Michael Ference's Photojournalism Blog
Updating you on current topics on Wayne State University. For photojournalism, journalism and beyond! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @mikeyference
Friday, May 1, 2015
When everything goes wrong, blame the Nain
For my final project I decided to do my photo story on the March of Le Nain Rouge. In my story I wanted to show what the march is and how it is important to the City of Detroit. Overall this final project was not easy. I did experience some bumps along the way but thats expected when learning how to do a photo story. The key to pull off this project is time management because without it you could be left with a lot of work to do with only a little amount of time.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
The story of a Russian, how he came to Michigan
Pawel Iwanow, age 94 |
What is the first think you think about when someone says portrait photography? What I think about are
wedding photos, city skylines, and school photo days back when I was in high
school.
I
decided to do my assignment on a WWII veteran I used to work with. He fought on
the Russian side under Stalin reign in the 1940s.
When
I got to his house the smell of cinnamon consumed my nose. I have never been to
his house before and while looking around all I could see were Old Russian
newspaper and mixed with medicine throughout the kitchen.
Before
I begin telling you my experience about this assignment I want to tell you
about the person in the photos.
Pawel,or Paul Iwanow, is not your typical grandparent. He came from a wealthy family
of professors and doctors, but when Stalin came in control he took their wealth
away. Despite having graduated from Moscow University with a degree in engineering and
fluent in six languages, he couldn’t
find a job because of Communist control. In 1941, at the age of 20,
Iwanow joined the Red Army. During the time he was at war he was hit twice in
the leg, saw a lot of his country men die, and heard news from his mother that
his father had been taking to the Gulag, which was a forced prison and labor
camp. Finally in 1950 he got his chance to leave the Soviet Union by sneaking
over to the American side in Germany. He used forged papers to get to the
United States. He applied for citizenship in 1955 and got it. He is
retired, from the Detroit Golf Club.
Iwanow next to the tree he planted in remembrance of his wife.Oksana Iwanow died in 2009 |
Friday, April 10, 2015
Wayne State Baseball takes on Grand Valley State Lakers
Grand Valley State Lakers catchers Dakota Prince (center) and John Mclaughin warm up on the field. |
Right handed picture, Alex Kinch(18, releases a curve ball to home plate. |
To be honest, this was my first time
taking photos for in sports. Before to the game, we talked about how to shoot for sports. We were told to bump
up the ISO and shutter speed to make sure we can get stopped action.
I am very happy with the photos
that I took. I like baseball so this was very fun for me. What i took away from this assignment is that not every picture is going to be a great shot. When you become use to going to sports events and knowing when they are going to make a big play, that's when you shoot.
I would like to do another sports assignment.
I would like to do another sports assignment.
Head coach Ryan Kelley (third from the left) and Assistant Coach John DiLaura (center) breaks down the game plan for today game. |
Labels:
Baseball,
photojournalism,
Sports
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Feature photos look easy, but are more trouble than they seem
Feature
photos are tough. That is what I took away from this assignment.
When
I left class the day that we were assigned to shoot feature photos
the first thing that came to mind was, “Lori gave a good description of how to
get this done. Circle the wagon and don’t settle on your first photo.”
We
had to pick two feature photos to do, one being on Wayne State's campus or at least having to do
with Wayne State, and the other was what we thought would be a good feature
photo off of campus.
For
my Wayne State feature I decided to go to the event called Paint with WSU Twist
at the Majestic Café.
Briana Collins, WSU junior, attends Painting with WSU Twist at the Majestic Cafe in Midtown Detroit. |
On
March 5, Wayne State University Student Activities, with the help of the
Majestic Café, hosted the event . This event was a part of WSU
Thursdays in the D, where students get the chance to discover their inner
artist and create their own works of art.
“These
activities are here to help students get to know each other, as well as
experience what the city of Detroit has to offer,” Said Briana Collins,a Junior
at WSU and president of Kappa Delta Sorority.
Yolanta Washington, manger at Good People Popcorn, peruser bags for the afternoon rush. |
For
my second picture I took my hunt to the city of Detroit. When walking I was
thinking about shooting in Greektown because
this section of downtown is always active, day or night.
As
I was walking though my hunger caught up to me. I decided to eat and as I was walked I saw this small little shop located on the corner
of Beaubien and Congress. When I walked in I saw Yolanta Washington.
She
is one of the mangers of Good People Popcorn, which has been open for 6 years
she said.
“I've been here since we opened in 2010,” said Washington. “Were getting pretty well
known now with Detroit finally coming back. I’m hoping we stay on this path.”
The
popcorn smelled fantastic, and I was amazed at how many flavors you could choose.
“Yeah
we have 19 flavors to choose from not like that Chicago-based-only-have-4-flavor
store!” said Washington.
That
store being Garrett Popcorn, which has twelve flavors.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
The First Amendment and why you should love it
For
aspiring journalism students, there is one Amendment
they should know, The First Amendment.
The First
Amendment is in the United States Constitution, and one of the 10 Bill of
Rights.
It reads:
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.
Now for myself, I came to the understanding that it is a lot more then just
putting simple captions to nice photos.
Journalists need to know when they have crossed the line when
dealing with other people.
We need to understand when we are invading someone else’s
privacy.
Another thing I learned is that journalists have to tell the
truth. They cannot print anything that is a lie. Doing so would be unethical
and should be cause for the loss of their job or worst, their credibility.
Labels:
The First Amendment,
WSUPJ
Friday, February 27, 2015
Oh captions, my captions.
What
I learned form out caption assignment is it’s a two-part process. What I mean
by is that taking the photos is step one and writing the caption is step two.
It’s just like photojournalism, where the journalism is the caption writing,
just like they said in the Storify.
Here
are some of the important tips that I learned from Storify about captions;
every photos need a caption and the reason being how else are we going to know
who is in the picture. If it’s a headshot then we need a name. The first sentence
of a caption should be written in the past tense. The second sentence adds the
additional information and is also written in the past tense. A captions number
one objective is to tell who is in the photo and what’s going on.
Captions are must for photos. When people look at a newspaper, online
article, or blog they look for what the picture has to offer. Keep in mind that
captions don’t need to tell the whole story, just the five W’s and the How. The
more simplified the captions is the better it sounds. If you follow the steps
given, take your time and keep your captions simple, you should be fine.
Labels:
5 W's and How,
Captions
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