Soccer Practice

It's soccer season again.

This week and last week

I went to Shelton Memorial Park to take pictures of boy scouts and the VFW cleaning military graves in the rain.

Two weeks ago I photographed a sing-a-long movie with little girls dressed as princesses.  The paper sent me to photograph it, but my pictures did not go in the paper, I did not ask why.  I suspect that they ran out of room.

From Left Carly Vind 8 (dressed as Elsa) and Markie Vind (dressed as Anna) eat cupcakes and popcorn before the start of the movie. They decorated the cupcakes themselves.  At the Anna's Bay Chorale Frozen fundraiser event held at the Shelton Civic Center on Sunday March 15th

Log Truck Roll Over

Log truck roll overs are not uncommon in this depressed little logging town.  This is the first one I have gone to photograph.  I know some of these would have sold if the local paper had not sent their own reporter to cover it.

I contacted a regional paper about buying these and they told me that they do not buy pictures from other photojournalists.  King 5 news liked the pictures and encouraged me to send them more pictures in the future but said they would not be buying my pictures today.

I was happy enough with my slow 200mm lens for this job.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with the zoom range it's been so long since I used my long lens.  I had really gotten used to only being able to zoom in to 50mm.  The 70-200mm f/2.8 is still just a distant dream.  I would be nice to have for photographing my kids soccer games though.

In the mean time I have booked a wedding gig. 

More Pool Protestors

I'm still documenting the Shelton High School pool protests and school board meetings.

My lens was not set to vibration reduction and I could notice the difference in some of my indoor shots.  I had turned off the VR when I was using my camera on a tripod the day before.  There are so many things that need to be checked and reset at the start of each photo session.

Michelle Schreiber and her mother Beverly Goodwin hold signs in support of the pool staying
open on 6th ave. March 10th 2015 in Shelton Washington

Two boys hold a banner in front of Choice Highschool before the start of the 
school board meeting on March 10th in Shelton Washington

A group of pool supporters hold signs on 6th avenue before the Shelton School
Board meeting March 10th in Shelton Washington

From left: Alec (Sharkniss) Dodge and Levi Vance, Levi is writing on a sign.  Both are on the SHS swim or dive team March 10th in Shelton Washington

Alec (Sharkniss) Dodge holds up a sign while  Levi Vance uses his
back as a solid surface to write on a sign.   Near  6th Ave on  March 10th in Shelton Washington

Citizens attending the school board meeting react the the school boards continued insistence
on removing the Shelton High School and Community Pool, in the Choice High SchoolAuditorium and Auditorium on March 10th in Shelton Washington

While the school board meets in the Auditorium Lawyer Eric Valley stands outside
the Auditorium doors and discusses legal strategies with pool supporters.  At Choice High School
Auditorium March 10th in Shelton Washington

Pool protest continued, access denied and bikini baristas

From left: Joy DeRoche Ordonez, Emma Gordham, and Rishel Weatherly wave signs in support of the pool staying open while Chuck Dusharme drives past in his car with the words "save pool" painted on its side at the Timberland Library in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3, 2015

There was a high bank behind the protesters that I stood on to get overview shots.  I was lucky that this car drove past while I was on the bank.  I was taking pictures of the protesters waving to passing cars and I did not see this special car until after I had taken two pictures of it.

Yes, I decided to photograph another pool protest. This protest was smaller and the light was really sweet. I had time to catch the overall mood of the protesters and to capture them from different camera angles. I did not use my flash at all, the lighting was just perfect. One thing that I like about photographing this group of people is that I can get their names later by asking for them on Facebook.

 It's nice to be able to just take pictures and concentrate on the story and the artistry instead of frantically running around with a pen and a note book begging for people's names and hoping that I've spelled them correctly. 

Sometimes the business of getting every ones name interferes with my photography.   There have been times that I've taken a good shot but could not get the names of the people in it because they left or I could not find them and that made the shot unprintable.  There are other shots that I never bothered to take because I knew I could not get the names to go with them and there are other times that I make sure to get more than three people in the shot so I don't have to ask for names.    With this group I can just concentrate on the photography and nothing else because I know I can get all of their names later on Facebook.

