Home for a sec

Came home to change pants (tell ya 'bout it later) and started looking up feature ideas online. Activeculture.info, al.com, yellowpages.com, whatever. It's not that I hate finding feature photos -- they just hate being found by me.

Anyway, what one guy had to say:

Sometimes that's the life of a newspaper photographer. You head out with the hope of making an incredible image, but then the clock starts to tick and it seems as if nothing interesting is happening around you. A quiet paranoia even sets in, and you're convinced there's a great photo going on right around the corner, or in the next neighborhood, or, worse, the neighborhood you just left. -- Rod Mar, Seattle Times

... buggering feature photos ... it's like snipe hunting, I swear to God ...

Pandering

... from dictionary.com ...

• pander: (pān'dər); to act as a go-between or liaison in sexual intrigues; function as a procurer/ to cater to the lower tastes and desires of others or exploit their weaknesses

... which is exactly what I'm about to do ...

God, I feel like a dirty paparazzo. Dempsey with the Hyper Sport team watching his teammates win a race.

Pander, pander, pander ...

Pander, pander, pander ...

Celebrating the win at the winners' circle ...

Good lord ... I think I need to take a shower. Well, here's one from pit row that'll more than likely never be seen because of the above photos. Anyway ...

A crew member stands by, waiting for the team car to pull in for refueling.

Yeah, so I'll be posting more stuff later, but there's your "People Magazine" post. Use it for all it's worth -- it's the only one you'll get, you dirty monkeys.

More video

Oh, yeah -- here's the video from last night. Notice the need for a tripod.

I'm an official Iron Pour photographer

I won't go into heavy explanation of Infocus, aside from saying that it's pictures that don't really have accompanying copy. It's a rotational thing, and I'm on that particular rotation. The Ed gave me the concept of doing a theme of "people figuring out what they want to do with their lives or something like that" since I myself am an intern. So I said, cool, okay, and then he told me about the sculpting students doing an iron pour and suggested I hit that up for some photos. And thus it was so ...Adam Bodine, 22, prepares for the pour.One of the assistants at Sloss Furnaces feeds the fires of the furnace.
Adam Bodine waits alongside the students. Bodine, an art student at UAB, is an intern at Sloss.
Bodine lights a cigarette for his "partner-in-crime," Forrest, during a break in pouring.
Bodine and Forrest attempt to break open the mold of Bodine's grate a few hours after the pour.

I'm trying to track down a ballerina somewhere in the city to continue the series. A ballerina because another ballerina's been on my mind as of late.

Humorous aside -- after the photo ran [not one of the photos above, by the way], I actually got a letter from someone who think he's a good candidate for an Infocus. He might be, too ... I'll keep ya posted.

Ciao, y'all ...

Back to Final Cut

I shot the state trooper recruits doing their driver training at Talladega this afternoon, stills and video. The stills, okay, whatever, got some things that'll probably fly. But it was a situation more open to video. Seeing as this was the second video I've shot for the paper, [here's the first] I should have done a better job with it, but I had a couple issues ...

• didn't use a tripod (it's a Flip camera but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?)
• not enough b-roll (no excuses for that)
• I don't like the audio capabilities
• and I used Final Cut Pro to edit, rather than FCP's simpleton cousin Windows Movie Maker. Which, after spending so much time away from it, is like driving a stick-shift after spending a year in an automatic -- it takes some getting used to.

Thusly are the reasons I'm still at the office at 7:bleeding:30. Waiting for the thing to export and all. Anyway.

A graphical representation of my firstfew weeks

Yay for photos -- I'll add some captions, too. These are from past assignments. Not everything, but at least it's a little something more than nothing.

Joey Steele works on tires at Bob's Bikes in Homewood.

Chin Hockchye, a PhD student, inspects one of the "Specialized" series of bikes at Bob's Bikes.

Holly Andrews finishes out the morning's boot camp exercise regimen with a few long stretches in front of Adory High School.
Police Chief A.C. Roper meets with officers outside Banana Joe's in Southside [ed's note: two blocks from my apartment] after two people were killed in a shooting outside the club the weekend prior.
165 Army National Guard officer candidates from the training center at Fort McClellan complete a seven-mile forced march at the Talladega Superspeedway.
Officer candidate Time Dubeansky, from Columbus, Ohio, rests and stretches after a seven-mile forced march that ended at the Talladega Superspeedway.

I'll post more later. Ciao till then ...

Some weekend work

Shot the Porsche 250 over the weekend -- the entire weekend. I'm burnt, I'm tired, I had a brief run-in with a celebrity of decently major status, and ... well, I'm sure there's something else to say, but I can't think of it right now.

Anyway, here's some photos. Don't copy 'em. Or I'll track you down and kill you.

Yeah, two of these because I couldn't figure out which one was better. Or if they both stink. Anyway.

