Classy Colours Rocks!!!!

In my last post I mentioned the radio show that I am involved in as part of my radio course in journalism. Well I'm in the Classy Colours team and we ROCK! here is our marketing poster which will be put up all over campus on Monday!
Anyone out there listen to RMR? If you do make sure that you tune in for your show on Friday 5 June at 9:00!!!!! Thanks to the team Sizwe, Sarah, Kate, Jane, Kirstin and Simnie for all their hard work and a great posters!!

The Daddy's Rich Kids show is another one of the second year journ shows that a good friend of mine is doing. I helped them with their poster by taking the photo's, which if I might add came out great as well!

And then it rained...

Weather is a great metaphor for life - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.

~Pepper Giardino~

Picture by: Sally Munro

I officially have ten days until exams start! How on earth did that happen? Last time I checked exams were weeks away and I had plenty of time to finish my end-of-term essays and start studying. But as I have found out there is nothing more sneaky at Rhodes then exams!

With three essays and a radio show to do before I can even think about exams the forecast for the next ten days is looking pretty grim....

I have spent the last few nights up at the radio lab with my team Classy Colours trying to get our show ready for the practice run that we had today with our tutor. Sleep seems to be a distant memory and both the radio and writing labs at the journalism deptartment are beginning to resemble scenes from a zombie movie as students who have not slept in days fumble about in an attempt to complete work by the dreaded deadline (Appropriate name if you ask me!).

Tonight I'm taking a break from the journ only to start my politics essay on Athenian democracy which is due Monday. Ah the life of a student.....sometimes I really do think studying is harder than working! And to top it all off on my way back from Pick n Pay (I went to get yummy supplies to get me through the peckish hours around 3 in the morning) I passed all these people who are going out tonight.....how I ask you? Don't they have work? Or am I just slow!?
When I got back to my room my friend Janine had emailed me some photo's of a thunderstorm that passed over Cape Town this morning they instantly brightened up my day as they are gorgeous! I also found the quote which made me realise that there will always be good and bad weather and all you can do is invest in a good umbrella!

So it is with that in mind that I have decided that I am going to stop moaning about all the work I have left to do and just get on with it! Because you know what the old saying says when it rains it pours.......so I guess I'm going to give dancing in the rain I try! Wish me luck!

Work work work

Dr Dandala addresses the press at the COPE headquaters in downtown East London. Picture by: Tarryn Liddell 16.04.09

As with most students I do not particularly like to give up my holiday in order to work unless some payment is invloved, but being a Journ student at Rhodes you quickly learn that giving up holiday to work for free is unavoidable. They give it the codename 'vac work' but in fact it is free labour or so I thought....

You see while last year I did do 'vac work' it was not all that different from the stuff we had been writing for journ class. I was interning at a local community newsletter so most of its pages were advertisments and fluffy pieces with only the occasional hard news story.

This year on the other hand I was fortunate enough to get a spot at the Daily Dispatch in East London. I can now truthfully say that I can see the value in 'vac work' besides free labour and I would go back and intern for them anyday. It was a interesting experience that opened my eyes up to the real world of investigative journalism.

Not only that but also a look into the day to day work of a newspaper photographer. I spent my Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week tagging along with the Dispatch photographers on a range of stories varying from gangsterism, elections and general interviews. I have to thank Alan, Theo, Mlondolosi and Nigel who answered my sometimes annoying questions and allowed me to tag along on their photo jobs. You guys were fabulous!

These are some on my photos from the COPE rally which I attended on Thursday 16 April and the ANC rally on Friday 17 April.

Ex Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela and Dr Dandala

Inspiration amidst the nervousness

A deep sigh of relief and I can literally feel the weight on my shoulders lessen. My JMS2 application has been handed in and I have officially finished my last essay of the year (not including exams of course). It would seem as if things are coming to close, which is brilliant in a way and not so brilliant in another. Although the stress of getting my JMS2 application done is now over the nervousness of whether I will get accepted has begun. This nervousness is made even worse when I think that I still need to write my final Journalism and Media Studies exam on the 12th November and wait until late December to early January to hear if I made it. The silver lining of the situation otherwise known as the brilliant side is that JMS1 is practically over and I am one step closer to getting to photojournalism. I got so excited on Monday after I handed in my application and took a walk around the Journalism and Media Studies building as it is filled with work by old and current journalism students. “This is what I will be doing in a few years time” I thought. The whole building inspires with its colourful décor and interactive layout. When I saw the T.V and radio studio I just wanted to go and play around. Then there are of course all of the labs, one for design, for radio, for writing and who could forget the photo lab. I saw this last door and just stared. You need an initialised student card to be able to get into the lab so I could not go in and check it out even though I was dying to. But at least as I left the Journalism building I was filled with hope and more determination than before. Now it’s just a matter of keeping my head down until the exam and then waiting…

The Rat Race

To have your future hang in the balance of a motivational letter...how would you feel?

