Crowd control

Busy backgrounds are a killer in most photos. That is usually one of the ways you can tell the difference between an ameture photograph and a professional's work, how well they control the background.


Now not all photos and scenes are going to be plain and simple and a lot of the time you are going to nned to exercise some crowd control on those busy backgrounds to isolate your subject.



My favorite method is the shallow depth of field affordered by a long lens used at the widest possible f-stop. Mostof these pictures were taken with a 300mm telephoto with a 1.4 extender shot at f5.6. The result is a pleasingly plain background.

Calling Dr. Doolittle

Oddly enough I had my wildlife photography skills put to test today. You know it is not your day behind the camera when the Pet of the week is a hungry looking pitbull, but things got weird from there.

So they send me to photograph doves. That was all the assignment said, doves. I get to the house, push the doorbell and didn’t even notice the dove inches away camped out in a door wreath.

It seems the story was about a dove homesteading in the wreath with it’s hatched young. Kind of creepy the way to didn’t move at first. It took a brief flight giving me an opportunity to photograph the little guys.

I thought the animal antics were over until I saw the assignment for a wayward cat that finally made its way home.

“Travis the cat ruled his home and his favorite spot was on the smooth surface of a marble kitchen counter. I wasn’t sure if “Travis” would sit still for a picture but I soon discovered he wasn’t afraid of the camera. Far from it. He enjoyed the feel of the canon wide-angle lens shade just a little too much spending much of the shoot using my camera as a scratching post.

I managed to get enough frames off between shooing him back from the lens and picking clumps of cat hair off the lens. Have I mentioned how glamorous my job is lately?

Slow burn

So this week is turning out to be shooting a grass-fire-a-day for me. The burn de jour was at I-580 near the Patterson Pass exit. The fire saw 10 acres flash up in the high winds. There I was in my flameproof jacket walking on the exit ramp wondering why the road was so sticky when a CHP officer told me the ramp had just been repaved.

Back at the office while I was processing photos I used an old pencil to scrape lumps of road goo off my shoes. Did I mention that this job is glamorous?

The glamorous life

For those who think that the life of a newspaper photojournalist is action and excitement, this was my first assignment of the day. The call over the police scanner was for a 10-54 in a pool. A dead body was found. Police officer who responded found it was not a dead body but a dead pitbull puppy. Someone had placed the dog in a bag with weights and threw in into the pool of a foreclosed home. Oh yeah, excitement is my middle name.

Eyesores

I was on assignment today to see if there was any fresh graffiti on the walls around Tracy. I thought I would give it a whirl. Who was I kidding, there is ALWAYS fresh graffiti in this town, but remember, there is no gang problem.

A moment of weakness

I was shooting a Babe Ruth championship game today and I had one of those moments where the action on the field was less than complementary to the players. I watched as a deep fly to the outfield fell in for an error as the outfielder whiffed at the ball. Now I was all over the play, firing off a motor drive sequence in nice sharp focus. Back at the office, I quavered, I just didn’t have the heart to run that shot. Their team was getting shellacked and I didn’t want to rub it in. Yep I had a moment of weakness and forgot about the shot. I’ll toughen up tomorrow.

“3 is hit”

I was driving to the report of a small grass fire just outside town on Highway 33. The original call was a little vague a report of a fire somewhere on Highway 33 near the junction with Highway 132 or somewhere between that and Durham Ferry Road. I could see the smoke billowing in the distance and it seemed hardly worth going as the first engine on scene, Engine 93 reported a small fire on the railroad right away, about 300 feet of fire fed by light flashy fuels. I was debating whether to turn around as I neared the Bird Road turn off to head toward Highway 33 when the radio sounded with the frantic call “3 is hit, 3 is hit”.

Somewhere in the blinding smoke engine 93 had taken a direct hit from the traffic still on the roadway. I had a sick feeling as I turned onto Bird Road and gunned the engine. Scanner traffic was getting overlapped, Calls for e CHP to expedite for traffic control, someone asking for injuries report and then more fire engines responding to the scene.

There was a pause and a call that there had just been another accident. There was a call to close the road to traffic. I raced to the scene and fell behind the line of cars trying to turn away from the scene. Up ahead I could see the smoke drifting across the road obscuring the scene.

