My time in Erie is coming to a close and parte dos of my internships will begin. There are a few things that I’ve learned, not just about photography but about the business side. Two weeks ago I spent time working for Lauren Greenfield, this is also who I will be interning with next. Photographers, who are in the field, don’t always like to hire female assistants because they can’t always carry the equipment. So an easy way to set yourself apart is to carry equipment, even if your arms are sore. Always stay behind the photographer, that way you don’t get in any of the shots and are there if they need something. Put everything back right where you found it, every photographer has a system.
I’ve been trying to work on a story while out in Erie, and it proven to be more challenging that I originally thought. Balancing time and finding people that willing to spend time with me has been hard. It gives me an idea of what life will be like after school.

Here are some images I took at Erie Speedway and St. Vincent's NICU

Pennsylvanian Wanderings

Today I got to finally edit my video of beach volleyball, this was nice. I realized that while I had been slave to Final Cut Pro for finals week, I missed it. It was nice to sit down and see the work I had done in real time. However, I need become faster at editing video now. Volleyball video is at http://goerie.com/.

You don't recognize how much time you have in school to get work done. Unfortunately in the real world there isn't this magical time called "after hours" where you can hold up in a dark room or computer lab all night and play music while you leisurely edit. Oh how I miss you, after hours.

While I wait for vacation bible school to start up, I've spent my free time shooting around Sarah's home. I've been here a month and can finally find my way around Erie sans map. Here are my first months worth of wanderings.

I should've taken that food photography class

Again I was asked to photograph food. It wasn't as terrifying as before but I still cringe when the words, studio and lighting set-ups are mentioned. Today my editor sat down with me and went over my first four weeks worth of work at the paper. It really nice to get some feed back. Basically I need to work on my portraits and make them more creative. I guess there's another class I should take while I still can. Then I got to go and double shoot. Yupe video and photographs at the same time. Luckily it wasn't anything too fast paced. Check out the video at http://goerie.com/ it's called Get Your Phil at Erie's Warner Theatre.

Last Friday, Otherwise Known as Crazy

Last Friday was a crazy day, I had three set assignments and then for some reason the people of Erie decided that Friday would be a good day to get into car accidents, light things on fire, and slit a store owner's throat. My first sport news sounds interesting and terrifying but ended up being a dud. My second spot news was a man who was cooking with oil and set the pan fire which then caused him to receive second degree burns. The day was very fast paced and I surprised even myself when I recognized how much I enjoyed all of the activity for the day.

Ops.

It's that photograph that got away. I saw this happen and was too quick to press the shutter before remember that I sliced off a woman. Ops. I hate when this happens. Everyone has these moments but here's hoping I don't have too many more of them.

Belligerent Drunks and Journalists

Yesterday my editor sent me out to shoot my first video assignment for the newspaper. Local skateboards decided to 'bomb the bayfront'. This meant that they skated from one of the nearby colleges to the same Bayfront Convention Center that hosted Dick Cheney. How diverse. I was so glad that I took a video class this past semester, otherwise hives would've most certainly set in. Check out the video: http://www.goerie.com/ (scroll to midway in the page)

A few days ago I had my first difficult encounter. There is a family who lives in Erie that I've photographed a few times, and hope to do a story on them. There are two children and parents, but their situation and hardship effects on the family dynamic is what I want to story to be about. Their drunk neighbor didn't see it that. He continued to ask me what I was doing there, why I needed to take pictures, and then he asked me "Why are you taking advantage of these people? Stop exploiting the poor." I explained to him that I was here to photograph the family and their relationship, to deaf ears. He kept telling me that I was exploiting and taking advantage of people. He then told me that he was their landlord and to get off his property. Not knowing the family well enough to know who their landlord was, I left.

This is something that you hear journalist talk about, it was something I wasn't prepared for. In school professors talk about exposure and composition and where it is legal and ethical to photograph. I think learning to deal with difficult people can't be taught.

I'd like to say that I was uneffected, but I was sad. I never thought that what I did could be viewed as exploitive, that was naive. It still burned knowing that this wouldn't be the last time that I'm called exploitative or acused of using someone else's problems to further my position.

Here's hoping I'm better prepared for the future.

Dick Cheney and Erie

My third week is coming to an end and I think I'm finally beginning to catch up with the newspaper pace. Yesterday Former Vice President Dick Cheney came to Erie. While many people came to listen to him speak at the local convention center, I got to spend time with the 30 or so people outside of the convention center. They were primarily younger and liked to talk about Cheney being a big oil supporter and a war criminal. There were bongo playing protesters who didn't feel the need to shave and young adults with multiple piercings and sprinkled in between to outspoken protesters were the calm one's who preferred to show their feelings through costume. One woman dressed in the orange jump suit of a prisoner and a another dress like the prisoners from Abu Ghraib. Quite a collection.

Later tonight I'm going to be photographing a hot air balloon event, which should be really visually interesting. Here's hoping I don't get lost on my way to Meadville.