UP MMJ Spring 2022

Diana Cervantes is an Independent Visual Journalist based in New York City who focuses on long-form storytelling in conservation efforts, the environment, and unique intimate bonds between humans and animals. Prior to interviewing Cervantes, I was captivated by her work, which demonstrates the connection between humans and nature, a topic that really speaks to me. I learned that her passion are directly exemplified within her work. She uses visual journalism as a means to combat the issues that the planets face, ultimately becoming a platform for activism.  Cervantes has always had a love for photography, but her love stems from the documentary aspect of it. She believes that different worlds open up through her lens, inspiring her to continue working everyday. Animals and ecosystems have a great impact on the life society lives today and Cervantes captures all the raw moments of beauty that nature entails.  Talking to Diana was very eye opening for me. While I've always under...

  Profile of a Practitioner: Aidan Fitzgerald (Project Durango)  Aidan Fitzgerald is a University of Portland majoring in environmental and founded Project Durango. Project Durango is a contemporary environmental company dedicated to sustainability and helping individuals become greener. Their central platform is Instagram. In addition, Aidan’s multimedia journalism has helped grow his business. While earning a degree and running a business, Aidan is also a part of the Cross Country and Track team at the University of Portland.  “I use the photos I take from my hometown in Durango because I live in a beautiful place, and they are what inspired me to create my business,” said Aidan Fitzgerald  Fitzgerald began taking photos of his hometown when he was about six years old when he was learning how to ski. But from what turned into skiing photos as a kid began to love the environment. “My mom started a non-profit to build gardens around my hometown, which prompted me o...

  At this point, I'm basically an Olivia Sanchez copy-cat.  UP alum Sanchez got her start in reporting as the opinions editor for The Beacon back when she was a student. Originally a psych major planning on going into therapy and social work, Sanchez fell in love with reporting and decided to get her masters degree in journalism from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication following graduation.  However, before she went on to get her masters and pursue journalism professionally, Sanchez was an intern at the Portland Tribune in the summer between her junior and senior year. This, being in the newsroom and engaging with editors, really encouraged Sanchez to pursue journalism as a career.  This summer, I'll be starting my own internship at the Portland Tribune, a position that gives me knots in my stomach just thinking about doing.  Sitting down with Sanchez over Zoom, me in Portland and her in DC, we reminisced on her old Beacon days, askin...

 "Bringing Literacy Discussion out of the Classroom"- Getting to know Sam Spieller, host of Canonical Podcast.  Canonical is a podcast that is about to celebrate their 2-year anniversary in June 2022. I spoke with one of the hosts Sam, to talk more about Canonical and his journey into audio.  Sam Spieller is a full time technical writer in Portland, Oregon. He is also co-host of Canonical Podcast. His life motto is 'this too shall pass'. He wants to be known as someone who stood up for his beliefs in pursuit of a happy life. "Our goal is to bring literary discussion out of the classroom", says Sam. Sam, along with co-hosts Eyad Darras and James Xiao, read and discuss a book over the course of three weeks. The books are chosen as part of a thematic miniseries, for example  Postmodern Japanese Fiction and Trans-humanist Sci-Fi.  In asking the inspiration for beginning Canonical, Sam says they all missed in-depth discussion of good literature, the kind of conve...

When you think of Compton, your first thought might be about the city that’s portrayed as one that’s riddled with gangs, gun violence, and a high police brutality rate. But for Walter Thompson-Hernández, it’s much more than that. It’s a city that's riddled with culture and stories that often go unheard.  Hernández, a former New York Times (NYT) writer and UP alum, is a journalist who strives to share stories of people and cultures worldwide. His big break came after his article “ For the Compton cowboys, horseback riding is a legacy and protection ” which led to a Harper Collins book deal that launched him into the career he holds now as a jack of all trades – from being a writer to a full on multimedia storyteller.  “[Writing about the Compton Cowboys] was really gratifying because I grew up in Compton,” Hernández said. “Most of my family are still in that same community. So for me, I felt like I was sharing a really intimate personal story that was so personal to my life.” ...

  Colter works at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a photojournalist. He recently returned after 2 years of doing internships. Peterson was recently at the Desseret in Utah and in at the St. Louis Patch-Dispatch doing internships. He got into photography as a junior in college when working for the school paper. His first event was a Montana State football game. 6 years later he landed his first full time gig with his current employer.        Talking about his workflow, Peterson uses a workflow that’s traditional to the photojournalist. You start by taking the image and then importing the image/s into Photo Mechanic that allows for a quick snapshot of the image and the metadata. He then culls his images down to selects and works on renaming the files, applying a basic crop, and applying a caption to the image(s). He then imports these selects to lightroom where he will do some slight toning. Once he exports, he then proofreads everything and rename the images again...

