Thursday, February 5, 2015

Cell Phone Photography


El Guapo Grill Food trucked parked outside Undergraduate Library on Campus
   
   I will have you know that I am a lover of the local food movement. When I walked by the El Guapo Food truck parked on Wayne State's  campus, I thought, "Aha! Wayne State, you would have food trucks posted up. Thank you, Detroit!" This is my first semester here as I am a transfer student from Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. We didn't have many food trucks there...
   It was only 11:30am when I took this picture on a Tuesday morning and I wasn't quite hungry yet, so I didn't try any tacos, although some students did stop and form a small line waiting for their food. I like the American flag just over the truck, and chose to snap a photo of the back of the truck because it's where the name of their website was painted. Then, I snapped one of the side of the truck where a student was approaching to make their order. I wish I could have gotten about 1 foot from the student placing his order and angle my phone back and into the truck so that I could get a peak into who was working it. This was my first time trying to get a vantage point for "reporting" something and I was actually a bit nervous! I feel like I should've gotten in there more, and that's what I hope to improve on for my next assignment.
   
Student orders authentic $4 pork tacos
   I’ve had an Instagram account for three years and have been known to post up to three photographs a day. I’m pleased to know that not only student journalists, but professional journalists, uses Instagram! I would like to work on building followers. The advice I drew from the Storify “Cell Phone Use In the Media,” is to use smart hashtags. I also need to spend more time researching hashtags that pertains to what I’m interested in and finding people to follow through that avenue. After liking their photos, they will perhaps start following me as well. I also started following the example provided for an “established college Instagram account,” @kentwired. I hope to use that account as a role model during this learning process of building a new audience and catering to its newsworthy needs.