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...

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....

Highlighting Skyler Hinton

I was sent out to photograph Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton during football practice. It was a little harder to photograph than the practice I shot of Chase Rome, because they were practicing farther away from the sidelines. I did, during this shoot, push myself to walk onto the field so I could get closer to the action. I figured, better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission...


Rock Bridge Senior Skyler Hinton (#72) pauses for a portrait after practice on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. After breaking his fibia at the September 12, 2008, game against McCluer North, Hinton was sidelined from the 2008-2009 season. Hinton returned to sports after three months and is optimistic about his coming season saying, I think I could do enough that I could play at a good school and get a scholarship.


Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton sprints to intercept the nose tackle during practice on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. Hinton looks to help his team better their 1-9 record from the last two seasons. Moving from his previous position as left tackle, Hinton will now be playing center, a move which makes sense to head coach A.J. Ofodile, who said, "He's a hands-eye coordination guy. He can snap the ball and make things time up for us."


Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton smiles as he prepares to hike the ball during practice on Tuesday, September 08, 2009. Hinton spent last year sidelined after he broke his fibia at the September 12, 2008, game against McCluer North (Florissant, MO). Hinton has defied doctor's projections and expects to help the Bruins better their 1-9 record in 2008-2009

This kid has a great smile. And he was nice and goofy at times during practice. There were a couple of times where I *just* missed a great shot! Arg!

50th Annual Heart of America Marathon

One of the hardest marathons in the US to run, because of the route. There's a really steep hill that happens at the end of the course. And, oh!, the drama. My camera has been being hinky lately. It all of a sudden didn't want to turn on. I fiddled with the battery a little bit and it seemed to fix itself and then...

I'm at the marathon and I've been taking pictures of the atmosphere, etc., and here comes the first-place finisher. He's heading down the home stretch and my camera has gone asleep. So I depress the button, nothing happens. Now, I thought maybe it was just my battery, and I'd brought 2 extra charged ones, and I stick in the first one and nothing! I'm muttering, 'come on! come on! don't do this to me!' And get the second one in and nothing! Stupid camera! Now I'm going to have to get you fixed!!! And I'm on assignment and I missed the winning shot.

So I started taking pictures with my i-Phone and then around 9:30 I tried the Missourian and someone was there (they weren't there at 7:30 when I tried to check out a camera just in case my 'working' camera decided to get finicky), so I walked the 3 blocks down to the Missourian and got a working camera.

Here's my captioned pics:


Carolyn Mitchell, 72 (#39), of Lenexa, Kan., waves in triumph, with Karen Nicholson, 43 (#167), close behind as she crosses the finish line of the 50th Annual Heart of America Marathon on Monday, September 7, 2009. Mitchell was one of the last participants to finish and had planned to run with her husband, Kent Mitchell, but he was sidelined with an injury.


Newell Kitchen, 50, of Columbia, Mo., rests after completing the 50th Annual Heart of America marathon on Monday, September 7, 2009. The Heart of America marathon is considered one of the most difficult in the United States because of the weather and some of the inclines during the race.

Social Service Cuts

For this Missourian assignment, we went to the Voluntary Action Center. The story was about the city's proposed cuts to funding for social services like the VAC. The VAC strives to "address unmet needs in our community, giving low-income people the opportunity to gain independence, overcome crisis, meet their basic needs, and improve their quality of life." Edward Willis (and Christina Montgomery) was nice enough to consent to let me photograph him; several people I talked to that were waiting in the very small lobby weren't so aminable.


Edward Willis, 57, looks over information on obtaining diabetic testing strips while Christina Montgomery of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) contacts Kilgore's Medical Pharmacy regarding his prescriptions. Willis was referred to the VAC by his doctor. "It's a good place to come to," he said, "People who need help need a place to come to."


Edward Willis, 57, talks with Christina Montgomery of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) about his health issues, including his need for diabetic testing strips . Willis was referred to the VAC by his doctor. "It's a good place to come to," he said, "People who need help need a place to come to."

While I was waiting in the lobby for someone to show who *would* agree to be photographed, I overheard a very interesting conversation.

Chase Rome

On the 25th, I was sent out to photograph Rock Bridge High School senior defensive end Chase Rome. Rome recently signed to play football for OSU, and will be graduating early. He was recruited by MU, KU, K-State, Michigan, UCLA, and Syracuse, to name a few. Really nice guy.

It was an interesting shoot. I learned a couple of things:
1) If you're taking equipment that you've never used before, be sure to cover everything BEFORE you go. I ended up having to call in to figure out how to work the auto-focus for the Nikon camera I was using. I'm a Canon user, and with the Canon, you just hold the button half-way to auto-focus. With the Nikon, you have to hold down a different button.
2) I don't know how I feel about the mono-pod. I like the idea in theory, because it will help with arm fatigue. But I found it really cumbersome in trying to position myself for a shot.

Here are the shots that I captioned:

First, the Gatorade moment:

Rock Bridge senior defensive end Chase Rome rehydrates during practice on August 25, 2009. Rome has been playing competitively since the seventh grade, and was identified as a top prospect for college recruitment since the ninth grade. Rome recently committed to playing for Oklahoma State University.