So, yeah, there you have it, for the weekend. I'll be posting more photos tomorrow. Because for tonight, y'all, I'm done. Say goodnight, Jake-y.

Goodnight.

Video at AL.com

The photo staff got some of the little Flip video cameras to carry around, mostly in case of spot news stories. There are a couple floating around, and we're supposedly going to get some more in soon. Cool little things, even if they don't have an input for a mike (my major qualm). But I digress.

This morning, coming back from a brief foray to the Barber Motorsports Park, the Ed called me and told me to head for the wreck on I-20. Turns out it was just off my exit. So I stopped, walked up to it, met the reporter, and ran into one of the other photographers, who handed me the Flip and asked me to shoot video.

So here's some video for ya.

Shot on a Flip camera, edited with Windows Movie Maker.

[PS: Here's the article and a shorter version of the video. Sorry about that.]

Why I adore Craig Ferguson

And this is why I like Craig Ferguson. Why have I never seen this before?

More stuff later.

Shoo, seems like a long week

Oi, so it seems like more things done in a week makes said week longer. I feel like this week has been longer than Hell's waiting list because I've been up, down and around most everywhere, or so it feels. Warrior, Talladega, Bessemer, around town ... I'm just generally hot and tired at the moment. Little burnt from covering an ultimate frisbee tournament yesterday. Back's a little sore from hauling around the equipment and sleeping on a slightly uneven bed.

And women, as usual, are crazy.

Oh, and I get to shoot the Porsche 250, or so I've been told, next weekend. Coolness.

I need to find out about whether or not I can post photos I've taken for work. I get the feeling that I might be able to with a watermark, just because I see so many other people doing so, but I'd rather ask first. So I'll hopefully be posting some new photos here soon.

The Fourth and Further

Yeah, so I broke down under pe-- actually, it wasn't "peer pressure," it was "Chana pressure," and ended up in Jackson, Ga., for the Fourth. Good times, overall, with its own set of ups-and-downs. Her friends like me, which is a plus. Anyway, I only shot during the fireworks -- drinking and carrying-on took up the rest of the night -- but here's a couple frames from the night.


Chana and Heather watch the firework on the dock of Chana's lake house. The bikini'ed figure in the background is her mother.


The lightning competes with fireworks over the lake. Thankfully, the rains held off till the fifth, when nobody particularly cared. I'm actually sort of fond of the second photo, particularly since I got the verticals right ... [happy pause] ... yeah, anyway.

I went into work today ... oh, by the way, work:
So, yeah, I went into work this morning, thinking to myself, "Well, I don't have any assignments yet, so I'll probably have to go out and find some good features, so how do I go about this buggering thing ..." et al. I spent an hour surfing the web, looking for inspiration on the art of feature-photo-hunting and researching B-ham for some good ideas, then decided I'd wing it. I walked up to the Ed's desk and ahem-ed, which gave him a little bit of a start.

Turns out I wasn't working today. Nobody tells me these things.

So I wandered around B-ham for a while, walked the UAB campus, went to check out a couple YMCAs in hopes one would have a Tai Chi class (no dice -- the only one is Tuesdays at 10 am, which is not really viable for me), went to the bookstore for a while, almost shot a feature on the UAB campus (would have, too, if not for the damned bureaucracy), and did a little huntin'-and-gatherin'.

And I'm apparently working a 2-10 shift tomorrow, so I won't be able to make it to the next meet-up of the local capoeristas, which I found through the internet god, Google. They meet late on Tuesdays, apparently, at a park about fifteen/twenty minutes from my place. But I've got assignments to look forward to: one on school construction and the other on a semi-pro football team. Even if they turn out to suck, I'm sure I'll learn something.

If I didn't learn something new every day, I'd be a depressed little bugger. Today I learned that though cockroaches can survive harsh environments and are generally resilient little bastards, they still don't stand a chance versus a standard-issue sink-based trash disposal ... don't ask ...

This part sort of sucks

Yeah, so the internship is going well -- I'm learning (or at least, I hope I am) and I'm enjoying the experience so far. But I'm still friendless. I like the people I work with, but that's not the same as having someone I can call and say, "hey, I'm not doing anything tonight, so you wanna hang out?" This hanging out with the friend-of-an-uncle thing is looking a little bleaker each time it comes up. The last time, there was mention of things becoming "mayhem" if I joined her and her crew and her boyfriend showed up. ... I mean, what the hell? Sounds like a great way to meet ... hi, I'm Jake, and that guy wielding the barstool must be your boyfriend ...

It's weird -- I go out and meet a dozen people in a day, talk to them, get their names, their numbers, and find out what they do, or why they are who they are, or what makes them special, and then I shake their hand and they go their way and I go mine. I go back to the office and eventually "home" though I don't really feel that my little apartment is a home just yet, and I'm alone.

