Final Capstone Project

This project has been long and troublesome. As my first time attempting to do an essay, I found it a lot more difficult than I initially thought it would be. The most difficult part of doing this essay was also the most time consuming, finding the right subjects and setting up the photo shoots. As opposed to a photo story, when it takes a long time to find your subject but then you continue to follow them, in an essay you spend the majority of your time tracking down the perfect person/situation and usually only come away with one photo from each shoot.

Overall, I think this project went well. I feel like most essays are never really finished, and mine is no exception. I plan to continue to work on this project in the future and adding many of the ideas I initially had to it.

30 Day Works in Progress 3

Since my last works in progress, I have taken photos of Thanksgiving consumption, Black Friday, and Thanksgiving shopping. I have plans to shoot Christmas decor, a spa to portray beauty and pampering of oneself, a shoot at Princess Nails which is a manicure salon just for children, and I want to try to shoot an eating contest if I can find one. Also I plan to reshoot some of the products at the jewelry store with the proper equipment to get the desired affect of making the viewer want the items.

30 Day WiP

So far in my 30 day project I have had two shoots. One was at South Paw Acres, a pet 'resort', the other at KT Diamond Jewelers. These shoots were not as lucrative as I had hoped in terms of photos. I think I might be able to use some of the photos I got, but I am relying on getting some better stuff from the other shoots I have set up. I have plans to shoot at a spa in Columbia, to try to portray pampering of oneself and excessive obsession with beauty. I am also setting up a shoot at Lucky Nails in Columbia which I have heard has a child size mani/pedi station which will portray spoiling children. I am trying to find an eating contest to shoot and am looking into trying to shoot at a casino, since I've been told they have a lot. Over break I plan to shoot some of the over the top homes and vehicles in the richer areas of Dallas.

CPOY Reaction

I thought the discussion of documentary photo story/essay was very interesting. The story about the homeless kids I found to be beautiful and intriguing, but slightly repetitive in some of the images. However, the judges were very drawn to it and said one reason they liked it is that it portrayed a story that had been told many times but showed it in a new way. I think that is one way judges see things differently than students might. Due to the amount of experience judges have in the working world, they get to see projects that become repetitive whereas students haven’t had as many years in the field and therefore may not realize when a project has become overdone. I thought the Adrift was the perfect choice for gold in this category because every image has such impact and as a photo story I find it amazing that you really don’t need the captions to tell the story, yet having the captions advances and depends the story. Conversely, I thought it was strange that the story Not Here Or There made it as far as it did in the judging. I thought it was a very interesting social commentary, however, I did not think the images were as strong as ones in other stories and I felt that it heavily relied on the captions to tell the story.

The large group multimedia category judging was also interesting to watch. I thought it was interesting the way the projects were judged on every aspect down to how easy a site was to navigate. When you get so focused on the content I think it’s easy to forget that simple things like the intuitiveness of a website can bring down the quality of the whole project. Also I liked that the judges pointed out the length of multimedia projects has to be just right for it to work. They can be long, if the project keeps the viewer engaged the entire time. One of the biggest faults of multimedia projects is letting it lull in places, which gives viewers the chance to click away and leave the site. I also liked that they talked about having to be very thorough in the editing process because even though you do so many interviews and cover the topic you have to be willing and able to cut even things you really love if they don’t advance the story. I liked that one judge talked about making sure you are using the correct medium to tell the story. So many times projects can go awry if you try to force them into being multimedia if they would really work better as stills, and so on.

A Passion for Life

After our critiques in capstone class, I tweaked my multimedia piece and now it's even better!

Capstone Job Profile

This project has been a rollercoaster of access. My subject, Pat Dudenhoeffer, is a prolife advocate who has a very interesting story. He has always been prolife but really got involved in the movement approximately ten years after his ex-wife aborted his second child, an act according to him, that was part of a messy divorce. Through his prolife activities, Pat participates in sidewalk counseling outside of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, speaks to churches and other groups about prolife issues, and has begun to raise funds to open a pregnancy resource center in Jefferson City for girls in need. Additionally, Pat is a caretaker to his father who has COPD and Enphazema, as well as his wife who is gaining her dual citizenship and cannot drive, and his children. There was a time in this project that Pat got really busy with all his responsibilities, and I worried that the project would not come together. That’s when I found out about his father. I spoke with my professor and we came to the conclusion that the caretaker aspect was important to telling his story. Planned Parenthood was also somewhat difficult to shoot at, since they questioned why I was there through a use of a police officer, something I believe may have been to try and intimidate me into leaving. More than anything this project has taught me to go with the flow and preserve to make it work.

reading reaction

I thought the lammot reading was very interesting. Particularly I liked the looking around chapter because it stressed the importance of seeing the story that is really there rather than just the one you have in mind. So many times as photogs we have a specific idea in mind as to what we think the story is, but we really need to remember to let the story present itself to us. I also really liked when she talked about drop kicking your puppy, because I think in creative fields many times we are our own harshest critics.

Battle of Lexington Re-enactment

One Day Story

Blues singer TJ Wheeler talks to students about the soul that goes into the traditional style blues songs they are learning during music class at Grant Elementary School on September 7, 2011.



Fifth graders Shahed Mohamed and Gabriella Langille sing during music class, practicing blues songs for the Blues in Schools performance with blues singer TJ Wheeler at Grant Elementary School on September 7, 2011. The students performed alongside Wheeler at the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival on September 10.



TJ Wheeler instructs fifth grader Sara Kacem on how to place her foot on the ‘wash tub bass’, an instrument made from a metal bin and wooden rod attached by a rope, at Grant Elementary School on September 7, 2011. The ‘wash tub bass’ is played by placing one foot on the rim to hold the tub down, and strumming the taught rope. Different notes are produced by adjusting the tightness of the rope.



Grant Elementary School children wait in anticipation for their performance to begin on a stage at Flat Branch Park during the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival on September 10, 2011. The children practiced with blues artist TJ Wheeler for a week prior to the festival.




Blues artist TJ Wheeler plays the kazoo at the live performance of the Blues in Schools program at Flat Branch Park during the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival on September 10, 2011. Wheeler said, “I want to teach children not only about music, but about the heart and soul that went into the blues songs”.



Fourth graders Jack Welshons and Jack Martin dance to an island blues song during Grant Elementary School’s performance at Flat Branch Park during the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival on September 10, 2011. The fourth and fifth grade students practiced singing, dancing, and playing blues related instruments for a week before the performance as a part of the Blues in Schools program.




Audience members watch as Grant Elementary School students perform blues songs alongside blues artist TJ Wheeler at Flat Branch Park during the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival on September 10, 2011. The performance was part of the fifth year of Blues in Schools program and was free for the community.

Lammott Reflection

The more I read of Bird by Bird the more I enjoy it. In this section, I particularly liked the polaroid chapter. So many times as photographers setting out to photograph a story we have a certain image in mind of how we expect it to play out. However, the reality is, it hardly ever ends up going the way we expect. Keeping an open mind and letting the situation drive your story is the most important thing in my opinion when shooting a story. If you go into the situation too close minded about what your story will be cripples prevents real moments and deeper situations to unfold.

Editing Exercise

Picture Story

I am posting a link to a photo story I think is very visually compelling by Rina Castelnuovo, which won first place for International News Picture Story in the Best of Photojournalism 2010.

http://bop.nppa.org/2010/still_photography/winners/?cat=INS&place=1st&item=229943

FROGGIN'

Battle of Boonville Re-enactment

Boonville Re-enactment Portraits

Here are some of the portraits I did in Boonville this weekend. More to come.