I got the opportunity to take my internship through a company known as JennMar with the position of marketing photographer and videographer. JennMar is located in RIDC Park outside of Pittsburgh near Fox Chapel and is a company focused on safety equipment used predominantly in mining along with infrastructure and logging. After an interview with my site supervisor Michelle, I started on May 8th, just two days after the last day of the spring semester, so I didn’t waste any time! My time at JennMar has been a great learning experience full of meeting new people, traveling to new places, and seeing activities in jobs I don’t think many other interns get the chance to see. I have flown to several different states, been in several mines, and even got a chance to see what office work is like.
Internship Portfolio
I knew this internship would be different from other students from the second week in. On May, 15 2023 I was given the opportunity to travel with some HR members of JennMar in the company jet. The reason for the trip was that the HR workers were going to a few spots across the country to discuss insurance with site workers. I was told to go so that I could take pictures of some products and just for the experience. I got to take several product images, however this worker forging roof bolts for mines was very fascinating to watch.
Throughout much of my time at my internship, I would be in an office space working with material given to me on hard drives. One of the big reasons for JennMar accepting me for my role was because of my editing knowledge working with photos and videos. Before I made it to JennMar, they had a professional company come in to do hundreds of different photos and videos to celebrate the company operating for 100 years and compiling them into a a short video. The material they did not use in that video could still be used in the future and I was able to color correct and categorize it. https://vimeo.com/786712212
The second place I went to as an intern was BCI Steel. Located in Leetsdale PA outside of Pittsburgh, BCI Steel is a company focusing in mechanical systems for solar power capable of several varieties such as mechanical pipe, general roll-forming, stamping and mechanical assemblies. I drove down to take photos for them as JennMar began a partnership with them. The first image is a coil of flat steel that is fed into what is in the second image. In the second image, you can see the system that intakes the flattened steel and processes it to create steel piping which can be seen in the third image being loaded on a truck.
After BCI I met up with a sales member of JennMar named Adam Dutil and went to a mine down near Mannington West Virginia which is close to the Pennsylvania state line. West Virginia is a huge player in the coal mining industry in the U.S. and there are hundreds of mines throughout the entire state. The exact name of the mine that I went to with Adam was called North Portal 7. After traveling a long winding road, you arrived at what looked like a normal building however in the back of it was an elevator shaft that took us 1200 feet under ground to the mouth of its coal mine. The reason I was sent on this trip was to capture some new photos of JennMar’s very own mine support method in use. This support system is put in place and while it is supported, it is filled with liquid concrete left to harden and support the roof of the mine.
Not long after traveling to a mine with Adam Dutil, I was instructed to travel to a new mine with Richie Belcher, the Southeast sales manager for JennMar Services. I drove down to Logan West Virginia which is close to Kentucky to meet Richie and after staying over night we were on our way to New Age Mining. While I was down there, I was to capture footage of JennMar roof bolts being installed as well as the mining process and our JennMar bits being used. Due to such low lighting, I used mostly video to capture everything happening.
Towards the end of June I got the opportunity to travel with Adam Dutil again and meet up with Jim George who is a technical sales engineer to explore another mine. My initial reasoning for taking the trip was to get footage of conveyor belts being used, however after arriving there I found out that I wasn’t allowed to take photos of it. The main reason for Adam and Jim being in this mine together was to perform what is known as a pull test. Essentially, a hydraulic press is put on a roof bolt like seen in the video above and literal tons of pressure are put on it to see how much that piece of rebar can stretch while it is in the ceiling. They do this because if that bolt can’t stretch with the pressure safely, they know something in the roof support system needs to change. After hearing about what they were doing, I decided to grab some footage of them working with that.
A little over a week after traveling with Adam and Jim, I was on schedule in the beginning of July to meet up with Jim again to visit my first salt mine. Beside Cleveland is a town called Mentor which is home to a Morton brand salt mine that
JennMar makes products for. I was going with Jim to see JennMar’s conveyor belts there and to get a taste of what a salt mine is like. The neatest part about this particular mine to me other than the fact that the floor, walls, and ceiling are white was that it is 800 feet below the bottom of lake Erie.
