For this week, my work with Chesapeake Family took a new step. On Tuesday I created more Illustrator advertisements and wrote a review on The Incredibles 2 for families to read. The company likes to have me write movie reviews because I love going to the theater to watch new movies and my reviews tend to be positive. The other writer is negative most of the time and they want a review from another perspective. This week, she was surprisingly positive (everybody is about The Incredibles 2), but she was nasty about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and I liked that movie so I will be writing a positive review about that soon so that families don’t feel discouraged from seeing it.

On Wednesday, since I worked from home that day, my job was to practice Adobe InDesign with tutorials. I learned the basics, from inserting and fitting images into the frames to using different texts and sizes. After practice, I created one page with a simple list of things to do at Walt Disney World. My main summer project is to create a digital guide (like an online book) about the must-dos at Disney, basically a bucket list. Chesapeake Family Magazine writes all about vacation destinations for the summer, and because I am a Disney fanatic and expert, the company wants me to make a digital guide that will help families, mostly first-time visitors to Disney, make the most out of their visit.

On Thursday, I submitted my page, featuring a list, to my boss, and she gave me ideas on how to improve and add to it. So I spent that day editing the page to make it look better. What I did was list all the major attractions, giving them each a different text to make each stand out, and decorate the page with cute Disney designs.

This week’s work will be continuing the digital guide, and it’s something I can’t wait to share with all of you!

As we are still going through all the Bluemner works and having to reorganize files and pieces it has been interesting to be able to go through the process of finding works we have misplaced. Past Perfect has been updated to its best possible information at this point in time but it is also difficult to find pieces when you have to go through EVERY box which contain up to 50 – 100 pieces of work in order to find that one that you are missing. I think that this experience has made me realize hoe important it is to keep up with your documents and make sure they are updated in Past Perfect and in any other records you have for the body of work. Next week Dan Gunderson is allowing us to take some of his ceramics and moving them and adding them into our documents so that will be an interesting move for the team to complete and document in Past Perfect. I never knew that we had such a collection of works in the ceramics department so I am exciting to be able to photograph and add them in our records. I think that so far working here as given me a lot of experience that I was not expecting to receive as fast as I have but I am really glad to be able to work at my own university with a staff that I know and trust. It makes the internship process much more fun and relaxing but also challenges you to be your best in order to teach the newer students around you about the museum and the way Tonya wants things to be ran.

Slightly delayed post here because unfortunately, as were numerous baseball games! The weather really seemed to be against getting any kind of work done within the past week, with two games getting postponed and getting heavily delayed.

On Monday, a team from Wilmington, NC was supposed to travel our way and face us at home. It rained all day however, pushing the game to a doubleheader (two games in one night) on Friday. But on Friday however, it rained Thursday night and flooded the field, postponing the same team yet again! The doubleheader is now scheduled for the 25th, but honestly, I’m skeptical about it happening…This game just does not want to be played!

Thankfully, we were able to get a game in on Wednesday, and it was business as usual. I was able to get some great pictures, and I finally figured out how to film in HD on my DSLR camera! A little shaky without a tripod, sure, but still better than the quality an iPhone camera produces.

Tonight however, was even better. The game got delayed for an hour due to a wet field, but that meant for some great footage of players/fans messing around. A limbo contest started up between the fans and the home team, and I got to be in the center of the action filming the entire thing! The crowd also seemed oddly energized, so I got a lot of awesome footage of what was hip and happening away from the field.

I’m still having a ton of fun with this internship, but I do need a bit of a breather after this long game tonight! Thankfully the next game isn’t until this Friday…assuming it doesn’t get rained out.

On Tuesday, I finished writing my Disney Bucket List for Chesapeake Family Magazine and my article about Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, MD. Summer is around the corner and my boss wants me to write about all the fun things to do in Maryland or anywhere else that families reading our magazine would like to travel.

On Wednesday, I went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis to take photographs of my friend, Wes, aka “Captain Dee-Fense.” He’s a local celebrity in Maryland who is the world’s biggest Ravens fan, wearing purple Navy gear that’s covered in Ravens patches. He’s also famous for his charity and anti-bullying work, doing a lot to help the community. He wanted new photographs for his page so we went around the academy and I took photos of him from various angles with my Nikon D3200. This is the first time I have ever done portraits of someone and it was a great learning experience for if I ever want to go into the field of photography. Afterwards, Chesapeake Family interviewed him. I am also designing a cartoon of him in Adobe Illutrator.

