Latest news with #BriannaPaciorka
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ready for the first day of school? 5 tips to get the best photos of your kid's big day
Buses will fill up, classroom seats will be taken and schools will be abuzz with kids. Welcome back to school! Well, almost, but it's still an exciting time as kids around Knox County prepare to return to school on Aug. 7. And with the first day of school comes the requisite first day photos, so parents can show off their pride and joy to friends and family online. But sometimes the photos we envision might not translate into the ones we actually take, and you want to make sure you get the best photo you can to remember your child's first day of school. So with phone or camera in hand, here are some tips from Knox News photographer Brianna Paciorka and reporter Keenan Thomas on how to capture your kid's smiling face before they hop on the school bus Aug. 7. Environment matters, and you can still have fun An easy way to get fun, interesting photos for the first day of school is to utilize the environment around you. Stairs are a great prop to use, as you can capture your kids sitting on the stairs, leaning on the railing, descending the stairs or posing in the staircase. Couches, chairs and benches can provide support with a variety of poseable options for parents to capture. The options extend outside of the staircase and living room with trees, archways and doors being excellent locations with options for kids to lean, walk through or climb for photos! It can show how they're ready for the school year journey or climbing their way to academic success. Be mindful of lighting, surroundings Lighting and surroundings are two of the biggest potential issues to look out for while taking photos commemorating your kid's first day of school. Lighting plays an important role in capturing nice photos, but it can also spell trouble if you're not positioned well. Taking photos in the shadows will make the shots darker, whereas having the background too bright could cause it to be overly backlit and leave your kid in silhouette. To capture good lighting, make sure the background is the same brightness or darker compared to the foreground where your kid us. Also, be mindful of the sun's location. Positioning your kid where the main light source is shining on them from the front or to the side will properly expose them, but you don't want them to be squinting when they say, "Cheese!" As for surroundings, you don't want things in the background to "stick out," like a pole that appears to be sprouting from their head, or unpleasant props like a trash can visible off to the side. Find contrasting backgrounds to make your photos pop Another good way to take nice photos is to find a background that contrasts with what your kid is wearing. If your child is wearing darker clothing, then find a lighter or colorful background. But if they're wearing something bright and colorful, a darker background will help to draw attention to them. This way, you can highlight your kid on their first day even more while making your photos interesting, without them getting lost in similar colors within the shot. Composition matters, and here's a tip to capture it! While taking photos, keeping an eye on composition can improve the aesthetic quality of your photos, and that's true for taking first day of school pictures! Parents can utilize the rule of thirds by positioning their kids and the camera to capture more dynamic photos. The rule breaks photos down into three columns and rows that are symmetrical in the frame, with best practices including positioning the subject either within different columns or along different lines. On phones, an easy way to implement the rule of thirds is with a grid present on the screen in the camera app. It might need to be turned on in the settings, but the grid allows parents to easily take nice photos. Or if you just want a simple photo, do whatever seems best to you! Maybe you want your child to be in the center of the frame or doing something goofy. Pose, pose, pose, and have fun! Allowing your child to try a variety of poses could be a fun way to engage them in the photos while having several options to choose from when posting on social media later. It could be a nice and proper pose, one with a little board that says something to express excitement about the first day, a pose using props like a backpack to show it off or even a silly pose that showcases your kid's personality. But at the end of the day, have fun with it! If your kid has any ideas, listen to what they have to say and try it out. It could lead to a unique photo that no other parent is posting online, and even could get them excited to take on the day ahead. Either way, this should be a fun and relaxing activity. Getting a nice photo to remember the day is the cherry on top, and you can have a good time doing so. Keenan Thomas reports for the Knox News business growth and development team. You can reach him by email at Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks at This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Try these 5 tips for taking the best first-day-of-school photos Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
07-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
How federal hiring freeze could get 'scary' for Great Smoky Mountains National Park
How federal hiring freeze could get 'scary' for Great Smoky Mountains National Park Show Caption Hide Caption Drive along the Foothills Parkway's Missing Link and see the fall colors in the Smokies Drive along the Foothills Parkway's Missing Link and see how the fall colors look in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as of October 11, 2022. Brianna Paciorka, Knoxville News Sentinel Visitors looking forward to a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park this spring and summer could encounter unkempt trails, unclean bathrooms and fewer park rangers. The National Park Service was forced to rescind more than 2,000 seasonal and permanent positions nationwide under the widespread federal government hiring freeze enacted by the Trump administration Jan. 20. Park advocates are raising the alarm about what the cuts will mean for visitors. 'Seasonal park rangers serving the public, (employees) giving programs or maybe working on maintenance crews, or working with the resource management crews, working with people who control the wild hogs and so forth: all of those jobs could be postponed or maybe not ever filled,' Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, explained to Knox News on Feb. 3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park relies on 200 permanent employees and 140 seasonal employees, according to park statistics from 2024. Additionally, more than 1,600 people volunteered their time for the park to help staff between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024. Francis, who served as deputy superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park for 11 years and as superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway for eight, also noted that local businesses would feel the effects of the hiring freeze. 'When you combine the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Parkway and visitation to the (Cherokee) National Forest in our region, you're talking about billions and billions of dollars of economic benefits. These are economic engines, you know, they're serving the American public.' National parks generated $55.6 billion in economic output in 2023, the park service reported. What the federal hiring freeze means for Great Smoky Mountains National Park The park service typically posts spring and summer job openings between October and February and hiring for those positions ramps up in January and February, former park service director Jon Jarvis said to Politico. Search and rescue and other emergency response positions might be the only hiring that will continue during the pause, Francis said. But even that's not a guarantee. 'So, that would have an adverse effect on the visitor experience. It might make the park a little less safe and it could have an impact on park resources,' Francis said. Understaffing heading into the spring and summer season could interfere with operations at Sugarlands and other visitor center; educational and safety programming; trail and facility maintenance; bear management; and other projects. It's a 'scary time' for national parks facing uncertainty National parks, including the Smokies, have seen record-breaking visitation in recent years. Visitation at national parks has increased 16% since 2010 even as staffing is down 20%, making it hard for parks to keep up with demand, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited national park in the country. Just over 12 million people visited during 2024. And the park had a 42% increase in visitation from 2013 to 2023. Added uncertainties because of the hiring freeze include whether parks can begin to hire again for the season and whether applicants who had job offers rescinded must restart the federal hiring process. 'It's a scary time,' a park ranger told Politico's E&E News. The person, who was granted anonymity because of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, also said the first two weeks of the new administration have been 'brutal' for the park service. Francis also is concerned about the federal budget. The government avoided a shutdown in December, but the resolution signed then by President Joe Biden only runs through March 14. 'It would be nice to know what the prognosis is for a continuing budget (to fund the park service) for the remainder of the year,' Francis said. 'Is it going to be the same, is it going to be more, is it going to be less? The quicker the better for those folks who are managing the parks, who are still active and need to plan for the remainder of the year.' The executive order halting hiring of federal civilian employees says that within 90 days the U.S. Office of Management and Budget "shall submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government's workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition." National parks faced a similar hiring freeze situation in 2017 at the start of Trump's first term. In that instance, however, seasonal and short-term temporary employees were deemed exempt a week after the executive order was signed. 'I think the difference (now compared to 2017 is) more positions have been lost due to lack of adequate budgets. And so, it just exacerbates an existing problem,' Francis noted. Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email On X, formerly known as Twitter @dturner1208. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at
