Last Saturday at MDN

Today is my last Saturday at the Midland Daily News and figured it was the best time to reflect on my internship here. The past two months have been incredible in the sense of what I learned from Nick and Neil, learned about myself, and what I've gotten to work on.

I don't know that many other internships do what Nick and Neil did for me. Every 2-3 weeks either both of them or one of them would sit down with me and go through my past assignments. This was awesome, hearing feedback on what I was doing right and what needed some tweaking is so important not just in college but throughout your professional career. I think if you can find a few people who's opinion you not only trust but respect that can only make you a better photographer.

This internship I only shot with 2 fixed lens, and occasionally a telephoto zoom. I would recommend this to anyone that feels like they rely to heavily on a zoom. My crutch was absolutely the 17-35. I got lazy about what was entering and exiting my frame, thinking that since I was wide enough I could just crop to what I wanted. Using the 35 and 50 helped to change that; instead of zooming with my hand I used my legs. I'm still young with good joints and a good back so I crouched more and ended up laying on my stomach more, this not only helped clean up my backgrounds but gave me more control over my composition. I recently read that Garry Winogrand never cropped his photos, I hope to one day do that.

Another thing that Nick and Neil helped me with was my cropping. They are all about maintaining that aspect ratio...I wasn't. It is something that is still difficult for me to grasp (or maybe I'm too stubborn to grasp) but I understand the reasoning and see that in stories especially it helps to keep the photos cohesive. It also comes back to be more picky about what I want entering and exiting the frame. There are things that as a photographer you can't control but the things you can, be picky about it.

I think what I'll miss most is their excitement and passion for their work. It's refreshing to work with people who know certain things about the job stink but continue to work hard and enjoy what their doing. Also I'll miss the jokes and the lingo that I still don't understand. Banger = good/awesome Grenade = bad/horrible, I think?