Ridge view

With smokey skies clearing to blue once again it was time for another hike. We chose a short seven-mile hike at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park for some scenic vistas. It would also give me a chance to test out my newest toy, a Canon 24-70 mm f2.8 L series zoom lens.

At just over 4,000 acres this hike would give me lots of wide open spaces to enjoy some fresh air and test out this new lines. With a fast maximum lens aperture of f 2.8 this lens tips the scale at almost two pounds with that hunk of glass up front. Not knowing what to expect weather wise I planned to hike light, the 40D camera body and just the one lens. Reaching the trailhead with hiking partner Alice we greeted with a fog line creeping over the hills along our path.



We chose to tackle the Ridgeline Trail a dirt road that winds up along a ridge topping out at nearly 1,600 feet. On a hot day the wide open trail would bake a hiker in their boots but the fog-cooled wind made for a nice walk, a good change from the stifling valley heat.




Amid the grassland was an odd grove of olive trees. It seemed out of place to have the perfectly planted rows of trees towering above the trail. They were beginning to have olives on the branches and they proved to be a good test of my new lens’ macro capabilities.




Further along the trail live oaks jut up along the dry grass. One massive tree had a branch split off and the twisted and gnarled branches that lay withering provided interesting composition. I switched to black and white for a few and the pictures reminded me of some evil tree from a Tim Burton movie.


Most of our hikes this summer have been in dry conditions and the Ridgeline Trail showed the thirst. The yellow grasses and red leaves stand out as colorful compositions along our path. With the fog nearly burned off at noon we reached our turnaround for the trail loop and headed back, giving way on the trail to the occasional bike and horse riders.



It was a good hike, cool breezes, blue skies and new camera lens, who could ask for more? The weight of the lens wasn’t to bad on the hike and I like the ability to switch from medium wide to short telephoto focal lengths quickly. I am looking forward to mire summer adventures on the trail.

Game face

Young Kyle Offill’s favorite NASCAR racer is Jimmie Johnson but take one look and you think it would be Dale Earnhardt Sr. While on assignment to photograph the young ¼ midget car driver he put on his best game face reminiscent of Earnhardt who had the nickname “The Intimidator”.

Kyle was kind of shy during his shoot but did everything I asked. He had that stone cold stare down pat two minutes into the photo session. Try as I could I could not get him to a crack a smile. I think the photos work well anyhow.

Cat nap

Awwww see, I can shoot a cute photo every couple of months or so.

Perspective control

It’s been a long time

I received an email today asking why I had not updated my Sportsshooter.com member page in quite some time. Over a year to be exact. Shamed, I quickly updated the page with a collection of recent work from fires and shooting scenes with a couple of sports shots just to keep the page from being too depressing. My member page can be found here.

For those who don’t know quite what I am talking about Sportshooter.com is a collection of photographers and journalists who share ideas and problems in the world of photography and photojournalism. It’s a great resource site and worth checking out.

Wide world of sports

Most of the time when I am shooting sports I break out the heavy artillery. A 300mm lens is my weapon of choice allowing me to crop tight in the camera, blur the background and get a nice look at the action. But every now and then it doesn’t hurt to widen your perspective with a different lens. Shooting a football camp at West High I switched to a 16-35mm lens for a different perspective.

It takes a little more thought when shooting sports with a wide angle lens. To fill the frame you have to get closer which means you are in the danger zone of action. You have to plan where it is safe to shoot from so you don’t get clobbered by the action.

Backgrounds come into play much more with the wide angle lens. An extremely low angle looking up can isolate your subject against the sky while looking down from up high can have the ground provide a uniform background.

Depth of field is also increased which can lead to some interesting compositions with converging and receding lines giving a flow or movement to the picture.

It doesn’t work for every picture but it is worth a try every now then to broaden your coverage and point of view behind the camera during the sports shoot.

Scorcher

With triple-digit-temps on tap I set out to find a nice hot weather photo for the paper. I headed out to Mountain House and their new water fountain complex at the newest community park.

I found a group of kids and adults trying their best to stay cool. A long lens and high shutter speed worked best for the shot of the boy running through the fountain while a wide angle and careful camera placement got me a shot of the young girl taking a dip and still kept my camera high and dry.

An unearthly glow

Smoke from wildfire burning through Californioa cast a veil of smoke throughout the central valley. This was the scene over Tracy Monday night as the moon appeared to be in eclipse from the light reflecting off the moon through the smoke.

Big bang theory

I was assigned to shoot the fireworks display over Tracy High's football field this evening. I have been up since about 4:00 am so if I got anything in focus I would be happy.

