Blogging from The Oklahoman interns

Jubilation and Dejection

A week of shooting Women’s College World Series softball all led up to the championship game between OU and Alabama.

My favorite part about shooting sports is the whirlpool of emotions happening all around me.

Wednesday’s game was the the one the brought out the most powerful moments after OU lost to Alabama 5-4.   Staff photographer Nate Billings and I tried our best to capture those moments.

-Garett Fisbeck

Click here to view the rest of the championship game photos between OU and Alabama.

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Unexpected Surprises

A concert in the park doesn’t seem like the sexiest assignment.

Going into it, you know there are standard photos you have to get – The band, people in lawn chairs, etc.

I love going on assignments like these and making pictures that I’m proud of.  It makes me feel like I’m not just putting forth medial effort.

The more senior photographers on staff will comment that assignments like concerts in the park are hard to make good photos out of, because they have shot them 1000 times before, but that’s something I will never understand.

People are what make good photos and each person has their own personality and their own story to tell.

As long as there are people, I will gladly shoot 1000 more concerts in the park.

-Garett Fisbeck

Bonus Photo:  Oklahoma City Skyline at Sunset

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Rain Delays…

I’m sitting in the press room at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Championship game was supposed to happen an hour and a half ago, but it won’t stop raining.

I’m sitting here geeking out with the rest of the photographers about gear and techniques.

I have drank 4 cups of Coca-Cola and I’m almost done eating my sunflower seeds.  They are about to bring pizza in.

They won’t call the game until the delay goes past 9 p.m.

Also, The Thunder are currently losing 31-16 to the Spurs.

Here are some photos I shot of some dreary softball fans.

-Garett Fisbeck

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Quartz and Lemons

Fellow intern Garett Fisbeck and I set out at 8 am this morning to cover the Quartz Mountain Arts Camp hosted by the Oklahoma Arts Institute. At this camp, talented high school students from around the state spend a few weeks honing their craft — be it music, acting, film, visual art, whatever.

Garett and I set out early because we wanted to catch as much of the day as possible. Both of us were eager to get to the camp and start doing what we love: telling stories.

Upon our arrival at the camp, we were given the unfortunate news that we wouldn’t be doing any story telling that day — at least not at the camp. Why?

BECAUSE THE CAMP DOESN”T START UNTIL NEXT WEEK!

That’s right. I woke up at 6 am, packed, traveled over two hours to Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, all for nothing. So it seemed anyway.

Garett and I left the camp. We were a little befuddled, maybe a little woeful. Still, there was one thing we weren’t. Defeated.

Not wanting to immediately abandon the location we had worked too hard to get to, Garett and I decided to climb one of the nearby mountains (and by mountain, I mean odd pile of rock, cement and wild undergrowth that was almost certainly man-made. There were plenty of natural, Oklahoma-sized mountains nearby, but they would have taken too long to climb). We climbed like men and sweat like dogs. In other words, we had a blast.

(And yes, I know dogs don’t sweat)

[Garett:  I accidentally deleted all the photos from our mountain climb.  They are forever lost in the ether.  However, I assure you, it happened.]

As we left the resort area and approached the main town of Lone Wold, we noticed a large water slide by the side of the road next to a vintage-styled amusement park — a small town’s Coney Island. The water slide was covered in children doing what they do best, having a good time.

Since both Garett and I are suckers for the intrinsic beauty of humanity, we just had to stop. Garett shot some fantastic photos. I asked a few questions to an employee of the park, Stacie Turbush. This was actually her summer job. During the school year she works as a teacher at Altus Junior High.

An age old question has often been, ‘what do teachers do during the summer?’ Thusly, I plan on writing a story about her in the near future. It may possibly even tie in with the intern group project, which you non-interns may or may not hear about at a later date.

When the kids left, so did the park’s lively atmosphere. We loaded up the car and began to head home. We weren’t returning empty-handed, however.

Garett got wild art from an area of the state not always visited by the Oklahoman. I got a lead on a story that I never would have written otherwise. We had successfully turned our lemons into lemonade.

Together we drove away, right into the rainy eastern horizon. The same horizon we’ll be returning from next week.

[SHOUT OUT TO GARETT RAY FISBECK, WHO CO-CONTRIBUTED TO THIS BLOG POST]

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WCWS Softball

The NCAA Women’s College World Series of softball is held in Oklahoma City.

