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LINK Project
Will be completed and posted by March 25th
Mentor Interview
· Do you enjoy the work you’re doing? What about it do you like?
I absolutely love the work that I do. I love meeting people from all walks of life and telling their stories through my photos. I also love the variety.
· What kind of skills did you have to master before you obtained your position? What skills have you gained while you’ve been working here?
I had to master the machine, or camera, before I could learn to master composition, lighting, and capturing a decisive, storytelling moment. While working here I have gained knowledge of this particular community, a very important aspect of community journalism. You need to know the community well to be able to determine what stories are important to share.
· What was your first job position?
My first job position was as a staff photographer at the Greeley Tribune newspaper.
· What advice would you give a younger person looking to pursue the same profession as you?
Have a great work ethic and be ready to work nights, weekends and holidays. The news business never sleeps.
· What sources of inspiration do you find in your work?
I find inspiration in other photographer's work. Another huge inspiration is having the ability to make a difference in other's lives through my work.
· What kinds of obstacles have you had to overcome?
Proving I have something important to offer in a male dominated field.
· If you weren’t in the newspaper business, what do you think you would be doing instead?
I could see myself as a teacher.
· What is the hardest part of your job?
Documenting tragic events where lives are lost.
· Have there been any controversies with articles published? How do you maintain a neutral position on controversial subjects?
There are always controversies with articles published. I have always been the type of person who can relate to both sides of any story so I think it comes naturally for me.
· How do you think you benefit the community with the work you do?
It can be something as simple as creating a scrapbook memory of a child at the park, a high school athlete making the play of their life, or something more serious like saving a life by making an impression on someone to drive safely after seeing a photo of a fatal car accident. I also believe photojournalism is a form of fine art. My hope is that a beautiful photo will pull a reader in to read an important story they might not read otherwise.
I absolutely love the work that I do. I love meeting people from all walks of life and telling their stories through my photos. I also love the variety.
· What kind of skills did you have to master before you obtained your position? What skills have you gained while you’ve been working here?
I had to master the machine, or camera, before I could learn to master composition, lighting, and capturing a decisive, storytelling moment. While working here I have gained knowledge of this particular community, a very important aspect of community journalism. You need to know the community well to be able to determine what stories are important to share.
· What was your first job position?
My first job position was as a staff photographer at the Greeley Tribune newspaper.
· What advice would you give a younger person looking to pursue the same profession as you?
Have a great work ethic and be ready to work nights, weekends and holidays. The news business never sleeps.
· What sources of inspiration do you find in your work?
I find inspiration in other photographer's work. Another huge inspiration is having the ability to make a difference in other's lives through my work.
· What kinds of obstacles have you had to overcome?
Proving I have something important to offer in a male dominated field.
· If you weren’t in the newspaper business, what do you think you would be doing instead?
I could see myself as a teacher.
· What is the hardest part of your job?
Documenting tragic events where lives are lost.
· Have there been any controversies with articles published? How do you maintain a neutral position on controversial subjects?
There are always controversies with articles published. I have always been the type of person who can relate to both sides of any story so I think it comes naturally for me.
· How do you think you benefit the community with the work you do?
It can be something as simple as creating a scrapbook memory of a child at the park, a high school athlete making the play of their life, or something more serious like saving a life by making an impression on someone to drive safely after seeing a photo of a fatal car accident. I also believe photojournalism is a form of fine art. My hope is that a beautiful photo will pull a reader in to read an important story they might not read otherwise.
Internship description
For the duration of my internship I will be in Loveland working at the local newspaper, The Loveland Reporter Herald. There, I will be mentored by a reporter and photojournalist for 3 weeks. As I learn from my mentors, I will be creating an online portfolio of writing pieces and photographs that will be taken during my time at my internship site. I also hope to have some of my work published on their online blog. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you as I begin my internship. Stay tuned for an online blog of my daily activities at the Loveland Reporter Herald.
Project Proposal
I will be interning at the Loveland Reporter Herald, which is a newspaper company on the Front Range. The goal of their work is like all other newspapers, to get across information to the public in a lively and creative way. Their mission is to cover all of the happenings in local and national affairs. From my understanding I will be shadowing a reporter and photographer for the newspaper. The editor Jeff Stahla will help me to get set up, and then I will follow a woman named Jenny for around two weeks. The last week I will follow a reporter, whom I do not know the name of at this point. Their role is to capture an article’s essence through images, and to go out in the community searching for lead stories that apply to the interests of readers. This person/people can offer me photography, journalism and communication skills throughout the duration of my internship. I hope to offer my mentor the skills that I already have pertaining to these subjects, as well as give them a helping hand in times of stress or need.
I originally was going to intern at The Coloradoan which is another newspaper in the Fort Collins area, but it fell through leaving me to search for another place to intern at. I found that the Loveland Reporter Herald could offer me the same type of internship, so I began pursuing this newspaper. I wanted to leave Durango so I could get a good feel of what it is like to have a great deal of independence outside my parents and community, and start breaking away from the crutch that my family would provide me if I were to stay here. My academic and career goals are to graduate college with a double major in business, studio arts, journalism, or digital media and marketing. Through these academic achievements I hope to make a successful career that I enjoy and am passionate about. This experience will help me to achieve these goals because it will give me an insight to what it is like either being a journalist, photographer or reporter. It will give me skills on how to work in a professional setting, and help me manage deadlines.
