Abby Metty | Visual Journalist

reality bites

2009-09-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, let's be real here. I never use this blog. Why?

1. I started it to update cyberspace on my trip to Thailand last summer as well as my internship at the News & Observer.
2. Those purposes are now fulfilled and if ever I had greater intentions for this blog, they have slowly atrophied, become vegetables, and died.
3. It's kind of ugly.

In truth, I've been blogging since high school and never considered that blog "professional" enough to link to for employers, co-workers, etc. But I've now deemed my old blog safe for public consumption, so you can find it here:

www.thelankeshankie.xanga.com

I post pictures and job-related things there, but it's also a repository for whatever thoughts are bouncing around in my brain or whatever adventures I'm up to.

So there's that. let's hope this blog, now dead (ish) doesn't become a blog zombie and come and eat the other one's braaaaains.

Zion

2009-06-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

I took this photo yesterday while tagging along to help another shooter light a portrait at Knott Street Boxing Club in NE Portland. I like it. I like this kid. I have yet to see if there's a story here, but at least I made a nice frame.

Still keeping my nose up for stories in this town.

hipsteria and the river

2009-03-25T20:55:00.001-07:00

not a whole lot of documentary shooting going on lately. life has been full of programming, editing, papers, statistics, nietzsche, etc, etc... who would have thought that my last semester of college would be so busy?

anyhow, all that to say that when i shoot, its especially for me. sometimes i prefer nothing more than playing dress up with fellow photographers and having a fashion shoot in the woods. so on saturday, that's exactly what we did. luckily, roxanne, kate and zach are all fantastic models.

...zach does look a bit amish.

then sunday i did a shoot with "real" models at a place called hipsteria in downtown raleigh. clothes were provided by revolver, a consignment shop just up the street. oh so hipster. if you need a definition of hipster, watch this.

good clothes, good color, good light, good times. my camera got quite a few actuations this weekend.

favorites

2009-02-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

pics so far:

victor and rashim help hetal, goalie for india's first special olympics women's floor hockey team, suit up.

smita waits for game time on the bleachers.

little tiny afghan players versus big giant austrians. this is the story we worked on today, i'm super attached now. they are the sweetest kids in the world and i have to visit afghanistan now. they are the youngest delegation at the special olympics, as the youngest player is only 8. because of this, there are no other teams their age and they have to play adults. they play with so much spirit though. love them, and their coach abdul.

coach abdul with the kids in the locker room (apparantly i wasn't supposed to be here and i got rudely ousted shortly after this. but not before i cried a little while taking these pictures).

abdul with suliman. six months ago, suliman couldn't feed himself or go to the bathroom unassisted. now he is one of the most passionate players on the team, and had to be called out of the game today because he was so aggressive (playing incredible offense even though he was on defense). cried when i heard this story too.

check out the site at live.specialolympics.org. lots of videos and pictures. i think i might still have the homepage picture up.

love to all.

special olympics live

2009-02-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

do you need a passport to get to idaho? i don't think so, but it is so very far.

last time i posted, it was from frigid washington d.c. now it's from surprisingly warm idaho.

we're covering the special olympics winter world games, which start today and run through feb 13. we'll go back home on the 15.

our group is broken into a few big teams, and then smaller teams within those. i'm on the documentary team, asia pacific. this includes countries like india, bangladesh, thailand, vietnam and the philippines, but also australia, new zealand, pakistan, and afghanistan (?). how afghanistan fits into asia pacific beats me. also given the fact that there is just an ASIA team, but they are only covering china and we are covering everything else.

we'll be finding interesting stories about athletes, families, coaches, rivalries, etc. one story is about a champion figure skater from new zealand who has a rivalry with an american figure skater and is also an eagle scout. not sure what else yet.

we are contracted by media outlets around the world who didn't send news teams here. so not only are we producing for the special olympics organization, but also mainstream news outlets like al jazeera or cnn.

i'm also helping to shoot the opening ceremonies, which is lots of dignitaries and celebrities (maria schriver, arnold schwarzenegger, kenny g, hootie & the blowfish, sarah palin, kristi yamaguchi, etc). i listed to kenny g over and over and over yesterday as he practiced his new piece written specially for the ceremonies at the dress rehearsal. his hair has never changed in the decades my dad has listened to him. ha.

it's really beautiful here! hope to ski too!

inauguration eve

2009-01-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

we're on the brink of something big.

could there be a cooler place to spend the night before barack obama takes office than the washington post newsroom? i think not.

pretty stoked, but i'ts 11:15 and we have to be at our locations (mine is on the mall, roughly in front of the natural museum of american history) by 4am. because of blockades, the walk will probably take 40 minutes.

so i'm looking at approximately 3 hours of sleep tonight.

but i'm excited.
honored.
thrilled.
humbled.
freakin out.

reject technology: shoot film

2009-01-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

there is something deeply gratifying about dropping off film to a lab and having no idea what will come back. it's a total surprise.

i have always liked surprises. i was never the kid that wen poking around in closets or shaking boxes before christmas hoping to find out ahead of time what i was getting. i much prefer suspense. it's much more rewarding.

so sometimes i feel the same way about photography. yes, i am old enough to "remember" film... it's what i first learned on. 35mm, of course, but two years ago i began shooting medium format on a holga that i got for christmas (which was a surprise — surprise!).

it's an on again, off again kind of thing. because yes, digital really is a lot more economical. but if i'm going on a big trip or just want to cut loose and not be a journalist for a bit, i use film.

and so in thailand, i shot a fair amount with my holga. then in the fall i had the privilege of borrowing a rolleiflex, which is a beautiful old medium format camera.

