Final: Photo story

The balance that comes with being a student explores free time with physical activities, stressful late-night-grinding on assignments, a low-paying job, and some time to let free and dance. As he goes to the park to loosen up his muscles and mind, Brenden keeps a safe in the back of his head filled with tedious schoolwork. That five minute speech has to be finished and rehearsed before the night's over, that picture has to be uploaded by midnight, that certain foreign-looking equation is still on the page after looking away from it for hours. As the sun sets down, and people walk their dogs in the mixture of the fall and winter air, Brenden lets his worries leave his soul for a few, carefree moments.

As the night draws closer, Brenden retreats back to his natural state-- laying in the bedroom.  The stress from constant education and a task-oriented life have hit deep in the psychologically tormented brain. Still, things need to get done-- there's a job awaiting for Brenden to perform. Luckily, he can work from his habitat-- in his desk in his room. The New Orleans Saints media outlet awaits the updated podcast from its hard-working super-fan. A cent every ten views isn't much, but it will work for now on the current budget of a broke college student. The popular sports media site: SBnation, is the source of all income for a struggling student, and so though he is wiped out from the day, Brenden still needs to earn his paper. 

After all the multiple-page math packets, the constant speech rehearsal, and the recording of a podcast, Brenden needs another relief. Before he entered his school-focused zone, Brenden was playing in the park like an innocent child. Now that all the paperwork is finished, more play is desired. Brenden sprints out the door with an exciting smile on his face. A beautiful piece of artwork strikes his eye, as he's always been a graffiti-geek. Nothing else comes to his mind other than the constant beat in his head pounding like a drum. All the instruments lined up in synchronization in his brain, and the result of the music flowed through his body. Again after all the business was taken care of, the joyful side of the balanced student life is exposed.

Book report

In "It's What I Do," there are lots of intense and tragic passages, as well as good messages and the overall feeling of awareness. What I found most compelling about the book was the kidnapping. It stood out to me because though she was in a dangerous environment, she was just doing her job and wound up with her life in question. What's even more amazing is after it was all over, she continued to document the lives of people around terrorism and poverty and mislead government. I think that's a big part of what makes Addario's style-- the bravery. She was literally in the midst of crossfire and with all those booming guns, and the worry of her life, she still continued to do what she believed she was meant to do. I definitely cannot relate to her "sense of duty" in war zones. That's insane. Lots of soldiers feel that way when fighting for their country, but I never heard of a photojournalist with such bravery and dedication to volunteer themselves to film an ongoing war.

The book had good overall messages, but I wouldn't really say I incorporated the lessons I learned in this book to photojournalism, but I would say I learned from the way she thinks. At a young age, Lynsey started to see life in images and knew that you never know when you might perfectly capture your reality, or capture a masterpiece. I guess you could say I incorporated that skill into my photos by bringing a positive mindset to the subject and trying to capture the reality. 

My favorite pictures from the book come between pages 210 and 211, in the "Of love and war" section. There's a picture of a boy with a bandaged face and tears in his eyes and that photo clings to me because it shows the devastation and torment on children in this war-zone. Children should never be subjected to war or the sightings of war, and it's sad and powerful to see the look on that kid's face. My other favorite photo was the mother making a fire with her children near. In the midst of all the battle, there's still civility and everyday activities that go on in the life of this area. 

This is also one of my favorite photos from Lynsey Addario because it's just beautiful and captures nature so well. The man and his horse bring a bonding feel to the photo, while the sunlight and grass and trees add beauty and wonder.

“I found that the camera was a comforting companion. It opened up new worlds, and gave me access to people’s most intimate moments. I discovered the privilege of seeing life in all its complexity, the thrill of learning something new every day. When I was behind a camera, it was the only place in the world I wanted to be.” This quote resonates with me because I never thought about how much a camera can add to life. To everyone in the Middle East, she was just some Palestinian girl, but with the camera in her hands, she was the woman documenting the beauties and horrors of this life and lifestyle. People were open to her, and were more responsive and genuine with her than others because she had the storytelling device in her arms, depicting every moment.

Overall, it was a great book, and I recommend it to photojournalists everywhere, especially those interested in war photography. Also, I recommend common good-book-readers to partake in reading it because it has lots of good stories and it keeps you intrigued the whole time.

Week 10

This was my favorite photo from this term because it was the first one I took and it features my roommate. It's also a good picture just because his motion and expression adds character to the photo.

It reflects that I learned how to position the subject and to capture the most interesting photo to post.

I think I've gotten better at approaching subjects. In the beginning like when I did the Humans of LBCC, it was hard for me to be confident while approaching my subjects, but now I try to just start a conversation and make them more comfortable with me.

My three goals for this class are finish the term strong, get another photo in the Commuter, and learn as much as I can in the last few days.

"My three goals in this class are pretty simple: Get all my work done on time, make a few new friends, and continue to educate myself on all types of journalism and learn as much as I can." I did not get all my work done on time, I met some new people but didn't make too many friends, but I did get much more educated on photojournalism and I learned beneficial information. I learned how to frame a photo, and about lots of different photographers, and how to incorporate photos and stories into a newspaper.

Action photo

Tim Ferguson and his daughters Lily and Alex and their friend Brittany (Red shirt) playing 2on2 basketball at Edge Family Fitness.

Brittany shooting a 3 point shot over her friend Alex.

The four ballers getting ready for a new possession in the 2on2 battle.

Hometown

Beautiful flowers left under a brave veteran's name


The Korean War Memorial in Town Center Park, commemorating all fallen soldiers


Joe, Ethan, Randy, and Kevin all play squash competitively against one another.


Jiselle De La Cruz posing for her uncle.

Free shoot

My mother's back yard: Filled with life, color, and joy. Here is her trampoline for the kids to play on with their play structure in the back.

Alonzo De La Cruz climbs up the ladder to the top floor of his play house while getting annoyed by his photo-taking uncle

The medium shot of the play structure thats inhabited by many joyful children.

Week 7 Forum

My hometown is a wonderful place-- Wilsonville, Oregon. Wilsonville is a place of very tolerant, nice, wealthy, and some smug people. It is extremely clean compared to the streets down here, it is very well-lit, safe (Very rarely hear sirens), has a great housing development, and the 3rd best education system in Oregon. The sports teams at the high school have always been very good and have had high amounts of class and composure-- Wilsonville prides themselves on that. I'm excited to go back there during Thanksgiving time to be with my family, some old friends, and shoot some photos. One idea I have is shooting the football field and stadium. No other stadium in the state is like Wilsonville-- It's a bowl. The landscaping and texture of everything is amazing, they even have a tunnel from their locker room leading to their field. A tunnel. What high school do you see with athletes running out of a tunnel with a smoke machine going off? A very rich one. The architecture of the school is next-level, especially when it comes to the sports facility and sports grounds. Another idea I have is maybe just taking pictures of interesting things I see walking down the streets-- there's always construction going on, but that may be too boring. I have a big, diverse family. Maybe I could shoot them doing something interesting. Wilsonville has all their shopping centers full of Santa 6 weeks before the holiday, there's lots I could shoot. Just gotta find what's most interesting to me and my camera. I think the biggest challenge will be shooting an activity, just because it's hard to get quality pictures in that field.

For my photo story I think I may choose someone I know and follow them into their profession on a few occasions because I think that's a good way to dive into the life of somebody and see where they're at, and where they want to be.

Another option is meeting someone at school and meeting up with them a few times to take photos and dive into their life. We could go to their work, a coffee shop, the grocery store, etc. I will go about documenting these subjects by setting them up in the right place and capturing as much as I can.