http://web.missouri.edu/~irck9/picstory/sharon_quinn/

The trip started Friday afternoon, with a 6 hour bus ride to Omaha, Nebraska.

Penny Kome opens her bag for a bag check by a chaperone.

On the trip to the Harrisonville competition, I went on the second bus.  This time, I rode on the first bus.  Here are some sights from the trip.  A lot of sights actually.

Shelby Ringdahl and Caroline Sovich watch "Glee" episodes on the bus to Omaha.

"Force field!"

A quiet moment.

Charlie Davis jokes around with Annie Stella on the bus to Omaha.

Hannah Overfelt peeks out from her teepee between seats.

Kyle Sherman found an interesting spot to lay out.

Jordan Rippeto naps on the bus. People looked for sleep however they could get it.

Jackie Montano and her mother, Kristine Montano, share a piece of cheesecake at Hu Hot Mongolian Grill in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Kate Hrdina and Shelby Ringdahl look over recipe cards.

After dinner, some guys went to a store and picked up Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and Nerf guns.  The latter proved very entertaining, as you’ll see later.

Stephen Welsh takes on Annie Stella.

The Viking Cup Invitational consisted of two parts.  On Friday night, there was a chamber choir competition. I learned that everyone in the show choirs must be part of either the chamber, concert, or women’s choirs.  However, not everyone in those choirs is in a show choir.  This was news to me.  Anyways, the chamber choir placed first.  It was a good start to the weekend.

Catherine Sandstedt accompanied the chamber choir on viola. The chamber chior competed on Friday night, and won first place.

This is the only “performance” photo I decided to use this time around.  I really wanted to show life off stage, focusing on the personalities that make up these choirs.

Molly Totten holds on to flowers for some friends as they accepted the chamber choir awards.

On Saturday, both show choirs competed.

The most important meal of the day. Or the most colorful, at least.

Satin n Lace went first, in the morning.

Tim Robertson and Ben Williams unload a Satin n Lace set piece.

There are many ways to open a bag of wafers. This is the tech crew way. Justin "Pockets" Cole uses a pocket knife to get to the wafers.

Allie Blaylock and Hannah Overfelt carried one of the z-racks down the stairs after finding it would not fit in the elevators.

Kristen Thackery scuffs the bottom of Stephanie Neves' dance shoes. The girls added duct tape after learning the stage and risers at Omaha North High School were very slippery.

Members of Satin n Lace watch their perfomance in the common area at Omaha North High School.

Kahley Amiot and Courtney Cooksey fill in a coloring book after Satin n Lace's performance.

Despite a strong performance, Satin n Lace placed second in their division.  They lost by just 2.75 points.  City Lights wasn’t scheduled to perform until late afternoon, so high schoolers being high schoolers, they found ways to keep themselves busy… besides prepping.

Mike Pierson speaks to Alex Majors, Molly Totten, while Jackie Montano and Shleby Ringdahl enjoy a piece of cookie cake.

"Pull!"

Boys will be boys.

Brandon McGonigly plays guitar during a break between perfomances.

Finally, City Lights was up.

Kahley Amiot and Bethy Ahlersmeyer watch as City Lights warms up before their first performance. The ladies assisted with costume changes.

After missing the group prayer, Jessie Iveson prays with Molly Totten, Kate Hrdina and Stephen Welsh. Despite a variety of denominations, the members of City Lights pump themselves up by praying before performances.

Karen Hardeman helps Nathan Cotner with a costume change before he runs back on stage.

City Lights put on a great show and moved into the finals, competing against five other groups.

Kyle Sherman, Annie Barksdale, and members of the Rock Bridge show choirs await to hear City Lights' placement at the final award ceremony. They won Grand Champion.

Rock Bridge City Lights and Satin n Lace

Ellen Tucker wondered if the trophy was metal or plastic. It was metal.

Caroline Sovich looks into the Viking Cup after being told it cast a golden glow on her face.

Kate Hrdina, Allie Blaylock, Shelby Ringdahl, Alex Majors, and Molly Totten surround Mike Pierson as he looks at judges' reports.

Another discovery about the trophy: the cup wasn’t actually attached to the base…

To quote Shelby: "I could put my head in here!" Caroline finds her heads fits in there too.

