Our final for the Intro to Photojournalism class was a group project. We did a photo story on Bittersweet Farms. Going into this project I had little experience with doing photo stories and I knew nothing about Bittersweet Farms.
   Before doing this assignment we went over the requirements, saw examples of photo stories, and talked briefly about what Bittersweet Farms is in class. Outside of class I looked up and read more about photo stories and about Bittersweet Farms.
   The definition of a photo story or a photo essay is, a group of photographs usually with supplementary text, that conveys a unified story and is published as a book or as a feature in a magazine or newspaper. We put our photo story together in a magazine format.
   As it says on their website, "The mission of Bittersweet, Inc. is to positively impact the lives of individuals with autism and those whose lives they touch." The activities they offer are agriculture, horticulture, fencing and landscaping, construction, repair and maintenance, produce collection and marketing, animal feeding and care, craft making and woodworking. Bittersweet Farms has found that these activities are not only therapeutic but gives the residents a sense of dignity and self worth. It also allows them to contribute to the community by taking their goods to market.

Jamie Cummins sits down for an interview about Bittersweet Farms.

   When we arrived at Bittersweet Farms to shoot the project we were greeted by Shannon Dane-Solt, Development Marketing Coordinator, who gave us a run down of what they had going on that day, answered our questions and showed us around the farm. The first thing we did was interview Jamie Cummins one of the day program employees. Cummins doesn't know what she would do without this program, she says, "It's a great feeling to know that everyone understands you and knows how to help you." Cummins told us that she had other jobs in the past and it was hard because they didn't understand her. After our interview with Cummins we split up into groups of 2 or 3 and went out to visit the various buildings around the farm that house the different programs.

Project done in the woodworking shop.

   The first building my group went to was the woodworking shop where we were greeted by Robert Gelack, a 7 year resident, who was very excited that we were there and loved having his picture taken. We then met Phil Bartus who was sanding pieces of wood for a project. Bartus lives off site but has been a participant in the programs at the farm for 25 years. We then met Jens Svendsen who was in charge of the woodworking shop that day. Svendsen showed us the various projects they had done and were working on and answered any questions that we had.

Chyene on of the horses in the barn.

   Next we visited the barn where we met Anne Foltz, who was in charge of the barn that day, and Dan, a resident, who was helping Foltz care for the animals. They were caring for Chyene, one of the horses, when we got there and they explained to us everything they were doing for her. Before we left the barn we also got to walk around and meet all the other animals.

Beth Meyer cuts glass for sun catchers.


   We then went to the art studio where we net Shelbi Anderson who was helping residents make sun catchers for corporate gift baskets. We spoke with Beth Meyer, a resident who has been with Bittersweet Farms since it started, she was cutting the glass for the sun catchers. She was very excited to talk to us and explained to us what they were doing, her history with the program, and all the other activities and programs she's involved in outside of the farm. We then observed and photographed Rodney Mathis, another resident, gluing the pieces of the sun catchers together and painting them.
   The time we had there flew by and it was time to leave before we knew it. I really enjoyed the time we spent there I just wish we would have had enough time for my group to make it to all the buildings. I think the work they do there is incredible and I would love to go again.
   In post production we again split into groups to work on different parts so that we could get everything done in the short amount of time that we had. I was part of the caption writing team. Caption writing sounds like a simple enough job, but it proved to be challenging. Some of the photographers didn't get enough information for us so we had to go through everyone's notes to fill in gaps. What we couldn't put together from notes we had to email questions to Dane-Solt to complete the captions. Luckily she got back to us quickly and was more than happy to help.
   In addition to the photo story that we did as a class one of the class members was put in charge of creating a video and another was put in charge of writing an essay about Bittersweet Farms. On the last day of the post production Dane-Solt came and we presented our final product. She was very excited and happy with what we had put together and thanked us for taking the care to do such a good job.
   Despite the freezing cold and limited time we had on the day of shooting and the issues that presented themselves in post production I think we did a good job. We learned that there is a lot that goes into a project like this but with teamwork it can be done in a relatively short amount of time as long as everyone does their part.
If you want to read the essay or watch the video you can visit http://owensoutlook.com/ to view them. As soon as I have the link for the photo story I will link it as well so that you can check it out.