Day 5 (Thurs., June 16)

Wow. I felt as if I was tired last night. That has nothing to do with how exhausted I am tonight. Yet, I am so thrilled to be here that I will be going out on the town for some more fun, even thought it is already 2 a.m.

Today was very cool. I had the chance to run around like crazy the same way I did yesterday. I had a few assignments throughout the day. I visited a few workshops and learned a little while shooting photos for the paper.

One of the assignments was to go and shoot a few things inside the job expo. While there I bumped into Yasmin A. Aboytes (above) of El Paso or "El Chuco" as she called it. She's the online photographer for the Latino Reporter. She's cool. I like her work and the way she handles the tough, demanding situation that we are put into this week.

While shooting a panel, I bumped into another great young photographer by the name of Omar Vega. This guy is cool. He is a photography student at San Francisco State. It was funny, we had exchanged emails before coming here as we are among the few photography students that were going to be at the convention. It's funny how he wore a purple shirt like the one I wore. We suddenly looked like twins. Nowhere in any of our emails we told each other what to wear. Tomorrow we are going with the pink look. We'll see if that works out. Hanging out with Omar was really cool. We hooked up at Billy Bob's and he introduced me to his friends, which at one point or another had met tonight.

Later, while covering a "live shot" workshop for television people, I bumped into Gadi (above, right) from New Mexico State. He was originally my roommate, but switched off with Antonio (Oregon) on the first day. Although I am having a great time w/ Antonio as a roommie, I think it would have been cool to be paired up w/ someone from the other student projects. I have only saw the other interns (radio and television) on limited occasions. So, I missed out on making more friends.

This internship is turning out to be really cool as I am not only shooting workshops as I did last year w/ the Society of Professional Journalists' student project. I spent most of the time doing that last year in New York, so it kind of got boring. I did, however, had a chance to learn a few things as I was challenged with the task of making workshops look interesting with photos. I think the challenge last year allowed me to find the kind of cool photo that I shot today at the workshop. The above photo has something different. A cool way to look at a workshop. It's better than some guy speaking on a panel.

The real fun was tonight, though. Members of NAHJ were treated to a Charreada (Mexican rodeo) at the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth. It started with a skit, which made a lot of the members laugh. Above is Saudy of Miami and she was all excited to get a bullet from the gun of one of The Gun Fighters, who performed outside the coliseum for the crowd.

Before heading out to the assignment, Jeff Washington, Star-Telegram photographer and my editor for the week, told me that I have been turning in a lot of horizontal photos. So, he requested some vertical shots. So, I kind of made it a point to shoot more verticals. So, I shot the above and below photos to make sure I covered the assignment requirement.

I have never covered a Charreada, so it was fun seeing what they were doing. However, I only caught 15 minutes of the show as I was on deadline and had to rush off to get my photos processed into our system. It was fun running around shooting all kinds of photos. Just like yesterday's 15-minute drill, I had to make sure I had enough photos for the Spanish and English sections as well as a package. I love working under pressure. It pushes me and it makes me think on the go.

I ran around like crazy looking for different angles and different views of the event. I was happy that I packed all my lenses and was able to use them all one way or another. Below I used my fisheye to make sure I got the longhorn in the frame along with the arena.

I have been working a lot on "moments" to tell the story. Below I shot a cowboy who tried to act as if a digital camera was too advance for him. I think the photo shows that. It was cool looking for different aspects of the event. I had fun.

Of course I didn't want to leave the Charreada because it seemed like a lot of fun. I rushed back to the office, turned in my photography and headed back. Tonight, NAHJ took us to Billy Bob's and showed us a great time. There was a armadillo races (next three photos) and there was a lot of dancing. So much dancing that Jeff Washington ended showing us some tango and salsa moves. Wow, the man can move.

Speaking of having the right moves. The photo below is of Gadi (right) and a few of the television interns. They were having fun watching Karla (Tijuana) show the crowd how to move. She looked like J-Lo up there. She moves so fast I couldn't get a good shot of her. Actually, I was trying to get more of the reaction than the action. Now that I think about it, it would have been good to show Karla's moves. Well, if you were at Billy Bob's tonight, you know what I am talking about. Let's keep it that way.

Uh Oh. You know all that stuff I said about Yasmin at the beginning of today's entry? I take it all back. She's the worst photographer ever. I mean, how can she shoot me dancing while holding TWO beers. She's trying to get me in trouble by portraying me as an alcoholic. Well, that's what I get for letting her grab my camera.

So yeah, I was caught having a little fun while dancing with Gloria (Houston). Hey, I had a long day today, I had to finish it off by dancing the night away. I know tonight I danced with a lot of womyn and it was fun hanging out with all my NAHJ friends. So much fun that I was bombarded with free drinks. On that photo above I had a Corona from Alfredo Carbajal, managing editor for Al Dia Newspaper in Dallas. The other drink was some beer I forget that was given to me by Maury, one of the television mentors. Maury is my boy. I met him the day I walked into the Fort Worth Plaza to check in. Since that moment, the guy has been really cool and very friendly. I am enjoying my time out here. Working hard and meeting great people.

The day was long for the interns and after partying hard at Billy Bob's we decided to head back to the hotel. I was not ready to call it a night, but I decided to allow (from left) Jorge (Maryland), Gibran (New York), Aurora (Miami), Lynette (Puerto Rico) and Juliana (Austin) to jump in the bed of my truck as I drove back to the hotel. The cool thing about Texas is that if you are sitting, you can ride on the bed of a pick-up truck. I drove while I kept on hearing them having tons of fun.

.

Josh (Colorado) could not hang and knocked out on the hotel lobby furniture upon our arrival. I can't blame him. He had a long day in which he nearly passed out under the hot Texas heat while covering boxing and running back to the office because he was going to miss deadline. I admire Josh, he might be loud and a sexist jerk on the outside (I mean that w/ all due respect because I like you buddy). But he is a hard-working man who knows how to get the job done. He dished out three stories a day. Now, that's the type of people I like to work with.

Well, Josh might be tired. The rest of the crew might be tired. I am not. I am still on that rush from working on such a tight deadline. I will continue the partying tonight and I will tell you all about tomorrow.

Yesterday - Main - Tomorrow