P.O.W.

This section of UkPJ.org is reserved as a special space for the hard working staff of the Kentucky Kernel. This talented group of people make up the only collegiate newspaper staff in the state putting out a daily newspaper of any kind; much less something on par with this award-winning publication. To recoginze their effort this page will be devoted to featuring the Kernel Picture of the Week, and to the hard working photographer pushed the bar of UK Photojournalism a little bit higher.

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Week Six P.O.W. – Brad Luttrell.

Kernel photographer Brad Luttrell is this week’s photographer of the week, primarialy for his work at the civil war reenactment in Perryville at the beginning of the week.  There were a number of photographer’s there, but Brad put forth a little extra effort and donned some Civil War garb which let him shoot from the battle field, while the others where on the sidelines.

To see more of Brad’s work, from both Perryville and other assignments, visit his blog at lenscapremoved.wordpress.com

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Week Three and Four P.O.W.’s – Ed Matthews and Elliot Hess.

Getting everything ready for the Picture Kentucky workshop kept me from getting up last week’s POW in a timely manner, so this week I’m lumping both together. That said, the photographer’s of the past two weeks are Ed Matthews and Elliot Hess. Ed and Elliot were chosen for POW for a number of reasons, not entirely tied to directly to the quality of the work they produced over the past two weeks. First and foremost they were chosen because they have been putting extra effort into their work, both for the Kernel and for themselves. This is so important, especially in a growing photojournalism program, and whatever success this program has in the FUTURE will be a result of how hard you guys work NOW.

Ed and Elliot were up at the crack of dawn two weeks ago to shoot the ROTC cadets going through their unexpected entry water training, for which the cadets are blind folded and made to jump of the high platform into the pool below. Rather than just taking pictures from the pool side, Ed rented scuba gear and shot the training exercise from the bottom of the pool. Awesome.

Ed and Elliot have also been shooting on their own, producing work that didn’t stem from an assignment sheet at the Kernel. This is how you get better. Ed and Elliot are slowly learning this and as a result of shooting on their own their pictures have gotten a notch better over the last few weeks.

Ed and Elliot traveled to Eastern Kentucky to find compelling pictures, and eventually found a drilling team drilling for natural gas deep in the mountains. Doing work like this is good. It teaches you how to think on your feet, how to find great pictures when there isn’t an assignment sheet telling you where they are, and how gain access in difficult situations.

Speaking of difficult situations, Elliot has been spending time hanging out with homeless people in Lexington lately in an effort to get his homeless project off the ground. With this first picture he’s off to a good start, and if he stays committed to the project and keeps shooting on a regular basis it could turn out to be a very nice project. Working with homeless people, as a photographer, is a difficult balance between gaining access and getting close enough to tell a good story and staying safe. Learning how to maintain a good balance between those takes time and practice, and only come with actually putting yourself out there and taking pictures. I appreciate Elliot being out there and shooting.

Elliot and Ed also spent time, on their own, at the stockyards looking for cool features and great light. Fortunately the stockyard has plenty of both.

Finally, I really like Elliot’s picture at the drilling rig in Eastern Kentucky. It could be better, but it’s a good start to telling the story of the people who do this kind of work. This guy works 12 hour days for 14 days straight, gets two days off, and then does it all over again. A lifestyle like that is exhausting, and I think Elliot caught a little of that in this guys body language, which is why I like this picture. It’s not just a picture of a guy doing a job, it’s telling a bit of his story too.

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Week Two P.O.W. – Ed Matthews.

Ed’s a bit of a quiet guy, but it pays off because behind that quiet exterior is a thinking man’s photographer. We spent some time last week talking about how to bring back an interesting look at UK’s opening football game against Eastern, and I think Ed brought back some pretty cool images with a lot of potential. In addition to finding access to some pretty difficult areas, Ed was climbing in the score board, mounting remotes and really hunting for some new angles at Commonwealth Stadium. I really like these pictures, but at the same time I think they are a good base from which Ed is going to make an even better group of pictures in the near future. UK’s big rival Louisville is in Lexington next weekend and Ed had a number of exciting ideas for how he’s going to push the limits a little during that game.

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Week One P.O.W. – Britney McIntosh.

The first Kernel photographer of the week for the semester is freshman photographer Britney McIntosh. Although a freshman, Britney has been working with the Kernel over a year now, beginning with an academic internship during her senior year of high school. Over the past week Britney has repeatedly been putting extra effort into her assignments, even going back multiple times on occasion to bring back an excellent picture. On her last assignment, and with her last feature for the week Britney really worked the situation trying to find a better angle, and both times I think she was successful. At the Kernel we appreciate a thirst for knowledge and a good work ethic, and therefore Britney is our photographer of the week.