About two weeks later I was to begin my biggest journey yet. I was instructed to go to Atlanta to meet Frank Rolex who is the Southeast territory manager for XCal Tools, a subsidiary to JennMar. Again, I was to go down and photographer our products in use and capture photos worthy of newsletters and product catalogs. After flying down to Atlanta, we spent the first photo session on a highway job the evening of when I arrived. A road crew that was using JennMar bits was ripping the inner lane of a six lane highway to prepare for blacktop. After getting footage of the JennMar bits that evening, I went with Frank as we drove to Knoxville Tennessee to a construction job where JennMar bits would be used to drill foundations for buildings. After getting the footage I needed and spending the day in Knoxville we traveled back to Atlanta because I had to catch my flight back home from there.
Case Study
Services
In it’s beginning, JennMar offered services to mines to help in safety. 100 years later and JennMar offers an incredibly large abundance of services. Agriculture, logistics, civil, chemical, construction, geotechnical, infrastructure, forestry, manufacturing, mining, fabrication, recruitment, safety, and steel are all services offered through JennMar today helping so many industries achieve their working goals.
Pricing/Funding
After seeing the list of services, it’s easy to understand that there are several different prices for everything listed through JennMar. Unfortunately, none of the prices for services or products are listed. Instead, a form is at the bottom of any listing on JennMar’s website for someone to get in contact with a sales rep for pricing. Also, I wasn’t able to retrieve funding information for my internship unfortunately.
Advertising/Marketing
The advertising and marketing for JennMar go hand in hand. The company in itself is quite private and the products and services such as the ones listed above are for specific causes. JennMar isn’t advertising itself to the average person, and that’s why when I tell people about them I typically hear “Oh, I’ve never heard of them.”. From my experience in the short few months I’ve been with the company, the main way they advertise is attending shows at convention centers in different states. I actually attended one of these shows on my second day as an intern on May 9th. It was at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and what these shows consist of is like companies gathering together to show off products and bring in new customers. The marketing that comes with this all is the demonstration of JennMar products at these shows along with newsletters the company puts out monthly. The newsletter will update customers on products, services, and anything new. It shows detailed images of products being used for their intended purpose and the customers using them. Like I said earlier, the company is quite private, and the marketing team is actually working on a brochure as you read this otherwise it would be included.
Who I Work With
I believe I can fit a few of the bullet points in this segment however, there is a catch. My task at JennMar is to be the photographer and Videographer. What this means is that I technically work alone and in a sense at my own pace. I report to my site supervisor and travel with many different people to different states, but at the end of the day, I’m not sharing work with anyone else. There are only three people that I closely work beside and communicate about work-related material weekly, whether it’s getting tips on what I’m doing or finding out where I’m going next. The first is my site supervisor Michelle Eastly. Michelle is the manager of the marketing department and is in charge of assigning what needs to happen and who needs to get it done. She manages assignment production time by keeping strict deadlines in the marketing department, and that goes for me as well. She has connected me with several people, making it possible for me to travel to states and see things I never would have seen before. The department completes our work and presents it to her ensuring it’s sufficient and up to her standards. I also work beside Cathy Conner who is our senior graphic designer. On past projects, Cathy has been able to help me with Photoshop and other online filing-type work so that I can effectively have things up to speed and presented the way they’re wanted. Lastly, I am close with the person who is responsibly for me finding this internship, Sydney Shaffer. Syd’s job is strategic planning and organizing, and she attends every one of the shows I mentioned earlier.
Cathy’s position Graphic Designer Position
Sydney’s position Corporate Events Coordinator
Marketing Plan
As I’ve progressed at my internship, learning new things, meeting new folks, traveling, and rehearsing what I’ve previously known, I’ve managed to obtain a future spot at JennMar. My site supervisor Michelle Eastly came to me within the middle of June saying “I fully intend on hiring you to start more than what this internship has you doing.” Which in my opinion, is a win. I would make a great wage for my age and be somewhere that is stable with benefits. At the end of the day I think anyone can say they want that over anything else. However, I have a challenge.
Like I said, in many ways, this job will be what so many would consider the end all be all “I made it!”. The job will keep me consistently traveling state to state which I’ve always thought would be so cool, it has a 401K that makes it seem like a gold mine, and my drive here is a straight shot. My problem is that I repeatedly told myself as I conquered IUP classes, “you aren’t working this hard to land a job in a cubical.” and that’s what I’m doing when I’m not traveling. Nevertheless, I’m not one to turn down an opportunity, plus nothing is forever and this would be a great way to build myself for a year or two.
