A summer full of learning.

With three days of work left I sit at my computer and contemplate all that I have gained in the past four months. [Wow, four months? I've had four whole months of summer!] Well then, I guess that explains how I've gotten so much out of it.
I had been fortunate enough to get an "internship" job as a photographer for my hometown newspaper. Unfortunately it was low pay and limited to 20 hrs per week. None the less, I have taken somewhere close to 6,000 pictures. Or snapped that many frames. I figure I've had somewhere between 200 and 300 photos in the paper.
I've met a lot of new people, some creeps and some really nice people. I've overheard a few times, "She works for the Alpena News." And I've had little kids say, "Hey! I saw you at the carnival/fair/parade."
I've learned a lot about the DSLR, Nikon D2H to be exact. Things I should have known a long time ago, considering I'm a photo major. But I am happy to know them now. I can confidently say I know my way around the manual settings and options.
{Side note on learning about cameras, two days ago a fellow CCS student taught me a trick to use a regular lens as a macro, not easy but very clever!}
More important things I've learned are about composition and cropping. Sometimes the editor I think helped me and sometimes I feel my photos weren't done justice with the allotted space and placement in the newspaper, but the papers main priority lies in the news.
I have learned to think about the subject matter and how there are so many factors into how to take a photo to accurately portray something. I've thought a lot about the importance of including or not including certain things.
Boy I could ramble on forever about the things I've learned with this job, and the experiences I've gained, but I shan't.

Outside of work, in my personal life, I believe I have reached my goal set back in late April. I had fun.
Without a doubt this summer gave me memories, new friends, and got me closer to some now great friends. I have absolutely had so much fun this summer. I have changed who I am, moved on from some old, yet still highly respected beliefs and life styles (vegetarianism and straight edge.) This is by no means a bad thing. I was ready for some time for a change and I could not have picked a better time to make these changes.

Looking back on this summer I am, least to say, satisfied. As far as the future is concerned, I have nothing but enthusiasm. I will walk into the coming semester with open arms and a new clean notebook and ink filled pen to take notes on all the great information that is available to me.

In these last three days of work I will be spending my time getting my Alpena News Portfolio ready. Check out my other blog for that. I am also looking to print out 10-20 photos that were in the paper, on photo paper, not newsprint, and put together a hard copy. I plan for now to use this for feedback on my work, but hopefully someday I will use it to secure a job! :)