A "Bittersweet" ending to my Intro to Photojournalism class

My classmates Janelle Smith (left) and Janelle Phillips walk to the horse barn at Bittersweet Farms. (Camera settings: f/4.8, 1/8000, ISO-1600, 34mm.  All photos Aperture Priority w/ Auto WB)  (Photos: Diane Larson)

  It's fitting that my final project for this photojournalism class, is a group project at the wonderful Bittersweet Farms.
  This is bittersweet for me.   This class has been wonderful and fulfilling and more work than I anticipated but I've really loved every minute of it.
  It's reminded me how important it is to never stop learning.  It's helped me (finally) figure out how my camera works.  And I've met some wonderful people in this class who demonstrate such great spirit.  Many have full time jobs and are juggling full class schedules. Some are doing this with spouses, kids and work on the student newspaper The Owens Outlook.
  I admit that I am going to enjoy sleeping in when this semester is over.  It's a short turnaround from the 11 p.m. news to the 7 a.m. alarm to get up for class. Still,  I've loved it.  Now, back to our group project. 

The sign in the conference room. 

  We're putting together an online magazine of our day at Bittersweet Farms.  In case you don't know, Bittersweet is a lovely farm setting in Whitehouse, Ohio that serves the needs of people with autism.
  Each of us had an assignment: pictures, captions, story.  I wanted to take pictures.
  So that's what I did. 

  But I couldn't help being the reporter I am, so I did plenty of interviewing and maybe shortchanged myself on the pictures.  Our teacher, Blade photojournalist Lori King, says when she's on a photo shoot for the paper, she gets sort of antisocial. She is so focused on getting the pictures, she doesn't engage in conversation. Typically the reporter on the story is getting the facts which frees Lori to focus on photos.
  I tried to straddle the two worlds and in the end, I wish I'd gotten more pictures.  But I really loved meeting the people there and spending time getting to know their stories.
  We got to Bittersweet Farms just before 10 a.m. on a Wednesday as snow started to gently fall. First stop: the wood shop.  I found a number of men crafting marvelous things like a big scarecrow, birdhouses, picture frames and signs.
  I saw a man sanding a block of wood.  "It's 100 grit sandpaper," Phil Bartus tells me.  He's been at Bittersweet Farms for over 25  years.  He doesn't live there.  He commutes from his home in eastern Fulton county.  Phil's a ham radio operator who loves heavy metal music AND smooth jazz. 

Jens Svendsen shows one of the crafts they make in woodshop for use by
occupational therapists. (f/4.8, 1/90, ISO-800, 18mm)

  In the next room, I meet Jens Svendsen.  He's from Holland. His smooth Dutch accent gives that away. He tells me he came to the U.S. for good in 1988. 
  He seems to be the elder statesman among his fellow wood shop workers.
  Jens gives me a tour of the wood shop and the crafts they are making.  As he's doing this,  Robert Gelack comes in and announces it's his birthday as he hugs Jens.  I tell Robert "Happy Birthday" and Jens gently laughs and says "Everyday is his birthday."
  Jens shows me the crafts they are working on: nature villages made of wooden houses with pine cone seeds as the roof shingles.
  He says they also make gadgets to help with occupational therapy, like the device he shows me that helps people learn how to tie their shoes.
  Jens has been at Bittersweet on and off, he says, for 13 years.  He lives in Grand Rapids and drives to the farm every day.
  He seems kind and funny and as I take a flurry of pictures of him, he laughs and asks, "did I shave today?"  I tell him he looks good and show him the picture I just took.  "That is a good picture.  That's good," he confirms.
  Next stop for me was the animal barn.  Very low lighting and the horses were moving, as horses tend to do. That created photo challenges for me.  None of my pictures really came out except one with Dan Everett and the horse named Cheyenne.  I  like that photo because the horse's eye is in focus and Dan is out of focus in the background.
  After the barn, everybody asked me, "Have you gone to the arts and crafts building?  Beth keeps asking for you."
  The "Beth" in question, is Beth Meyer, an outgoing, talkative and delightful woman.  Beth tells me she's been at Bittersweet since day one which is more than 30 years ago. She's asking me lots of questions about what it's like to work on TV and I ask her lots of questions about what it's like to work at Bittersweet Farms.  "You seem to like it," I tell her. "Yes, I seem to like it is right," she answers. 
 We gathered to leave as the snow started falling harder. In in the copy for our final project, I wrote that it looked so pretty; like a holiday snow globe (I'll post a link to the final project when it's finished).  Most of the people you see below worked so much harder on the final project than I did, especially T.J. Barney, Katie Buzdor, Katie Schaffer and Sean Perry.
  Before we left, Lori took this picture of one of the last times we'd all be together. It epitomizes some of the reasons I really enjoy photography: a lasting memory and a moment captured for always. 

