It has been a while since I have posted anything to the blog. Well, I have been busy studying. I have wanted to get into photo journalism for a long time. It has been a dream of mine, but as with so many things I started, stopped, started, stopped, and on and on and on.
It is time to poop or get off the pot as they say, so I prayed about it. Yes, I prayed about it and asked God to show me some kind of thing, "sign" if you will and let me know if that path was what He has planned for me. He didn't really show me a sign. At least I don't think so, but he has done something. I have been struggling with something and want that thing to not get in the way of my decisions and future and low and behold I really believe that God has chosen to test me. I am not going to get into why I know I am being tested, but lets just say that I know for sure that He is and so far, so good.
Anyway back to photo journalism. I looked at tons of colleges that said that they offered that area of study on line and asked for additional info. Every single one of them that seemed the slightest bit affordable or offered financial aid really did not offer anything close to what I want. What to do? I decided to teach myself, but not by just reading a couple of articles and off I go with the camera and pen. I have found a wealth of REAL resources for journalism and news photography all over the web, so I created a goal and curriculum, outlined it as subjects to learn and am in the process now of following the outline I came up with. I have to tell you. If a person is serious and will be patient and stay on track (something I am NOT famous for) one can teach yourself just as you would learn in a classroom (except for the teacher/mentor). There are resources that the pros use all over the web and you can plug into these sites for free (so far anyway).
As part of my education I have found several things out about photo journalism as a career. First, it is not glamorous at least not for most of the folks that do it. You can make it big, but it takes a whole lot of real hard work, which is as we all know not a bad thing. Something worth doing is something worth working real hard for. Another thing I found out is that you will not get rich doing this kind of work. Like I said, there are those who have made and are making tons of cash, but they are few and far between. Nope, you have to really love photojournalism to do it full time.
In all cases what I have found as far as how to break into the business goes is to find stories that are important in your local community. Things that are happening right in your own back yard, learn as much as you can about it and go for it. I have found two stories that I want to do and they have been right there in front of me for a long time, but didn't look at them the right way. After studying I have been looking with a reporters eyes and I am amazed at what is out there.
I am in the process of finishing my first ever news story and have had it critiqued by a couple of folks and now I am learning how to get the thing published, How to "Pitch" my story and to whom to "Pitch" it too. The pictured that accompanies this post is the picture that I am using for the story. It is a picture of the pump house that feeds the new sewage treatment and water-reuse plant for Clovis. It is real clever to disguise the huge take and all of the piping, etc as a farm house. They literally built the exterior around all of that. The tank for example has its top just above the first story and extends 40 feet below ground! Heck man, I would love to live in a house that looks like this. So as they say, if you want something bad enough and are willing to work real, real hard for it, there is a good chance that you will get it.
We will see and I will keep you all posted as to the success or not of this story
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