Digital Polaroids

After finishing up my internship at the Journal Star in Peoria, Ill. I went on tour with the band Handbook for Boys, playing shows up and down the East Coast for a couple of weeks. While on the road I decided to start making what I'm calling Digital Polaroids. In this, the first/prototype stage, all a DP consists of is a simple life-size polaroid frame that I made out of white foam board. The goal is not to make a photo that looks like a flawless polaroid, but rather to make it obvious that this frame is actually in the shot (leaving in the edges of the photo and showing the hands holding the frame together, etc.). Here are just a few of the ones I've worked up since getting back from the trip. This first one is almost all luck. I was trying to set up a simple photograph of the I <3 N.Y. painted on the side of a building in Brooklyn when this guy biked through the frame. It's an imperfect shot, but in a way that's a part of the whole thing. Next you have band member Charlie Shuck with the NYC skyline in the background. Then there's a quick picture I made (holding the frame myself, tricky) of Charlie and Joe Shuck in Washington D.C. Lastly, is the first DP band photo that we tried. In the background is the shrine to Stonewall Jackson (a.k.a. the house where he died in Virginia). There are a bunch more of these from the road, but so far I haven't sorted through all of them yet. Hopefully, I can refine this process a little more and make something cool out of it. Oh yeah, you can check out the band (plug) at:

www.myspace.com/handbookforboys

Sports Photographer?

Looking back over my last month at the Journal Star, I realize that I shot a lot of sports. Prior to these last few months sports shots were more or less non-existent in my portfolio and then all of the sudden I've got a whole month's worth. Can't beat that. So here's some baseball and more high school track photos. The first shot is really more of a feature than a sports photo. It's from the first game of Peoria's new vintage baseball team. The guy on the right is scoring the team's first run ever by hopping onto home plate, which was made out of a pile of white flour. The last shot is from my last assignment at the Journal Star on my last day photographing the Louie Louie parade to ring in the summer in Peoria (I kind of missed my own going away party because I stayed after the parade to get this shot). That baby didn't know what to make of this uber-licky dog.

Girls State Track

Quick update from the Illinois Girls State Track competition last weekend. I'm leaving out the basic running across the finish line shots. Instead are the falling, crying, pole vault, umbrella and praying to track shoes shots.

Fotos de Abril

My internship here in Peoria is drawing to a close and I've not posted nearly enough photos. As I move from my basement apartment back into my car I feel I should put up some shots before I become too consumed with other tasks. These are just a few shots I took in April that I have close at hand. In order, first is a feature shot of a Mustang League baseball team's first practice of the year that I stumbled upon after driving out to shoot a high school game that was canceled due to cold weather. These guys were tough enough to brave the chilly temperatures, though. Next is a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force watching the Prairie Air Show from out on the wing of his plane. Last month I also spent a rainy Friday evening at and Illinois State Police "Safety Check Point" where there were no major violations or arrests, just lots of people handing over their ID and proof of insurance. Fourth is a shot of some children playing with Peoria's anti-litter garbage can mascot. Second to last is a feature I found of some guys at a RC Car (remote control car, savy?) race track just north of the city. I saw the top of the observation deck through some trees on my way to shoot another assignment and decided to check it out. I'd never seen an RC car track before. Interesting way to spend a Saturday. And finally is a face painting photo, generally reserved for intro to pho jou assignments, I realize that I've never really shot face painting before. So, this fills in that gaping hole in my life experience. I just like that you can see this little girl's brother, who's face is painted like a tiger, staring on has she gets a flower painted on one cheek and a rainbow on the other.

Cat in a Fire

Sunday started early for me. A couple of lackluster assignments had me ready to go home when the scanner reported a possible fire in a garage on the other side of the river. I ran on it and arrived just when the scanner announced an explosion. Surprisingly, despite the explosion, I wasn't kept back (possible because I arrived right when I did) and was able to shoot the fire with nothing longer than my 80-200mm. There were firefighters in the house when the explosion occurred and they suffered minor injuries but stayed to continue fighting the blaze before going to the hospital with hearing damage. The house's occupants got out safe and two pets were rescued, including this singed and ornery cat, which headed straight back to the house to hide and was picked up again by another firefighter.

The March Madness Experience

The Illinois high school state basketball finals are held in Peoria every March. This year there was a big exhibit hall at the Civic Center full of basketball related activities. I shot it for the Journal Star's Heartland section (a weekly photo page/section). The conditions were pretty tough. Dim lighting, super high black ceilings, and sports action made my job pretty hard. I really didn't want to have to lug a lighting kit around with me and set it up at each station, but eventually I caved (not soon enough to get all the photos I wanted, though). So, the results are a mix of lit and unlit shots from the different stages of my coverage. These ran awhile ago but I forgot to add to the phlog. Here they are.

Softball Screwup

So, I went to shoot a high school girls softball game today for some sports page wild art. After shooting the whole game, I noticed that the sign in front of the school I was shooting at said Jr. High on it. After a quick check of the rosters I'd gathered from the two teams I realized that I had somehow shot the sophomore game instead of the varsity game (which took place directly across the street and was apparently over long before I realized my mistake - I checked). Luckily (sort of) there was a night game on the other side of town so I went and shot that. Unluckily, the lights on the third base side were out (not that it would have mattered that much). This is the shot I got of a play at home plate from the daytime game that I accidentally shot (the photo that is in tomorrow's paper will not appear on this phlog). Ugh.

Weather and a Movie

Last Sunday was a pretty full day here at the Journal Star. A few stories fell through and left us all scrambling to fill in the holes in the Monday paper. Among the things I shot were this weather/kids having fun feature and this photo from the opening of a local indie horror film at a theater downtown. The theater shot is of one of the film's producers who was nervously pacing in the back by all of the projection equipment. Being a movie theater, it was very dark so I had to do a long exposure (2 seconds) but this guy was nervous and kept pacing, becoming just a blur in the images. Luckily, he paused right in a spot of light from a screen and stayed there long enough for me to make this frame (camera braced on the railing and prefocused manually with a prayer). The great green color was an added bonus.

Backyard Ice RInk (one year of phlogging)

Today is the one-year-anniversary of this phlog. I don't have anything brand new to put up (not on this computer, you see), but I do have these photos from a few visits I made to this family who've been building an ice skating rink in their backyard for the last nine years. The son (a hockey player) is graduating this year and going on to college so this is probably (supposedly) the last year that the dad will be building the rink. Some of these photos are from a day when the high was 10 degrees (colder in a shady backyard) and I forgot my gloves. That was horrible. This is a very loose edit (um, kinda). Forgive me.

I'll Tumble for You

It's been over a month since the internet went out in my basement apartment here in Peoria, but I finally got it fixed this morning. Hooray. Here's some photos from a while ago of a group of young kids who started a tumbling group. They did a short performance (I mean short) at this Black History Month celebration and I was there to photograph them. The only worthwhile photo I got during the actually performance is the first one here and that is what ran as the centerpiece in the paper the next day. I was more partial to the second shot here, which I took after the performance when the kids were just fooling around and getting some extra practice in with their coach. To be honest, I might just like it better because the sign is fully readable (that's what I do, take pictures of signs). I like the third one just because of that smile. Oh, and I lit this with two dynalights bounced off of the ceiling because it was in an old building with an unlit stage and I'm shooting with D2H's these days. But I think the lighting made a big (helpful) difference.