As someone who needs change, when the day comes I’ll frequently look on Indeed and check with a filming crew that JennMar hired just before my internship to see if some form of production work is available. Anything with Audio Visual, Video Editing, Photography & Videography, Script Writing, etc., I’ll be ready to hop on it if they’re hiring.
Internship Review
As I’m finishing up my final week of my internship, I can honestly say this was an excellent learning experience. Throughout the whole summer, I really only had two main proposals to complete, looking through hundreds of hard drive photos and videos, and traveling gathering product photography and videography.
The first internship proposal I received was the hard drives of other material for JennMar’s 100 year celebration video. A professional company came in and shot hundreds of videos that could be used for the video. After producing the final version, they left all of the remaining footage with the marketing department, and when I arrived, it was up to me to look through it, categorize it, and make it usable if we wanted that footage for any future productions. There was so much material to look through from three hard drives that it took me until about the end of June to complete the assignment. My site supervisor Michelle Eastly understood how much there was and would periodically check on me to see how my progress was coming along, but I always showed her what I had done and how much I had left until I finally completed it.
My other internship proposal was to be capable of frequent traveling to gather photos and videos of products in use and workers using them. My photos can be used for pamphlets, our company newsletter, and I’m sure there’s more that I’m not even aware of. Traveling has always been something I’ve been interested in and when I heard that would be a big part of my job during the initial interview, I was excited. I went from working at Walmart as a part time job, to traveling to Utah for a business trip on my second week. Throughout the summer, I would travel, capture footage, return back to JennMar and edit the material. After editing, I would upload everything to what’s called the DAM or Digital Asset Management. It can be accessed by anyone who was part of the DAM and especially the marketing department.
Part of the assignment is to list a proposal that was unfortunately not met and I’m happy to say there isn’t any task I was given that I didn’t complete. I’m sure that would be a different story if I was given 10 completely different things to do in my short time here, but I completed all objectives making my site supervisor happy.
This internship has taught me a lot of things, and it’s given me a little glimpse of the the real world. As stated, I’ve always thought traveling would be a cool part of any job, and now that I’ve done it for a couple months, I can say it is. I’ll be honest in saying that I never imagined myself working for a company focusing on the safety of miners and construction workers, but I’m using the skills that I learned at IUP for production work, and I think if it’s possible at a company like this then its possible anywhere. I touched briefly on how I feel in my current position here at JennMar in the marketing plan. I believe life revolves around learning even if it’s something you don’t think you’ll ever use, you probably will see it again years down the road. At it’s core, this company isn’t really me. That may sound a bit bleak however, I am using what I learned, and that makes me feel good! I talk to so many people every month that tell me about their lives and their jobs, but how what they went to school for was A and what they do for a living is Z. I know you know several people in the same boat not taking advantage of what they spent so many late nights studying and paying for. The idea of that blows my mind, and after completing this internship, I’ll be hired here at JennMar with the title Digital Marketing Coordinator doing more than what I’m doing now. Although it’s not a big company, no one else has that title, I get to say I’m that guy for this company learning so many new things, and that makes months of studying, commuting, turning down plans, and eating dinner at 10:30 p.m. justified in my mind.
Daily Logs
Monday, May 8 – 8 hours.
Monday May 8th was my first day at my internship with JENNMAR. They are a company that focuses on mining equipment that has helped save thousands of lives by making mining much safer all around the world. Today I began paperwork to get my feet in the door and become an employee, and got my own spot in the building to work in.
Tuesday, May 9 – 8 hours
Today was a little bit more interesting than the first day. JENNMAR took part in and hosted the Coal Show at the David L. Lawrence Convention center. At this event, JENNMAR and other like companies had their own stands where they showed off and explain their products to gain new customers. I went down to the convention center to take part in the day with my supervisor Michelle Eastly and other co workers.
Wednesday, May 10 – 8 hours
Back in the office today, I learned some of the responsibilities of the job and what is expected of me while I’m here. Along with knowing I’ll have to travel throughout the internship to capture photos and videos of JennMar products and workers, I have been given a few external hard drives filled with photos and videos. There is enough on these drives that I am to look through them, edit, and label them throughout the internship. Michelle and an IT worker named Gabe told me today that sometime within the week I would be receiving my own work laptop. For today, I’m trying to load photos on my personal computer because I’m actually unable to load the videos with my computer’s driver. I was also asked today if I was able to go on a trip with two HR workers to get a taste of what work travel is like. I said yes and agreed to go on a series of flights next week visiting multiple JennMar sites where products are created.
