At the beginning of July, I went from full-time editor to part-time archivist. I decided I was no longer learning new skills or enjoying myself, and combined with my new cheaper rent, could cast off the safety net of a 40 hour work week. I had gotten compliant and comfortable, two things I don’t need to be at 24.

Since then, I have traveled to Puerto Rico on a surf safari and then two weeks later took my bike and got on train to Chicago before sailing the length of Lake Michigan. Now, these types of trips are not going to be the defining elements of my new situation, especially as income becomes less stable, but both helped shake things up.

I also got published two weeks after going part-time.

Writing under my boss’ name for so long made seeing my byline on Aol News an especially great thrill. I had five days to turn this puppy out, a faster deadline with more sources than I have ever done. There is hardly any changes by my editor.

I truly believe taking the plunge was necessary for my creative sp

A couple of months ago, the articles I wrote for my local paper stopped getting edited and I began to worry about the quality of my work.

If ever I doubted the importance of connections in the media industry, I’m now a believer. I’m a week and a half from being back on the job market, and after months of sending out applications with little to no response, an opportunity may have reared its shiny head. I had a successful interview yesterday for an associate editor position at a magazine whose name I won’t mention as to not jinx myself. It ended with an invitation back next week to meet the publisher. Before jumping up and down and giving myself a big pat on the back, I need to pay credit where credit is due: to an editor.

It just so happens that this editor works at VIA (where I’m finishing up a six-month internship) and she’s a friend and former colleague of the editor-in-chief at this anonymous magazine. In fact, she’s a big part of why I applied to this magazine in the first place, and she was kind enough to phone the editor early on to sing my praises. This scenario reminds me a lot of my application process for VIA–where my former

Leave it to irrevevant pop musicians to do something inventive with disposable cameras. You can check out his DIY setup almost immediately in the video but have to wait around to about 1:47 to see it in action. Feel free to dance around in the interim.

Recently I had the privilege of helping judge the San Diego CityBeat annual photo contest. It was fun despite being conducted through Flickr so that no one could hear my snarky comments. It was also a welcome excuse to ponder photography theory: How does one compare unrelated photos and ultimately choose one over the other, and just what exactly makes a successful photo anyway?

I was shooting Le Book all last week, a French company that puts together a book of creative and production companies for others to browse when looking for help in either of those areas. I was at the trade show they have once a year, and, as they are French, they asked me to capture the glamour of the event. I suggested I hold the camera at angles and slow my shutter down to get the feeling right. The employee I was talking to interrupted and said “yes, capture some motion.” The French also seemingly have an inherent knowledge on how to capture glamour to go along with their interest in it.

Perhaps he was a photographer himself, but his statement got me noticing motion in other photos. In the introductory class I teach on photography, one of the first things we talk about is how to eliminate blurriness. There are, of course, many times where motion adds a “je ne sais quoi” to your shot.

This New York Magazine photo accompanied a restaurant review. The photo caught my eye because I didn’t find it part

An email from a stranger asked me to fill out a questionnaire recently, for a student’s career project. The career this student said she is deeply interested in, according to her email, is photojournalism/photography. Having the time and plenty of thoughts to collect, I obliged and asked her if she’d mind if I posted her questions and my responses on Meridian. So, here are my perspectives on the industry as an emerging photojournalist, exactly as I wrote them on the survey. Not being a firmly established photographer yet, I’d be interested to know whether I gave this student good advice.

I am having a pitching challenge with my friend Liz over at Brooklyn Home Companion, each of us trying to pitch a story once a week. So, for a little inspiration and accountability, I thought I would post these submission guidelines from Freelance Writing Gigs You really should be subscribed to this feed.

Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly is a publication covering politics, government, culture and the media. Before you pitch a story to us, we recommend you read through a few of our back issues online or in print to get a feel for the type of investigative, system-analysis journalism we value and promote.

The magazine is published Bimonthly and includes investigative and opinion-based feature articles (2,000 to 5,000 words), occasional short news items and humorous sidebars (500 to 1,000 words), and book reviews of recent political and cultural titles (usually about 800 words). We occasionally print excerpts from forthcoming political books. We never publish fiction, poetry, or celebr

But I am still hopeful. Or at least I was until I shot the Root’s Picnic and found myself sharing the photo pit with a 9 year old and his Spiderman backpack.

Shooting video is something I’m trying to make a routine part of going out on assignment, even if I’m just supposed to be taking photos or writing a short article.