Our Intro to Photojournalism class at Bittersweet Farms.  From left: T.J. Barney, me, Katie Buzdor, Janelle Smith, Shannon Dane-Solt (Marketing/Development Coordinator for Bittersweet),  Sean Perry, Katie Schaffer, Lacie Hayek, Amanda Aylwin, Fabian Koder and Janelle Phillips.  (Photo: Lori King) 

 Dan Everett grooms Cheyenne the horse. (f/4.8, 1/20, ISO-3200, 42mm)

Wood shop workers make nature villages with pine cone seeds as the roof shingles. (f/4.8, 1/125, ISO-800, 27mm)

Phil Bartus in front of the 14-inch band saw they use in wood shop.(f/4.8, 1/250, ISO-1600, 20mm)

I asked him if he's nervous working with the saw. Phil said, "No. I'm pretty good.  I have all my fingers." (f/4.8, 1/180, ISO-1600, 18mm)

Beth Meyer works on stained glass ornaments that will go in holiday gift baskets. She's been a resident at Bittersweet Farms for over 30 years.  "I seem to like it," she says.(f/4.8, 1/180, ISO-1600, 34mm)

Portrait of a woman who likes the raw power of earth moving equipment

Sophomore Courtney Stone is one of only three women to go through the Owens Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician program.  She's standing in front of a transmission which is her favorite part of the big earth moving machines. "Earth moving equipment is so much cooler.  All that raw power," she says. (Photos: Diane Larson)

  My first experience with serious portrait photography was for my high school senior picture. It was a 90 degree day in August.  My hair was styled in a feeble attempt to look like the Farrah Fawcett flip, which was all the rage back in the day.

  The photographer contorted me in all variety of unnatural positions. Shoulders turned one way.  Head and neck in the other direction.  I felt like one of the velociraptors in "Jurassic Park."  

  When the proofs came back, I looked like Farrah's sweaty, awkward and bloated younger sister.  Gratefully, mom let me go back for retakes.   Better, sort of, the second time around.

  So that notion of portrait photography was in my head when I approached this new assignment for class.  Find a portrait subject within my beat, which is STEM (Science, Technology,  Engineering and Math).

  I'd met with all the chairs of the various departments within STEM early in the semester and was intrigued by the Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician class.

  I called the chair and made an appointment to visit the class and shoot some pictures.  I wasn't sure what kind of portrait subject I'd find when I got there, but I figured one of the students would stand out.

  Sure enough, among all the men in the class, was a petite woman with curly red hair.

  Sophomore Courtney Stone is one of only three women ever to go through the Caterpillar program at Owens.

  It's a unique program.  Students are handpicked from their high school vocational programs by Caterpillar dealers in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

  Courtney stood out in her automotive classes at the Penta County Vocational School.   She grew up in Luckey, Ohio and still lives there with her family.

  She spends part of the semester doing classwork at Owens and the other part doing shop work at the Metro South Caterpillar dealership in Brownston, Michigan just outside of Detroit. 

 So I zeroed in on Courtney for my portrait assignment.  She was bubbly and approachable and completely comfortable in her skin.

  She also knew what she liked to do.  "I LOVE transmissions," she exclaimed. "I know people say 'Oh, I love engines! Engines are amazing!'" she says mimicking a surfer dude voice.  But she's a transmission kind of girl.

  "The engine gives everything its power, but the transmission makes everything go.  Transmission directs the power to everywhere.  I think that's cooler."

   So we decided for her portrait, we'd take her picture in front of the row of transmissions in the back of the garage.  And that's the picture you see at the top.