Thursday, May 11 – 8 hours
When I came in today I was told by Gabe that the computer they ordered for me wouldn’t be in until next week. Michelle wanted me to get started on the project regardless and had me begin working on a different computer. Once I was on it, I was able to see hundreds of photos and videos from past hired photographers and even a professional company JennMar hired to shoot a video celebrating their one hundred years anniversary. The main situation I’ve ran into however is that I can only see thumbnails of the videos. I cannot open the videos on the stock video players the computer has, so I’ll be working with Gabe to figure out what the cause of that could be and while diagnosing the problem I’ll continue working with the photos throughout the drives.
Friday, May 12 – 8 hours
Week one is almost officially done and I continued working on the photos within the first drive. Michelle talked to me about what I should expect on my travels next week and helped prep me a little bit. I met the two HR workers, Dee and Julia. I found out today that what I was doing was essentially traveling with them to take photos and videos of site workers and products as they do presentations for site workers on updates in their insurance through JennMar. Because I’ll be flying with HR personnel I’ll be flying on the company jet. Michelle printed out paperwork explaining where I go, how I gain entry to the section of the airport I’m going to, and the schedule for the days that I’ll be traveling.
Monday, May 15 – 10 hours
With a very interesting start to my day, I left my house early enough to be at the Latrobe Airport by 5:30 am. I boarded the company jet and took off at 6 am on my way to South Point Ohio. After we landed we drove nearly an hour to the first JennMar site location. Once we got there I stayed for the presentation by Dee and Julia and shortly after met with a supervisor of the south point site for a tour. I was able to get great footage of workers running heavy duty equipment used to create parts for drilling in mines as well as others running forges used to create pieces of rebar for mine ceilings and walls. We went to a second location that day and I was able to take several photos of products made specifically at that site as well as workers using large equipment. Afterwards we went to a hotel that was booked for us.
Tuesday, May 16 – 12 hours
This was a very interesting day. We began at 9 am traveling back to the airport to catch our first flight of the day. We took off at 10 am for Clare Michigan, and once we got there we traveled to the JennMar site. The site was much larger than the first one I had seen the day prior with so many different parts to document. I was able to take pictures of multiple different JennMar products including some they use in construction and forestry businesses such as stump grinders, large drills, blades for heavy machinery and more. After we left there we got something to eat and went to the airport once again to take off for Salt Lake City Utah at 6:30 pm. Knowing the difference in time zones, I made sure to time the flight and despite it taking roughly 3 and half hours we landed in Salt Lake City at 8 pm. We went straight to the hotel that was booked for us and called it a day. First time in my life I can say I flew multiple times in a day.
Wednesday, May 17 – 12 hours
With no time to waste, we hit the day running at 6:30 am to the only JennMar site we would see that day. Dee and Julia had a few different scheduled times for presentations that day so I had time to see all of the site and get good pictures of products and workers. After spending the day there we left for the airport and took off for home at roughly 3:30 pm. Again, knowing the difference in the time zones I decided to time our flight home and even though the flight was somewhere around the 4 hour mark we landed very close to 10 pm. After a drive back home, I was able to conclude my first business trip.
Thursday, May 18 – 8 hours
Back to the office I finally had footage of my own that I could edit and put together for any use JennMar may want it for. Like they told me, I finally got my own work laptop and I was able to use it instead of my personal one. Michelle told me that since I would be traveling a decent amount I would be getting a company card to keep my personal expenses down when traveling with them, so I spoke with a few people and got my own company card set up. After finishing up the card I continued to work on my own material finishing it up.
Friday, May 19 – 8 hours
The first thing I was told as I came into work today was to get set up in SAP Concur which is what I will use to monitor the miles I drive when it’s involved with work. This way when I have to travel distances that are not far enough for flight, or drive to the airport, I will be reimbursed for it. After getting set up I went back to working on the footage Michelle gave me on the external hard drives and was still dealing with the same issue with videos playing. I decided to email the company they hired to shoot the videos and they told me that they could only be opened with Adobe Premiere Pro or a similar software, which I don’t know how I didn’t think of trying that. After learning that I got Adobe Creative Suite installed on my work computer and got started on editing videos.
