The grass is always greener on the other side of the freeway.

I am always ready for some excitement coming over the police scanner but what happens when you hear a call for sheep on the loose?

A flock of sheep made a break for it as they made their escape through a hole in the fence along the field off I-5. CHP kept a watchful eye on them as they waited for the owner to arrive and reclaim his flock. With the help of a Caltrans worker turned sheepherder worker they brought the group safely back home without the loss of a single lamb chop.

You eyeballing me boy?

“Kendall” the calf tried to stare me down during an assignment at Bohn School. The best thing to do is just remain calm and keep shooting. I’m not sure if she was just admiring my Canon camera or just didn’t like the fact I was taking her picture. I find I am getting stared at a lot these days on assignment, maybe this is a bad sign if the cows are starting it too.

When animals attack

When I die on assignment, it is most likely to be from a dog ripping me to shreds as I try to take his picture. I just don’t know why dogs hate me but they do. When they find my body the last frame on camera will probably look a lot like this.

Odd angle

This one comes from the wire as Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert demonstrates the quickest way to get scratched off the list of photographers for the White House press corps as takes pictures of President Bush gesturing from behind the podium as he makes remarks on the economy during an address at Federal Hall in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007.

I actually like the shot.

Happier times

The last few days have seen too much sadness in our town. The events of the weekend sting like an open wound. On assignment to Tracy High today I found more students in grief as they mourned the loss of teacher David Byrns. Too much sadness in the air.

Back at the office I told the editor no more sad assignments this week, I needed something happy to photograph. I know that’s not the way it works. You get what comes and if you can’t take it then you are most likely not cut out for this job.

When things get too dark and the weight gets to heavy I always think about things that make me smile. The sight of an airplane twisting through the sky at an airshow has always been my favorite subject to shoot and I need to give myself that assignment soon.

These sad days will pass, but more will come all to soon and once again I will look to the sky for happier times.

Witness to tragedy

In my 16 years as a professional photographer I cannot remember a harder assignment than the one I just returned from. Standing in the West High parking lot I joined hundreds of West High students, family members and community residents in mourning the death of 17-year-old Michael Ucci.

Michael was killed in a car crash Saturday night and as word of the tragedy spread students from West High organized a candlelight vigil to remember him and pray for those also injured in the crash.

I had been to the scene of the crash earlier in the day. The accident happened when the car impacted the light pole at the entrance to West High. The crash was devastating, killing Michael and critically injuring the three other occupants of the car.

As I took photos you started to hear stories about him. He was great kid, everyone seemed to know him and like him and the grief was visible. Students and adults would come to the memorial at the base of the pole to pause, remember him and cry.

Now I have been to all kinds of news assignments: fires, floods, shootings, murder scenes and they are all just part of the job. I tend to think maybe I have become to hard at heart, as some things just don’t faze me anymore. However the sight of young people amidst a sea of grief is overwhelming and even I have my limits.

I tried to make my picture taking as unobtrusive as possible and went to the office where the pictures became part of a breaking news report on our web site. But I knew that I would have to face the grief of others one more time at a candlelight vigil that had been organized for Sunday night. I knew it would be emotional but I was surprised at what I found pulling into the parking lot.

It wasn’t a couple dozen students who showed up to mourn but a couple hundred. There were parents, friends, community members the parking lot was filled. Candlelight doesn’t provide the best photo opportunities unless you are very close so I gritted my teeth knowing I would have to the unthinkable and intrude on the grief of others.

The outpouring of grief was staggering. Everywhere I walked the sounds of sobbing filled the air. It is almost unthinkable to point a camera at a crying 16-year-old but yes to my shame I did it time and again. It is an unfortunate part of my job and one I do not relish at all.

Standing among the crowd it felt that the community as a whole had lost a son and in the chilly night air they gathered to share their grief. Man and woman, child and adults sobbed together as a pastor spoke of loss and hope and asked for our prayers for family and loved ones.

You would be surprised how much force it takes to press the shutter release, especially if wish you were miles from the sea of grief in front of you. I never wanted to make anyone feel worse and every shutter click seemed to resonate through the crowd. I have no idea if any heard it, cared about it or even knew I was there. But each and every one of the 202 exposures I took tonight hurt more than a little.

