Finally a topic

At the newspaper I work at the last week of February, we print five special sections called FOCUS. We focus on different county topics like Citizen of the year, arts and education, business, medical, technology and the special photographers section.

The photographers section started two years ago. We were asked by our former editor to divide the county between the four photographers. Each photographer received a couple of cities, villages, and townships and it was our job to focus on them. We each went to our cities and took photos of we thought was for lack of a better terms, neat or cool. After we finished taking all of the pictures, they were edited and laid out in the section. Along with our photos, important people from each of these cities, villages and townships wrote about why they like their city and so on. The section was a success, according to our old editor. People really liked the photos of their towns.

Last year, we, the photographers were asked to do the photo section again but it had to be a different topic then the year before. One photographer choose music, another photographed children and my topic was decaying structures and objects around the Adrian area. I photographed cars a junk yard, abandoned apartments, old office buildings, factories, an old hotel, a school not in use and a train engine waiting to be scrapped. I loved every minute of this assignment. I would actually look forward to going out to shoot with my camera. It took me over a month to get everything that I needed, but it was worth it. When the section was published, I personally thought it was better then our first year. The subject matter was of our own choosing and that made it special to each of us.

This year has been a bit different. We were told that we are putting together another photographers section. The details were the same as last year, shoot whatever you want, but the subject matter had to be different. That was difficult, because everything that I love (i.e. cemetery statues, ballet, decaying), I have already shot for the paper. That frustrated me. I was thinking about what to shoot for two weeks. After talking with my husband, I thought I decided on buildings. While downloading photos after a game last week, I was telling my photographer co-worker my idea. When I told him, he started bringing up better topics then mine. When I left work that evening, my original idea was gone and I had a new one: a day in the life of whatever job I want to photograph. Later that evening I received an email from my co-worker, he suggested a new topic: the church I attend.

The next day at work, I was reading stories by the sports department on my computer. I ended up reading a brief about a local gymnastics club in town that competed in an invitational recently. While reading the brief I knew that this gymnastics club was my new topic. I was so excited. I was excited because I knew that most of my worries were over. I could stop thinking about it and finally start shooting. When I was leaving work later that morning I received a cell phone call from my co-worker. I asked him what he thought of my new topic: gymnastics. He liked it. He said that the owners of the gymnastics club would be willing to let me follow them around and photograph practice.

Before driving to a volleyball game yesterday, I stopped at the gym to talk to the owners. I walked in, introduced myself and told him what I wanted to do. He was very nice and said I could come back in January when the winter schedule starts and take photos. Also, he already gave me directions to one of their invitationals just over the border in Ohio for the last weekend of January.

I can't wait to get working on this assignment.