Apple Squeeze and Fall Colors

I've had a picture on the front page two weeks in a row

I bought a Nikon D7100 camera to upgrade one of my D90's.  I think this was a good upgrade and economical too, as it's still one model behind the newest technology.  I bought a refurbished unit from Adorama, it looks brand new and the shutter count was only 19.

On my first job with this camera I got to take advantage of it being water resistant. The D90 is not water resistant, so I have to be more careful with it.  I will still be shooting with one D90, as I don't feel like spending to money to upgrade both of my cameras right now.  I think I will be able to adjust to using two different cameras models at a time.

The people related to the people who's house burnt down claim they wrote a letter to the editor complaining about my fire pictures.  I wonder it if will get printed.  The paper says that this coming week they are only printing letters related to the upcoming elections.

Fatal House Fire in Town

I think that pretty much all photojournalists get excited when they see plumes of smoke in town.  I know that I do.  When I saw massive amounts of smoke rising and floating down the main street in my town,  I knew that it had to be something big.  I ran to my my back bedroom and grabbed one camera, the one with my big zoom lens.

 Then I ran outside to see what was happening.  It was a house fire and the flames had not started showing yet, but they would be soon.  I've photographed enough house fires now to know that a certain amount of smoke means that flames to will soon begin to pour out of the house.  It was a policeman who first taught me this.

I sent my daughter to go get my breathing mask and my other camera with a wide angle lens.  Later I sent her to get me a battery too.  She is a great little helper.

This particular fire took place during the evening sweet light and in the fall.  One could not ask for sweeter lighting.  I took some photos that I am proud of.  Then I sent them off the the newspaper and I posted a  few on my Facebook Page.  Then I left town and was incommunicado for two days.  The paper printed one of my photos on the front page and the editor praised my work.  Later I learned that the fire caused a death.

The family who belonged to the house on fire did not like my work.  They and their friends sent me facebook  messages asking me to take my photos down.  Since I was incommunicado, I did not receive the requests right away.  The family thought I was ignoring their requests and they and their friends started trying to trash my name.  The attacks got more and more vicious.  Threats to sue me, threats to destroy my business and on and on.  

I took down the pictures but I don't feel at all good about it.   These pictures were some of my best work to date and I hate censorship.  Still, I was sensitive the the family's grief so I took these off of Facebook after I got  home and saw all of the requests and threats. Perhaps these pictures were just a bit to much for this tiny town?

This week the paper only posted letters to the editor that were related to the upcoming elections, with one   exception.

Open House at the Museum

 The Mason County Historical Society Museum got a face lift and they held an open house and book signing to celebrate.  I enjoyed shooting in this space, the low white ceiling was great for bouncing my flash.  I set my FV to plus three and used shutter priority for the most part.

In other news 13 of my photos are in the Oysterfest insert in a newspaper.  They were all credited as file photos.

Assistant museum supervisor Charles Fisher and Peggy Moore look at items in a display case at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

   Jim Tostevin of Shelton looks at books for sale while drinking a cup of complimentary coffee provided by the museum. at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

Gretchen Borck of Olympia in Orange and Jeanne Fisher of Shelton, point out familiar sites in an old aerial photo of Shelton on display in the museum.  at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

Bob Cliff of Gig Harbor looks at a book on a display case.  Statues of Paul Bunyan and other loggers are in the foreground.  at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

    From Left Heidi Saup, Cathy (Tillotson) Drebick and Danelle (McKay) Borel look at a year book for Irene S. Reed High school.  Cathy and Danelle will attend the Irene S. Reed High School Class of 1960 reunion at little creek casino tonight.

Active Shooter Drill

The local LEO's had an active shooter drill in town.  I took pictures from the sidelines.

Workers at a nearby business watch the drill while on lunch break

Freezing motion with flash, how low can you go?

Nikon D90

17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/6.3

38.0 mm

1/25

500

Flash (on, fired)

I was presented with a job photographing kids indoors.  Kids don't like to sit still, so photographing them indoors can be a bit of a challenge.  The ceiling in this indoor space was too high to bounce my flash off of so I had no choice but to point the flash right at my subjects.  I could have taken the flash off the camera and used a cord but that required too much juggling and made it impossible for me to hold my camera with both hands.  I used a large softbox and I constantly changed the FV value to get the results I wanted.  I think I had it at -.3 for this shot.

In the above picture my flash froze the motion nicely and I was able to get away with just 1/25 of a second for a nice clear shot.  The kid in the back ground is a blur but he was moving fast and the flash was not pointed at him.  I was not able to freeze the motion of fast moving subjects at such low shutter speeds.  I'll keep experimenting.

I was really happy with how much ambient light was preserved while using the flash.  The entire reason to shoot with such a low shutter speed was to let in more ambient light so my pictures would not look like they were taken in a cave.

The softbox worked well to defuse the light and the slower shutter speed called for lower flash power both worked together to eliminate and hash light or shadows on my subject.

More Softball

Cotton Candy

I've seen a lot of cotton candy this festival season and this was the most unique collection method of all.  I also have a photo in the sports section that made the front page of the online edition.