anyhow, though scanning negatives is a slow and arduous process, here's one of a batch i finished scanning the other day. for more, click here.

make new friends, but keep the old

2008-12-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

tonight i was reviewing some multimedia pieces that i worked on earlier this year — namely, the one from my final photo class, documentary photojournalism. i took it in the spring, and each student in the class had a semester-long story to work on. no other assignments, just focusing on going in-depth.

i was so looking forward to it... the time to spend on just one story, not a lot of mini-assignments and then cramming the last 2 weeks to get a good 8-10 picture package for my final story (as the other classes in the major were).

but it didn't quite work out that way. my story was on quinceaneras, the 15th birthday party that many latin cultures go all out for and throw a party bigger than most weddings i've attended. though it took me all semester to get contacts and i ended up doing the story in essentially 2 days, looking back on it, i realized how much fun it was and how much i learned in the process.

my photos were good. i'm really proud of them. i spent 17 hours straight photographing and shooting video on the day of one of the quinces. probably 11 hours for the other. and lord knows how many hours editing. it was the first project i learned video on, first project using finalcut pro, and while i think my video skills have improved tremendously since then, i miss taking photos. looking for that ONE moment that will tell that prism of that story better than all the other moments prior. observing, waiting, moving, composing as i go. video is a totally different workflow, and i think my brain has been operating in that mode ever since the summer. i've loved it, but tonight, i remembered that my first love is photography and that some stories need to be told in a series of still images, rather than a rapid succession of moving ones.

its like that old song that my mom used to sing to me:
"make new friends, but keep the old
one is silver and the other is gold"

cheesy, but applicable. video is silver — new, fun, in demand. photos are gold. they aren't going anywhere and they are what have given me the visual and mental tools for creating so many other things in life. becoming a photographer has changed the way i think, the way i see the world, the way i organize and plan, the way i speak. everything. so all of that has translated to video. gold indeed.

lifting the weight, but still getting my dose

2008-12-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

while in thailand, a friend introduced me to vimeo.

he said it was like youtube, only better because you could upload/watch videos in HD.

yes, but it's much more. people don't upload 30 second clips of bad kareoke or lipsynching to the numa numa song. cleanly edited projects, full pieces, real stories abound there.

so i've been watching for inspiration. and also for relief.

i've discovered that there's lots of time to be utilised while rendering (a process in final cut pro where you have to wait a lot. sort of like downloading... same waiting and waiting until you can watch/listen), so i should do something productive with it (social networking doesn't count).

and so i've spent lots of time watching stories like the ones i like to do, or even short documentaries.

the problem is that many of these from sites like washingtonpost.com, the new york times, and mediastorm are so heavy! and yes, these stories need to be told, but sometimes i have to escape them for mental health.

this is where vimeo comes in.

some journalism, lots of cool stories, and plenty of creativity. it gives me ideas, ideas, ideas. yes, i want to tell good stories. i want to communicate. but sometimes i want to create just to create. just to make something thats beautiful or matches what i feel or hear or want to be. when other people do the same thing, it makes me remember that just because i'm in journalism school doesn't mean i have to think like a journalist all the time. the boundaries can be forgotten occasionally.

the point is always to tell stories. sometimes non-fiction, sometimes fiction. it so happens that a lot of what i watch on vimeo are fiction.

here's some of the ones i like so far (+ here's one from mediastorm that's not so heavy, but makes me happy to watch):

LEAF - HD from Matthew on Vimeo.

Pete in NYC from Dispatch Foundation on Vimeo.

Oleg Chubykin - "The Tourist" ("The Tourist" , 2007). Part 1 of 10 from Chubykin on Vimeo.

shot down

2008-12-02T21:52:00.001-08:00

i get frustrated when people deny me interviews.

i have a final video due on friday, and at least 6 of my ideas have fallen through. so i scrambled to get something tonight. i have it, but its not what i wanted.

but here's a funny story.

one of my ideas was a taxidermist (i was struggling... the gamut ran from inner city boarding school to quilting circles to boxing gyms to christmas tree lots to communes [again] to taxidermy). out of all the calls i made, i figured this one would be the easiest and this guy would be the story that panned out the quickest and most smoothly.

not so. never before have i been shot down so quickly.

i called (for the 3rd time) and finally got an answer. i explained again who i was and what i wanted to do, in the friendliest, most professional voice possible.

before i even finished, he cut me off and said

"ehhhh i've been doing this for bout two or three years now, and i find that it just takes up too much of my time. plus the females can't handle the blood when they come out here, so i'm just gonna have to say no."

words cannot explain my indignation, but i recovered gracefully and hung up.

i haven't run into this too much, but one of my great frustrations in journalistic endeavors is when people tell me my story will take up too much of their time. as if their time is so precious that they can't give me a 30 minute interview at their convenience. that's just arrogant.

i'm sorry if you're really busy slaughtering a deer, but i'm pretty sure me filming it won't interfere or take ANY of your sweet time. did i mention that last week my brother shot a deer 15 feet from the kitchen window WHILE WE WERE EATING DINNER?

it makes my blooooood boooooil.

anyhow. it seems all i do here is rant. let me say some happy things.

it seems that i will be on a team of other unc students in february to go to idaho and document the special olympics there for 10 days. i'll probably get to do both stills and video. i couldn't be more thrilled! idaho is one place i never thought of going... not that i don't want to, but its just not on the way to anywhere, and i don't know a thing about it.

i can guess that idaho in february will be cold. but i also have heard that where we're going is beautiful, and if its the olympics, i imagine there will be skiing. now trying to find a way to squeeze that in. in thailand, i went to the pool while capturing tape. maybe i can ski a slope or two while capturing tape this time?

