Abby Metty | Visual Journalist

oh bloggy blog blog blog. i was reading somewhere today how we plaster our whole lives on the internet and are then amazed that our privacy does not remain intact. how much the world has changed...

also reading somewhere else about generation y (that would be me, and probably most of you reading) and how they (we) have never known life without computers.

NOT TRUE. i remember before our family had a computer and my dad would bring home his "laptop" (the size of a microwave) from work and we'd play solitaire. then we got our first MS-DOS machine with elmo's farm, all in black and white, where we'd push dump trucks around and feed chickens DOS pellets for hours.

and here i am blogging on my couch with a sleek silver machine, connected to a superhighway that can broadcast my words far and wide in the blink of an eye, to the remotest places that i may never even see.

wild.

well, as this is a practical rather than philosophical blog, i'll return to updates on life in journalism.

last week was intern orientation aka learning company software, ethics policies, meeting the bigwigs, hearing about the perils of the industry and how its taking a nosedive, and most importantly, learning our way around the labyrinth that is the news & observer bureau.

if there was an anthrax spill in the air vents and we had to run to the safety of the streets, i don't know if i could find my way out alive, but there are some very interesting nooks and crannies on the way out.

first off, shout out and props to judson, who works in the graphics department, for having a really sweet office and sitting on a yoga ball instead of a chair. if ever i have a job that requires me to have an office (which i hope i don't) i want to be just like you and have a yoga ball as a chair. what judson doesn't know is that after all the interns left the office, we commented on how he probably does crunches on the yoga ball when no one is in there. multipurpose, multi-tasking. its what journalists do best. go judson.

also saw what is known as the morgue, or where the computers go to die, and also where they keep dead papers. aka papers that are older than today. so whenever i am published and my mom and grandma want copies, i go to the morgue. it is as morgue-ish as it sounds.

actually the entire building is rather dark and dank and creepy. it was apparantly built in the 50s and some think it is a prime example of modern architecture. in my opinion, the 50s and 60s produced some of the worst architecture known to man. did they know about windows then?

anyhow, i've had some interesting assignments lately and "been driving a lot" as robert goulet likes to say. its true. i have been driving. a lot. some days i put in nearly 200 miles.

last week i helped cover this child abuse trial in smithfield, which is an hour and a half away. all day i sat in the media balcony with various news stations and travis, who did video and transmitted, and listened to testimony from the defendent's adopted children about the technique and frequency of the abuse. so depressing. then i drove all the way home with those thoughts in my head and then went to work and was in a bad mood.

how do you distance yourself from these things? is there some kind of firewall i can erect to prevent my soul being permeated by misery and the terrible things that people do to each other? and is there a way to do that temporarily like an on/off switch so i can just keep it up while i work? how permeable does that wall need to be in order for me to make an effective photo and connect with my subject?

photography is exciting and can lead to a rewarding career, but it definitely comes with mega wear and tear physically and emotionally. i know a photographer in his 20s who has already had knee surgery. and what about the countless journalists who have divorces because what they see and experience changes them beyond the understanding of their spouse? how do i avoid all this? can i?

today i got sent out feature hunting, which as i said is 85% of the job. waiting for news to happen and trying to make good pictures in the meantime. i didn't have to drive far (for once) to find something interesting, but little did i know that my editors would find it THAT interesting.

i went to a horse farm in the country, beautiful place. i saw two white arabian horses in the shade, and thought what a nice picture it would make. driving a little further i saw a foal rolling in the dust and thought he must be trying to cool off. since i was instructed to look for pictures of people cooling off, i took some interpretive license and took some of animals cooling off. the editors liked them so much they told me to go back and take more tomorrow so that they may run front in a few days.

its funny, the things i think aren't a big deal at all end up being important... always. life lessons in journalism.

aaaand i'm back to philosophical.