Flocks of Snowbirds

The year is coming to a close and the snowbirds have begun to migrate back to Vero to participate in the boat parades, Dr. Seuss Gardens, Tennis Tourney's and whatever else arises with the return of the SoFla busy season. In addition to the aforementioned events, this past month I've shot the regular bevy of artists, restaurant dishes, fitness groups, real estate layouts, and what looks like a painkiller advertisement (actually a full-page photo for the cover of our health section). Vero also held the 5th annual Mardy's Tennis and Jake's Music Fest which features homegrown celebs Mardy Fish and Jake Owen as they put on a fundraising tennis exhibition and country music show. It's one of the biggest events of the year around here, so it was kind of neat to shoot it for the second year in a row. A bit of good news: I've been named Director of Photography at Vero Beach Media. I'll still be doing the shooting for the Vero Beach 32963 paper, but I will now also be overseeing the visual side of our new northern Palm Beaches paper the Palm2Jupiter. So, 2011 should be a busy one. Happy New Year all.

Wedding News

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a wedding as part of a story for the paper. The couple, David Helseth and Maria Colontrelle, met through their jobs at Publix. After dating for two-and-a-half years, the two were married at St. Helen Catholic Church in front of their families, their Publix co-workers, and their friends from the Sun Up Center, where David, Maria and others in town with developmental delays go to meet their challenges head on. I even scored a little photo page to run alongside writer Michelle Genz's piece, which you can read here: Everything you dream of for your kids.

I spent a little bit of time with David and Maria in the days leading up to the wedding, but when I went to make the final photo selection I found that the images from the ceremony and reception, with Maria and David joined hand-in-hand throughout, told the story.

Mr. Mycelium and the Mushrooms

A couple of weeks ago, local mushroom cultivator Michael Johnson allowed into his backyard grow shed to take some photos as he prepared and harvested his crop of Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms. It was a great way to kick off the work week cycle, hanging out amongst the shelves of Shiitakes on a sunny, comfortable Wednesday morning. Johnson hopes to make regular customers for his mushrooms of some of the local chefs in and around Vero Beach. I have to admit, I like the idea of eating fresh mushrooms from right up the road rather than re-hydrated Shiitakes trucked in from who knows where (though I'm probably not enough of a mushroom connoisseur to actually discern a difference in quality). Interesting note: the mushroom grow shed doesn't smell moldy or rotten like one might expect. Rather, the scent was reminiscent of wood shavings on a foggy morning mingled with what, to me, smelled like the insides of a freshly carved jack-o'-lantern.

Morning on the Ranch

The other day I woke up early to go spend the morning on a ranch west of town with local artist/poet/rancher Sean Sexton. It was a nice change of pace.

Too many dogs in my portraits?

Looking through the last year's worth of blog posts, I see that I did really poor job of updating (considering that I shot thousands of photos last year and only made 16 sporadic blog posts). Here's another random sampling from the last couple of months. I notice that people's dogs tend to make it into the shot when I'm doing portraits. I don't force it, I swear. The dogs just place themselves in the scene and I can't resist it. I've also got some baseball, scientists scanning the beach for dead birds, Raku pottery, a water lily, children watching Toy Story III, three shots from the 4th of July, a chef portrait, gastric bypass surgery, a librarian putting away books in the new library ahead of the start of school, and a scene from an opera.

One Year in Vero Beach

I started my staff photo job in Vero Beach on Sept. 1, 2009. On that day I was sent out to find a few feature shots and cover a fire that didn't amount to much. My main responsibility here is shooting for the Vero Beach 32963 weekly newspaper. However, I also shoot a lot for the online sister site Veronews.com. The Website has a little slideshow on the front page that is sized to a 360-pixel square. I don't usually shoot square photos so shooting for the site front was (and sometimes still is) a bit of a hurdle for me. I thought it might be fun to post a slideshow gallery of every photo that went on the 360px front from the last year. After weeding out a few super uninteresting sign photos and building mugs (not all of them) I've got 295 photos. You might notice some of the recurring news was: Vero Beach Electric Debate, Ira Hatch Trial, features of fishing, Friday night high school football and the beach sand replenishment project. I spent way too much time on this slideshow but there are a few keepers in there. So, if you've got the time, try cycling through the whole gallery. I even threw in some short captions to explain most of the shots. Here's to one year in Vero.



I thought the Soundslides looked kind of cool with all of these photos.

