Be afraid, very afraid

I am not sure what this is. It's either a hairless rat or a bat that had its wings clipped. Either way it made an appearance in the newsroom today. And don't ask me why it is wearing a jogging suit. It just isn't natural.

Back on the trail

After a month's break from the hiking I was itching to get back on the trail. With the recent rains hiking buddy Alice and I headed back to Mount Diablo's Donner Falls to see if the water would be flowing.

Aside from a slip on a muddy rock the hike was fantastic. Mild temperatures greeted us along with the sound of the water coursing through the streams. The waterfalls were the best we have seen hiking Mount Diablo with plenty of water power coursing down the mountain. A great hike to get back on the hiking path.

The Journeys Begin

I would have never dreamed that my first hike just about two year would lead me on a path to the Grand Theatre galleries this Saturday night. That is where hiking buddy Alice DeLaurier-O’Neil and I have our first photography show opening. Trailhead: The Journeys Begin will open and end just about a year’s worth of planning and work. And what a great journey it has been.

From the first few steps around the summit of Mount Diablo to grueling 10-mile hikes Alice and I have explored a variety of trails from ocean to valley. The blistering heat of trek to the top of Eagle Peak to the chill of walk among the waterfalls of Mount Tamalpais.

On these trails I found a different view through my camera, a personal view far from the pressure of deadlines and assignments. A quiet and peaceful setting apart from fires and crime scenes I cover. It is a breath of fresh air in so many ways as I go on these adventures with Alice and my camera.

Over a year ago Alice brought up the idea of having an art show of our photographs from our hikes. The idea at first seemed impossible. I am a journalist, not an artist and the thought of my photography held to an artistic standard seemed far-fetched.

But somewhere along the trail, somewhere in those thousands of photos a different picture emerged. Trees lit in sunlit splendor took fanciful form in the camera’s lens. The silk threads of web looming in the darkness, the glassy appearance of water falling through a stream took new life in my viewfinder. The artistic sense was emerging and Alice and I gathered our courage and submitted a proposal for a show to be held at the Grand Theatre’s art gallery.

Our proposal was accepted and a show featuring our nature and landscape photography was planned. To our surprise we found we would be paired with a show of Ansel Adams’ work. It is 25 years since Adams death and his work is still considered to be some of the finest nature and landscape photography ever crafted. The pairing is intimidating and I worried about my photos would be compared to the work of one of photography’s true masters.

With our photo show a go nights of editing and processing followed. I went through every hike looking for just the right image to display. The photos for the show would be a variety, some images printed on stretched canvas, others on metallic paper dry mounted on Masonite board for a frameless presentation.

Gallery director William Wilson helped us along the way and then about two weeks our photos were delivered to the Grand’s gallery where Wilson made the final cut for the show. Alice and I will have about 50 pictures on display between the two of us.

I have learned so much form this experience. I understand how a gallery show goes together and the work behind the scenes. The dozens of hours it takes to produce the images to the reasoning how pictures work together in the show.

So with a gallery show on tap the big question now is am I really an artist? It was a strange feeling to sign my name on the art show contract and under title was one word, “artist”. Journalist, artist it is a love of picture taking that matters. I can live with either title, though I feel nervous about how people will like my artistic endeavors.

When I came back from my first trip to the Mount Diablo Donner Falls trail I printed some pictures of two of the waterfalls and hung them on my living room wall. And then a funny thing happened, I didn’t recognize them. I remember taking them, I remembered processing them on my laptop but as they hung on the wall I didn’t recognize them as my work. They were so far different than anything I have done in recent memory that it seemed like it couldn’t have come from me. Then a worse thought crossed my mind, maybe the pictures were a fluke and I would never take anything that looked like that again.

Looking back I guess that is a feeling a true artist has, a feeling that he has created a work that moves him and exceeds his expectations and pushes his abilities. I guess I really have reached the level of artist.

The journey has led from mountaintop to gallery floor. It has been a journey of learning and discovery and has broadened my visions and skills. I am not the same photographer I was at as I stood at my first trailhead, camera in hand. Alice and I have waited for Saturday’s show opening and it will mark the end of a year of work. We planned a hike for Sunday, I ma not sure where, maybe back to Mount Diablo’s waterfalls to see the result of the weeks of rain on the streams on the mountain. Saturday’s show opening isn’t the end for our photo adventures; it is more like a rest stop on the trail. Our journeys have just begun and there is a whole world to see.

The chicken or the egg?

If you ever wondered what 25,000 cage free chickens look like in their shelter this is it.

You might think the smell is bad inside but that didn't bother me at all. What got me was that damn clucking noise, it was creepy.

Big bird

Of all sights I thought I could see in the farmlands of French Camp this guy wasn't one of them. Pulling up to an assignment at a chicken ranch I noticed an ostrich eyeballing me from acrss the street.