also, i've been experimenting with video a bit more and doing some little projects on family traditions and stories. one audio piece, two video, coming soon.

one video is done and you can watch it here.

they've been interesting experiments with new ways of storytelling. new to me, anyway. i've found myself thinking in terms of video more and photo less. i'm not sure i like that development, but it is what it is, and perhaps i'll return to my first love more over break when i am video camera-less, but still have my dslr.

speaking of, if anyone is looking to upgrade to the 5D mark II and wants to sell a 5D body, i'm in the market.

when your story fails dismally

2008-10-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

i was packed and ready. my trunk was full of thousands of dollars of top-of-the-line gear (belonging to UNC, not to me). i even had some old skool film cameras, including this from a friend that i was super excited about using.

i had directions, water bottles, swedish fish and a new playlist on my ipod.

four hours of meditative road tripping to a plethora of visual imagery ahead of me...i was so ready.

six days previous, i called a commune in asheville that i had looked up months before. for a long time now, i've been fascinated by the idea that people, even individualistic americans, can tolerate one another enough to eat, sleep, farm and live together in limited quarters long term. some have made a life choice to do this.

i won't name names, but this particular commune (or intentional community, as i think they prefer to be called) aims to live like the first church in the bible. they literally sold everything they had and gave it away to live with 40 other people in three houses and live life to serve others. sounds great, right? the whole idea of it greatly appealed to the idealist in me and i had made plans long ago to visit and do a story someday. i thought to myself, "maybe i won't come back. maybe i'll find my people and stay there forever."

a bit extreme, i know, but it did cross my mind.

so last week, in anticipation of fall break and the long weekend ahead, i called said commune in asheville and asked if i could come and meet them and do a story. the woman i talked to on the phone was quite open and sounded enthusiastic about my venture. i was thrilled. i so relished the idea that i could have time to do a story outside of class assignments, and therefore i would cut loose and be extra creative. after all, no one was looking over my shoulder or telling me how to edit (note: i appreciate all input. i just wanted to experiment this time).

on my four hour drive from chapel hill to asheville, i envisioned all the shots i could get, picturing lots of pans of wide vistas and radiant fall foliage. i planned to use my borrowed rollei to take compelling portraits of the kids. i thought about the goats i knew they would have and how they would make for great audio. i imagined what the houses would look like and the window light making for great images.

and i arrived on thursday, warmly greeted, to find that they didn't want me to take any pictures or do any interviews, but would rather have me visit for the weekend and get to know me first.

i was shell shocked.

in my head i thought, "do you KNOW how far chapel hill is from here? do you KNOW how expensive gas is right now? do you KNOW how very much i was looking forward to telling your story??"

but i didn't say that. i said that i could scale back what i was planning on doing, perhaps taking fewer pictures and i could schedule interviews for another time (when do i have time to skip up to asheville for a weekend?). but the more i met other members of the commune, all of whom were very kind and welcoming, the more it became clear that i wasn't going to be taking any pictures or video.

i kept hearing, "oh its so wonderful to meet you! we're so glad you're here. sorry you aren't able to take pictures this time."

over and over, reinforced, "you can't take pictures."

so i resigned myself to (excuse the allusion) the fact that i would be visually castrated this weekend and chalked it up to a weekend of observation. it could be beneficial should i decide to pursue this story in the future, right?

maybe. but as time went on and i stayed longer, it became clear that this commune is quite evangelistic and tries extra hard to recruit new members. i was a minnow that had fallen to the sharks. they wanted me to join. stat.

what i had planned as a four day trip quickly turned to only 24 hours. my friend courtney had read a little about this commune and thought they sounded like a cult. wikipedia said they had a history of kidnapping. i wrote her off with a carefree wave of my hand and said, "oh courtney, you can't believe anything on wikipedia!"

but the longer i stayed, the more an ominous feeling settled over me. what if they did try to kidnap me? what if they took parts out of my car while i wasn't looking (like the nuns in sound of music did to the nazis) or gagged me while i slept? what if they gave me kool-aid to drink?

all these things crossed my mind as i crept away to my bunk bed, away from the noise of the main house where ALL the women and kids were in the kitchen, preparing for the sabbath (they had to make all the food and do all the cleaning ahead of time because they will not do any work on saturday). i started thinking about what could happen, how angry i was, and what my plan of action should be.

having kept my cell phone hidden and on silent thus far, i pulled it out while in bed and started texting my mom and best friend. here's how the conversation with my friend went (excuse the minor expletive. it is necessary):

me: i feel like i'm on a different planet with this commune... its weird here.

friend: i can't wait to hear about everything. can we start a commune in tibet?

me: sure, but not like this one. i really don't like it. they aren't letting me take pictures!

friend: ummm but that was the point of coming... you're a photojournalist. damn hippies.

me: i know... its a long story. i'm hoping they'll let me take SOME pictures maybe tomorrow.

friend: they are a cult. abby don't let them kidnap you please. if they do i'll come save you and if need be i'll bring in [our brothers] for reinforcements.

me: haha i'm not gonna lie i have wondered if they will try to kidnap me.

friend: i'm scareddddd but i so wish i was on this adventure with you.

after this conversation and the growing fear of kidnapping, i made my decision. i would go to the woman who had showed me around and originally told me i could, then i couldn't take pictures, and tell her that i wasn't feeling well and needed to head home (not a total lie).

i opened my door to find four of the hippies standing outside my room staring at me. my heart turned over and i excused myself to the bathroom. when i came out, they were all gone. i tried the doors leading out of the hallway, one of which had a sign saying "do not use." the other, i couldn't get open.

genuine panic set in.
i rebelled and opened the forbidden door and went to tell the woman that i was leaving.

she began crying. she claimed it was because she was pregnant and extra emotional... maybe. i'll give her the benefit of the doubt. but i wonder if it was because i was dashing her hopes for a new member.

nope. not today. not me.

so i hightailed it out of asheville, leaving the beautiful mountains with mounting sorrow and frustration, because i so wanted to be a part of them and make a beautiful story there.

i didn't take a single picture. didn't even get my cameras out of the trunk. i felt like a deflated balloon.

that was fall break for me. that was my failed story. perhaps the next time i visit them (with support... aka never again alone) they'll allow me in a little more and i can get some footage. until then, i still have the 4 day old stench of onions in my hands from where i chopped vegetables for hours as a reminder of the 24 hours i spent in a cult.

any other journalists with stories about failed stories?

