Busy fun weekend

Three jobs this weekend and some hard news.  I got to meet Larry Stegall of the Bremerton Sun at a fishing protest.  This was the first time I have covered an event where I was not the only photojournalist.  The Sun had a reporter there too.

Larry took the same picture of the man holding a net and his picture made the front page of his daily newspaper.  I got a front page photo as well, but the news was a bit more "furry".

A week ago I turned in a photo essay based on the rocks movement.  This one was unique for me due to it being an ongoing event.  I did it over the course of several days and I had a lot of control over the direction of it unlike when I show up for a one time event and shoot what ever is there.  I knew I wanted pictures of kids painting rocks, so I asked the community if any rock painting events were coming up.

Lastly I photographed a teddy bear drive.  I had no information about this event before hand.  When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the event was sponsored by the yesteryear car club.  I've photographed those folks a few times before and they are always happy to have me at their events.  I think they appreciate that I am a local too.

Compost Pile Fire. Spot News

For this one I took my daughter along and let her try out both of my cameras.

Soccer Campionship

Some reprinted photos

A reprinted photo in the sports section

Three photo essays

June 16th A-28

June 16th A-23

June 16th B-6

Seattle

As luck would have it, some local kids were riding the ferry to Seattle on the same day.  I took this picture with my Ricoh.  The is the second picture from my Ricoh that has been printed.  26 more to go at the singles rate to pay for the camera.  This photo was taken through the window of the ferry and it still worked out okay.

Inspirational Student Awards

I don't feel particularly inspired by any of my photos from this job.  I was tired and the room was extremely dark and a bit hot.  This might be the darkest dinner I have ever worked.  I'm fairly happy with the technical quality given the challenges presented by this dark room.

Nikon D7100

17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/3.5

 

17.0 mm

1/80

 

4000

Flash (on, fired)

ƒ/2.8

 

17.0 mm

1/50

 

2500

4-H Fishing Derby

Again I left my long glass in the car and just brought the wide angle.  This job had me walking on docks and having big bulky lenses and multiple cameras could have been hazardous.  If I fall into the water I only want to dunk one camera and not two!  A girl did fall in.

I thought to try for some silhouette shots as I was driving to the job, but that did not work with dark trees in the background.  Fill flash was a must for this job with the sun to everyone's back.

June 9th A-11
I really liked the picture on the bottom right.  I waited until the yellow fishing bobber was in the frame before I shot.

Nora Maylin 8 and Becky Maylin from Port Orchard wait for a nibble 

A line of children fish off the dock in the background while Karl Swalander wrestles for

control  of a trout he just landed.

Ed Swalander helps Karl Swalander age 8, both are from Elma.

Seraphina Short age 6, is shown how to properly display her fish before a family photo is snapped.

From Right Damain Flores age 11 and Jack Seabert-Olsen age 10 take a pause from the

 action to admire trout that they have already caught

This was my favorite shot since is was so candid and I just happened to find it.

Aaron Arnold 10 of Elma proudly carries his prize winning 23.5 inch rainbow trout to the measuring station.

Aaron Arnold 10 of Elma lays down his prize winning catch  to be measured.  The monster trout registered at  23.5 inches.

From right Panhandle Lake camp staff Jeff Wetcel and Krag Unsoeld relax and chat in the shade while looking out over Panhandle lake.  

Alpaca shearing

I brought both lenses to this job, but mostly only used my wide lens for this up close work.  These photos have been held for next week.  I had trouble finding the event, but I got there in plenty of time anyway.

Intern Clay Mosby holds Coco the Alpaca while Cocoa gets a haircut.  (I

like how they have matching hair)

From front to back Clay Mosby and Dr. Dana shear Cocoa the Alpaca

while Nate Welch trims his nails at Rights of Passage Farm near Shelton on Saturday.

Festival Season 2016 has begun - Forest Festival

I've been busy this week.  My first job was a Royal Court Breakfast, this was a new thing for me and I only had about half an hour to get the job done.  I tried to find an interesting angle in my short amount of time.  I eyed an balcony and went for it.  Only one of the pictures printed and it was mixed into a photo essay with two reporters pictures.  Same thing happened last year with the forest festival pictures.

I rode my bike to the job and only brought my wide angle lens for what  would be almost all indoor work.

From Left Paul Bunyan Drake Adams and Timber the axe man
Joeseph Mcgrew load up their plates with a hearty breakfast fit for a lumberjack.

Nikon D7100

17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/3.5

 

20.0 mm

1/250

 

3200

Flash (on, fired)

 

Mr. Mason Area Joseph Weeks age 10 and Miss Mason Area Petite, Madaline Johnson age 9 check out the breakfast buffet line

The Shelton Forest Festival Royal Court and the Miss Mason Area Royalty line the entrance of the Colonial House to Greet the Port Orchard Fathoms O' Fun Royal Court during the Shelton Forest Festival.

Reporters pictures are crossed out to reduce any potential copyright issues for photos that I don't own.
  The reporters took great photos.
  June 9th A-21

Waves of Perfection

These were printed in black and white

June 2cd Page A-12

Odds and Ends

Work is picking up a bit for the next couple of weeks anyway.  Some of my pictures have been entered into a regional newspaper contest.  From now on I will post all of my printed pictures here with the date and page they were printed on so I can keep track of them.

I feel inspired to go out and try to get the best soccer shot I can get now that my photos are starting to be entered into contests.

Lucky shot as this was my first photo of the day and my camera was still set to manual focus.  Next time
I will attempt to use a more shallow depth of field in the soccer field.  For this shot accidentally set to manual focus
it was good that I had the lens stopped down a bit!  Such an ugly background though    May 26th A13

This one was interesting because it blocked the major highway that runs through downtown.  Also this shot
was taken with a new camera and is the first shot from this camera that has been printed.  I took this
with a Ricoh GRII, it was just a short detour for me to take this shot while I was on my way to the post office.
It is easy to take my GRII everywhere and in day light the photos are plenty good enough for print.
May 26 A8

This new to me  room, had a white ceiling of the perfect height for using my bounce flash with the card up.  I shot in manual all night long and I had to change my settings as I moved to and from different areas.  I handled this so much better than the last event of this type a couple of years ago.  My technical skills have greatly improved since then.
May 26th A15

One that I did not submit.  The head chef insisted on posing for a picture, so I set him up in front of a mirror.
 I never submit posed photos to the newspaper.

Fire Destroys a House

I found a huge fireball on Boundary street at 11pm. I've learned to park far away from fires so I don't get blocked in by fire hoses. After I parked and walked towards the glow and then I saw these huge flames and I ran to them and I hoped that my cameras were ready to go.  It was dark and hard for me to see the dials.  Huge flames like this don't last for long, the fire department knocks them down quick.

By the time I got to the scene and started taking pictures my legs were shaking from adrenaline.  It took every bit of technical skill that I have and pushed my cameras and lenses to their limits to get these. 


I took these on a Tuesday night and the paper goes to the printers in another county on Wednesday at about noon.  These just barley made it into the paper and did not make the front page.  They were printed on page A2.

I got a couple of good pictures at ISO 3,200 but then the flames died back and took the light with them.  I had to mostly shoot at 6,400 but they turned out well for the paper even at that ISO.

May 12 A-2

My second year in a row shooting the Mother's Day Dash on Mother's Day.  This was my first mother's day since my own Mother died.  Personally it was a rough day for me, but having a job to do helped.

May 12 A-18