I felt a little overwhelmed as Dave LeBelle Explained all the ways to "hunt" down a good feature photo. I am definetly not a photographer yet, although I do love going out with the camera (the whole two times I have actually been lucky enough to take photos for journalism). But I did find something LaBelle said very useful and true. "I have weakenesss. I am an average sports shooter, a decent breaking news photographer and weak studio photographer...I am an idea person, with more picture ideas to shoot than time to shoot them."

The idea behind the photo drives the photo in journalism. We aren't just slapping a pretty picture of a tree on the front page of the Missourian because it looks nice. If there's a tree on the front page, it better be 200 years old, and the founding tree of Columbia and in danger of being cut down. Through your photo you are explaining the story, and it can be incredibly hard to convey the bigger picture in one or two photos.

If I had been sent on an assignment to cover a city hall meeting and get photos for the paper, I would be completely lost. I'm out of my element there, but yesterday while I was following the golfers around the back nine at Eagle Null, I somehow had a bit of a clue as to what I was doing. Shooting what you know is important. And if you can't shoot what you know right off the bat, you darn well better learn about what you don't know quickly. But how do you find that one photo that represents your entire story?

LaBelle's section on being patient made me smile, as following the golfers around the back nine took almost four hours, but it was all good practice.