Photo Story - CSC Youth House

  Vincent Drew (right) standing in the CSC booth at the Corvallis Farmers Market 

while passersby try samples of some of the jams and jellies.

It's 6:30 am on Saturday June 2nd, 2018, at a time where most people are still cozied up in bed, Vincent Drew and his youth crew are setting up (the Community Service Consortium Youth Garden booth) for another day at the Corvallis Farmers Market. The market runs Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 am until 1 pm beginning in mid April and goes until mid November. During this time, Drew and his crew are busy engaging with eager passersby who stop to try the samples of the jams, jellies, and salsas that are made in house out of the fruits and vegetables grown in the flower beds right outside of the CSC Youth House, located on 2nd and Western Blvd in downtown Corvallis.

  Jeremiah W. processing the peppers to be added to the "Sassy Salsa." 

Back at the Youth House a few days later, Vincent has brought together Felix, Jeremiah, Bailey, and Eric, a group of youth enrolled in the federal workforce program that is provided by CSC as a way to "encourage learning, entrepreneurship and work readiness in Benton County youth," to make a batch of one of the homemade salsas, the Sassy Salsa. 

Felix P., Jeremiah W., Bailey B., and Eric B ( Left to right) portion out a batch of 

the recently made salsa to be canned and sold at the Corvallis Farmers Market.

From 9 am until a little after noon, the Youth House members are busy processing tomatoes into a paste and peppers and onions into slivers to be cooked together with vinegar and cayenne powder to create the perfect blend of flavors fit for your next bowl of chips. The ingredients are then tossed together over the stove in the slow process of boiling the concoction to reduce the amount of water in order to reach a reasonable consistency, filling the house with a sweet and spicy aroma in no time. 

  Felix P. and Jeremiah  W. (left to right) scooping out salsa into mason jars 

that Eric B.(right) places into a basket to be pressure sealed. 

After the tomato "stew" has reached an adequate consistency, it is hauled off to be ladled and portioned off into separate mason jars. Passing through a a 15 minute bath in boiling water, the jars are removed and allowed to cool down, resulting in a vacuum seal that leaves them ready to be sold at the next farmers market in the following weeks.

  Vincent Drew carefully removing the very hot salsa jars from the 

boiling water to let them cool down and seal.

Yet even with all the time and effort that goes into the process of making these added value products the end goal is not necessarily that of making money, but as more of a way for these youth to be able to learn skills such as raising and cultivating produce through the garden, handling money through the farmers market booth, and learning work readiness skills in order to prepare themselves to enter the ever competitive job market. 

Besides the work that is done through the garden and farmers market, the CSC Youth House also provide youth with the opportunity and guidance to be able to do things such as completing a high school or GED degree and identifying their unique strengths in an environment made to support them in their journey forward. To find out more information, please head to http://communityservices.us/education/. 

 

Week 8 Forum

After reading through the second half of Lynsey Addario's book, It's What I Do, I found myself very moved by two particular chapters, that being chapter 9 and chapter 12. The reason that I found these chapters to be so compelling was because in chapter 9, we get to see a first hand account of what it was like to be in one of the most dangerous places in the Afghanistan war and in chapter 12, we get a harsh reality check when Addario brings up receiving emails that two of her colleagues have died. Between theses two, though, I would have to say that chapter 12 would have to be the one that really stuck with me overall. The reason I chose this chapter was because of the fact that for a good portion of the book we see a lot of the "heroic" sides of photojournalism and are sort of looking at things with rose colored glasses, but then chapter 12 comes along and forces you to really think about the risks that these men and women put themselves through for the sake of getting the story. The quote that really stuck with me from this chapter was "Instead of walking down the aisle with his beautiful Christina, he was carried down the aisle in a casket, his mother and his bride-to-be walking a few steps behind." This quote stuck with me because it shows you how much photojournalists risk in their line of work and how it affects those around them. Unfortunately this chapter didn't have a photo to choose from, but in the next chapter I think that the image of her son, Lukas, was my favorite photo because of what Lukas represented in her life at the time; being that voice in the back of her head changing the way that she would choose her assignments. Overall, I felt that this chapters change in tonality greatly allowed me to better appreciate the work that these men and women do for the purpose of educating the world.

Week 10 Forum

For this term, my favorite photo that I took so far would have to be of Leonel Alcantar and Daniel Castillo at the Diversity Day event at the LBCC Courtyard.

The reason that I liked this photo so much was because of the great composition of the two guys performing and having a clean background that didn't distract from the subjects. I feel that this image really shows how photojournalism has been able to change the way that I think about my subjects and composition to get a great shot.

Throughout this term I feel that I have been able to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to get close to my subjects to be able to capture the image that I know will help me tell the story I want to tell. I think a good example of that would be primarily the photos I took for Diversity Day being able to really capture the moment.

Week 1 Goals for Photojournalism this term:

• To get a better understanding of what it takes to be a photojournalist 
• To understand how to compose an image to tell a story
• To further develop my photography taking skills.

Taking a look back at my forum response from Week 1 and looking back on my personal goals for the term I actually feel like I did pretty well at following through with them. At the beginning, I knew very little of what photojournalism was and what it took to become a photojournalist, but after reading through Lynsey Addario's book It's What I Do and having my own personal experience with going out and getting the story, I began to get a clear picture of how goes into being a photojournalist. Another one of my goals was to understand how to compose and image to tell a story. After weeks of photo assignments I think I was finally able to begin to focus my eye to find the best way to position myself in order to get the right composition. Lastly I wanted to develop my photography skills, and I think that through weeks of practice and learning to look at subjects differently, my photography taking skills have been able to improve.