Courtney Stone's "mug shot" or head shot.  I liked taking it in

her work/class environment rather than a studio.

  This assignment also required what newspapers call a "mug shot" which is just a head and shoulders picture.

  I know some of my classmates have studied the right way to take a portrait picture in the studio, but I have not.  
  So I opted to just get a tighter shot of her in her work/school environment.  It's just a tighter version of the main picture I used above.
  I used a bigger aperture for the tighter mug shot to blur the background.  The picture to the left is f/3.5, 1/180 with an ISO of 1600.  We were dealing with some daylight from the open garage door and shop lights overhead.

  For the first photo, I used a smaller aperture because I wanted to include more of the background.  That picture was taken at f/9.5, 1/15, ISO 1600. I wanted to see the transmissions because that is her favorite piece of equipment.  I think the first picture works well even though the background is busy because she really stands out in her black "CAT" sweatshirt against the yellow machine parts.

  Finally, I've included a picture of Courtney in action.  If I was given this assignment for a newspaper, I would have included this final shot because it shows her actually working on a piece of Caterpillar equipment.  In this case, it's the brakes for a motor grader.  So my photo editor would have three solid portraits to choose from to go with the story about Courtney, which I intend to actually write for the Outlook. 

Courtney Stone working on brakes for a Caterpillar motor grader. Shot at f/3.5, 1/180, ISO 1600, 20 mm.

I'm learning how to be a good sport ... photographer

Erika Hartings goes up for a block against Columbus State. Camera settings: f/3.3, ISO 3200, 1/750, 70 mm.

Owens women's volleyball players celebrate after winning a big point. From left: Amara Hemenway, Ciarra Wirick, Deanna Smith (13), Erika Hartings, Stephanie Kipp (6) and Ally Mikesell.  Camera settings: f/3.3, 1/750, ISO 3200, manual white balance.  (Photos: Diane Larson)

  Sometimes you get lucky.  Or sometimes, you work hard and put yourself in a position to receive something good and unexpected.
  A little of both happened to me on this sports photography assignment.
  One of the reasons I'm taking this photojournalism class, is to learn how to take better pictures of indoor sports action.  My daughter plays college tennis.  Half the season is outdoors (which is way easier to shoot) and the other half is indoors (which has been a nightmare for me photographically).
  My indoor shots are never clean, crisp or in focus.  So I was excited and nervous about this assignment.
  Lucky for me, the Owens women's volleyball team was in the NJCAA Region XII District Championship, one of the few teams in action before this assignment was due. 
  I got there shortly before the match started at 10 a.m. on a Saturday to check out the lighting. Ugh. Gym lighting.  What's my white balance? Sodium-vapor lamps? Day-white fluorescent? Warm-white? I settled on Auto.
  Now, what about my ISO? As we've learned about me, camera controls tend to confuse me.

   Libero Cierra Wirick goes down for the dig as Aricka LaVoy (left) Ally   
   Mikesell (7) and Erika Hartings (8) look on.  Camera settings: f/4.8, 1/750,
   ISO 3200, 56mm.



  I knew enough to know I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the action and the available light was marginal at best.
  So, I bumped my ISO to 1600, set the aperture as big as I could make it, which in my case was whatever my variable f/3.5 - f/5.6 lens would allow.  I put it on aperture priority and let the camera decide the shutter speed.
  I was shooting away like crazy.  Low angle. Up in the bleachers. From the back.  From the side. The images looked a bit dark in the camera's monitor, but I understood a little underexposed was better than overexposed.
 But when I got home to look at the pictures on my computer, they weren't that great.  I was too far away.  My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the action.  I didn't have good shots of the fans or the coach. 
  Bummer.  Now what?
  Turns out the team won three more matches after I left which put them in the loser's bracket final on Sunday morning.
  Done and done.  I'm going back.  How lucky for me.
  Before that, I looked over everything I'd learned so far in this class and what I could improve upon. My ISO wasn't high enough.   The Auto white balance wasn't cutting it either.
  So I bumped up the ISO and manually set the white balance. I took a few sample shots.  Much better.
  More luck too.  The team was playing on a different court on Sunday, next to the stage.  I got permission to go up there which gave me nice high angle shots.
While on the stage, I started talking to another photographer who was there to take pictures of a team from Michigan. I picked his brain and asked about settings and where to stand.  Then I noticed his lens.  "I've asked Santa for that lens," I told him.  It was the Nikkor f/2.8 70-200 mm beast, which I'm told is the best for shooting indoor sports.
  After shooting a bunch of shots with my tweaked settings thanks to the suggestions from my new photographer friend, I noticed him walking toward me.
  Then I notice that he's taken off his big, expensive lens and he's handing it to me.
  "Here," he said.  "Go ahead and play with it."
  I didn't think twice.  I didn't give him a chance to think twice either.  I gingerly took it, attached it to my camera, thanked him profusely and started shooting.
  The lens made such a difference.  I was able to get in so close and with the fixed f/2.8 aperture,  I was able to freeze the action wonderfully. My photographer friend let me use it long enough to get hundreds of shots.  It was an extraordinarily generous thing to do and gave me a taste of what it's like to have awesome camera equipment.

