Megan's Blog

     For my portraits this coming week, I am going to reach out to Taylor Bell. I went to high school with her. She works at an Albany Dutch Bros as a Barista. She has worked there for a few years, and she's known for being an absolute sweetheart.      I'm going to photograph her at Dutch Bros. Preferably inside the shop, but also maybe walking around with her fanny pack on and the tablet they use. These are good props, but also a Dutch Bros cup or the products they use to make the drinks. To contact her, I am going to message her on Instagram and also text her or snapchat her, depending on if I have her number or not.      A couple good tips I picked up were try to get something different. Don't go for the obvious shot. For example, I don't just want to get Taylor standing outside Dutch or just her face through the window. I need to get a shot that is unique, something that evokes an emotion and shows Taylor's personality well. Another goo...

The Red Cross held a blood drive in the Calapooia Center on Wednesday, October 23. Dane Welch, pictured above, enjoys his time in the chair reminiscing over a friend who passed out just thinking about the needle at a Red Cross event a few years back. The Red Cross blood drive had a good flow of traffic all day on Wednesday, most slot times were taken up by 10:30 a.m. Greg Smith cracked multiple jokes to keep his patient Celestino Birrueta comfortable. The Red Cross blood drive, which ran from Wednesday, October 23, to Thursday, October 24, was nearly booked for Thursday during the Wednesday morning appointments. The Red Cross holds blood drives around town and in neighboring cities quite often. For more information on how to help out, call the Albany Red Cross at (541) 926-1543.

     The artist I chose for photographer of the week is Diane Arbus, born Diane Nemerov, on March 24, 1923 in New York. Arbus's skill for art began to show at a young age. She was raised in a wealthy family. This gave her the ability to pursue art as a career. At age eighteen, she married her husband Allan Arbus. Diane, however, did not know photography before she met Allan. Allan began to teach her the skill of photography when they met, and nurtured her talent when he realized she had quite the knack for it.      As she began to grow in her skill set, Diane and Allan focused mostly on fashion and marketing photography. Together, they got published in many magazines, including Vogue . After her success in this field, she began to focus on her own artistic vision, starting in the 50s, and practicing with photographer Lisette Model.      During this period, she would roam around New York City and photograph the people she saw as she walked a...

     My name is Megan Carroll, I'm a journalism major, and I have zero photography experience. I live in Lacomb, which is the country outside of Lebanon. I have a cat named Momma who I adopted less than a month ago, and I fell in love with writing when I was in elementary school. I took this class because as a journalist, it's very important to be able to take your own photos to add something to your story, and I need to get comfortable behind the camera.      My top three goals for this class would be to get comfortable behind a camera, be able to evoke emotion with my photos, and learn how to use the camera settings to my advantage instead of my demise.      This assignment was very challenging for me because I am used to interviewing people I have at least heard of. In high school, I was editor in chief of the Whirlwind at West Albany, and I knew almost everyone I was interviewing because when there are only 1500 students and staff, you ...

     This week, I photographed the Dollar Clothing Sale that was near the Library. I was really interested in this event because I love the idea of thrifting clothes in order to support fellow students, but also help keep the environment clean by using pre-loved clothing. I did some shopping before taking my photos so I was a little more comfortable in the environment.      It was a little difficult to take pictures of people because they were constantly moving: playing with the clothes, folding things, searching. The good thing is people weren't focusing on the fact I had a camera because they were so preoccupied. The most difficult part was the medium shot because there was so much going on, and when I thought I had the perfect frame, my subjects weren't facing me. A little bit of a bust for sure, but the picture is still nice, I just don't have their faces, which is pretty disappointing. I definitely approached this assignment by talking to people volun...

The Dollar Clothing Sale, which took place Wednesday, October 16, next to the library on the Albany LBCC campus, sold clothing of all styles and sizes to support LBCC scholarships. From left, Nicole Lawler and Bel Krebs shop for everyday clothes in hopes to support their fellow students. LBCC faculty member Gwen Cox helps out at the Dollar Sale for most of the day, the sale took place from 10 am to 2pm. She walks around folding clothes and leading students around to find their section since different brands label sizes differently. Over the course of a few hours, the Dollar Sale had hundreds of visitors, and ultimately raised 800 dollars for student scholarships: a record-breaking number. This is not the only record broken at this year's sale, however; there were a record number of volunteers and donations from student and staff. 

Photographer of the Week: Diane Arbus      The photographer I have chosen is Diane Arbus. Arbus was an American photographer who shot black and white photos, she photographed people who were considered outcasts, and her photographs challenged societal norms.      What I love most about her photos is how beautiful she makes these outcasts, yet how sad and real they also are. These photos evoke emotion from the viewer. For her time, these photos were really challenging society: I love that.       There were a couple moments in her claim to fame. For one, she took photographs for Vogue  magazine and Harper's Bazaar. After getting bored of the mainstream, she returned to the streets to photograph what she had been originally, what she really loved: the strange. These photos ended up in museums next to extremely well known photographers, such as Garry Winogrand. However, they weren't shown until she committed suicide on July 26,...

Allicia Meyer “I want to be a nurse practitioner. I’ve always loved helping people. During the summer I volunteered at a camp with kids who have variations of Muscular Dystrophy. Through that, I figured out I wanted to be a nurse practitioner and help people. The disease is very harsh. It affects their muscles by attacking them, so their muscles are slowly dying. You’ll see a lot of these kids are in wheelchairs, some have different braces they have to wear, some have oxygen tanks to breathe, some even need us to suck up their saliva with tubes because they can’t swallow it on their own, some have feeding tubes. It’s very eye-opening. You definitely become more grateful for the things you have and are able to do; but these kids don’t let their disease stop them. They are the most ambitious kids you’ll ever see. They want to do everything.” Elicia Carlock “My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. We don’t have any cool traditions, we just make a lot of food and then ...

Hannah Zeller Freshman Hannah Zeller, undecided in major, but an interest in science, commutes from Philomath. “My commute’s pretty long. My earliest class is Trigonometry. It’s at nine. It’s two hours, two times a week. We do get a break in the middle. I have to get up at, like, 5:30 to get here. It might be worth it; we’ll find out at the end.” Zeller, still getting used to the commute, says the most wild part of campus is parking. “If I see a spot, I’ll take it, I don’t even care where it is. I’m okay with walking as long as I can find somewhere to park. Today I got here just before class, and I was freaking out. Everyone else was late too, so I was the first person in the class.” Damon Fisher Damon Fisher, a highschooler who is attending LB for free because of his high school grades, is currently attending classes to look toward a music major. “I wish I could sing. I do write, though. I write for piano, guitar, and a couple of different styles of tribal drum...