As I said, that judge praised the photographer as reporter.  He was also aware that the photographer must be able to create good visuals.  He felt that the Getty Images story on joblessness had great reporting, but weaker visuals.  In his mind, the two should have been closer in quality.  This was also an issue with the mountaintop removal story.  He wondered if the excellent reporting excused the weaker visuals.  He felt it was a story done by a really good editor, not a photographer, and it lacked emotion since it felt very “by-the-books.”  Another judge disagreed though.  This judge felt that one of the blessings about multimedia is the ability to do things differently, and liked the use of video diptychs in the Getty piece.  However, another judge felt they were very reminiscent of broadcast news and did not like them.

One judge wanted to lose both coal stories and the Getty joblessness story.  This judge felt that we, as viewers, should not feel the same way at the end of the story as at the beginning.  I am inclined to agree.  I want a sense of change, for better or worse.  For me, the mountaintop story was informative but far too long.  I also did not feel a sense of change in those stories. The Getty piece was a one-day story, so I am willing to cut it some slacks.  However, the other pieces clearly had time.  I simply did not feel a connection to the stories or a change in how I felt at the beginning and at the end.  It was kind of like reading Anna Karenina.  I just read 800 pages for a suicide?

One judge brought up the issue of music in multimedia.  The judges felt that it was not overbearing in most of the pieces except for Lauren Greenfield’s Foreclosure.  They felt that the driving music did not fit with what the subjects were saying or the visuals.  Music was a very important part of that story, but there was a disconnect between the emotion and the content.

In awarding “A boy’s struggles” first place, the judge praised its ability to show this molested boy’s ordeal with a sense of hope, all while never showing the boy’s face.  In this case, the boy was very articulate and the photographer seemed to have a great respect for the subject.  “His body a prison” and “Motel Manor” won second and third, respectively.  One judge wanted to honor “Mining the Mountains,” the mountaintop removal story.  Other judges wondered if there should be an award of excellence, for the sake of there being one.  The other judges seemed reluctant to honor it, but eventually did so.  I do not agree with this decision.  Those were the three strongest stories.  This is the Pictures of the Year competition, which means visuals are very important.  While it had excellent reporting, the visuals in “Mining the Mountains” were not on par with the other winners, in my mind.

I had never watched the competition through a webcast, but I’m glad I did.  There was some interesting discussion at times.  One person asked, “war war why?”  It made me glad, then, to see that the top three finishers were not necessarily about war itself.   Second place went to “For Better or Worse,” about a elderly couple struggling with health care.  While some of the judges wondered how issue-worthy this project was, Donna Decesare argued that we should “fight for beauty” in the world.  She herself was tired of looking at war, death, and destruction.  I can see how the media’s tendency to focus on those issues creates the impression that there is little good in the world.  This story reminds us that we don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to find important and touching stories.  This story takes place in a small town with simple characters, yet reminds us of the power of genuine love.  It works well in stark contrast to “Love Me.”  Only one of those stories shows true love.  Despite all the efforts to make people love them, we are left doubting that the subjects of “Love Me” will ever find the simple love of “For Better or Worse.”  The first story highlights conditional love.  The second one praises unconditional love.

I can’t get into the Moldova story, “Moldova – The Outsiders.”   One judge felt that each image was a small story in itself, and another thought it was good at giving an overview without losing the subjects.  I disagree.  I found the photos disconnected, and frankly, uninteresting.  They don’t call out to me like the others.  It does seem to accurately reflect the chaos of the current climate, but I just don’t feel it was that strong a series.

There first five photos are the ones I submitted for picture story, in this order.  More photos after the break.

Rachel Craig, left, and Kelsie Henry, center, apply make-up on the bus to the Harrisonville Invitational. Both are members of Rock Bridge’s all-girls show choir, Satin ‘n Lace. Since the group was performing early in the morning, the girls were expected to already have their hair done before boarding the bus and apply make-up on the way there.

Kahley Amiot waits as her mother applies hairspray before Satin ‘n Lace’s first performance at the Harrisonville Invitational. The choir eventually placed third overall, up from fifth place last year. They also won awards for best costumes and best closing number.

Members of City Lights, the coed show choir at Rock Bridge, performs Styx’s “Renegade” at the Harrisonville Invitational. The choir placed second overall, and won awards for best opening, best ballad, best vocals, best choreography, and best show design.

Jordan Rippeto, Caroline Sovich, Shelby Ringdahl, Molly Totten, and Brian Dresner (l-r) react after City Lights won an award for best direction under Mike Pierson.

Joel Johnstone rests before City Lights’ performance at the Harrisonville Invitational. The choirs left Columbia at 6:30 am and returned at 2 am the next day.

