FOND FAREWELL TO JOUR250

Entry for NY Times, A Moment in Time, May 2, 2010 @ 11 a.m.
Glorious magnolia blossom on a drizzly Spring morning in Edinboro, PA


Journalism Day Exhibit


My initial Blog entry referenced Alice in Wonderland falling down the Rabbit Hole in relation to my experience with blogging. Like Alice, during this semester I experienced many new learning opportunities and quite a few challenges.

Not only did I blog for the first time in my life, but discovered that I truly enjoyed taking photographs. Even if many were mediocre, I could usually tell what was wrong with them, after listening carefully in each class meeting.

I learned about photojournalists, and the difficulties they have encountered in the process of obtaining a great, usable photo. I learned to appreciate the preparation necessary (and sometimes luck) successful photojournalists experience.

I learned what Picasa is, and the joys of sharing the albums with others. Using professional lighting equipment for the first time was actually fun, once I got over my hesitancy and reluctance. And I learned firsthand that its proper use really improves a photograph. Taking this course coincided with the birth of my first grandchild, so knowledge and experience gained with the Nikon D3000 was much appreciated and used often, especially during Spring Break.

I took an interesting photograph of Samantha the Gorilla at the Erie Zoo, selected for exhibit during Journalism Day. My confidence increased to the extent that I submitted an entry to the NY Times for "A Moment in Time" (Magnolia Blossom, above).

I attended several campus events looking for photo opportunities as part of the homework assignments, and met several interesting characters in the process.

I even became a member of the YouTube community, in order to upload a clip and post the html to a previous blog entry.

For me, one of the biggest challenges was finding willing subjects for certain assignments, and drafting family members provided the necessary "posers." I thank my somewhat patient husband Bob of 36 years (also now known as the bald Bill Clinton), my adorable grand-niece Khloe for visiting the Erie Zoo with me, and our beautiful new grand-daughter, Winnie Clare, all of whom gave their time and attention to portions of my Photojournalism homework.

However, the final assignment, recording a video, almost defeated me completely. My previous life experience with video, other than watching them, was accidentally recording our feet while sightseeing in Puerto Rico when I thought I was photographing an ancient fort with a new Samsung digital camera.

When I realized my fatal "user error" in not deleting practice recordings from the memory card and missed filming the actual event I had chosen for the video assignment, I fixed myself a tall gin and tonic one evening and tried to work out an alternative. One plan was to go ahead with the lame clips of the parking lot and entrance to the arena and to fill in with still photographs to tell the story. I rejected that idea when I surrendered to the fact that I was failing to learn the basics of Adobe Premier Pro video editing after several hours of trying, with a looming deadline.

Not finding the tutorials for CS3 particularly helpful, I decided instead to make a 30-second movie of the still photographs taken at the Cat Show. Hopefully, I provided 30-seconds of laughter to a class who probably (I am just guessing here) would have never set foot in a local Cat Fanciers Association Competition, even if the requisite 6 clips of 5 seconds each for the video assignment weren't attained.

Kudos to Professor Jim Wertz, who did his darndest to engage the class, and exhibited the patience of Job with our many (sometimes sophomoric) questions!

Not being a Photo or Journalism major, I had a large learning curve this semester, but managed to complete each assignment on time, perhaps not well, but with a sense of humor. Not bad for a 57-year old grandmother trying to complete degree requirements for an English degree part-time, while working full-time in a stressful office atmosphere (especially just prior to Commencement).

My own adult children fondly and persistently prod me into the 21st century. They realize their father may be resistive to new technology, but they've had a modicum of success with me. Like Alice, I don't know what is beyond the next tunnel opening, but I might even eventually learn to Twitter. JOUR250.001 provided another bend in the journey.