Matthew R. Hibbard

As a convergence reporter you get to experience a lot of different newsrooms and a lot of different writing styles. This week, during my newsroom shift at the local NBC affiliate KOMU 8 news, I was taking photos alongside a broadcast reporter.

We did a story about Columbia's city ordinance of snow being left on the sidewalks after a 24-hour time window. We ended up following a mail carrier around his route, I was following him with my camera and the reporter with his video camera. For a brief couple of minutes it looked like this mail career was a local celebrity. 

While we were following the mail carrier I came across this wheelbarrow. My mind suddenly put a picture together when I saw it and that's the picture you see above. For a brief second I stepped out of my journalist photographer mode and into my artistic photography mode, the mode I am so familiar with. I knew right off the bat that this picture was going to be displayed black and white with only the wheelbarrow left in the strong, bold blue color. 

This week I have learned that not everything is awesome when planned out. Sometimes it's the events that are unexpected that turn out to be masterpieces. 

It’s that time of year where the weather is at that place where it’s not too hot but not too cold. It’s that time when the days start getting colder as our homes start getting warmer. The seasons have switched, it’s time for fall to make its debut.

I was walking with a friend around campus and found this acorn wrapped in a interesting casing. I had never seen anything like it before. The acorn had its very own spiky exterior that fit tightly around the shell. I picked it up and carried it back to my room. I made myself a makeshift studio and used the lighing from my window (which turned out to be very good) to create the picture above.

I love finding things on the ground or scattered throughout nature. The things that I find depend on what season it is. The fall season brings more than just football, pumpkins and apple picking, it brings also colored leaves, empty trees and piles of acorns.

As fall becomes more apparent with every fallen leave, ask yourself what memories do you have of the fall season. It could be something as big as a family adventure to an apple orchard or as little as an acorn lying underneath an oak tree.

So it was a rainy day today so I decided to jump on Photoshop and create something. I went to Youtube and found this tutorial about how to make a planet using Photoshop and I was hooked. I listened and followed each step of the tutorial and came out with my own version. Neat isn’t?

I can only dream of the chance when I’ll be able to take pictures of distant planets and galaxies beyond. But in the meantime though, I’ll stick with using Photoshop to create my dreams and make something out of this world.

 I love trying to duplicate people’s tutorials using Photoshop. In the process of me making this one-demential object come to life, I learned new techniques to use in my photography and new shortcuts and buttons to use in the future. Learning is all about getting your feet wet and not being afraid of clicking a wrong button or erasing a great image. In most cases, there’s an undo button.

So while this isn’t a real photo of a planet, it’s at least a work of art made in Photoshop that I brought to life. We all can’t, and proably won’t, travel to the moon or travel in space, but we can certainly explore other avenues in our lives that make us excited.

If you were interested in that Youtube video here it is, make your own planet, explore and have fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFk_CSjzFZI&feature=related