My Commons Life

News & features about the Vanderbilt Commons from the students who live here

Takeaways from Fall For the Arts 2021 through the eyes of a Novice Photojournalist

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On an inspiration-high, I decided to become a photojournalist for the week and learned exactly how hard and fury-inducing photos can be (Mad respect for photographers now!). My subject was the performers and attendees of Vanderbilt’s Fall for the Arts during Family Weekend 2021 (10/2/2021). Here are some of the photos I took this weekend and some of my personal takeaways from being a photojournalist. (Shout out to Mr. Carroll at the VSC for letting me rent that sweet camera!)

1. First-Year Students enjoying music before Fall for the Arts
2. A student performs a hip-hop-inspired dance to a K-Pop Number
3. First-Year Student, Emini Offut, in a great mood after his friend killing the K-Pop dance!
4. The highly talented singers from Melanated Acapella performing a song
5. The super live crew from Confi-Dance were in a great mood after they all killed their solos!
6. Extremely talented. All of Them. Period.
7. This acapella group slayed it – I promise!
8. Slightly Blurry First-Year Student, Zack Maaieh enjoying some food with his friend Madison
9. A riveting piece of poetry being delivered about the way we consider names
10. Stephan Bellamy (the newest member of the MCL staff!) delivering a piece as powerful as the tree he was describing
11. The dancers of Nilaja Amari serving energy, talent, and grace in their 3 Modern African-style dances.
12. The passion and energy of this guy were felt by the whole crowd in a lively call and response.
13. A slightly blurry picture of first-years, full of food, Tyler and Steven enjoying their time at Fall for the Arts
14. Vanderbilt’s smash-hit band, Colorado Straightedge, serving up an eclectic mix of songs ranging from Olivia Rodrigo to Childhood-Themed Rock Jam

What I learned from my day as a photojournalist

Taking photos is hard! Out of the 216 photos I took at fall for the arts, only about 12 ended up being non-blurry, centered, or “right” for this post! Below are some of my biggest takeaways, and the photos where there could have been improvement (so we all can learn something!)

  1. Takeaway #1 – Not everyone’s face may focus in every picture! (And it is royally frustrating!) ex. Picture 1, Picture 8, and Picture 13 (p1, p8, p13)!
  2. Takeaway #2 – It is very important to remember who or what you are taking a picture of! (I definitley decided to take pictures of people whose names completely forgot, and I couldn’t seem to find a list of the performers- so we’ll never know who these people are from the captions) (seen missing from the captions of almost every photo)
  3. Takeaway #3 – It takes a lot of confidence and finesse to get up close with subjects. As nice as the zoom is on the fancy camera I used – it still can’t beat the shots I got by getting close to the stage. (p7 and 12)
  4. Takeaway #4 – This is not a takeaway, this is a question – someone please tell me how to focus the camera on faces. (p8 and p13)
  5. Takeaway #5 – Taking photos at a live-event is a very rewarding experience. While shows like this are fun to enjoy from one’s seat in the audience, it is an entirely different experience trying to capture shots of big performace moment – feet away from the performers. And of course, there is no better feeling than finding a gem photo after sifting through a hundred “blurry” photos (p5, p7, p11)

With these lessons, the next time I decide to be a photojournalist for the day – I’ll come back with even bigger and better work. I hope you enjoyed the photos and learned a thing or two about photojournalism. Thanks for reading, viewing, and everyone who agreed to be photographed!