I've gone down two lonely roads in the past couple months. The first was the move from Athens to Calhoun, from a half dozen roommates and friends to two friends from high school who had obviously decided I wasn't worth their time. But I had my family there, at least for the latter half of my time there. I had my dogs. And Chana was only an hour or so away. Now I've gone from Calhoun to Birmingham, and from having my family and dogs to having nothing waiting for me at home.

I called Chana tonight to talk because I hadn't talked to her since earlier this week. She was hanging out with her friends. I felt a little strained talking to her because I miss her and I'm feel quite alone out here, but neither she nor anybody else can do anything about it. And it honestly makes me angry and frustrated, with being sad coming as an aftertaste. I can meet people like nothing when it comes to my job, but I have no idea (or, as yet, time) how to do it otherwise.

Yeah, this is just part of moving somewhere new.

Yeah, it'll pass.

But it's a bitch all the same.

Updating ...

So I finally got internet hooked up today, and here's the "off-line updates":

An offline update for Monday evening, June 30.

It was my first day as the Birmingham News photo intern. But perhaps I should go back and cover the weekend first. So, in brief …

Went to visit Chana on Friday, it was fun but she finally went ahead and broke down and got pissy and indignant about me leaving for six months and that was a nice guilt trip (I drove home sad that I couldn’t spend the night and happy that someone cared enough to feel as she does), got up bright and early on Saturday morning with a minor sense of dreading building in my gut, packed up the car(s), and got on the road, only about 30 minutes later than usual because my family is, well, my family; caravanned toward Smyrna to get Grandma, because no road trip is complete without the elderly matron of the family along for the ride; drove major detours because the freeway was backed up, delaying us even more; finally got to Hwy 20 and zipped (as well as a 1988 Toyota Vanwagon, a narcoleptic 1990-something Mazda Millennia, and a slightly-rattly-but-otherwise-pretty-nice 1996 Mazda Protégé can) toward Birmingham, Alabama, occasionally scattering across 4 lanes and occasionally nigh upon one another’s bumpers, had some major/minor car issues, and made it to the leasing office with only, gasp, the same 30 minute deficit with which we began; unloaded, kicked my folks to the road, felt bad about it, called, apologized, started missing them rather quickly, and unpacked some more. Sunday: unpacked, explored B-ham a little, felt a little lonely but survived nonetheless.

I started at 8 am today. I won’t go over the usual things (i.e., doing all the wrong things at least once, feeling more than a little awkward, wondering where things are more than once, forgetting the pencil behind your ear, et al) but I will say I got some nice equipment, all Nikon stuff. Also, instead of the usual week of shadowing and assisting, the Ed decided to just dropkick me into the newsroom, so I went on assignment to some bike shops (photos possibly to come). Some of them might run tomorrow – we’ll see.

You know, I’m kinda tired. I’m going to head for bed now.

**

Tuesday night, still no Internet. If I hadn’t been at the office until about 6:30 today, I might have had the chance to actually make a phone call or two. Supposedly, the Ed’s going to let me off early tomorrow, so progress might be made.

Assignments for the day: coat hanger factory with a character who shall be known as “the Song,” decorated parking meters as I was coming back from that, and photos at a park that’ll be edited tomorrow. Coat hanger factory was fun as any factory might be, though I got a bigger kick out of using the Song’s D300. Sah-weeet. I might be sold on Nikons – jury is still out a little.

I think I needed to get back into the habit of shooting. Yesterday felt more forced, rougher, in need of a great smack to the forehead to make things right up yonder. Today was nicer – it was more relaxed, I just looked and shot and looked and talked and smiled and enjoyed it. Maybe it’s going from a small town newspaper where grip-and-grins and façade shots are acceptable to a paper with 600 employees and assignments from sister companies in D.C. Maybe I’m just fooling myself. Anyway, I hope things get better, and I hope my shooting improves – it was easier today, but I don’t know that it was better, per se.

Speaking of photography, I talked to the Ballerina tonight – it was comforting, exciting and kind of invigorating to talk to her. I do miss her. She’ll hopefully be shooting for one of the colleges back in Athens pretty soon.

And speaking of talking to people, I talked to the Birmingham Miss tonight. She had called while I was still at the office, and made mention of going out with friends tonight, though the conversation was a little lost because I was in the midst of editing and captioning. She called later and we talked briefly – sum of it was that she’ll give me a call later and we’ll meet sometime somewhere next week or so because tonight might have been a little hairy. Seemed a little worried her boyfriend might show up at the bar, too, so … don’t really know what, if anything, that might imply, but it’ll add interest to my day, no doubt.

Bedtime – shooting something tomorrow at nine in Bessemer, and then something else at 11:30 in D-town B-ham. That’s something I like about this job: it’s something different almost every day. So there’s no chance to say, “Same shit, different day.” It’s instead, “Different shit, different day, same damn camera.”

… or something like that.

… oh, and I have to carry around a second cell phone for work. Which is actually nicer than my cell.

… yeah, bed, gone.