Hey everyone! I'm glad you could stop by. I don't know exactly where to start or what to say about myself, but my name is Blake.
Originally I had started my education nearly a decade ago at Walla Walla University in Washington. I never really found it to be a good fit and I ended up moving back to Oregon and re-enrolling to for Chemical Engineering. I remember taking a placement test for math and ending up in Math 65. I distinctly remember during my introduction into that class how we all had to explain what our major was and what we planned to do. When I told them I wanted to do engineering they all looked at me and I specifically remember someone asking "don't you have to be good at math to do that?" Well, it was a long struggle and I made it all the way through my calculus series just to prove to you that I am still quite bad at math.
I ended up working at HP for a period of time, hoping to have some internship experience, and while completing a lot of my degree requirements for Chemical Engineering, I never really found the work culture very stimulating. I mean, it certainly was interesting, but there was always something about working in a lab, dressed down in a lab coat, wearing gloves and PPE that really just wore me down. I remember feeling frustrated being passed off by my managers who were always proud of my work, but regretfully, never had an open position for me to move up in the career ladder despite my enthusiasm, awards, and can do attitude to get things done. I remember having a final conversation with my manager, who had promised me a promotion three months prior, and told me in his meeting I would have to wait longer for a position to open up. At that time I was already aware I wouldn't get the promotion and had already accepted another job working as a Direct Support Professional. I promptly put in my two weeks, moved over to Corvallis and got trained as a social worker. Over the past 5 years I have dedicated myself to serving people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (we call it I/DD for short).
To be honest, I never quite expected myself to stay in this industry. I originally planned to just complete my engineering degree while working as a social worker, because it paid a lot better than HP (which feels incredibly ironic given the stereotypes we hear about). I ended up falling in love with the work I do and I found myself wanting to better myself, the individuals I serve, and my community. Right now I'm on a career objective to get my degree in Psychology. I currently own and operate my own business (it's really small and not that impressive) and I have my goals set on getting more endorsements from the state in order to provide more services and grow my business. The state has recently passed some amendments and in order to complete my goal the state wants me to complete my degree. So I elected to do it in Psychology. This is my last class before I receive my associates degree. Who knows where I will be in 5-10 years, but I'm happy to be here now and I'm happy to grow and expand my knowledge. With every day and every interaction I hope to use it as a learning opportunity to strengthen myself and give me more tools. I was really excited to see that this class was going to further my skills as an entrepreneur.
About my experience as a photographer . . . well, it's pretty lackluster. I would say I rely more on the technology of the latest smartphone to make my photos look better. I feel pretty agile when it comes to learning new technology, but I certainly lack that "special gift" I notice some really great photographers have. I can't particularly say I have a lot of working knowledge about how to capture those 1000 words into a single photo, mine probably would have three.
So what are my goals here and why would I want to be in journalism? To be honest, I think journalism is incredibly interesting and critically important to our culture. The current state of our country and the world has changed in such a dynamic way from when I was a kid in the 90s. We live in an age of social media, where internet technology is at our fingertips. We live in a period of instant gratification when at any moment we can find breaking news and content that produces a dopaminergic reaction. We also live in a dark period of mass misinformation. Journalism, going forward, is going to be critical for our ability to filter out alternative facts.
My goals are to improve my ability to communicate to others through pictures. I see how that can be very valuable to someone who wants to start their own business. I'm in the process of creating my website and I want people to have an impression about who I am and what company's values on the images they see on my site. That is incredibly power; to use a tool that can convey such emotion with just the simplicity of a photo. I want to learn how to better improve my photo taking skills, I want to refine that and mold it into something that isn't just someone's experience posting selfies on Instagram. I want to improve my writing. A photo can say a lot, but the words that are backed behind the photo are the true story that is told from the photo. I want to make sure that I hit the target in both. I have a lot to gain during these ten weeks together.
There's just something about nature that feels captivating, even despite the storms and rainy weather it hard to not feel captivated by a sunset through the clouds. Taken in portrait mode to capture a wider angle of the mountains.
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