It's prom night. You're the quiet nerdy kid standing with the other wallflowers away from the fun at the dance. You see the girl/boy that you've been pining after for the whole year. Sadly you don't gather the courage up to try to persuade them to talk to you let alone dance with you.
Fast forward to the present. You've still got that terrible spine chilling, gut rotting fear hiding deep inside the depths of your heart.
One of the worst things I went through that I can't believe I fell prey to during my really early parts in journalism would have to be getting the courage up to get in there and do what's required. Things like gathering caption information, asking serious questions to "important" people, and saddest of all... getting close enough to shoot.
I know my profs will be happy to hear me quote Robert Capa... "If your images aren't good enough, you're not close enough."
You have to get over that fear. It's killing your ability to become a great journalist. I too often see high school aged students shooting sports (saw this last night actually) with a medium range lens, standing back from the sidelines. I definitely fell into this same mentality early on. You can't be afraid to get in there. You're job is to get right up on the events and record them. That just can't be done from the back wall with the other D&D fans. No offense to D&D fans.
The same goes for caption info. Get in there. Many of my professors really instilled in me that your captions are extremely important to the power of your images. One went as far as to say that if you have amazing images, but weak captions it can affect the chance of you being hired. You have to really fill the gaps that the photo doesn't tell. It's great to even go as far as getting a quote to give your caption some life. So don't be afraid to gather that info. You're a reporter with camera knowledge and don't forget that.
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