Day 30 (Tuesday, July 11)

In January, once I was back to California from my summer internship in Texas and my fall internship in Florida, I finally had a chance to realize I was chosen as a The Associated Press intern this summer. I found out on Dec. 6 of last year and I was thrilled. However, I was still very much focused on my internship in Florida. I then had the holidays and a great coast-to-coast drive to fulfill a dream that I once had as a teenager.

It was mid January when I got a letter from The Associated Press telling me I was being assigned to the Chicago bureau. That's when it hit me. There was talks of going to a few other bureaus, including Dallas. I was really excited knowing I was headed to Chicago.

Once the fact that I was an official AP intern sunk in, I got started w/ my AP learning experience. The first thing I thought about was getting in contact w/ the local AP bureau in Los Angeles. I had good conversations w/ some of the staffers including Kim Johnson, Damian Dovarganes and Chris Carlson.

Damian was always on the go. Doing assignments all over the place. One time we missed the opportunity to meet because he got busy covering the California governor. At that moment I realized I could be doing such assignments, too, once I got started w/ my internship.

That idea wasn't too farfetched.

Today I covered the Illinois governor... Again!

© The Associated Press

Two weeks ago I went to shoot an assignment where Rod Blagojevich gave a speech. Today I went to another assignment where the governor signed an important bill helping state nurses. This assignment was particularly important for me being that my mom and my sister are both nurses. So, whenever the government gets involved to help them out, I feel good. Too bad this bill only helps nurses in Illinois and not California. Nevertheless, nurses are important valuable people in our society and they are definitely taken for granted.

© The Associated Press

I looked around and I felt really good about going to this assignment. After all, I was finally shooting photos of the governor, just like I imagined I would be doing so six months ago.

© The Associated Press

Bob Graves, my editor, thought the above made a great portrait of the governor so we put in on the wire for the world to use.

Today was a very rainy day. There was so much rain that during my morning walk to the train station my camera and computer bags got pretty wet on the outside. Fearing that something would happen to the equipment, I made sure none of it actually got wet. My shift was almost over and I looked out the office's 25-floor windows. Heavy rain came down for about 45 minutes and it wouldn't let down. I worried that I would ruin my equipment by putting it through that sort of weather. So, I decided to leave all the stuff at the office for the first time in the three and half weeks I have been here. I left everything there except a fresh battery, one camera and a wide-angle lens because I told myself "just in case I see something worth shooting."

The rain continued to come down hard during my walk to the train station. Rain continued to come down hard during the train ride. When I exited the train, it was still raining hard. Once I finally stepped into the door at home, I got out of my wet clothing. While I was in the middle of changing Bob Graves was on the cell phone calling me. He was instructing me to head into downtown as soon as possible because late-breaking news was going on. A train derailed and there were injuries and a fire. Whoa!!!

I changed into dry clothes and bounced out the house as soon as possible w/ my one camera and wide-angle lens. I needed to be at the scene of the accident and stopping by the office to pick up my equipment was not an option.

Oh Oh!!!!!

"Oh well," I thought to myself. "If I only got a wide-angle lens, then that means I must get closer than usual to everything I want to shoot.

Luckily, I was able to find the place where the accident happened. And I got lucky to make photos of some people who were effected by the incident.

© The Associated Press

The above woman's hand was full of ash. She is visibly shaken, scared and probably still in shock for what she went through as the flames got pretty big in the subway tunnel.

© The Associated Press

The woman above was crying because she believed her 15-year-old son was on the train. She didn't allow me to take many photos of her, but this one kind of shows what is going on. She's crying and the ambulances are in the background. It kind of works. If I had all my equipment, I would have thrown on the long lens and shot tight photos of her face but from a little away from her, not invading her personal space.

© The Associated Press

In the above photo, the husband of the previous lady held on tight to a parking meter as he waited for his wife to come back w/ information about their son's well-being. I like how the red and yellow tape forms lines across the image leading from the worried father to the group of emergency workers. Again, it would have been nice to get a nice close up w/ one of my zoom lenses. But I had to improvise w/ my wide-angle.

© The Associated Press

Speaking of needing a long lens. This photo is OK, but a zoomed photo of the people wearing the oxygen masks would have been nice.

Obviously, the lesson learned today was to never think it's OK to leave your tools at a place where it will be hard to get to. It's hard not being able to drive into downtown to work on a daily basis because carrying 60 lbs. of equipment on the train daily could be pretty hard. But if that's what it's going to take in order to make sure I don't miss opportunities again, then that's what I will do.

The only day I leave my tools at the office is the day I need them the most. I learned!

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