Today was one of our longest days of the trip. During this long day we went to USA Today out in McLean, Virginia then back to DC for AARP then to the Associated Press then to a panel of photographers from different publications and freelancing.
We started at USA Today where we were scheduled to meet with Andrew Scott, the Deputy Director of Multimedia for the paper. When we got there we were greeted by not just Andrew, but a large group of employees including staff photographers Darr Beiser and Jack Gruber and photo editor Jym Wilson. The group gave us a bunch of advice mostly focused on story telling. One main theme that they all suggested was that we learn to write. By learning to write a story, we will understand what we need to shoot to tell the story visually. Another major theme was to make sure you are self assigning projects. Do personal work that will make you happy, but will also help you grow as a photographer and build a better portfolio.
Next we went over to AARP to meet with Photo Editors Michael Wichita and Lindsey Leger. Michael started off by explaining how the photo department at AARP worked. He runs the two publications, the bulletin and the magazine, with almost entirely freelance work. Michael finds freelancers by figuring out what story he is working on, then looks for a photographer that is working on a story similar or has interests in the topic that he is publishing. He then uses his funds to hire them as a freelancer to try and help fund their work on the project. Michael also explained AARP's new uses of social media. He recently has started using Instagram to publish photo stories.
After AARP we went over to the Associated Press to meet with assistant chief of the bureau of photos, David Ake, and staff photographers Evan Vucci and Jacquelyn Martin. David gave us a list of things that are vital to becoming a successful photographer. The first thing on the list was longevity. He estimated that it takes at least five years to make it as a photographer and many photographers won't stick around that long. The next thing was don't be a jerk. The photography industry is incredibly small so if you are a jerk people will hear about it and no one wants to work with a jerk. The next tip was to keep in touch. Make contacts and keep in touch with them. One email a month to people is enough to keep them in the loop and remind them that you are around, so they will keep you in mind for possible work recommendations. Lastly, he told us to always have our gear on us. Always have it with you so that you can always be shooting and really perfecting the technical aspects of photography so that you don't have to worry about them in the long run. Evan and Jacquelyn then gave us some tips. They stressed how important doing personal work was to not only improve your craft but really to keep you sane and interested in photography at times when work seems to be getting monotonous.
After AP we met with a number of different photographers from different backgrounds. First Jim Lo Scalzo of the European Photo Agency spoke. Jim's biggest point was to always be working on stories and pitching stories to editors. Stories are the most important thing in your career. Not only are stories what you will look back on and be proud of, but being a good story teller will help to get photography and visual story telling to be more respected by other members in the news industry. After Jim spoke, Mary Calvert, a freelancer out of DC, took the floor to speak to us. Mary told us how she comes up with ideas for stories, something that many of us, especially me, struggle with. She said that reading the newspaper should spark a dozen ideas just in the first section. Another place that she suggested for story inspiration was listening to NPR. Any source of news reporting should help to bring up a large number of ideas for stories. After Mary, Jahi Chikwendiu, staff photographer at the Washington Post, spoke. Jahi showed us his award winning portfolio and described his career path. He told us that no matter what we do, make sure to put 100 percent passion into it. Without putting all of your heart into what you do, you will not live up to your potential. After Jahi, Lucian Perkins, a freelancer in the Wahington DC area, spoke. He showed us the project he is working on about Joseph's House, a house that is a sort of hospice for people with HIV. Lucian talked about how he shot everything from the story, 7 terabytes of video, without watching it. He said that now that he is going through he's realizing how much more he would have learned and improved had he watched it sooner so that he wasn't making the same mistakes the whole time. After Lucian, Spencer Millsap, a National Geographic multimedia editor, spoke to us. Spencer described how the internet and tablets are changing how Nat Geo is setting up their website. They are trying to make it much more interactive with a lot more multimedia. Spencer also showed a some of his work and what it's like to work at Nat Geo with some of the biggest names in the industry.
Overall the main takeaways from today are that personal work is the most important thing a photographer can do, and like the previous two days, always be networking.
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