* in other news, i shot a gallery of the state fair yesterday. here it is.

2008-10-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

i am the hope for the future!
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0810/andaman-rising.html

reino hoy

2008-10-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

This update brought to you by Sandra. :)

Since the original intent of this blog was for my N&O internship this summer and the Thailand project, I thought in the spirit of professional development I would continue blogging whenever something professionally significant happened.

Some things in the way of professional development have happened, I just haven't blogged about them.

At the end of my summer with the paper, I signed on as a freelance shooter, which means I am called on from time to time to pick up assignments and I get paid! Yay money! Yay experience. This photo is from a recent assignment about an itinerant Hispanic church in the area. I shot pictures for over an hour while the group was sitting and discussing strategies, and then they finally got up to pray and I made a decent frame or two.

What this church is doing is cool because the pastor, Jose Luis, has a heart for unity and reconciliation of the Hispanic, black, and white groups within churches as a model for the rest of the community. So many people have this vision... why don't we all find each other and make a difference? If so many have the same goals, why are we still divided?

ITS LIVE!

2008-09-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

www.andamanrising.org

is

now

LIVE!

go visit!

here's the official press release:

For immediate release---
UNC-Chapel Hill journalism students debut multimedia documentary
website, http://www.AndamanRising.org.

UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Journalism & Mass Communication
announces the release of http://www.AndamanRising.org, a
collection of 15 student-produced multimedia stories about life
in southern Thailand after the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The site's debut follows a month-long foreign reporting
assignment in which 14 journalism students traveled to the
province of Phang-nga, Thailand to explore some of the most
intimate corners of Thai society.

Based out of a village next to the Andaman Sea, students used
photos, audio, video, graphics and design to craft cultural
snapshots of a region that has risen above tragedy. Working with
a team of Thai translators, they documented the story of a
teenage cross-dresser in a traditional Muslim community, the
narrative of an illegal immigrant family from Myanmar, and the
spiritual transformation of a young monk.

We welcome you to view these stories and more at
http://www.AndamanRising.org.

the summer of cake

2008-08-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was my final day as a News & Observer intern. Every time someone leaves, they (not sure who) get a cake to say goodbye and everyone collects around it in the newsroom. This time, we were surrounded by the images and smirks about John Edwards' affair and possible "love child" while consuming way too much sugar and being encouraged by seasoned staffers to keep our heads up in nosediving industry.

Newspapers aren't doing so great. As a result, there's been a lot of cake this summer, probably at every daily print newsroom in the country. They'll come around... the industry is changing, and changing rapidly. I like to think of the Internet as a child star, like Mylie Cyrus or Lindsay Lohan... someone who grew up too fast and then wasn't mature enough to handle the newly aquired attention and power. Someone needs to put a leash on the Internet. I know in a country that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of the press like none other that may seem a bit conservative, but its the perfect example of unrestrained freedom and the damaging power it has. The Internet has brought a lot of good, but an equal amount of bad because of the freakish growth over the last decade.

Tirade over. Here are some of the last pictures from my summer as a newspaper photographer.

--

I spent a lot of time on tax-free weekend. Lots of colors, superstores, tired moms, whiny kids.

Duke Power's president during a break in a public hearing regarding a new bill that people seem to be unhappy about.

Old man shoes!

Campbell University starts their football team back up after a 50+ year hiatus... almost the entire team is made up of redshirt freshmen.

hot zone

2008-08-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

As a (mostly) native North Carolinian, I felt validated by an LA native today when she said that Raleigh is "pretty sweet, actually." We were talking about things to do, nightlife, etc, and I said I liked Chapel Hill better. And she stood in Raleigh's defense. Awww.

I'm currently reading Kevin Sites' book In the Hot Zone. Though I've maybe felt like this once or twice, it reminds me of a few journalists I know who live life like this. I find myself wondering if this is the life I'm headed for. Am I okay with this? Instinct tells me "yes," rationality tells me, "you need to think it over." Good thing school is tying me down for another year. But it's a thread stretched thin.

**

"There is a duality at work here that is hard for me to comprehend. I am enticed by the geographic disjuncture of my journey, the shock of sensory overload, the new smells, structures and lives that wash over me on these drives. Simultaneously, I am lulled by the comfort of it all; the fact that there is too much to understand. Instead of a reporter, for this moment, I am a dog with my head out the window, the rush of air creating a comforting buzz that silences the need to know more--at least for now.

"In every new p lace, this drive is where the journey begins. During this drive, my inability to speak the local language doesn't matter; it is about smiles and pleasantries done in charades. On this drive, there is no negotiation over prices, no cold sweat over the time I have to shoot, write, edit and transmit a half-dozen new stories. There are no technical concerns, no hunger or sleep deprivation--for a moment, even the alternating sense of alienation and loneliness disappear."

