PHOTOJOURNALISM
When I first joined Verde I was nervous to take my own photos and often relied on the help of my story partners or our photo director. But as I got into news writing, I started stepping up more frequently. When school shut down, we knew we would need to build up a stock of photos to be use in our breaking news stories so I went to Paly campus and took photos throughout so we wouldn't be in a situation where we'd be waiting on a photo to publish. I also went through the empty downtown streets and captured more general images of the shelter-in-place so we'd have those in stock as well. Snapping shots of students studying in the library or the construction on campus, I grew my confidence and soon became eager to take on more. In many stories I read on my own in The New York Times or The Washington Post, I saw the deeper storytelling power of photography and I strived to incorporate that more and more in my own work.
ELECTION REACTIONS
PHOTO ESSAY
The day the election was called for Biden, I went out to photograph a rally that took place on the corner of Embarcadero Road and El Camino Real. I took the photos for my news story "Community celebrates Biden's election" but the photos were also adapted into a photo essay for the print magazine. Scroll to the right on the gallery below to see a selection of my photos.
Caption for image on right (feature image of news story):
PARTY IN THE USA — Palo Alto High School junior Madison Abbassi holds up a copy of The Mercury News alongside fellow community members waving American flags in celebration of Joe Biden being declared the winner of the presidential race. “I woke up actually at 10 a.m. so I didn’t even know it until I opened my phone and I’m just super happy and wanted to come out and show my support for the new president,” Abbassi said. Photos: Avery Hanna
GO JOE — Showing off their support for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, people wave American flags and hold up signs. “Behind my mask, my smile is huge,” Palo Alto High School parent Stephanie Compton said.
PALO ALTANS RALLY TO DEFEND USPS
As the U.S. Postal Service suffered under changes implemented by Post Master General Louis DeJoy and the election drew nearer, community members came out to protest in front of the Downtown Palo Alto Post Office. I covered the event for a news story and below you will find some of my photos. Due to wildfires across the state, the air was filled with smoke which presented unique challenges with lighting.
POSTAL PROTESTING — Palo Altans express their frustrations with the U.S. Postmaster General this morning in front of the Downtown Palo Alto Post Office. “We need the USPS, it's an essential public function underwritten in the Constitution, and this is an urgent problem, so let's take action,” the organizers wrote on their website. Photos: Avery Hanna
INTEGRATING PHOTOGRAPHY ACROSS MY WORK
While the group gatherings above lend themselves to strong photo based coverage, photography is a part of every story I have written (with the exception of my feature covering undocumented immigrants that relied on art). I'll frequently go out and snap some shots for a breaking news story or collect photos for future stories. After a couple instances when we had to hold off on publishing a news story because we didn't have a good photo to go with it, I started to be more proactive in my photography work rather than adding it in as an afterthought.
As I go through my day, Verde is always at the back of my mind. So when I went on a hike at Foothills Nature Preserve that had recently opened to the general public and was quickly inundated with visitors, I snapped some pics of the full parking lots in case we'd need them for a later story. Or when I was shopping in San Francisco and saw people on the corner protesting the assassination of Soleimani, I took some photos in case it tied into our coverage of the student response. In this way, thinking through a photographic lens became second nature.
This proactive mindset also motivated me to build up collections of stock photos to be used in breaking news stories when we didn't have a better photo alternative. This was especially important during the pandemic as my photos of campus were used in the many news stories covering updates to shelter-in-place orders and school closures. Some of these photos are featured on the right.
And an assortment of other photos I have taken for the magazine are shown below. While I started out hesitant of taking my own photos, by this point in my journalism career photography has been thoroughly integrated into my work. For all of these images, clicking on a photo will bring you to the associated story.
