Final Project: Rowing Piece

Better late than never, I guess. Unfortunately I lost a lot of quality on my video clips and some of my photos once they imported into Final Cut. Hopefully that doesn't detract too much from the entire piece. (Side note: if anyone knows how to fix that, please get in touch with me!)

I just tweaked a few things, added an outro, and here it is!

It was a great semester with you all – I hope everyone has a nice, de-stressing summer, and good luck in all your future projects :)

Sarah

UNH Women's Crew: A Club Team With a Fight

Many Hands, Light Work

I tend to overestimate how formal people are at this university. When you aren't part of a group, when you're an outsider trying to get in, people seem intimidating. I think it's a New England trait, too, that we seem cold and unfriendly because we assume others are the same. What an awful cycle of behavior.

I ran into Kate on Friday, and the timing couldn't have been better – she was heading to the boathouse where the crew team was "de-rigging" the boats to load them onto a truck for their race at URI today.

Notes about the boats

I was a little apprehensive about diving right in and photographing these girls who had no idea who I was or what I was doing, but the second they saw me with a camera, it was all excited curiosity.

Little feet in a boat on the ceiling

"Take a picture of my hands!" one girl told me, holding out her calloused palm, the skin rough and broken around her knuckles. I hadn't even thought of the fact that these girls don't wear gloves while they row. What a physically brutal sport.

"De-rigging" entails unbolting the mechanisms that hold the oars to the boat

Shooting was a challenge, because I had no idea what was going on, but it turned into a really cool exercise in photography, because that's really how it works sometimes: You step into a foreign situation and have to gauge the space, the atmosphere, the energy, determine what is visually interesting and adapt to get the best shots.

My biggest challenge that day (and will continue to be, moving forward) was my machine. This is a brand new camera that I haven't spent enough time figuring out, and I'm going to have to do some serious work with it so I don't screw up these shots – you can't go back in time with sport photography. You get the shot or you don't.

Colorful handles of the oars

I couldn't believe it when Jenna told me that no one ever takes pictures of crew. She was so happy to hear about my project, because the team and sport really does slip under the radar here. Races, especially in the spring, are usually off campus, because our tidal waters make scheduling difficult.

Heavy lifting? No sweat

A handful of girls asked whether I would be coming to races and practices, sort of laughing and telling me to wear layers...the girls are on the water around 5 a.m. every morning, and race days can start at 3 a.m. How do I always manage to make so much work for myself?

From one afternoon, just a couple of hours with these girls, I already know this project is going to be so rewarding to so many, and I'm lucky that Coach Rawlinson and the rest of the team are such welcoming and inclusive people. Rock on, UNH!

Jenna secures a boat to the trailer

Coach Rawlinson helps the girls inspect a boat

UNH Women's Rowing – Project Progress

I'm really excited about this project, even more so because the UNH women's crew members I've spoken to are so enthused about it, too. And when everyone's passionate, it shows in the final product.

I've met a few of these athletes over my years here, and it's flooring how much of their college career is dedicated to this sport. My aim is to bring to light the struggles, achievements, frustrations, and emotions that are tied to the commitment.

The team just returned from spring training in Tennessee, and races begin this Saturday. I initially spoke with rower Kate Beaumont, a former resident of mine (when I was an RA sophomore year), who is a senior now. She told me the team has grown considerably this year, with about 10 more women competing than usual. This comes on the heels of the team being cut from the varsity program in 2005; however, they still compete against DIII varsity teams each spring and need to train even harder.

"We are now just a club team, but a club team with a fight," she said.

Kate then approached her coach Rachel Rawlinson – and some of her teammates – with my idea, and she was thrilled.

I then spoke with Rachel, who recommended I observe practices on Oyster River, because it is more spacious than Mendums Pond. However, this week is going to be very hectic with preparations for the first race on Saturday.

I am waiting on a practice schedule from Rachel, so I can begin observing and shooting around, speaking with rowers. I aim to get a feel for the atmosphere and schedule before doing any serious filming, but I will bring my equipment anyway, because you never know...

The UNH Rowing site gave me some basic information, and I follow UNHRowing on Twitter, as well as rower Kerry Feltner.

http://unh.edu/unhrowing/
(The site has race schedules and staff contact info)

Grillin' Like a Villain

I don't know where this 75˚ sunny weather came from, but I'm not complaining.

And warm weather means grilling with dad.

Just Horsin' Around at the UNH Barns

What a clever title, I know.

Tuesday.

I've never spent much time at our barns, which is funny, because I rode for years.

Wednesday.

Somehow I always found myself walking there at what I like to call "magic hour," around 4 p.m., when everything is golden.

Thursday.

Scent is so potent, so intertwined with memory. For me, the sharp, sort of acrid smell of a barn will always be comforting.

Friday.

For some bizarre reason, I used to enjoy cleaning horses' hooves. It's also strange to think that a hoof is basically one enormous fingernail. Kind of gross, actually.

