My Final Project

Thank you to the scholars and staff of Maya Angelou Public Charter School, Evans Campus! You all are great!

Wednesday's Excursion

Wednesday was GREAT! I attended a community service field trip with a group of 13 students from Maya Angelou Public Charter School and "interesting" can't begin to describe the day's events. Those kids are hilarious! I enjoyed talking to them and watching them work at Food and Friends: packing food, loading groceries and actually making food. Even though most of them came on the trip to get out of school and working the other half of the day, hopefully they left feeling like they did something good.

I took some 200 pictures, 15 minutes of video, and probably 20-25 minutes of audio to work with for my final project. The pictures came out ok, but I have yet to check the audio and the video. I have so much to work with, I'm sure it's going to take me at least 20 hours to complete this project. I'm excited to see how it will turn out...

Time to get back to work!

Audio Portion

I've really like this class...this has definitely been one of my favorite journalism classes since being at Maryland. I don't know what to expect for the audio...but I do have a lot ideas floating in my mind about the final project. This portion is going to be the final piece of the puzzle I need to prepare for the project. I plan on going to Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, DC and film there for a day. I think they're going on a community service trip later this month, so that will be interesting to see.

Mall Madness and the Night Vision Setting

This has been an interesting week. My organization hosted Alpha Nu Omega Week, which is a series of different events each day. We introduced our newest members to the campus, had gender-specific sessions (i.e. the sorority talked about self-esteem and the frat talked about something else), and one of the best programs we had was playing on McKeldin Mall last night at 10pm.

Mall Madness really was a throw-back to my childhood. We played red light/green light, sharks and minnows, and "capture the flag." There's just something about running up and down a field in nearly-complete darkness that makes you fall over with laughter. Everything was funny last night. Somehow, I became the photographer...and it was HARD! Although, I have a nighttime setting on my mom's digital camera...it's not the best. The truth is it doesn't really work that well. I tried to catch action and capture the sense of enjoyment everyone was having, but I don't feel that I was successful. :-( Because I could'n't see anything on the viewfinder/screen, I just pointed in one direction and hoped for the best...sometimes I got a decent shot...others, not so much. I wonder how real photographers take pictures at night?

New York Trip and Playing around With the Camera

I went to New York last weekend with a friend to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Terrence Howard and James Earl Jones. It was an awesome play and I had a great time...until my camera batteries died...so, there wasn't too much picture taking in New York...this was the first time I had been there since January 2001.

I thought photography would be easier than video and in some cases it is. I can take multiple shots of the same thing or have the subjects do something again so I can try to reshoot. Yet, it's been difficult to get the types of shots I want. (Even when I'm shooting multiple shots.) I think part of the problem is that I'm using an older digital camera with less settings. Despite the limitations, somehow I've been able to get some pretty good shots. With Tim's advice, I've been trying new angles and actually stopped using the flash (gasp!). All in all, I'm learning a lot.

Untitled for Now

This was an interesting week. It's always an experience coming from a substantial break and then trying to reacquaint ourselves with everyday life. I went to New Orleans for Spring Break and had an AMAZING time. I worked with a group called Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul and every day we did something a little different than we did before. No two days were the same for me, even though I spent a majority of my time at Sarah Reed Elementary and A.P. Tureaud School. If I talked about everything that happened on the trip...this post would be 10 pages long...so I'll just give some highlights...

• Working on specific assignments with some of the kids I came in contact with. There were three who really struck me and I felt a connection to.


• Painting the 8-10 ft. fence at McDonough Elementary School. We transformed this rusty "prison" fence by painting it forest green.


• Building relationships with the people on the trip. (Staying up until 1am, just talking)


• Interviewing New Orleans legend Leah Chase, owner of Dooky Chase's restaurant.


• Going to the Bayou and taking a swamp tour!
• St. Patrick's Day Parade and getting LOTS of FREE stuff!

This week, I had to fight back tears and feelings of deep sadness, because all I wanted to do was return to New Orleans and be around the other volunteers and work on a worthwhile project that impacted the community. Check out some of my pictures from the trip!

Taking Pictures This Week

Taking pictures this week was interesting. I tried different angles and ways of holding the camera. I don't know how successful I was, but I think I took a couple of good shots (which is OK, since we only have to turn in three anyway). I wanted to make sure the pictures reflected a piece of who I am and what I'm interested in outside of school work. I will be featuring some pictures of my sorority's events. As a Christian ministry on Maryland's campus, what we do to serve God is important to me. Hopefully this will be conveyed in the shots...

But of course, my week would not be complete without a little technology mishap...

Right before I went to download my photos, I realized the USB cord my mom gave me for her camera wasn't the correct one. This wouldn't be a problem if she didn't live an hour away... or if the assignment was not due tomorrow. I guess I will have to figure something out...

Life Lesson for the week: Always check your USB cable...one size does not fit all.