Austin-Over and Out

Day two in Austin started bright and early, when we had to get our press credential passes at 7:30 am. The passes allow you, as the media to go on the floor with a camera (in the House) where the Legislative session takes place.

The "floor" was packed with State Representatives, sitting in their assigned seats with their family members, friends, or guests sitting alongside of them. The balcony was packed with fellow Texans showing their support for the state.

Afterwards, I mingled with other reporter-photographer teams from larger markets. They were impressed that KRBC was there and that our crew on the assignment was doing this for the very first time.

Because of all the technological problems we ran into, much of our day consisted of sitting in our hotel room, editing and sending multiple downloads to Abilene.

Picture this, we had three computers going. We'd be writing our scripts for the newscasts, for the web, and then we'd be blogging.

It was definitely different working outside of the newsroom. While, we only had one specific topic to cover, "the Legislative Session" it felt like more work than on a normal work day. For example, when I am busy working on my daily, "package" the longer stories (where you actually see me), and a couple of "vosots" (when you see video and sound from an interviewee) that all have absolutely nothing to do with each other, it felt like much less work then the we've done even as a team the past two days covering one topic.

The phone conversations you might have heard with me on the newscasts were quite interesting. While, I am sharing a hotel room with KTAB's Katherine Lane, who also had a "phoner" (as we call a phone conversation on air) for KTAB at about the same time. Instead of having us both talk from the same room and drive our photographer, Danielle (and probably each other crazy) I had my phone conversations in the car. It was neat though because I could see the Capitol building from the car as I was describing what I'd seen and done throughout the day.

While our trip is coming to an end, and our final story for the ten o'clock newscast has just about transferred, I definitely would do the experience all over again.

It was overall a great learning experience. It really taught me how to think on my feet. There was a lot of pressure to compare to all of the professionals that have been in the business for years that were all around me.

I think the work that I put in here, after just two days will definitely impact a higher-quality product from me as a journalist for KRBC to you as a viewer. Thanks for sharing in my journey to Austin.