Watch the 2011 Xposure Workshop Highlight video

Pictures taken by the 2011 participants are highlighted in the 2011 promo video. Thanks to WKU student Austin Koester for his work producing this video.

 

2011 Xposure Iphone slide show created with Animoto

 

Pictures taken with an iPhone 4 and created with Animoto software. Video by Gary Hairlson

 

2011 Xposure Workshop Group Photo

2011 Xposure Group Photo

Taken in front of the new Gary A. Ransdell Hall, Western’s new Education building.

Front Row L-R
Beverly Fishback, Lashana Harney, Heidi Kimmich, Yazmin Martinez, Jennifer Ottersbach, Jackie Rodriguez, Writing Coach Darla Carter, Kamilah Champion, Photo Director Gary Hairlson

Back Row L-R
Alexis Taylor, Lyndsey Pender, Tim Nwachukwu, Seth Fischer, Diamond Stewart, Associate Director Neil Ralston, Director Bob Adams, Leah Kelly

See you later alligators! :P

i refuse to say goodbye.

i refuse to forget.

i refuse to let go.

What i’ve learned in the past week and a half would be too much to put into words. Because it is words that i learned. Words that when tied to memories make for heartwarming emotions. The people that i met made the experience worthwhile so much that without them i would have been overcome with too much home sickness. Without them, the Xposure workshop wouldnt have been the same.

Storm Chasers by: Jackie Rodriguez

By: Jackie Rodriguez

Glencliff High School, Nashville, Tenn.

 

While society stands still and hides from severe weather, a group of Western Kentucky University students and their teacher leave their fear at the doorstep to chase deadly storms.

“We have two different ways of looking at the sky,” said Josh Durkee, who teaches field methods in weather analysis and forecasting.

One way is with radar while the other is looking up with your own eyes. Both methods are effective in spotting a storm for them to chase.

From a young age, students Lee Campbell, Olivia Payne and Lindsay Rice, who are all part of the group, knew that they wanted to pursue meteorology as a career. But it wasn’t until college that they had an opportunity to become storm chasers.

With the help of Durkee, these students began pursuing actual storms.

In their first ever storm chase, the students’ feelings ranged from excitement to fear, but the fear wasn’t of getting injured.

“I was scared that I wasn’t going to see the storm,” said Campbell, who was in his first year in Durkee’s class when the chase occurred.

Lindsay Rice, from Delmont, Pa., said she didn’t know what to expect since it was also her first year in the class.

“It was more exciting than scary,” she said.

The amateur crew had a chance to chase storms over a 14-day period in May. During that time, they were actively chasing storms for about 10 days and encountered a highly destructive tornado in Joplin, Mo., that killed at least 153 people.

“We chased the deadliest tornado (on record),” Durkee said.

Storm chasers search for different characteristics. Some like to identify the structure in the storm. Others are more interested in specific details that help to verify the daily forecast.

“Everyone has a different angle,” Durkee said.

Society tends to believe that storm chasing is extremely dangerous, but Durkee and his students would beg to differ. According to them, storm chasing has taught them to always think ahead and know how to handle risky situations.

“It is dangerous in the sense that you are placing yourself in a volatile situation,” he said.

“But we have a better handle on it than anyone else would,” Rice added.

Storm chasing can be a dangerous or exciting career to have, or maybe both. It really depends on your point of view.

“There’s always new storms to look at,” said Campbell, who’s from Paducah.  “Every morning is different.”

Jennifer’s Joe Imel article

Xposure Journalism Workshop director Bob Adams refers to Joe Imel as “the poster-man for community journalism.”

In reality, Imel is photo editor for the Bowling Green Daily News, and as a journalist, he said it is his job to tell everyone’s story.

“We are the voice for those who don’t have a voice,” he said on June 6, while talking to the students attending the 2011 Western Kentucky University Xposure Journalism Workshop.

Imel said he has been a photojournalist for 27 years and first began taking photojournalism classes in 1984 at WKU. But after he graduated, he saw that the photos he was taking at WKU were “just pretty pictures,” and they weren’t content-related, as those for journalism should be.

“It’s about the moment,” he said. “It’s all about the people in front of me.”

Imel referred to himself as a “visual storyteller” and even a “self-proclaimed photo evangelist.” He said that photojournalism is truly his passion and calling, and he loves his job.

“I am the one who lets 25,000 people know what happens in their own backyard,” he said, referring to Daily News readers.

Always armed with two cameras hanging from his neck, Imel is ready to take photos in a moment’s notice. And that moment often comes from an emergency scanner that Imel said he monitors from 5:30 a.m. to midnight each day.

“You’ve got to be there when it’s happening,” Imel said.

