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.
Today was a pretty slow day. I went out and took some stand alone photos that we didn’t really need but I had to do something. And then at 4pm there was an appointment at the senior center in Post Falls where a little girl wanted to give back to the community. She got her whole class to color pictures of flowers and spring things to bring spring inside for the seniors and they were giving them out at that time. That was pretty much it for today.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You know, one of the best things about doing my internship as a photojournalist is that I get to go out each day and take photos of all sorts of things, I love it! Today the first assignment was pretty simple, today is a foggy day, go out and find people doing things in the fog. The editor was doing a story about the abnormally warm weather in contrast with the East Coast currently, they wanted a shot of the fog and also the sun later in the day. So that’s what I did, and it was really fun! I love walking around in the fog so that made it all the better.
Later, the basketball team from North Idaho College was going to the Boys and Girls Club to play with the kids, and so we went to that and got some shots of the kids interacting with the team; it was like a war-zone in there.
Today was also a big answer to an on-going prayer. Each day I have been praying to see an improvement in my photography, to be a little better than the day before. That’s what this internship is all about for me, sure it’s to learn the details of how a paper works and how to be a photojournalist for a daily paper, but it is also to bring my technique and my skill up to the next level. Today I took a shot of a couple yogi’s enjoying the foggy morning and I thought it was good, but didn’t really pay too much attention to it. Fast forward to around 4pm, Mike (the boss) was in the photojournalist’s cubicle and he spied the photo on my screen. It caught his eye and he was very vocal about how much he liked it, and that spread like fire. My mentor Shawn also was really vocal about it, saying how blown away he was and then a few more people came in to check it out and congratulate me on the shot! I was shocked. It felt really good to have all those people like my photo but most of all it was wonderful to have my mentor notice my improvement. God hears and answers prayers.
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.
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!
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.