Hey folks! Long time no update. We’ll just skip past the I’ve-been-busy bit and jump into what I’ve been busy with.

My final project for my advanced photojournalism class in the spring was to find a story in the community and shoot and edit a video on it. I chose to highlight the community service work done by the local women’s roller derby team, the Classic City Rollergirls. I’ve done a few community-based stories in my time in varying formats, but my first time shooting video was… well, I’ll illustrate with an anecdote. I had a very short-lived stint in my high school’s marching band, and when I was told to play the music from memory AND step to my spots in tempo (which was 180 beats per minute, by the way), I just stood there, wondering if I was destined for marching band failure. (I did eventually get it, but man, was it hard at first.) Everything I had learned in previous classes about composing shots, establishing a visual hierarchy, etc. just went out the window as soon as the picture started moving. I kind of know how Harry Potter felt the first time he saw the people in the picture frames move, because as someone who is primarily a photographer, it was totally foreign for me.

Still, it could’ve been worse for my first time, right? Deep, deep thanks to the ladies I interviewed in the video, as well as the Classic City Rollergirls as a whole. They do a lot of wonderful work in Athens, Ga., and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the future. Also, big thanks to the Chattanooga Roller Girls, who were kind enough to comp me a ticket so that I could film at their bout with CCRG up in Chattanooga. (I travel far and wide for my stories.) Be sure to watch in HD, because it’s just more fun that way.

(Note: I’m so sorry to High Jinxxx, the spelling of whose derby name I failed to verify before exporting the video! I know, total journo fail. I’ll go back in and edit and re-upload when I get a minute.)