-Kevin Sites, In the Hot Zone, pp 200

jetlag and global climate change

2008-07-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

i have no idea what time it is ever. my body is so confused. i never really feel tired but then i lie down and sleep for absurd amounts of time. 12 hours+. jetlag is a beast.

and its wild how i went from baking heat to the chilly summer winds in less than 48 hours.

i'm in seattle with my two buds, jessa and abby. yes, abby. we all look like sisters, people always ask if we're related and then flip out when they find out there's two abbys.

"how do you tell each other apart?!"
"do you go by different names?"
"are you abby 1 and abby 2?"
"don't you get confused?"

silly, silly.

anyhow, seattle is one of my favorite cities and is always a nice escape from hard and fast journalism to art and expression. i planned on shooting a lot here, but after shooting 5000+ pictures in thailand, i'm a bit shutter weary. hey man, its vacation.

as such, i've decided that on future vacations, i'm limiting myself to ONE camera and ONE lens (maybe one teeny tiny extra lens for EMERGENCIES) and that it must be film. i love film. i miss film. and we just moved to a sweet new house in which i have a darkroom that hasn't been utilized yet. what i really need to do is get a good camera phone and use that for back up. haha. what a joke. but really.

so starting with the next vacation, it will be a toss up between:
polaroid
hogla
nikon 35mm

all three hold special places in my heart.

as does seattle. i'm scheming about how i can live here one day, even if for a short time.

such a good summer this has been.

last hours

2008-07-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

i leave for the airport in 6 hours. time has flown. days fade into one another, yet are distinctive in the colors and faces and experiences that fill them. i was in such turmoil about coming on this trip and now today, my last here, i'm so glad i did and so thankful for the opportunity.

the sun rose on my back as i faced the andaman on the rocks for the last time. i love the sea here, but north carolina's shores and mountains will always be dearest to me. there's a deeper affection for them.

kate and zach have been taking pictures too, so here's some with me in them, to prove i was here.

the secret to happiness is to hold monkeys.

i'm so jane goodall. forget journalism... i think this career path looks good.

one of our sea kayaking guides, old as the sea.

these feet have seen quite a lot of miles on this trip. they look pretty beat up close.

i can't believe i'm here/i can't believe i'm leaving. this is pat's oldest daughter, mariko with me. she's cool. we were both homeschooled. yay homeschooling.

a note about homeschooling: why does everyone think homeschool kids turn out like freaks? there are so many normal ones. people [ahem, kate, zach, jessie, lindsay, etc etc haha] act surprised when they learn i was homeschooled and then immediately say, "but you're so... normal!"

surprise!

i can't escape the monkeys...

2008-07-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

today was good.

really good.

i held a monkey.

after all this time seeing them from afar and thinking they were funny and sort of wanting to touch them but sort of being afraid of getting rabies or my camera stolen, i got to hold the sweetest little baby monkeys with diapers today.

other things i did today:
-visited the venice of thailand... an island community built entirely on stilts
-went sea kayaking
-did spelunking (really i just wanted to say spelunking...i don't think it was legit, though it was inside a cave)
-climbed a mountain
-got wet and dirty and loved it

no pictures yet, but coming soon. i had to clear up some space on my very full hard drive by moving my whole project onto an external device and deleting it from my laptop. scary. but no worries, all is safe.

tonight is my last night here! unbelievable. kate and zach and i watched temple of doom the other night... or tried to. we only made it about 15 mintues. editing is rough.

but my story is DONE and the site will be finished tonight. as i type, the room around me is buzzing with the labors of brilliant people creating a beautiful project. i'm proud to be part of it.

our team, before we started scattering. one of the coaches left a few days ago, i leave tomorrow, everyone else leaves the day after. its been a great month. so glad i came.

andaman rising

2008-07-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

our site (which will be done in one week) is andamanrising.org. if you go there now, nothing will happen, but behind the scenes, our incredible design team is laying out and building the best project site i've ever seen. i'm so excited.

in other news, we eat these every day. i still don't really know the name in english, but in thai they are called ngok. try to say that five times fast. i'll miss it when we leave, although i've heard you can get them at asian markets for $10 an ounce. i'll get my fill here.

me laughing at zach after he lost his shirt and had to eat at a restaurant without it. they don't have the same "no shoes, no shirt, no service" policy usa beaches do. we like to call him the naked castaway. documentary coming soon.

tsunami drill!

2008-07-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

i don't really have pictures from the tsunami drill because its a side story on our website. BUT i do have related, unuseable pictures from the time OF the tsunami drill (also i figured there was enough of babies and monkeys)...

kate and me dueling hahaha

kate and chris.... killing time on the beach before the sirens went off.

num and gap, two of our translators

thomas totally getting rejected by a baby

since i posted pictures of translators and coaches, let me take a moment to sing their praises.

the translators have been so so patient, and so helpful the whole time. they are here every day we need them, sometimes arriving at 5am. num and gap and one other all play guitar in local bars as a second job (they also translate and act as tour guides, but since this is low season for tourism, they have to have other sources of income) and so sometimes they will stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning and then have to come here early and help us. they're all really smiley and nice, especially num, although he gave me an earful about each country represented by tourists who visit here and the US didn't get a very good review. he said germans are shy, americans are loud, and koreans are rude. hm.

the coaches have been phenomenal. i feel like i've grown so much from getting input from pat, chris, thomas, dea, pailin, and mike. they are all really talented and gifted in their various fields and working with and under them has been very stretching. in a good way. i'm actually split between chris and pat, so i get two opinions, which i'm thankful for, although sometimes they contradict each other in which case i feel like i get more power. ha.

maybe.