Most might think that 11 hours of softball in one day can be grueling work, but I actually really enjoy it.

I have spent the past three days in the sun, getting a bit of color, eating free food, and hanging out with photographers from every organization from the NCAA to the Associated Press.

Last night was the first of three games in the championship series between OU and Alabama.

Thankfully, OU won, so I got a big centerpiece on the front page of Sports this morning.

OU is currently 1-0 with Alabama.  If they don’t win tonight, they will play again on Wednesday night.

-Garett Fisbeck

Here are some WCWS galleries from the past week:

Finals Game 1 (OU vs Alabama) Photos by Garett Fisbeck

Day 1 Photos by Bryan Terry

Day 2 Photos by Bryan Terry

Day 3 Photos by Garett Fisbeck

Day 4 Photos by Garett Fisbeck

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Garett Fisbeck: Round Two

Garett here.

You might remember me from last summer.  I’m the photo intern.

I am excited for my second tour as an intern at The Oklahoman.  This year’s intern group is a vibrant, talented group of young dudes and ladies and I can’t wait to see what kind of gems they come up with.

My role on this blog will be to provide you with a visual representation of my love for the state and the people of Oklahoma.  I also like to share the stories behind my images, and the reasons I think they are special.

This is a beautiful state, and I hope I can show you why.

-Garett Fisbeck

Shameless Plugs:

Portfolio

Alternate Crop Photo Blog (The Oklahoman Photo Blog)

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Journalists get paid to do the silliest things….

I should first point out that I am an unpaid intern, but the headline stands; being a journalist allows you to go on some pretty cool adventures.

When I received my assignment Thursday to photograph children and mentors of Big Brothers Big Sisters kayaking, I expected to show up and photograph them getting into their boats and rowing off into the sunset.

Thankfully, this was not the case.

Dave Lindo of OKC Kayak was nice enough to offer to have one of his volunteers, Sharon, escort me around Lake Hefner to get a closer look at the action.

I’ve done a lot of cool stuff in the last eight weeks, but riding in a kayak for the first time has all that other stuff beat.

Some of the guys on the beach threatened to pull my “man card” for not getting out and helping Sharon pull the boat back on shore, but I like my shoes and expensive camera too much to have any sort of pride in that situation.

Now that I have kayaking behind me, I’m hoping maybe horseback riding is next.

Read about how Big Brothers Big Sisters lost federal funding here.

To see more photos, click here to see the gallery.

-Garett Fisbeck

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OKC’s Royals Living Life to the Fullest

Watch the slideshow

For the last few weeks, I have spent some quality time with an extraordinary group of gentlemen.

The Oklahoma City Royals are a group of 75+ senior softball players that get together every Tuesday night to fellowship and play the sport they love.

Sports intern Tariq Lee and I worked on this story together. I produced a slideshow separate from his story and we somehow came out at the end of it with a great package that is featured in the sports section of the Oklahoman and on its very own nDepth page on NewsOK.com.

One of the most profound moments I witnessed while doing this project was when one of the guys pulled out a piece of paper with the name of a condition he had been diagnosed with.  He had to write it down so he could remember what it was called and tell the other guys about it.

The condition was polymyalgia rheumatica, a syndrome with pain or stiffness, usually in the neck, shoulders, and hips.

I was inspired by the positive outlook of the players. I won’t ruin any more of the story for you, I’ll just say that I hope I’m this cool when and if I turn 80-years-old.

Check out Tariq’s story and my slideshow here:  OKC’s Boys of Summer

-Garett Fisbeck

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Harry Potter Premier

I was less than impressed the dedication of Harry Potter fans today at the Quail Springs mall.

I was expecting to see more people dressed up like HP characters, but this was nothing like a Star Wars premier.  There were a few oddballs, but the majority of the people that decided to dress up, dressed up as Harry.

Nevertheless, hundreds of people lined the walls of the mall more than 9 hours before the midnight premier of the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and that’s something a fellow geek can admire.

-Garett Fisbeck

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International Finals Youth Rodeo

I had the privilege to get a great assignment, covering the IFYR.

It was an excellent environment for action and feature shots and so far, my favorite assignment.

See more from IFYR here.

-Garett Fisbeck

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