Be the Change

my work weekend

Friday night was the Fire Police Induction ceremony, which was just a quick photo. One older gentleman asked me my age. A lot of people ask me this when I'm working. They tend to think I'm a teenager, and I supposed they wonder how a teenager began working for a newspaper. They're always shocked to learn I'm 26.

When getting names, it's important to get titles. Often people will forget to tell you their title. With this assignment, there were lieutenants and sergeants. The rest started joking that others' titles were "private." The other photographer and I jotted this down, until they told us not to write it down. The thing is, we don't question what we're told. We assume people are telling us the truth, and what they want printed in the paper! I'm glad they let us know they were joking!

This morning I went to an elementary school where they were holding a free throw competition. Luckily, I arrived at the end and didn't have to stay long. The town's police chief (and the guy I wrote my first story for the paper on when he won an award) calls me Lois Lane. The other reporter is Clark Kent, of course.

(There are actually three local newspapers. That's why I mention other reporters and photographers.)

I had enough information for the event to write up a story on it instead of just submitting one photo caption.

I just got back from the Elks, where it was a fairly quick photo. The state representative, though, informed me that my newspaper has been spelling his first name wrong. I double-checked my assignments, and I've always spelled his name right.

I'm in the middle of editing my photos and writing up my captions. Next, I'll email them to the newspaper office (to the night editor). The deadline for something to run in the next day's paper is 10pm. On Monday, I'll visit the regional office to turn in my work report. As a stringer, I charge the newspaper for the work that I do - $15 for a photo with a caption (photo caption) and $33 for a story.

So, I did about 2.5 total hours of work for three assignments in two days, and I'll make $78. Not bad!