Goodbye lunch with D News staff
Utah photographers, I wanted to let you know that this is the end of my internship here. I will be leaving for Florida on the 27th. The internship is one of the best internship I have had so far. I will dearly miss the people at the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune. It’s been great knowing you all and I hope that I will see you again in the future. I also wish you will have a wonderful holiday season.
As I am saying good-bye to you all, I do want to share my experience of the last few days here with you because it is very interesting to me.
On the 23rd, after I had a good-bye lunch with some D news staff. After the lunch, I went on to my assignment, without know what I was getting myself into. I brought a hat, winter jacket and snow boots. My assignment was to take pictures of a 50-some-old guy who hikes to the top of the mountain and lights up a star every night at 5 p.m. I thought that shouldn’t be too hard. It turned out that he climbs the mountain off the trail. Long story short, I was in misery and pain as I tried to keep up with him for the mile-long hike. I was cold, hot, tired, and had a hard time breathing. I fell many times because my snow boots were too slippery. I had to pull the bushes to gain my gravity. After I got the photos and came back to my car, I was just glad that I wasn’t in pieces. My back was super sore the next day. I think this assignment was the hardest one during this internship.
Harold Haugen prepares to turn on the lights of the star at Little Willow Canyon in Hidden Valley Park.
Harold Haugen looks at the star after turning on the lights.
On the 24th,
I got an assignment to take pictures of some volunteers decorating graves at the Pioneer Cemetery at night (or after dark). I had the hardest and longest time to find that place. After about 30 minutes searching, I finally found the place. Surprisingly, there was not a soul around nor were there any lights at that cemetery. It was super eerie. I called my editor about the assignment, and he ended up sending me to another cemetery to shoot photos on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas day, my assignment was much better. I shot hundreds of homeless people being fed Christmas dinner in downtown. But first, the paper gave me a wrong address. When I got there no one was around. Immediately, two things went in my thought, either this is wrong place or the event cancelled. As I was about to call my editor, I received a text message from my editor saying that address really should be such-and-such a place, which was about 20 to 30 minutes drive. Anyway, when I got to that place, I was surprised to see Ambassador Jon Huntsman. I have known about him for a long time and have always admired his success and talent of speaking fluent Chinese. I never expected to see him at that place opening the door and welcoming the homeless people to have dinner. I was able to find a bit of time to introduce myself and speak with him in Chinese. I pay great respect to Jon Huntsman. I really think seeing him is the Christmas gift from God.
Pciture with Ambassador Jon Huntsman
So here is my work journey over the last three days. The assignments I got these past three days are some of the most interesting, scary, exhausting, and exciting assignments during this internship.
As I am concluding this, I want to let you know that I love the place, people, history, and people’s passion for photography here. I again wish you all a wonderful holiday season.
