Lynsey Addario Book Report

In Lynsey Addario’s book, “It’s What I Do”,  she brings in the raw footage of what an average day in a war zone looks like. Addario does not just take pictures of beautiful sceneries or wide open landscapes, in fact most of her photos are the complete opposite. Her pictures capture a story, a story that would make most people run home and never leave, because of the pure horror that some human beings around world go through everyday. One of the most graphic parts from the book, was when she was captured by Qaddafi’s soldiers and were beaten, raped, and paraded around town for everyone to see. Many times the soldiers told the journalists that they were going to be killed and insisted that it was going to be their last day. However, shortly after they were transferred into other hands and ultimately were set free to go back to the United States. Stories like this are throughout the book and continue to get more and more violent. What makes Lynsey’s photos so breathtaking is the situations that she captures and how well she shows the pain, suffering, and loss in some parts of the world. An example of this would be the picture of the Kurdish soldiers, who are carrying the bodies of their wounded into a medical vehicle, in Northern Iraq, March 22, 2003. What stood out to me was how traumatic these events must of been, and what passion you would have to have in order to risk your life for photojournalism. In a lot of cases Lynsey would have bullets, bombs, and violence going on all around her, but yet the detail and story that she portrays in her photos lets the viewer see it first hand. I think that is what I admire most about Lynsey’s work is that she did not try to hide anything, she has a passion for telling these peoples stories and knows that there was no other way to tell it. I think many people refrain from even thinking about these events, because of how disturbing it is and what a disgusted feeling it gives you when you see them. One of my favorite Addario photos is the one on page 222, where Bibiane, twenty eight years old, sits in a chair and has tears running down her face. The photo not only makes the viewer feel remorseful, but really feel the pain of what she is going through and hard her life must be. One of my favorite quotes by Lynsey is, “I found that the camera was a comforting companion. It opened up new worlds, and gave me access to people's most intimate moments. I discovered the privilege of seeing life in all its complexity, the thrill of learning something new every day. When I was behind a camera, it was the only place in the world I wanted to be”(12). This quote really stood out to me because going into photojournalism, Lynsey probably had no idea what she was getting into and at many times regretted the decision to do so. However, this thrill of of being behind her camera helped her to be one of the most successful photojournalists of our time.

Photo Story

Every spring, across the state of Oregon, a little sprout of grass hay begins its final stage of growing and shortly after will be cut. Farmers like Dan Hatfield, rely on the hay that they grow each year, and without it may have no way to feed their cattle. After growing for about 2 months, with constant water and tending from the farmers, it becomes ready to cut and harvest. When it is finally ready to be cut, farmers begin a week long process consisting of cutting, swathing, and bailing, which then can be stored in barns.
 A large grass hay field grows outside of Burns, Oregon. This grass hay is just two weeks away from being ready to harvest.

The first stage in growing a healthy crop of hay, is everyday watering and monitoring by the farmers. Making sure that the water levels are consistent with the grasses growth.

Dan Hatfield begins the first stage of harvest, by cutting and then swathing the hay so that it can be prepared for bailing.

Reliable equipment is a must when it comes to cutting, swathing, and bailing hay, having a savy mechanic on hand always helps as well.

Dan Hatfield is followed by his daughter, Kelsey Hatfield, who is bailing the hay so that it can be brought in and stacked for the feeding of their cattle.

Photographer of the Week Post

My Photographer of the week is Art Wolfe. Art is an award-winning wildlife photographer from Seattle, Washington and has been blowing people away with his photos for over 50 years. He graduated from the University of Washington with Bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and art education in 1975. In 1978, he published his first book with Dr Allan Lobb called, "Indian Baskets of the Northwest Coast". Dr. Lobb loved Wolfe's work so much that he began putting it up in the Swedish Medical Center, where it began to be notarized by people all over the world. Over his 50 years of photography, he has taken an estimated 3 million photos and has traveled to every continent to do so. Wolfe's work has been seen in the National Geographic, Smithsonian, Audubon, GEO, and Terre Sauvage. What I love most about his work is the passion for his pictures, and how he continues to find the beauty in everything around him. When I presented to the class, you mentioned that Wolfe had been critiqued for editing his pictures so much that it made them look fake. I think that there is definitely a fine line between editing your photos and changing your photos completely, but at the same time Art has traveled all over the world just to show people how beautiful it truly is. If there is one thing that I’ve learned from this class, it’s that a photo is not just something beautiful, it is a story that can affect people in so many different ways. I believe that Art may use a little extra editing than needed but never fails to capture the beautiful world that we live in.

Works Cited:

“Nature & Cultural Photography 1-888-973-0011.” Art Wolfe, artwolfe.com/.

Week 10 Post

2.) I really enjoyed this photo because of the way that it stops the pitchers motion and makes the viewer feel like they are right next to the action.
 3.) I think one of the first things that we learned when shooting action shots was to make sure that we stop the movement and almost freeze time. I think I did a good job of freezing the action in the photo while keeping it from being blurry.
4.) I think the biggest change I've made over the term is my knowledge on cameras and the right settings to be on for all times in the day. Also being able to find a good background that pops your subject for everyone to see. Lastly, being able to get capture the expressions on people faces. I feel that I didn't really understand that concept coming into photojournalism but as the term has gone on, I've gotten better and better at it.
 -Topic 2
"My goals for this class is to be more personable with people. Learning to have confidence asking questions and taking pictures. I hope by the end of this class I will have a broader knowledge on how to take pictures and what questions to ask".

I feel that I really succeeded at obtaining my goals for this class. Coming into photojournalism, I had no prior knowledge of what I was going to be doing or even how to operate a Nikon camera. Now week 10, I feel that I have learned a world of knowledge on the settings of my camera and how to actually take quality photos. I also think I have grown tremendously in being more outgoing and making conversation with people even if I don't know them.

Hometown Photos

My hometown shoot was taken in Burns, Oregon. The city of Burns was established in 1884 and was named after the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. Burns is located in the high dessert of Harney County, which is the biggest county in Oregon.

V.I.P Registration Day (Makeup up for Week 6 Photos)

Students gathered at LBCC on May 22, for Courtyard lunch and VIP registration. Activities were set up around campus to get students excited for the upcoming year.

Week 7 Post

Topic 1
1.) For my hometown pictures, I am going to be taking them in Roseburg, Oregon. Roseburg has been my home for my entire life and will always have a special place in my heart.

2.) Some ideas I've had for my hometown landmark is the "Historic Downtown Roseburg" sign or the Roseburg Library. The Roseburg Docs baseball games are a popular place to be on a spring night, so I would like to get some nice shots of team and fans for my activity shot. For my portrait shot I'd like to take some pictures of the famous Umpqua river which runs through the heart of Roseburg.

3.) The hardest photo out of these three will probably be my landmark shot because it's going to be  difficult to get people in front of the landmark.

Topic 2
1.)  I would like to do homelessness in Corvallis for my Photo Story. I think that Corvallis has problem with the growing number of people that are homeless. Everyday while I'm driving to school I see more and more homeless camps and people sleeping in tents or under bridges. The nearby 7/11 is a popular hangout for many different homeless people and some of them I've already had conversations with. My plan for this assignment is to go around to different locations and document the everyday life for these homeless people. I would also like to talk more with these people and provide them with any small items that they may need like canned foods, toiletries, and clean water.