I planned on exposures of 2 seconds but I gave that up right way and switched to shooting in the bulb mode. I had my camera mounted on a tripod and that helped keep the shots steady.

I was stuck between lenses. A 70 mm lens was to long and a 16-35mm zoom was too short. somewhere in the 40-60mm range would have bneen ideal but I muddled through the best I could.

I managed to h=get a few multiple bursts with some 5 or six second exposures. Framing was a nightmare as I constantly chased the motar round. Too high, too low, too far to the right it was a difficult shoot. I did manage to squeeze off a few decent exposures.

The world we live in

I was taken to task again today over one of my photos appearing online. It appears that a couple of people are upset over the picture of blood splatter on a sidewalk from a stabbing earlier today on East Street. One commenter said, “C'mon Tracy Press, do we really need to see the blood? Report the story, don't dramatize it with graphic photos. Grade: F” Another said, “I've got to agree with AverageJoe. Why not get a picture of some brains next time there is a car wreck? Anything for a vicarious thrill. Come on TP, whoever this person was, low-life or not, they've got to have a family. Would you want to log on and see your relatives blood smeared on the sidewalk?
Oh man, give me a break.

Forget that someone was stabbed in the stomach during a fight. Forget that this is the third act of violence this week and the vast majority of what I have shot this week has been some form of mayhem including two gang related shootings. But whatever you do don’t show any blood.

I am amazed how boring this photo is and yet it received angry responses. I was photographing in the Altamont pass when the stabbing happened so the victim was long gone. Police were wrapping up their evidence gathering so photo opportunities were slim. There was a shirt on the ground, crime scene markers and yes there was blood.

Golly, imagine that, blood at a stabbing scene who would have thought? What do you expect to see at a crime scene, confetti? I always find it funny when people who most likely have never been to any kind of crime scene wince and beat their chest at the cruelty of a photo showing blood. My photos of a crime scene only capture a thin slice, a glimmer of what the scene looks like. They never capture the sounds, the smells the overall pandemonium of a crime scene. And in all the confusion I capture a moment of the crime's aftermath a small portion of the pain and anger that was there. The editor looked at this picture and shrugged it off saying it just looked like oil stains on the pavement.

I was asked why don’t we take a picture of the brains on the roadway at an accident scene? Been there done that at a gruesome 11th Street and Lammers Road accident years ago. Little pieces of brain and blood covered the road in the days before a signal light slowed some of the troubles at that intersection. Did the photo run? No but I have seen worse run in papers that cover our town.

For a true stomach churning experience thumb through the Associated Press wire photo selection. My bloody sidewalk wouldn’t have even garnered a graphic content warning. Images of shooting, bombings and the general violence man inflicts on his fellow man are chronicled in living color. Some of the images that come across the wire service I find troubling, some I have a hard time viewing but they all have a story, important stories that tell us about the world we live in as did the bloody sidewalk photo from this afternoon.

Do I regret taking the picture? Not at all. For those who still think that violence in our town is not a major issue wake up and take a good long look at that photo you find offensive. Yes that is someone’s blood on the ground and they probably do have relatives. Maybe this photo will help the whole violence in our town is a bad thing concept sink in.

We aren’t living in Mayberry any more folks. Bad things are happening all over town. Some of the things going on are awful, terrible things that most people turn away from. Take a long look at the photo, That's blood on the sidewalk. That is the world we live in. It is not an exaggeration, it is not exploitation. It is a picture of a Tracy sidewalk on a Thursday afternoon.

Special mayhem issue

I still think we should have included anti-depressants with each copy of today's paper.

Double dipper of disaster

So I go to a shooting scene in the morning, how could the day get any more exciting? How about a fire?

So I am told to take some time off in the afternoon before an afternoon assignment and there I am home, minding my own business when the scanner tones go off. A grass fire is burning off Von Sosten Road and there maybe a structure burning as well. I grab the camera gear and head out.

I turns out to be about a half acre of grass burning but what is odd is what they thought was a small structure ablaze turns out to be an abandoned trolley car that is gutted by the flames. I have had way too much adrenalin this week; I think I will settle down for the night with a nice heart attack, at least I would get some sleep.

Dangerous times

Monday night found me once again at the scene of a gang related shooting. Standing on a dark street in Tracy’s south side I watched as officers searched for a gunman who opened fire into a crowd striking five, one critically.

I admit it I was nervous as I drove toward the latest shooting scene. Five injured, a gunman on the loose and I was heading straight for it as the clock neared midnight. I would much rather be on some mountain side taking pictures than on the side of a road lit by the glare of police car lights.

I don’t think this violence will end anytime soon and that is a sad thing. I wonder how many more late night crime scenes I will have to visit as the violence continues.