Despite the suckiness of spending my day going from terminal to terminal, waiting and waiting, I really love being in the airport. I love being surrounded by the bustle and feeling the importance of presenting a boarding pass and getting on a plane. I carry myself differently when I travel. I think I stand up straighter and walk with an unusual "I have places to go and people to see" confidence. I. love. to. travel.
So, let me tell you about the photojournalism conference, blog reader! It was fantastic. I met lots of really great people who love the Lord and love storytelling. I met a lovely UNC alumna (one of the faculty for the conference) and people with missions organizations, which I'll get to later.
A couple of notes from the conference:
- Never let your craft outpace your humanity. Loving people will produce better stories.
- Keep moving forward. Always. Don't stop learning and experimenting.
- In an industry that's struggling, be encouraged by the fact that storytelling will never die. Single-medium stories may be fading, but new media can be really experimental and freeing. We can do so, so much when we blend photos, audio, video and words.
- That being said, some stories might be best told in one medium that can stand alone. Don't do multimedia for multimedia's sake.
- When your full-time job gets in the way of your freelancing, it's time to freelance full-time.
- Keep track of business stuff! Marketing, branding, billing, etc. This is so counterintuitive to Megan Finger.
- What we do has value. Don't give your work away.
- Find stories that celebrate life. Everything powerful doesn't have to be doom-and-gloom.
- Find your niche.
- Be a jack of all trades, and a master of one-- storytelling.
- The diptychs from this story by Scott Strazzante are some of the most amazing things I've ever seen. How crazy is it that he could find such similar images years apart from each other? And hearing the story behind it made it so much better. I think I liked seeing the diptychs by themselves better, but the mediastorm version is wonderful, too.
Now, let me tell you about an encounter that I think God orchestrated this weekend. I sat down at a random table for dinner, and one of the gentlemen at the table works with a missions organization I'm familiar with. Long story short, a writing job in Prague is on the table!
haaa!!
Oh God, you are wonderful and funny sometimes. How blessed I am that there are so many opportunities in the world! I'm so giddy!
I am going to just sit and soak in the fact that I'm in an airport again. I wish I was dressed more professionally today. Oh well.
With love and a really fantastic weekend of journalists and fellowship,
Megan
Megan, it sounds as if you are having fun X1000! I wish I could be there too! We could fly around the world and such.
That conference sounds cool, and I know that you have learned a lot about storytelling. Btw, PRAGUE!!! Whoa...that is awesome! Though it would be sad for you to be out of el country again, I would be happy know that you were happy. So, you have my blessing (which is obviously what you were going for! haha)
Anyway, have a wonderful day and keep being so great, its contagious!
Celebrate life!