More squirrels!

I went to Shelter Gardens this morning. I've never been there before but had a fun time photographing there. Of course I was partial to all the squirrels chasing each other and causing trouble so I thought I would post a few photos from my morning with them.











And the one random bird photo I took. The bird isn't in focus but I liked the moment.

Final Project Ideas for Picture Story

I've been contemplating a few ideas for my final story in picture story. I thought of continuing my work with the Basye family but then opted out of that. I am going to photograph them more but I feel like I should work on a new story since after all this is picture story and it is my capstone class.

I thought of going to Crane's Country Store in Williamsburg. I've visited there a few times and noticed how it seems to be the spot for town talk/gossip. I remember seeing people sitting outside the store just chatting away and having a good time. Due to the distance, this was just a thought not something I am probably going to pursue for that reason.

My other idea is to work with the elderly in some way. I'm taking a sociology of aging class this semester and it has opened my eyes to a lot of things about the elderly. For a project in that class we have to talk to someone 65+ and ask them questions about getting older and how they feel about that. We can do a video interview, write a paper, take photos etc. I thought of working with video for this since I haven't had much of an opportunity to do that yet. I had talked to David Rees today about this and he suggested adult day care. This sparked my interest so after my meeting, I did some research and plan on contacting them either tomorrow or Thursday to find a time to go out there. I am thinking maybe video interviews intermixed with photographs of them doing their activities. My other thought is to focus on one person and follow them at the day care and their home life away from the day care.

These are the only two ideas I had so far. I know I don't have a whole lot of time but I want to do something I'm interested in and the elderly is something that does interest me a lot.

The History and Life of Columbia Cemetery

My project is posted on Vimeo.

The History and Life of Columbia Cemetery

As many of you know my picture story class has been working on a group documentary project on Broadway. My part of the project was on Columbia Cemetery. The project was fun yet frustrating at times as I'm sure this happens with any project. I learned so much about the cemetery and Columbia's history as well as what happens after a funeral. I've enjoyed spending my evenings walking the cemetery and meeting people and discovering new things at every turn.

Enjoy!

Boone Life

My Boone Life runs this week in the Columbia Missourian. I originally found the Basye family by inquiring about photographing alpacas. Teresa Basye has around 50 alpacas and I made a visit out there to photograph. She had told me her son had autism and I decided to go back for my one day story for my picture story class. I've really liked working with the family and I like the subject of autism so I wanted to continue with the story which later developed into my Boone Life. I can't thank the Basye family enough for letting me come out and be part of their lives. I've enjoyed getting to know them and hope to continue work with them in the future. They have been great subjects to work with! :)

Autism Boone Life (click and it will take you to the piece)

I was in the newsroom working on Boone Life when...

someone came in to tell us that someone was being arrested in the Missourian parking lot. Will and I ran down with our cameras to see what was going on and sure enough someone was arrested. After talking to the police officer, this man was apparently causing a disturbance at Bengals and was thought to have a concealed knife on him. The police did in fact find a knife hidden on his back. Anywho I don't have any terribly exciting photos but here is one from the event.

I made the news...

I went on a house fire call with the guys from UCFD on Saturday afternoon and just happened to make the main photo on KMOV's Web site. Kris had let me see the inside so I was taking a few photos when he had mentioned that KMOV was taking photos also. I didn't think they would actually use a photo with some random person with a Mizzou shirt on standing in the doorway of this house, but they did.

30 pictures in 30 days take two-day 28

I went back to the UCFD today and went on a house fire call with them. It was my first house fire call with UCFD. As with any first time experience there are things I'd do differently etc. but I at least got a few good photos out of the day. The guys were awesome and let me walk around a bit and Kris took me just inside the house when they were done to see what it looked like. It was a fun experience and hopefully I can go back and go on more calls with them. :)

30 pictures in 30 days take two-day 27

I spend a good amount of time at the University City Fire Department today. It was slow in the beginning but things picked up mid-day. I started by going on an ambulance call since the fire side hadn't gotten any calls while I was there yet. It was fun getting to go on a few ambulance calls. It was my first time riding in the ambulance so I was happy I got to take some photos of that. All the guys went to Chipotle for dinner and I tagged along for that too. After dinner they got a call for a brush fire so we headed to that. Finally I got to go on a fire call. :) It was a brush fire but I was plenty happy to just go on a call :) Here are a few of my better photos from the evening.

This is taken as we are driving onto the scene.