Between editor and mom

Nope. Blew the deadline. 

Now I spend my beautiful Saturday morning at the newspaper office. My daughter comes with me, hardly complaining. She has the run of the campus. She props the door to the courtyard by the river open so she can be a kid out in the grass with the sun shining on her. She runs into the office excited to show me the photos she took of herself doing flips and handstands. She amazes me. I feel guilty for not being out there with her. She gives me a quick kiss and runs back outside. I turn back to the screen and continue placing photos and looking for the cutlines that go with them. A couple more hours and we might just be able to get the paper printed this semester. Fingers crossed. 

Handstand selfie.  

Flippin selfie

She amazes me. 

In the middle of I will

My drive to school is peaceful.

A winding country road, the rolling farmland that flanks both sides is occasionally interrupted by the odd house or small lake.  

And then a junkyard. A beautiful junkyard with a fence made of old pallets. Too much to be contained the junk has spilled over to the other side of the road as well. One side has old rusting cars and farm equipment. There’s a shell of a bus that looks like it gave its last ride in the sixty’s. More pallets than I can count form a geometric mountain in the distance. A surreal image, pallets piled up on the edge of a peaceful lake. The other side of the street seems to be where the junkyard began. Its a hodge podge mix of twisted rusted metal. The colors are dull and beautiful. In between piles of deteriorating machinery sheep chew on bits of grass.

I want to wander this junkyard. I want to photograph the beauty in this mix of nature and discarded pieces. I don’t know what it’s story will be but I want to know it. The large private property signs have kept me at bay.

My second semester after returning to school I took a photojournalism class. This class gave me the permission I was looking for. I was always curious, but never nosey. I learned that being nosey is ok. Poke that big ol schnoz in there! Find the owner and ask for permission!

Only I haven’t. I still drive by and look for the truck along the road that signifies someone is there, even though I know I don’t have time to stop and talk. I have lost the drive to make it happen, although I still have the desire.

Then media writing happened. The class that briefly covers the basics of a wide range of writing and reporting styles including photojournalism. The parameters of the class only allow for campus related subjects to be covered so this was not my excuse to finally stop and shoot this obsession of mine. The assignment was like a mosquito bite that left me with a fresh itch.

It is still an I will; soon it’ll be an I did.

The middle of the week

Hard deadline is Friday. Stories are still being written, images are saved in multiple locations and formats. Edits need to be done and layouts keeps changing. Page count needs to be finalized but stories keep coming.

It’s wednesday. Deadline can still be met. It’s possible even with class work due this week. There will be time to study for Monday's midterm.

Prof adds a paper due Friday.

Track today. Can’t let the boy down. Track meet is Thursday.

Cheer clinic and gymnastics today. Can’t let the girl down. Tryouts are Friday.

Hard deadline is Friday.

Weekend is cramming.

The middle of the semester

I am the co editor of my community college newspaper. I fell into the job, I don't plan to become a reporter, but I am a hobby/borderline professional photographer and when I started back at school I took a photojournalism class. The professors had offered extra credit for shooting images for some stories that staff writers on the newspaper were working on. Never one to turn down extra credit I volunteered to take some photos for a story on the schools parking lot. Since the angle for the story was vandalism I arranged a ride along with one of the campus security officers. As I sat in the car shooting photos and chatting I took notes for my cutlines. The advisor for the paper told me that I had done better reporting for the cutlines than the writer had done for the article. Most of my cutline info was worked into the story and I got my first photo credit and byline. I wrote for the paper occasionally and shot photographs often. I became the photo editor and then as the most senior member of staff I became the co editor. I was hesitant to take on the role of editor since journalism is not my intended field, but agreed to share the role with an ambitious high school senior that loves copy editing and has big dreams in the field. Now that I am in my last semester in community college and on staff at the newspaper I am finally taking a media writing class to learn the ins and outs of reporting in various media outlets and the subtle nuances of AP style writing. True to the pattern that I have developed over the years I started in the middle and then went back to the beginning at the end. 

Although I have been toying with creating a blog for awhile I never seemed to find the time. My school work, the paper, my children, husband, pets, housework, volunteer work, extended family... you get the point, has pushed the idea of a blog to the back of my mind over and over until it became an assignment for my media writing class. What a happy coincidence! I can test out the wonderful world of blogging without feeling like I am neglecting the things I should be doing. I love it when things work out!

I will showcase some of the work that I have done for the newspaper as well as work done for class. I will also be documenting frustrations I encounter while working of pieces, like the difficulty getting face time with key campus officials for a quote in "Governor Steps Into MnSCU Mess", as well as the fact that as soon as I finished the article it was already outdated and needed to be updated. [you can find the story under the pieces tab. You can also see examples of my work by clicking The Campus Eye tab]