we've spent two sundays here so far and they've been (to my delight and amazement) so relaxing. i didn't think this trip would ever be relaxing, but a few of us have been having church on the rocks during sunset which is hugely refreshing. then we swim!

i expected to leave thailand totally spent and needing refreshment in seattle (where i'm going directly after this trip for a week) with abby and jessa. however, the time i've spent here has been some of the greatest days i've had in a long time. i'll be sad to go.

swimming in a sea of gold

2008-07-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

so now that i've finished gathering content (i think) my new home for the next 10 days will be the treehouse (aka the newsroom where we edit). there's no ac, but we keep all the windows and doors open to let the breeze from the sea in. come to think of it, there really isn't much of a breeze because the resort we're staying in is built around the jungle on the side of a hill. its pretty awesome, but the trees block the breeze unless you go right down to the beach.

i really don't have any pictures to show because i've taken a break from shooting since finishing my story. i'll resume again soon, because i need to remember the faces of everyone on our team before we all go our separate ways in a week and a half.

sad! we're over halfway done... its been awesome. the story i have is completely not what i was expecting and i feel like the least likely person to get that story, but its the greatest one i've ever worked on and i'm really excited about pulling all the pieces together and getting online. my coach and i made a trailer last night that was really just to update the rest of the team, but its hilarious and if i get approval to use the music i want, maybe i can have a preview on here.

editing is such a long, arduous process. i'm not AS excited about working on a computer as i am about going to the beach and swimming at sunset (which i did last night with charissa... unbelievable, it was like swimming in gold), but it must be done and it is quite entertaining. i'm glad i got a fun story, otherwise i might be bored out of my mind listening to and watching the same footage over and over and over again.

currently i'm trying to come up with a catchy title, pull good quotes from the interviews, write intro text and decide what my cover image will be. they seem like small decisions, but when you consider that your audience may only scan the homepage for 7 seconds and you only have that long to pull them into your story, the decisions become a little more important.

yesterday i took my laundry to a little old lady down the street and paid 50 baht a kilo to get it washed (and apparantly lightly starched, including underwear). i had 3 kilos, so it will cost me about $5 to get all my nasty clothes washed. you can't help sweating all the time, so its an essential expense.

speaking of expenses, thailand has cost me far far less than i thought i would be paying. i withdrew around $80 two weeks ago and i still haven't spent it all quite yet.

other great things about this place:
-fruit shakes
-dinner for $2
-babies
-monkeys
-everyone is friendly
-motorbikes (which i'm not supposed to be riding...)
-giant snails
-fruit i've never seen
-vines for swinging and climbing
-the andaman sea at sunset
-so much green
-boats
-being surrounded by friends for a whole month in a beautiful place

tomorrow there's a tsunami drill in town, which everyone who can will cover. today is the deadline for content collection, so everybody should be able to come out. should be interesting.

monkey on a moto

2008-07-04T00:44:00.001-07:00

bet you've never seen this before:

sometimes as a photographer, something that you are unprepared for happens so quickly that you simply don't have time to capture it. being a good photographer is being ever prepared AND super fast. i wish i had a better picture of this moment, because i just don't think i will see a monkey riding a motorbike ever again. i zoomed in pretty far on this one.

this, however, is a rather sad sight. across the street from my homestay family's house is a monkey who is too old to work, so they keep him chained to this little treehouse. whenever i'm on the phone i walk over and look at him while i talk and try to fill my eyes with sympathy, because he just looks so sad. you can't really see his chain here, but its around his neck. last night he gave me a chin up, like guys would do when they see their buddy walking down the street. and then i swear he smiled at me.

as of today, i think i'm finished gathering content for my story. its the best one i've ever done. i may need a few more images, but the editing process begins in earnest today.

two more weeks to go in thailand, so much as happened and i've seen so many things and i feel so full that i could burst. i've written pages and pages of things that will never be published, but exist just to help me process. this country is a place so alive, but so strange.

i'm so glad i came here.

the fantastical islands of phuket bay

2008-06-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

i decided to write a story about the islands in the bay because the shapes sticking up out of the water are so interesting... check this out.
craaaaazy shapes. looks like peter pan and smee dropping off tiger lily. story soon to come... or maybe i will just write it and read it to eliza, which she loves.

so check this face out. this is a monkey. yes. a monkey. i saw a MONKEY.

can you see how he's raising one eyebrow? how is it that they look so human? i got close to take photos and then one started loping towards me and grabbed at my shoe. having been warned about rabid thai animals and having heard horror stories about the 7 shots to the stomach i must receive if i am bit by any animal here, i ran for my life, not sure if his teeth were after my foot, or his little monkey hands were after my camera. either are entirely possible.

this was at the pier while waiting for my boat to koh yao yoi on thursday. i went to the only high school on the island for an assembly, which is where i found my story. i'll stick to newspaper protocol here and not give information away until the story is published. but its crazy. the craziest thing i've ever worked on for sure, i know because my coaches were laughing out loud in disbelief at my photos tonight.

i stayed with a family involved in the ecotourism program on the island. they keep a room open for visitors with a mattress and a mosquito net and they feed me lots and lots of food. they're really nice and the mosquito net is very exotic (and practical). i kind of want one when i go home.

thai BABIES!

they train them young... all babies who are able MUST do this to any adult. its so precious.

yo grrrl wut up

sweet little girl on the bridge at koh yao noi

so cute... i would totally do this too if i could. how great is a nap in a purple hammock?

rubber forests...so cool

catching dinner at the crab farm

my host family... saa is on the right, i am the shiniest i have ever been in my life, and we are making omlets and fish and chicken and rice. i ate this every single day, and will eat it again every single day next week.

goodnight!

assignment: koh yao noi island!