Walking up to engine I was relieved that all the fire crews were surveying the scene, no one looked injured. At the wreck I found Engine 93 had taken a head on collision from a semi-truck that tried to drive through the blinding smoke. Engine 93 had pulled to the right hand roadway to fight the fire and the semi collided with the fire engine at an estimated 25 mph. No one was aboard the engine at the time but the three crewmen were standing no more than 4 feet away from their fire engine was struck. All had just averted a tragedy.

I have seen one crash involving a fire engine before when a rescue truck from the Denair Fire Department was crushed by a another vehicle in thick fog outside Turlock. This crash seemed eerily familiar and luckily as in before no one was seriously hurt including the semi-truck driver.
It seemed common sense to me that drivers would pull over when the visibility reached zero but maybe that is just me. I have been to some dangerous news scenes and I always have my head on a swivel to watch for traffic and the occasional careless driver speeding through the scene.

It was a good reminder for all to be careful at such scenes and to pay attention for those putting themselves in harm’s way. It will be a little while before I can get the sound of that radio call out of my mind.

Dry times

The governor declared a drought in the state of California for the first time in 16 years. I found this cow tried to find something to eat in the sun baked pasture off West Schulte Road this morning.

Things I can live without at work

I was finishing my shift today when a call of a grass fire on 11th Street just down form the office came across the scanner. A weed-filled lot was a smoky fire and I got in close for a couple of shots.

I guess I got a little to close to the smoke because back at the office I spent about 15 minutes coughing at my desk before I slipped into the men’s room to dry heave in the sink for about 5 minutes. Oh yeah, my job is sooo glamorous.

Heads up!

This photo is eerily similar to a picture I took many years ago. I wonder if I will get crucified for shooting this one as well.

Double trouble

After a rough month at work I was ready for a break so it was off to the hiking trails with Alice DeLaurier O’Neil. We returned to the rugged trails of Mount Diablo for a special hike. For a different view we picked the Double Summit hike.

It doesn’t look to bad on the map, drive all the way to the Summit Building that sits at 3,849 feet, climb down a ways, hike over to the North Peak and climb to its top at 3,557 feet. Piece of cake right?

Loaded with water, hiking poles, Canon 40D cameras and granola bars we headed out along the small rock trails. It is was a little intimidating to look across and see the North Peak towering in the distance. We had planned on a four-hour hike for the down-then up-then back down-and up again journey across the two mountain peaks.



Heading down from the Summit building the trail was a rolling rocky affair with sparse plants and little shade. We took in the sweeping vistas looking out across the park. A few wildflowers dotted the trailside along with clumps of juniper plants scattered about.


It was hot, slow going as we worked our way across the mountainside stopping for the occasional water break and to snap a picture. A rock formation was a great place to take a portrait of my fellow hiker Alice as we took in a cool breeze.

The footing was a little shaky as the narrow trail was covered with loose pebbles and rocks. After about two hours we reached the Prospectors Gap junction with the North Peak Road and were greeted with a view of the dizzying steep trail up to North Peak.

The footing up the trail was treacherous at best; the wide road that made up the trail was covered with pockets of loose dirt and rock that made sure footing impossible. The trail was for the most part barren except for us as we headed up, taking time to photograph a dead tree along the trailside.


The further we climbed the steeper the trail became reaching almost 14-degree incline as we struggled our way up. Digging our hiking poles in we fought our way up to the top were a series of antennas and a simple marker let us we had reached the top.


We stopped to catch our breath and celebrate our climb with a granola bar before we tempted fate and tried to make our way back down the dangerous incline. I took it slowly, a few feet at a time and prayed I didn’t tumble down the trail.

Finally back down on the Summit trail we started our long climb back up the Summit Building. After about four hours of huffing and puffing, hiking the 6.17 miles and climbing up and down 2,000 feet we were back at the Summit Building where I took one last shot of the visitors center and the North peak for the observation deck.

Tired and sore from our first strenuous hike of the season I was glad we made it before the really hot weather settles in. The Double Summit hike was one we had been talking about for awhile. We have now climbed three of Mount Diablo Park’s five peaks. Three down, two to go, maybe this fall will be a time to try for Mount Olympia.

A whiter shade of pale

Hiking on Mount Diablo I found these dead trees on the side of the North Peak Trail. Now I am a die hard color photographer, I paid my dues to the world of black and white but when I saw this stark white trunk sitting on the ground almost like a ghost I knew I had to shoot it in black and white.

I guess those photo skills from my hiking partner Alice DeLaurier O’Neil are starting to rub off on me.