food and chef portraits

This post is all shots of food for a recurring section in the Post-Dispatch. The assignment is a for a photo of the food and sometimes an additional simple portrait shot of the chef. These were all shot using either window light or my two strobes (one on camera and one off) or possibly a combination of the two. In order, there is a festive Christmas time dessert called tree bark, a low-fat, low-cholesterol bundt cake, a meatloaf meal from a diner in Jerseyville, Ill., a plate of gorgonzola green beans, a serving of red beans and rice from Blueberry Hill, and lastly a bowl of Pozole, which is a Mexican soup served at Christmas. The hardest to shoot, by far, was the meatloaf. The photo of the chef precedes the photo of that chef's respective meal. Feliz Navidad.

Senator Clinton and Soulard Kids

Here is a much needed update. Today was my last day at the Post-Dispatch and as I was gathering together all the stuff that I shot over the last few months I realized that I have quite a few photos left to post here. Below are some shots from when Senator Clinton made a visit to St. Louis not too long ago. Shots one and four ran in the paper. And I also have some pictures from a story we did about kids at a school in Soulard (south city st. louis) that go with their culinary arts teacher to the farmers market to pick out food to be prepared for the school lunches and then help the teacher prepare the lunch for the school later on. It was an enjoyable assignment. More updates to come soon.

Tanning beds and stuff

A bunch of mo phos I know spent the weekend in Atlanta. I did not. Oh well. Here's a bunch of photos. Some of these are from a while ago, but I figured I might as well put them up now. The first three are from an assignment at a tanning salon. I wasn't real hopeful since the assignment said the owner would be organizing bottles of product, etc. Luckily, the guy actually went into an upright tanning unit and changed some of the 200 watt bulbs. The side of the stall that the unit was in had a mountain scene painted on it, and I thought it was just really weird and neat looking. Tricky to ballance. If he hadn't changed those bulbs I would have just gone with the second shot, which isn't too bad thanks to that cool metal ceiling. I also tried an up-close all inside the tanning unit horizontal shot, too. My left eye felt totally out of synch after shooting into such bright light (that's right, I'm a left eyed shooter). Up next is a quick feature I shot of some guys rolling out a sign onto the windows of the newly completed casino in downton STL. Next shot is of some telephone operators. Not an exciting assignment, but I kinda like how the longer lens compressed the scene like that. Next is a photo of a woman dressed in full mourning attire at one of St. Louis' historic houses. It was taken back before Halloween. After much difficulty I managed to get a shot with my second strobe popping in from the side so it lit her face up beneath the veil...Spooooooky, huh? Up next, an old man and a B-25 bomber. I also photographed a prop christmas present in the studio with a wide angle. The next two shots are from a folow up to a fire the week before. Unfortunately, there wasn't much going on except in the adjacent building that was wet and smokey from the fire fighting. So, I tried to borrow one of Jeremiah's old tricks and do some framing and then I also went for a reflection shot. Next is a shot from the backside of a PET scanner towards the control room. I also experimented with painting with light on an assignment to shoot some orange peels in a sink drain with a disposal. Lastly, why not another fire picture. A brush and old railroad ties fire next to some railroad tracks. P.S. I've decided that the discriptions belong at the bottom of the post from now on.

sports post

Since the last update I've taken quite a few more pictures. This post is going to be all sports, though. I've been gathering hours on the sidelines here shooting the multiple state final games that have taken place this month. None of the St. Louis teams that made it to the state final game won. All losses. Start of with some soccer at the Anheuser-Busch Center and then class 3, 4, and 6 football at the Edward Jones Dome. Lots of sad high schoolers. Oh, and for the last game I shot on Saturday I took the time to go shoot from up high. Managed to get that photo of the opposing team stretching over the goal line for their seventh touchdown. Lots of sad high schoolers.

Up to date

Might as well start this post off with a photo from a fire that seriously damaged a home across the river in Illinois. At first I was trying to shoot this from over the backyard fence, which was the first good vantage point I came upon, but I noticed people just kind of standing around in the yard so I walked around the block to the front and just walked right back to where the action was. I wish I could shoot more fires up close and wide like this. I was able to get off quite a few shots before someone noticed me and told me that, for my own safety, I needed to go back out to the street. The second shot here is of construction workers at a new building that I was asked to get a shot of. I did the basic building mug shot, but had this nagging feeling that I needed to try for something more. Luckily, my next assignment was at the building next door so I hung around and tried to make something more compositional and feature-ish. Up next is a portrait of a 96-year-old woman who originated the linguine recipe pictured in photo number four. The fifth photo is from a slow feature hunting day. These guys are cleaning one of the old buildings at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery while a stone fox on the adjacent building looks on. Got the Gateway Arch in there, too. Now if only it were ethical to photoshop out errant light poles. Next is a shot of a young woman who is fixing to open her own shoe shop downtown (it's the red building behind her). Silhouette shot of an F-15 Eagle in the Missouri National Guard hangar at Lambert Field. <<<(that was not actually a sentence) I think I made some sort of offhand remark about how I thought interns were supposed to shoot all of the high school sports assignments. So, last week I shot high school football and soccer.











And here is another Soundslides you can check out on STLtoday.com. Just click the photo to watch it.