Before I joined Viking, I took photos by myself. I chose what games I would go to and I decided when I wanted to post the photos. In joining Viking, I learned how to become part of a larger story and the team work involved within that.  I learned to collaborate more with editors and staff writers and having an editorial focus. I learned to be part of team as well as establishing my role as a writer, photo editor, and photographer. Even though I was already a photographer and had experience as the photo editor, I had no experience as a writer. I slowly learned how to come up with ideas, either for the magazine or when writing about a game. I discovered how to write a captivating hook that describes an interesting aspect of the game or a unique angle on the story. Interviewing other people was a new experience as well, as I had never needed to conduct an interview before Viking. I learned how to reach out to people and interview them. Even though I didn’t know what questions to ask, more experienced staff members worked with me, helping me write down interview questions that I could easily apply to all interviews I conducted.

     Another area of growth was in photography, where Viking stories constrained me in looking for photos that told the story of the game. I focused trying to tell the story of each game in one photo. I also started to try different techniques for taking photos. Most notable was that I started shooting much tighter. Instead of shooting a wide angle lens for close up action, I forced myself to zoom in as much as possible and re-orient the camera so I could get a more dramatic photo. I also tried to expand my awareness during a game so I could be more attentive of the bench or the fans and their reactions. At first this created a trade off between shooting peak action and the fans but I quickly learned how to time my photos so I could shoot all parts of the action and tell a better story.

     The challenge of working for a publication helped me expand my skills as a photographer. I learned how to attend games and shoot the photos I wanted to shoot but also at the same time to capture the photos for the magazine. Previously, I had always shot games how I wanted to but I learned to take photos upon request and be flexible with my schedule in case I needed to attend a last minute game.

     Another challenge was sharing the role of photo editor with Jason, a role that I was comfortable doing by myself. Although we worked well together and coordinated a lot about which games we attended, it was still strange to always check my photos with his and then decide whose photos we should use that would be best to tell the story. The year before I could make all the decisions by myself. A final challenge was been the writing and advertising, something I wasn’t really expecting. But since I’m part of the team, I got better at deciding what stories to write and then going out and interviewing people. Advertising has been a constant challenge as I keep getting turned down despite my best efforts to get a company to sponsor or buy an ad.

     So far high school journalism has had a major impact on my life. Journalism has allowed me a place to showcase my sports photos and to share them with the athletes. Photography has become a key part of me and journalism has helped me grow as a photographer. I can quickly see the reactions of my photos when I’m on a publication. Journalism also helped me look for more dramatic action and non-action photos during a game because I was shooting for a publication instead of just the players. I had to learn how to tell a story and decide on which photos to use even if my journalistic decision was different from my personal decision. As a result, I am able to refine my approach to photography in order to ensure that everyone enjoys my photos. Another impact has been becoming known as “the photographer”. Since I attend many games each week, the players have gotten to recognize me on the sideline and even devoted fans know who I am. They’ll sometimes say hi to me or strike up a conversations with me when we see each other at school. Being recognized also opens up more conversations, making it easier to talk to players I didn’t know before. This also helps for Viking, as it is much easier to interview them since they recognize me. Being a photographer has also allowed me to talk to more adults inside and outside of school. Sometimes I’ll even work with newspapers outside of school because they recognize my photos and are happy to have me shooting for them. Journalism has also been fun because I’m doing what I enjoy with other people that I have played sports with and are very similar to me. Not only have I learned lifetime skills from journalism, but but journalism and photography could be something I continue in college and bring to the communities there.

     The biggest transference of skills to a workplace will be the need to communicate with the people I’m working with as well as being flexible. Communication is big in journalism as I need to understand what everyone wants the finished product to look like before we start to work on it. In past experiences, when there was little communication the group productivity was often very low as we would have to repeat sections that were poorly done. I also need to understand the expectations or the results and figure out my part in it. I also had to learn to communicate frequently to make sure my group was on schedule and to see if I could help anywhere.  Flexibility to me is just as an important skill as communication. Journalism has forced me to become very flexible and understand when other people are being flexible. Because I’m one of the key photographers, I have had to learn how to have a flexible schedule. I know I have to be ready if someone needs photos so I make sure I’m ahead of other work. I had to manage my school schedule so that I would be able to fulfill last minute requests for photos. In addition, I also have to be flexible when taking portraits. Not everyone is able to do the set time and date so I often have to come back two or even three times just to make sure I get photos of everyone. Finally, flexibility is important as I need to understand I can’t attend every game and get every photo. I need to understand my limitations such as other school commitments. For work, I will be asked for last minute projects so I will need to be flexible. The cover photos also required previsualising, as I would come up with a concept for the picture and then work through the idea and make sure it was possible for me to make it happen.

     Over the past few months, I helped write three articles for the printed Viking Magazine. I took part in writing Finding Equity in Issue 1, All Burnt Out in Issue 2, and Winter Sports Preview in Issue 3. Finding Equity was an opinion piece about the new helmets the football team bought and the fairness in how the helmets were bought. All Burnt Out looked at the issue of burnout among athletes and how today’s culture among sports is becoming dangerous to athletes. This article also boosted my confidence when it comes to interviews, as I was surprised how helpful the doctors who I interviewed and how they didn’t mind taking some time out of their busy days to answer my questions. Finally, Winter Sports Preview looked at the upcoming seasons for the winter sports teams. Besides this, I took three of the nine zoom or feature photos as well as many of the photos used in the magazine and online. Also, I have taken two of the three cover photos so far. These photos were my favorites as I enjoyed the process to take the photo and how it looked on the cover. For the Bench Warmer cover photo, I spent thirty minutes trying to get the best possible photo. I played around with the photo, trying to convey a story without showing the face of the athlete but also showing the non-action of the bench.

      I have also had growth in portrait photography. I haven’t had much experience which was why I wanted to start learning more about proper lighting and all the tips for a good portrait photo. So far my enthusiasm has paid off as I have had plenty of portrait experience. Firstly, I took dozens of portraits in the span of five days. These were taken of the each Viking Sports Magazine staff members for the website on the about the staff section. Over the course of these five days, I learned about the importance of lighting and shadowing and how some shadowing can create a slight dramatic effect. I practiced a dramatic effect also, when I used smoke and multiple lights to take a photo of the seniors on the girls soccer team. I spent over a week thinking of different ways to take the photo and how to increase the drama in the photo. I decided to use smoke and then spent another week investigating smoke photography and the different ways people have used smoke or fog in their photos.

     My biggest non-bylined work this semester was my sports photo presentation I made for JEA NorCal. I worked hard on the presentation trying to include as many tips about sports photography that I learned along with photo examples. I presented to a JEA class and it was so successful, I was also asked to present to Viking and The Campanile. Other publications such as The Campanilie and occasionally The Voice would use my photos for their articles but always with my permission.