2008-06-24T19:26:00.001-07:00

sa wat dii ka! this is my new headgear for a good chunk of the trip as i received my assignment this morning and i am spending a week or more on a muslim island a good ways away from our base. i have to be careful about what i wear, i'm not allowed in mosques (boo), i must keep my head covered, and i won't be seeing any pork for a while... i'm excited!! i'm doing a story on the culture of the island, which locals are concerned about preserving since the influx of tourists in the 90s. i'll be staying in a thai girl's dorm at the school i'm covering, which no foreigner has apparantly done (according to one of my coaches).

they also have a different greeting than the traditional thai wai, which kendrick and i will demonstrate here :)

yesterday we visited the pier built by kenan institute asia, our host group here in thailand. it was built after the tsunami as part of recovery efforts and includes a boat repair shop. the boats here are long tail and are used for individual, small fishing enterprises.

a fisherman at the boat repair shop, framed by prayer flags (maybe?)

thai popeye at the navy restaurant we ate at... his forearm is a bit large and seemed to be broken off and supported by a piece of wood.

sea turtle hatchery owned by the navy base... turtles are an endagered species here, so the navy helps them out. these are only 15 days old!

this little guy is sleeping

zach climbing the police boat that washed ashore 2km during the tsunami.

+ +

about half of the group has already left for their stories, but i won't leave until tomorrow. today i'll exchange some money, swim a little, get a royal family polo (which honors the king and is always appropriate) and MAYBE get to ride an elephant. this is my number one objective while i'm here (after, of course, producing an awesome story).

the journalist blood in me is pumping and i'm ready to START. i won't have internet on the island, so more updates when i'm back!

typhoons and tree houses

2008-06-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

...or rather, tree house singular. but probably typhoon plural. there's a crazy one in the indian ocean right now, which is dumping heavy rain on us in phang-nga province (pronounced pang-a).

its the monsoon season, so typhoons are fairly regular. people seem to be more laid back about them than north carolinians are about hurricanes.

backing up, we flew for 36+ hours, NYC to seoul to phuket. seoul, the short time we were there, was great because we saw all these couples wearing matching outfits. identical tshirts, identical pants, the women always in heels, even with shorts. no one could figure it out, but then the very chatty korean i sat next to on the way to phuket explained that they were honeymooners and they dress alike when they leave on their trip. its the cutest thing, but somehow i think i will have a hard time convincing an american male to match me, no matter what the occasion.

we got to phuket in the middle of the night and then had an hour drive to our hotel in khao lak, one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. everyone here is so friendly and smiley... we learned in orientation that the more you smile the better, as thais dislike confrontation and try to "save face."

we've spent two days in orientation and talking about workflow, which is journalist lingo for how we go about collecting and editing stories. we watched footage from the tsunami, taken by tourists in resorts close to ours. i learned that tsunamis are not tidal waves... they are basically series of very quick floods, caused by earthquakes. people die because they are carried out to sea before they have time to outrun the flood, not because a huge wave crashes down on top of a village. this doesn't make it any less dangerous, but it did change my perspective a bit.

we have our meetings in what's called the tree house, which sounds a lot cooler than it is, because its not really a tree house proper. trees grow through the porch. the resort we are staying at is built into the side of the hill and ends at the shore below. at times it feels like swiss family robinson, or jungle book, full of twisty vines and big leaves and straw roofs. i saw an elephant between the rubber trees today. my goal is to ride one before we leave.

the food is amazing and SO spicy... even for breakfast. we've been eating fruit, salad, and pad thai (noodles with fried vegetables and meat) in the morning, some kind of fried vegetables and rice for lunch, and last night we went to the viking restaurant, which i suppose caters to norwegians and swedes, not so much thais. jet lag seems to be worse the 2nd day as we were really tired from traveling yesterday and slept well. the time different is 11 hours, so we are flipped and afternoons and evenings are hard to stay peppy for.

we get our story assignments tonight or tomorrow morning and should be beginning on thursday... orientation is almost over, so must run to learn some more thai. sawatdeeka!

photos!

proof that i am here and alive! this is part of our beach

crazy typhoon that i thought would blow my windows in last night

so much green in the green season (which is a positive way to say rainy season)

da beach

breakfast! fruit i've never heard of... rose apple in the middle. its like a hybrid of a honeydew melon, an apple, and a pear.

beautiful thai script

room 436 (on the right)

our building

view from my room... the andaman sea

orchids everywhere... on pillows, bathroom counters, in drinks, as napkin holders...

these are the faces of jet lag.

i love murals... we shall be revisiting this one as the typhoon limited what we could do with it.

t-minus

2008-06-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

thailand is now about 36 hours away. and when i say thailand, i really mean the time i embark on the journey to get there, seeing how i won't actually BE there until monday.

but i truly am getting excited... the kind of excited i used to get before i began traveling frequently. the kind of excited that you get antsy when you think about prepackaged plane food, buying trail mix in the terminals, waking up in the middle of the night while breathing stale air, and watching movies in a cramped seat to fall asleep.

that kind of excited. seriously, that stuff used to thrill me in middle school, now i dread it. but the reward of new cultures is always worth it.

if i had looked at this stuff first, i might have pushed past all the administrative details to let my anticipation truly build.

i finished the first part of my internship at the paper on wednesday. i'll be back in late july, but here's what's been in front of my lens lately...

fife & drum corps web gallery [click]

pen show in cary:

this woman was straight from harry potter. she had so much personality and something about her was... magical? yes, magical. in a harry potter kind of way. except she specializes in inkpens, not quills.

just to give you an example of her verve, let me just give you some excerpts from my notebook.

