Downtown History
May 20th, 2007
Docent Carol Agate leads the Walking Tour of Downtown Santa Monica, hosted by the Santa Monica Conservancy on May 19, 2007. On Second Street and behind Agate is the first brick structure erected in Santa Monica. It was known as Rapp’s Saloon, which also served as the town hall in 1875.
Messiness is art
March 2nd, 2007
Here’s a portion of my life: on some days I am driving and I see something happening. Two questions immediately pop into my head. 1) Is the issue/circumstance that I am seeing newsworthy?, and if so, 2) Where do I stop?
I used to have to ask myself if I have my camera with me, but now it’s usually always with me. I always have quarters with me so I can meter it in Los Angeles if I have to, but all in all I’ve heard other photographers say that photojournalists in LA are also called “drivers who navigate through traffic” because one of the biggest components of taking that picture is getting there.
Then I’m rushing to the scene with my notebook and my camera, and half the time I am running and trying to catch my breath because everything is going so fast. There’s police, and if they’re after someone I follow them but I have to make sure I’m not getting in their way. Sometimes I lose the person they’re after in the parking lot, and at other times my camera goes off and security people get really angry and then I have to say sorry and then smile the “I’m a little girl that’s lost can you help me tee hee” smile (but at least I got my picture).
But on the other side of things, there’s the daily grind. Most of the time it’s not adrenaline pumping, and yesterday I got to relax a bit and take pictures of a junk drawer exhibit at the Unurban Coffee House. It’s an exhibit with about 10 pictures of junk drawers, and when my editor gave me the assignment I was a bit confounded but when I went there the room was really neat and it’s a semi-absurd but fascinating idea that what’s in our desk drawers, and how it’s organized, can be one way of defining who we are.
It gave me time to think about things and photograph under low light, so it was relaxing, and enlightening too. I think my ultra organized husband might think differently of this exhibit, but this exhibit makes me feel better about being messy, cause it’s artistic to be messy right?
Teaching others how to fish
February 23rd, 2007
Yesterday evening I covered an event sponsored by Chrysalis (www.changelives.org). This nonprofit organization takes homeless women through empowerment programs, such as writing resumes, interviewing skills, etc. This group is trying to solve homelessness from a long-term point of view. I had the blessing to covering their event before their “graduation”, which was held at a salon and day spa in santa monica. They got a makeover and a new suit too to further equip them going out to the working world.
”I’m 116 days clean and sober!” Lorenna (above) tells me. “That means I’m not only free of alcohol, but also of cocaine too.” She began her job working for a magazine in Hollywood just last Monday.
What is a photojournalist?
January 17th, 2007
…and other questions too. This will help you get to know me and what I desire and aspire to be by being a photojournalist. All of the following below is written by Mark Hancock on his blog (http://markhancock.blogspot.com/) and in reading it I agree with many of his principles and he has stated it with much conciseness and eloquence.
1) What does it take to be a great journalist?
A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying desperately to learn the language.
A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying desperately to learn the language.The written word has power. With skill, reporters can expose the evil of the world and bring it into the light. However, journalism is limited to non-apathetic, monolinguistic people with some time to kill and a few neurons still firing.
Enter photojournalism. It destroys almost all barriers. Justice can draw its sword in the time it takes an eye to scan an image. An image has no age, language or intelligence limits.
2)What is a photojournalist?
A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available–a single frozen image.
A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available–a single frozen image.Although photojournalists can take properly exposed and well composed photographs all day long, they hunt verbs. They hunt them, shoot them, and show them to their readers. Then, they hunt more.
To tell a story, a sentence needs a subject, a verb and a direct object. News photos need the same construction. Photojournalists tell stories with their images. Also, words are always used in conjunction with photojournalist’s images.
To be a photojournalist, you must understand the relationship between the image and these basic elements of language (all languages–worldwide).
The girl (must) hit (or miss) the ball. There are no other options.
The girl is easy to photograph. The ball is easy to photograph. The verb is the hard part.
As a servant of the citizens, it is the photojournalist’s OBLIGATION to capture the entire sentence involved in EVERY event. There are no excuses. It is hit or missed. Some photographers don’t care. They have a picture of the bat. “Hey, that’s what tried to hit the ball.” They just don’t get it.
3) More on the photojournalist
A photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts. The public places trust in its reporters to tell the truth. The same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters.
A photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts. The public places trust in its reporters to tell the truth. The same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters.This responsibility is paramount to a photojournalist. At all times, he has many thousands of people seeing through his eyes and expecting to see the truth. This truth, unlike written words, has no language, age or intellectual boundaries. Most people immediately understand an image.
In today’s world of grocery store tabloids and digital manipulation of images, the photojournalist must still tell the truth. The photojournalist constantly hunts for the images (or verbs), which tell of the day-to-day struggles and accomplishments of his community. These occurrences happen naturally. There is no need to “set up” reality. There is no need to lie to a community that has bestowed its trust. In a nutshell: If a photojournalist is not going to fake a fire or a street stabbing scene, why would he set up “person A” giving “person B” an object (award, check, trophy etc. …).
The photojournalist simply wants to hang around, be forgotten and wait for the right moment. Then, the hunt begins anew.
