My Experience in a paper:

I did my job shadow with Detroit Free Press photographer Kimberly P. Mitchell, Kim. An extended bio can be found on her website (https://www.kimberlypmitchell.com/) but this is a brief section from her about page,

 “While attending the University of Missouri-Columbia, Kimberly P. Mitchell received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with an emphasis in photography and a minor in sociology. Kimberly went on to intern at the San Jose Mercury News and the Detroit Free Press, later joining the Free Press staff in 2005. At the Free Press, Kimberly developed a strong commitment to creating socio-economic change through dynamic, storytelling photography and video”.

 I found out I was going to be working with her the night before the assignment and was sure to research what kind of photography she normally did beforehand. 

            As I mentioned I did my research on Kim beforehand, but I also did other things to prepare. The assignment we would be working on was about a community member and her church in Detroit. I did a little research on the church and got everything packed in my bag the night before so I could leave early in the morning to meet my photographer. The only thing I wish I would have prepared better was Kim herself; it wasn’t communicated with her until the night before that I would be joining her, and she wasn’t entirely sure what the assignment was. She told me later, after I explained my project, that she was in work mode and not mentor mode during the assignment, but it was still incredibly interesting to watch her work. 

            The assignment itself was at North End Church of God in Christ in Detroit MI and we were highlighting Bessie Stallworth, a 90-year-old who has been a member of the church for 71 years during a veteran breakfast. The breakfast started at 10 am and I arrived at 9:50 to meet Kim. Mrs. Stallworth arrived shortly after, and Kim got pictures of her driving, as that was relevant to her story. We were there for about two hours, as well as reporter Scott Talley. . The breakfast did not have a lot of attendees other than the members of the church and family who were helping to run it. Everyone was incredibly nice, but I felt out of my element the entire time. I wish I had had more opportunities to speak with  Kim before the assignment, but that’s no one’s fault in the end. I feel like I could have taken better pictures had I been more comfortable with the environment and situation. Despite feeling a little lost, I still think this was an excellent learning experience.

Getting to see Kim in action as a professional photographer was cool. . As I mentioned she was in more of a “work mode” than a “mentor mode”, which gave me some insight that I don’t think I would have gotten otherwise. There were little things like I listened to her when she was getting information for captions, and she always got the person’s name (double checked the spelling of course), their age, and their hometown. As someone who previously only collected names, I noted collecting more information as something I need to start doing. I also felt like I could tell what she was doing when she picked up her camera. She would take a picture and I would think, “oh, that’s going to be a good one” and I feel like I was able to recognize what she was doing or she would do something I didn’t think of it was cool to see that in action. I also got to see Kim set up a portrait of Mrs. Stallworth sitting in the seat she always sat in at the church. She had turned off all the lights, even when people kept turning them back on trying to help so that she could use light from a nearby window. I watched her stand in just the right place and direct the subject, and then we did a bigger group picture with her whole family. It was interesting to see Kim direct those portraits because directing subjects is something I still need to work on. I felt like I just watched all the things I’ve learned be put into use by someone who has been doing this for years and knows what they’re doing.  

            There was a moment of stagnation during the veteran’s breakfast, where people weren’t sure whether they would begin serving breakfast to the people working the event as well, and Mrs. Stallworth was considering going to breakfast somewhere else with her family. It was clear that we still needed more pictures, and I was wondering what we would do if they ended up leaving and we weren’t able to take the pictures that we wanted. I watched Kim talk to Mrs. Stallworth and her daughter about where they were going to breakfast and whether they do this often, and at one point she asked if she could go with them. I thought this was a great way to adapt to the situation and still be able to take pictures of the subject and her family. I probably could have come up with asking if I could join eventually but I don’t think I would have been able to think of going with them right on the spot. That’s something that Kim does well that I think I need to work on, quick thinking— knowing what she wants and how to get it. Though I’m sure that is something which comes with years of practice and working as a professional in the industry. 

