So far my final project for my Journalism 537 course is going extremely well. I have 
photographed four times thus far, and will be photographing once tomorrow and hopefully one more time next week. I have also collected 1/2 of my sound that I will use – just need to go through it to make sure the sound is right! I’ve posted a few of my favorite photographs from my first couple photo shoots. To remind those reading my blog, my final project is to document the class of 2009 and how they are affected by the recession. Specifically, I am documenting Sammy, a soon-to-be college grad going through the stresses of job hunting, as well as Amber, a college student forced to pay for everything and how the new recession is affecting her finances. My first few photo shoots were establishing shots, aimed at trying to give a feel for what they are DOING and what they are working on. My next two shoots were for capturing emotion. Hopefully, my next two shoots will show diverse backgro
unds and settings as well as new actions.
A few questions to my class:
1. Do you have any specific recommendations of places where I could photograph Sammy or Amber either job hunting, or dealing with finances? I am currently looking into photographing Amber at work, and Sammy on her laptop at Starbucks…. Thoughts?
2. Any unique twists of questions and or images that you can think of that will spice up my theme?
3. Approximately how many photographs are you showing in your slide show??
Thanks for reading/viewing 
While I was bored the other day, I came across The Week in Pictures on the MSNBC website. After staring at some quite amazing photography, I came across one that was certainly special to me. “Going Dark” by Leon Neal is a photograph showing London shutting down its Parliament buildings and the famous, Big Ben for one hour to celebrate the “Earth Hour.” This earth hour, which began in Sydney Australia, was the opportunity for all of those around the globe to partake in a huge effort to conserve energy. It is most evident when even the most notable of buildings in cities shut down (like Big Ben!) Not only is this an incredible photograph because of its use of a slow shutter speed and the sharp contrast of the bright lights and the dark building, but I appreciate this photograph so much more for personal reasons. This past summer, I studied in London for six weeks. During my time there I took a British Parliament course in which we went to Parliament every day, meeting with Members of Parliament (MPs) and sitting in on both committee meetings and the House of Commons and Lords. It was such an incredible experience, and it was even better to be reminded of those memories when I came across Mr. Neal’s photograph.
I am currently working on my Final Photo Essay assignment. While I love the theme, the critical moments are difficult to capture. I have learned that the precise moment that you take a photograph can play a HUGE role in the mood/emotion that your photograph gives off. While I have captured several good shots, I haven’t yet reached those moments with such strong emotion that I would like my photo essay to have. While brainstorming of ways to improve my photographs, I came across a wonderful photograph posted on The National Geographic website. As shown above, this photograph was captured by Marco Ugarte when several people were standing at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, waiting for the spring equniox. If it weren’t for Ugarte’s great skills at capturing the perfect moment with the sun and people at just the right angles, then the photograph would not have nearly the same feel/mood that it does. This photograph inspires me to continue trying from all angles and times to get the perfect shot for my photo essay.
At this point, I am still contemplating a meaningful theme for my photo essay. Dealing with my own financial position, I was inspired to try and capture images that reflect the newest generation to be most recently affected by the recession; 2009 College Graduates (like myself!) I think it is an interesting subject being that students my age have never experienced anything like this, nor have our parents, siblings or peers. I think it would interesting to capture this new professional entrance into such a complicated economy and difficult job market. I have also recently been inspired by an extremely famous photograph of a woman and her children taken during the depression at the beginning of the century by Dorthea Lange; the photograph is attached to the side. Another interesting spin on my photo essay would to attempt to recreate these famous depression images in more recent scenes. Just an idea! We’ll see how it goes! 
Our next assignment is to document a story in a series of 5 photographs. I am really excited about this assignment, but am worried that it will take me a long time to find the appropriate theme. For that reason, I will plan to start shooting early to give myself plenty of time to find the right tone and idea. Recently, I was inspired by a Time Magazine photo essay on ‘Photographing the Remains of the Fallen.’ Specifically, the attached photograph, by Todd Heisler, is an incredible photograph, not because it is captured with the best means possible, but it also conveys a strong emotion and idea. I would love to do something along these lines, but feel that it will be difficult to take photographs around the Columbia area that will convey such emotion as this. I will potentially check out the locak miliarty bases and see if they have any deployments or returns that I could maybe photograph. Hopefully, by the time my next post comes around I’ll have a set idea! 
This past weekend, our J537 class went to watch a College Softball Tournament hosted at USC. In particular I watched the Troy game. During the course of this game, I realized just how difficult and different it is to take photographs of Softball/Baseball games versus Basketball games. The motions are so fast and unpredictable that it makes it feel as though it is impossible to get that ‘ball and action’ shot. After ALOT of practice, I managed to get a few photographs of the player and the actual ball – but that is after I bumped my shutter speed up to a 5000th of a second! I can’t even imagine how fast my camera would need to go to take a picture of an even faster Men’s Baseball game! The picture that I have included in my blog post is from the walsworth year books website and shows that ideal ‘ball and action’ shot – the precise moment when a player’s bat touches the ball – a split second before the crack of the bat is heard. While it may not be too difficult to focus on the player and wait for the swing, it will certainly suprise you of how few good shots you’ll get using that method! That’s all for now 
So this week’s class assignment was to photograph an event. In particular, our class went to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC to photograph an animal feeding event on Valentines Day. Overall, the event was really fun, difficult, but all in all, a wonderful learning experience. When it came time to crop and edit my images, I wanted to research famous animal photography to get inspiration from. In particular, I came across a photograph of a Lion by Beverly Joubert that appears on the 
UGA vs. USC Men’s Basketball game. With the help of Professor McGill, and several of the professional photographers sitting with me at the event, I was able to learn quickly and (as I like to think) was able to take some pretty cool images! While it took me a while to figure out how to set the Auto Focus on the camera, once I got a hang of it, taking photographs of events like these was relativly easy. But of course, pressing the button was easy. The difficult part was your timing and making sure your shutter speed was fast enough to catch that famous slam-dunk or the trick move that intercepted the ball! All in all it was a great opportunity, and I can’t wait to shoot a women’s basketball game soon! (My favorite image that I took from the basketball game is attached!)