A Night with Miss Missouri

Here is the final edit of my one-day story. The story focuses on Andrew Chow, the current junior class president at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo. and his night at the MMA Valentine's Day ball with Miss Missouri. As class president, Chow was responsible for escorting Erika Hebron, 24, as she made her appearance as 2010 Miss Missouri at the event. He was extremely nervous at the beginning of the night, especially about their height difference (Chow is 5-foot-6 while Hebron is 5-foot-8 without heels, so there would be around a 4-inch difference between the two of them). As the night continued, Chow relaxed and even pulled out some Micheal Jackson dance moves. At the end of the night Chow escorted Hebron to her car and she hugged him goodbye.

Andrew Chow, 16, looks out the window in his barracks at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo. on Saturday, Feb. 12.  As junior class president, Chow has the responsibility of escorting a special guest, Miss Missouri, to the Valentine’s Day Ball taking place later in the evening.

 

Chow walks through campus as he makes his way to the band room to practice for the military review that was set to take place that Sunday.

 

Chow and his date, Erika Hebron, 24, greet cadets and their dates at the Valentine’s Day Ball. Hebron is Miss Missouri for the year 2010 and is 5-foot-8 without heels while Chow is 5-foot-6. “I’m really nervous about the height difference,” Chow said.

 

Chow and Hebron participate in the grand march at the ball. Chow said he was really nervous at the beginning, but as the night continued he felt more comfortable with Hebron. “She’s actually really cool,” he said.

 

Chow and Hebron slow dance after crowning the queen of the ball. At the end of the night Hebron thanked Chow for being her escort and gave him a hug. Chow completed his responsibilities by walking Hebron to her car.

 

Below are two outtakes from the edit.

Hebron and Chow walk through the crowd to crown the queen of the ball on stage. The ball was a big night for Chow as he was responsible for escorting Miss Missouri, crowning the queen and making announcements on the microphone throughout the night.

Chow leads Hebron down from the stage after taking a picture together at the ball.


When I first started out with this story, I wasn't exactly sure what the focus would turn out to be. I followed Andrew all day as well as at night. I was really happy with the images I captured during the day, getting detail shots as well as others with good lighting. The gym was a little more challenging with lighting and I also wasn't able to get many details or distance shots because of the commotion that was going on during the ball. If I were to do it again I would make sure to change up my distance more as well as find more details that I could include in my edit. It was also a bit challenging because my subject kept talking to me and not doing what he would normally do without me there. While I kept trying to refocus his attention to what he would do without me there, however it didn't always work. All in all, I am happy with the story I produced from this situation and feel that it helped me keep certain tips and factors in mind for when I work on my job profile as well as my 30 day story.

POYi Reactions: General News Picture Story

Christina and I decided to attend the General News Picture Story category on a Thursday night where the judges looked at 420 different news stories. It was interesting to see what worked and didn’t work as the stories were narrowed down as well as what stories ended up placing.

            The judges started out looking at a contact sheet view of each story for about 10 to 20 seconds each. From a missing child story to military stories to stories taking place in hospitals, both poor and standard, the judges were presented with quite a variety of international and local pieces.

 Looking through this round alone I found certain stories that weren’t executed well and could have been done better. Christina and I both agreed when we saw the elementary level spelling bee that there was no way it would make it to the next round.  The photographer didn’t change their distance from the contestants or use different angles or lenses. I would have loved to see tight portraits of the children’s faces while straining to spell a word or detail shots of the children’s hands fidgeting or their feet doing interesting things. Children give up so many interesting body movements and facial expressions and it made me sad not to see any of that in the story presented.

There was also another story that caught my eye that took place during surgery. The surgeons were wearing bright green scrubs and that immediately made it more visually interesting. While I am sure it is hard to get access, it was hard to see exactly what was going on. Even if the surgery itself is hard to get in the middle of, I wish there had been more detail shots on the tools and other things that are present during surgery. While it is a hard topic to cover, it is something that many don’t ever see. However, without the green scrubs I ‘m not sure if it would have caught my attention the way it did.

 While both stories could have been executed better, even if they had been extremely well done they wouldn’t have likely placed in this category this year.  Since there were many international disasters and issues, all of the general news picture stories that placed were on those tragic events. 

While I agree that the first place winner, “Haiti Earthquake” deserved first place, I feel that the third place winner, “Wrath of Fire Mountain” and second place, “Marks of a Catastrophe: Toxic Sludge Spill in Hungary,” should have been switched.