Monday, May 22 – 8 hours
Today was spent on a section of the first hard drive including pictures and videos. A member of IT named Alex emailed Michelle and I explaining that he had worked on what was called the Marketing DAM which is where all of the photos and videos I’d be working with and taking could be stored. In the DAM Michelle and I as well as anyone with the link can see the work that I’m uploading to it.
Tuesday, May 23 – 8 hours
Back to the hard drive work, I spent most of the day on videos. The video’s raw forms are almost black and white they’re so unsaturated, so I had to learn how to color correctly in Premiere Pro. After learning how to color correct, I was able to put like videos together and make some solid videos out of just segments for the DAM.
Wednesday, May 24 – 8 hours
Another day spent on the hard drives doing the same as the day before. Michelle began contacting members in charge of mines spread throughout the U.S. to see if they had products or specific things worthwhile for me to travel out and capture footage of. I began contacting a few people about traveling within the next few weeks and set up possible dates.
Thursday, May 25 – 8 hours
Moving onto new sections of the hard drive content, I continued to edit photos and videos. I also got to talk more with one of the people I could be traveling with named Adam who is a corporate worker here at JennMar. With him, I would be going to a mine and getting pictures of JennMar Products that are being used.
Friday, May 26 – 8 hours
Today was more of the same involving the work on the first hard drive. One of the rooms in the marketing department of our building is being remodeled so, most of the guys in the department including myself worked at moving a countertop. It took five of us because of how long and heavy it was.
Tuesday, May 30 – 8 hours
Wednesday, May 31 – 8 hours
Thursday, June 1 – 8 hours
Friday, June 2 – 8 hours
Monday, June 5 – 12 hours
Today was the day I went with Adam to my first mine to get pictures of JennMar products. I started my day at 4:30 am driving to meet him, and after meeting up with him we traveled down to Harrison Country WV. Once we were there, I got trained on mine safety and what I should be prepared for. I was given special boots, a hard hat and belt for other safety equipment and a radio. Once we got down in, I was able to capture pictures of JennMar’s own support systems they’ve created for supporting mining shafts. Even though I brought my own camera, the miner I took the tour with named Kevin wanted me to use his camera because in all honesty it was much nicer. When we were done at the mine we drove back home and I actually managed to get home at around 4:30 pm.
Tuesday, June 6 – 8 hours
There was more work on the hard drives today working on editing and color correction. I received an email from a Sales Engineer through JennMar named Jim George about scheduling a time to visit another mine for product photos and videos soon. He told me he would keep me updated and let me know when he is open to take me with him sometime.
Wednesday, June 7 – 8 hours
Continuing with the hard drives, I’m very close to being done with another. What I’ve been doing with several of the videos is putting like videos together, editing them so they could be re-used somehow, and then exporting that as a whole video. That video then gets uploaded to the Marketing DAM I’ve previously mentioned. I’ll need to find out if Michelle will want them further broken down into just solo videos instead of a series of like ones put together.
Thursday, June 8 – 8 hours
Along with the continued work on the hard drive’s photos and videos I spoke with more people today about traveling and received the photos back from my mine visit trip on Monday. Michelle and I both received the pictures from my mining visit and I was able to look through them and edit several. Tomorrow I will upload them to a google drive account both Michelle and I have access to instead of the Marketing DAM. Other than those pictures, I sent out texts and emails to folks trying to schedule trips for more photos and videos. I messaged Charley Boyer who is an engineer about possibly taking a drive out to Wilkes-Barre PA sometime which would be quite a drive but exciting. Michelle also emailed another co worker named Richie Belcher who is a Sales Technician about going with him sometime next Monday or Tuesday to see another mine.
Friday, June 9 – 8 hours 8-5
Today was the first time I got the opportunity to work from home. Along with continuing on the same material I’ve been on, I got confirmation from Richie Belcher about going to a mine on monday. The location I’ll be going to is down around Logan, West Virginia almost at the Kentucky border. If I am to be with Richie on Monday morning, I’ll have to schedule a hotel room and drive down on sunday.
