Day 4 (Wednesday, June 14)

OK, so the convention started today and that meant that it was going to get even more busy than the previous days. It was OK, though, because it was time to get to meet all the people that make NAHJ.

I arrived at the Convention Center ready to start working when I bumped into an old friend. Aurora Rodriguez (above) was my co-worker last year during the Latino Reporter in Ft. Worth. We were part of a little group that bonded. I had not seen her since, so it was cool to catch up.

After a brief conversation I headed to my online meeting. That's when I was reminded how much work doing the student project is. I got a few assignments and got ready for the long day ahead.

The first thing I did was I went into a leadership workshop. I was looking for faces and reactions because I didn't just want to shoot a photo of the speaker. Luckily, the speaker was funny and she was making everyone laugh.

I just pretty much focused on how much fun that workshop was. The fact that they were laughing was cool because shooting photos in workshops could be the most boring thing. Luckily this time it was fun.

I went to cover another workshop after that. It was a crash course on multimedia with a lot of hands on training. I followed around John from the Arizona Republic and Pilar of the Palm Beach Post as they worked as a team to get a multimedia package.

I was glad that the workshops were fun. The cool thing about working for the online version is that we get to do lots of multimedia packages. We did a funny thing with a package today. We did a multimedia on the multimedia. It came out really good.

See it here:

It's the first day of the convention and NAHJ got started with a bang. Cuban politician Ricardo Alarcon was the featured person during the opening night reception. CNN provided a live broadcast with the politician live from Havana. He was asked a lot of questions regarding the role of journalist in Cuba.

There were a few protestors at the event and I was able to get the photo above of Jose Mese, a local activist. Mese was on the phone with a contact in Havana who was wondering what kind of things Alarcon was saying to the NAHJ Convention. The cool thing about the photo above is that all the photographers, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald, were covering the event. All the photographers chased him whenever Mese approached the stage to put his cell phone up to the speaker so his contact could hear it. However, everyone was shooting photos from the back. I changed it up a little and went in front. As a matter of fact, the little light burst that is coming off his near his wrist is a from the flash of the Miami Herald photographer Al Diaz. Once I swung in front of him both Diaz and Sun-Sentinel photographer Angel Valentin, along with a few students, came to join my party. It felt good being a leader and not a follower. But then again, I was just trying to get the photo, not teach the pros a lesson. Funny thing, since I am really good friends with Angel Valentin I gave him a little hard time about copying my style. It's all in good fun.

After the talk with Alarcon, NAHJ Convention attendees were treated to a reception full of food and music. I compiled a slideshow for the our web page and
it looks like this.

I was running around all over the place and saw so many familiar faces. It was fun to catch up with some of them for a little bit and then continue on working.

In running around I bumped into Kara Andrade, who is also on staff on the Latino Reporter Digital. Kara is also interning with The Associated Press this summer. She's on location in Mexico City this summer covering their presidential elections.

Later I bumped into Kara again. She was hanging out with Enrique Gonzalez of USA Today and Nadia Rivera Nieves who are both also part of the online project. Enrique is our online mentor and Nadia is also interning at the AP this summer. She'll be working in Puerto Rico.

Eerlier you read about Angel Valentin. He's super cool. I met him last year while working at the Sun-Sentinel. In fact, he was my mentor/coach the first day on the job. We went to my assignment and he helped me with the assignment. So, when he came and copied me when shooting the photo of Mese, I had to give him a hard time. I guess I am no longer that kid who needed some coaching on how to do an assignment.

Overall, I have a lot of respect for Angel. He works hard and knows how to work the situation. I learned a lot from him.

Being at the reception was really cool because I got to see some old friends and make a few new ones. I had a lot of fun the first day of the convention. I am sure it's going to continue to be fun.

See today's Latino Reporter Digital

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