Day 11: Steer Fair
This day was a bit slow until it was time to cover the Pecan Classic Steer Show. This was a steer competition put on by a non-profit organization in Seguin for students involved in FFA and 4-H programs in their schools. Jessica was going to come too to take photos. She had asked earlier in the day if I knew how to take photos. I told her that I did, and I had experience with it through my classes. I think she had a lot on her plate and was maybe wanting to see if I could handle the photos myself. She ended up coming along though.
That is one thing about this internship that I wish I could do, take my own photos. Seguin Gazette really prides itself on high-quality photojournalism. Some of their photos recently took home some Texas Press Association awards. I feel like I could really learn a lot from them because of that. At the same time, it’s very fast paced and I think they want to make sure the photos come out good, so they’re paranoid about letting me take them myself. If I mess it up, I guess I could ruin the story. Everyone in the office has their own high-quality camera like a Canon Eo5 or Rebel or models like that. I only have my iPhone. My iPhone can take very good photos, but a phone can never quite have that level of depth as an actual photography camera. Anyway, that is one thing about the internship that has been a little disappointing, but I do understand.
When Jessica and I reached the steer fair, we went inside and sat down with the President of the organization and his mother (I think she could have been the Vice President? Definitely a high-up position). We found out that the actual competition wasn’t taking place until tomorrow, Saturday. Jessica decided to leave me to handle the interviews and then she would come back the next day for photos.
The interview with the president went well. After our interview, I jumped on this Jeep-like vehicle and he drove me around the lot, giving me a tour of everything. At the end of the tour, I asked if I could speak with some kids to interview them and he said it was okay. He drove me to the barn area where they were all getting their steer ready.
I walked around and interviewed a few students. I also managed to step in cow dung. It was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was stepping. One boy that I interviewed would make the story kind of tough to write later. He said he went to Marion and was involved in a 4-H program, but when he said Marion, he looked to his friend and laughed. When I got back to the office, I would realize that I think he was joking about going to Marion High School, and there wasn’t a 4-H program at Marion, they only had FFA, which is also why I suspected that.
I learned a lot from covering these events. I had asked questions a bit inconsistently about where the students were from. Some told me only their high-schools, others the city they were from. It was a learning experience about locking this down next time. Also, I need to start having people spell out things that I don’t recognize. One student said she was from Steele High School, or at least, I think it was Steele High School. It was a little bit of guessing work based on where she said she lived, as that was the only high school near her home-town with a name like that. I kind of felt a pit in my stomach about not knowing for sure, and I vowed next time to definitely get things spelled out.
At the show, I did take some photos and wrote some cutlines for them. I kind of hoped that Derek would like them and at least run them online. I knew they probably wouldn’t make the paper, but I thought online would be okay. They ended up not being used though and Derek never said anything about them, so I guess he didn’t like them.
The day ran really long because of how long I spent at the pre-steer show. I was at the office writing until around 6:30pm and it was just Felicia and I. Felicia said that it was okay to finish at home and email the story in, so I packed up and headed home. At home, I did just that, I finished the story and emailed it in.