Week 8 of my internship with Chesapeake Family was mostly just working on my digital Disney guide. I’ve made very good progress on it, and I’ve received good advice from my boss on how to improve it. On this post you will find two attached versions of my guide as PDF files to see how it’s grown overtime. I plan to add a cover page and an end page that will have illustrations, like artsy pictures of Disney icons that I’ll create in Adobe illustrator to work on my artistic skills.  The text, which used to be different sizes on each page, is now all the same for consistency. I am also going to add some more graphics on pages, such as some popcorn kernels on the snack page, as well as more photos. My boss wants me to take photos of Toy Story Land and other new additions to Walt Disney World when I visit the first week of August. So the finished product will not be available to view until after my trip (mid August), but you can view the progress I’ve made.

Unfortunately, I will not be working on the guide this week because part of my laptop has been damaged. It still works, but when I open it, the screen becomes more cracked and starts coming apart. This damage started sometime last month and has been getting worse. It may not have had as much protection as I thought it did when I carried it in my backpack, but I’ll be sure to fix that once I get my repaired laptop back, which should be next week. Until then, I will am doing photography and writing for Chesapeake Family.

disney bucket list draft 1

disney bucket list draft #2

Well, to start things off, I had a pretty standard week! It was business as usual at the games, taking pictures of the players, fans, etc. Our team is getting a little questionable though; we’re starting to win a game, then lose a game. We’ve solidified our spot in the playoffs however, so maybe our guys are taking an unspoken break…

Regardless of how they’re doing, I’m still enjoying myself at the games! I’ve developed a “squad” that I talk to each game. They’re  group of regulars who attend each game, and they always manage to sit right by the spot I park myself in to take pictures. So naturally, we’ve started to talk and enjoy the games together! Definitely gives my experience a little something more.

But speaking of experience, two things are currently weighing heavy on my mind. The main thing is, I’m starting to wonder what’s ever going to become of our pictures. I personally take about 100-200 every game, but we haven’t really had anyone confirm what’s going to ultimately happen to them. The whole “database on the website” thing has been thrown around, but nothing has been solidified for sure. I’m going to check in with my supervisor and see what she says, because her instructions were clear early on; take pictures of all the players from both teams, the fans, and the events in the stadium at each game. Seems simple enough…but what happens to all the pictures at the end?

And the second…I cannot stop calling runs “points.” What kind of disgrace to baseball. Shoutout to Dr. Wolek for reminding me, because I should know better. And yet I continue to slip up! At least I’ve started to correct myself when I post to the League’s Instagram, but yikes.

Hopefully both “issues” will get resolved…

I don’t think an organization system would ever annoy me until I got in The Hand Art Center. This week we learned that the Bluemner pieces are not correctly in their boxes. After going through every single box and writing down every single accession number we found that Past Perfect is not fully correct on every piece and that not everything is in the right spot. We discovered this while picking the new pieces for the Fall exhibit that we are trying to prepare for. Tonya and I are trying to figure out the next steps since this was my best project that I would be working on for my internship. Luckily I have almost found all the pieces I need to take picture of now it is just a matter of getting all the correct boxes to match in Past Perfect and for everything to have its certain place in the vault.

This is not what I expected to have happen as I went through every box but I am glad that we have finally figured out the big problem of why we cannot always find an art piece. So once we can find and matte everything for the show the rest of my internship will basically be to solve the organizational issues of the Bluemner collection. I’m hoping we can figure this out before the semester starts so we don’t have too many problems when finding pieces of the Spring show.

Since we have the Fourth of July off this week, it was kind of an easy week. Tonya has been filling out a grant report to send into the county for money for the museum. I had to go through and look at all the numbers for people at events and count how many people we had in the museum for the year and what times we were the busiest. I also had to go through the calendar and account for every event that we have had in the past year and list it. This was a good learning moment cause I was unaware for this process and did not know about it.

We decided to make this an easier transition for when this comes next year by keeping an excel sheet for the year and make sure we add the number of guests for events and write down last minute lectures or visitors that come to speak at the museum or use the seminar room. I hope this makes it easier when we have to fill it out again this time next year. I really think it was important for me to learn this so I am glad that I was here during this time to make a better system for us in the future.

Last week mostly consisted of two major things: Making progress on my digital Disney guide, and doing coverage of the town’s Independence Day celebrations.

The Disney guide is going very well. I’ve been writing all about the must-dos at Walt Disney World and creating graphics to decorate the guide with. It should be finished by the end of the internship, and it will include some new photos from a trip I’ll be taking the first week of August. I’ll be at Disney with some friends and while I’m there I’m going to take photos of all the new things to do including Toy Story Land for my guide.

There was a lot going on in Annapolis last week for Independence Day. Being a historically significant town, it’s appropriate to celebrate the holiday here.

On Wednesday, The Washington Capitals came to town with the Stanley Cup, allowing folks to touch it and take  selfies with it. They arrived by boat to the town’s dock and I was allowed access to the press-only area to get some exclusive photos, and I got to touch the cup! This win, being the team’s first, is a very big deal.

On Thursday, I took photos of the Annapolis 4th of July Parade. It featured political candidates, patriotic instrumentalists and performers, law enforcement, some neat floats and vehicles, and much more. For me, the biggest highlight was witnessing the survivors of the Capital Gazette and friends from other press, representing the importance of freedom of press and how we are #AnnapolisStrong.

Well, a pretty uneventful week meant that my brain fizzled, and consequently skipped a blog post on accident. But hey, at least the following games picked up and got me back into the swing of things again!