Freshman Standout Macy Reigelsperger was hurt in a match

the night before and could only watch the action while resting

her injured ankle. Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/750,ISO 3200

150mm, manual white balance.

  But the perfect camera and lens will only do so much if the person operating them misses the key shot.
 Picture after picture, that's what happened to me.  I kept missing that moment when the player's hand touched the ball.  The shot was always just before or just after.
 I'm not going to be too hard on myself because I sense that's an acquired skill as much as an innate one. Our instructor Lori once said you have to use your ears as much as your eyes when taking fast action shots.  Listening to the sounds that happen right before the point of contact.  Anticipation born of lots of experience no doubt will make that better for me.
   Part of this assignment was also making sure not to miss the action and the moments off the court.

Head coach Sonny Lewis takes a quiet moment to plot strategy.
Camera settings:  f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 180mm.

  That meant training my lens on the fans, the other players and the coach.
  Freshman Macy Reigelsperger couldn't play after an ankle injury from a match the night before. I watched her hobble on her crutches when the team changed sides after a set. She was supportive, but looked bummed as any competitive soul would be.  I got a few shots of her because she was part of the story.
   The coach was also a key player. Head coach Sonny Lewis prowled the sidelines with a quiet intensity.   Occasionally, he'd shout out a call to his players.  Mostly, he blended in. I noticed that on changeovers, he'd go to his play book and plot strategy alone.
  So I got a couple of shots of him in pensive moments like you see in the photo to the left.  I like that shot because it's sort of opposite of the fast action and noise during the game.                        
  And you can't forget the super enthusiastic fans who never gave up hope or support for their team, despite an eventual loss that ended the season for the women.
  Gratefully, my deadline for these pictures was days instead of hours.  I cannot imagine the pressure to turn sports photographs quickly.  I did not know the players' names or positions until I got home and matched their numbers with the roster in the program.
  And I realized that even though I played volleyball in high school, the rules had changed somewhat since then.  So I had to give myself a crash course in volleyball rules to know what the players were doing in the shots I got:  attack, kill, set, dig.  That sort of thing.

Fans react the moment after realizing the point went against

Owens.  Camera settings: f/3.3, 1/250, ISO 3200, 110mm,

manual white balance.

  For me, this has been one of the most rewarding lessons so far this semester.  It's given me faith that I can figure this stuff out.
  I believe luck came my way for this assignment because I was willing to do the work. I was willing to go back and shoot more volleyball pictures to get them right.  It was lucky for me the team was so hard-working they won three straight matches Saturday to give me another opportunity to get better shots on Sunday.  And it was super lucky for me that a stranger named Mike became a trusted photographer friend to guide me and share his totally awesome lens with me.
  And I'll be really lucky if Santa reads this post. 


Stephanie Kipp goes up for the kill. Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 70mm, manual white balance.

Amara Hemenway (9) and Deanna Smith (13) prepare to defend the block from Columbus State while libero Ciarra Wirick (1, in white) is poised to react.  Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 70 mm, manual white balance.

The moment Owens lost the match to Columbus State.  Camera settings: f/4.8, 1/350, ISO 3200, 52mm, manual

white balance.