Kristi Holzgrove and Jax Holzgrove,5, stand together as the sun sets and display a handmade banner in support of the pool staying open in front of the Timberland Library in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3rd  2015.  Two weeks earlier the Shelton School Board voted to close the High School and Community Pool.

The sweet light was leaving but I took advantage of the last of it by shooting some silhouettes.  I'm not often out covering stories in the sweet light, so I tend not to shoot very many silhouettes.  I think this silhouette captured the mood of the somewhat deflated protesters who were disappointed with the small turn out.

For the next shot down I decided to  be a bit sneaky and shoot from the hip .  Normally I reserve shooting from the hip for street photography.  The newspaper wants all shots to be candid and they really like pictures of children.  A lot of children are right at my hip level, so I have to bend down to take eye level pictures of them .  Children are often very aware of me with my camera, especially when I crouch way down to take their picture, so it can be hard to get candid shots of children.  Children don't notice me quite as much when I shoot from the hip.  I predict that I will be doing a lot of hip shooting on future assignments.

I really like the intense look in this little boys eyes, the way he is holding the sign with his right hand clasped over his heart and the shadows in the background.

Judah Holzgrove, 8,  holds up a sign for drivers of passing cars in front of the Timberland Library
 in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3, 2015

In other local news a Bikini barista stand has arrived in Shelton and the city commissioners are not pleased.   I stopped by the stand and took a photo of one of the baristas.  I also covered a city commissioners meeting were citizens were complaining about the bikini barista.

I'm still happy with my Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.  I still want a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens but I can't justify the expense unless I get some wedding gigs.

Name unknown bikini clad barista at Fifth and Railroad in Shelton Washington on Tuesday March 3rd 2015

Shelton Pool Closure Protest and Meeting

Last week the Shelton School Board  voted to shut down the high school pool. Pool supporters are protesting. I love to photograph protests, so I that is what I went out and did.

I really liked this picture, I felt like it was a winner even before I shot it.  Cute kids following the rule of thirds, what more could a photojournalist ask for?

Maddie McGee, left, Laura McGee, holding Jace McGee, and Kason McGee hold signs supporting the
The Shelton Hight School pool remaining open Feb 19. 2015 in front of the Shelton Timberland Library

The paper preferred this version, I think because it is more candid that the one above.

Members of the Shelton School Board face about 250 attendees Tuesday at CHOICE Alternative School

I submitted several photos of this scene including a two photo panorama.  The paper used my panorama.

From Left:  Pool supporters Anne Flynn, Kadie-Tsark, and Paxson Walsworth hold up signs
in support of keeping the pool open.  This was on Railroad ave in Shelton, Washington on
 Thursday Feb. 19th 2015 at 4:45pm

At 5pm  Pool supporter Michelle Schreiber holds up a sign in front of the library.
Other pool supporters can be seen in the background 

Pool supporters hold up re-purposed signs in front of the library, other protesters are across the street.

Pool supporters reused signs from other campaigns including this "Save our Air" sign on the left

At 5:50 PM Pool Supporters chant and hold up signs on the street below the Shelton  School

 District Board room at Choice High School.  Pool Supporters left at six when the board meeting started.  This

is the view of the pool supporters from the Board Room

I was outside photographing protesters when I realized that the shot I really wanted was the view from the school board, so I ran upstairs and took this shot through the window.

At 7pm the community meets at the Civic Center to discuss options for saving the pool.
Jacquie MacAlevy is at the podium

Later pool supporters had a meeting of their own in the Civic Center.  The Civic Center has nice lighting, but the ceiling is probably too high for bouncing my flash.  I did bounce my flash of a wall for some shots.

