Purrrrfect

This picture is for all those people out there that say I don’t like pets. This is Redman, the loyal housecat for George and Evelyn Stein. I met Redman during an assignment for the Our Town section of the newspaper. We had to coax him into one of the photos but after that he was oblivious to my camera including a trip to the flowers. Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the roses, or whatever was growing in the pots.

Tracks

Some assignments that come through the photo desk can be frustrating to say the least. Take for instance an assignment to photograph freight train traffic that isn’t on the tracks yet. That can be a challenge.

My first idea was to find an intersection the tracks crossed and go for some kind of shot of a row of cars with the rail road sign prominently in the foreground. I found a good intersection but the sign was too high to frame in the picture without a ladder.

The next thing I noticed was the light glinting off the rails which led me to the photo I would end up using, a silhouette of traffic on the rail lines. I shot with a 300 mm telephoto lens to compress the distance and try to get the perspective of the lines going on forever into the distance. I was going to settle for a car crossing the tracks but a student walking home from school gave a better perspective of the rail lines.

I shot from a low angle and underexposed about 1 f-stop to make sure I would get a good silhouette and the rail lines would glow against the dark rail ties and bed. The hardest part of the shoot was just waiting for someone to cross the intersection.

Rejected

Pet of the Week assignments provide many outtakes but I thought this shot of two female Guinea Pigs might have a chance to make it in the Our Town section. Alas I was told to pick a different one.

The shape of things to come

Hosed

I saw this posting on the Online Photographer Blog and I had to smile. Now I never heard of this phrase before but Lord knows I have laid on the motor drive a time or two.

My camera for work has a 40 image buffer, in other words the camera can take 40 consecutive images before it fills the onboard memory and has to stop and write images to the memory card. I guess when I fire off a series of pictures of a co-worker in the office I am actually “Hosing the Doris”

As it appeared on the Online Photographer Blog:

Hosing the Doris

Part of Speech: v. phr.

Quotation:
In photographers’ parlance it is an activity known as "hosing the Doris"—keeping the button pressed and taking as many frames as possible in the shortest conceivable time of any female celebrity.

Crash

Some people may wonder why we cover automobile accidents. Is there a need for coverage of the death and carnage on the roads? I think there is.

It may be that I have covered too many accidents, but I have sort have gotten numb to them. Most of the crashes I hear on the police scanner go unreported. It is few that catch my attention, such as the rollover by a young driver recently.

A day into his license the driver lost control and rolled five times on a city street landing in a school crosswalk. The crash was fortunately not a fatal and the crash was probably a good lesson for all drivers about speed and safety but what I find more important is the discussion the story created.

I fielded a call this morning from an angry resident who saw the story and wanted to know who she could voice her concerns to about the drivers and speed issues on the street. Would the resident be as concerned if not for the story and picture? Maybe, but the image hits home and reminds us of the dangers on the road.

I have covered worse crashes, some where the images of pain and destruction still linger but I am sure that unfortunately I will see worse in the future. Maybe pictures like this will help persuade at least one driver to slow down.

Group shot

I’m not a great big fan of group shots, and I hate being in them more than taking them so when the staff held it’s first potluck for 2007 I volunteered to take the photos. However I was told I had to be in at least one picture. Reluctantly I agreed. In case you don’t recognize me I’m on the far left with the camera.

Second time around

I can’t believe I missed this shot. Way back in June I was assigned to shoot the annual Portuguese bloodless bullfights held in the bull ring off 9th Street. It was an evening assignment and I was fighting deadline so the order of the day was a quick edit and two or three photos for the news section.

The photo that ran on the cover was the Suicide Squad members in their aptly named job of tackling the bull to bring him down to the ground following the first fight of the night. The first bull fighter was Cavaleiros Paulo Ferreira who fought the bull from horseback.

I was going over my whole shoot from the bull fight as I prepared to enter some of the pictures in a sports picture story contest when I saw this frame. Ferreira is reaching down to pat the bull between the horns to show off his skill and bravery to the crowd.

Now in the rush to get pictures out on deadline I glossed right over this image. I really like this shot, it tells a different side of the competition and is not your typical bull fight photo either. I am glad I managed to see the second time around and it is definitely going in my contest entry.

Outtakes

The joys of photographing pets. All dogs hate photographers, that’s a fact. They try and make picture taking as difficult as possible.

Young “Petey” is this week’s Pet of the Week and was less than thrilled with his time in front of the camera. These are some of the outtakes from his photo shoot.

Pooped

If you think the life of a photojournalist is all glamour and excitement guess again. Not every assignment is photographing the arrival of the President on Air Force One or racing to a huge grassfire. Some assignments are crappy, literally.

We were working on a story about the crow problems plaguing the downtown area when I saw a car on A Street that was covered in crow poop. The car must have been sitting there quite some time as it had been bombarded by the crowing during their evening roost. It certainly fit the story and a high camera angle showed the extent of the crow’s coverage.

Five years of college and 16 years on the job and I am taking pictures of poop on a car. Like I said not all assignments are something to write home about.

Safety first

I have a bad reputation on assignment. Get smoke inhalation once, get slammed in the head by a soccer ball or stand on the wrong side of the gun during a police felony stop and you’re stuck with the label “unsafe” for life.

I even went to the trouble of making a series of safety tips for the newsroom and offered to lead classes for coworkers on how to stay out of danger on the job. They were unimpressed.

13 Pictures

I came across an interesting link the other day to a discussion of what were the 13 photographs that changed the world. It seems hard to believe that through all the millions of photographs taken through history you could distill them down to a top 10 list.

Among the photographs on this list are the haunting images of war, social issue photography a landscape and a portrait or two.

I have seen some of the images, others were new to me but all have their own tale to tell. It’s an interesting list to say the least, I may have included different pictures that I remember seeing in my time but it is a list worth looking at. I am curious as to what other pictures readers would have included on this list?

Something's fishy

What other job can you go from shooting a rabbit in the morning to a moray eel in the afternoon? It’s my own private wild kingdom on assignment.

I had the chance to photograph a new aquarium store in Tracy that also carries a line of saltwater fish. Between trying to coax out a bashful moray eel and follow focusing on a skittish Koran angel I found the best shot was a clown trigger fish enjoying the bubbles rising in his tank. And I didn’t even need to slip into the scuba gear to get this photo.

Lost and found

New Years greeted Tracy residents with one of the worst night’s of fireworks that I can remember. As much as humans don’t like the explosions in the middle of the night pets hate it even more.

Shooting the pet of the week assignment I found a full shelter with many dogs that ran away from home during the fireworks. A lucky pair of dogs who had ID tags were waiting for their owners and greeted me at the cage doors.

New Years flight

It is a tradition with members of the Tracy Skyliners Radio Control model airplane club to brave the frigid weather to get the first flights of the year in.

Past New Years Day flights have seen fog, gale force winds, rain and freezing temperatures to test the mettle of the fliers. This year club members were greeted with sunshine, calm winds and mild morning temperatures for picture perfect flying weather.

Among the dozen fliers who brought airplanes out was John Elliott who launches his electric motor-powered aerobatic ship into the morning sky.