The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Well the time has finally come for me to formally apply to the UM School of Journalism. My application has been submitted and hopefully I will receive the much awaited decision around the end of March. I feel pretty confident but you just never know about these things.

I have been a fan of CBS's Steve Hartman for awhile now and love his unique style of reporting. Being it is the winter sports season, I thought I'd share the story of Wil and his passion for skiing. Enjoy and I'll share more of Hartman's gems from time to time.

Peace...Mark

Depth of field

Here are a few of my shots from an assignment dealing with depth of field. Depth of field is a term that deals with how much of a picture is in sharp focus. I took the pool ball shot with a wide aperture and this gave me a shallow depth of field. The shallow depth of field brings the 5 ball into focus but blurs most of the remaining picture out. This shot worked out pretty well for my basic level of skill.

The other two photos were taken with a very narrow aperture and this brought the entire image into sharp focus. I've really enjoyed learning the basics during this class and it is a great pastime for me to pursue. There will be many more photos upcoming here and this spring I hope to travel a bit and shoot the beautiful scenery of western Montana.

Peace...Mark

Portrait pics

I'm really getting into my photojournalism class and last week we worked on depth of field. It was fun to experiment with a few different types of shots and I felt things went well. The photos need to still be converted to jpeg but I'll put them up here on Sunday.

The above shots were taken by my classmate Micheal and I felt he did a great job. I really like the tighter shots he took and hey I didn't even break his camera :)

Things will get crazy this week as we head out into the field for a major portrait project. It's been a blast so far and I've learned so much already about the intricacies of photography. Can't wait to see where I can take my new knowledge.

Peace...Mark.

disAbled in the media

When I began my pursuit of a journalism degree, I wondered how many others with disabilities had taken a similar path. Yes there are examples like my friend Scott in Florida who graduated from St. John's and there are high profile examples in people like John Hockenberry. Beyond the few examples I can cite here, I wonder why there aren't more of us in this field.

Now I'm not naive to think there aren't reasons for this. Yes it's a challenging endeavour and there are more times than not when you have to flat out work your ass off. The feeling I get though from working on a story makes up for the effort expended. It may also be there is little money in the bulk of journalism. Yes there is money in the upper echelon careers but very few of us will become the next Katie Couric or Brian Williams. Being happy in a profession is more important to me than raking in the dough.

These reasons are valid but I'm hoping I can inspire others with disabilities to take the plunge and I'd be satisfied if it's even just one. The video above should be all the proof needed to show that it can be done. We as a community need to take an active role in the world around us and perhaps even to be the storytellers of important events. I'd like to wish the good folks in Chicago well as they work to inform their community. Just think of the potential if more of us got involved all around the country. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Peace...Mark

First photos

I had my first shoot last week and here are my best photos. Not bad for my first attempt but there is much to improve on.

This project called for us to be paired with a classmate and to take pictures of each other. My partner was Michael, a foreign exchange student from Australia. It was a good experience and a fun beginning project.

Peace...Mark

Super Saints

It's a sad day today as the realization sets in that there will be no football until next fall. I must say though that the Superbowl was a fitting way to end the season.. Congrats to the Saints on their Superbowl victory and on being an inspiration to your city. Job well done.

Here's a few of my favorite commercials from yesterday. Enjoy!

Beautiful boy

Boy this week flew by and I'm spending my day off getting some notes transcribed. School is going well and tomorrow I have my first photo shoot. My photojournalism class has made me a bit dizzy but this should get better as I practice more. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up here next week.

We are a proud household this week as our Sammy won the Forever Pugged Beautiful Black & Fancy Fawn contest. He's quite the funny little man and is such a charmer. Congrats to Molly as well :) Such a cute squishy face she has.

Well it's back to work for me but I'll be back this weekend with another post.

Peace...Mark