What changed my mind!

Our assignment was to shoot a photo story as a class. We had to work as a group to tell a story. On November 16 our class went to the Cherry St. Mission Ministries to photograph the story.

In order for my readers to fully understand this assignment, you need to know a little bit about the Cherry St. missions. The ministry sponsors 10 different houses. The houses we visited were Sparrow’s Nest, Madison Food Services, Education and Career Center, Caleb House, LifeBridge Center and South Toledo Community Center.  The Cherry St. Mission Ministry operates solely on donations and volunteer work. The Cherry St. Mission helps individuals who are down and on the outs.

Our class split up into groups of two or three and went to as many of these houses to photograph the people that stay there. The group that I was in went to the Sparrow's Nest. The Sparrow's Nest is the women’s shelter. This shelter homes women who are poor and homeless.

Going to the Sparrow’s Nest and seeing all the women who are on the outs made me realize all the things other people and I take for granted. All the little things that I don’t realize are that important to me are the very things that these women need. While these women just hope they can take a shower today, I continuously walk by my clean shower with a curtain on it and never think twice.

It was a little nerve racking at first to go up to the women who stay at the Sparrow’s Nest and ask them if I could photograph them. I admit I was a little scared to go to the shelter because of what could happen there. I come from a little town and grew up a little on the sheltered side. I always thought that the people who stayed in a homeless shelter were bad people that would hurt me. But I realized I was very wrong after going to the shelter. Once I got over my fear, I went up to the women and started talking to them. They are harmless, just like me.

I am very thankful I got this experience to photograph at the 
Sparrow’s Nest. 

Residents socialize outside the Sparrow's Nest as a gurney awaits another resident at the Cherry Street Mission on November 16.

Ready for life resident Salene Gile, of Louisville Kentucky, folds her clothes at the Sparrow's Nest sponsored by Cherry Street Mission.

Cussing, tormenting and red cards...oh my!

We learned about shooting sporting events last week. I love to photograph sporting events, so I was really excited for this assignment.

I decided to photograph the 2011 Region XII men’s soccer tournament. The championship game was played by Schoolcraft College of Oceltos Michigan, and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Surg on Oct. 30 at Lake High School. These two teams are huge rivals, and it usually comes down to them in the finals.

I learned a few interesting things. It’s a good idea to always show up early. When we arrived at the Owens Community College soccer field, no one was there. The field was too wet to play the game, so the championship game moved to Lake High School in Perrysburg, Ohio. When Cathy, a fellow photojournalism student, and I were about to head over to Lake’s soccer field, she realized she locked her keys in her car, so we had to wait for a spare key. When we arrived at the game, we only missed five minutes. It’s a good thing we decided to meet earlier than we needed to.

I also learned that I need to use all of my lens lengths. I have a 300mm zoom lens. While looking at my metadata, I realized that I was only using a small portion. Some of my images were not zoomed in close enough. I have a tendency to crop in too close to the subject, so I figured I would shoot wider. I need to utilize my long lens and not depend on Photoshop to crop in closer.

I never realized how much cussing and trash talk happens during a soccer game. Not only were the players cussing and trash talking, the fans were getting involved, as well. The excessive cussing from the players had caused three Cincinnati Surg players to receive red cards, forcing them to sit the rest of the game on the bus.

The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time. The game went into two sudden death overtimes. With a little under seven minutes left in the second sudden death, the Oceltos scored to win the game.

After the winning goal was made, the entire Oceltos team rushed off the field to the Surg’s bus to taunt the three players who received red cards. The Oceltos players were cheering and pounding on the bus while the Surg players were trying to open the door on the bus. Luckily for them, they could not open the door. Otherwise, there could have been a huge fight in the parking lot. But I have to admit that getting pictures of the fight would have made this assignment awesome.

After all of the cussing and taunting between the teams, I was very pleased to see the respect they showed towards each other once they were all back to the field. I honestly think that most players went out of their way to either shake hands or hug their opponents.

Seeing that moment is what reminds me of how sports should be played.

Cincinnati Surg fans celebrate their team’s first goal of the championship game at Lake High School on Oct. 30. The Surg lost 2-1 in double overtime. 

Ocelots' Ryan LeMasters, center, fights through Schoolcraft defensive players Andrew Graham, left, and Bush Yormie.

Surg head coach Mike Combs argues with the referee after Andrew Graham was taken down by a slide tackle. Assistant coach Ron Pharr and athletic director Theresa Check watches the head coach react to the slide tackle. 
 

Schoolcraft Ocelots’ players and coaches celebrate their championship win over Cincinnati Surg.  Juan Garcia scored the winning goal with under seven minutes left in double overtime.