My condolences go out to the family of victims and I honestly hope no one was offended by the photography. You wouldn't think that it bothers seasoned veteran journalists but honestly we feel it too.

My college photojournalism teacher put a quote on the board one day by the famous documentary photographer W. Eugene Smith. It said, “It is hard to photograph through tears.” Those are words that haunt me today.

Fogged in

Running through the fog is a whole lot safer than driving through it. I found this dedicated runner braving the cold in Friday morning’s surprise fog bank. I like the quiet, almost ethereal look to this picture; I don’t take enough like this.

Live burn

It’s going to be a hot time when the practice burn assignments come in. These “live burns” as they are called give fire fighters a chance to train feeling the heat, working through the blinding smoke that they may have to face at a real structure fire.

Abandoned houses like this one in Lathrop are ideal for the training and end in a spectacular fire where the structure is razed to the ground. Someone suggested I don a set of fire tournouts and breathing gear for a closer look at the fire. I will have to work on that.

Dwindling numbers

I just looked at the Nikon cameras web site and was surprised by their camera listing. Long a leader in the world of 35 mm photography I took a peak at their film camera listing to see what was going on. I was saddened to see that this one time giant in the film camera world was down to only two film camera bodies.

I learned to shoot on a Nikon FM2 and then went on to use an F2A an F3, an F4 and my last film camera was their F100. That camera body was used to design their first generation digital cameras. The proud line of Nikon cameras is dwindling away.

Long gone into the pages of history are the Nikon F, the Nikkormats and the Nikon underwater film cameras. Gone the way of the Kodak Brownie and the Speed graphic cameras. I read a report that the sale of digital camera was expected to peak at 72 million while film cameras sales to slip to under 100,000. It’s just another sign of the times.

Dirt nap

Nothing can ruin an assignments like hearing the subject your photographing stop and say “Is that a dead body lying over there?”

There I was getting ready to take a portrait in Lincoln Park at the gazebo when those words rang out. I turned around to see a man laying face down in the grass and not moving. I was trying to decide whether to call the police on my cell phone or poke the body with a stick to see if he was actually dead when he stirred from his nap in the park.

That’s not the way to start most assignments, especially with someone leery of the camera but at least she had a good story to tell her family.

Contact

Although it may appear that a pair of pigeons is searching for signs of life in the universe atop a satellite dish on the Tracy Press roof they were actually looking for a roost for the evening.

CSI

While I am on the topic of crime scenes, how do you get an interesting photo from a crime that has happened well after you arrive at the scene? When I pulled up to the bank robbery at Washington Mutual you always hope for police officers with their AR-15 rifles at the ready (we love the scanner call for “permission to deploy the long rifle”, it makes us smile).

Unfortunately the robbery attempt was long over and all I have is the investigation to photograph. While I was taking a picture of a crime scene technician fingerprinting the front door of the bank a police officer told me he knew which picture I was going to run, another “sign” shot, a picture with the bank’s name.

Guilty as charged!

We're closed!

I may not be a detective, but I think I could even guess that if I walk up to a bank and:

a.) it is sealed off with yellow tape bearing the words “CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS”,

b.) There are lots of police cars and police officers standing in front of the bank behind the yellow tape,

and

c.) members of the media are standing in front of the yellow tape taking pictures of the crime scene,

you might deduce that the bank is actually closed, most likely due to a robbery attempt that just occurred. You cannot enter the bank, stop asking!

Blowing smoke

Asked to illustrate a story about nicotine in cigarettes I had this image in mind right away. As far as illustrations go, this was one of the easiest I have had to shoot.

First step was finding a willing smoker who shall remain anonymous. Not showing who is smoking meant two things in the shoot right away, I would need a tight crop and a probably a silhouette.

I picked a spot outside the office and framed the smoker against the setting sun sky. That would do two things. One it would guarantee an easy silhouette exposure and two the backlit smoke would be more dramatic. The warm evening sunlight gave the cigarette smoke a nice noxious brown look for added effect. I shot with a 300mm lens to blow any thing in the background out of focus to draw reader’s attention to the cigarette and smoke.

The truth hurts