Location, location, location!

Everyone knows real estate is a prime commodity in Tracy but I didn’t how important four feet of ground could be.

I was shooting a West High baseball game today along side a photographer from another newspaper when the umpires stopped the game. A five-minute meeting was held and I knew we were the topic of debate with the looks and gestures directed our way.

At the end of the meeting we were told we could stay on the field but were restricted to an area from the edge of the dugout gate to the first vertical pole in the fence line.

As the game progressed the umpires made some call that were questioned by the opposing team’s coach. The coach brought up the fact that the umpires were more concerned with the photographers on the field than the game at hand. Nice to be an unwanted center of attention.

I asked one of the assistant coaches who had complained about us and was told the umpires just questioned our presence. The rule is we are allowed on the field but must be in a designated spot that is considered out of play. I am used to that, just not the attention that today’s game drew.

Ewwww!

Behold a pan of green potatoes in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I felt like the guys in the commercial with a group of fishermen looking at square fish they just caught, “That ain’t natural” they say as the fish flop on the boat deck. Same thing for green potatoes, yuck!

Forgotten field

With all the talk of a sports park and new fields for everyone to play on it is very disappointing to go on assignment to cover a high school soccer game at the West High soccer fields.

Both Tracy High and West High play junior varsity and varsity games on the same field, one of two at the school. The teams play on what was once designated the junior varsity field. The varsity field is a depressing mix of unkempt grass and dirt ruts.

The choice was between play on a field covered mostly with grass but lots of mounds and ruts or a field that was more level but the grass was mixed with large bare patches of dirt.

As I shot the game and watched the ball bounce unpredictably on the less than ideal field I wondered if anyone would take the same interest in giving both schools a decent field as they are in the push for the sports complex fields.

Flying high

I have to admit I took a twisted pleasure watching an online video of a newspaper photographer struggling with a demonstration flight with the Untied States Navy Blue Angels.

I have to say I was a little jealous when I saw him seated in the back of the #7 jet for his hour-long flight. I have dreamed of the chance to fly in a fighter jet and feel the power of an after burning jet engine propelling me along at near supersonic speeds.

It looked like a fun flight, if you don’t count the one time he puked and the two times he passed out while pulling g’s all captured by the camera imbedded in the seat before him. Nice how video of a photographer losing his lunch on assignment can make me smile.

I remembered my lone aerobatic assignment years ago. Flying in the front seat of Czechoslovakian Zlin 526 airplane I was treated to loops, rolls, inverted flight and a hammerhead stall turn. I am proud to say I kept my breakfast down during the flight but we were traveling much slower speeds than the Blue Angels F-18 Hornet fighter jet.

If you look closely at the picture you can see my reflection in pilot Steve Stavrakakis’ sunglasses as we cruised upside down over Stanislaus County.

Change of view, part II

Since we now know that getting down low can help an otherwise sedate picture scene it follows that rising above it all can also lead to better pictures.

I was assigned to photograph the new general manager of the Altamont Raceway and after a series of photos atop the starter’s cage perched precariously above the racetrack I saw a different scene. I had the general manager stand on the start finish line and then stood astride the small cement wall surrounding the track. I held the camera at arms length and asked him to look at the camera.

The result was a nice clean background of the racetrack with the checkered line giving a race flavor to the photo. It was an otherwise mundane portrait elevated by a change of altitude.

Change of view

Besides being just pictures of an airplane that is way too cool what’s the point of these two shots? It’s a change of view.

One of the reasons I traveled down to Castle Air Museum recently was to get a look at their newest addition, an F-14 Tomcat. I made my way around the airplane and got the standard pictures but then for a change of pace I put the camera on the ground and fired away.

It’s a good rule to change your perspective on assignment so I went a little lower than usual for the ground level shot. I didn’t look through the viewfinder, I guessed the approximate coverage of the wide-angle and made sure I had a little room to fudge around the edges.

The pictures I got in the end show the menacing lines of the fighter and make it look fast even sitting still.

Push my button

Jump!

This is one of those shot that didn’t quite come out the way I wanted.

I was thinking of an overhead shot to catch the rope as it came over the top of his head but the boy kept moving forward and I was worried about the rope tangling with my camera so I settled for a low-angle shot for the paper.

This shot looks decent as the lines in the blacktop and the rope twisting has some nice movement to the photo but overall I was disappointed with this shot.

Window to the world

Art is where you find it and returning back to the office from a couple of sports assignments I found crews hard at work replacing one of front windows.

Vandals have been making the rounds through downtown smashing windows. The damage from the costly prank was replaced Tuesday afternoon and as crews lifted the pane into place I enjoyed the view from our new squeaky-clean glass.

Rescued

Tracy Fire crews responded to a structure fire off Etta Court today. I was out and about looking for standalone art so after a few furious seconds locating it on my map I was at the scene.

Thankfully fire crews brought the kitchen fire under control and had it put out in a few minutes. There wasn’t much to see from the front, a lot of smoke but not much activity to photograph.

I was ready to leave when an engineer brought a scared little dog out of the smoky residence and I knew I had my shot from the fire scene.

Say cheese!

This is the kind of vision photographers have in their nightmares. Between just two hours of sleep and over a quart of coffee you may start to see stuff in the viewfinder that looks like this.

Online imaging

Adobe has announced plans to introduce an online version of their image editing software. It is reported to be a stripped-down version of their Photoshop Elements program that is a bare-bones version the Photoshop program now in its CS2 version.

With Photoshop CS2 retailing for over almost $600 I am curious how much imaging editing power we are slated to get for free. Adobe is fighting for imaging software users as they have recently released their Lightroom program to compete against Apple’s Aperture for a share of the market of advanced amateur and professional photographers needing image editing and cataloging.

Pretty in pink

How do you combat theft of hard hats from a construction site? Paint them pink, hot pink no less. No self-respecting thief would be caught dead wearing pink head gear.

Technicolor breakfast

Students at a Manteca elementary school were treated to special breakfast in honor of the 50th birthday of Dr. Seuess. A lovely mixture of scrambled eggs, diced ham and food coloring was served up to any second grader brave enough to venture a bite.

Now if I was in the second grade and tried to eat that I would most likely have wound up with a Technicolor yawn.

Who's driving anyhow?

I stumbled across this photo I took about a year ago as I looked for an aerial photo I had taken of South Tracy. I started to wonder about one thing, who is driving the airplane?

I think the altimeter reads about 1,500 feet, I am taking a picture of the pilot, the pilot is looking at a map of our route over town where I needed to fly for pictures and I don’t remember anybody else in our cramped cockpit quarters.

I started to wonder out loud who was watching the road while we were flying only to be quickly reminded that there are no roads when you are flying. I don’t know we could have flown into a cloud or something.