On Thursday, I joined Spa Creek Conservancy in the Chesapeake Bay again, but this time I didn’t do any water testing. Instead, I went out on a kayak and followed them around the bay, taking photographs of them doing their work for the magazine. I also did some photography of the wildlife that lives along the water, such as ospreys and waterfowl.

Next week my boss is going to introduce me to a new Adobe software.

Things have definitely taken off, I must say! Two home games in very quick succession will do that to an intern I suppose. But yeah, after my first game and a good four days of downtime, I had four days of work to make up for it. I had a game, followed by a day of intense editing, followed by another game, and yet another day of editing. As crazy as it was, I can say it’s gotten me into the swing of things (that could almost be a baseball pun…)! I’m starting to learn how to edit faster and sort my work efficiently, and also what to focus on during games.

Last Wednesday was my second game, though it felt like my 10th. I adjusted to things pretty quick, even from only having a single game to kind of figure things out beforehand. I knew where to stand to take good pictures, which settings to use on my camera for day and night shooting, which fan moments to video tape, etc. Only bummer was, the rain decided to ruin my vibe around the 7th inning! Ah well; hiding under the bleachers for an hour builds character I suppose.

Following the game came editing for five hours the following afternoon, but I felt like I was getting faster/better at that too.

Sure enough, come game time on Friday and the subsequent editing day on Saturday, I was taking pictures, videos, and posting to social media in a sort of battle rhythm. Not to mention I got a sort of strategy for editing which greatly reduced my work time! So yeah, definitely getting a handle on things.

It’s also really nice because I’m finally starting to get gratification for the work I’m producing. My supervisor posted a lot of our captured highlights on the League’s website, so it’s nice to see my work paying off! I’m excited for what this upcoming week will bring; hopefully not more rain!

Week 3 of my Chesapeake Family internship revolved around the same stuff as well as some new stuff. On Tuesday and Wednesday I made more advertisements with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, some consisting of photos and some with designs. Since summer is near, these ads were beach and vacation related.

On Thursday, I went to Ocean City, a beach about two hours from work. The National Aquarium was releasing a seal back into the wild and Chesapeake Family wanted me to do coverage of it. Mom live streamed the event on Facebook and I took photographs with my Nikon D3200, which are on the Chesapeake Family Instagram and Facebook.

After the seal release, I visited the Ocean City boardwalk to take photographs and videos. Some photos are “postcards,” the usual shots you see in media , and some are a bit more “artsy,” shot from different angles to make them more unique. One shot, for instance, was taken with my camera on the ground , creating a view from a lower level and giving the boardwalk a Main Street kind of feel. I also took photographs of the beach, water, pods of dolphins swimming by, and The Haunted House, one of the oldest dark rides in the world. The owners let me ride for free since I am a fan of it and I will be writing an article about The Haunted House for the magazine.

Speaking of writing, I am also writing an article about Disney bucket lists for Chesapeake Family. Since I am a huge Disney fanatic and the company wants to give families Walt Disney World vacation tips, they’re having me write about it, and I might go to Disney for a weekend next month to do coverage of the new Toy Story Land that’s opening.

After the beach, I visited the Salisbury Zoo on my way home to do animal photography, and I’ll write about that too.

June 4th – June 7th

So far I have masters the proper ways to touch the art with gloves and how to use gloves as your real hands basically. This week and next weeks project includes the process of photographing all of the Oscar Bluemner works that we do not have in Past Perfect…which is WAY more than you would expect. The hardest process is truly finding the drawing or painting since we constantly move the pieces to other boxes if they don’t fit or if they are in mats for frames. Luckily so far I have masters looking at incredibly small print and moving pieces carefully before and after pictures. I have actually really enjoyed looking at the different works that I have never seen. My favorites have been his colored pencils and ink sketches. You can see the talent that he had during his life and it amazes me the way that some believe it wasn’t good enough.