Saturday.

By this time, the horses were used to the sound of my camera, and I think they began to shun me when they realized I wasn't going to feed them.

Sunday.

How do these equine majors get any work done when they own a horse that lives at school with them? Read a textbook or play with my enormous pet? Is that even a contest?

Monday.

Warning: Never go to the barns at night if you've seen Woman in Black (which was a pretty terrible movie). Even the normally adorable ponies look creepy as hell. This building in particular is just teeming with evil.

Tuesday.

No treats for you, Marquesa.

Chef Coughenour (say "Coke-an-hour")

Ralph Coughenour is the man behind the menu. As the Director of Culinary Services at the University of New Hampshire, he is responsible for food quality campus-wide. Although he spends most of his time in the dining halls, donning his unmistakable white chef’s hat, he somehow manages to slip by unnoticed amidst the daily student crowds.

A typical day for Coughenour starts at the end of the breakfast wave, when he checks the setup of whatever dining hall he happens to be working at. He checks the breakfast production, how the recipes are working, if the products are right. Coughenour writes recipes and inspects products to ensure that they can be used for multiple recipes, in an effort to keep inventories as low as possible.

“Because we are such a large food and beverage corporation, which a lot of people don’t understand, the more of one product we buy, the better our pricing is,” Coughenour said. “We get rebates from Hormel meats and places like that so we can keep the meal plan prices as low as we can. We’re fairly competitive in the country.”

Coughenour usually spends one day a week in each dining facility, so students can spot him at Stillings hall on Mondays and Holloway Commons on Tuesdays. Wednesdays are typically “special event” days for UNH Dining, so Coughenour goes wherever the action is.

“Last week, Wednesday night at Stillings was all skewered food, food on a stick,” Coughenour said. “I said to the chef, ‘I bet you’ll never do that again,’ after he had to make thousands and thousands of them.”

UNH Dining Services spends around $200,000 a week on food among all three dining halls, serving over 17,000 meals per day, campus-wide.



“People don’t understand the magnitude,” Coughenour said. “It’s quite the little operation to keep track of. We have trucks on this campus almost every day. We take almost a full tractor trailer load, campus-wide, five days a week. On Saturday, produce still comes; nothing comes on Sundays, and then it starts all over.”

Coughenour was the corporate chef at a four-star resort for over six years before being recruited to work in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, as a director of food and beverage, where he helped open a four-star, four-diamond golf and tennis resort. After a year in the islands, he was ready to leave.

The general manager from UNH’s New England Center called Coughenour, asking for help with the university’s food and beverage department. Coughenour was flown out to look at the center and thought, “Okay, we can fix this.”

“I remember the first VIP function was for Paul Holloway ... we were writing the menu and talking about it and he finally looked at me and he said, ‘Where did you come from? What are you doing here?’ I said two years, three years max, Mr. Holloway, I’ll have this fixed and I’ll be out of here. Well, nine years later they asked me to come to dining.”

He began organizing VIP functions at the president’s residence, overseeing UNH’s catering service, executing a five-course meal for the Republican campaign at the Whittemore Center.

“That was when the director of dining came to me and said, ‘Will you come help me? I want to build the best food service operations in the country.’ And we are one of the best.”

Final Project Ideas

I have a lot of things kicking around in my mind right now, and I could go in some very different directions. These are my predominant ideas:

Mardi Gras Indians and New Orleans Culture:
My good friend has spent a lot of time in New Orleans, working with nonprofits to help rebuild homes and studying the differences in society and culture pre- and post-Katrina. She is working on a thesis about the Mardi Gras Indians, which she will present at the URC this semester, after chaperoning the UNH ABC trip in March. I traveled to NOLA with her this summer, so I already have still shots of the place and people, but this could be such a rich story for multimedia, between the soulful music and stunning visuals.

UNH Rowing:
I always wanted to join crew but could never dedicate the time. I am most visually interested in pursuing this piece, because there are so many cool movements involved in rowing and I'd love to make use of some of the more advanced functions of my camera's video. Our crew teams are very involved in outside organizations, volunteering and fundraising almost as much as practicing (almost). The tireless effort and dedication of these athletes has always impressed me, and I'd love to tell the story of one or a few of the whole.

Confucius Institute:
I don't know much about this organization on campus, but I'm very keen to learn more about these Chinese students studying here at UNH. Where they live, who they are, and how they are adjusting to life in New England. This would be a culturally-focused piece, with much opportunity for engaging audio, listening to these students speak their native language and ours. The events that this organization and others (UAC, etc.) put on throughout the semester would allow for beautiful imagery as well.


Most recently, I am inspired by these two works:

LEARN, by Rick Mereki (My ultimate dream, to produce videos such as this. Check out MOVE and EAT, too.)

A Day in California, by Ryan Killackey (A beautiful testament to what can be done with only still photographs)