I Had No Idea, but I’m Rolling With It

I am not a journalism major, I’m an art major. The only connection I have had to media thus far is working for the Crimson White and Tuscaloosa News. Both of those publications are newspapers. Before I started VIDA, I wouldn’t have really thought that the production of a newspaper was super different from a magazine, and maybe it’s because Vida is an online magazine instead of print, but it’s very different than the media I have worked with in the past.

For the Crimson White I mainly work with sports, and my primary sport is football. With football, and almost any sport at UA, everything is already organized. The events, the interviews, the press conferences. All of that is already planned for us, from the time to the place. We just have to look up that information and show up.

I’m sure that with other desks at the Crimson White, they do have to set up the interviews. In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, I know they do. It’s just not as a big of a topic as it is at Vida.

One of the things that shocked me most, and I know it shouldn’t have, was the amount of work that goes into the magazine before we even leave.

Vida is odd. I’m used to seeing the end of production, once everything has been written, the photos have been taken, and the event is over. All that’s left is to put the content on the page and send it out. But with Vida, I’m seeing it all.

I honestly don’t know what I expected or thought working for Vida would be like. I was just excited to be going to a foreign country to take pictures. Sometimes, with all this pre-production work going on, I feel like I’m not doing anything, or like I’m just a body in the way. I know that will all change once we get to Costa Rica but right now, I don’t know.

Everything that I’m doing with Vida is a first for me. It’s something I’ve never seen, done or even thought of, even though I probably should have. Seeing how much the writers have to do before we leave has made me realize how much work goes into making successful and coherent media. Looking back, I definitely should have realized, I was just being naïve and only looking at the work I had to do.

I didn’t think that I had expectations for the parts of Vida before we left, and yet somehow my expectations were completely shattered. I actually think that it was less of expectations being shattered and more of it being everything I would have never thought to expect.

I know that once we get there, the same thing will happen. I will expect one thing, or nothing at all and then what actually happens will be the complete opposite. And I’m sure the same thing will happen once again for post-production.

One of the things I have learned already through Vida is how much I didn’t know. It reaffirmed the fact that I am not a journalism major and really have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to anything that is not photography. With that being said, I think it was very cool to see the ‘behind-the-scenes’ sort of. It was very eye opening to see how much work, for the writers at least, goes in before we even get there.

I can’t wait to get there, though. All I want to do with my life is travel and take photos. That’s it, that is my dream and my goal. I can’t wait until we touch down and for my work to start. I know it is going to be completely and utterly mind-bogglingly exhausting, but I am so ready. I want to fall into bed at night and crash before I even hit the pillow because I had a day 100 percent filled with photography.

I may be a novice and a baby when it comes to the pre-production, while we’re there, and the post-production, but I’m not a newbie to photography. And I can’t wait to start my work and prove that I am a valuable member to the team.