Holy crap things are, and have been, looking great for me! This week especially. Lots to tell so let me get started with my recent trip up north to Sacramento to cover the March In March story for the school newspaper.
We left Pierce College on Sunday, March 3rd at 10pm (2200 for you running on the 24hr clock) on a chartered bus to Sacramento. Other than myself, there were two other staff members from The Roundup that was covering this story. We hitched a ride with the SOS/ASO school group that chartered the bus and the estimated time of arrival was to be around 4-5am. On the way to Sacramento, I had tried to get some sleep so that I would have the energy to cover the event but I wasn't able to because there was this annoying window rattle that just kept me up. At best, I was able to get maybe an hour's worth until I just gave up. So around 2:30am, I tried to catch a city distance marker to gauge where in the world we were at. It was pretty much pitch black but I was able to see one briefly and considering the time in which I was trying to see where we were, I figured we were probably still a hundred some odd miles away from our destination but to my surprise I see the sign "Sacramento 37 miles". What the hell?! Did the bus driver happen upon a wormhole on the way up that was able to get us from Woodland Hills to Sacramento? I can't even get to San Francisco in that time frame in a car! 5 1/2 hours is a pretty impressive time. Sure, there was little to no traffic on the way up because it was a late Sunday evening but still. That driver had to be doing a constant 80mph to get that time!
So, we were in Sacramento, 2 hours early and nothing to do but wait until the planned start time for the march which was to happen at 10am. Nothing was open and most of our group ended up sleeping on the bus to catch what little sleep they had while us Roundup reporters just walked around to scope out the area and kill time until the Starbucks across the street to open so we could charge our phones and tablets. After sunrise, the three of us decided to head to the capitol building and scope out the area just before we had to meet up with the rest of the Pierce College group and the start of the march. There isn't much to say about Sacramento really. It's ok and it is some place that I found a little interesting to where I'd like to stay a weekend there to see what life is like just once but that's it. The city, for the most part, was pretty clean. The capitol building, much smaller and less grand than what I've seen and come to expect given the video footage and photos of the building.
After our little scouting mission, we walk back to the bus, met with our group, and headed off to the starting point of the march. To be honest, I didn't really expect to see a lot of people. I knew coming in that there were going to be students from other schools participating in the march but maybe a thousand or so people. Upon arrival, we're greeting with an ocean of people and the estimated number in attendance at one point ranged around 3500-5000 people! I've shot protests and marches before with a lot more people so this isn't anything new but I assumed that because this march took place in Sacramento, that not many students/schools would attend but I was quite thrilled that the turnout was so great.
Given that I am a photographer for the school newspaper, the main story was our students attending the event and as such, my photos should mainly be them. Overall shots are important so before the start of the march, I told the other Roundup staff that I was going to go ahead and catch a couple of overall photos as the march started and that I would meet up with them when I saw them as the group passed me by. Well, things didn't go as I had planned. I was at the "starting gate" so to speak and I was able to get some great shots as the march started but I was unable to find my group. In a panic, I started to rush to the head of the march to try and find them but to no avail. All the while I was getting shots the protestors trying to find my group. So I did this back and forth running type deal trying to find my group, snapping some shots as I'm doing so, and pretty much got lost in the moment and just kept shooting away with the hope that I'd find my group at the finish line. So the Pierce centric photos I was supposed to focus on? I was only able to get a few frames. Other than that, I got some pretty impressive photos of the everything else lol.
The march ended around noon at the steps of the state capitol and we left Sacramento around 3pm. God we were SO tired. After getting on the bus and picking out my seat, I just knocked out and went to sleep. Best sleep I've had as of late. The ride home was much longer given traffic but after arriving back onto the college campus, I was glad to be back. We as a reporting group did a fantastic job covering the story and I was glad to be a part of it. The next day (Tuesday by now), I headed back to the campus to work on the photo captions and dump the photos on to the sever. I was still pretty tired and worn out so after working on them, I had nothing to do that day and went home to sleep.
Wednesday comes around and the new issue of the school paper is released and I was SUPER thrilled to see that the photos I took of the march in Sacramento made it to the front page! It is only the second issue to come out this semester but seeing one of my images make the front page?! Such an awesome feeling. Another one of my images made it onto page 3 as well, another one from the march, so that's pretty awesome as well. It was one of the best issues we had. Not because my photo made the front page, but while I was away in Sacramento, a disturbance occurred on campus involving sheriff deputies and one of our editors was able to get an AWESOME photo of it that also made the front page. We had received news of it while we were in Sacramento and I saw the photo via the newspaper's instagram account and thought it was a shot to die for. I would've loved to have captured that photo. Seeing that front page spread made me proud.
Also, I received my Roundup press/media badge which I waited so long to get. I can't really describe it but seeing and being in possession of a press/media badge...things are coming together!