Monday, June 12 – 10 hours 9:30 – 8:30
I drove down to Logan, West Virginia yesterday to meet up with Richie Belcher this morning. Together, we made our way to New Age Mine, a mining operation not too far outside of Logan. Once we arrived I was fitted with coveralls, my boots, a belt specific for mining, and a hardhat, and we got ready to go into the mine. It was low enough that myself, Richie, and two others had to ride on a flat cart laying down, and after getting inside I was able to take several videos of how mining takes place and how the mine actually looks. Modern mining is done with a large machine weighing roughly 50 ton (100,000 lb’s) that is flat enough to fit in the mine while a large spinning set of teeth dig through rock. It’s powered by someone who uses a large controller almost like a huge RC car. After watching and capturing footage of the miner, I got a tour of more of the mine including a conveyor belt for coal. We left shortly after, grabbed lunch, and at 3:20 pm I was on my way back for Kittanning, making it home roughly around 8:30 pm.
Tuesday, June 13 – 8 hours 8-5
Back in the office today I was able to look at the footage I took yesterday at New Age. It was so fast paced in the mine I didn’t have time to look at anything I took and with wanting to be home before midnight I figured today would be good. Most of what I took was exactly what Michelle was hoping I could get while I was there so that was very good. I started by editing and uploading to Google Drive but after I also uploaded it to the Marketing DAM.
Wednesday, June 14 – 8 hours 8-5
Today was spent on more of the hard drive work. I found more video that needed color correcting and uploaded them to the DAM.
Thursday, June 15 – 8 hours 8-5
Slowly but surely, I’m making my way through these hard drives and I’m very close to being done with them. Some of the videos are much longer than others and because of that, it takes them a little bit more time to finish exporting and then importing into the Marketing DAM. Just as I’m nearing the end of my hard drive work, Michelle asked me if I would be able to take on a whole new task along with the photography part of the internship. She brought up that JennMar and the many side companies under the name each have their own website and asked if I would be able to properly update them for the newer material.
Friday, June 16 – 8 hours 8-5
Almost nearing the end of the hard drive work, Michelle informed me a little bit more on my potential new task. I would be working at cleaning up websites and even creating new ones. I would more than likely be using Wix for this, so I’ll need to do some research on how it works.
Monday, June 19 – 8 hours 8-5
Tuesday, June 20 – 8 hours 8-5
Wednesday, June 21 – 8 hours 8-5
Thursday, June 22 – 8 hours 8-5
Friday, June 23 – 8 hours 8-5
Monday, June 26 – 8 hours 8-5
Tuesday, June 27 – 8 hours 8-5
Wednesday, June 28 – 3 hours 11:30-2:30
Today I met up with Adam Dutil, a sales representative for JennMar. Adam handles sales for states south of Pennsylvania, and I was meeting with him to go see his work in West Virginia. The purpose of this trip was to go with him, meet up with another sales rep named Jim George, then get footage of them performing what is known as a pull test. Essentially what that is, is a hydraulic press test put on rebar roof bolts in mines. The press puts literal tons of weight all the way up to 25 tons on the base of a roof bolt to test how much that metal bolt is stretching. Think about that, enough weight to stretch a meter or so long rebar bolt. The reason they do these tests is to see how well the roof is being supported. Each time another ton is added to the bolt, readings are taken to see how much movement there is.
Thursday, June 29 – 9 hours 6:30-5:30
Adam, Jim, and I met up in the lobby and left our hotel at 6:30 am on our way to a mine called Allegheny Mett. Once we were there we made our way down to where they would perform the pull tests together and I got the footage I needed. After being at the mine, we went to a facility where they processed coal. There were conveyors outside that stretched for acres, they were absolutely massive. Not long was spent there and after we went to get lunch from 1-2 pm, then back on the road having me back home at 5:30 pm.
Friday, June 30 – 8 hours 8-5
Today was a work from home day for me. We get two work from home days a month and I spent mine editing the footage I got of the pull tests, Adam and Jim, and the mine itself. After cleaning up some of the footage, I put it in the marketing dam and a google drive account to send to others if they wanted to see it without having access to the dam.
Monday, July 3 – 4 hours 8-12
Because of the holiday coming up, JennMar decided to make today a half day. I spent most of the day speaking with Jim George and others planning where I may go in the near future. Jim and I discussed how he would like me to come with him later in the week to get footage of him performing another pull test in a Morton salt mine outside of Cleve land. Where Adam takes care of southern states sales, Jim does the northern states. After talking on the phone throughout the day we decided I would go with him Wednesday, stay into Thursday and go into the Morton salt mine.
Wednesday, July 5 – 3.5 hours 1:30-5
The mine that Jim and I are going to is outside of Cleveland which means Jim was coming through Kittanning and he could pick me up on his way there. I was picked up close to 1:30 and after getting to know Jim well on the ride to Mentor Ohio we checked in at our hotel close to 5.
