GSPA Tour de Force

I left my lead for this story in my other blog--but I'm okay with that.

One thing I learned at the GSPA 2010 Fall Conference is that I must accept my limitations, and I learned it from Mark Johnson.

His focus was on photojournalism, but I can't help thinking that what he had to say applies to all aspects of life. We've got to learn to frame the stories in our lives.

And, as Joe Williams so eloquently illustrated, the lecture series was more than just a lecture series. It was countless stories to be told and read in tandem.

So we get there. Neither me nor Joe see Kjac or T-bird sitting right near the door we just walked in through. Of course we'd have commiserated, but the world ain't perfect. We scuttle right past them.

We end up on the opposite side of the room, Joe in the outside-most seat. He tries to scoot away from me because our arms are touching, but these chairs are attached--he is going nowhere.

There's a tall guy at the front who looks like he's about to say some stuff, and I figure this is Mark Johnson. When the din settles down, the tall guy opens his mouth and The Voice issueth amongeth us.

Yeah. That's Mark E. Johnson.

He starts off by saying there are three things we must understand: what to shoot, why to shoot it, and how to shoot it.

The how-to bit is what Joe was talking about in his blog, what with the "fill the frame" stuff and whatnot. He told it better than I can, so I won't go into it.

What impresses me most is Johnson's very apparent sense of curiosity. I honestly feel his passion for moments.

At the end of the lecture, Joe and I meet up with T-bird at the front of the room and say a few choice words to The Voice. Not too many, though--I mean, honestly, what do you say to The Voice?

We decide then to head to Ed Morales' sports writing fantastical.

Good lord, we amble through so many youngins. We finally get to where we are going and grab some seats. We're joined by a fourth member of the Editing crew.

Our little EM gang listens as Morales shucks his wisdom. I can tell the man loved what he used to do.

Like my cohort Joe, however, I cannot fathom working with the numbers and such business, so I glean what I can from between the know-how of actually covering sports stories.

T-bird takes some notes, and when it's all over Joe says a few words to Morales before we hustle outta there.

I feel good about the whole experience, and go waive at Joe Dennis before we leave, but he's obviously not paying attention because he's busy, so we head to the lunching area.

We have a good discussion over lunch about the whole shebang, and I am glad for having gone.

(Sidenote: I ganked one of those cool red GSPA bags. It was in a chair. I grabbed it. It's mine now.)