Because a picture is worth a thousand words

I’ve always wondered what it’s like to see life through the eyes of a lens.

David Patwin , outside of Wayne
State's campus on April 16.

 I’ve been taking pictures since the beginning of the winter semester and this has to be my favorite assignment. Because by now, I know how to work my camera, switch between my f-stop, my ISO and my shutter speed, my pictures come out a lot better.

I set my shutter speed between 1/800 and 1/1600 and my f-stop back and forth between 1.8 and 2.8 because of my outside setting.

My subject David was a great model, he was easy to capture and was easy to work with. He's a Cass Tech High School senior in Detroit, Mich. I worked with him over all parts of campus. We even walked over toward the Detroit Institute of Arts and shot a couple of photos there too. 

David Patwin, outside of Wayne State's business building looking for
what's next on April 16.

Sports, sports, read all about it

What a day on Wayne State’s baseball field. On April 3, the Wayne State Warriors played Grand Valley University. The Warriors strutted out prideful on this chilly day regardless of the weather or the rivalry. Although there weren't many fans there, there was plenty of hardball on the field. You had players like Kyle Zimmerman fighting on their turf for the win. 

Wayne State's Kyle Zimmerman, on 1st base (left) outs a player from GV
 on 1st base

Alex Kinch, played pitcher to the opposing team, trying his best to strike them out every time. It was at best a very hard game to call.

Knowing hardly anything about baseball, I kept up with the game, as any fan in the crowd should have.

This sports assignment is the hardest assignment that I’ve done so far. What made this so hard you ask? Taking pictures of people and things in motion isn’t hard, capturing the timeless memories isn’t hard, but what is hard, knowing what lens to shoot with and how to use it.

Although a handful of WSU supporters they sure enjoyed the game

I shot my pictures with a wide lens, ISO at 400, F-stop at 10 and shutter speed at 1/1000. My pictures came out good. A few were blurry, but none over or underexposed. My biggest deal was the fact that my pictures weren’t “up in your face” enough.

Assistant Coach Aaron Hepner (center) gives the team a pep talk
just before the game begins.

Although I did find the shooting portion a little difficult I did actually enjoy the action and the atmosphere of the baseball game. It felt good to be out there watching the game. I also enjoyed catching nice moments on camera; you see cool things through the lens.

            

The First Amendment and how to not to take it for granted

The First Amendment protects your rights as well as mine. Think about it for a second, if you didn’t have the First Amendment, where do you think you would be? We would be stuck in a world almost as bad as it is now.

 Imagine a world where the police, government and citizens of society are making you an outcast and slapping on cuffs because of what you say and what you believe in.

The First Amendment was established in December of 1791.

Go back and continue to think for a second or two. What would you do without your right to peacefully assemble, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the freedom of the press? If President Obama or the next president vetoed the First Amendment do you know how much that would affect your everyday life?

 You have to think about this amendment as not only a lifestyle to live by, you have to also think about it as one of the first things the government put into action to protect your safety and rights.

If there was no First Amendment there would be no such things as New York Times, LA Times, TMZ, Mediatakeout, or anything else we indulge ourselves in everyday.

The first Amendment is one of the keys to the way our Democracy works. Without the things in the First Amendment our country would be a communist government like Russia

.

The First Amendment should never be taken for granted and should be used as a tool for your knowledge.

The relationship between captions and I

Captions are important as a reader and as a writer.

As a writer you want your reader to understand what they’re reading. You want your message to be loud and clear through not only your writing but through your pictures.

Pictures in a story pull the readers in. Bringing your words to life are what gets the reader interested, great feature pictures is the hook, line and sinker.

Captions according to the AP stylebook should follow a formula. It gives you the person in the photograph and what’s going on, the date and location, city and state. All three of these things are mandatory within your captions.

            I think that the captions are important for the same reasons the AP Stylebook does. As a reader it is important to know what you’re reading and to understand why it’s relevant for you to reading it.

