Why Choose to Study Abroad

I was always interested in going out and exploring. As I was younger it was just around the neighborhood but as I grew older my interest pointed to a larger scale. Exploring my backyard turned into seeing other towns. The towns then turned into states. States turned into regions and regions tuned into countries. Cultural diversities have always interested caught my attention and by the time I reached 18  I had been to over 15 countries and spoke with hundreds of different people. As my last semester comes up, I realize that my time for traveling will soon come to an end and a big part of my identity will be erased for the time being. Cape Town, South Africa has always been a dream for me and I knew that the study abroad class would be the best way for me to get out there and really learn.

Cape Town is a beautiful place with its fair share of history and architecture. I am looking forward to going out with my gear and capturing everything around me and have some incredible conversations along the way.

I hope to gain some life experience working with Aspire Youth. The last year I have been moving into more of a videography background and I am excited to see what all our group has to come up with.  

The road to the trip has not been an easy one at all. I have had to make sacrifices in order to be able to make this trip but as I look around the class I see a majority of the students with the same problems. The thing that makes me excited is that I know this means a lot to everyone because if it didn't  then they wouldn't have made those sacrifices in order for them to get this opportunity.

Traveling is expensive and some people don't understand spending that kind of money on a "trip" but for me traveling is much more than just about making memories or seeing different things. Traveling is learning. Being able to go out and experience new things is my definition of freedom.

Words cannot express the joy I have because of this trip. The "real world" is coming at me with full force and I understand this will be one of my last chances for a very long time. I know for a fact that this will be a very special trip for everyone including myself. I am just speaking for the class but if we could leave tomorrow I know we all would.

Goodbye

I didn't want this day to come. When I walked into the office for the last time, I made sure to take my time and really appreciate everything around me. My boss that day was short with me and kept on giving me work to do. I had a event to go shoot before I left Dallas that day and it seemed to me that she wasn't letting me leave. When I started packing up my camera equipment for the last time to leave the office, she walked past me and we made eye contact for a brief moment and I noticed tears on her face but I didn't day anything. When I got up and walked up to everyone I said "well this is it" and said my goodbyes to everyone. When it was time to say by to her she looked at me and started crying which made me start to tear up which made everyone start to cry. I told them how much this internship has meant to me and how grateful for the opportunity I was. They handed me a card that I didn't want to open at the time. I left the office in tears    when I said bye to the receptionist at the front and that was it. After all the time and energy I spent with these incredible people, it ended just like that. They will never know how much of an impact this made on my life. They have helped with more than photography, they helped me when I was going through a dark time and they made sure to always make sure I felt at home. In a way they all became a part of my family and I will remember my time with these incredible people for the rest of my life.

My Last Week

Throughout my time with D Magazine, I got to meet some pretty incrediable people and hear how they have impacted their communities but my last week I was able to cover some of the coolest and most inspiring people I have met. Monday when I got in office I was greeted with one of the writers and she had a huge smile on her face and seemed really giddy. She told me that she finally got word that we are able to cover the story over a therapy ranch that helps people with animals. She told me that she has been working on this story for months and that it was perfect timing that I got to go with her and take pictures. When we got to the office area I met some of the instructors and started taking there pictures. It wasn't until they took me to the ranch where I really noticed how great these people really are. The man who ran this opperation was the nicest and most sincere people I have ever met. Plus I saw the man smoke what I thought was 50 plus cigarettes while we were there. He showed me the animals and explained why all of them have things that are wrong with them. He said the people and the animals feed off of each others energy and that it shows the people in therapy even though they seem like they are broken and can't get help, the animals have gone through the same thing and that if they can do it and continue to live a happy life, why couldn't they. I got to meet the first and only horse that has a prosthetic leg, the first and only sheep that has survived a heart transplant and many other incredible animals. This event was by far the best part of the summer and I cannot thank Ranch Hand Rescue enough for showing me around and inspiring me.

