Bad Casserole

Assignment and Editorial Final: Feature Story

I honestly can’t remember what the real name for this assignment was but it was similar to the picture package project from assignment 4. We had write up a short project description, submit it for approval, work with a partner (Tory Watson) as a photo editor, and submit a final package of 10-15 images. Thankfully we had a couple of weeks to work on this!

My original plan was to do a package of photos that showed the impact of transportation on the Puget Sound region. After the first class discussion where we all shared our projects it was clear I needed to scope my project back a bit to ensure success.

Once again my social network saved me: turns out a co-worker used to work with one of the public relations people at SoundTransit! After an introduction I arranged to visit their maintenance facility and decided to focus the project on the people that keep the Sound Transit trains running.

Electromechanic Stephen Lee stands in front of one of the trains maintains at the service facility in Seattle, WA on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Lee, a proud Cherkoee, has worked at SoundTransit since it started operating 3 years ago. (Photo/Neil Enns)

The people at SoundTransit were incredibly gracious and accommodating. They willingly explained everything going on, posed, uncovered things, and generally gave me amazing access to the people and equipment in the facility. The only problem? I came away with absolute crap photos on my first visit. After doing an edit pass on the photos I had enough to submit in a pinch, but not enough that I was actually happy with the result. UGH!

Did I mention the Sound Transit folks were incredibly accommodating? I asked if I could come for a second visit to help finish up the image set and they welcomed me back. Did I mention how good it was to have two weeks to complete this assignment?

Electromechanic Calvin Lee stands in front of one of the trains maintains at the service facility in Seattle, WA on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Lee has worked at SoundTransit since it started operating 3 years ago. (Photo/Neil Enns)

SoundTransit trains sit in the rail yard at the maintenance facility in Seattle on Friday, Feb. 17, 2012.

In the end I wound up submitting 11 photos. Looking back at them a year later I can’t help but feel like it was a missed assignment. The photos are good but not great. The portraits in particular could have been so much better. Ah well, something to keep working on improving!