Thursday, July 6 – 8.5 hours 6-2:30
Jim and I started our day meeting in the hotel lobby and leaving at 6 am on our way to the Morton salt mine. Once we got there I got trained by watching a rather long safety video and suited up with proper safety equipment such as the small emergency oxygen tank they give you and a walkie talkie. Of all the mines I’ve been in, this one was by far the most open and lit up. It’s been active since the 70s which means its big enough that you and other miners ride on carts on railways underground to navigate through different parts of it. While I was there I gathered footage of Jim and another miner performing the pull tests on the JennMar roof bolts he had gone for. On our way out, I also gathered footage of large conveyors used to haul salt through the mine and other safety equipment there supplied by JennMar. After that we did everything we needed to do, packed up, and traveled straight back having me home around 2:30 pm.
Friday, July 7 – 8 hours 8-5
Back in the office today, it went about the same as most days when I get back from a trip. I took a look at the footage I was able to get while I was in the salt mine and did a little editing to clean it up. Afterwards I uploaded it to a google doc that my site supervisor Michelle and I are in together so that she has some direct access to it. After putting it in the drive, I uploaded it to the DAM.
Monday, July 10 – 8 hours 8-5
Work has switched up a little bit since I finished all of the hard drive material. One of the other members of the Marketing team named Cathy is our senior graphic designer. Lately she has been getting swamped with work and asked me if I would be interested in helping with a little bit of photoshop work. She would have me cleaning up clipping paths on catalog items. A clipping path is essentially putting an outline around something to isolate that part of the image.
Tuesday, July 11 – 8 hours 8-5
Today Cathy showed me what I would be putting into photoshop. JennMar helps make catalogs for another company called Tamco. Some of the images in the catalog she showed me didn’t come out right and were in need of some help so, I would load the image from the catalog into photoshop, create a clipping path, save them as CMYK because it helps with printing, and re-upload them into the catalog. There are a large amount of images that need help, and I think this will last me a couple days.
Wednesday, July 12 – 8 hours 8-5
Today I hit the photoshop work again for Cathy and made some great progress. There is still much more that needs done and it will probably take me till the end of the week due to how time consuming making the clipping paths can be. Along with working in photoshop, I have been in contact with two members of XCal Tools, a subsidiary of JennMar named Brian and Frank discussing traveling to Atlanta Georgia soon to show off XCal products in use working at prepping a highway for black top and then seeing them in a construction setting.
Thursday, July 13 – 8 hours 8-5
Closing in on the photoshop work, I’m getting very close to being done with all of it. I made definitive plans with the XCal guys on going down south, so I purchased a plane ticket for Monday morning.
Friday, July 14 – 8 hours 8-5
Today I finished the photoshop material for the Tamco catalog and got Cathy’s approval on it. It’s cool that I’m getting to learn many different things during my time here. I also got a call from Frank from XCal to talk more in depth about plans for when I arrive in Atlanta and when we’ll be traveling to different sites.
Monday, July 17 – 15 hours 4am-4pm, nap then dinner, 8:30pm-11:30pm.
Wow what a day, I started at 4 am driving to the Pittsburgh airport to catch my flight. Unfortunately for the time I was wanted in Atlanta, I had to catch a connecting flight, so I first touched down in Newark NJ for a couple hours. I boarded my flight for Atlanta and made it there shortly after 2:40 pm. Frank came to pick me up and I arrived at my hotel very close to 4 pm. The job I traveled for was to capture footage of XCal drilling bits being used and tonight I was going to see them in use ripping up asphalt to prep a highway for black top. They have to perform this job at night because Atlanta is far too busy during the day to do anything, so at night they close off the lane I was watching them work on and get as much done as they can. After getting a short nap and grabbing something to eat, we took off for the site around 8:30 and stayed there until 11:30 that evening. As we got into the hotel lobby, Frank said “you want to meet me here at 5:30 tomorrow morning?” which was such a rough thing to hear when you’re already half asleep, but I made the trip to be ready for anything.
