Ann's Dancing Dogs

Here is the multimedia piece I produced about Ann Gafke, who has been training dogs for 50 years. She started choreographing dogs and their owners to music, which has led to many practices, costumes and performances.

I was very excited about this project because I have wanted to work on a story dealing with dogs for quite some time. I found Ann Gafke last semester, but never used her as a subject. I felt her job was so interesting, especially since she is one who started up choreographing dogs to music in the drill team at her dog school. Although it was an exciting story to work on, there were also a lot of complications that went along with it.

Gathering audio for the interviews was quite a challenge this time around. When I conducted my first interview, I couldn't tell whether the wireless mic had worked (it was hard to judge even with the headphones in). I came home to find there was a faint background sound. When I set up for my second interview, the wireless mic that I had checked out did not work at all. I started out setting the mic as close to her as I could without having to hold it because I was worried my hands would brush it and make fuzzy sounds. When I didn't think it sounded good I immediately picked it up and held it right by her, which sounded much better. It was frustrating when editing because I had two different interviews with different types of background noise. There were some great quotes that I really wanted to use from the first interview, but couldn't because of how different it sounded from the other interview. It was definitely frustrating for me because I always use a wireless mic and have much success with it. This time the equipment just didn't work in my favor.

It was also hard to get ideal answers out of my subject. While she gave me great material, each answer took over a couple of minutes and wouldn't make much sense if I tried to edit it down. I attempted to ask certain questions multiple times hoping for a shorter answer, but wasn't too lucky. I edited as much as I could to make the story make sense, but it was quite a challenge. Overall I wish I would have had more luck with the audio equipment and had been able to gather shorter, quality answers for my interview.

I also had some trouble when it came to toning my images. The building that I shot in was completely white inside, which made it difficult when toning my photographs. I couldn't tell when things looked too white or too yellow because of the way the camera captured the lights. The final cut video also washed out some of my images, which I wasn't quite sure how to fix. 

While I experienced difficulty in many things I did enjoy the variety of frames I captured. Along with using different lenses and getting low I also managed to climb onto a fridge that was in the building (with Ann's permission of course). It took me a lot of tries to master the video work, and although I'm not completely happy with the overall quality of the video, I really like the shots I took and am happy with how well the final shot went with the music. 

I'm glad that I was able to create a multimedia piece out of this story with music and video included. I think the music captures the feeling of that specific environment. It also kept the story nice and light- hearted, which is the feeling it gives off in the first place.

Overall, I am happy with what I was able to produce. There were many challenges and even though I went so many times to overcome them I wasn't always successful (and there usually was a new problem). However, I learned to work with what I had and to make it the best it could be despite all of the factors that were frustrating me. I hope to attend one of their public performances soon so that I can add onto the multimedia piece and make it better in the future.

False Starts, Plot Treatment and How Do You Know When You Are Done

Although they were short, each of the three chapters from Lamott brought up situations that I could relate to from a photojournalist point of view.

The chapter "False Starts" said so much about what we go through in the process of finding a subject and the story behind them. Just as Lamott said about an artist painting something completely different than what he had in mind, we tend to predict that our stories are going to turn out a certain way. The minute we find an angle to the story we assume we will be able to take certain frames and envision what the photos will already look like before we even take any. Most of the time this backfires on us. If a photographer gets too wrapped up in looking for the shots they feel they must have to tell this story, they may miss the moments and key situations that are really happening in front of them (and it is also likely they will never get most of the shots they were waiting around for).

There is also a section where Lamott explained, "So if you want to get to know your characters, you have to hang out with them long enough to see beyond all the things they aren't."

When I first started my Boone Life with the story about the hair salon owner in Ashland, I was really hoping to find a great angle to my story. At first, the only idea that I found was how small the town was and how she knew everyone. Then when I asked her about it, she started telling me how Ashland had actually been growing and how she didn't know all of the gossip anymore as she used to. Immediately I had tried to put my finger on her as the woman who knew everything about everyone in this small town, when really she feels more detached than ever. It wasn't until I hung around for a month that the true story came out about how she styles her deceased clients' hair, and it was something that I most likely would have never heard about had I not been around for so long.

Lamott also said, "But with luck their tendrils will sneak out of the sides of the box you've put them in, and you will finally have to admit that who they are isn't who you thought they were."

 At the end of this chapter Lamott talked about how dying people can teach us this lesson more directly than most. When I first asked Bekki, the cancer patient, if I could interview her, she told me she was worried that she wouldn't have much of a story to tell since she really couldn't do much anymore. I told her we could try it and see what we came up with, and although she seemed hesitant she agreed. I was extremely nervous about doing this interview because I didn't want the story to be about her cancer, and I knew that's not what Bekki wanted either. I also didn't know how much she would tell me, especially if I didn't ask questions in the right way. I talked to my mom about it and she simply told me to ask her about her story and let it go from there.

When I sat down for her interview I simply said, "Tell me your story. It can be anything you want to say about anything."

I spent almost an hour with her, and that had been the only question I asked. She started out with how her family took in over 300 foster kids throughout her childhood. She also talked about how her favorite job was preventing people from foreclosure and how she loved to volunteer at her church. Then, without me even asking or directing, she transitioned through her life into the part where she was diagnosed with cancer last summer in 2010.

At the time I interviewed her, she was still fighting, but the doctors couldn't tell her how long she had. She talked about how one of the hardest things was not being able to do things for herself, but she also talked about death.

She said, "Whenever I do die, I want to be remembered for finding the good in people, for finding the good in life."

I believe that some of the things she told me came out the way they did because she was in a state of not knowing how long she had to live. She spent her whole life helping others, and I found this out by just one interview- by just listening.

She went into hospice a couple of weeks later on a Tuesday. She didn't make it to the end of the week. I often think about her and the things she told me. It is a message from someone who I only had met once before, but she was so open and gave me, as well as the people who saw her story, a chance to see who she really was.

Reading the "Plot Treatment" chapter was interesting because the part where Lamott described rearranging her story as well as cutting out favorite paragraphs to make the story stronger. After looking through our one-day stories, I noticed we did a lot of that as well. With certain stories we would change the order in a way that told more or told something different. In my story I had to cut out some of my favorite photos that I was sure should be in the story in order for the story to be stronger and more complete. Although it's a hard process at times, cutting and rearranging really does help out a story, especially when there are others to help with it.

The "How Do You Know You Are Done?" chapter was short and sweet, where Lamott basically said that while there is always more that you can put into a project, it can never be completely perfect. I have had that feeling of anxiety over stories where I feel that I could always have done something better, especially situations where there isn't a chance to retake any frames. For my one-day story, I really appreciated the photos I took during the day, while the story was more about the night. While I felt a little insecure about the piece, it was nice to be told that I had a story and that it was complete. It also helps to see from that story what I can do differently in the future with other stories.

Overall, I found a way to relate to each chapter while I read it. I really enjoy this book because there have been many experiences that I have had recently that I keep in the back of my mind. Without this book I don't think many of these ideas would have surfaced and helped me acknowledge how to grow as a photographer.