I spent the last six months working as Associate Photo Editor (temporary) at CascadePBS, formerly known as Crosscut, handling day-to-day photo editing and shooting duties. I’m a long-term freelancer, but when Genna Martin asked me if I’d be interested in filling her role while she was out on parental leave, I jumped at the chance. I’ve heard from others over the years that working as a photo editor strengthens one’s work as a photographer, and I was very excited to get a little insight into how photo editors work with the rest of a publication.

I hadn’t been in a newsroom with any regularity since my newspaper internships years ago, so it was such a great experience to be in a newsroom (sometimes in person, sometimes virtually) planning the next day’s, week’s, and month’s coverage; developing a plan for visuals alongside the news, investigative, podcast, and broadcast teams; assigning and supporting freelancers when the need arose; and figuring out how my own photos could fit in with the rest of the newsroom’s work. One particular highlight, which required a lot of logistical legwork, was producing still photo shoots for the fifth and final year of Black Arts Legacies. I also found particular interest and enjoyment in working on some very local stories, which is something I don’t get to as often with the national publications I usually work with. Here are a few things I worked on while at Cascade PBS, some of which started as my own pitches.

It was such a wonderful opportunity, but I am glad to be going back to freelance assignment work now that my term is done.