Home, for now.

Pic of the day 27/365
Photo of the day is my home for now.

I have begun to plan my get away.

In reading resumes and such I have seen that photojournalist and journalist typically jump around from paper to paper, agency to agency and city to city often.

I have done some similar things (bouncing around that is) and am now at my first paper. I found something that seems to explain this. LINK

In the short time I have been in this place I can understand the results of the study. Journalists are put on "beats" which typically consists of meetings weekly, monthly, quarterly and so on that they must attend and write about. They are dealing with the same people, same stories and same things. At these meetings the same budgets, issues and such can be discussed for years. Especially in small towns and cities.

I see this as an excuse for not seeking out local stories. It is a given that there will be something, no matter how minuscule to write about at one of the meetings. Papers get stuck in a rhythm because it works, with no regard to the quality of the product put out. It just gets a paper out daily.

The reporters at first have no passion about the beats and don't typically care about the issues at the redundant meetings. Soon after covering a few the reporter becomes involved and engaged. This is because it consumes so much of their time they must adapt.

In all honesty the meetings never seem productive and the issues are only concern those present. Meetings for the sake of meetings.

I guess this is were passion comes in. Where you can stick with it and get through these times to get to where you wanna be. I can understand now, why so many people fail. It is tough getting through the lake of BS. It starts to weight on you and drag you down, then you loose sight of horizon when your dragged down far enough. Once you hit that point you adapt again and settle down make yourself at home, stuck in the rhythm.