Rock Bridge Away Game

Earlier in the semester, I volunteered to cover an away game of Rock Bridge High School. So, on October 23, I travelled to Blue Springs South to cover the Bruins as they played Blue Springs South in Blue Springs. It was good practice for the game that I'll be doing on November 21st.

Here's the photos I captioned.

Rock Bridge High School senior (#12) runs down the field to tie the game on the Bruins' first return on Friday, October 23, 2009. He was instrumental in helping the Bruins defeat the Blue Springs South (KC) Jaguars, 34-41.


Rock Bridge High School senior Trey Millard (#9) carries the ball down field to gain the Bruins a first down against the Blue Springs South (KC) Jaguars, on Friday October 23, 2009. The next play, Nate Eghvareba (#8) was able to make it into the end zone, giving the Bruins the lead, 14-7.

New Missouri Theatre Director

R. Eric Staley was appointed as the new CEO for the Missouri Theatre. He was incredibly nice to work with.

This was a situation where I wished I had another strobe flash and a remote in order to be able to illuminate the background.


R. Eric Staley, the newly hired CEO of the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, poses for a portrait on Friday, October 23, 2009. A graduate of MU, Staley's career has been spent working with non-profit organizations, including the Central Missouri Food Bank and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo.



The main critique of this shoot was that Staley should have been bigger in the frame. Next time...

Vox Cemetery Assignment

Here's the pictures that I took for a Vox assignment on Columbia-area cemeteries.

This is my favorite of the bunch.


A smoke stack of the University's reactor echoes the obelisks of Columbia Cemetery on October 20, 2009. The Columbia Cemetery, located off of Broadway Blvd. between N. Garth and Providence Roads, has been in use since 1820 and holds many of the University of Missouri's former presidents, faculty, and curators including Richard H. Jesse, James S. Rollins, and Walter Williams.

I like how the smoke stack echoes the obelisks of the cemetery.

I also really like this one:


The setting sun peaks over a grave at Columbia Cemetery on October 20, 2009. The Columbia Cemetery, located off of Broadway Blvd. between N. Garth and Providence Roads, has been in use since 1820 and holds many of the University of Missouri's former presidents, faculty, and curators including Richard H. Jesse, James S. Rollins, and Walter Williams.

Breaking Football Stereotypes

Today I did a studio assignment for Vox. Last night, when I heard that I was going to have to do studio work, my reaction was 'crap!' I felt like I'd forgotten everything that I'd learned in Advanced Techniques. But once I got into the studio and started doing it, it came back.

So, my assignment was to photograph a football player in a way that breaks the stereo of the dumb jock. I got advice from Josh on how to light it and I came up with the idea of putting Andrew behind a desk with a pile of books and a pyramid of apples on it. And for a little something extra, there would be a pear in the pyramid for the observant.

But, when I got there, I found out that the idea that Andrew had discussed with Beth was just the torso of the athlete, with him holding some books. I ended up adding an apple.

Here's the shots I captioned:







One of the challenges for me was trying to get rid of the shadow that cast by Andrew's hand/arm onto his chest and getting rid of the reflection on the apple of my two lights. None of the pictures chosen were ones where the reflection was gone. (I achieved that by having him bend the apple back slightly.)

Boone Life - Beginnings: New Enterprises

Hallelujah! After much effort (including 13 hours yesterday), I have finished one of the two Boone Life assignments for this semester. What's a Boone Life assignment, you say? Well, the grad students in Staff each have to find 2 people to do picture stories on, according to the theme, 'Beginnings.' My first one was a woman, Kasey Ryan, that I met through my friend, Rachel. She has several beginnings this year: divorce after 8 years, a new business, and she recently (Sept. 20) became a Christian.



This assignment taught me a lot about doing one of these things:

1. Do your interview early on. It took a while (!) for me to be able to check out a Marantz (a fancy video recording system) to tape the audio for this project. And after I was done, there were 5 or 6 other situations that I knew I wanted to get that I hadn't photographed yet. For instance: I would have loved to show her catering. I would have loved to show her COOKING at least. I wanted to show her interaction with her kids (this one I managed).
2. Get bunches of interviews so that it's not just one person talking.
3. Figure out what type of ambient noise you want in the background. I ended up using noise from her store, and a little bit from outside her store, but it probably would have been more interesting if it had been something like while she was catering. Although, that I think wouldn't have quite fit the story.
4. Transcribing audio can take a long time! One, 30-minute interview took me I think 4-5 hours to transcribe and I type quickly!
5. Putting it (the audio) into Final Cut can take a long! time. Figuring out how I wanted and what I wanted to pull, plus cutting it down so it was the right length... Long time.
6. Figuring out what pictures to do - a long time. This was the first slideshow I have put together myself. So, my first edit had way too many pictures in it. The rule of thumb is 3-5 seconds for any one picture.
7. Consistently use a type of transition - even if it's no transition.
8. I love it when a plan comes together (thank you, Hannibal Smith!).

Also, from discussing slide shows in class - if you use video make sure that you use it more than once....