For our final project, Josh, Preet and myself decided to create a website for prospective University of Washington students. Each of us has a separate page reflecting on our time at the UW and what the school means to each of us. Furthermore, there’s an introduction on the front page and a resources page where prospective students can find links to everything they need.
Link to homepage: http://brydenjoshpreet.wordpress.com/
Link to my Soundslides and photo gallery:
http://brydenjoshpreet.wordpress.com/bryden/
Direct link to Soundslides (“Future, Hope & Progess”):
http://students.washington.edu/bjm24/com466/bryden_final/
Courtesy of erieyohoho.com
Direct link to mp3
On Wednesday, a panel including myself and two other members of the greater Seattle community appeared on “Voices of Diversity” — a show on local radio station KBCS 91.3 FM in Bellevue — discussing Osama bin Laden’s death. It was truly a fascinating conversation. I was invited on after my opinion column entitled “What bin Laden’s death means to our generation.” Here’s the description from the station’s website:
President Obama told the nation a small team of NAVY Seals killed Osama bin Laden at a compound in Pakistan. The president’s dramatic announcement brought cheering crowds into the streets in cities and on campuses across the country. Some media pundits criticized the celebratory mood. Others felt the reaction was appropriate. What do you think? How did you react to the news of Osama’s death? Today on Voices of Diversity we talk to local residents from a variety of backgrounds, all with strong feelings about the killing of Osama bin Laden and its aftermath.
Host
Sonya Green
Guests
Lynn Fitz-Hugh is clerk of the Eastside Friends Meeting. The Friends are also known as the Quakers and Lynn has been one all her life. She is also a practicing psychotherapist, a wife and a mother.
Tarek Dawoud is a member of the Downtown Muslim Association and speaker on Islam. Tarek is also President of the Washington chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a native of Egypt.
Bryden McGrath is a University of Washington student and journalist for the University of Washington Daily newspaper.
1. @TheNewsChick (local) Linda Thomas – Twitter enthusiast, lots of great links and, of course, the anchor in the mornings on KIRO FM.
2. @sona23 (local) Sona Patel – Associate producer for social media at The Seattle Times.
3. @pdebarros (local) Paul de Barros – Great music writer at The Seattle Times.
4. @barlowkm (local) Katrina Barlow – News producer at The Seattle Times, enough said!
5. @jontalton (local) Jon Talton – Lots of great economic/business tweets.
In trying to tell a visual story of a small town hit by the economic downturn, I clearly wanted to focus on how the town has changed. I tried to do this through the order of the photos I chose — an introduction to the town (first photo), a comparison to some history (second photo), and then getting into some obvious visuals that could be associated with an economic recession. I’d say my biggest challenge was just covering the town. It may be small but it’s still a town with plenty of areas and neighborhoods. Choosing where to go and what to shoot in a limited amount of time (about two hours) was the toughest part of it all.
Overall, I think I met a lot of my goals. For the most part, it turned out how I envisioned besides the fact that I’m not some professional photographer. In terms of learning, this project just continued my education in photography. There are a few shots I’m pretty proud of (specifically some of the color and composition in a few photos), but considering I took around 100 photos or so, I obviously still have tons to learn. And I feel like that comes with experience. If I had a chance to redo this assignment, I’d want to at least give myself some more time and explore areas I wasn’t able to get to (or park and get out of my car at the time). There are at least a couple specific places and images in my mind that I wish I could have gotten to. Furthermore, I’d try to get more people in my photos. People, at least to me, are far more compelling than most photos of buildings.
The “Great Recession” of the late-2000s hit the United States hard, having a particularly visible impact on many small towns throughout the country. Here, Shelton, Wash. is examined.
Presentation Transcript
- Visitors are welcomed to the small town of Shelton, Wash. (population 8,442 according to the 2000 census) from atop the Hillcrest neighborhood. Shelton resides on the western side of Puget Sound, about a 30 minute drive north of Olympia.
- This view above Oakland Bay shows the Simpson Timber Company, which dominated the economy of Shelton, Wash. for several decades. Along with many other logging towns, both Shelton and the Simpson Timber Company have seen better days. The “Great Recession” of the late-2000s hasn’t helped.
- A logging truck passes by houses in downtown Shelton, Wash. near Loop Field and Evergreen Elementary School. Apart from main drags, the roads in Shelton – particularly downtown – have been increasingly less maintained in recent years.
- “No Biomass Incinerators,” reads a sign taped to the back window of a car in downtown Shelton, Wash. Plans from Adage called for a 55-megawatt wood-fired power plant to be built four miles from downtown, creating jobs in the process. In March, Adage cancelled their plans due to a heavy backlash from the community.
