Paying Dues
June 30, 2008
City employees Edward Gonzales and Joe Banda help unload a trailer as part of the Fort Phantom Hill Lake Association’s Annual Neighborhood Clean-up. Abilene Solid Waste services had several trucks and more than 15 employees on hand to assist with the clean-up.
Some random thoughts from my notebook- highly unorganized and only slightly edited:
This past weekend I was given the opportunity to work two full days for the Reporter-News. Instead of freelancing on a per-assignment basis, they paid me a flat rate to be available all day…sort of like a Photojournalist Lite.
One of the stories I was sent out to cover was this lake clean-up effort. Basically, people who lived out at the lake got to throw out some trash.
Riveting stuff, right?
I shot an estate sale, a lake clean-up, and a football camp. While, around the world a thuggish dictator kills democracy in Zimbabwe, the global food shortage worsens, wars still rage in the Middle East…
But, I kept reminding myself that I am paying my dues. I have to earn the right to cover those bigger stories. I have to work hard to develop my technical skills, my ability to tell an interesting story visually (even if it is only men unloading a trash trailer), and my ability to discern the right “moment” to trip the shutter before moving on.
And, even then, there are no guarantees.
From the few months I’ve spent working in this field, it appears it is a full-blown meritocracy: it’s all about proving yourself by the work you can produce. Not where you went to school. Not what kind of equipment you own.
And, I kept reminding myself that these stories that seem trivial to me, do matter to many people. This is their community, and football camps, and estate sales featuring world-famous artists, and lake clean-ups matter to them. These seemingly small stories are part of life here in ways that corrupt African officials are not. Like a certain parable in the Good Book says, I have to prove I can cover a lake clean-up story well, before I will be entrusted with covering an earthquake, or a war.
Posted in Abilene, Assignments, ClipFile, Life, Photojournalism, Random
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
Wow. Great photos. You are gifted and it is neat to see you putting that talent to work! Keep it up. Rachel and I are back in the US on furlough. It has been fun to check up on HU friends while we are in the land of fast internet. Grace and Peace, Alan Howell
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Gotta hate it when real life goes and makes scripture all relevant and stuff.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Hey, Greg — it’s been a while since I stopped by, since you became so much less controversial and all.
I love your photography and think it’s great that you’ve found something that you enjoy so much and that are good at.
I just read a book that you might find interesting if you haven’t already read it. It’s called “Evidence of my Existence” by Jim La Scalzo who is a photographer for US News and World Report. It’s a memoir of his experiences in Journalism School here at Mizzou and his travels across the world as a photojournalist. Pretty interesting stuff (the language isn’t for the faint of heart, but I don’t think it detracts from the book itself).