Week 9

Week nine challenged my journalistic integrity more than you would ever know. Before I tell you what happened let me mention that in my first day with D Magazine, the owner told the interns that if we ever excepted a gift from someone before or after covering a story for them that we would be fired immediately. I thought to myself "I would never do anything that stupid" but this week I was thinking a little differently. My editor told me that they had a story that I might like and when they told me I had to take pictures of the COO of TopGolf, my eyes lit up. I got his information and set up a time that was good for both of us. On Thursday I rolled up to this neighborhood that made me feel like I was just a peasant and when I saw his house my damn mouth dropped. He ended up being the nicest guy ever and his family was great. He asked if I wanted to take some pictures at TopGolf and I couldn't pass on that offer. When we got to TopGolf, he went to the front desk for a second and I didn't know what he was doing but I quickly gave up trying to guess what he was doing and started taking pictures. We ended up staying there for two hours after the pictures just talking and when I was packing up to head back to the office he handed me a TopGolf card and said "you like TopGolf right" and I told him that I freaking loved TopGolf and he proceeded to tell me that the card he just gave me allowed me to go to any TopGolf in the country and play as much as I wanted to for free. This man didn't know that he just made me the most disappointed person in the world. I handed the card back and explained to him that I would get fired if I excepted it and how much this gesture meant to me.

When I got back to the office I was pissed! I went to my desk and instantly started working on my pictures when my manager asked me how it went and I told her everything that happened. After the story she started laughing and said "thats the business" and said that she was proud that I was able to resist.

Week 8

After getting back into the swing of things I was given the assignment to go out and shoot for our next few magazine covers which was not as easy as you might think. For the first cover idea, I had to go around and research all of the apartments and hotels that had roof-top pools. You would be surprised on how many roof-top pools there actually are. After finding a few places online, I then had to call the places and ask them if I could get access to their place. Every single one of them and I mean everyone said no before I finished my sentence. It wasn't until I mentioned that I was with D Magazine that they agreed to give me access. The shots were all about the same but with different views of the skyline. I wanted to shoot at night so I could get a long exposure to cloud the water up a bit and get the lights to star in the background. I made a system that since I got access to five places I would spend a evening at each one. The picture above was one of my favorites and the overall experience was great because I got to spend some time looking at apartments that I wanted to live in after I graduated.

Week 7

Its been a week since coming home and its been the longest I have been home since I started college. The week was full of meeting with friends and spending time with brains parents. The day of the visitation came and I can honestly say it was one of the toughest things I have been too. Just seeing his parents who before were the happiest and most energetic people torn down really opened my eyes about life in general. Just a couple of months before we had to bury a couple of my friends and this just seemed different for everyone. I think it everyone was tired of coming back to Burnet for funerals. The next day at his funeral wasn't any better, actually it was much worse. I just wanted to get back to Dallas and consume myself in my work so I could get my mind of everything and that is exactly what I did. The day after the funeral I went back to Dallas and my editors wanted me to take it easy with work but that was the last thing I needed at the time. The lost of Brian made me have a whole new perspective on everything because I had to shoot the biggest story since I have been in Dallas and when I got there and met the CEO my camera quit working and the day was lost. Normally this would have pissed me off but after I tried everything I could to fix my gear it was out of my control. The man I met with was very understanding and we scheduled it the next day. I ended up renting a camera while mine was getting worked on and it turned out okay. Once the week ended I spent some time by myself and it was honestly excruciating so I just started more work because I didn't know what to do with myself.

Week 6 - Going Home

The weeks were flying by and I was moving along with everything perfectly. My girlfriend came up to visit me on the July 4th weekend and it was exactly what I needed. I showed he around Dallas and took her to all the best places to eat. I even took her to the zoo while I was on assignment. I was in the office working on the 6th when I got a phone call from my mom and I knew something wasn't right when she said my name. I vividly remember what she said and exactly where I was when she said Brain died last night. Brian was a good friend of mine from high school and he came back to our home town for the 4th to see his family like he always does and on his way back to College Station that night he was involved in a head on collision killing him and the other driver. It wasn't even a year since I lost two of my really good friends in separate car crashes which were only two weeks apart. I didn't know what to do when she told me. I just stood there motionless looking outside the window of our high-rise office building. It was then that my mom said the three words I will never forget "Chase, come home". I got off the phone with my mom and looked at my editor who saw something wasn't right and before he said anything I muttered "I am going home for a while". My editor Michael asked what happened and I told him what I knew and he sent me on my way. I raced back to my room and told my girlfriend what happened and she immediately started packing. I asked if she was going home and she replied "I am with you no matter what". She called her boss and said she wasn't coming back for a while which started a agrument between them. She quit over the phone and looked at me and said "lets go". I was going home.