Tuesday, July 18 – 11-½ hours 6-5:30
Frank and I began our day at 6 am hitting the road because we were on our way to Knoxville Tennessee. Frank is an XCal sales rep who was priorly known as a successful and efficient construction drilling site manager. The whole way to Knoxville from Atlanta, he pointed at bridges, billboards towering over the highways, and skyscrapers explaining how he laid the foundation for them. Once we got to Knoxville, I was able to see the XCal products being used at the construction site we were at. They were bits drilling down into the ground making holes to fill with concrete and rebar making a foundation for a building. I gathered some great footage and shortly after that, we took off back for Atlanta because that’s where I was flying home from.
Wednesday, July 19 – 9 hours 9-7
If there’s one thing I’m learning from this job, it’s to always be prepared when traveling. I woke up this morning prepping myself knowing I had to be at the airport for my flight back home at 9 am. When I checked the app I was using to fly to check in, I found out that my flight had been canceled and I would instead fly to Chicago at 3:30. I called my site manager, purchased a new ticket home and had to rush as fast as I could leaving at 9 am to get to the airport, get through tsa and board my flight by 10:34 am. I got lucky and made my first landing in D.C. for a connecting flight where I would take off for pittsburgh. I will say, If you haven’t seen the Washington D.C. airport, get a connecting flight there sometime. It’s very pretty. I touched down sometime close to 5:30 pm, found my car, and opened my front door very close to 7. The graduating grade and paid internship aside, I’m very thankful for this job because it has taught me how to travel alone whether it’s driving all day or catching multiple flights to get where I’m going.
Thursday, July 20 – 8 hours 8-5
Back at the office, I’ve got a solid chunk of material I captured on my trip to look through. Usually when I go on these trips I use short videos to capture what I’m working with because of poor lighting, however where I was this trip had great lighting the whole time so I got to use more pictures. The construction site that I visited in Knoxville had beautiful blue skies over it which made product photos look even better.
Friday, July 21 – 8 hours 8-5
Today is a work from home day for me, and I need to get in contact with Michelle and Frank to show them the material I’m working with. I created a google drive folder to put everything in and shared it with them. Michelle told me that everything looked pretty good which is great because she’s the one who sent me in the first place, but Frank told me a few things I should consider. Some of the photos have certain parts in them such as specific techniques the company that bought the XCal bits uses showing and Frank said you’re going to want to crop that out because other people shouldn’t see that. There are also a few small things in the pictures that he asked if I could photoshop out.
Monday, July 24 – 8 hours 8-5
I started my day today looking over the images I got on the Atlanta trip again and asked Cathy, our graphic designer if she could help me photoshop a few of the images. The company that was using our XCal bits don’t necessarily want their names in the pictures, and I’ll try to photoshop them out. I am also getting in contact with Ryan Citron, the President of Tamco making plans to visit his shop and get product images and videos.
Tuesday, July 25 – 8 hours 8-5
Today I worked more on the pictures from my Atlanta trip. I photoshopped a few of the pictures which took me a little while since I’m not very familiar with photoshop.
Wednesday, July 26 – 8 hours 8-5
After photoshopping the pictures, I showed them to Frank the guy I traveled with and got his approval on them.
Thursday, July 27 – 8 hours 8-5
After doing that work in photoshop the other day, I found out once I’m hired on I may do photoshop work frequently so, I got trained in a little bit more photoshop material.
Friday, July 28 – 8 hours 8-5
Along with working a bit on this final, I spent Friday talking more with Ryan Citron, the president of Tamco a tool and steel manufacturing shop. I’ll be heading down to their location in Manongahela next Wednesday to gather some product images.
Monday, July 31 8 hours 8-5
Today I got to spend more time in Photoshop and working on my final.
Tuesday, August 1 8 hours 8-5
When you travel in this job, you keep track of your miles driven and other expenses with a company called SAP Concur. With it being the first of the month I need to tally up all of my expenses with my flights and driving so that I can send that report in.
Wednesday, August 2 8 hours 8-5
Today I started by making the drive to Monongahela to Tamco for the product pictures. After meeting up with Ryan Citron and discussing more about what all he was hopeful for, I got started on several different products. I had a successful time there and left with enough time to return to the office. Once I made it there, I could take a better look at what I captured.
Thursday, August 3 8 hours 8-5
Getting to spend today editing the Tamco photos and finalizing this final.
Friday, August 4 8 hours 8-5
Today, I’ll be discussing more on my responsibilities after I’m hired. I’m going to be working a lot on the websites that JennMar uses and making sure they are in order and up to date. I’ll also be uploading content that I’ll have to create. It’s going to be a fun ride!