Hello from Sunny SWFL

My biggest apologies for not jumping on this earlier! I've been frantically working my behind off for the past few weeks to save up some money for the trip. I'm excited, anxious and nervous about the workshop but look forward to meeting everyone come Friday!

I've been out of school since May and officially freelancing since August. I've started receiving a fair amount of work from the Naples Daily News only a few weeks ago, and up until then, sort of lost my drive to shoot. I've figured out now, how to balance part time work with my shooting and I couldn't be happier. They're keeping me busy at the paper and I can hardly stand to keep my camera down.

I've always been big on workshops. I love the camaraderie, meeting so many new faces and the burst of enthusiasm people receive from the days spent shooting. Last year I was fortunate to attend the Mountain Workshop and Picture Kentucky. Here's a link to my Mountain Workshop story: Man About Town

I've also done a little multimedia. At Picture Kentucky I helped shoot and produce a video about a tiny community in the mountains of Kentucky called Rex Fox.


Black as Coal from Allie Garza on Vimeo.

Finally, a few photos from a recent shoot at a high school football game. I love fall and football and it's only as of yesterday that the temperatures are beginning to match the season down here.

Looking forward to meeting all of you and hope everyone has a safe trip to New York!

Hello from Washington D.C.

Hey everyone,
I wanted to come on this blog and tell everyone what I have been doing this past week.  My teacher William Snyder has hooked our senior class up on a tour of Washington D.C. to visit different publications and see first hand what everyone does in this business.  We have had the opportunity to visit many places this week but to name a few: National Geographic, Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, and White House Photography Office.  I have sat through many meetings and gathered a small collection of helpful critiques about myself and how to become something more in the future.  The amount of information I heard during this week is extraordinary.  I learned what editors look for in freelancers and also the amount of drive one person must have to make it in this business.  I have met some really amazing people in Washington D.C. this past week.  William plans to make this an annual event so every future photojournalism student at RIT can experience what I did this week.

I have more on my blog if anyone is interested in reading in more detail about what I do each day on the trip.

As for the workshop, I can't wait to meet everyone at the workshop and on the team.  I have heard from many people on my trip and in the past months how important this workshop is for all the students and how much I will take away from it.

Sorry for being so lame at blogging!  I plan on blogging during the workshop when I get time, if I have it? :)

-Chris

Hey-o everybody!

My teacher, Josh Meltzer, here at Western Kentucky University will be attending the workshop as a part of the Navy team. He showed me their blog two days ago and made a crack on our team for being weak, not just in pigmentation, but in blogging skills too! So I thought it best to contribute to any and all efforts to show him up by posting some of the work that I've been doing recently and suggesting we smash Mr. Meltzers navy team by sprucing up our own blog.

Right now I'm in a class called web narratives. Our first assignment was to do a piece about in accordance with the theme "end of summer." And I bombed that assignment, but it was a good motivator to do better for the rest of the semester. My piece lacked a story line, climax, and didn't exactly suit the topic for the assignment. Here's a link to that:

http://vimeo.com/14886000

Our second, and most recent assignment was to take our audience on a journey. This was my first real experience with video. We were allowed to be creative/ abstract/ artistic as long as there was a clear journey. My idea was to do the journey to self discovery and to use a visual poem to tell the story. It was a lot of fun and turned out much better!

http://vimeo.com/15259256

Outside of class, the only other things that I've been shooting have been assignments for the College Heights Herald. This ran for a column called "A Thousand Words" two days ago.

"When Susan Hull, far right, entered the kitchen where Ty and Larry Remour, left, had just finished preparing Dinner on Sunday evening, she said, “We may mot be rich or have a lot around us, but we are rich in what we have here with each other.” Hull said that within the eight months, she has accomplished all of the goals that she had set to achieve before her 50th birthday on December 22nd. These goals included finding a new place to live that was more reasonable, having a motherly role-model in her life, and finding a job. Hull now lives just down the street from the Remour family and said that she considers Lillie Remour, center, to be one of

these answered prayers. “It brings tears to my eyes thinking how blessed this family is to me. It’s filled every hole that I had in my heart. It can’t replace but it sure has filled. I wouldn’t change it for the world, “ Hull said. Lillie Remour said that she considers Hull to be one of her best friends and that she treats her like a daugther, out of love, even though she has only known her for a month."

So that's all I have for now.

I hope to hear about everyone else's projects before we see each other very very very soon!

Cars? Anyone??

I'd love to know if anyone is planning on driving to the workshop this year.  There are a few assignments that will be worth the drive, and I'd love to give them to students with cars.  So please leave a comment under this post if you're planning on driving.  Thanks.

Preparing for Barnstorm

Last year I was asked to write a blog for the NPPA Visual Student blog about what Eddie Adams Workshop students need to know before they get to Jeffersonville, NY.  It touches on your lack of sleep, being prepared for the weather and coming in with a good attitude.  Hopefully you'll find something useful in there.

If there's anything I left out that you're curious about, don't hesitate to ask.