Training students for high-paying welding jobs

Advanced welding student Tim Layton demonstrates SMAW (shielded metal arc welding) or stick welding at the Owens Community College Welding Center. (photo: Diane Larson)

  “Whatever you do, don’t look directly at the light,” virtually everyone in the Owens Community College Welding Center advises.  

  It’s 8 a.m. on a crisp fall Thursday. At the center, on the south edge of the Toledo campus, students begin their day. On one side is John Rabideau’s introduction to welding class. On the other, Nate Carpenter’s advanced students.

  Carpenter is a graduate of this program and now serves as an adjunct instructor.  He currently works at Electro Prime in Rossford which describes itself as a state-of-the-art plant that e-coats, powder coats and assembles millions of parts, mainly for the auto industry, every month. He makes good money: his salary is in the upper five figures.

  There is a tremendous need for welders in Northwest Ohio and Owens offers training to put welders in those high paying jobs in as little as 8 weeks.

  “Forty different companies in a 100 mile radius are looking for welders,” says Terrence Katschke, the chair of Applied Engineering and Industrial Technologies in the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

  In Carpenter’s advanced class, welding student Molly Johnson demonstrates the eerie pinkish purple light emitted by FCAW or flux-core arc welding. Johnson’s the only woman in the class. Her hair is pulled back in a loose bun and the shoulders of her dark gray hoodie are peppered with tiny burn holes from errant sparks. She wants to help style the photo, so she Googles camera settings for pictures of welding. "Set the ISO for 800," she advises. It's set for 400 though in the picture below. 

  It’s hard not to look at the light, but Carpenter tells the story of getting “flash burn” or photokeratitis: a corneal burn that doesn't always cause permanent eye damage, but is painful in the short run.

  “Just don’t look at the light,” he admonishes again.   

  It can be a high risk profession, especially for underwater welders and those who work on oil pipelines. But it's also vital to our economy.  The Welding Information Center says that over 50% of the gross national product of the USA is related in one way or another to welding.

  And lucrative too. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says in the manufacturing industry, median pay for sheet-metal workers is $67,000 a year, while average pay in the shipbuilding industry for a materials engineer is $84,000.

Advanced welding student Molly Johnson shows how flux-core arc welding produces pink light and
smoky tendrils. (Photo: Diane Larson)

Why am ISO confused about camera controls?

13abc video editor Jackie Maassel getting ready for the 11 p.m. newscast. (Photos by: Diane Larson)

  I just don’t understand camera controls.  Check that:  I just don’t understand camera controls yet.  That’s why I’m taking this class. 

  Take for example  the photo above. 13abc video editor Jackie Maassel has decorated her editing suite to celebrate her love of photography. She spends her work days editing video to go with the stories you see on the news every night.

  And I love the way her office looks:  it’s warm and orange and filled with tchotchkes and her own beautiful pictures from vacations out west. 

  Instructor Lori King tells us to set the ISO first. And since it’s a little dim in Jackie’s office, I need to boost the ISO.  But Manual? Aperture Priority? Shutter Priority? Eh, I dunno.

  So I go for Manual and crank up the ISO to 6400. Is it the best picture ever?  No, but I like its orangey glow and the fact it’s in focus.

  Maybe this is an example of the quality of life type of photo that we learned in Poynter’s NewsU lesson on “The Language of the Image.”  It’s informative and active.  I could see this photo accompanying story about what it’s like to be a video editor at a medium sized television station in the Midwest.

Nutty buddy at Farnsworth Metropark on an overcast October Sunday. 

  I took my camera to Farnsworth Metropark over the weekend. It was a little overcast and I missed the peak colors.  But as I was looking up to see if any colorful leaves were still on the trees, I noticed the little guy below.

  He stopped and looked at me for this brief moment before he decided I was no threat to his nut. He then sat down and began peeling it with his teeth.  It’s an example of shallow depth of field. 

  And I captured this picture of 13abc Director Jonathan Mondelli at the massive control panel in the control room. I got a different perspective by standing up on the producer desk that sits on a riser behind Mondelli. I’m probably about eight feet above him looking down. It’s a neat perspective.  So, while I don’t completely understand camera controls yet, I do think I’m getting closer. 

