Investigative reporting is not all sorting through records requests and spreadsheets, at least in the summer. Four photos of Center staffers on the job in recent days:

1. The Center works closely with Wisconsin Public Radio. Sometimes very closely indeed, as these tight quarters show. Talib Akbar’s camper is not much larger than the solitary confinement cell he spent years in, but it is worlds away.

Here, Dee Hall is working on one of her first stories since beginning work as the Center’s managing editor in June.

Gilman Halsted of Wisconsin Public Radio and WCIJ Managing Editor Dee Hall interview Talib Akbar about his years in solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons. Photographed June 30, 2015, in Akbar’s camper. Credit: Kate Golden / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

2. A story in the works required reporters Tara Golshan and Sean Kirkby to head to the Madison zoo this weekend.

Sean Kirkby helps fellow Center reporter intern Tara Golshan collect audio at the Madison zoo. Credit: Tara Golshan / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

3. Our brown-bag staff training turned into a field trip last week, as there is no better way to learn the pitfalls of recording audio interviews in noisy places.

Reporter intern Haley Henschel explains to Tara Golshan once again what she had for breakfast. Credit: Kate Golden / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

4. Henschel meets Bruce, a sun conure, for a story on exotic animals.

Credit: Kate Golden / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

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Kate Golden, multimedia director and reporter, specializes in environmental stories and data visualizations.