As I mentioned previously, I feel that my photos were different this time.  I feel that my photos were much brighter, in terms of the light and the colors.  I think I may have shot at a lower shutter speed than I should have.  I need to stop being afraid of higher shutter speeds.  I was also shooting ay higher ISOs than I’ve used on a D300, so I might have been scared that I would get too grainy a photo.  But the D700 has excellent high ISO handling.  Perhaps I need a little more faith in the equipment, even when it isn’t mine.  In the different department, I thought the depth of field was very shallow this time.  I think it made some photos almost dream-like.

Many thanks to Ivy Ashe and Rita Reed for helping me edit the series.  I mentioned to Rita that I seemed to be a very horizontal shooter.  Maybe I don’t see the world vertically.  She replied that in the olden days, verticals were very useful for newspaper layouts.  Yet with the internet, she said it wasn’t such a big deal.  I’ve grown up in a horizontal world.  Seeing horizontal computer screens, a horizontal view in the camera’s viewfinder.  My car’s windshield is horizontal.  I really can’t think of anything in my life besides my bedroom window that is vertical.  I wonder if other photographers have noticed this change.  I also took a much more “behind the scenes” approach to this assignment, hence fewer performance photos.  Anyways, some more sights from the day.

Annie Barksdale checks on her curlers.

Kelsie Henry applies make-up on the bus to Harrisonville, MO.

Satin 'n Lace warms up for their performance at the Harrisonville Invitational.

A Satin n' Lace member lays out her costumes for a quick change.

Bobby pins to the rescue!

Judge Phillip Hoover-Holthus talks with City Lights after their performance. They were the last group to perform. Hoover-Holthus praised their "good audeince connection" and noted that it was the "first time today I've heard some men singing, instead of boys."

Her section on plot had some other good pointers.  She writes, “characters should not… serve as pawns for some plot you’ve dreamed up.”  Let’s admit it.  Upon receiving an assignment, most photographers begin wondering, if not planning, what photos to get.  In some cases, preparation helps, such as with remote sets or something we’ve never shot before.  However, some photographers start planning out the story before they arrive, and are inflexible when faced with a situation that differs from their pre-conceived notion of the story.  Yes, it helps to have some ideas going in, but be flexible if a new story presents itself while there.

Lamott also suggests finding out “what each character care most about in the world because then you will have discovered what’s at stake.”  I think this holds true for our subjects.  By discovering what matters to them, why they are doing something, it in turn gives us something to focus on.  We get a better idea of who the person is and what drives her.  The more we know about the subject, the more accurately we can present her, her beliefs, and her actions.  We do this getting to know the person.  Sometimes this means putting aside our ideas.  Sometimes they match, sometimes they don’t.  Either way, we owe it to the subject to learn what motivates our subjects.

Reading through Langston’s history was at times like a summary of two of my major papers in the past fews years.  The first one was about the effects of Vietnam War photography on popular support for the war and the military.  (I wrote this one at W&M.)  The second was about Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima photo and the connotations it carried and still carries.  Anyways, Chapnick’s article provided a nice example of how photography has become more complex over time, growing from single photos to the photographic essay.  (If a pictures is worth a thousand words, couldn’t I have just turned in 2 or 3 photos for my final papers?)  Granted, some of the photos in these essays can stand on their own,  Others require viewers to have a prior understanding about something (a sculpture, a reference, etc), as is also the case with satire and irony.  I’m just hoping I can tell my one-day story well.

I feel that last semester was the first time I really heard people advise me to pick projects I was interested in, if not passionate about.  The first year was very much about the basics, which makes sense.  I guess they figure that we are not yet sure what we are passionate about, though it would’ve been nice to begin hearing that advice then.  Anyways, I agree with Hurn that “a unique style… is the by-product of visual exploration, not its goal.”  I’m finding that I do my best work when I’m inside and moving around.  It’s hard to explain, but I feel I get a better representation of the event or people when I’m free to move amongst them.  This opportunity doesn’t seem to present itself often in sports, so I feel I don’t have many, if any, intimate photos from sports.  I actually haven’t shot many sports since coming to Mizzou, while it was the main thing I shot my last two years at W&M.  I guess I just like that intimate style, and seek out situations that lend themselves to it.

For me, the main gist of Lamott’s reading is that we should never delete photos.  Even though a photo might seem pointless or simply bad, it might be useful down the road.  It might help provide the missing piece in a current project or provide inspiration for the next one.  Lamott’s writing about the school lunches was like Jay and Hurn’s list.  You have to start somewhere.  Then as you continue searching and editing, the ideas come.  Then you need to see them to fruition.