"one of my specialites is things that write in extreme ways."
"i'm flamboyant by nature."
"[Choosing pens] is stagecraft."
"Imagine having a signature so great that it becomes a common noun." (in reference to John Hancock, of course)
"Its like having a Ferrari; you can shift it any way you want, but it will tell you when you're doing it right or wrong. And in a few days you'll get really good."
"[A fountain pen] is not judgemental. Its like dancing with somebody. There's some people or pens you never want to dance with again. And some it gets better every time you dance with them."
"[Fountain pens] make you better."

see what i mean? i had no idea there were people on earth who loved pens so much.

i had another assignment that i worked on all week, but i don't think its been published yet, so we'll have to wait for that one. i went back three separate times to do photos because the lighting wasn't so great. i've been told that is 80% of assignments, so i suppose it was good to learn.

since i'll be on the plane for hours and hours, i need some good music. any suggestions?

so much hot

2008-06-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

its so hot. for such a long time this spring i kept saying, "what nice weather we're having! this is incredible for north carolina in may!"

i am now eating my words. the first week into june has felt like july 4. its absolutely sweltering.

so what do newspapers report on during weather extremes?

the weather extremes! so three times in the last 6 days i have taken pictures related to the heat wave. day 1 and 2 i struck gold with a story about a farm in chapel hill that hoses down their horses to keep them cool. (as sandra has requested pictures, i will link them here, but also post below)

today one of my editors told me he has made a conscious effort the last few days to not assign me heat pictures. thanks matthew!

yesterday the trouble i ran into was FINDING people outside in the heat. who stays outside when its 102 degrees?

after a few hours of driving/walking around/sweating off 10 pounds, i found some delightful ladies at a garden center in carrboro who were most helpful and seemed virtually immune to the heat. barbara told me that when she goes home at night she puts on long sleeves and sweatpants because her house feels so cold after being in the heat all day. good gracious.

good news: thailand will probably be even hotter than this.

2008-06-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

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.

potato cannon physics

2008-05-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

this assignment has definitely been the most fun so far. again, a 3B picture (or pictures? i never saw saturday's paper), but there's also a gallery online.

potato cannon

i wish i had gone to DSA.

day 6

2008-05-22T07:59:00.001-07:00

today is day SIX at the news & observer. last week, the week of welcomes and first assignments, feels like a long, long time ago. i've learned so much and really feel like my time here is valuable, though a bit slow.

the thing is, you have to WAIT for news to happen. and if its not happening, you go out and follow your nose until you find something. thats 95% of what i've been doing. mornings i come in and read the news, see if my picture is in the paper, check to see what they did to the caption, and then check my email, look at some quality photos/multimedia online, get some lunch, and then maybe an hour or two before i leave, i'll get a photo.

thats a typical day. today i'm in the office, blogging. i figured i should update the masses on what i've been doing so far.

i was surprised to come in last thursday and see my first picture published on 3B. since then, i feel like 3B has become "my" spot. i've been published 3 times since then, so 4 of my images have made it into the paper all together. since the papers have already come out, i think i'm allowed to post them. these are original edits, but once i turned them in, editors altered them...

and here are some outtakes:

they refer to these as "slice of life" photos... just whats up, whats going on around town, what people are doing, where the moments are.

going out and making pictures is the highlight of my day, and the reason i am here this summer. but inbetween these, i have conversations with the people that work here day and day out, some of them for 25+ years. i have a mentor and he tells me the nitty gritty of the industry, but also encourages me to try new things, to use my nose, to look for good stories and dig to make them better. i tell him my ideas and he says they're great and ambitious and encourages me to go after them.

its nice to have a coach, cheerleader, and teacher all in one.

day 1s and welcomes

2008-05-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

welcome.

i heard that word so much today and didn't realize how much it could mean to me and how truly welcomed i could feel. i started a new job as the photo intern at the News & Observer in Raleigh, one of the largest papers in North Carolina. its a super opportunity and i feel really honored to be there. its almost like a real job... today was day 1 and if its any indication of the norm, i think i'm really going to enjoy and be challenged by my time on McDowell street this summer.

and as this is a new blog, i felt i should extend the welcome to readers. i needed a new blog... or i felt like i did since all my friends who are having experiences abroad this summer are blogging them. so the purpose of my blog shall also be to chronicle my experiences not only in the field for the N&O but also as i travel to Thailand, mid-june through mid-july.

as for the title... naming things is so hard! dogs, cars (never have understood naming inanimate objects though), babies... names are hard to pick. so i recently brainstormed some title ideas during a meeting during which i was supposed to pay attention, but lost focus and chose not to. i decided on one word: closer.

"closer" speaks to several different things:

1) legendary war photography robert capa once said, "if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." i try to take this to heart when shooting any assignment or personal work and try to push the envelope. for one who is naturally reserved, this is a difficult task, but the results are always better if i do. so "closer" is about moving physically closer to the subject, but also emotionally and intuitively... taking time to understand the issue, to build rapport, to establish trust and create a relationship.

2) "closer" refers to depth, proximity. to know the heart of something, of someone, you have to get closer. to find the gems, you must dig, you must get closer, close to the mother lode, to what you've been looking for all your life. if i distance myself, i'll miss out.

so hopefully "closer" will become a definition of my life, of my way of living and interacting, not just because of this blog, but because i must constantly foster curiosity, tenacity, and passion.

first day pics coming soon...

on a quick ps... i'm currently listening to the greatest playlist of this year... songs all given to me via mix cds for my birthday last week. so good. my friends have great taste in music. here you can see...

also included is my latest feel-good song, benny & the jets. how can you not sing along?