DC Trip: Day 2

Today we spent the day going to the United States Peace Institute, NPR, and then meeting with Michael Temchine, DC located freelancer. 

We started at the United States Peace institute where we met with photo archivist, Carol McKay, Digital Media Assistant, Steven Ruder, and Staff Photographer Bill Fitzpatrick. The Peace Institute works around the world trying to run conflict resolution programs in conflict areas. The Institute is currently trying to create an archive of all of their photographs since their creation in the 80s. This being done by Carol who is scanning all of the old negatives and prints to create a comprehensive visual history of the Peace Institute. Along with explaining her role at the Institute, Carol also described her long and successful career path that took her through newspapers, magazines, and several other jobs in the industry. After Carol, Steven gave us some tips at making ourselves more marketable in the current economy. He told us that being a jack of all trades is almost a must in the journalism industry these days. The more skills you have the easier it will be for you to find a job. Bill then gave us a some words of wisdom, mostly to make sure to wait for the perfect moment. He explained that your average get the picture and leave mentality won't work. You will need to be patient and wait for the perfect moment to get the best shots. 

After the Peace Institute we went over to NPR to meet with Picture and Multimedia editor Coburn Dukehart. NPR is known mainly for their radio, as they should be, but Coburn was given the job there six years ago to give NPR a visual presence. In that time Coburn has done a great job of putting together a team that can visually construct stories just as well as their radio counterparts. After a brief description of NPR and what she has done since being there Coburn discussed with us all of NPR's different internships, staff positions, and freelance work. The company has a number of internships. NPR frequently hire their interns if a job is available, and if not will often look to former interns for freelance work as much as they can. NPR tries to create a real community among their employees. Because of this they like to keep in touch with former NPR employees and interns and help them with their careers either at NPR or elsewhere. After talking with Coburn we went on a tour of NPR viewing two of their studios, their news floor, and several other places around the building. We then got to go see a Tiny Desk Concert featuring Dessa. After the concert we talked with multimedia producer, Kainaz Anaria. Kainaz discussed her experience with the Planet Money t-shirt campaign that she traveled across the globe to produce. She also gave us a few career pointers. Her biggest suggestion was to really develop your visual literacy so that you can talk about your work intelligently.

After NPR we went to lunch with freelancer Michael Temchine. Michael described his career as a freelancer. He explained that you can't ever put yourself above shooting something, such as weddings, because it is always a source of income and a chance to improve your craft. Michael also explained the pressure of freelancing, or working in any journalism career, due to the fact that you have to get it right on the first try cause there might not be a second. He also explained the importance of juggling your personal life and your professional life. He explained that you have to weigh the importance of an event, he used a first date as an example, compared to the importance of the job that you are offered that would force you to cancel your date. 

At the end of the day it was another good one with lots of good information. The common themes for the first two days so far have been to network all the time and write good captions.