Week Three With D Magazine

Week three was upon me and I was getting into the full swing of things. I was managing time spent with Dallas Innovates and their partners The Dallas Regional Chamber. The big campaign they were running at the time was called "Say Yes to Dallas". The campaign was all about showing peoples success stories after moving to Dallas and why they moved in the first place. This was my third story for the DRC and I got to meet up with a businessman who has had a very successful career while in Dallas. After reading his story I asked where he would like to take pictures that really represented him. I was extremely happy when he said he wanted to meet at one of the local breweries around the SMU campus. After talking with him for a bit I noticed the beautiful natural light the windows provided and I quickly snapped his pictures before we lost the light. I usually use a off-camera flash for most of my shots to make sure I get the right amount of light and it was nice not having to use one. I think the reason I enjoyed this internship so much is because everyday I got to go out and meet a variety of people and hear their story. Yes it was a lot of work and I rarely got a chance to relax but it is worth it in my opinion because I believe you can learn a lot from the people around you. After shooting a couple of shots and talking about life over a couple beers it was too late to go back to the office and edit my work so I went home for the night and worked from my room. The next day I continued with the DRC work and called it a week.

Week Two with D Magazine

The first week went by in a blur for the most part and when the weekend started, I didn't really know what I was going to do since I have never been in Dallas before but on Friday my editor asked if I wanted to go to a mixer for all of the interns in Dallas so I decided that will be the one thing I do for the weekend. The mixer was great but the it finished around 6:00 so the two only guy interns and myself decided to go around Deep Ellum and see what trouble we could get into. That Saturday night showed me that Dallas was most defiantly the place I wanted to be. I know what most people would think "He is 21 and going to a bunch of bars" and you are right but the thing that really sold me on the city was the food. Trust me when I say that Dallas has some of the best and craziest food choices you could think of and I took advantage of every thing I could. The burger I had that evening had macaroni and cheese inside and come to find out the macaroni was actually from the company I photographed earlier in the week so I thought that was pretty cool. On Monday morning before leaving for work I received a call from my editor asking if I can go to SMU's campus to take pictures of the Women's Ambassador Forum. The WFA was the first event I have photographed while being with D Magazine and I was pretty nervous but that nervousness quickly turned to awe when I saw all of the powerful women from around the world all in one room together. The event was for five days but I only went to the last event of the fifth day. When I was taking pictures of some of the women in the panel talking I noticed a woman that I could have swore that I saw before and in a matter of second I realized that was Jen Welter. Welter was and still is the only female that has ever coached in the NFL. She is a absolute beast and it wouldn't take you long to realize that she could kill you. After the event I went back to the office and saw my editors stressing on one of the issues that was supposed to go to print in a few days so I decided to stay and help them all night with the magazine and get it ready. The rest of the week was fairly laid back and I got to relax for a little bit and take pictures at my will and that was a great way to finish the rest of my second week in Dallas.

The First Week

The next few days went great for me at D Magazine. I was learning my way around the city and everything was getting more familiar. Around 9:45 PM on my fourth day I was walking back to my car and a homeless man came up to me asking if I had some money. I told him that I had no cash on me and when I said that he reached for my camera bag. My bag had about $5,000 of camera equipment at the time and if you know me then you know I would die before someone stole from me; it’s just the principle of it. I knew he didn’t have a gun or knife because he would have already pulled it so I charged him and beat the dude down cracking my knuckle in the process. The next morning, I came into the office with a makeshift wrap over my hand and my manager asked what happened. I told him and he started laughing really hard and said “who in their right mind would mess with you”? I explained to him that I was just a big teddy bear until you mess with my gear. That afternoon I was able to cover a story over an old macaroni factory in Ft. Worth that turned into an office space for some up and coming businesses. The place was incredible. The 100 year old building still had all of its equipment and everything still smelt like pasta. The spaces in the wood floor still had noodles in it. It has always been one of my dreams to go into a place that made pasta and who knew I would get to cover a story over one of the most iconic business in DFW my first week. The work area had a rustic vibe to it that couldn’t be recreated. The businesses that rented the space all did things very differently. One was a coffee manufacture, the other was a leather company. The smells varied from room to room and coincidence had it that those three very different smells are my different but room they all combined and they did not complement each other at all.

The first week of my internship experience was eventful. My mom wasn’t happy with me defending my gear but she will understand at a later date. I was proud of what I got to be a part of for the summer.

