Photo Story - "A day in the life of Dan"

Dan Swanson (red shirt) and Jerry Newsome (blue flannel) run a hay business going on 20 years.  Dan and Jerry have been friends for over 20 years and quickly fell in love with the hay industry from year 1. Both men love the equipment and say doing hay "keeps them young at heart."

In the Spring (May), Dan (left) and Jerry (right) get out all of the equipment and tractors to check them over, making sure they are ready for use. Dan says, "sometimes it's a boat you just keep dropping money into." As well as checking their equipment, they also cut the edges of the fields and fertilize so there's no weeds.

The whole month of June, Dan and Jerry are in the hay fields. An average day  lasts about 10-12 hours. Pictured here,  Jerry is baling the hay, and Dan checks the moisture of the bales. The moisture should be between 13 and 10, however Dan and his crew shoot for a moisture content of about 11. If the moisture content is too high, it could start a fire once put away in the barn.

Brothers Caleb Finneman (left) and Luke Finneman are two of Dan's best workers. Caleb has worked for Dan for over 5 years and stacks the hay while Luke, who has worked with them for 2 years,  throws the bales up to him. On average, Dan can get about 20 tons of hay off his field, which is 600 bales, weighing in at 65 pounds each.

Alan Murphy (left) has been a client and good friend of Dan's for over 10 years.  Dan has about 8-10 clients that buy from him and another 8 people that hire him and Jerry to cut and bale their fields. The whole process of cutting and baling hay usually takes a week, if weather permits. This year, they had to scramble to get everything done in 5 days because of rain threats.

Week 10 Forum

TOPIC 1: YOUR BEST PHOTOJOURNALISM -- Consider the photos you posted on your blog this term:

1.  My favorite photo I took this term was my action shot photos. It was a challenge and I took so many and very few turned out okay. Out of my action shots, the photo of the moto boot and wheel on the beach is my favorite.

1. All the colors worked out perfectly and the sky was setting just perfectly. This was going to be just a photo for Chase but it actually worked out perfectly for a close up.
2. I think this was one of my best edited photos. I struggled with not wanting to do too much but worrying I didn't do enough. I love the composition of the photo.
3. At the beginning of the term I didn't know anything about photography or photo edited. I always asked Rob how I should change the photo and finally I got to where I didn't need his help, however, I always ask for feedback (just to make sure). I also became more comfortable taking photos of people and not worrying what they might say to me. Experimenting with different angles helped me out a lot when I became more comfortable taking photos. A good example is my first "Humans of LB" vs. "civil discourse meeting" I had way more angles taking the civil discourse meeting whereas for the humans of LB was a single angle.

TOPIC 2:

Week 1 Goals: While taking this class, I hope to improve my photo skills, interactive skills while talking to other students here at LB and computer skills. So far, I am having a really great time in this class and I think it will be really fun.

Response: I improved my photo skills and interactive skills very well! As I stated before, I got more comfortable taking photos of people and asking them questions. As far as my photo skills, I got better at types of photos and angles of photos. Also I had a better eye for what to take photos of. During the Health and Safety fair I had a great time photographing anything and everything around as well as talking to people and getting their story on what they were promoting. 

Lynsey Addario Book Report

Lynsey Addario's book It's what I do is such an inspiring story about love, war and photojournalism.  In my opinion, the most compelling moment of her story was in chapter 13 "I would advise you not to travel", Lynsey was in Somalia photographing the drought victims. She came into a room with a young boy dying of malnutrition, and as she photographed his last breaths she felt her own baby kicking inside the womb. "It was the most incongruous, most unfair juxtaposition of life and death I had felt since I began my journey as a photographer." pg. 257. It is so interesting, and beautiful, the way Lynsey grows as she goes from a freelance photographer with nothing to loose to a mother with everything to loose. In one final moment, she realized what "everyone had been talking about" when they say they could never love anything more, because for so long that thing she couldn't love more was her work. I have a hard time relating to Lynsey, we seem to be polar opposites. Perhaps it is because I don't have a love for photojournalism as Lynsey does. I admire her hard work and over one hundred percent dedication to her career, in which I hope to be with my career, which isn't photojournalism (sorry Rob!). Her techniques were quite interesting to me. While the images were compelling, the angle of the photos was ordinary and the quality was sometimes blurry. The real importance was the content of the photo. It doesn't matter that the photo of the soldiers receiving incoming mortar rounds is blurry. That is what was happening, so she shot it. It shows life in the war. Her portraits are amazing, she is always able to capture the pain in their eyes and the tole war, famine, or malnutrition has taken on them. The beautiful photo of the boy, Khalid was one of my favorites. Lynsey's work differs even from people she has worked and traveled with, such as Tim Hetherington. He took from different angles and photographed a lot more of the US troop side rather than civilian damage of war. My favorite is the photo of Khalid, the young boy who had been hit with shrapnel from a NATO bomb. It was a poster image of who is involved in the war. His innocent, blood spattered face with bandages on it just breaks my heart. The photo of Khalid is talked about in pages 189-193. "I picked up my camera to shoot what I had shot so many times before, then put it back down, stepping aside to let the other photographers have their turn. I couldn't do it that day." Lynsey was in Libya, in 2011, photographing a car that had been blown up by an air strike. There were human remains splattered everywhere. Even though she had experienced this trauma so many times before, she had been pushed to her limit. Throughout the whole book, I'm sure none of us even thought Lynsey had a limit. But everyone has a breaking point. Her's was soon after her son Lukas was born, which gave her more to think about and to worry about. Not only would I recommend this book to everyone, I would read it a thousand more times. It gives a neutral standpoint on the wars, unlike reading through the media. You get both sides of the story told in a beautiful way, with amazing images.