13abc Director Jonathan Mondelli setting controls ahead of 11 p.m. newscast. 

The "cell-ing" of photojournalism: How cell phones are changing the game.

The picture I took to Sherwin Williams.
(Photo: Diane Larson)

  I showed the clerk at Sherwin Williams my cell phone.  Actually the picture I took with my cell phone.  It was a picture from the top of a can of paint.  I needed another gallon of the same color in a different finish, and didn't want to haul the old can with me.
  For the longest time, I used my cell phone camera for things like that. I took pictures of old paint formulas, shots of lipstick colors I liked from the magazines at the hair salon, the serial numbers and prices of rugs I wanted from Home Depot and shots of my cats, Kevin and Miles.  LOTS of pictures of Kevin and Miles.

Kevin being Kevin

  I took pictures of parking spaces at malls and airports to remember where I parked. I took photos and videos of the way something was wired or assembled before I took it apart and needed to remember how to put it back together.
  My cell phone camera was a visual shopping list, a replacement for wallet photos, a handy record keeper and a way to make my own DIY tutorials.
  It's only recently become an important tool for me as a journalist.
  In the past several years, cell phone video has been turning up more and more frequently in our news stories.  When our television news crews get to the scene of an accident or a crime, the first thing the reporter does is take a cell phone picture and send it back to the newsroom.  We Instagram it, tweet it and use it on our breaking news web stories.
  We display the work of "citizen photojournalists" who take cell phone pictures of approaching storms or other newsworthy events on our "See it, Shoot it, Send it" webpage.
  I used my cell phone camera to live tweet pictures of the final rounds of the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows in Sylvania in August. I emceed the awards ceremony after Lydia Ko won and tweeted this picture of the assembled media waiting to get shots of Ko getting her trophy.

Blade photographer and Photojournalism 245 instructor Lori King, kneeling bottom right.  (Photo: Diane Larson)

  Television news is no longer just on television.  We now try to reach viewers using a multi-platform approach.
  Nielsen (the ratings service that keeps track of what people watch and when) just issued its latest cross-platform report.  It found that more and more people are watching TV on their digital devices like computers and mobile devices.  13abc even has an app that allows viewer to watch a live stream of our newscast on their cell phones even if they're vacationing in Hawaii (although I seriously question their choice to watch Toledo TV on the beaches of paradise).
  And if they are in front of an actual TV, they're also watching what the industry calls a second screen: a cell phone, computer or tablet.  The 2013 figures show nearly half of us have a cell phone in one hand and a remote in the other while sitting in front of the television.
  So cell phones are a crucial part of our television viewing habits and they're an important newsgathering tool for television journalists.
  The same is true for photojournalists.  More and more professionals use cell phones as an adjunct to their DSLR cameras.
  In the Poynter News article we read for this assignment, Keith Jenkins points out the benefits and drawbacks of photojournalists using camera phones.  As with any new technology, some purists reject the notion that a phone camera can replace a real camera operated by a professional photojournalist. Others embrace it as "another tool in their toolbox".
  While the technology changes, the principles of good photography do not.  All the rules that make a good photograph also make a good cell phone photograph.  Light the subject well, get close enough, keep still, and practice the rule of thirds.
  I think those rules work for the pictures I took of my beat, which is the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The school is housed in the Industrial Engineering and Technologies building and outside of it are solar panels.  The school's interim dean, Glenn Rettig, says the school is making a big push toward alternative energy of the future and students are working with local solar panel manufacturers.
  But it's also connected with industries of the past and works with Caterpillar and John Deere to train students on how to repair farm and construction equipment.
  I look at my cell phone a little differently now. Its camera has the power to help me be a better journalist and tell stories in different ways.  But I will still use it for the really important stuff, like taking pictures of my cats.

Solar panels outside the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  (Photo:  Diane Larson)

 

STEM school works with John Deere to train students as agricultural service technicians.  (Photo:  Diane Larson)

Miles, left, and Kevin wish they were outdoor cats.  Alas, they are not.  (Photo: Diane Larson)

  

Who changed the grammar rules and why didn't someone (or is it anyone) tell me?