Like the police officer or firefighter, the photojournalist’s concern is his community even if that means sacrificing comfort or life. Many photojournalists die every year in the process of collecting visual information, which lets the public know of atrocities, dangers and the mundane.
4) Personal views on the job
This is not a “glam” job. A photojournalist is a servant (like a waitress or a sanitation worker). They are expected to be on the job around the clock to serve the public.
This is not a “glam” job. A photojournalist is a servant (like a waitress or a sanitation worker). They are expected to be on the job around the clock to serve the public.News never stops. Again, NEWS NEVER STOPS. You sleep when you can. You eat when you’re done. You are never really off the clock.
Photojournalists are role models. They don’t want to be, but they are.
At a mid-sized or small newspaper, a photojournalist cannot have a night on the town and neglect his or her city. Everyone from the little tykes to the senior citizens, from the street people to the debutantes, knows the photojournalist. The photojournalist is the visible portion of the newspaper. Reporters can handle everything by phone. Editors can stay in their office and never talk to a soul. Pressmen (generic) and graphic artists can go strait to the bar after work if they choose. However, the photojournalist must crawl through barnyard dung for one shoot and arrive at the annual celebrity gala an hour later.
I grew up here. I love this city and the people who make it the wonderful place it is. For the most part: houses do not catch fire, everyone looks out for each other, nobody goes to bed hungry, kids go to college and become CEOs (or photojournalists–that’s a long, bizarre story), the arts flourish, the city leaders are respected, and red-light running is the biggest crime.
I love my job.
Santa Monica Daily Press
December 19th, 2006
Today I got hired as an photojournalism intern for the Santa Monica Daily Press. The staff feels like a small family. SMDP isn’t exactly corporate and big like the Los Angeles Times, but this is what I am liking so far; it’s a friendly environment and everyone seems very supportive and it’s that “we’re a small community paper” feeling that’s attracting me there. I met up with the editor and the owner of the paper also, and they both seem like they’ll be fun to work for. It also looks like they’re ready to give me a ton of freedom with regards to covering the news via pictures, so I am really looking forward to this internship. I’m getting the feeling that they really believe in me, and so likewise I believe that I can really make a difference and give my best effort to this newspaper also.
I applied for alot of photojournalism internships, including those as far as Merced and Sacramento. I am still a bit weary about going so far for a longer period of time because I have commitments here, but I thought I’d try anyway. I’m really glad that for now I will be around where I live because it’ll be good exploring my surroundings and besides, Santa Monica has alot of stories that I would like to tell through pictures. It’s a daily paper, which means five weekday editions and a weekend one, so this will give me a taste of working with daily deadlines.
SMC Fashion Show 2006
December 6th, 2006
College Day at Santa Monica College
October 20th, 2006
Las Vegas
October 16th, 2006
Sorry about the lack of posts last week. I was in Las Vegas attending a Scrapbooking Convention. It was busy, but at night I had time to do some photography. I got to tag along with Angelina, she is a dancer and a teacher. She is also prepping for an upcoming Vegas Show (La Cage) and they are traveling to Washington this week to perform. She was a joy to photograph, and very sweet too. I interviewed her and asked her for her worst stalking story, and she said that it was her current boyfriend Freddie (pictured with her below). Anything else? Well, she carries a handgun in her purse in case anything gets out of hand, so she’s beautiful but living in Las Vegas, and so she has to protect herself, with alot of rehearsals being at night and in the end, you just never know.
I told her (and some slightly inebriated guys in an elevator) that my 200mm lens usually does the trick. Surely Canon thought of self-defense when they were creating that lens.
Welcome to the new website
September 29th, 2006
The website is done. I remember when it was only wishful thinking, but finally, here it is.
About a year ago in October I was still thinking about a website and a business, but I told myself it would probably be a few years before I started everything. I was engaged, living from paycheck to paycheck, and paying my graduate school loans back (still am!). I looked at prices to build websites and they were off the wall. After church one evening I was walking to the parking lot and Andrew Lin (he’s my web guy now) and I got to talking about our jobs and our dreams. Andrew loves his job but deep down inside he wanted to do something else involving graphic design. I loved what I was doing at the time too, but I knew that somewhere along the line photography is supposed to be a bigger part of my life.
Andrew and I are about the same age, I’m 27. Dreams come in a different package at this age. If I were 19 and out of high school, or still in college, I would just go for it. Earn $11 an hour at a grocery store and work very hard, go to school all the way and focus solely on achieving my goal. I did do this in the past to write the first draft of my book, and at that age, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Not to say that I am old now, but now I have different priorities, and we both talked about this and how now’s the time to think faster and smarter. Dreams are achievable at every age, but methods to reaching your goal become different.
Andrew out of the blue says that that he can design a basic website for me, and I made him repeat himself several times because he wanted to do it for me for free, and I couldn’t believe him at first. Yes, free! It’s simple, he says at 11pm in the church parking lot. I can help you do this. Eventually I had enough money to pay him, and my friend Ethan helped me all the way from Alberquerque by scripting the website for me and finding programs to showcase my pictures. So with the help of my friends, here it is. With my husband and my family and all of my friends listening to me talk about beginning this business and supporting me, here it is.
Just the beginning.