Look for the unusual

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/12/couple-encourages-one-another-through-life/

At the shooting range Sunday, a plethora of old men could easily be seen. They were more than willing to speak with me and teach me the rules of the sport, but I didn’t have a story. I couldn’t seem to ask the right questions to come up with a story amongst them. Instead of trying to make that happen when it was clearly not, I decided I needed to move on from these people. While walking away, a lot of pink caught my eye. A women with a gun in her hand in a matching pink outfit. Perhaps a story. I went up right with her and literally walked in to a story. The right questions needed to be asked though.  I was going to focus on that fact that her and her husband work in the OR and met in the OR. That was going to be my main focus and I was going to walk away. I noticed her hat had the breast cancer awareness ribbon. I was originally curious if maybe she was a survivor or someone close. It’s a hard question to ask. I came up with away around it by saying that I was just at Relay for Life the other night. It sparked a new direction in my story. She participated in the 3-day for walk all on her own. Had I walked away, and didn’t ask the hard question, I wouldn’t have found the angle.

Photographer point of view:

Whenever a photographer is at an event I plan on writing about, I can’t help but observe. I like to see where they shoot from and who they speak to at the event. At the shooting range, the photographer asked for the name of these men and they said they would give her the name if she gave them a hug. Creepy. I don’t think I would of done it, or would I have if it was a great photo. I am honestly not sure what I would have done in that situation. It would of been challenging for me to keep my composure. I feel like that is very degrading as well. Had she been a man photographing them, they wouldn’t have had a problem. This is just something I have been thinking about since it and what is the proper way to handle a situation like this?

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Know your sport

Knowing the rules of shot put really worked to my advantage. With a lot of these sports, like shooting and washers, I just went and asked someone to explain the rules. Having the experience in shot put made me realize the significance of doing background work. Had someone who didn’t have the knowledge of the sport been watching, they most likely wouldn’t have picked up on the things the officials were saying so much and thought of them as significant. Even refreshing ourselves on the rules of the game could be of value. You never know when doing the work beforehand like this will pay off.

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Desperate for stories

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/11/volunteers-benefit-missouri-state-senior-games/

There were about 14 participants at washers. The event lasted maybe 20 minutes. All the participants did it because they were already here for previous events. They thought they might as well give washers a try. Was there a story I was missing? I couldn’t help but think that I was just asking the wrong questions. I turned towards something away from the sport. It wasn’t going to be the sport itself that would lend itself to the story. The sport was about as boring as watching paint dry. It ended up being a different angle than we had covered yet in the games, so I thought I would try it out. I think it worked well for the purpose of the event, but so well in terms of covering washers. It is hard to show up to a place not knowing who is going to be there and talking to a lot of people until you have your story. I also ran into a lot of people asking where can I find this and when can I? It made me feel bad because in no way could I put all the people I speak with in the story. I often get a few story ideas after being at events like this for a while and then I narrow it down to a more exciting event.

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Pickleball

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/10/lone-iowa-pickleball-ambassadors/

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/10/couple-finds-love-through-pickleball/

I arrived at New Haven Elementary School Friday morning at 8 a.m. to about 40 participants looking at me. After speaking with some of them, I calculated that I was the youngest person in the room by 33 years. Not being afraid to speak with people became key. Everyone has a mission at these events, they probably aren’t going to approach you and ask you your mission and tell you the most interesting thing about them. I started speaking with one person and asking if they could direct me towards someone who could tell me more about something. This seemed to work out well. Except when one of the participants I was directed to, the oldest participant, was most definitely deaf. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and he would just smile and nod in response. Regardless to say, I gave up. I learned though, that people love boasting about themselves. If they tell you they are one of the Iowa ambassadors of pickleball, inquire more to how much of an honor that is and don’t just accept their word. This comes with asking more detail questions. Such as if they said they are from St. Louis, where exactly in St. Louis. This will help give my readers extra detail so that they don’t have any questions at the end of the article.

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