Things to Remember, things to Forget

I had a late start this week, but I managed to squeeze in three assignments of my own. On Thursday I traveled to Morrison Springs Park for the reopening and ribbon ceremony. Of course the ribbon cutting part is visually boring, so I stuck around and captured a few moments of the first several divers. I saw this woman flinging water up from her fins, so I took a few shots hoping to catch the action. It was a good shot that had some appeal.



On Friday I traveled back in time…hypothetically…to Choctawhatchee High School and took pictures of students and faculty celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case, which assured first amendment rights for students. Some of the most challenging assignments are the ones that have very little to them. The less there is to work with, the harder it is to come up with a strong, interesting image. I struggled with that concept here because there were a few tables with students and faculty eating and talking. I knew I wanted someone listening or talking as well as the armbands they were wearing. I caught both in this image, which was published:



Later that day, I was assigned to take pictures at an Elementary School Kindergarten singing program. The program was created to celebrate Black History Month and educate the children on the historical significance of the songs they were singing in relation to the stories behind the creation of the songs. This assignment was handed to me at last minute, and I had to shoot stills and video. I wanted to improve my video skills and saw this as the perfect opportunity. The children there were simply hilarious. The face of this boy in the first photo might look like any common bored boy face, however, the boy was ironically pushing his eyes back because they were singing the line in Amazing Grace: “Was blind but now I see”.



This girl was very entertaining too. I thought this moment of her placing her hands in prayer was simply sweet because I was able to shoot from a low angle and not distract her in anyway:



This was the photo that ran in the paper:



VIDEO:



Today I tagged along with Nick on several of his assignments. He needed to find a feature today, and because of the wind, we headed to the Island. Here are a couple shots I took on the Island:





After a couple other assignments, Nick and I drove to Destin in search of a deputy. The photo Nick needed was to accompany a story, and we spotted an accident in Destin with two deputies present. I had a hard time understanding how the accident happened because the man whose truck was hit, kept rambling about being mistreated. I took several shots of both trucks hit:







www.nwfdailynews.com

Tales of the young, the old, and the famous

The first assignment I covered this week was an Annual President’s Day track meet at Choctawhatchee High School. The competitors in the meet were from elementary schools. I photographed the third and fourth grade girls and boys 100 meter dash. The first image below was published in the paper, and the second image was a part of a photo gallery of images from the meet. The gallery has my images as well as a Northwest Florida Daily News staff member's images.





On Friday I had an early assignment at Fort Walton Beach High School. I was instructed to shoot video and stills of a Holocaust survivor named Herman Snyder.The images turned out well and ran in the local section on Saturday:





VIDEO:



TEBOW in FWB:

Last but definitely not least, I went along with Nick to photograph the All Sports Association media party at Anglers on Okaloosa Island. Nick told me Tim Tebow would be among the celebrities there, but there was also Danny Wuerffel, Paul Hornung (1956 Heisman winner who played for Notre Dame and later the Green Bay Packers), and pro golfer Boo Weekley. Nick worked mostly on video and I concentrated on stills. I knew this photo opportunity would be like a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, so I took advantage of it and shot many images of Tebow. I even had Nick take a picture of me with him. I also created a photo gallery with 15 images. Ironically, I did not pick 15 images because that is Tim’s jersey number, but it did turn out that way. (The first image was published in Saturday's paper.) This assignment was definitely a blast and the highlight of my week:









www.nwfdailynews.com

Making and Recalling Memories

Another two weeks have flown by, and I have officially been interning at the Daily News for a month now. Most of the assignments these past two weeks have been simple, but I have enjoyed them all. The first one I covered was an awards ceremony at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. The first picture was Renee Gault who received an award for her community service with the Crime Protection Program. Her former dog, Poncho, was a part of the service but passed away. Posse will be taking over Poncho’s duties as soon as he receives his pet-therapy certification. Besides the funny hat, that dog had a hilarious dog carrier.



The second picture was of Bob Grappone, who was named 2008 sworn officer of the year. Both of these images were published.



On February 5, I went to Westwood Retirement Resort and took pictures of a group of people who lived during the Great Depression. They were discussing the economic problems of the era, how much money they received, how much essential items cost, what they did for entertainment, and the connection between that time and today’s economic issues. One lady said she paid 100 dollars a year for college during that time, while another woman said that couples shared cokes with two straws, which cost around 10 cents. This man is now 101 years old and still swims and has a license:

(published)


This woman was only visiting, but she had plenty of stories of her own to share:


Yesterday I photographed my first baseball game of the Northwest Florida State College team. I did photograph a few UF games last year, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect with the different atmospheres. I used the Daily News’ 300 mm lens and Nikon body and captured a good action shot and some pitcher shots. This was the published picture:



Later in the day I covered a Valentine’s Day dance for soldiers and the elder community. This was Nick’s assignment, and I just wanted to tag along. The dance was pretty cute, and all of the older people were very sweet. None of these images were published, but they were included in a joint gallery. If I am still here next year around this time, then I will definitely go back to this assignment:







Lastly, Nick and I went over to NWF State College and shot a men’s soccer game. We were pressed by deadline, so after we covered our equipment with trash bags, we ended up only shooting for about five minutes. I think Nick spent more time covering our gear than actually shooting, but he captured some great images. Here is one shot I got (not published) in the few minutes we were there:



That is it for now. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Until next time.