 Although the sludge story gave an eerie feeling by just showing the damage with no people present, I felt the volcano story brought out so much more fear and reaction in me to what was going on. While bodies and animals were covered in ash, there were soldiers and rescue workers fearing for their lives as the volcano still unexpectedly released heat clouds. Although it was after the initial deadly eruption, the story took place in the middle of the catastrophe and the danger that was still present. I also loved how the gray ash covered everyone and thing that was dead and damaged while the survivors popped out of each frame with vibrant colors. To me the colors represented life and I’m glad the story was presented in color. The photographer also captured emotion, details and different situations with different angles and lenses. They worked the scene and I feel they deserved second place.

When I first started watching this category, I wasn’t expecting all of the general news picture stories to be about international disasters. However, after it had ended and the winners were picked I felt that each story had something big to tell and told it in a way that worked well.

School Lunches, Polaroids and Selecting a Subject

Both readings from Anne Lamott and Bill Jay with David Hurn were helpful when thinking about what ideas and subjects compel us and take our interest. The two most important ideas that I gathered from the readings is that, one, you have to produce work in order to be able to use it, and also make sure that the ideas you hope to cover visual, practical, interesting to others and something that you know enough about to tell the story correctly. They seem like two loaded ideas, but when they were broken down in the reading they made so much sense.

The one passage that really grabbed my eye in Lamott's chapter, "School Lunches," is when she talks about writing down things as simple as school lunches.

She said, "Now, who knows if any of this is usable material? There's no way to tell until you've got it all down, and then there might just be one sentence or one character or one theme that you end up using. But you get it all down. You just write."

I think this is also an extremely important point when it comes to producing picture stories. During our one-day story pitches today in class, there were some who weren't sure if certain parts of the topic they chose were important enough to cover. However, students encouraged them to cover that certain part anyway because it would be worse to not have produced anything from that moment and need it later on.

I agree that even though we may predict that certain parts of our idea won't provide us with any photos that we will edit into our story, it is still important to make some images from it. It is only when we make the photos that we are able to use them in our story, which is the point that Lamott was making about writing. Even if it is something we think won't be any good, we at least still produced images. The images may end up guiding us to further ideas or ways of capturing a story. This chapter mainly encouraged to produce something no matter how successful you think it will be.

Lamott's next chapter, "Polaroids," also brought an interesting point to my attention. There is a passage where Lamott talks about why you focus on something or someone in the first place for a story.

She said, "You couldn't have had any way of knowing what this piece of work would look like when you first started. You just knew that there was something about these people that compelled you, and you stayed with that something long enough for it to show you what it was about."

When I was working on my Boone Life, I met my subject on assignment at the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival. She was an older woman who told me about her salon that she owned in Ashland and how it had been the first business on that street, which is now one of the busier streets in town. I immediately took interest in her and visited her salon so many times. At first I had a hard time finding a closer angle to my story about her hair salon, but after sticking through it and visiting enough, I found what I needed.

After hanging around for so many different days I found out that she does her clients' hair for their funeral after they pass away. It is like Lamott said, if you wait around long enough for someone or something that compelled you in the first place, there is a good chance you can find something further than what you first expected. Although I had no idea where my story with this woman and her salon would go in the first place, it ended up being one of my favorite pieces I have produced so far because I stuck with it for so long (I also just found out this month that it won third place in NPPA's multimedia contest for the month of January 2011!!).

This example also transitions into the main points that I found important in Bill Jay and David Hurn's "Selecting a Subject" reading.

The first point they bring up is that, "...you are not a photographer because you are interested in photography."

While it seems kind of strange, it is a great point to make. We don't choose this profession because we like the idea of photography, but we like to be able to show things to the world that they may never see with their own eyes. We like to interact and create relationships with so many different kinds of people that we would never meet in any other profession. I liked the fact that Hurn brought up this point because although it seems like a strange comment to make, it is pretty true.

Going along with this idea, both Jay and Hurn bring up the fact that you have to have an "intense curiosity" for the ideas and subjects you cover. While there are many things that we find interesting, Jay and Hurn also point out four main steps to help make a story more specific.

Is it visual? Is it practical? Is it a subject which I know enough? Is it interesting to others?

By following these four questions it can help us narrow down our idea into a specific story. By narrowing the idea down we can execute better research on the topic as well as make sure it will be interesting to a certain audience.

As I look further into my one-day story, I have looked at these questions and it has helped me focus in on what I need to as well as prepare for what I should look for while I am actually covering the event.

Daddy's Little Princess

After meeting with Erin Stubblefield over the weekend, we came up with an edit that we felt best told the story of a father involved with his daughter's beauty pageants. For the headline, we chose the phrase "Daddy's Little Princess" because it is something commonly said, however has a little different meaning in this situation. Below are the eight photos we chose in the appropriate order as well as a layout we designed.