Job Shadow//Claire Abendroth//Jackson Citizen Patriot

After graduating this past spring with a degree in Photojournalism from Central Michigan University, Claire Abendroth began interning for the Jackson Citizen Patriot in Jackson, Michigan. The Jackson Citizen Patriot is a part of the MLive Media Group. She has been there since May of this year. Before coming to Jackson, she was a photography intern for two years at University Communications and a photographer for one year at Central Michigan Life. Claire also interned at Denali National Park and Preserve in Denali, Alaska for a summer. Check out her portfolio here!

Claire Abendroth edits photos during halftime of the Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game at Napoleon on Friday, September 15, 2017.

I had the fabulous opportunity to shadow Claire while she was working the Napoleon High School vs. Addison High School Varsity Football game on Friday, September 15. One interesting thing that Claire told me was that MLive only shoots varsity football. My first take away of the day however started before I even got to Jackson. We decided that since the football game we would be shooting started at seven that night, it would be best if I got to the Jackson Citizen Patriot office by six so we would have time to look around the office, catch up, and leave in time to get to the game early. I left Mount Pleasant at 4:10 and according to Google Maps on my phone I should have arrived at the Jackson MLive office by 5:30. I was doing so well with time and was way ahead of the Google Maps estimated arrival time. Right outside of Lansing I got stuck in complete standstill traffic for a solid twenty minutes at least. I ended up arriving at the office at exactly six. This definitely reinforced the idea that we can not control everything and we need to prepare in advance for things that could go wrong like traffic jams.

When I got there, Claire showed me around the office. On the right side was journalists, photographers, and videographers and on the left side was advertising and marketing. It was a lot smaller then I expected, but at the same time it looked really big. It was so cool to be in an actual newsroom! Another thing that Claire mentioned was that the police scanners are constantly playing in the background. She suggested maybe having a Central Press Photographer’s Association night where we get pizza, do portfolio edits, and listen to the scanner and try to decode it and figure out what situations are worth going to.

Before we left, Claire showed me a trick in Photo Mechanic that she uses to make captioning sports teams go a little faster. Basically she opens a TextEdit document and takes the school name and the student’s number and corresponds the two. For example, for the Addison vs. Napoleon game the codes kind of looked like this, except we had both teams completely listed. So if it were Eisenhower vs. Utica we would have e# or u# instead of a and n.

n8 Napoleon’s Tyler Eason (8)

n9 Napoleon’s Jayden Ballnik (9)

n11 Napoleon’s Braeden Bunney (11)

n12 Napoleon’s Dewy Stowe (12)

n20 Napoleon’s Logan Wymer (20)

ac Addison’s Head Coach, Joshua Lindeman

a2 Addison’s Gabe Eby (2)

a5 Addison’s Zach Farrow (5)

a11 Addison’s Matt Sylvester (11)

a16 Addison’s Ben Skinner (16)

After the letter and number, there absolutely needs to be a tab, and then you can type what you want it to say. After all of the coaches and player are listed out save it onto your desktop or a place you know you will find it. Go into Photo Mechanic and go to Edit, Settings, Set Code Replacement. Click Add and then upload the document that you want. Press ok. Open up the IPTC of the photo you want to caption and see who is in the photo. For example, if Napoleon’s player who has the number 1 is in the photo, type /n1/ and Photo Mechanic will automatically insert the name into it, so /n1/ would change to Napoleon’s Duncan Wilson (1).

We spent the car ride to Napoleon high school comparing what we are doing in classes at Central to what Claire is doing at her job. She reminded me that it’s always good to be looking for a story to cover long term like we are doing in JRN 422. A really helpful piece of advice that she had about finding a good story was by listening to the police scanner and taking pictures there, then following up with the situation. She also shared her own experiences of stories she was thinking about, both for when she was in class and while in Jackson. Claire suggested checking GoFundMe for the caregiver/care receiver and poverty stories. I had not thought of this before and was struggling for an idea, so I will definitely be using this site to help me come up with story ideas!

We pulled into Napoleon High School and walked up. It was really helpful to see Claire interact with the people collecting tickets. She just told them that we were with MLive and they let us right in. I am always afraid I’m going to get stopped and told I am not allowed in, so this moment helped reassure me. We had enough time to catch moments in the crowd before it got too dark and found a grandparent dressed up as a pirate mascot. It was also insanely helpful to watch Claire talk with him and get his story. I learned that I need to interact more with my subjects and find out why what they are doing is important to them. We learned that he was an extra in a couple movies including Transformers and that his granddaughter is a freshman at Napoleon High School. He said at first she was embarrassed to see him all dressed up, but he said after the first game she was fine with it and that all of the kids love him.

Claire Abendroth takes a picture of Napoleon High School's pirate mascot before the Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game on Friday, September 15, 2017.

Some more solid advice that Claire gave me was to look for peak action. Up until this point I was mainly shooting the teams running with the ball instead of them actually throwing and grabbing it. She said that peak action was a thing that she noticed Michigan Press Photographer’s Association judges really looking for and commenting on. Oftentimes they ended up picking peak action over running shots because they are the hardest to get. I was really glad I got to shoot football with her. This semester I had been standing in the same spot while shooting sports, and Claire does not stop moving! It was really helpful to see how much she moved compared to how much I was and now I can adjust it for future games.

Napoleon’s Darren Hampton (3) gets tackled during their home game against Addison on Friday, September 15, 2017.

Addison’s Kayden Heckaman (20) falls on top of Napoleon’s Michael Hulburt (2) during the Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game on Friday, September 15, 2017.

Addison’s Kayden Heckaman (20) and Addison’s Dominic Young (44) try to grab the ball during the Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game on Friday, September 15, 2017.

Addison’s Dominic Young (44) attempts to grab the ball during the Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game on Friday, September 15, 2017.

At half time, we went and shot one of the teams meeting up in their huddle and we spent the rest of the time toning and uploading to the MLive site. I have really been struggling with toning and cropping lately so I am thankful I got to watch and learn how Claire did hers. She basically made the whole thing as flat as possible in raw and then adjusted as needed in curves. It was so much faster! My toning takes me around 3 hours per event, but hers only took about an hour maybe. I’ve been using her way now, and while I’m still getting used to it, the process is much quicker! Another piece of advice she gave was that verticals and weird crops work really well in sports, especially football. After we were done, we headed back to the car. Her biggest piece of advice for the way out was to find a parking spot that will let you leave early and not one that will park you closest to the event. When we left we headed back to the office to tone the rest of our photos and listen to the police scanner. There was almost a fire that we were going to shoot, but there was just smoke and not actual fire.

Overall, I am so grateful I got to job shadow Claire for the night! She gave me such great advice regarding dealing with people, finding stories, shooting, and life in general. Shadowing her made me so excited to actually be out in the field shooting! Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck getting the same shots that I usually get with no variety, but the job shadow changed that and helped me look for creative new pictures! I would definitely recommend it to everyone who wants to go into this field.

Napoleon’s Collin Bradley (7) looks away during a time out for their game against Addison on Friday, September 15, 2017.

A Napoleon High School cheerleader throws a T-shirt into the student section during the

Napoleon vs. Addison varsity football game on Friday, September 15, 2017.