The Process and My First Day with D Magazine

The process of trying to get an internship for the summer of 2017 was a long and nerve-racking one. I knew I didn’t want to spend the summer in the panhandle of Texas but who else would take me? I spent three weeks applying to every magazine in different parts of Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado and New Mexico but the week after I only received two emails denying my application. My mind began to wander as the weeks passed by without any word from the different publications I applied to. On February 6^th, I received an email from Texas Lifestyle Magazine saying they were interested in my work and wanted to interview me. My confidence began to grow as the next few days passed and I received six more emails with the same message but on the 10^th I received an email from D Magazine saying the job is mine if I choose to accept it. I remember sending them an application but I really didn’t know much about the magazine much less even been to Dallas. After some careful research, I decided to go with D Magazine because I liked the editor and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and move to a new city. When I arrived to my tiny extended stay just a day before I started the internship, I noticed the huge difference in scenery from small town Canyon. I didn’t sleep that night, I made sure I had all my camera gear in order for the morning and tried as much as I could to prepare for my first day. The intern orientation started at 9 am the next morning and to make sure I made a good impression I thought it would be a good idea to arrive to the office an hour early. It was when I drove through the city and noticed the massive “D” on a building in the heart of the city I realized I might be overmatched. After waiting in the lobby for literally everyone in the company to arrive, I got to meet some of the other interns in the marketing and sales department. It turns out that the magazine I applied for was one of the biggest and most influential city based publications in the country. I was the only photographer out of the thirty interns so that made me feel a little better. After the intern orientation, the managers for their respective branch showed everyone around the building and then most of the interns when to happy hour across town. I say most because I was the only intern out of the thirty that had assignments to do that day, I thought “Hey at least you will be making waves the first day”. I was put in a sink or swim scenario for my first assignment which I have no problem with until I realized that I had to walk a mile and a half for my first photoshoot and my camera bag was full of every piece of photography gear I have ever bought. This is where I also noticed the difference in the humidity from the panhandle to Dallas, I met with the first client absolutely drenched with sweat from a mixture of nerves and having to carry around my 70 plus pound camera bag. The shoot went great until we got kicked off the building we were shooting on so I had to improvise for the next hour. We ended up shooting at a different location which we got some great shots but again, we got kicked out of the location but by that time we got what we needed so we called it a day. I arrived back to my extended stay and started editing the pictures I had taken from the day.

I must admit, the first day went smoother that I could have possibly hoped for so I was thankful for that. As I was lying in bed, I realized that I made the best choice of my life with picking this internship.

New Media

This is the last blog of my 2017 spring semester and I can't tell you enough on how amazing this year has been for me. The classes I have been apart of have been challenging but in the long run I can see it being for the best. The class that has been the most influential for me has to be my new media class. In new media we always had to keep our twitter account handy and for me this was horrible just because I personally do not like twitter at all and I never use it but the class has really taught me that companies rely heavily on their social media accounts to stay involved with their customers. This isn't just used by companies though, ESPN uses twitter to their max potential to keep the audience involved. We went over different concepts for new media and how the game is always changing, for example, tons of different organizations and companies are using Hootsuite to be more on top of their social media and most of all the analytics of their social media.

This is the prime time for different tools to be built to help better social media, these programs like Sysomos, Hootsuite and plenty of other programs help companies like McDonalds see how their hashtag is doing and change it up depending on different locations. Using these programs makes it much more simple to work with the details and helps you really get the most out of your social media post.

New media is constantly changing the world we live in through many different and unique ways. Like I brought up earlier it helps people get more accurate data with their websites and social media by using programs like Sysomos and Hootsuite to changing the way we view the world by inventing and working with the 360 camera. There is no telling what the future will hold for media and I for one cannot wait to see how it enhances our everyday life. I honestly did not have a clue to where to start with new media but after my short time studying the material, it has started to make sense to me and a few of my class mates and I were able to get some hands on experience working with new media. We worked with the Facebook group, managed post, shared information, helped promote and most of all, we got a lot of hands on work with the incredible but expensive program, Sysomos. Here is our groups Facebook. Check us out! https://www.facebook.com/MCOM2310MediaDesign/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Crises Online

There has been plenty of "mess ups" since social media has been apart of our everyday life. One of the biggest problems people face is getting two different accounts mixed up and they use their business accounts as their personal accounts. This simple mistake has led to people getting fired and companies losing all of their creditability. celebrities can lose money or their future jobs. It is easy to have a crises online because you might think what you post is not offensive but it could be very offensive to other people. The timing can also play a huge part in to what goes into a post. If you post something that is close enough to a disaster or something on the lines of it, it could have the chance on being extremely offensive. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/gilbert-gottfried-fired-aflac_n_835692.html

Crowdsourcing is huge for startups and companies who need to get their product out to the public. It has helped companies build a fund so they can get their product out there and well established companies use it for getting information from their customers. One of the best examples for this is Indiegogo. Indiegogo is […]

via Crowdsourcing — chaseman90

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is huge for startups and companies who need to get their product out to the public. It has helped companies build a fund so they can get their product out there and well established companies use it for getting information from their customers. One of the best examples for this is Indiegogo. Indiegogo is a start up campaign that helps small companies get the funding that they need in order to continue on with their research, marketing, or just building more units. Crowdsourcing is a practice used by almost every single company that has been made, the publicity and public opinion can be extremely beneficial to the company and it has proved its worth time and time again. If you think about it, all of the news organizations use crowdsourcing because everyone has a camera and video camera with them at all times so basically we are all photojournalist. News organizations know this and if you are in an area when something important happens and you capture the moment, there is a good chance the news channels will ask you if they can use your media. 

