Day Thirteen

I am sad to say that today was my last day at the Loveland Reporter Herald. I started out my day by bringing in donuts to the office and saying my thanks and farewells to all my co-workers. After this I went out to take pictures of an Elementary School PE class that is doing a Nationwide challenge called Schools on the Move. This was a fun thing to start out the day, and I have noticed I have had lots of success taking pictures of kids. After this I had lunch with Jenny and Jeff to say thanks for everything they have done for me in the past couple of weeks. Immediately after we got back from lunch we were called out to an incident that involved the SWAT Team. We had no idea what the incident was, but we grabbed our cameras and drove out to the site. Apparently there was a high stakes warrant for a man who was resisting arrest and made a comment about holding a woman hostage. Although this was untrue, many teams came in to the East Loveland neighborhood. It was incredible to see at least 75 men on one scene with guns and snipers! Exciting last day! As my last assignment I went out with a reporter, Craig, to take pictures of a restaurant that burned down on St. Patricks Day. I have had such an incredible experience here at my internship and have loved every minute working here. I am sad to be leaving, but have taken away so many valuable lessons and skills. What a wonderful journey! Here are some pictures of my last day, some of which will hopefully be in tomorrow's paper.

Day Twelve

As my internship is coming to a close, I am still met with a busy day. I started out by doing some studio work photographing eggs. Yes, it was a rather odd assignment, but it was fitting for Easter approaching soon. People have been bringing in their intricately designed Easter eggs to the Herald for us to photograph and be featured in an Easter special. Although this was not a typical thing to photograph, it was still fun to play with lighting, different lenses, and settings to create different effects on the eggs. It was similar to commercial photography, because the goal was to highlight the product's features and make it look good. After this, I went out to photograph an after-school tutoring program at Conrad Ball Middle School. Here, I was taking pictures of students interacting with one another and with their teachers. Surprisingly, I was able to help students on their math homework too! This was a fairly short shoot, so after this I went to a high school soccer game. At the game I was able to take pictures with a 400 mm lens, which is the mother of all lenses. It weighs around 20 lbs. and is the size of my head. This was fun to shoot with because you can be standing from a long distance, and capture up-close photos with great quality. I switched off from this lens to a 200 mm which was a little less hard to handle. I am sad to say that tomorrow will be my last day, so I hope to make the best of it! Here are some photos from today.  

Day Ten & Eleven

  On Friday I worked a half day due to personal reasons, so I only had one assignment in the morning. I went out with a reporter, Jessica, to take pictures of the Harrington Arts Academy. Here, I met the owner of the academy, Brandon, who started a drama program along with dance, singing, and crafts 2 years ago. His program was incredible, because through the arts he has been able to tie in moral values and ethics for his students. I was impressed at all the work Brandon has done to create such an impactful program that allows students to thrive in the arts. On Monday, today, I started out the day by gathering all the newspapers that my pictures have been featured in for my portfolio and laying out my final project. After this, I went out with Jessica to a traveling art gallery that is taking place in Loveland. It is raising awareness of kids in Colorado awaiting adoption. Professional photographers have been doing photo-shoots with kids looking for adoption, and then Heart Gallery hosts exhibits of the kid's pictures to urge people to adopt. It was a really interesting and clever concept. After getting back to the office I edited and submitted pictures to be printed tomorrow or Wednesday.
Below you will see a picture from Thursday of the canine training, the Heart Gallery, and a picture from the Harrington Arts Academy.

Day Nine

To start off my day, I went to an event honoring individual and community support for McKee Medical Center. There, I took pictures of the award recipient who won the McKee Community Health Award. It was interesting to listen to all the people who had been effected by McKee, and all the support that the community had for this program. After this I went and shot pictures of a canine at the Loveland Police Department that is the first dog in northern Colorado to be train according to Ammendment 64.  I sat in on the training of the dog, Shadow, and watched some of the techniques the policemen use to make their dogs ready to go out into the feild. They have trained Shadow to attack people of potential harm, sniff out items that carry a specific human scent, and of course had trained her to be very obediant. After this I went straight to Berthoud High School to photograph the Robotics Team who will be attending the VEX World Championships in late April. Students showed me all the functions that the robot could do, and I took pictures of them interacting with their machine. It was an extremely busy day! I will upload some pictures of the dog shadow tomorrow, but for now, here are the pictures that will be published in tomorrow's paper.

Day Eight

Today was mostly dedicated to creating a portfolio of my photography not only for internship photos but also of photos that I have taken previously. This took several hours to get up and running, and then I went with a reporter to take pictures of a 12 year old boy who was diagnosed with brain cancer at 7, however, treatment has not been working. There is a fundraiser occurring later to support the family with the money necessary to get the child surgery and the care he needs. It was a sad story to cover, and I hope he makes a good recovery. The picture below is of Alex, the recipient of the fundraiser.

Day Seven

This morning started with an assignment that included taking pictures of the Volunteer of America Awards. After we were done shooting, we came back to the office to sort and edit pictures. I have learned the process of editing and uploading photos to the server, so that pictures are available to the editors to put up online or to be printed in the newspaper. After this shoot I went to another where I took pictures of head-start preschoolers which is going to be effected by sequestration and general government cuts. I am shooting something that appears to be more human to go along with a somewhat dry subject, which is a huge part of photojournalism. It is important to draw readers in through visual effects. I have been loving working here because I've been able to rekindle my passion for photography, and recognize that I have potential in this field.

Day Six

I have learned that part of photojournalism, and working for a newspaper, there is not always going to be assignments. Because there is not always assignments, you have to take pictures of whatever you can find that could be newsworthy. I have found a lot of difficulty in finding things to take pictures of when you have to search for it, and a lot of times it will be a hit or miss. Today I spent several hours looking for people doing something that could be worthy of making it into the paper. I found two little girls enjoying the warm weather and decided to take pictures of them, which resulted in a decent picture that may be in the paper tomorrow as a standalone. I also took pictures this morning of students presenting to a panel of teachers and community members about rabies... That was interesting. Not an extremely exciting day, but I am still learning some very valuable lessons and skills in photography.