COINCIDENCES SAVED MY STORY

Coincidences are a wonderful thing, especially when things are looking grim while working on a story. I originally had two stories planned out for London. Neither of them panned out. So what did I do? I wandered the streets a bit just trying to figure out what to do after all of the twenty or so shop owners I talked to brushed me off when I asked for an interview. Then I ran into Christian Garrucho somehow and we decided to go grab a tapioca drink from somewhere.

We figured our best shot at finding a shop that sold them was in Chinatown so we headed in that direction. While walking we noticed a small group of people on the sidewalk wearing pink and accompanied by a guy in a pig costume. I talked to one of the gentlemen about what they were doing and it turned out that they were doing a bit of charity work.

Bingo!

A story with interesting visuals and an angle that ties into the economy just as I needed one. I felt like money. Two days later in Paris, Mike Anderson and I headed over to the Montemarte district to try and get a few interviews about young people traveling. After a few mishaps on the Metro, and our apparent inability to properly use a map, we finally found the hostel we’d been looking for.

I walked in, asked the receptionist if he spoke English, and it turns out he’s from Washington D.C. Easy! – But it gets better. He goes to speak to the manager to clear the interview with him, and while we’re waiting four or five girls walked by us pulling their luggage into the hostel. I asked them if they spoke English, and it turned out they were American.

But that wasn’t the best part. As we’re waiting for the girls to come back down, I heard a gentleman speaking to the receptionist with an American accent. I approached him for an interview and it turns out he’ll be attending San Jose State next semester. What are the odds of that?

It just goes to show you that with work and a little bit of persistence, sometimes things just fall into your lap … wait, that doesn’t really sound right.

Sometimes, you just get lucky.

Hang on a bit, let’s try that again.

Work hard, and it seems like things just magically fall into place.

Harvey Rañola
Multimedia Editor
Broadcast Journalism

HITTING THE STREETS AGAIN

Bicyclists zoom past cars on Bridge Street, near the Eye of London during rush hour in Central London. Photo Credit: Carlos A. Moreno / GMI

Today was a good day.

There were some bumps in the road here and there but Samantha Rivera, the writer doing the food beat, did a great job gathering facts and making my job easier as a photographer. With her guidance and help I was able to look for images that reflected her story accurately and in an interesting way. Hopefully the end product from both our London and Paris stories will be successful.

As I write this, I wonder how I am to get everything edited and polished before 12 midnight. I would like to get some sleep since tonight can possibly be the only night that I could potentially have some sleep.

Our baggage call is at 7:45 a.m. I don't know if I can handle not getting sleep for a third night in a row.

However, knowing that I still need to work on other projects and help a couple of writers with their work, does make it highly unlikely that I will get sleep. Nonetheless, I will be a trooper on this - I've always had the help of others to make me look good - it just so happens that it is my turn to let our hard-working editors have that chance too.

It is only fair.

Hitting the streets of London today was less stressful than yesterday. Sources were willing to talk and be photographed. There were of course still some cultural issues, especially in Chinatown, but it seemed less intense.

I don't know why.

Maybe it was because I felt more optimistic and inspired to work hard after seeing the big picture of Samantha's story.

Our last day in London brings both relief and sadness...

'Oh London if only I had known you better.'

Unfortunately, work took over my day, but it paid off with great photos and exciting stories to tell people back at home.

Even a few laughs between some newly formed friendships, made it easier to work here in London.

I just hope Paris is as beautiful and exciting as everyone tells me it is. Especially their food, since I will be taking photos of delicious desserts and food for my second story with Samantha.

On to France and on to fancier things!

London was good but Paris is the place to be for me. Let's see if hitting the streets again will be different or similar to my experience here in London.

I can't wait to see the streets of Paris.

Carlos A. Moreno
Photographer
Photojournalism
My Web site.

FROM BIG BEN TO CHINATOWN

It is my second day here in London, and I have to say, I am probably in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I have never been in Europe, and everything is completely new to me.

I am definitely loving it here. The culmination of different cultures, the different types of food, all the new sites, everything!

Today, I helped Kim Nguyen, a broadcast journalism major, with her travel and tourist stories. We went from Chinatown to Big Ben in all one day. Chinatown, here, is not the like Chinatown in San Francisco. There were no oriental style buildings or signs of Chinese culture. In fact, we did not know that we were in Chinatown until we asked someone, and he replied,

"What are you talking about? You're standing in it!."

Kim and I did stumble upon a niche in the heart of Chinatown. This little square was surrounded by tall buildings housing Chinese buffet restaurants, Asian grocery stores, and gift shops. To enter the square, we had to walk underneath an Oriental arch similar to the red gates that stand out in the oceans of Japan.

After Kim shot the stories she needed, we met up with the rest of the group at Big Ben. Big Ben, is nothing like what I've seen in Peter Pan or in Hook. I never got to enter it, but it was still amazing from the outside looking up at it. The group took a photograph together, and I tried my hand at making a one-handed MySpace-like point-and-shoot shot with my DSLR, and failed, fantastically. But hey, it is still worth a keepsake with the 10 bad shots I took, so I'm not complaining.

Evening fell, and London is even more stunning. Every street is well lit with its signature globe streetlights. People are still bustling about. The city is still alive, even on a Sunday. I took a couple of shots of the scenery at night.

Finding free wireless Internet is nearly impossible here, so I'll have to keep this blog short (if it isn't long enough already).

Anyways, I gotta get back to work so I have more time to enjoy this already wonderful city.

Christian Garrucho

Photographer

Radio Television Film

My YouTube. My Flickr. My MySpace.