Hopefully, my project will be an article in the paper with my own photography to accompany it. What kind of article it will be I don’t know. It will contribute to my internship site, and the large population around it because I will be producing a good piece of work that will feed information to readers. I hope to please the company I am working for and bring forth a fresh way of approaching news. Hopefully the topic I cover will be relevant to me, and pertain to something I am interested in, however I do not know the subject I will be covering at this point in time.
Over winter break, I visited the place I will be interning and met the man that is helping me to get set up. I was pleased with the work space and the people that I did meet. They were welcoming, so I believe that my time spent working there will be comfortable and useful for my learning experience. All of the preparation I have done for my internship has been researching and finding a place that pertains to my interests, and suits me well. I believe I have found a place that will provide a safe and productive work environment, and will help me gain many useful skills. Jeff Stahla also recommended that I start reading technical writing, and nonfiction to get a feel of how to write for a newspaper. This could help me because I tend to get wordy, so I hope I can learn to make my work more concise. To complete this project I will need to follow and learn from my colleagues, and gain an understanding of how to run articles in a newspaper. I hope as an ending project to have a portfolio of writing pieces and pictures I have taken throughout the duration of my internship. I will also hopefully be providing the Reporter Herald with pieces to put up on their website, whether it gets published and printed, I do not know yet. Between the portfolio and publishing my work through the newspaper, I hope to get my work out into the community. I think a portfolio would be a great representation of my work and provide something unique for colleges to look at in the future.
I have run into some problems with the internship process, such as The Coloradoan falling through. I have learned that not everything works out, but when one door closes another opens. To remedy this problem, I worked to make connections and use my resources. This helped me to pull together the internship I have, and will help me in the future with making connections in order to get a job. This has been a somewhat stressful process, but I am satisfied with the place I will be interning at and I hope that it goes smoothly from here on out. I think that I will gain great skills from this internship, and it will be a wonderful learning experience for me.
To go to the Loveland Reporter Herald's website, click HERE.
I originally was going to intern at The Coloradoan which is another newspaper in the Fort Collins area, but it fell through leaving me to search for another place to intern at. I found that the Loveland Reporter Herald could offer me the same type of internship, so I began pursuing this newspaper. I wanted to leave Durango so I could get a good feel of what it is like to have a great deal of independence outside my parents and community, and start breaking away from the crutch that my family would provide me if I were to stay here. My academic and career goals are to graduate college with a double major in business, studio arts, journalism, or digital media and marketing. Through these academic achievements I hope to make a successful career that I enjoy and am passionate about. This experience will help me to achieve these goals because it will give me an insight to what it is like either being a journalist, photographer or reporter. It will give me skills on how to work in a professional setting, and help me manage deadlines.
Hopefully, my project will be an article in the paper with my own photography to accompany it. What kind of article it will be I don’t know. It will contribute to my internship site, and the large population around it because I will be producing a good piece of work that will feed information to readers. I hope to please the company I am working for and bring forth a fresh way of approaching news. Hopefully the topic I cover will be relevant to me, and pertain to something I am interested in, however I do not know the subject I will be covering at this point in time.
Over winter break, I visited the place I will be interning and met the man that is helping me to get set up. I was pleased with the work space and the people that I did meet. They were welcoming, so I believe that my time spent working there will be comfortable and useful for my learning experience. All of the preparation I have done for my internship has been researching and finding a place that pertains to my interests, and suits me well. I believe I have found a place that will provide a safe and productive work environment, and will help me gain many useful skills. Jeff Stahla also recommended that I start reading technical writing, and nonfiction to get a feel of how to write for a newspaper. This could help me because I tend to get wordy, so I hope I can learn to make my work more concise. To complete this project I will need to follow and learn from my colleagues, and gain an understanding of how to run articles in a newspaper. I hope as an ending project to have a portfolio of writing pieces and pictures I have taken throughout the duration of my internship. I will also hopefully be providing the Reporter Herald with pieces to put up on their website, whether it gets published and printed, I do not know yet. Between the portfolio and publishing my work through the newspaper, I hope to get my work out into the community. I think a portfolio would be a great representation of my work and provide something unique for colleges to look at in the future.
I have run into some problems with the internship process, such as The Coloradoan falling through. I have learned that not everything works out, but when one door closes another opens. To remedy this problem, I worked to make connections and use my resources. This helped me to pull together the internship I have, and will help me in the future with making connections in order to get a job. This has been a somewhat stressful process, but I am satisfied with the place I will be interning at and I hope that it goes smoothly from here on out. I think that I will gain great skills from this internship, and it will be a wonderful learning experience for me.
To go to the Loveland Reporter Herald's website, click HERE.