Each year the Herald-Republic, along with a couple of other organizations, puts on a one-day journalism workshop for high school students. The Valley Workshop, now eight years old, gives the students a taste of journalism and photojournalism. Students are paired with journalism professionals for the day as each participant reports and writes a story or, in the case of photographers, shoots the photographs for one of those stories. The morning is devoted to reporting and shooting while the afternoon is given over to editing with a strict 4:30 p.m. deadline for stories and photos.
(L-R) Valley Workshop participant Rianna Ramirez, mentor Shannon Dininny and student photographer Morgan Snyder work together at an indoor rummage sale at Eisenhower High School. Dininny is the central Washington reporter for Associated Press.
Read the story and see Morgan’s photos.
The stories and photographs are published later in the Herald-Republic.
Student photographer Mayra Mora takes a portrait of a local band that will soon play at a concert to benefit victims of the Haiti earthquake.
It’s a lot of fun for the mentors and a lot of pressure on the students, for most of whom the word “deadline” is not in their vocabulary.
Workshops like this are one way we, as journalists, can give something back to the community. It’s important we show others how journalism is an interesting career and how there there is a future for journalism, despite the (hopefully inaccurate) predictions of the death of newspapers.
Mentor Pat Muir works with student reporter Kathleen Dolan, left, and photographer Mayra Mora, second from right, to craft a cutline for Mora's photograph that accompanied Dolan's story on a local
Go here to read Kathleen’s story and see Mayra’s photo.
And even if newspapers do go away, there will always be a need for quality journalism and photography. Our goal at the Valley Workshop is to give the students an appreciation for, and taste of, the work required for good journalism and photojournalism. And, hopefully, to make them want to pursue journalism, regardless of how it may be published.
And for those interested in cameras, these photos were shot with a new Canon G11, set on the program mode at ASA 800, with the photos being shot in RAW format. I purchased the camera a couple of months ago and this is the first real indoor test of the camera.
–Gordon King
Picture This | seattletimes.com blog
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