- Wal-Mart moved into Shelton, Wash. in the 1990s, providing employment and low prices to residents of Mason County. It has since been turned into a “Supercenter” that provides a full grocery selection (Shelton High School’s Mini-Dome sits in the background). Wal-Mart’s presence has driven business to “uptown” Shelton, but away from downtown and stores like Safeway and Red Apple.
- A closed tavern in downtown Shelton, Wash. on the busy North 1st Street has been vacant for several years. In the window is a reflection of a Dairy Queen that is currently being remodeled.
- Mill Creek Motel has long been a vacant lot on Olympic Highway South, just outside of Shelton, Wash. All that remains is its rotting sign.
- Above is all that remains of the popular Timber Bowl bowling alley in downtown Shelton, Wash., which burned down in November 2008. Shelton High School’s powerhouse women’s bowling team now has to travel to Olympia to bowl.
- The First Baptist Church in downtown Shelton, Wash. has faced declining attendance and membership in recent years. The town’s Catholic, Lutheran and Mormon churches also have large memberships.
- An old apartment building in downtown Shelton, Wash. is boarded up and overrun by weeds, a common scene in its neighborhood.
- Credits
Bryden McGrath
Twitter: @Bryden13
Email: brydenmcgrath@yahoo.com
1. @BillPlaschke (national) Bill Plaschke – Outstanding L.A. Times columnist. I read his insight every chance I get.
2. @woodypaige (national) Woody Paige – Hilarious Denver Post columnist. Most entertaining Around the Horn panelist.
3. @masonkelley (local) Mason Kelley – Tons of great local sports updates on Twitter account.
4. @RealMikeWilbon (national) Mike Wilbon – Co-host of Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, and also a great sports journalist.
5. @sportsguy33 (national) Bill Simmons – Author and ESPN columnist. Lots of great humor.
1. @ScottBourne (national) Scott Bourne – Great photography related tweets (publisher of photofocus.com).
2. @RoshSillars (national) Rosh Sillars – Lots of journalism tweets, co-author of “Linked Photography.”
3. @BillFrakes (national) Bill Frakes – Dude has shot more than 200 Sports Illustrated covers. Respect.
4. @jeremycowart (national) Jeremy Cowart – Celebrity photographer, founder of two websites including one where photographers give back to community.
5. @monophotography (global) Donald Cameron – Creative director of photography at SlashThree, an online community for photographers.
For my first full audio story, I used audio I collected while working on a story for The Daily. In the two and a half minute clip (below), you’ll hear both Frank Warren, the creator of PostSecret, and Katie McCorkell, a junior at the UW and president of the student group Active Minds.
The only disappointment I really had in making this was that I was unable to use any ambient sound. Luckily, I think the topic is extremely relevant (the event is tonight!) and PostSecret is an extremely popular website/event/book(s) — especially among college students.
My only real problem in putting this project together was uploading the .mp3 to SoundCloud. At first it would make a bunch of annoying noise that wasn’t in the original file. After a few minutes I realized I had forgotten to set the track to 44.1 kHz in Audacity. Once I fixed that, it was good to go! So without further ado…
File size: 2.37 MB / Time: 2:35 / Download
This photo from The Seattle Times was taken for a recent story about a man that’s living under the 520 bridge. I find it intriguing because the viewer gets a sense of the man’s living conditions, as well as a really interesting view of being underneath the bridge.
- Mark Harrison/The Seattle Times
Next up, a story from The New York Times about a Baltimore politician that recently died. The photo drew me to the story in the first place. It’s such a great perspective.
Monica Lopossay/The New York Times
A third great news story photo is this shot from Lucas Anderson, a photographer at The Daily, taken for a story about the annual American Indian Student Commission’s powwow. It probably gave us our best front page of last quarter. I love the lighting.
Lucas Anderson/The Daily of the University of Washington
And last is this photo from the Western Washington University student newspaper, The Western Front, involving their student government presidential candidate debate. Yuck, I just can’t find anything appealing about it at all.
Michelle Naranjo/The Western Front
1. @iraglass (national) Ira Glass – This American Life host on NPR.
2. @despeaux (local) Cliff DesPeaux – Popular local photojournalist.
3. @ElaineMThompson (local) Elaine Thompson – Local AP photographer. Awesome person.
4. @notmarcocollins (local) Marco Collins – Former KNDD DJ in the 90s, now working at KEXP.
5. @GregR1077 (local) GregR – DJ at KNDD.
Categories: Assignments, COM466
Tags: 107.7 The End, AP, COM466, Follow Friday, Journalism, KEXP, KNDD, NPR, Photojournalism, Radio, This American Life