As a journalist, Imel has taken it upon himself to post some of these notifications on his Twitter page, which can be found at http://twitter.com/#!/joeimel. And his Tweets have quite a following. He currently has more than 1,000 followers on his site. And he told a story in which one man told him that his mother, in California, follows Imel’s Tweets.

During his talk with Xposure workshoppers, Imel offered some advice about photojournalism. He explained that staging a photo does not capture a story and that real journalistic photography catches people in action.

He said an important part of getting good photos is to tell stories and “get in amongst the people.”

Imel said that journalism is all about people, what they have to say, and what they want to see.

“People don’t want to see pictures of the press conference,” he said. “They want to see the three-legged dog running down the street and getting caught in a manhole.”

Imel said that hard work will pay off. He explained that he may not be as good as other photographers, but he will come earlier and stay later than them.

“Do a good job, and you’ll be welcome every time,” he said.

Xposure student Seth Fischer aspires to be a photographer, and he said Imel inspired him.

“Joe Imel is just fantastic,” he said. “He always does a good job and never complains about the bad parts.”

As passionate as Imel is about his job as a community photojournalist, he didn’t always want to report for a small paper. Imel said he wanted to work at a metro paper, but would have felt guilty if he made his family move for his work.

But now, Imel loves his job.

“I yearned to do bigger stories,” he said.  “But now I know that the best stories are in your own backyard.”

 

Stumbling Timmy – Seth Fischer

My good friend Timmy and I were trying to get photos of us in mid air while jumping off of the stairs. We didn’t get the results we were looking for, but I got some funny shots of the stumbling that occurred after several bad landings. This one is my favourite.

Destroy to Gain

By ALEXIS TAYLOR

Tates Creek High School, Lexington, Ky.

 

How can we accept the practice of mountaintop removal?

Mountaintop removal is a type of surface mining. The mining companies use explosives to blow off the top to make access to coal easier. More than 700 acres of western Appalachia are filled with debris from mountaintop removal.

There are some obvious benefits to this practice. First, it’s cheaper than sending miners into a mine.

And it’s certainly safer for the miners. For example, 33 Chilean miners were trapped underground for 69 days last fall. That doesn’t happen with mountaintop removal mining.

But that could mean that a lot of workers will be out of work.

Much needed jobs could be lost.

When miners take jobs, they know the risks. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault when they get trapped. The risk is a part of the job.

The mining companies, on the other hand, are trying to get the biggest bang for their bucks and blowing the top of a mountain produces that. They’re getting reward with little or no work.

However, mining companies are arguing that they are actually improving the situation by planting trees on the damaged land. But destroying hundreds of acres, even if trees are planted, won’t change the condition of the land.

Besides the practice being destructive and making easy work for miners, it his harmful to people around the regions where this is happening.

Experts have said that the practice of mountaintop removal is dangerous because it can elevate mortality rates and cause chronic heart, lung and kidney disease.

Mining companies are willing to risk the well-being of human health for coal.

Mountaintop removal not only harms people, it harms the earth. When mining companies blow up the mountain, tons of debris are left behind. This debris is either in the air, or it gets washed into rivers affecting drinking water throughout the region. Also the debris left over has destroyed acres of the deciduous forests in North America.

Mountaintop removal causes serious environment and health problems and destruction of land.

Why consider it?

Disko, Disko Partizani.

Aghhh! I cannot express how amazing grape this opportunity was. I met so many amazing people this year, everyone here was so grape on a stick and I will totes miss everyone.

Getting to know you guys makes it so hard to say goodbye.

I shared so many different memories with you guys, and it’s so unbelievable how well we got along. I’m looking forward to see you all sometime in the future. I will remember this workshop.

I know this can’t be a goodbye forever. I wish every single person in this workshop the best. YUMZ, GRAPES ON A STICK, SCORES, and TOTES to everyone <3

MUCHO LOVE,

Yazmin Martinez.

An unexplainable experience- Tim Nwachukwu

Wow. It’s been a pretty fast week, but not the kind of fast week where I look back and I don’t remember anything that happened. After the last two weeks, I have to say that I’ve had so many memories, I’ve made new friends, and I’ve learned a heck of a lot of things that will definitely make me a better journalist. As much as I’ve always thought that I was a social butterfly, I realized that the people around me were just as friendly and just as amazing. This school is amazing, everyone that I’ve crossed paths with is nothing shorter than great. I’m so glad that I’ve been able to be at Xposure, it’s made my world so much better, so much more lolsy, and I honestly can’t wait until i’m old enough to be like Brenda and chill with the kids at the workshop. There’s so much that I could  say, but I think I might run out of space on here. Eh, it’s all gucci. Thanks so much for everything, I owe this program so much.

Stay fresh,

Tim Nwachukwu