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)