to ask a few hair cutting places if they had given any hair “tattoos” for Seahawks fans. I didn’t get anything right away but there was a salon in Post Falls that did one a few days ago and she will be sending us a photo.
The first thing we did was to hook up the video equipment and go over to the construction site next door and take some more photos but introduce video this time. We’re slowly building a pretty good collection of photos for that feature.
After a little time went by, one of the reporters hurries over to our cubicle and tells us in an excited voice, he just heard over the scanner that someone was walking around City Park with an assault rifle. Shawn sent Tess and I to check it out making sure we kept our distance, Mike (the boss) even wanted to come and make sure everyone would be ok. Turns out we didn’t find who was described, but we did find the person that might have been mistaken as one carrying an assault rifle. She, by that time was looking innocently through a spotting scope on her tripod, down the beach at some seagulls. We figured that’s probably what was mistaken at a distance for the weapon.
When we got back to the press, Shawn asked if I was ready for some wrestling, I of course said sure! So he sent me off to photograph the match between Coeur d’Alene and Lake City High Schools. This was the first time that I had photographed wrestling and it was pretty fun! It hurt the knees just like basketball, but it is a little slower so it’s easier to compose and plan out shots, at least in theory. And that was my day, again, filled with prayer and learning; this is a great experience.
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.
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.