What I’ve learned throughout the captions lesson in the AP Stylebook and through my professor’s Storify lesson on captions is that it’s the most important part of any photojournalist’s job.

I’ve learned that captions are the most important part in every story because every story needs and requires a photo for the story. It’s very imperative. 

The way you're supposed to control the camera

Thinking about camera controls, you don’t know what you’re going to get.

F-Stop :4.5. ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 50

            When you think about camera controls you think about everything that controls the camera.

Being the amateur camera person, to me, camera controls means the power button, flash and playback button. To my surprise, not only does it mean that, it meant things as foreign as F-Stop, ISO and shutter speed.

I guess if you are a regular photographer or if you had a photojournalism class before you know what you’re doing but me, not so much.

To be honest everything was tough. The pictures I wanted to take were hard to take and the sun was too bright and the weather was terrible but I definitely did what I could.

F-Stop: 4.5, ISO: 200, Shutter Speed: 50 

On the other hand a few of my pictures came out well. I liked the way they came out and the way I could just take everyday pictures was great. I focus on taking pictures that everyone can relate too whether that be students on Wayne State’s Campus or citizens in the Detroit community.

The NewsU tutorial teaches you everything you need to know about the language of photos. It gives you perfect clarity on things like lighting, rule of thirds, moments, personality portraits, etc. and that gives me another way to look at pictures.

F-Stop: 3.5, ISO: 200, Shutter Speed:50

The pictures I chose to take were shallow depth of field, blurred action and wide depth of field. I chose to do those three because those are the few pictures where the viewer can appreciate the detail behind the photo. 

Camera phones.. To be or not to be, that is the question

In front of Wayne State's Parking structures, students
wanted to build a snowman 

I remember growing up when me and my brother used to call Michigan our winter wonderland. Now that I'm all grown up, I really just can't wait to move somewhere warm and beautiful although Michigan's winter isn't bad when you have a warm day.

Warm to Michiganders is about 30 degrees in the winter. There's one site to see though, snow fall. Snow fall is beautiful (of course when it's fresh). Possibilities are endless with a fresh snow fall. Yes, roads are slick and it's hard to keep your balance, but you also have snow days at school and it’s OK to be a kid again. Go out and build a snowman, go sledging with the kids in your neighborhood and go declare a snowball war with your friends.

Starbucks is campus' spot for hot chocolates and coffee

Winter in Michigan is like living in the South Pole if you do it right. I can recall waking up and going outside to the bright white snow bouncing off of the snow’s radiance. I've been in college for three years and it seems like every year I appreciate how beautiful the winter looks more and more.

The winter and the summer are two of my favorite seasons and that’s because of how many activities there are to do. In the winter you have the winter sports. There’s ice skating, sledging, skiing and many more fun things to do.

I think it’s ironic that in a photojournalism class, instead of using a high volume Nikon or Canon DSLR camera out first assignment, we use cell phones. It seems like taking pictures on my phone is a part of my daily routine. I just knew that I had to capture one of the things I see in almost every part of my day, SNOW!

I’m used to taking pictures of myself and my friends on Instagram but I've never taken pictures to make a statement or prove a point, but I’m up for the challenge. 

How I fell in love

   I am a 21 year-old student with big ambitions and a huge heart.
     I attended Cass Technical High School, one of the best, if not the most prestigious, schools in
  Detroit.
   In high school I danced ballet, modern and hip hop all four years, and I also tried a hand at acting, which was very successful (I had a part in 'Othello'). After graduating with a 3.0 and getting accepted in 4 schools, I decided to attend Wayne State University to major in broadcast journalism.
    I fell in love with broadcasting in the fourth grade at ‘Camp Exposure’. 10 kids all over Michigan were chosen. There in Atlanta we visited the CNN headquarters and we prepared a mock broadcasting there and my heart fluttered. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
   So now I’m trying to fulfill my dream. I’m also an entertainment and fashion nerd. Therefore, E! News would be my dream job.