THE ORACLE: A Photographer’s View (from 1996)

Fall 1996

I have enjoyed my experience as a staff photographer for Oral Roberts University’s The Oracle.  This semester provided an opportunity for me to gain experience in diverse photojournalism techniques and situations from close-up shots at dinner to impersonal parking lots.  My time spent as a staff photographer has been well spent.  When I joined the staff, my purpose was to gain a reason to be continually involved in photography and learn any new photojournalism techniques that would present themselves over the semester.

Toward the end of this semester, I was asked to go to The Oracle offices on Monday mornings and read over the headlines.  This may be a small job, but I am now able to take a part in making The Oracle just a little better.  Besides, I am gaining experience that will assist me later if I turn in a job application to my hometown newspaper over the summer.  I had previously written and taken pictures freelance for The Fort Scott Tribune, but now I have a semester of experience which I can put in my resume`. Continue reading

Spring Break at the Shead Farm

The lilliputian crew on Spring Break

March 27, 1998

Spring Break

Some students have to go to a beach or some snow-swept peak to enjoy their Spring Break; others find ways to blossom in their own backyard.

Going home to the Kansas farmhouse where I spent 18 years of my life was nothing new, but taking along five friends helped chilly mornings become afternoons filled with gales of laughter and stories of our childhood memories.

The beautiful spring weather I remember from childhood decided to take its own break, so my friends and family kept wood in the furnace while winter battered at our door.  Thanks to old Jack Frost most of my family was kept home from school part of the week.  The more the merrier! Continue reading