Topping The Day Off

Not only did I have to worry about my duties as photo editor and preparing for my first fotog meeting, recruiting, promoting the Student Media, o yeah, and attending my classes, i also had to go to the Pepsi Center to take our cover shot for the issue. Now that may sound easy, but having already been kicked off the premises once and told I could not take any photos inside - or outside the center it is a little more difficult to maneuver around. Especially now since the tents are almost done in the parking lot. And for some reason, Secret Service is a little worried about photographs taken of the tents. We are not sure why, its not like they are a secret, I'm sure thousands of people see the tents on a daily basis.
So once everything slowed down and I had the great evening light, Eric and I hiked across Auraria Parkway to the Pepsi Center. And thanks to my Ethics class from last semester I knew that I could not be arrested... or at least I could fight my case if I was... from the side walk. We played it cool, fired off a few frames and left with no trouble.

Day One

Well, as expected, the beginning of a new semester was entertaining, exciting, exghsting, and calorie-burning. Not only is this our first issue of the paper but it one of the most important issues the Met is putting out. It sounds a little odd because we are doing our DNC pullout this week... yes, two weeks before the actual convention but because we are weekly this is the ideal time. Our issues come out on Thursdays and most classes are not held on Fridays so most of the student body will not even see the issue until the following Monday. This poses as a problem for us since our campus will be on "lock down" as of the 23/24. Hardly any one would be able to see our most important issue. So we have decided to put it out this week, giving students a full week to pick it up. However, that has left it a little stressful because a lot of staff (not including Editors) are still on summer mode. So the issue will have about 4 of my 12 fotogs work.
Now just because they are locking us out of their office and we are a weekly (which means any coverage we do at the convention will not be published till a week after the DNC is over) does not mean we are not covering. We are setting up a home base at my Assistants apartment right off of 15th and we are going to be doing all web work. We hope that we will have video and slide shows to put up on the site. I will post that site as soon as it is ready!
This is a shot I took on Sunday of a group of protestors who met and then marched over to the Pepsi Center to say their piece. Their sign says: "Our Future Will Be Decided For Ourselves." In both Spanish and English.

The Beginning of The New Semester

So, as the complete opposite of most Metro Students, I have spent my last day of summer preparing for the new semester working at the Met. I shot two assignments related to the DNC issue that will be on the stands Aug. 14. I spent 45 minutes talking to Robert and Ronald, two homeless men who rely on the soup kitchen that is supported by St. Elizabeth church near Central Classroom on Auraria Campus.
We talked about the impact that the lock down of Auraria and how it is going to affect those who go to the soup kitchen. There are a lot of factors that we as middle class college-going students do not even consider. Robert used to be a professional painter, and after getting hernias and hepatitis C and D could no longer be around the chemicals.
Since the economy has been so terrible, he had no choice but to turn to the streets. Robert has been off and on the streets for over a year and a half.