A few games ago, I finally figured out that I was able to rename a group of pictures at once. That’s probably basic knowledge, but I had no idea that was a possibility until recently. I was going through my 200+ pictures and naming groups of them individually, which was taking incredibly long as you can imagine. But now I know I can select a burst of pictures that belongs to a player, name them SoandSo(Player’s Number) with the date, and just let the computer take over from there…It’s the little things in life that keep you going.

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share the pictures I’ve been taking. I’d love to, since I’m bettering my action shots and what not. But oddly enough, my supervisor is quite secretive with our Dropbox. I can’t even share pictures with the players themselves! Apparently, the reason being is that all pictures are being put on a Master List on the League’s website. Eventually, that is. So if and when that happens, I’ll be sure to share the link, because I’d love to show the nitty gritty of what I’m doing!

I’m also going to be doing some videography and graphic work here at the halfway point of the season. Need to discuss things more with my supervisor, but I’m hoping to add even more to my portfolio!

Now if only our team could continue our winning streak and not slack off/relax now that we’ve guaranteed a spot in the playoffs…

Last week mostly involved working on more of my Digital Walt Disney World guide with InDesign. I’ve made pages about the top attractions to experience, the best Disney snacks, hotels and entertainment offerings, tips, etc, featuring both designs I’ve made (these include Mickey Mouse ears, wands, travel gear, etc.) and photos taken by yours truly.

My boss has been teaching me more basics about InDesign, such as how to wrap text and how to format the guide, because there are many different ways how. You can make it look like a flip book or a list. Mine will look like a flip book.

On Thursday I did more water testing, but this time I collected water samples from streams. Spa Creek Conservancy has been in need of someone to visit other locations besides the bay. After water testing, I worked on the Disney guide, and after that I walked around Annapolis to take photos for the magazine. I visited the state house and photographed the house and senate chambers, as well as various statues and works of art from unique angles. I even used my fish eye lens for some photos to capture the size of the chambers.

Now I’m sure you are all aware that there was unfortunately a shooting in Annapolis last week, and it happened to be down the street from where I work, about a mile away. Fortunately, I left work before it happened and wasn’t near the area at the time. I just want you guys to know that I am safe and sound, but what happened is a real shame. The people we lost, and their families, are in my heart. #AnnapolisStrong

This week is still moving ceramics from Sampson Hall to the Hand Art Center. It was been delayed due to rain almost everyday but has been successful for us to find them new homes in the vault. We have been getting ready for the reception that will be on Thursday for the Louis Freund exhibit and I am looking forward to my first reception in order to meet people. I think it is very important for students especially in my field to connect with faculty and make connections.

I really enjoyed working the reception, around 54 people came to the event and it has a good turn out and their was great food. I think these events are crucial for the Hand Art Center in order for more people to come and look at the exhibits. It was awesome being able to see other people and even some students and alumni come to the event and be able to talk to them and for them to ask us questions. I really enjoyed this and I cant wait for more events like these when I am able to continue to work here in the fall.

This week was little hectic as the previous. We began moving the ceramics collection from Sampson Hall into the Hand Art Center. My job was to of course catalog all the pieces and set their new location and take pictures for them all. So this took most of the days of the week. Tonya was always away at a conference so the only tasks were to really watch the front desk and count visitors and catalog. Due to the rain we have not received many visitors so it has been very slow. I have been looking through past perfect trying to see all the things I have to take pictures for and I hope to completely finish pictures by the end of the internship so the database is completely up to date and we will no longer have problem knowing what piece it is. other than this small cataloging the week has been pretty slow but efficient for me.

I’m so glad I waited to post until after the infamous doubleheader, because the two games last night were the craziest ones I’ve witnessed in my short term as an intern. Heck, I think they were the craziest baseball games I’ve witnessed period!

The week leading up to the doubleheader was typical. I took numerous pictures and videos as per usual at the home games, and was able to make two [x] [x] posts on Instagram that ended up gaining some attention! I’m particularly proud of the sunset shot, I must say. The limbo contest was also super fun to document because it was incredibly improvised; it was simply a way to keep the crowd and players entertained during an hour long rain delay. I can safely say it did its intended purpose!

While those games were fun however, they were nowhere near as entertaining as the dreaded doubleheader. This game had to have been cursed, I swear. There was just some kind of weird energy surrounding it. This is the game I mentioned in my previous blog posts that got cancelled twice, before being pushed back to the 25th of June (yesterday).

I could already tell things were going to be rocky as I walked through the stadium’s gates; it started to rain yet again, just enough to make the field a giant sauna. The first game was muggy and hot, but went just fine, with our home team winning. The second game however…I guess the heat got to both the umpires and players.

I watched as the umpires made a few sketchy calls, only to have one of our home team’s coaches get right up in his face to argue with him. Those particular calls helped the rival team score 4 points, so our nearly undefeated home team was not happy. Tensions continued to rise throughout the innings, and the crowd joined in with the heckling, the whole stadium turning into a medley of expletives and shouts towards the two umpires.

But things got particularly ridiculous when the umpires made a sketchy call in our favor. A rival player got so mad, that he rushed one of our players in what looked like was going to be a fist fight. And in a matter of seconds, all players from both teams rushed to the scene to either hold each other back or yell at the opposing side. It was wild. Definitely wish I could have documented it properly, but something tells me it would have gone against professional etiquette…

On top of that, it started to pour during the last inning, and the rival team scored four more points from what I still think was a foul ball instead of a home run. Crazy crazy game for sure, let me tell you. But hopefully now the weird doubleheader cursed has finally been lifted!