30 SECOND SAMPLE - “Smooth Operator” by Ramel Bradley

April 2, 2008

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Photographer: Assignment more like kickin’ it with Ramel than work

March 31, 2008

It was one of those assignments that you see and instantly call dibs.

Beat writer Travis Waldron told me he would be hanging out with UK basketball star Ramel Bradley while he polished off his single before releasing it and I knew this was an assignment I wanted. I spent all of my days in high school recording music and I still love music studios. The whole process is very similar to writing a story in that you take time fixing all the little details until it’s as far as you can take it.

I ‘m also a Ramel fan. He plays with a lot of heart and I admire that about him. Also, if you have ever seen his news conferences then you know how well he handles himself. So the chance to combine music, Ramel and photography was an obvious choice.

The challenging part of assignments like this one is to find a shot that is different from what everyone else is going to have. Everyone you see in the photo above besides Ramel is with the media. I shot this frame only to show the setting. Former Kernel photo adviser Dave LaBelle always told me not to just get caught up in the subject, but to take a step back and look at the media madness your subject draws. I think that’s good advice.

The only problem with some of the photos you pull from one of these shoots is that they’re basically completely staged for the media. I doubt Ramel would have been in this situation if it weren’t for the half a dozen media outlets who were covering this one song recording. But that’s part of what our audience wants to see with this story, Ramel off the court. I just try to keep in mind what my goals are. To show the audience a true representation of a scenario they can’t get to themselves.

Please check out the mixed media piece to get the full experience.

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Covering the Clintons

March 30, 2008

I had my first shot at covering political figures Bill and Hillary Clinton this week. Both have more national and political prominence than anyone I’ve ever written about. Everything from the actual speeches to the check-ins — where dogs sniffed my bags at one event and a policeman scanned me with a metal detector at the other — was a new and exciting experience.

I loved the crowd’s energy and way of making both events seem larger-than-life. It got me excited about my role as a journalist. Think about it. Only about 2,500 people could be there to see Hillary speak on Saturday at duPont Manual High School in Louisville. So my job, along with photographer Brad Luttrell, was to make sure that everyone else who couldn’t make it could see what the event was like. Here are a few things that didn’t fit in my story.

Representing the Student Vote
Two UK students with a U of L friend stood front and center in the crowd on the floor. Right behind them was a pair from Indiana University, both energetic Clinton supporters. And to the pair’s right were two more UK students who are featured in Brad’s multimedia presentation. I saw other familiar UK faces scattered throughout the crowd.

I talked to many of these people and wish I had room to put more than two of them in my article, because they were all intelligent individuals invested in the election.

Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent, it’s a historic time for the U.S. I was glad to meet students who really care and are making efforts to get informed.

Covering the Political “Higher Ups”
When I heard Bill and Hillary were coming to town, I jumped on the opportunity to see them. Journalists were everywhere, representing print, radio and television. Then there was the traveling press, who had their own special area. Brad and I talked about how awesome it would be to follow a presidential campaign for a paper or wire service. Politics fascinate me, and if I ever got the chance to cover something like that, I’m sure it would be amazing.

I sat next to a reporter from WKU’s student paper, the College Heights Herald. We chatted for a bit about the event, friends and acquaintances we had in common and tips on how to sneak out of the designated press area and interview the crowd on the floor. Sometimes you have to break the rules, and in this case, they weren’t really enforcing them that strictly anyway. It was fun meeting a fellow student journalist, and I’m glad more than one college paper covered the event.

Lessons Learned
Don’t leave backup batteries in the car, especially when covering Hillary Clinton — My voice recorder died less than two minutes after Hillary came on stage. Brad got some of the event on film, which helped. But I was left with just a pen and pad to record her 40-minute speech. I don’t usually use a tape recorder unless I know it’s going to be a long speech where I might need to double-check my notes. It was a bit stressful, but it all worked out.

Pay attention to the crowd and details — This is what makes the event different from every other political rally. People indeed want to know what Hillary said, but they also want to know how she interacted with the foot-stomping, fist-pumping supporters who really want her to win or the protestors who don’t (I only saw one protester at Bill’s speech and none at Hillary’s).

And finally, enjoy the moment — Enjoy every minute of covering something as influential as a presidential candidate coming to town. I hope Barack Obama and John McCain make their way to the Bluegrass soon.

Posted by Juliann Vachon | Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment

Even if you don’t like politics, these rallies can be fun

March 30, 2008

New technology

For the past month I have been putting much of my photography emphasis on learning video.

To some I suppose it’s not even the same thing, but I see them to be very similar. What I’m quickly learning though is all the ways they are not similar, and possibly why many photojournalists are not happy with trying to do both.

On Saturday when Hillary Clinton came to Louisville, I knew this was a great opportunity to truly test out my new found abilities. I was very excited to use all of the Kernel’s new gear. What I had only thought about for a few short moments was how hard it would be to carry all of this gear.

Walking into the high school gymnasium, I looked at Juliann, the reporter for the story, and said, “It’s really here. That whole convergence thing is real. A newspaper photographer looks just like a broadcast cameraman.” It was a feeling I thought I wouldn’t experience for several years. But after only a few seconds of the feeling of awe, I was back into storytelling mode and not caring what my appearance was.

