Cyber space-d out

Big brother

Did you ever have the strange feeling you were being watched? I was on assignment at the new city council chambers when I had that creepy feeling someone was watching me.

Working on a story about the council chamber’s too tall, bulletproof seating area I noticed that one of the chamber’s cameras was one watching me work. Kind of creepy to be photographed while photographing. I figured the powers that be were nervous and wanted to see what I was up to. Just for fun I snapped a close up of the camera on my way out. I really hope they caught that on tape.

Hat attack

This wins as the hairdo of the year. Sported by a graduate at the Delta Charter High School graduation ceremony, I just had to grab a few pictures of it!

The sirens call

It seemed for a week or so there wasn’t any action in Tracy on the police scanner on the fire channel frequencies. I kept hearing sirens but I never heard any calls across the radio. As soon as I found out the frequencies had changed and I programmed the new Lifecom channels in the scanner was filled once again with bustle of emergency dispatches.

Late at night while I am relaxing at home playing around with iTunes I hear siren in the distance, steady for a few minutes. That’s not good I though to myself. I grabbed my portable scanner and switched to Lifecom Command and heard fire crews shouting to charge the second line and saying there were in the attack mode. The more I kept telling myself that’s not a good sign I decided to check out the fire on 3rd street which turned to be a motor home that was set ablaze. The fun of listening to the scanner at night.


The next morning at work I settle down to process the night fire when the scanner sounds the alert tones for an apartment fire on Tracy Boulevard. The joys of being a scanner geek never end.

18% grey

Dive in

I was covering the Tracy Tritons swim meet over the weekend and I was in a rut. The sheer number of swimmers for each event means one swimming stroke like the freestyle can take over an hour to complete. How many ways can you photograph the freestyle stroke? I decided to try and get creative and found a good shooting position next to the starting blocks. A wide-angle lens and healthy dose of the motor drive netted this take on the swimmers entering the water at the start of one of the heats.

Lest we forget

Today Americans observed Memorial Day and remembered those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Tracy joined in the observance as we honored those who have died from our town and those that still serve.

The ceremonies were somber and proud. The cemetery’s Little Arlington was transformed into a sea of red white and blue for the day to greet relatives and friends who came by to pay their respects.

All around were veterans, some having served in wars long ago and almost forgotten. Sad moments to pause and reflect upon the price some have paid to defend our country.

To end the day’s observances the names inscribed on the War Memorial of those killed in war from Tracy were read aloud and a bell tolled for each, as they could not answer the roll call. A reminder for all of us to honor their memory and never forget the price they paid for all of us.

Ominous skies

I saw this sight walking back to my car after shooting a Tracy Tritons swim meet. I noticed the light was getting muted and a quick glance skyward revealed a lone, round cloud blocking the sun. Too cool! I switched to a wide-angle lens and fired away. The sky appears black as it is under-exposed to capture the backlit cloud texture. The result is a surreal nebula hanging above town.

Hogzilla

Not that that this has anything to do with photography or photojournalism, but I think it is really strange and worth a look. Hogzilla captured on film.

Starry night

At last Saturday’s Relay For Life one of the more popular subjects to photograph wasn’t on the track. High above Tracy High a crescent moon hung in the sky with a planet, Venus I think right below. You could see the photographers craning their necks skyward to capture the sight.

I haven’t had much experience with astrophotography. I have always wanted a telescope but that will be sometime down the line. My one real attempt was this capture of the Hale-Bopp comet as it appeared in the sky above Tracy some 10 years or so ago. Not bad for a time exposure with a 300 mm lens on a Nikon film camera.

Digitally enhanced

Heading south

There are those moments on assignment when your realize things are starting to slip beyond your control. There is that moment when the compass needle starts to swing during your shoot. It’s about that time your realize your assignment is heading south and you try to hold on for dear life.

I had one of those assignments today and it always happens at the most innocuous of settings. I was at Wicklund School for a talent show and I was in for a few surprises.

The teachers at the school are presenting the Wicklund Whammys, a kind of faculty show mingled among the student awards ceremony. My first clue things were slipping was the rock version of “the Three Little Pigs”. It was pretty cute but then I had to get names of the singers. When is the last time I went up to a woman who is a total stranger and asked her, “So are you one the pigs?”

So then comes the scat song. Yeah, a song about fecal matter. It was kind of catchy, a guy in a big fuzzy hat was singing along and there I was wondering why anyone would make a song about deer droppings. I am well on my to the southern hemisphere.

Ok so the next act can’t be too bad. It is a couple of women dancing with feather boas. I start taking notes to get names later. So I can identify people later I make note of what they are wearing. The list reads like this: Woman with red boa, woman in leather boots, woman dressed like a man. I was later told she was supposed to Ludacris and another was some singer named Fergie and they were doing a song called “Glamorous”. Why can’t anyone do a Fleetwood Mac song I could recognize?

So now the next act up is a game show based on some television program. “Are You Smarter Than a Wicklund Student?” brought the principal to the stage for a quiz challenge against some students. It was cute; they even through a few “redneck” style jokes just like the television show. Ok the needle is pointing due south and I had to run so I headed back to the office and all I could think about was someone actually took the time to write a song about scat. Thank goodness I couldn’t remember more of the words.

The truth hurts

Tank town

I was on assignment today at Tracy High’s track and I had a little time to spare. As I looked around I noticed that with the absence of the West Building you get a great view across the campus to 11th Street and beyond.

What really caught my eye was the water tower that now seems to loom above the town from its spot on 10th Street near the Community Center. Adjusting my shooting position I could frame the tower between some of the palm trees that line the front of the school for a cool looking photo.

Swing and a miss

Nothing worse than getting heckled on assignment. I was shooting the pet of the week assignment and as I worked on photographing on of the cats in their cage I had a troublemaker show up.

“Bubba” occupied the cage above and was either annoyed at my presence or just wanted to see what a Canon camera feels like. I just snapped his picture as he made a couple of swipes at my face. Cats, no sense of humor.