Friday, October 21, 2022

Today was officially the last day of being in Washington, D.C. I packed up my stuff early in the morning and Monique drove Julia, Avery and I into town to attend our final meeting before leaving for home. After we finally found a place to park we met with William to pick up breakfast for the group and headed to Franklin park. We met with Olivier Laurent and Chloe Coleman which are two photo editors for the Washington Post. What really stuck with me during the meeting is from everything I learned about the publication is that it is not suitable for me. I have no interest in working for them in the future most likely. Photo editors have a lot of responsibility which include wire and archive research, editing stories for print/online but the majority of their work consists of research. It was incredible to me that the photo editors are responsible for handling about nineteen stories at once(which they said they were juggling at the time we were talking with them). The Washington Post uses mostly wire services (Getty, Reuters, AP, Photo Stock). Therefore there is not much room for hiring freelancers, especially with their budget. Their video department is separate from their photo department. Their day rate for photography is surprisingly higher than video. Where in most cases a majority of publications give out more money for video.

After the meeting, Monique drove herself, Avery and I back to Rochester. The drive felt extremely long even though we stopped twice on the way back. We did not leave until about one so the eight-hour drive took us into darkness on the way back. Getting back home felt good although I really enjoyed the overall trip and am thankful for the opportunity as well as being able to experience what I have.

Overall from my trip I have some key takeaways:

If I wish to continue in this profession, no matter what I will have to be very persistant when reaching out to get a freelancing job. After, I have established a trusting relationship along with developed the work to a higher standard than assigned(arriving early, staying late, proper captioning and transmitting files) I will then be the one getting calls more often.

Another consideration is the time this job entails. It is a job that involves traveling or may needing to move. To get a truley good story you have to really be inlvoved in it and get a good understanding of the topic. If you are not fully knowldedable on something you may miss a key point(s) of what your covering. This job is truley about passion and if you want to not only obtain knowledge about things but make others aware of what hasn't been well known that may make a good difference locally or even nationally.

It is VERY important to get a good understanding on the business aspects of freelancing and writing contracts. It is crutial because of one...it is your income and two it is important to understand your worth and take no less.