NPPA student quarterly contest 1st place in News

I just found out this photo I shot in March, has won the 1st place, News category, in NPPA's student quarterly contest.

The first two weeks

Here are some pictures from my first two weeks of internship at the Colorado Springs Gazette

This is a story about Amber, a teenager girl has cancer, she made a wish that she could attend the Air Force Academy ball, but due to her body condition, she could not make it. The day I went there was the cadets from AFA decided to go to the hospital to have a mini-ball for Amber. This pictures was taken while Amber was going on her way to the ball. 

Two of my favorite pictures from the Air Force Academy graduation,  the top picture got chosen to be on the A1 of the Gazette.

I had a chance to photography Jono Schwan, a 16-year -old Colorado Springs native, who is the second person that has performed 1080 in history

Santa Rosa High School Class of 2013 graduation

Finally, I am posting those pictures I took at the Santa Rosa High School graduation Class of 2013, the second smallest graduating class in the school's history.

It was an interesting year for me, I got to spend the first day of their senior year with them in school and throughout the year, I've been seeing them almost every Tuesday when I go to Santa Rosa for work. And last Friday, I got to spend their last day in high school with them.

Wish them good luck!

Drought in Colonias

About two weeks ago, I went to the village of Colonias, which is in the middle of nowhere in Guadalupe County, New Mexico, to do a drought story for the Communicator. And I met Benny, who is almost 80 years old. Because of the drought, all the water wells were dry in the village since the end of Feb, he has to drive about 15 miles to get to a laguna to collect water to feed about 120 cows, which takes him about 5 trips to finish the whole job.

 

Wrestling state championship

This is a late post, I shot the New Mexico high school wrestling state championship for the Santa Fe New Mexican two weeks ago which was one week before I left for the Sports Shooter Academy. This is my favorite picture from that weekend of covering the event. 

This coming week, I will be covering the high school basketball state championship games. I can't  wait to use all the knowledge I learned from SSA at this coming event, especially remotes.

back from so cal

I just got back from southern California for the Sports Shooter Academy workshop, had some fun making new friends and shooting surfing, mostly sunset time.

So here are some updates, I got accepted to the Colorado Springs Gazette for my summer internship. I am hoping to work very  hard when I get there and they will extend my intern till December.

The yearly fine art magazine Conceptions Southwest that I am managing just finished all the design work, now we are working on copy editing. Hopefully, we can send it to the print by the end of spring break.

And I am planning on going back to China at the beginning of next year. If I can find a job at a big daily newspaper or a wire service will be wonderful. Good luck to myself!

New Year!

I photographed this on the second day of the new year while I was driving around for an ATM (anything that moves) assignment in Santa Rosa, NM.

2013, is here, the end of the world didn't happen. I have a year left of my grad school work. And I am already panicking about how to continue my career in photojournalism. I am applying for internships all over the country again. At the same time, looking at chances if I have to go back to China.

I have a few project ideas in my mind these days, some are in Northern New Mexico, some are on the Mexican border. We will see which one do I get funding first.