As part of the 9-25 field trip to DC, you’ll be asked to attend the Newseum in the morning, any museum or other location of your choice in the afternoon, and then write up a review. (In class, we will discuss your options for how to proceed. See also Kershner 21.)
Students attending the trip will spend the morning at The Newseum, and the afternoon at some other site in DC.
Students will be asked to submit two items to get full credit for the DC trip:
- Two photos from within The Newseum, with an informative caption explaining how the contents of the picture connects to EL227 (details about precisely how to write the caption are forthcoming — you’ll be practicing photojournalism)
- A 400-word review (see Kershner 21 and Kershner 23) of a cultural site, event, or activity of your choice, with two captioned pictures, at least one of which depicts and identifies a person you interviewed for your story.
Rather than interviewing your EL227 classmates or people you already know, this assignment asks you to interview the people you meet while you are experiencing your afternoon in DC. Be safe — stay in public areas, watch your valuables.
Photographs: If you and the person you are photographing are both in a public place, legally speaking, you don’t need their permission to take their photo.
- People do tend to get creeped out if strangers start following them around with cameras, so it’s best to walk right up to the person you want to interview, and say something like: “I’m a college student working on a class project; can I get your opinion about X? (If they say yes) Do you mind if I take notes / if I use a voice recorder? (If they seem like the want to talk, get their name, ask them to spell their name; ask where they’re from, (and ask them to spell the city); whether they are here with family, what they do for a living; try taking a picture of whatever they are talking about; get them used to the idea you have a camera)
- Pictures of people smiling and looking right at the camera are boring — try instead to get an action shot.
- You might first take a photo of somebody doing something interesting and then approach the person later for the interview. Since you are not going to be publishing the photo and making money off of it, you don’t need their permission, but it’s a good idea to be polite.
- If you are on private property, the owners can set up restrictions about when and where to photograph.