Softball

This was my first time photographing softball.  The paper is looking to hire a full time sport reporter at the moment.   Again I used .jpg and active D lighting.  I was a bit under glassed with my 70-200mm lens but it still got the job done.  I'm thinking about buying a teleconverter for my lens.  I mostly shot at f/6.3 and above so I could shots that were in focus.  

The hardest shot to get was outfielders catching fly balls.  By the time I knew where the ball was going and got my lens pointed in the right direction I was lucky to get a non blurry shot.  Getting the timing correct was even harder.  I was generally just a little bit too late to get a picture of the ball in the air.  I've read that I should keep both eyes open when shooting softball but my right eye is covered up by my camera as I look through the view finder with my left eye.

I was able to get a lot of pictures of the bat making contact with the ball.  I watched the body language of the batters to time those shots.

    Shannon Paine (Bomb Squad) hustles to first base as first base man Kevin Frye (Castle Colman) stretches out to receive the ball thrown to him by another in fielder after it was hit by Shannon Paine.  Castle Coleman won this contest with a final score of 7-3 at the Adult Coed Softball league tournament from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Callanan Park. 

      Jordanne Kumpolis receives a high five from a team mate as she rounds third base after hitting a solo home run.  Jordanne’s team Brothers lost 16-5 Vs Castle Coleman during the first game of the weekend tournament at the Adult Coed Softball league tournament from from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Callanan Park. 

     Jorge Wright age 7 plays in a sprinkler to cool off while his  uncle Brandon plays softball  for the team Camco on Saturday afternoon. at the Adult Coed Softball league tournament from from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Callanan Park. 

Allyn Days

The weather was really hot again so to avoid overheating I moved slowly and paced myself.

      Waves of heat and steam radiate off of the grill as Hector Loza of Taylor Shellfish dumps oysters out of a net bag. at Allyn Days sponsored by the Allyn Community Association and held at the Allyn waterfront park  on Sunday .   ~ © Shawna Whelan 2015

      Joshua Ford 12, of Belfair, smiles as he competes in the speed oyster shucking race at Allyn Days sponsored by the Allyn Community Association and held at the Allyn waterfront park  on Sunday .   ~ © Shawna Whelan 2015

      Team Windermere celebrates back at the dock after winning a dragon boat race at Allyn Days sponsored by the Allyn Community Association and held at the Allyn waterfront park  on Sunday .   ~ © Shawna Whelan 2015

Summer Continues - Disc Golf Showdown

Disc Golf Showdown:
Again active D lighting was very helpful here.  This was a difficult job with many of the shots in speckled sun and shade under a tree canopy.  It was also very hot.  I had to leave before I was completely happy with my work because the heat drove me away.

Kyle Crabtree of Fife reckons that he is the 12 best disc golf player in the world.

Professional disk golfer Ming Vang of Seattle  checks out a colorful display of disks for sale
 on the tournament grounds.

Summer time

Fourth of July at the Shelton Farmer's Market

I've started to shoot my paper assignments in .jpg again.  When I shoot in .jpg I can take advantage of Nikon's active D lighting.  Active D lighting pretty much ruins RAW images. I feel a bit lazy shooting in .jpg  because jpg files don't need as much editing as raw files, but the paper does not like my pictures to be edited much anyway.

I'm doing as much of my work as possible with my 70-200mm lens and only breaking out my wide angle lens when I need to get really close to my subjects.

4th of July at the farmer's market.  I took the face painting shot due to the flag and this child's
patriot clothing, it printed.  At any festival the face painting shot is a for sure safe shot.

Old dogs waiting to be in the 4th of July parade

WSU Garden Tour

A vigorously growing pumpkin plant blooms and sets fruit as it climbs up a trellis at the Rob Wilson-Hoss garden.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

) Flowers blossom in the foreground of Rebecca’s Bowden’s decorated house wall.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

Rob Wilson-Hoss tends to his pepper plants while prayer flags hang overhead and behind him.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

Festival Season

I like festival season, it keeps me busy.  I've only submitted one face painting photo so far.

 I took this photo less than 48 hours after my mother died.  For the most part, I managed to hold it together and not cry while I was working.

Dirty Dash

These photos are copyright protected.  All of my photos are protected, but these, I don't even own.  I can only use them as part of my portfolio.

My mother died the night before this job.  I had to make a tough decision to stay home.  I think it was the right decision.   She  passed away before we could have made it to the hospital and they would not have let us into her room while they were doing CPR, even if we could have made it on time.  At 10pm I informed the hospital over the phone to respect my mother's living will and to keep performing CPR.  She died at 11:10pm.  My home is two hours drive from the hospital she died in.

 I went to work at 6 the next morning.  This job helped to distract me from the grief.  All I had to do was plant myself in one place and take photos with my camera settings all determined by Flo-Foto a week ahead of time.

At the end of the day I handed over my SD card and I went home.  I did not have to do any editing.  For most of the pictures I got clear shots of bib number, but the ones I posted here are a bit more artistic.

This job was really fun and I hope I can do it again next year.