I am not ashamed to admit that most of my video did not turn out nearly as good as I had hoped. I felt like a new photographer when I was having focusing problems. But I toughed it out and managed to get enough to make a three minute mixed media piece for us out of what I shot.

Being in the presence of a presidential candidate

I was actually surprised at the liberty the media had at this event. After going through a security checkpoint that is only a bit tighter than what I go through to get into Rupp Arena, we basically had free reign. For the three hours I was in the gym waiting for Hillary to come out, I was beginning to feel as anxious as the crowd. Not because I just wanted to shoot the assignment, but because I realized the significance of the event I was covering.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to make a photograph that is different from the one everyone else is going to make. I really worked this situation below, but just didn’t have a long enough lens to get the moment. I thought the younger child’s facial expression was so great and his body language was screaming that he was uninterested. I also really wanted to catch Hillary’s feet at the perfect moment when you could tell that this speaker was a woman. I think it’s even better that you can see the mom making eye contact with Hillary. But this is generally the type of photograph that just doesn’t work with the story, and never makes it to print. It did make it to our slideshow though. Check it out at the mixed media page.

Thinking about the future

If I ever worked for a bureau and was asked to follow a political campaign across the country, I decided yesterday that it’s something I would like to do. Maybe it’s because I have only recently truly started caring about politics, but I saw so many photographs that I wanted to take and think I could work better, now knowing what one of these events can be. This was so different from governor and mayor elections.

I think being behind-the-curtain with such a big name as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain could produce some really great photographs that you only get the chance to do if you’re assigned to that candidate. Pete Souza’s photographs of Ronald Reagan are fantastic.

I just can’t see myself being able to turn an opportunity like that down.

Posted by Brad Luttrell | Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment

Moving in while the residents moved out: Ingleside Mobile Home Park

March 22, 2008

I was nervous.

I parked my car near the entrance of Ingleside Mobile Home Park and looked through the windshield at the destruction in front of me. I reached for my notebook, closed my eyes tight and took a deep breath before stepping out of the car and into a world I knew nothing about.

Lexington developer Neal Evans bought Ingleside in January for $3.3 million with the desire to build a new apartment complex designed for students. There were the 18 families living at the mobile home park that would have to go somewhere once construction began.

That’s who I wanted to talk to that day: the families being forced to leave their homes, many who had no where else to go. But would they want to talk to me? I was a college student (the enemy) and I was probing them for a lot of personal information on a sensitive subject.

Not knowing where to start, I walked through the trailer park, my photographer Elliott Hess in tow, and weaved my way through piles of demolished mobile homes with remnants of broken tables, old couches and frames with pictures of smiling faces still trapped inside the glass that cluttered the grounds. Ahead of me were sagging homes with broken windows and missing siding that lined the paved road. A broken underground sprinkler sprayed water straight up into the air and I ducked through the midst and around the corner and stood in front of my first faces of Ingleside.

Jason Hanson, a resident of the mobile home park since 2001 was helping a neighbor start his truck when I stumbled upon him. I introduced myself and asked him if he’d like to talk to me about the development and his plans for the future. I looked confidently into his eyes as he looked me over, trying to size up my request, and hid my hands that shook with nerves deep in my pockets.

“Well I’m mad,” he told me but took a step back as Elliott pulled out a microphone and other audio equipment to begin our interview. “Um, I’m mad and I don’t think it’s right and I don’t have anywhere to go.”

As we continued to talk, more residents joined us. They joined in with Jason and told stories of their own: stories about broken promises, about fear and desperation for finding a new home, and determination to fight for what they thought they deserved. We stood with the residents in the middle of Ingleside and for the first time, I began to see more than broken down trailers. I saw homes and memories and real people who needed someone to tell their story.

Elliott and I spent more than two weeks with the residents; we played outside with their grandchildren, tossed frisbees for their dogs, and swept up broken plates that fell from kitchen cabinets when the bulldozers drove by. All along, we gained their trust, but more importantly, we gained respect and with it the responsibility of giving the residents something they didn’t have: a voice.

On Tuesday, the Kernel published the story, “Development displaces residents,” the first in what we hope will be a series on the development of Devonshire Apartments on the land where Ingleside Mobile Home Park once stood. Tuesday afternoon I drove back to the park and knocked on the door of Francis Barrera, a resident who had been a fantastic sport through my hours of interviewing, the thousands of pictures Elliott shot and who was surviving the stress of finding a new place to live.

Francis held the paper in her hands and looked at the pictures of her run down home, of herself crying in front of piles of rubble and she began to cry.

“Thank you,” she said and took my hand in hers. She started to speak again but stopped, too choked up to finish. But that’s all she needed to say.

As I left the park on Tuesday, sure to return in a few days, the feeling of relief after seeing the story finally in print left me and the reality of the story set in. The stress was over for me, but not for the Ingleside residents.

“This is our home,” Patricia Ponce had told me a few days earlier as I finished up the story. Five days after the residents were supposed to be off the property 10 families still remained. “We’ll be here, still fighting.”

I left my nerves in the car when I stepped out into Ingleside that first day. It was as story unlike any I’d ever written in my time at the Kernel. It was a story that taught me much more than I ever thought I’d learn.

They’re still fighting. So I’m still writing.

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