I am excited to finish the process of going through the boxes next week because I saved the biggest boxes for last so I am excited to see what else we have. Many of the pieces I have to photograph have not been shown off in the Hand Art Center as much so it is nice to see how well kept they are in the boxes. I think that last ones that I look through will be the best and biggest that has still been unseen by the community and that we could possibly show next year.

May 30th and 31st –

This was the beginning days of my internship at the Hand Art Center working under Tonya Curran. Today I was taught the process of scoring the walls in order to get ready for a new exhibit that would be displayed over the summer. Scoring is the process of taking out art hardware filling the holes with Spackle. I have not really used this before so it was definitely a new experience to do. After filling the holes I sanded them and then repainted the walls before I could hang the art and level it out on the wall. I believe that this was a fun learning experience as I got to know the other people working in the museum alongside me.

The next day was the first day of being able to dive into the Oscar Bluemner exhibit, which I really enjoyed! We took the exhibit down and I was able to take them out of the frames and finally got to learn about the vault! I had taken museology with Tonya prior to this internship so I was aware of the work that I would be handling and taking care of. I was taught the documentation software Past Perfect and learned the beginnings of it. My favorite part of putting away the art was truly getting to see all of the works that I had not yet seen. I like the ability to be able to put it away and document it on my own with the guidance of Tonya.

Well, the internship I’ve been planning for/looking forward to is finally underway! It’s honestly surreal to think about how just months prior I was searching fervently for a summer job or internship. I was constantly scouring the Internet and worrying that I might not have anything significant to do with my downtime. But now, here I am in Morehead City, North Carolina, settling in to my new duties as a Coastal Plain League multimedia intern.

I have to say that I had a lot of mixed emotions going into this position. On one hand, I was excited for the possibilities, as a multimedia position often allows for work in different mediums. Seeing as my portfolio definitely needs more love, I was happy for the chance to have a multitude of pictures, videos, graphics, and maybe even audio work under my belt. But on the other hand, I was nervous that I wouldn’t enjoy it, that I would be so far from home, and that it wouldn’t be as rewarding of an experience as I hoped.

After completing my first game/first line of duties Friday night however, I can safely say that those fears are pretty much being laid to rest! Friday night marked the first home game of the baseball team I’ve been assigned to, the Morehead City Marlins. I was definitely a little nervous going in, as I had a lot on my plate. Essentially, I was expected to take pictures and videos of the game and all its events, coupled with posting regular game updates on social media. It was my first time taking more “professional” pictures, and therefore I was worried about the quality of work I would produce.

Once I got into a battle rhythm however, it ended up being a lot of fun! I was able to scope out just the right places to photograph the action, and with the correct settings, I was able to capture some shots I didn’t even know I was capable of taking! Definitely a confidence booster. Not only that, but I ended up with over 500 pictures by the end of the game, ie plenty of work to show for myself. And that was only one game out of many more to come.

Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to what the next games will bring, and I’m excited to see how much my skills improve over the next months! I’ve also got my fingers crossed for some graphic/audio opportunities with this internship, so I’ll keep you posted on any new experiences!

For my second week of interning with Chesapeake Family, I created more advertisements for the magazine and its social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, where they appear as links for the user to click on. Some of these advertisements are photos (some photos belong to the company and some are bought) with text and logos, and some advertisements are designs that I create entirely with Adobe Illustrator. For example, one design I created is of a stage with parted curtains and a spotlight shining on the center with the words “Stage Struck,” an article about theater programs for kids.

The art director taught me new Photoshop and Illustrator techniques that I wasn’t familiar with, such as making the text on an ad “pop out” more. I’ve always been familiar with the different fonts and sizes, but there are ways to edit the shadows, transparency, etc. of text that I previously wasn’t aware of.

Another part of my internship that I started this week is going out on a boat with Spa Creek Conservancy, a conservation group that tests water levels in the Chesapeake Bay. We check the bacteria to make sure the water is safe to swim in, and the nutrients to make sure there aren’t any algae blooms that deplete the oxygen in the water. Spa Creek Conservancy and Chesapeake Family are partners, and I will be taking photos and videos of us on the boat on nice days (it was cloudy and rainy this week so  didn’t bring my camera) for our media. I also participated in a live Facebook stream with Chesapeake Family where I discussed water testing.

According to the art director, I will be starting a new project next week.