The books I've used for years as reference bibles and guides to good writing and proper grammar.(Photo: Diane Larson)

  I'm so old.
  "HOW OLD ARE YOU?" the imaginary audience in my head shouts.
  I'm so old I think the rules of grammar changed without me even noticing.
  It began in class when we were quizzed on the rules of grammar, sentence structure and punctuation based on the latest Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. It was going well enough until we got to the question that essentially asked which form of singular possessive was correct:
a) Mr. Edwards's
b) Mr. Edward's
c) Mr. Edwards'
  Let's start by ruling out b). That's just wrong. His last name is Edwards. So with smug certainty, I proclaimed a) was right. I was sure of it. It was in my Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. In fact, it's the first rule:
  1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's
  Follow the rule whatever the final consonant.  Thus write,
  Charles's friend
  Burns's poem
  The witch's malice
  But young Katie kindly corrected me and read from the AP Stylebook that the general rule for forming possessives was to simply add an apostrophe at the end of a proper noun ending in s.
  So, AP says the answer is c).
  At first I thought this was a case of the changing nature of style and punctuation. Patricia T. O'Conner co-writes a blog called Grammarphobia and wrote Woe is I, one of my favorite books on what she calls "better English in plain English."
  In her blog she writes that language naturally evolves over time.
  "Generation after generation, we discard outdated vocabulary, pronunciations, even what have been considered "rules," because they no longer serve as aids to communication -- we no longer recognize the signals because they aren't useful anymore." (Grammarphobia Oct. 26, 2006).
 Some grammar rules I thought were hard and fast can be flexible and squishy.
 But this possessive singular thingy is a conundrum for me because many current grammar guides say the same thing as Strunk & White.  And I double checked my old AP Stylebook (copyright 1980) and discovered that even way back when, AP wanted us to put the apostrophe at the end of a singular possessive ending in s.
  It's not so much that grammar evolved and changed without me; it's a question of style. The AP Stylebook sort of made up its own rules over time.  And I'm not alone in my confusion over why some English teachers tell us one thing and the AP tells us another.
  In June, Danielle Moore wrote in the broadcast and public relations news blog News Generation:
  "I spent over 20 minutes reading articles that slammed the AP Stylebook for this ridiculous change." -- Three months ago, that sentence would have been incorrect and many PR professionals are wishing AP would leave American grammar alone.  The AP Stylebook recently ruled that more than and over may be used interchangeably to indicate numerical value. "More than my dead body," tweeted an outraged @MikeShor, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut.
 Hmm.  Maybe I'm not that old after all. I just have to straddle the old world of high school English and the new world of the AP Stylebook.
  Still, I wondered why this little but important rule had escaped me. I've had that old AP Stylebook on my desk for years. Sitting there. Collecting dust.
  I think it's because I write for the ear and not the eye. In broadcast news, we don't write captions for news photos:  our stories are photos.  Moving pictures. Video. Without video, we would be radio.
  This photojournalism class is all about writing for the eye and taking still photos to accompany that writing.  And writing captions, I'm learning, requires almost a different set of skills.
  Twitter has helped us with brevity and clarity by limiting us to 140 characters.  We joke in broadcasting that "I didn't have time to write it short."  It's not easy to tell a full story in 20 seconds on television or with a caption for a newspaper photo.
  But captions can tell a whole story.  In fact, they follow the AP Stylebook rules for grammar and punctuation and they typically answer the 5 W's and an H (who, what, where, when, why and how).
  I've rarely paid much attention to captions and perhaps that's a sign that they're mostly well done.  It's one more pleasant surprise of this class and another lesson that is enriching me as a journalist.
  But my eyes are open now.  To the different rules prescribed by the AP Stylebook.  To the importance of captions.  Even those that don't tell the whole story but have a style all their own, like this one that accompanied a Washington Post article on the troubled Ohio gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Ed FitzGerald.

I carry the First Amendment with me. Physically







The 22nd edition of the pocket version of the United States Constitution.  (photo: Diane Larson)



 
One Sunday in August, I was part of the audience at a National Press Club Event.  Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsberg were talking about the First Amendment. I wasn’t actually at the event when it happened. That was in April. In Washington.  I was in my car, driving home from Cleveland. The discussion was rebroadcast on radio.  And it was fascinating. 

