Larsen Morehouse, right, watches as her teammates adjust the robot’s shooter at the practice field between matches on Friday, March 25th, 2022, at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich. The team would often go to the practice field, which has the scale field elements not the whole field, to check things after they make adjustments.Teams at the FRC West Michigan District Competition dance to the Cha Cha Slide during a 6-minute timeout during the finals at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. The DJs will often play songs that have specific dances to them like, the Macarena and YMCA, to keep everyone interested during breaks.After announcing that they needed spare aluminum to fix a part on their robot, ambassadors from multiple different teams, 5980 and 85, came to team 4453’s pit to offer assistance at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Thursday, March 24th, 2022. One of the biggest parts of FIRST is gracious professionalism, teams will do everything to help each other out, even when you might go against them in the very next match.While waiting in the stands Diana Morehouse, left, takes a picture of her son Micah, middle, and fellow 4453 team member Alex Suhocki, right, at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. Many of the parents came to watch as well as some of the team’s alumni.Team 4453’s robot, nicknamed Al, short for Revival, climbs the rungs during the endgame of a match of Rapid React, FIRST Robotics’ 2022 game, at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Friday, March 25th, 2022. The Red Hot Chili Bots had the best climb record of any team at the competition, being able to reach the top rung consistently during matches.After a long day of competition, team 4453 plays a game, they made up and call “The Circle of Violence” in the pool of the hotel they stayed at in Allendale, Mich., on Friday, March 25th, 2022. During the game, two people would fight to dunk the other person’s head under the water, while being splashed by the rest. Mentors were playing and standing by to make sure no one got hurt, and no one did.Team 4453’s drive team, Connor Grigg, left, Larsen Morehouse, middle, and Alex Suhocki, right, line up their robot to shoot during a qualification match at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Friday, March 25th, 2022. The hangar can block the vision from the drive station so Larsen, as the coach, must learn how to work around that, although it is helpful to have it right there when lining up to climb.Parents and mentors cheer as 4453’s head mentor, Steve Seifert, middle, goes to meet the team in their pit to congratulate them after a win at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Friday, March 25th, 2022. The team and mentors convene in the pit to talk and tune the robot after every match.Alex Suhocki, left, and Micah Morehouse, right, examine and adjust wiring on their robot’s collector at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. The collector broke after a practice match on the first day of competition and had to be fixed and carefully watched throughout the rest of the weekend.The fifth Alliance, consisting of FRC teams, 4453, The Red Hot Chili Bots as captain, with 5890, East Grand Rapids Robotics, and 7768, The Iron Hill Automatons, huddle up before the tiebreaker match of the quarterfinals at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. Being ranked 7th, team 4453 had the honor of choosing two teams to accompany them to the finals.Before heading back home to Marshall, Mich., Team 4435 stops for dinner at New Great Wall Buffet in Grand Rapids Mich., on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. While eating dinner they learned that they most likely had enough points to compete in Michigan’s State competition alongside 160 other teams. This will be the first time ever team 4453, The Red Hot Chili Bots, has qualified for States since being formed in 2013.FIRST Robotics team 4453, The Red Hot Chili Bots pack up to leave Grand Valley State University after competing in the West Michigan District Competition on Saturday, March 26th, 2022. The team’s bright red trailer has stickers from past games and their logo with the phrase “We bring the heat!” on the side, which makes it easy to find among the other trailers.
My Experience
I was originally going to have my experience before the story, but I wanted it to speak for itself before I talked about how it felt for me. This story has a very special place in my heart as its focus is a program and a team that I love very much. My connections to the story made up most of my struggles but overall, I’m proud of how it turned out.
I struggled to balance the photojournalistic assignment aspect and the mentoring aspect of my role at the competition. I was the mentor in charge of scouting for the competition, which is something that takes a lot of time and critical thinking as it was my job to research the teams and figure out who would be best to work with us and in an alliance during the playoffs. I mention in one of the captions that the collector on our robot broke, what I didn’t mention was that the spare part we needed was back home in Marshall, an hour and a half away, and another mentor, Andrew, and I had to drive back home to get it at 9:30 pm. Because of things like this, my full attention couldn’t be on photography, but I honestly don’t think it would have made much of a difference for the photos. Only needed to focus on doing one thing would have been better before my mindset throughout the event, as there was a moment, I needed to remove myself and take a bit of a mental break.
I’ve been photographing at FIRST Robotics events for about 7 years now since I was a freshman in high school, and it’s what got me into photography. So, looking at my own photos during the competition, I felt like none of them were new and they were boring. It wasn’t until afterward when I was editing that I was able to see how much I’ve grown as a photographer, and I ended up having to cut pictures that I really liked because they didn’t contribute to the story the way I needed (which always hurts). Editing this time around was a lot harder than it normally is for me, after a couple rounds I had about 17 pictures that I really liked but managed to get it down to 12. Toning wasn’t any more difficult than normal, the event was dark, but it was fairly easy to lighten it up. I did end up having to take pictures on my phone which I wasn’t used to. Pictures at the hotel and in the restaurant were taken on my phone rather than my camera for convenience.
As I said earlier, I’m really proud of how this story turned out despite all that happened while I was doing it. I am extremely excited to accompany the team to States and capture all the moments there too. I am so proud of the kiddos.
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