Colter Peterson- St. Louis Photojournalist

 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. Then he sends them out to his editor and whoever he sends the images. Peterson then adds this is the toughest part of the position which is working under a quick deadline.

    He got asked about what makes a good image. He answers with a multitude of things. When talking about sports photography, it takes peak action, “With every action, there is a reaction…” later talking about how usually following the peak action the next shot is usually better because of the emotion.  Next thing he adds is look for visual elements. What can you communicate without people? Is a question he followed up with. Be patient and look at the surroundings. We’re constantly communicating using images and so with patience, visual elements, and peak action you’ll have a kick-ass photo he adds. 

    I later talked to him about some of his favorite events. With a variety of things to shoot he said his favorites were the Stanley Cup Playoff run and the tour of Utah.  I asked him about the worst experience, and he said every time he misses an image, it’ll haunt him for a little bit until the misses the next he jokes. Some of the cool parts about his occupation is to see his work matter to people. As well has the conversations and the community around St. Louis comes together over the news. 

    The advice he gave was three points. Point one. Network, networking got him all 3 of his jobs and he imagines it’s going to help advance him in his endeavors.  2. Work Your Ass Off. Hard work does pay off and you have a solid work ethic, it’ll get you places. The last point he gave was to take risks. Taking Risks, if you don’t take risks, you’re going to be stagnant he adds. Taking risks is how he got to St. Louis when coming from Bozeman, Montana. You get to see some cool things and it’s a hell of an adventure when you do. 

    
 And that is Colter Peterson.