At a small newspaper, where the reporter’s duty is to write stories with his right hand and snap pictures with his left, the opportunity to enlist a dedicated staff photographer is a rare convenience. Luckily, though, it’s one afforded the Iola Register this summer.
Recent Iola High School graduate Klair Vogel is serving this paper as an intern until August, when she will head off to Pittsburg State University to major in photojournalism and work at the school’s newspaper and on its yearbook. (Vogel is one of two interns brightening the rooms at the Register this summer. See last Saturday’s paper for an article on word wiz Jason Tidd.)
VOGEL traces her passion for pictures back to her 12th or 13th year, but the notion that she could convert this enthusiasm into a career didn’t strike her until she enrolled in her first photography class four years ago. “It all started my freshman year in high school when I took a class with Samantha Branson. She’s the one who got me into newspaper and journalism. And then I pretty much fell in love with it from that point on.”
It’s often difficult for someone whose talent is inherent to speculate on what makes them so good. Pressed on the issue, however, the ever-modest Vogel takes a stab at it: “As long as you’re constantly moving around and getting shots from different angles, anybody can usually get a good picture. If they practice.”
The truth, though, is that she may just have the knack. Barely a year into her high school career, Vogel received the highest prize in a state 4-H competition for a photograph she took of her horse. (Register: “What’s your horse’s name?” Vogel: “Takota.” Register: “That’s a beautiful name. Where does it come from?” Vogel: “We found it on Google.”)
VOGEL, whose family lives on a farm just north of town, describes herself as an outdoors person and finds ways to fold her fondness for the natural world into her work. Besides the award-winning shot of Takota, Vogel has exhibited expert photos of her other animals and of area plants and trees. “And I’ve done some abstract shots of water, pictures of rain drops on flowers.”
It’s subject matter that will serve her in good stead if she ever achieves her maximum ambition. “Eventually, I really want to work for National Geographic,” sighs Vogel. “Right now, I follow National Geographic on Instagram, and I follow the people who work for them and really like looking at their pictures.”
WHERE MOST high school graduates bob for years in the backwaters of indecision, Vogel has an undeniable energy to begin. She sought out this internship not for class credit but because she wanted to get her feet wet, wanted to understand as early as she could the methods of a working journalist. And she chose Pitt State over KU for similarly practical reasons. At KU, explained Vogel, “I wouldn’t have been able to actually start the journalism part until my junior year but at Pitt I can start right away, which is so much better.”
