Thought Piece #4

            I thought it was interesting that LaBelle put eavesdropping down as an important information gathering tactic. I think that a lot of people see eavesdropping as rude, but he sees it as “people watching in audio form” which I thought was a really cool way of thinking about something differently like that. It has been kind of intriguing to me the ways that he sees things differently than your average person would and the ways that he can take things that most see as something negative and turn it into a positive.

            I like that he added in how it’s important to follow up. I don’t think that I have followed up much with any of my stories or subjects and I kind of feel bad that I haven’t now after reading this section. I think it’s true that this could make some really good feature stories to follow up with subjects, but I also think that it could maybe be a little awkward or make someone feel like they are just being used to make good photos and stories if it is approached incorrectly or insensitively, depending on the person’s story.

            Picking a spot is something that I have heard from people but I have never really done it. I think I would like to try it sometime and see what images I can get out of choosing a spot and sticking with it. I definitely understand that pacing and moving around a lot could make people feel anxious around me and my camera. I think that I did learn pretty well how to pick a spot while I was at weddings this past summer, photographing them. Especially during the ceremony, while I was moving around quite a bit, I got some really good shots by staying in one place and waiting or anticipating for something to happen.

            The images that LaBelle has of weather and the feelings it can induce were really cool to see. I have seen a lot of photos and videos of different weather situations and think that they always end up looking so interesting and intriguing. I, however, have never thought about or even considered trying to take photos of it myself. There was one time, we had a really bad hailstorm at home that ended up stopping pretty much as suddenly as it had started. This resulted in half the sky being dark and stormy, the ground covered in hail, but then a rainbow and bright sky on the other half. I was driving when I saw this and it was the only time I had thought “I need to take a photo of this” but by the time that I got home, the dark sky was gone, the rainbow was almost gone, and all that was left was the hail on the ground. I was really disappointed but it made me think about the fact that I maybe should always have my camera on me because I never know what I could run into.

            The last section of this reading really hit home to me because I have had a lot of changing environments at home. For my whole life, there had always been a cow field and big red barn right outside my neighborhood, it was like a landmark to me. But, during my first year here at CMU, they knocked it down to build townhouses. I, no joke, got LOST driving home the first time when it was down because it was my indicator of when to turn. It has been a MASSIVE change for me to see a ton of townhouses close together instead of the big red barn that was there FOREVER.