Westboro

One week ago, the Westboro Baptist Church was scheduled to show up on Temple's campus. Their aim was to protest the productions of the shows Rent and The Laramie Project, due to the portrayal of homosexuality in a positive light in both shows. The church was going to protest in two locations, in front of the Student Activities Center (pictured above) as well as in front of Tomlinson Theater.

Around 6:30, I left the Annenburg Hall Diglab and went down towards the SAC. Since Tomlinson is attached to Annenburg, I was able to scout out the crowd there as I passed by. There were a few people with signs in counterprotest, doing a group talk to rally their spirits against the Westboro Baptist picketers, but that was all.

Things, however, were much more lively down by the SAC.



Much, much more lively.



The sheer turnout of people was tremendous. I could not tell you exactly how many people showed up at the four-way intersection outside of the SAC, but I feel like there was at least a thousand counterprotesters there.

And the beautiful thing is, Westboro ended up not showing up. I heard some rumors in the crowd that a few showed up earlier and pulled out when they saw the sheer amount of counterprotesters, but I do not know if this is true or not. I personally hope it is, though.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the counterprotest.























I have never been more proud to call myself a Temple Owl.

So you want to be a Photojournalist, eh?

Members of the Philadelphia Fire Department respond to a fire in an abandoned building across from the Temple SEPTA Regional Rail station on March 25th, 2010.


A lot of people tell me that they can never imagine being a photojournalist.

A lot of my friends seem to be more of the writing-based journalists; master wordsmiths who can turn your mundane happening into solid journalistic gold and stuff of that sort. In their mind, words are their weapons, while photos are mine.

To be honest, basic-level photojournalism does not strike me as overly complex. Sure, you have to know how to use a camera. Yes, you have to know how to compose good photos. Of course you need to have good timing.

But, really, photojournalism is telling a story with pictures. And in an age where, in the loose paraphasing of George Miller, "any jackass can be a journalist," it's even easier to get out there and add a bit of photo to your journalism.

So, I present to you...

PHOTOJOURNALISM FOR DUMMIES:

1. Purchase a camera. This can range anywhere from a dinky point-n-shoot to a professional level DSLR. Whatever you end up getting, though, just make sure you know how to use it.

2. Carry said camera around with you where-ever you go.

3. Keep your eyes open. Don't live your life in a haze of obliviousness. Go out there and see the world.

4. If shit happens, whip out that camera and take some pictures! If you don't have your camera on you (way to listen to step 3 >:/), a camera phone may work fine. Keep in mind that with the rise of Twitter and other related online information sharing social supersites, the cameraphone has become a valuable journalistic tool for a first-look into certain situations.

5. Don't just stop there. Ask questions. Find out what's going on. Get facts. Be journalistic.

6. Start a blog, and update it more than I update this blog. This shouldn't be hard, since I kind of fail at being regular, and thus fail at being a photojournalist. Woe is me. :< 7. Follow it up, if at all possible. If you covered a car crash, do a second post at a later date about the results. Was the person okay? What caused it? What other repercussions are there?


This is really just a basic, somewhat snarky guide (that somehow ended up being basically snark-free), but it goes to show that photojournalism and normal journalism aren't really that different.


... we just take pictures, too.



A shot of the same building that caught on fire, taken on March 26th, 2010.