Week 8 Forum

Chapter 9: The most dangerous place in the world, is my number 1 ranked chapter and chapter 10: Driver Expire was ranked number 2. I ranked chapter 9 above chapter 10 because it had a better lesson about photojournalism, chapter 10 was more about the realities of being over in a war torn country.

In chapter 9, "The Most Dangerous Place In The World", Lyndsey and her fellow photographer friend Elizabeth Rubin were on an embed with the US troops in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. They photographed a lot of injured Afghans who had been brought to the US base. Lyndsey had become close with a few of the troops and began learning about their personal lives and why they joined the army. Her and Elizabeth went out on multiple patrols with the men, which lasted 6 hours. They both witnessed multiple deaths of both Afghans and US troops. On one of their patrols they were ambushed by the Taliban with AK-47 bullets buzzing past them. Lyndsey was alone, trying to get the attention of anyone willing to save her. During that ambush is when Sergeant Rougle, who Lyndsey had gotten to know well, had been shot and killed. That is when Lyndsey knew she had to get out of the most dangerous place in the world. Lyndsey pleaded with Captain Kearney to get her out any chance he could. The next day she was flown out, leaving Elizabeth, who was more than dedicated to her story. Lynsey flew back to Turkey joining Paul at his place. She was overwhelmed with emotion by the sights she had seen in the Korengal Valley. Elizabeth and Lyndsey had discrepancies with the New York Times, on what story line they wanted to show. 

"I couldn't believe Rougle-so vibrant and alive just an hour before-was now dead, in a thick, black, rubbery bag, being carried to the first of so many stops along the way home to his final resting place." This quote stuck with me because of how much we learned about him before, wanting to propose to his girlfriend, all the tours he has take since 9-11, just to have that fresh life with so many goals be taken.

My favorite photo is the blurry photo of the soldiers from the 173rd Airborne as they are being targeted by mortars the Korengal Valley. Even though it's blurry, it shows what she witnessed. That is why Lyndsey went, to document what she witnessed, and that is exactly what she did.

What I learned about being a photojournalist is that without even thinking, you put your career first. When Lyndsey was being shot at on a patrol, she just wanted to get out alive, and to photograph what was happening. Then when the troops dropped a bomb on Yaka China and there were civilian casualties, (Lyndsey and Elizabeth decided before to stay at base with Captain Kearny), she said, "And there I was, stuck with the overwatch team clear across an impassable valley, unable to document the human cost of war. I was there to bear witness but not witnessing anything at all." The fact she was willing to risk her life for the story of human cost of war, was something not everyone is willing to do.

Sports Action

Brad Baker jumps his Honda CRF 450 dirt bike on the dunes in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Chase Stallings stops to take a rest as he watches his buddies ride around the dunes in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Spencer Burnette wheelies his dirt bike on the dunes in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Walker Evans Report

Walker Evans was an American Photographer born in the early 1900's. Walker started photographing in the late 1920’s and like most photographers, he was stuck between paying bill and being dead broke. He had a day job to pay bills, which was a night job so that he had all day to take photos. He is most known for photographing the Great Depression as well as people on the streets of New York in the 1930’s. He called photography a “forbidden fruit” which is why he wanted to do it because he often went against the grain of society. He photographed his interest because it wasn’t really the thing to do, so he did it. Walker started not only photographing people but letters and signs as well. He stated that lettering and signs were very important to him, perhaps because he would like to be a letterer. He always tried to capture the emotion of his subjects. Walker mainly shot in black and white, however he experimented with color but felt that black and white captured the true essence of his subjects. Walker says, "What draws me to street photography is how honest and real it is. However, it can be quite cruel and brutal." He partly did not want to be established at all, when he explained it, it didn’t make total sense but I imagine he just wants to photograph for a purpose not for fame.

My Hometown / My neighborhood

Inn at the 5th is said to be "The best hotel in downtown Eugene." It is a luxury hotel for fine dining, wine tasting and all kinds of shopping wrapped up inside.

Spencer Burnette polishes up his dirt bike just in time for a weekend full of riding at the Oregon coast dunes for Memorial Day.

Taylor Sustello