![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Reverb, Day 15: application
In a bit of synchroncity, today's prompt from Kat McNally is:
...and the slip in today's fortune cookie from Chinatown tells me, "Try it, you may like it."
A big first for me this year was covering the Cincinnati Open as credentialed media, for Tennis Buzz. Even with extensive preparation, I made rookie mistakes. I didn't get enough sleep. I didn't upload even a sixth of the photos I took, never mind transforming my scribbled notes into insightful, in-depth match and training session reports within the window of time that the general public would've cared. I even literally got mired in the mud in the parking lot (and thanked God I'd chosen to leave early that day, because it would have been even more mortifying trying to propel my car out of that mess if there had been other people around/behind me besides the attendant).
Even so, it went better than I'd dared to hope: I filed eight detailed, formal reports for Tennis Buzz, filling three specific requests from the editor (a report about the city, a report on attending pressers, and a portfolio of Stefan Edberg photos). She created several additional features from the other photos I managed to upload to my Flickr, and I glimpsed other fans (and at least one Top 25 player) retweeting the snaps as well. The tournament used one of my Kvitova photos in their report on her loss to Svitolina. I got to ask technical questions during pressers and mixed zone interviews, and listen in on French conversations. I got to chat with various journalists and tournament/tour personnel and got a better sense of what I'll want to do next time I apply for a press pass (as well as realizing that doing so isn't a high priority for me.
I will almost certainly attend my next tournament as a mere spectator, in large part because I want to introduce a friend to live tennis and I can't do that and be on assignment at the same time, especially since that friend will be keen to see specific players). I'd like to focus just on photography next time -- perhaps pairing up with a writer or agency and concentrating on their assignments. I'll know more about what kind of homework to do -- e.g., noting whether a player is left- or right-handed and positioning myself in the stadium to best photograph their serve. And so on.
What will I do anyway in 2015, that I currently find daunting? There's a large calligraphy commission on the horizon, some designed-long-ago projects I need to transform from sketches to reality, and a list of things-I'd-like-to-make for next winter's round of holidays. It is always a monster jamboree, the noise whistling at the edges of the abyss between what I picture in my head and what I am actually capable of. But I am also the only person with the vision and love to see these particular projects into being, so my skills being not where I'd hoped they'd be by now is ultimately irrelevant: these things get made when I get over myself (and the skills not incidentally improve) and put in the time with knife and nib.
(I have been writing a post in my head for some months now about Ma Ingalls hating sewing and yet being fearless about cutting into delicate fabric because she had made so many dresses by the time Laura was old enough to bring home the very pretty lawn. Someday...)
What are you really proud that you made happen in 2014, despite the gremlins? And what will you do anyway in 2015?
...and the slip in today's fortune cookie from Chinatown tells me, "Try it, you may like it."
A big first for me this year was covering the Cincinnati Open as credentialed media, for Tennis Buzz. Even with extensive preparation, I made rookie mistakes. I didn't get enough sleep. I didn't upload even a sixth of the photos I took, never mind transforming my scribbled notes into insightful, in-depth match and training session reports within the window of time that the general public would've cared. I even literally got mired in the mud in the parking lot (and thanked God I'd chosen to leave early that day, because it would have been even more mortifying trying to propel my car out of that mess if there had been other people around/behind me besides the attendant).
Even so, it went better than I'd dared to hope: I filed eight detailed, formal reports for Tennis Buzz, filling three specific requests from the editor (a report about the city, a report on attending pressers, and a portfolio of Stefan Edberg photos). She created several additional features from the other photos I managed to upload to my Flickr, and I glimpsed other fans (and at least one Top 25 player) retweeting the snaps as well. The tournament used one of my Kvitova photos in their report on her loss to Svitolina. I got to ask technical questions during pressers and mixed zone interviews, and listen in on French conversations. I got to chat with various journalists and tournament/tour personnel and got a better sense of what I'll want to do next time I apply for a press pass (as well as realizing that doing so isn't a high priority for me.
I will almost certainly attend my next tournament as a mere spectator, in large part because I want to introduce a friend to live tennis and I can't do that and be on assignment at the same time, especially since that friend will be keen to see specific players). I'd like to focus just on photography next time -- perhaps pairing up with a writer or agency and concentrating on their assignments. I'll know more about what kind of homework to do -- e.g., noting whether a player is left- or right-handed and positioning myself in the stadium to best photograph their serve. And so on.
What will I do anyway in 2015, that I currently find daunting? There's a large calligraphy commission on the horizon, some designed-long-ago projects I need to transform from sketches to reality, and a list of things-I'd-like-to-make for next winter's round of holidays. It is always a monster jamboree, the noise whistling at the edges of the abyss between what I picture in my head and what I am actually capable of. But I am also the only person with the vision and love to see these particular projects into being, so my skills being not where I'd hoped they'd be by now is ultimately irrelevant: these things get made when I get over myself (and the skills not incidentally improve) and put in the time with knife and nib.
(I have been writing a post in my head for some months now about Ma Ingalls hating sewing and yet being fearless about cutting into delicate fabric because she had made so many dresses by the time Laura was old enough to bring home the very pretty lawn. Someday...)
Yay!
Thanks for the link to the Monster Manual -- inspired!