            Honestly the actual assignment wasn’t the thing I took the most out of. Originally, we were going to go to a cafe to edit afterward, but the cafe ended up being closed and I needed to go home for something. so that night we had a video call that lasted about two hours where we went through my pictures (not just ones from the assignment), talked about the assignment, and she showed me her pictures. Because I hadn’t gotten to interact with her as much as I would have liked to before or during the assignment, I didn’t get a feel for how she was, but she was so nice. I was extremely worried before I got put with a photographer that they wouldn’t like me or that they would be mean or that I wouldn’t like their photography but none of that happened. Kim is nice, an incredibly good photographer, and I’m super glad got to work with her. I feel like she gave me good feedback and advice that I will be able to use in the future, as well as offered to be a connection for me. 

            We went through my pictures, and she asked me to explain to her my thought process while taking them and which ones I thought were good and she was able to get my feedback and help me pick out the four pictures that would be using for my blog post. as I mentioned I felt very out of my element add this assignment and I feel like the pictures I made weren’t up to what I normally do so I also wanted to show her pictures I had taken in the past, I showed her my blog, the portfolio I made (which needs to be updated), and Moore Media Records website that most of the gallery is My photography. Some feedback I got from the pictures I took on the assignment were, that I need to take more pictures, because I felt so out of my element, I would only take one frame and I ended up with last pictures that I normally take, so I knew this, but I like the way she phrased it. She told me to “overshoot moments”, she talked about how you don’t want to overshoot because you don’t want the subject too really notice you, but when it comes to the moments it’s okay to overshoot those to represent it well. 

            Some other advice she gave me was, advice she received herself from one of her editors, they told her “Shoot something for the paper and shoot something for yourself”. What that means is that take the pictures that you think would work well in the paper, but also take the more artsy picture that you think you’ll enjoy. If they don’t like your picture, that’s fine it just means you have that picture now and if they do like it, it’s something more than what you would have done. She also told me to be fearless, don’t be afraid of any situations and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Other photographers are your friends. She said she has only met a couple of photographers who act as competition and aren’t there to help you, in her experience, those photographers aren’t very good anyway and are trying to break you down to build themselves up.  

            She advised me to take time to get to know my subjects when I could because sometimes as a professional you don’t get the amount of time to work on an assignment that you want to. she recently had a project where she shot Muslim women, both portraits and video. She told me that she only had a week or so to do this project and that she wasn’t in love with all the portraits she took. she wishes she would have been able to spend more time on it but that’s not always a luxury that we have. So, when you have time to spend and get to know your subjects, you should do that. When she made about something that I did well was that I had a good eye for the moments, she would see when I picked up my camera saw that I understood that that was something that needed to be photographed, and then I just needed to work on shooting the moment better. She also gave me advice on some other pictures that I hadn’t thought about, I have a picture I did for a photography class my freshman year that is a girl holding flowers that are on fire. I’m proud of this picture and I showed it to Kim, and she told me I should crop it so it’s just the fire in her face in the picture that you didn’t need to see her hands and I cannot believe I had never thought of that. 

            Overall, I’m incredibly glad I got to do this job shadow. I wish I would have been able to communicate more with Kim beforehand so that I could have been more sure of what was going on during the assignment itself, but I’m glad that we got to talk so much afterward. Something I learned on the assignment which I feel like I couldn’t have learned in a classroom is the application of our coursework. I was able to watch all the skills I’ve been learning put into action and see how important they are in real-life situations. I don’t know if I’ve changed because of this experience, if anything I think it helped me grow a little bit as a photographer and a person. One benefit I think others could get from my experience is learning from my mistakes; Communicate well with your photographer so that when you get to the assignment you both know what you’re doing. Kim was incredibly nice and told me that I could reach out to her whenever, I told her I might take her up on that because I’m in a photo story class and I may need some help picking out my pictures. Overall, I’m glad I got to do this and I’m glad I got to do it under Kim.