You’d think as a journalist I would have an almost spiritual appreciation for the First Amendment. Like it’s in me on a molecular level.  Thing is, I rarely give it a second thought while doing my job every day. I happened upon that First Amendment radio discussion the day before I began this photojournalism class at Owens Community College.

  It felt like a timely refresher course. I knew we would study photojournalism law and ethics.  But I was rusty on the particulars. After all, the last time I really studied the First Amendment was in my journalism classes at Bowling Green State University last century!

  So I don’t think about the First Amendment all the time, but I carry it with me. Physically. It’s the pocket version of the United States Constitution, printed in July 2006 under the direction of the Joint Commission on Printing. I don't remember who gave it to me. It's worn and stained by coffee that spilled in an old purse. The purse is long gone. The Constitution is still with me. I suppose I could get this same information on Google on my cell phone now. But I like the way it feels; like the way a real book smells and feels. And I still get my newspaper stories on actual paper.

(photo: Diane Larson)

Anyway, I carry the Constitution with me, tucked in a side pocket of a new purse. When I got home after listening to the Scalia/Ginsberg radio talk, I pulled it out and turned to the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
  45 words. Seems like there should be more words, bigger words for such important freedoms.
  Most of us probably don’t think about those freedoms until they’re put to the test. Until they are hard to defend. Like in Toledo on October 15, 2005.
 I got a phone call that Saturday afternoon to come to work.  North Toledo was exploding in a riot. Tensions were high to begin with because Neo-Nazis were coming to town.  They had a right to be there. It was their First Amendment right. Barely a dozen members of the National Socialist Movement from Virginia were coming. Police were there to protect the group's right to peaceably assemble. Hundreds of counter-protesters were there too. As many feared, it quickly turned into violence with looting, fires and arrests. The Neo-Nazis didn't stick around long after that; clearly it wasn't a peaceable assembly anymore.
  Take the case for flag burning. In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that burning the American flag was protected free speech. Justice William Brennan, who wrote the majority opinion, said, in effect, you may not like it and you don't have to like it, but it's not illegal.
 "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable," Brennan said.
 The First Amendment spells out five basic freedoms:  freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and to petition the government.
  I'm grateful for those freedoms as a citizen and a journalist.
 This is a young country. Barely a toddler in terms of theory and belief. But the land upon which this more perfect union was formed is ancient. Like the 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian rock at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I went there last week. Hiked down three miles. Hiked back up 300 miles (at least it felt like that).
  Our freedoms are not as solid as that rock. They rely on wise interpreters on the Supreme Court. And a wise Congress to keep those freedoms intact. And a free press to keep them honest. Or at least try to.

Yavapai Point at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon  (photo: Diane Larson)

A new chapter begins in my journalism career



This photograph is provided by THE WHITE HOUSE as a courtesy and may be printed by the subject(s) in the photograph for personal use only.  

  And so I begin a new chapter.

  I'm taking Photojournalism 245 at Owens Community College.  We're required to post our assignments to our blogs. That is how this blog was born.    

  If you know me, then you know I've been a television journalist for more than 30 years in Toledo, Ohio.  Award-winning videographers take the pictures.  I write the words. 

  I've had a front row seat to many local and world events. I went to China in the 1980s to bring home the story of the Giant Pandas' visit to the Toledo Zoo. I reported from the Oscars' red carpet in the 1990s.  I even had the opportunity to interview President Obama at a Mansfield, Ohio deli when he was running for re-election in 2012.

  I've spent my career looking into the camera's lens. Now I'm focusing on the other side: I want to be a better photographer. So I'm turning to the experts, including my classmates, for guidance and knowledge. 

  Our instructor, Toledo Blade photojournalist Lori King (who boasts impressive journalism and teaching credentials), asked on the first day of class if anyone already had a blog. I forgot I created one for a trip I took to Israel in 2011 with the University of Toledo women's basketball team. (If you're interested, you can see the pictures here: http://dianelarson.wordpress.com/ )

  I was going to use that blog for class, but decided to start fresh with this one.    

  A new blog.  A new chapter.