I have learned a couple things in our experience doing field research. Beginning with reporting; one thing is the importance of arriving early to an event. As I love to take pictures, it can be difficult to get a good shot when there are a bunch of people in the way. Also, I learned how rude other photographers can be when they think you’re encroaching on their territory, almost as if a dog protecting its favorite toy. Being early has other benefits too, better seats, better parking, and more time to set up any equipment. The second lesson I learned was to maintain reasonable expectations so that you don’t get disappointed when an event doesn’t go your way. As my group saw with the Libertarian meeting; we expected an official meeting or a decent group of people. What we got instead was just a couple of regular guys eating breakfast on a weekend.

            As far as research goes, I learned a couple lessons as well. Doing research before attending events has a few benefits. You can get an idea of what the speaker is going to touch on before arriving, and you also can get an idea of what kinds of topics that people will be asking questions about. Research and prep-work is also much easier when you split the responsibilities amongst multiple people. When giving everyone tasks, each person can focus on their one area instead of doing everything and possibly repeating the same work. Being a political science major, doing research is a much easier task to undertake than doing field reporting. When we split up tasks, it allows everyone to play to their strengths.