INTERNSHIP: Rehearsal of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”

While interning at the Post & Courier last November, I shot video of Charleston Stage doing rehearsals of a musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.  I teamed up with staff writer Bill Thompson and we shared the role of recording.  Syncing the shots with the audio of the song at the end was the most challenging part of the editing.

INTERNSHIP: Aramark Helps Renovate the Salvation Army

Last November I covered the renovation of the local Salvation Army center by employees from Aramark while on internship at the Post & Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.  The projects include painting a mural in the gym, painting designs on the walls of a classroom, creating benches, planting a flower garden, setting up an outdoor classroom and constructing playground equipment.  The effort was a collaboration with Care Force, a division of the non-profit organization City Year which provides corporations with opportunities to do volunteer work in local communities.

INTERNSHIP: Christmas Ornaments

While I was interning at the Post & Courier, I was given an assignment to help create the design used for a page in the newspaper about Christmas decorations.  I was asked to take pictures of several different ornaments against a white background.  The wires they hung from were removed in Photoshop.

INTERNSHIP: Quidditch at the College of Charleston (VIDEO)

Early in November, I shot a video of the College of Charleston’s quidditch team as it practiced on campus.  I used a Vixia HG21 camcorder with a shotgun mic.  Its small size made it virtually impossible to handhold without creating a very shaky image.  I still wanted mobility, however, so I opted for a monopod (the interviews used a tripod).  There were two obstacles encountered shooting the video.  First, there was a fountain on one end of the field which would ruin the audio.  This forced me to do much of my shooting on the other side.  Second, even though the practice started at 6:30 and lasted an hour, I had much less time to record video because I could barely shoot anything usable after the sun set.  I was able to brighten some of the video in post by boosting the gamma values but only to a certain extent.

INTERNSHIP: TSA Canine Bomb-Detection Unit (VIDEO)

On October 28, I covered a public demonstration of Charleston TSA’s new canine bomb-detection unit.  One of my colleagues took still photographs while I shot video.  I had limited time to capture footage and was initially worried that I did not collect enough b-roll video but everything turned out better than expected.  The video was recorded with a Canon XH-A1 using a shotgun mic (missing a windscreen, unfortunately).

INTERNSHIP: Car Wreck and Simulated High School Shooting

Around the middle of October I began my eight-week internship at the Post & Courier newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina.  Included are selections from my work.  NOTE: Photographs are property of the Post and Courier.

Car Wreck on I-26:

This was my first solo photo assignment.  I was driving around downtown Charleston looking for feature photos when my photo editor notified me of a nearby accident on I-26.  At first I had difficulties getting a clear shot because I was on the other side of the road and there was heavy traffic.  During a lull, however, I was able to get some pictures using a 70-200mm telephoto lens.  Here’s a slightly different perspective:

The first photo shown was chosen for publication in the B section (printed in black and white).

Simulated High School Shooting in Summerville:

On the morning of October 22nd, the Berkeley County Sherrif’s Office, SRT and EMS conducted a simulated high school shooting exercise at Cane Bay High School in Summerville.  Everything was made to seem as real as possible, from the use of blank rounds by the shooter to the application of fake blood and special make-up on the wounded.  The school was closed for a teacher workday with 72 students participating.  The police took about four minutes to arrive after gunshots were reported and the suspect was stopped 30 minutes after the police arrived (I was not told whether he was killed or apprehended in the simulation).

This was the photograph published in section B:

To end on a positive note, here is a photograph I took at Folly Beach a few days after moving in: