Morgan Petroski 6/7/17 Morgan Petroski 6/7/17

New Chapter, New Country

Four-month-old Moby Hjelm helps Beth Trujillo lay out A1 on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, on his mother's last day the Albuquerque Journal.

This post is a bit overdue I'll admit it. Back in January of this year I had my last day in the newsroom of the Albuquerque Journal. A newsroom that had come to feel like a second home. Journalists, we're funny people. We know our city or our beat all too well, way better than our non-journalist friends. We become a second family when we spend such odd hours with our coworkers, sometimes on last minute road trips, sometimes just filing and editing late into the night racing to the final deadline. We eat (free) pizza on election nights together as the results come in. We celebrate when our coworkers have family milestones: marriages, births, and graduations. And also support each other when harder times hit. I was only supposed to be in Albuquerque for six months. SIX MONTHS. I arrived in the summer of 2007 and almost immediately started counting down. Not that I didn't love it. I did. However, I was in my "intern" part of life and expected to move on to another internship in six months and thus wanted to make the most of my short time there as most interns do. I had a blast. I took every opportunity that came my way. I climbed a crazy peak, flew in a hot air balloon, drove all over the state whenever asked, and tried my hardest to make some cool photos.

I ended up staying nine and half years. The Land of Enchantment really was the Land of Entrapment. I became a staff photographer, then the assistant photo editor, and then the photo editor. A lot changed in that window of time as well. A newspaper that was so focused on the print product, finally started paying attention to the web. (I feel like I can say this as a GenY-er who saw the writing on the wall from the day I walked in the door.) And with the push to web, the photo department had a chance like never before to be seen.

But, I've gotten off track...

About the same time as my maternity leave was starting with my son, my husband was offered a post-doc at the University of Montreal. So it was finally time to say goodbye to my Journal family and start a new chapter in Canada. So on a bittersweet Friday afternoon, I brought my 4-month-old son to work with me and said my goodbyes to the people and building that had welcomed me nine and a half years earlier. It's been a few months now, and I still miss the journalism adrenaline rush, but mostly I miss my co-workers and comrades who made the daily battles worth it.

So, here I am, now in Montreal, missing New Mexico a little, but also enjoying this new wonderful city. If anyone needs a photographer, or a journalist, I'd still very much love to tell your story.

Morgan Petroski 5/16/16 Morgan Petroski 5/16/16

Yjastros Flamenco Company

In April I was able to shoot some of Albuquerque's professional flamenco dancers. Below are just a few of my favorite photos from one of their rehearsals before a performance. This recent shoot for the Albuquerque Journal of Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company ended up being the cover of the Life in New Mexico section for the week.

Read the full story by Adrian Gomez here: Dancing a way of life for Yjastros members

Enjoy!

Morgan Petroski 3/6/15 Morgan Petroski 3/6/15

Southwest Snow - Albuquerque

During Feb. 26-28, 2015 Albuquerque received the most significant amount of snow since 2006. My main concern throughout the two nights of snow was to make sure our photo staff at the Albuquerque Journal did a great job covering the storm in photos. So my days were filled with planning and anticipating what was going to happen across the city that needed to be documented. The only times I got a chance to take some photos myself were at night right before crawling into bed. Both Thursday night and Friday night, my fiancé and myself ventured out into the cold falling snow. We hiked from our house down to Central Avenue. Both times were really just excursions for myself to snap some photos. I grew up in Florida, so to some degree snow still excites me even though I've experienced it many times by now. And I love night time landscape or cityscape photography. Things just look different at night and I love that. Anyway, here are some photos from our excursions on both nights as the snow was still falling. I shot them with my Fuji X-E2 that I really wish was weather sealed. I may have to grab the X-T1 next, as my Fuji has become my camera of choice and I obviously don't fear shooting in extreme weather conditions...

For more snow photos, check out: Southwest Snow. It's my most recently edited Exposure piece for the Albuquerque Journal, featuring the collective hard work of Journal staff photographers.

Morgan Petroski 1/12/15 Morgan Petroski 1/12/15

Rail Yards of Albuquerque

Any excuse to visit and photograph the Albuquerque rail yards sounds good to me. Actually I wasn't even scheduled to shoot this on Friday, but due to more important breaking news I "unfortunately" had to scramble to get there on time. Gosh darn. The city of Albuquerque has come out saying "Dangers abound at the city's rail yards." After shooting ASH I could help with this lecture. I won't get into specifics, but yes, the rail yards are dangerous. While filming we were constantly reminding each other of this, even though it was so obvious. Despite its danger it's a beautiful place. The light, the dirt, the space. Here's a few of the photos from last week's short tour.

Morgan Petroski 10/17/14 Morgan Petroski 10/17/14

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2014 - Albuquerque Journal

For this year's Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta I soared above the event with KOAT, covering the fiesta from the sky. I've done this now three separate years and each year is just as exciting. It might sound glamorous but each year it means getting up around 3:30 am to get some breakfast and get to the airport in time to catch my ride. That's pretty darn early, but so worth it. Our photo staff at the Albuquerque Journal covers every single day of the nine day event each year. Our staff photographers are out on the ground each morning, inside and outside of the park, photographing the balloons as they blanket our city. Everyone has their favorite spots to view the balloons from after covering the fiesta for years. It's always interesting to see how everyone sees the fiesta through their lens, as each photographer documents it differently each year. To see more photos from the entire photo staff at the Albuquerque Journal check out our gallery: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2014.