Mary Jean Hrbacek speaks out against saving the High School Pool.   She is holding up a copy of
 a newspaper with her full page advertisement that she said that she paid $950 to run

Ronald Reagan's Son

I was given an assignment to photograph the Reagan Legacy Dinner.  I was given this assignment just a few hours before the start of the dinner.  Since I'm freelancing for a weekly paper I normally get my assignments days in advance.  I was told that I should dress conservatively for this job.  I really wish I had gotten closer to my subject.  I was too nervous and the room was very dark.

     Keynote speaker Michael Reagan, author, talk show radio host and son of former  president Ronald Reagan,  speaks at  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th 

Democratic State Senator Tim Sheldon greets citizens Bill and El Wanda Bryant  at  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th

L-R Judy Lloyd (in black), citizen and owner of bread of presence book store, Dorothy Vanhof (in blue) Citizen and mother of ten and Beverly Craig (in pink) retired Bordeaux elementary school teacher greet each other before the  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th ~

Boys and Girls Club Polar Plunge

I got to shoot a polar plunge this weekend.  I felt a little bit intimidated by this assignment because the publisher of the paper that sent me to photograph this polar plunge won awards for his photography of a similar event just last year.  I set the bar for myself very high and I wondered if I could meet my own expectations.

As usual I turned to the internet for tips.  There is not a lot written about how to photograph a polar plunge.  Search on “how to photograph a car show” and you will find many helpful links.   Search on “how to photograph a polar plunge” and nothing comes up that actually matches. 

I thought about my assignment some more, what would be the best angle?  What is the most cliché angle?  It became clear to me that if I wanted to get the best shots I needed to be in the water.  I could stand on the shore and get maybe one shot of the sides of the participant’s faces and then have to shoot pictures of their backs or I could stand in the water and get close pictures of the participants faces. 

Okay, so I was going to stand in the water, but was I the first to think of this?  No, of course not.  So I searched again,  but this time for references to photographers standing in the water while shooting a polar plunge and that is when I found  Meryl Schenker's blog: http://merylschenkerphotography.com/2010/01/25/special-olympics-polar-plunge/.  I read her blog post and  I saw something that made me think twice about my idea of standing in the water. 

“This was actually my first time photographing a polar plunge and I learned a lot about where to stand and where not to stand as saltwater splashed my expensive camera gear, which thankfully appears to be fine. A couple of colleagues were apparently not as lucky as they lost their equipment to the sea.”

Uh oh!  I had no desire to lose my equipment to the sea.  Maybe it was time to rethink this.  It was late in the evening and my shoot was to be early the next morning, but I sent  the blog author Meryl Schenker  an email  in hopes that she might have the time and inclination to answer me.   I told her that I was about to shoot my first polar plunge and I asked her what she had learned about where to stand.

While waiting for an answer from her I decided that I would shoot the polar plunge with my cheapest DSLR and lens.  I would use my Nikon D40 with the 18-55mm stock lens.  I can shoot great photos with this set up in spite of it being cheap and it would not hurt as much to ruin it with salt water.

Meryl  wrote back to me.  Her instructions were to stand in the water and wear waders while trying not to get knocked over or get my camera wet.  From that I gleaned the other photographers who lost their equipment to the sea probably got knocked down.

I don't own waders, but I decided to stick with my plan to stand in the water use my D40.

The fog and low light meant that I had to bump up the ISO to shoot action

When I arrived at the shoot the next  morning the weather was overcast and foggy. I took a couple of test shots and I knew that  I was going to have to shoot with an ISO of  at least 640 if I wanted to get a good shutter speed and enough depth of field to have most of my subjects in focus.  My D40 would not be up to the task.  The D40 does not handle ISO very well above 400.  The D90 is good to about 800 and acceptable up to about 1,600.

So I went with my D90 and my 17-50mm 2.8 lens.  In other words, my best gear.   I decided to minimize splashing by only going out knee deep and I went so far as to ask the organizers to ask the participants not to knock me over or splash me on purpose.  Of course I was going to get splashed a bit, but I did not want to get caught in the middle of a splash war with people purposefully splashing me.