      I first met Lauren Lowrey when I was about 8 years old. Not only was she a close family friend, but was the morning anchor for Toledo, Ohio's main news station at the time. As a kid who had many dreams, one of those dreams at some point was being a broadcaster for some sort of news station. While it's not what I  envision on doing now, she is still someone that I have looked up too and enjoyed talking to about her beginnings within the job, and how she's gotten to where she is today.      While talking with Lauren, one of the first things that she made clear was to get involved with some sort of media outlet at your school. She attended Florida State University, and detailed how the connections she made within the broadcasting department within her school helped her to land some of her first jobs out of college. She went into more detail on this topic by talking about how important connections have been for her throughout...

       James Griffith began practicing videography and editing in middle school and since then in his personal and professional time while working at Pacific Seafood, a global seafood distribution company. In junior high he was asked by his cousin to film her wedding, and since then has taken on bigger projects and graduated with a Cinema and Media Communications degree from George Fox University. At George Fox he learned how to write, shoot, direct and edit his own films. He took one of his favorite classes, Camera and Lighting while at school, where he got to test different cameras and lighting techniques. This class also allowed him to focus on building sets and recreating them as well as building an understanding of what a “vision” means in terms of film. Another one of his favorite classes was Advanced Production Workshop which he got to take twice, once as a junior and once as a senior. During this class he created his first 3D animated film which utilized phot...

  Instagram @annacoberg Last year I lived with University of Portland Athletics Video Production GA Anna Oberg. Anna is a former Pilots women’s tennis player with a supreme talent for video, currently pursuing an MBA at UP while holding a full-time position at Heart & Hustle Production. I met Anna through some close mutual friends of ours in the summer of 2019, as we were both going into our senior seasons at Portland. Soon after meeting Anna, you will quickly recognize her passion and pure knack for filmmaking. She will tell you that she was drawn to cameras from an early age, picking up and shooting on old camcorders as a child, who was later completely caught up by the creative flow of storytelling. Anna picked up a hobby for video in high school, and worked on freelance side projects starting from that time and continuing into college. One of her earliest undertakings, which she still produces annually every summer, is a short montage for the tennis academy she grew up at i...

  A self portrait of Kathleen Doyle, shot outside her family home in Camas, Washington.       Kathleen Doyle first gained an interest in High School in photography, here she learned the basics about shooting on a DSLR camera and how to capture images through a lens. It wasn't until she was a senior at the University of Portland was she finally able to afford her own camera. Her photography career began with he own mother offering her services to friends and family to take senior portraits. She just kept going from there and doing shoots for fun.       It wasn't until she was 23 did Katie first begin making money and getting hired to do larger shoots. She grew from just doing senior portraits to engagement shoots, family photos, elopements and even weddings. But she still didn't charge a high amount for photos because she saw it as a hobby or something fun to do on the weekend. But this changed during the 2020 pandemic, now 31 years old with a...

  Ryan Reynolds: Profile of a Practitioner Ryan Reynolds is a 19 year old Sophomore majoring in Environmental Science at the University of Portland (UP). Reynolds started photography as a hobby initially, though his dedication and love for the craft later granted him various shots at continuing his practice as a paid job. He now works at The Beacon, the school newspaper, as a news photographer, and for the UP Athletics department doing live, during-the-game photography and platform updates. He also does freelance work on various occasions. “Photography is my way of capturing the moments I’m lucky enough to experience in real life, especially when I’m out in nature… it gives me a feeling of gratitude to be able to see what I get to and also show others my work, and I think they enjoy it as well,” said Reynolds. Reynolds began photography as a child, and as he grew, so did his skill and equipment. “I got into photography because my grandparents are both professional photographers...

           Bradley Fischer            Title:Business: Development Specialist at Newbridge Marketing Group + Freelance Photographer                                             Bradley Fischer graduated from the University in Portland in 2021 with a Business degree. He has been active in working with lots of various brands and taking specialized photos they request to build up his portfolio. Bradley talked about opportunities presented to him and the importance of saying yes. This can be helpful in building connections that can help you out down the line. Bradley Fischer also said by working with various companies you gain skills in different departments of photography, editing, and help them create different forms of multimedia. Being a freelance photographer is all ...

Interview with Cecelia Brown-Multimedia Storyteller  For my interview I spoke to Cecelia Brown. Cecilia walks an interesting line in the multimedia journalism world, producing audio and visual stories, mostly documentary style stories. When I asked her how she would describe what she does, she summed it up by calling herself a documentary storyteller. Above all the thing she does in her job is share real peoples stories through various forms, her most recognized and prideful work being her documentaries that focus on individuals. We spoke a lot about the work-life balance that comes with working in the journalism world, something she recommends is keeping a steady stream of freelance work to help “pay the bills” and get you set up to spend your other time working on the projects you are really passionate about. She shared the wisdom she’s been told when she’s considered giving up on the shorter contracted jobs; “never give them up,” because they are crucial to working in this ...