My name is
Arlen Caplan and I am Senior Photography Major.
This summer I was a photographer for the Conservation Jobs
Corps program at the Department of Natural Resources. I had found out about the
opportunity through a couple of my friends who had done it previously and said
that it was a good experience. I applied and had an interview just a few days
after submitting the application online. The CJC program was started
nearly a decade ago as a way to
provide a job, and in turn a sense of safety,
to struggling youth during the summer. They’ve made it their mission to not only show kids the importance
of our state’s natural resources,
but to keep them off the streets by earning honest money at a young age.
My direct
supervisor was Frederick Banks, known by everyone as “Fred”, and he is
essentially the lead coordinator of the CJC program. As he would put it, “My boss’s boss is the Governor”. He has been
with the program since it’s fruition
and has dedicated his summers to creating the
program I interned for. My
responsibilities included traveling around the state to photograph/document the work being done on the land by the kids and their crew
captains. I drove roughly 3500-4000 miles and took nearly 1200 photographs. My
biggest accomplishment was the creation of the final showcase of images at the kid’s graduation ceremony from the
program. From start to finish, I compiled 2000 photos and edited down to
roughly 200 photos and 3 short video clips to create a presentation for the
kids at their final ceremony. It was
over 10 minutes and the kids were ecstatic to see everything they had worked so
hard on over the course of the program. Dealing with this is probably also my
biggest take-away from the whole experience. Being tasked to work with
thousands of files and create a product that best-showcases the experience was
incredibly difficult. I had to learn to cope with a deluge of material and work
with my boss to create a nearly perfect piece.
Through this internship I learned what it was like to be a traveling photographer. I
learned about all the preparation that goes into such a task and how to keep
myself motivated. It wasn’t easy to wake up Monday-Friday to drive over 100
miles to photograph but I knew thats what it took to make money photographing.
Additionally, I learned how valuable file management is. Similar to the Upload
Name system MICA requires of their interns, I had to be just as attentive when I was saving all my images. Thousands of images from
4 different cameras is not only a lot in terms of space but also when
considering the workflow process. It takes a lot of time for the images to load,
let alone be edited digitally and sequentially. Through everything, I’ve
learned about the importance of being diligent and applying that to my
practice. I learned to be a professional worker, how to handle a very heavy
work schedule, how to apply my knowledge of photography for others’
satisfaction, how to effectively handle and manage large amounts of material
and how to work with my superior to generate a creative presentation.