Twice last year while on assignment, people splashed me and my camera on purpose.  I had water squirted at me at both the Tahuya Days Parade and at Oysterfest.  Both times it was done on purpose by people trying to have fun with me, but not realizing that there is nothing funny about  getting water on an expensive camera.

When it was time for the plunge the events happened quite fast.  I did not have time to get into the water before the countdown started.  Thankfully the organizer, who had forgotten about me, paused the count at 5 to ask the participants not to knock me down and then the count resumed from 5.  I did not like being the center of attention but I was glad that the participants were warned of my presence.

 I had been hoping that it would be done quietly and I never imagined that it would be done in the middle of the countdown.  At least the pause gave me time to get into position!  I was not happy to have my presence interrupt the event and I hoped that it did not constitute some sort if ethical breech.  Another newspaper had a reporter/photographer there.  What was she going to think?

I had planned on standing where I could focus on the participant who was dressed as a leprechaun, but I was lucky to even make it into the water on time, so I just stood right in the middle of the oncoming line and took pictures of everything that caught my eye.  

Oh girl, here they come rushing straight towards me.

By the 6^th picture I had water on my lens, I reached for the lens cloth that I had kept handy in anticipation of a wet lens, only to find that the pocket I was keeping it in was wet.   The cloth was too small for me to quickly dig out of  my now wet and sticky pocket.  I grabbed a larger washcloth I had and I used it instead.

 The washcloth was not perfect and it smeared water on my lens but I had to keep shooting as the event was going to be over fast.  With water smeared on my lens, my camera had a little bit of trouble focusing so I did not get as many shots as I wanted as quickly as I wanted them.  I fired away as quickly as I could and I hoped for the best.

Then while I was still in the water photographing the last folks who were coming out of the water, I realized that some of the participants were already leaving in their cars.  That meant I would not be able to get their names for the cutlines. 

However, through the magic of facebook I was able to at least get the names to go with my favorite shots before the deadline.

L-R:   Christy Garner,  Mary Gonzales and Katie Hopkins splash into the frigid waters
of Allyn's North Bay  together.  

This picture might be "newspaper sharp" but with no name for a cut line it probably won't publish.

I got a few drops of water on my camera body and on the outside of my lens, but my camera is just fine.  I used a UV filter over the front of my glass to protect it from any splashes.

Shooting this event was a rush and I want to shoot more of them now.  There is another plunge next weekend, but that job has been given to a staff reporter.

Hood Canal Salmon Center volunteer appreciation potluck

  The slow season is here but I have been keeping my fairly busy.  I photographed The Hood Canal Salmon Center's volunteer appreciation potluck.  One picture was printed.  The paper has found a huge archive of large format negatives from the 50's and 60's and they are printing them a few at a time.  Maybe those old photos are competing for ink with my new photos.

No one knows who took the old photos.  It seems to me that pro photographers in that era don't get credit for their photos now, unless they scratched their names into the negatives then.  That was the modern day equivalent of the digital water mark.

Isabella Giordano, 1, sleeps on Joey Giordano's shoulder, before the Hood Canal Salmon Center's volunteer appreciation potluck Saturday January 2015 at the Victor Improvement Club.  The Hood Canal Salmon Center sponsored the event, which recognized individuals for their time and efforts.  

Yes, I have a fast F/2.8 lens now but that does not mean I need to shoot in F/2.8 all the time, or does it?  It's hard for me to resist.  The next lens that I want is a 70-200 F/2.8.  I'll have to save my pennies for quite a while.

Football Fans

At the end of the first half the Seahawks were behind 16-0, the fans here at Bob's tavern don't look happy

The Seattle Seahawks foot ball team made it to the superbowl, the game was very close and it went into overtime.  I took my camera to downtown Shelton and got a few pictures of the fans.

Fans celebrate outside of the Shelton Eagle's club after the Seahawks win against the Packers

This Packers fan at Bob's tavern repays a bet that he lost

Fan whistles, this photo has a fair amount of barrel distortion, but I like the effect.