Dont's ask me who or why but there it was grazing in the pasture among the horses and steers. A big bird indeed, it might be an emu, I have no idea what the differences are between ostrich and emu.

It walked about the pasture pecking at grasses and eventually made its way to the fence where it watched the traffic go by and the photographer across the street.

I am not sure what the ostrich is there for, maybe someone is collecting the eggs. On the otherhand I hear Fuddruckers serves up a mean ostrich burger.

Tongue tied

This is one of those days where everyone was sticking their tongue out at me. Not sure if it was a comment on my photography skills or they were just trying to look like Michael Jordan.

Heck, even the Pet of the Week got into the act.

Into the deep end

I don't know why but I like this shot from this morning's Tracy High and West High time trials. I wanted this view although I would have liked the swimmer's reflection closer. Still I sort of got what I was looking for, I think the shot works.

Better one, better two?

This is one of those times where I have to make a happy choice, which picture works better. I was covering the Tracy High baseball game against Golden Valley of Merced when I caught a series of the Bulldog’s Kyle Moses stealing second. I had two shots I really liked but which one to use?

The first shot above has a lot going for it. Nice action, good focus and it tells a story. The ball is not quite to the mitt and Moses hasn’t reached the bag so there is some good movement there. The player in the right sort of detracts from the image but the action is still nicely centered.

The second picture taken probably a second or so later is also a good image. The runner has made the base, colliding with the leg of the player with a good facial expression. The ball is still tight in the frame but you can see the player missed the throw making a more complete storytelling image. It is a little tighter framed in the composition and if need be I could crop in even tighter.

Which image did I choose? The first one. I think it has more action in it with a better visual flow and motion. I would have been happy with either shot making it to the paper but the top shot just has a better feel.

Five seconds

This was one of those assignments where the hype is bigger than the event itself. In a light drizzle, among the hundreds of people gathered on the shoulder of Linne Road a fleeting glance of cycling elite passed by. It took only five seconds for the main body of riders called the peloton to flash by. Fast and furious to be sure, a sporting spectacle had returned to Tracy. Welcome to the Tour of California.

This was the second time the bicycle race had come to Tracy. Back into 2007 they made quick detour through town heading down Corral Hollow for a few blocks giving race fans a frenzied glimpse of their path. This year the race’s third stage heading from San Jose to Modesto would follow the south edge of town as it wound its way from Patterson Pass Road to Highway 132.

Planning is everything in an assignment like this and I mapped out my shooting a couple days in advance. I figured my best bet for a combination of race action and fan action would be somewhere along Linne Road. I thought maybe near the ACE station at Tracy Blvd. but later settled on the intersection of Chrisman Road and Linne Road next to Jefferson School. That put me near the end of a sprint line on a flat stretch of road along with a sizable crowd.

The plan was this. As the bikes approached I would shoot with my 300 mm lens with a 1.4x extender to give me a nice compression shot of the racers. As they got close I would switch to my personal Canon 40D with a 24-70 mm wide angle lens for a tight shot of the pack as they passed. I had previsualized the shots I wanted so it was just a matter of getting the lens in the right spot to make it happen.

I arrived at the intersection about an hour early to find a parking spot before the road was closed. For about a half an hour I waited in my car in the light rain as the fans gathered. Signs, lawn chairs and umbrellas sprouted up along the shoulder as the estimated race arrival time neared. I worked the crowd for feature shots ranging from chalk messages being written on the road between passing cars to sign bearing fans of Lance Armstrong. Eventually the roadway was closed as the racers neared the edge of town

It was easy to tell when the racers were approaching, the procession of CHP and motorcycles worthy of a presidential motorcade signaled their arrival. A breakaway pack leading the main body by five minutes were first to pass by. They were greeted by music from the school’s marching band along with the cheers from hundreds of fans lining the shoulder of the roadway.

Minutes later I spotted a helicopter making it way toward the road. This was the aerial camera platform following the main peloton. Another round of escort cars approached and behind them a pack of racers covered the roadway. I started shooting and when the pack was about 100 feet away I dropped to a knee and switched to the wide-angle camera body. I straddled the white fog line and brought the camera up to find a sea of bicycles flashing by. I held the motor drive down; I don’t even remembering focusing and held the shutter release down until they passed. My camera time stamp recorder the time between the first frame of the racers approaching and last frame as they passed as five seconds between them. In that time I took 26 frames as the pack drove past me at near 40 mph. The distance to the racers was closer than I expected, some of the framing was a little tight. I could have shot with a 16-35mm lens and had more space around the frame but I was happy with the results. In a flash they were gone, five seconds is all it took. A day of planning, an hour waiting and five seconds of action.

I am amazed how many people came out for the fleeting glimpse they get of the racers. Someone one told me it is not so much about the action, it is just that they were there when it happened. I guess it is quality over quantity of action. It had to be one of the quickest assignments I have been on, fast and furious and gone in a flash. We will have to see if they make a return trip next year to Tracy during their tour of California.