From the Desk: 1 month; a retrospective

It has been exactly one month since I started working at the Journal. So I wanted to share some of my images taken while on assignment and put down some thoughts I have had since starting…

A group of women and their dogs wait to participate in a competition during the 2016 Rapid City Kennel Club Dog Show at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Friday afternoon.

Photojournalism is in some ways unlike any other job in the world, while in others it is like any other job. One of those things being that it’s very easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and become frustrated with yourself; what you are doing and where you are going.

Julie Gilliland and Eli Hernandez practice reading during Denise McCormick’s kindergarten class at Badger Clark Elementary School in Box Elder on Tuesday afternoon. The Douglas School District Board of Education has approved a proposal to realign grades k-3, which has upset some parents.

While photojournalism is hands down the best career in the world and one that I wouldn’t trade for anything else, it doesn’t mean there aren’t days where I want to rip my hair out from dealing with the daily grind.

From right, David, Laura and Mathew Scott wait in line with others to get into Storyteller Bookshop during Scare in the Square in downtown Rapid City on Saturday afternoon. The couple and their son were representing all three Star Wars trilogies.

Wesley Delaney and Leighton Aves, both 9, count their candy during Scare in the Square in downtown Rapid City on Saturday afternoon.

 

And what is the daily grind?

The varsity boys cross country teams of local community high schools run at the start of the 2016 Region 5A Cross Country Meet at Rocky Knolls Golf Course in Custer.

 

The daily grind is a high school volleyball game and a minor league hockey game followed the next day by a city council meeting and a building dedication ceremony.

Forwards Josh MacDonald and Ryan Walters wrestle the puck away from forward Travis Ewanyk during the Rapid City Rush’s match against the Idaho Steelheads at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on Wednesday night.

The daily grind is running back and forth for an hour and a half on a football field in 35 degrees because both teams suck and won’t stop punting.

Bonny Petersen and Leanna Bussell meditate to remain calm during a 2016 presidential election watch party for the democratic party in Pennington County at the Rushmore hotel in downtown Rapid City.

The daily grind is a person at a podium.

Ellen Pinholt proposes the construction of a fenced-in dog park on Idlehurst lane in Rapid City to the Vision Fund Citizen Committee in the community room at city hall on Tuesday.

 

The daily grind is another high school volleyball game and a minor league hockey game, followed the next day by a photograph of an elementary school.

The daily grind is trying to make a storage unit and an exercising room look interesting.

Surprise!

It doesn’t work.

The daily grind is being told about a really awesome assignment you’ll be doing the next morning then being told 30 minutes later that the paper is using handout photos instead.

The daily grind is waiting another hour to go home because the writer hasn’t got back to you yet about info you need for a caption and there’s a hornet that somehow got through two separate doors just to exclusively menace your desk.

lines up snow boards in preparation for the Black Hills Ski for Light Ski Swap which will take place Saturday at Rushmore Civic Center. The swap is a fund raiser for the annual event that gives a day of skiing to impaired children and adults.

School donor Bob Malone of Texas greets a line of students, faculty and supporters of the Tiospaye Center for American Indian Scholars at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, which was expanded after a generous donation by the family of Maria “Agnes” Roybal Trujillo.

The daily grind is two more high school volleyball games.

Custer outside hitter Morgan Parys hits the ball during a match against the Hill City Rangers on Tuesday afternoon.

 

But sometimes…

The daily grind is running on a muddy field with rain and hail pouring down on you without a rain jacket using a safeway plastic bag to keep your camera dry and not caring because you know the photos will be great.

Crusader Running back and Line Back Daveon Provost leads stretches during football practice at Red Cloud High School Wednesday afternoon.

 

The daily grind is getting up at 4:45 am to climb boulders in the dark and stand in 27 degrees waiting for the fog to clear just enough to get your picture.

Mt. Rushmore is seen through clearing fog at sunrise from Iron Mountain road in the Black Hills in October.

The daily grind is hearing that people are keeping a copy of the newspaper in their car from that story you did on them to show other people.

Joan Renelt tries to put a golf ball into the hole as her husband Tim looks on at the Rapid City Executive Golf Course on an unusually warm November afternoon.

wide receiver Mason Archambeault gets a hug from quarterback George Johnson after his touchdown catch during the RC Stevens-RC Central football game at O’hara Stadium Thursday evening.

1st and 2nd place winners Karlee Simmons, right, of Hill City and Haleigh Timmer of St. Thomas embrace each other at the end of the 2016 Region 5A Cross Country Meet at Rocky Knolls Golf Course in Custer.

The daily grind is having insightful conversations with people you’d otherwise never meet.

Lynn Delameter stands outside of his business the Black Hills Sleep Center, which he is closing down after being in business since 1971. Lynn, who is originally from the area, came back on a visit after spending seven years in California and decided to stay; “I had a love affair with the Black Hills” he said, being the perfect place for someone with a passion for skiing and motorcycles.

Roy Kimbell, 85, who served as a B-29 super fortress mechanic during the Korean War, went on to graduate from the South Dakota School of Mines with a masters in mechanical engineering before working for 30 years as a jet engine performance engineer for aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. While his career was based in the testing of jet engines, “this is my first love” Kimbell said in reference to the propeller plane he was working on. “Since I’m retired this is sort of a fun thing to do.”

Jared “Cappie” Capp stands in front of his energy-independent house on Friday morning in Spearfish. Capp has created a house that generates its own electricity, and uses various building methods and materials to make the house entirely self sustaining.

Luis Rodriguez & his son Kiev 45, Rapid City. Retired Combat veteran; Iraq. Nurse at Rapid City Regional Hospital. “Perhaps he’s not very eloquent…but he will have the right people behind him to make things happen.”

Outside of the polling place at Walter Taylor 4H building, a couple cancelled out each others votes for president. Darrell Welch, a retired law enforcement officer said he voted for Trump as “the lesser of two evils” while his girlfriend Desiree Derflinger, a lumber trucker who identifies as a republican, voted for Clinton because “Trump is an idiot”.

Maybe, the daily grind isn’t a grind at all. Maybe this job and every assignment is ultimately what you make of it. Granted, there are some assignments that will just suck no matter what you do. But you embrace them anyway. You work like hell to find that different angle; that something that will elevate a routine event into something that challenges you. Because you’re not OK with just doing OK…

I’d write more but I have a football game to go shoot.