Well this is the situation that I currently find myself in as I am applying for a place in Journalism and Media Studies 2 (JMS2). With the application due tomorrow my nerves are fried, my fingernails nonexistent and my hair starting to grey! Journalism was the biggest reason that I came to study at Rhodes University. I gave up a career in London to come back to South Africa and take a chance on my dream of becoming a photojournalist. Failure to get into JMS2 is therefore not an option, but unfortunately that does not stop the debilitating feeling of nervousness that I am experiencing. I’m staring at a blank screen wondering how you translate your feelings into golden words that will completely win over the selection committee. I wish there was a secret password or a magic wand that I could wave to ensure that I get though. It is so strange how all my friends that do not take journalism think that I am being overly dramatic and have nothing to worry about. My grades are good; I have all the necessary things like my shadow week report etc and I have participated in a student newspaper so why would I not get in. They don’t seem to get how stressful the whole process is and how my future at Rhodes actually hangs in the balance of whether I get into JMS2.

While chatting to a third year JMS student at lunch today, who has just applied for fourth year, I realised that I will be this stressed and nervous at this time every year as you apply for JMS every year. It is the only course at Rhodes that is an absolute rat race, for a lack of another way to put it. So I guess all that’s left for me to do is put on my running shoes and get on in there and face the blank screen.

Wish me luck!

All in a day's work

During this last week Tales from a Rhodent has taken up the challenge of becoming SUPERHEROES in the comic book world. You are probably looking very confused right now and wondering what on earth I am talking about, so let me start at the beginning. Our latest assignment in our Narrative and Genre course of Journalism is to create a photo comic using a website called Comeeko. We would be responsible for the entire creative process from coming up with an idea, storyboarding, photos and dialogue. I must admit that at first it all seemed extremely daunting. Especially as it had to be done as group work, which is probably the most loathed way of working on any assignment. The hellish task of finding a time to meet is the main problem and from what I hear most groups have had many more like people not showing up or pulling their weight. But I must admit that I am glad to report that our group, Tales from a Rhodent were awesome to work with. They made the assignment so much fun and, as you can see from our comic below, very fruitful. Our tale is one of how when your drink is spiked and transforms in an evil creature out to get you, you need to step up to the plate and become a superhero in order to defeat it. We wanted to send out a message that the spiking of drinks does happen and that you need to be alert and your own superhero. It worked out really well with Nonhle as our super cool hero and Sarah as the ditsy but awesome sidekick. The photo comic was shot at The Old Gaol and didn’t feel like work at all but rather a hilarious photo shoot with the girls. The facial expressions of our drama princess Nonhle had us all rolling around with laughter and brought the comic to life. All in all a great time was had making the photo comic except for the last step of loading it all on to Comeeko which managed to make our dialogue disappear three times! To say that it was frustrating is putting it mildly but we conquered the Comeeko monster and ended up with a really kick ass comic!

Welcome

Welcome to my humble blog.

I’m afraid as you can see it is a work in progress but I promise you as soon as I find a uber geek to help me I will pimp it out for you all. So for now you will have to put up with my minimalistic amateur attempts.

For all of you out there reading this who do not know me. My name is Tarryn but you can all call me Savy (it’s a long story involving Pirates of the Caribbean and lots of beer). I am a Journalism and Media Studies student at Rhodes University in South Africa. I live in a mud hut and have a lion for a pet! Hehehe only jokes! I am in fact a regular student living in residence and working my ass off to make it into the 2nd year of Journalism so that I can study photojournalism.
You may be wondering why I would call my blog ‘Drawing Life with Light’ well the word “photography” based on the Greek φώς (phos) "light" + γραφίς (graphis) "stylus", "paintbrush" or γραφή (graphê) "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light." Hence my love for photography resulted in drawing life with light.

Photography is not the only thing that interests me. I also enjoy painting, politics, music, learning about ancient civilizations and people. Yes, people. I am fascinated by people: how we differ, how we think and why we do the things we do. So stick around and visit every so often to have a read and find out how life as a student is going and what it happening in the little old town of Grahamstown.