360 Video

In the last few years, 360 video has started to come alive in the media industry. People find the angle it can produce very interesting. For it being a new form it has been seen in almost every different media scenario you can think of. The 360 degree field of view makes the picture or video more interesting to viewers due to the fact that they can more the image to see everything that is going on. The possibilities are almost never ending with 360 video, people have used them for sports, diving, base jumping, skydiving and many other different ways(https://youtu.be/rV1-K-7AdSE). Some people say that with the invention of the 360 camera, the rest of the camera industry will have to learn to adapt and build and I completely agree with that statement. The 360 camera is a step in the right direction for the industry and there is no telling what the future holds for the technology.

The Importance of Video

Video has been at the front of the media industry for the last decade. Everything we do now will more than likely have video tied in to it. The focus of this blog is strictly going to be about Youtube because of its impact in the video industry.  Every single day I will be on Youtube watching tutorials over photography so I can find new ways to improve my work and this is the story for almost everyone. Youtube has been very influential for those who don't have time or money to enroll in a class or training course for that specific job. This has been huge for me just because WT doesn't really offer a advanced photography program so I get my knowledge from peoples accounts on Youtube like FroKnowsPhotos. The thing I love about Youtube is that it has many different genres and it doesn't really matter what you look for, you will always find it. People can sit there for hours watching another person play video games while they could just play their own games, I am guilty of this so I understand the interest in this subject.

It is said that Youtube is the number one search engine and I can see this because I always look at Youtube before anywhere else. I follow tons of different people ranging from photography to history to gun channels, it just depends on my mood and that is what makes Youtube so great. Here is a great video that shows my favorite Youtube channel and his idea on going to college for photography  https://youtu.be/Nc5kzpiUK6I

War Room

What can I really say about my war room experience, I had an absolute blast while taking part in project runway. The group and I had Dr. Franken and our job was to do the social media for his character in Project Runway. For this assignment we had to make a hashtag, take pictures and video during the event and post about Dr. Frankens character before and after the even. His character was Captain Hook so the group thought it would be best if we used the hashtag #frankenhook. My job throughout the whole event was to take pictures of what was happening during Project Runway and since my camera lacks wifi we had a runner constantly grabbing different memory cards from my camera and running them to the war room. This was an absolute blast for me throughout the project for many different reasons. Number one, I was able to work with people that I am comfortable with and we were able to put a lot of ideas out there and number two, I was able to do what I love (take pictures) and reason number three and most important overall I was able to be apart of the best part of comm week.

Social Media Management & Measurement

social media management & measurement has to be by far one of the most important and relevant things in mass communication today. Just look at all the social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for starters. Almost everyone today is working on making their page more popular. For websites it is the same thing, people are trying to get what ever they have on their websites more exposure. social media Management & Measurement can really make or break someone. Every single day peoples jobs rely on social media management & measurement and also peoples jobs are managing and measuring social media. companies need to be able to measure their social media just so they can move on with the times and as well see what people are liking in their social media.  For me I feel like people that are in this job will be there for a long time just because the market and industry of mass communication is and will only get larger and larger.

Curation in photography

As a photographer, there is only one job I would really want. I would have to be much healthier and more flexible. I would love to be the official White House photographer. Click on this link from Twisted Sifter to see Pete Souza, photographer, for The White House 55 favorite photos he has taken to […]

Being a photojournalist is the absolute top of the list for me as my career choice is concerned and I do understand that curation is a huge part of it. The stories you tell with your photographs need to be able to withstand the trials of time just so it can be a valuable lesson in the future and I am also aware that when working these jobs, curators are a huge part of the process. Just take this for example, the head photographer for the White House probably has the hardest job of all just because of all the different people each and every picture he takes has to go through to get approved. In the end they are the ones that have the final say in every part of your story. With all said and done I really do believe curation has a huge influence and impact in photography.  via I want this job in my next life — Cee's Photography