We left Pierce College on Sunday, March 3rd at 10pm (2200 for you running on the 24hr clock) on a chartered bus to Sacramento. Other than myself, there were two other staff members from The Roundup that was covering this story. We hitched a ride with the SOS/ASO school group that chartered the bus and the estimated time of arrival was to be around 4-5am. On the way to Sacramento, I had tried to get some sleep so that I would have the energy to cover the event but I wasn't able to because there was this annoying window rattle that just kept me up. At best, I was able to get maybe an hour's worth until I just gave up. So around 2:30am, I tried to catch a city distance marker to gauge where in the world we were at. It was pretty much pitch black but I was able to see one briefly and considering the time in which I was trying to see where we were, I figured we were probably still a hundred some odd miles away from our destination but to my surprise I see the sign "Sacramento 37 miles". What the hell?! Did the bus driver happen upon a wormhole on the way up that was able to get us from Woodland Hills to Sacramento? I can't even get to San Francisco in that time frame in a car! 5 1/2 hours is a pretty impressive time. Sure, there was little to no traffic on the way up because it was a late Sunday evening but still. That driver had to be doing a constant 80mph to get that time!
So, we were in Sacramento, 2 hours early and nothing to do but wait until the planned start time for the march which was to happen at 10am. Nothing was open and most of our group ended up sleeping on the bus to catch what little sleep they had while us Roundup reporters just walked around to scope out the area and kill time until the Starbucks across the street to open so we could charge our phones and tablets. After sunrise, the three of us decided to head to the capitol building and scope out the area just before we had to meet up with the rest of the Pierce College group and the start of the march. There isn't much to say about Sacramento really. It's ok and it is some place that I found a little interesting to where I'd like to stay a weekend there to see what life is like just once but that's it. The city, for the most part, was pretty clean. The capitol building, much smaller and less grand than what I've seen and come to expect given the video footage and photos of the building.
After our little scouting mission, we walk back to the bus, met with our group, and headed off to the starting point of the march. To be honest, I didn't really expect to see a lot of people. I knew coming in that there were going to be students from other schools participating in the march but maybe a thousand or so people. Upon arrival, we're greeting with an ocean of people and the estimated number in attendance at one point ranged around 3500-5000 people! I've shot protests and marches before with a lot more people so this isn't anything new but I assumed that because this march took place in Sacramento, that not many students/schools would attend but I was quite thrilled that the turnout was so great.
Given that I am a photographer for the school newspaper, the main story was our students attending the event and as such, my photos should mainly be them. Overall shots are important so before the start of the march, I told the other Roundup staff that I was going to go ahead and catch a couple of overall photos as the march started and that I would meet up with them when I saw them as the group passed me by. Well, things didn't go as I had planned. I was at the "starting gate" so to speak and I was able to get some great shots as the march started but I was unable to find my group. In a panic, I started to rush to the head of the march to try and find them but to no avail. All the while I was getting shots the protestors trying to find my group. So I did this back and forth running type deal trying to find my group, snapping some shots as I'm doing so, and pretty much got lost in the moment and just kept shooting away with the hope that I'd find my group at the finish line. So the Pierce centric photos I was supposed to focus on? I was only able to get a few frames. Other than that, I got some pretty impressive photos of the everything else lol.
The march ended around noon at the steps of the state capitol and we left Sacramento around 3pm. God we were SO tired. After getting on the bus and picking out my seat, I just knocked out and went to sleep. Best sleep I've had as of late. The ride home was much longer given traffic but after arriving back onto the college campus, I was glad to be back. We as a reporting group did a fantastic job covering the story and I was glad to be a part of it. The next day (Tuesday by now), I headed back to the campus to work on the photo captions and dump the photos on to the sever. I was still pretty tired and worn out so after working on them, I had nothing to do that day and went home to sleep.
Wednesday comes around and the new issue of the school paper is released and I was SUPER thrilled to see that the photos I took of the march in Sacramento made it to the front page! It is only the second issue to come out this semester but seeing one of my images make the front page?! Such an awesome feeling. Another one of my images made it onto page 3 as well, another one from the march, so that's pretty awesome as well. It was one of the best issues we had. Not because my photo made the front page, but while I was away in Sacramento, a disturbance occurred on campus involving sheriff deputies and one of our editors was able to get an AWESOME photo of it that also made the front page. We had received news of it while we were in Sacramento and I saw the photo via the newspaper's instagram account and thought it was a shot to die for. I would've loved to have captured that photo. Seeing that front page spread made me proud.
Also, I received my Roundup press/media badge which I waited so long to get. I can't really describe it but seeing and being in possession of a press/media badge...things are coming together!
Handsome eh? :)
OH! If you'd like to see the current Roundup issue (Vol. 118 #2) head on over to this link!