Football, Horses, Crabs, CT Scans, Bike Rides and an Artist

Things are slow in Vero this time of year but I'm still keeping busy. This medley of images starts with a couple of shots from St. Edward's School's summer football practice. Up next is a little photo package of equestrian Chandler MacWilliam and her horse, Chip. There was only room for one shot in the paper so the random out-of-focus, oddly composed horse, detail shots didn't have a place to run. I went feature hunting in Sebastian a little while back and came across Jeff Skok and his chocolate lab, Bosco, checking their crab traps in the Indian River Lagoon. Last issue's health story dealt with radiation and CT scans so I managed to get access to doctors actually scanning patients and reviewing scans. For a different, profile-style story, I tagged along with Dr. Stephen Tate as he and his family went for their regular evening outting. And lastly, for the Arts section front (think of it like a magazine cover...maybe I'll do a post soon with some pdfs to better illustrate what I mean) I photographed artist Patty Vaughn working on watercolor paintings in her home.

Christmas and the New Year in Spain

This year for Christmas I got to make a trip to Spain to visit my little sister (who was finishing up a semester abroad) and celebrate the year's end with my family. We drank wine, ate tapas, experienced Gaudi, and my sister and I celebrated the New Year in Puerta del Sol with a fireworks display amongst new friends. It was a blast. During the trip I grabbed a shot here and there but my camera also snapped about a hundred photos of my feet all on its own. Apparently, the way I wore the camera under my coat (to protect it from the rain, etc.) caused it to take a photo with every other step of my right foot. I decided to play around with it and make this little audio slideshow of my journey through Barcelona and Madrid.

Spring in Washington D.C.

A couple of months ago I visited my Humble Grape sippin' friend in Washington D.C. where we wined, dined, danced and also did a little sightseeing. It was great to get a break and just shoot somewhere new with no pressure. A lot of shoot-from-the-hip, no worries style photos came from the weekend. Here are a few them. Also, I'm trying out slideshows on the blog, in keeping with the website update I completed not too long ago. http://tommccarthyjr.com .

Run for the Sun

I just ate it so hard running to the beach to photograph a sunset. Since it is summer in Florida it rains every afternoon (usually starting around 3 p.m.), which can be a hassle if you need sunny skies for that portrait or building mug you've got planned. However, it also can make for some pretty nice light late in the day. This evening I noticed that the conditions were perfect for a sunset rainbow over the ocean (the last time I bolted out of the office for this shot I got all the way to the sand before I realized I'd left my memory card in the computer). Alas, no rainbow tonight (at least not much of one), but a beautiful sky did materialize in the final moments of daylight. I was already in the process of updating the phlog when I made my mad dash for the beach, so I'll just tack the shot onto the end of this post.

I was combing through my files looking for any overlooked gems for an upcoming portfolio submission (hint: the deadline was extended) when I came across a few shots that never made it into print for whatever reason. The first shot here is from a sunrise on Easter (I was there shooting the beachside "Sonrise Service"). Up next is a shot I got while riding along with the St. Edward's School's crew coach as the sun set on the Indian River Lagoon. Third is artist Sharon Sexton working on a new piece on the back porch of her ranch home in west Vero. Fourth is just a simple window light portrait of R.G. "Ace" Cappelen. I miss my cheapo 50mm f1.8. Up next is some of that sunset light during the half-time team warm-up at a St. Edward's football game. Nearing the end is a shot of a kid jumping off some brand new playground equipment at the newly renovated Humiston Park. And lastly, the sun sets on the Vero Beach Pier.

Well into Spring

The photos have started to pile up again over the last couple of months. Included here are shots from art festivals and galleries, fishing tournaments and aquariums, sports action, sportrait and sports feature, a dog show, a cancer walk, heavy machinery on the beach and another addition to my never-ending quest to shoot the perfect face painting photo. The last photo is of the Vero Beach High School Girls Lacrosse team, who pretty much beats every opponent to a pulp with unwavering consistency. In the game pictured here, the entire starting line-up sits on the sidelines eating grapes after gaining a double-digit lead in less than a third of the first half of play (that sounds like a fourth grade math problem). Also, I've redesigned my website (AP style) and updated my portfolio. The edit is a little loose right now so feel free to check it out and send any suggestions my way via electronic mail.
www.tommccarthyjr.com

Dining Page

More food photos from the weekly dining review page. Since the last food posting I've messed around a little more with composition and made more use of the setting in some of the shots. I've been told that we've covered almost every restaurant in Vero at this point so I've photographed quite a few plates in the last few months.

OK, Look Right In Here.

I shoot a lot of portraits. Half of my time is spent trying to keep from shooting posed photos. I'm a big fan of photographing people doing things. When I get an assignment to shoot a portrait I always try first to figure out if the subject has any upcoming plans to do something relevant to the story that I can just show up to and actually document. Upon arriving I often hear "What do you want me to do?" To which I respond, "Just pretend I'm not here. Do whatever you would be doing if I weren't here. I'll do the rest. That's what I do." Sometimes it works. Sometimes I'm left with no choice but to do a standard portrait. Honestly, neither situation is easier than the other to shoot anyways. Here is a small selection of portraits from the last few months. I've been wanting to post some of these for awhile now but haven't been able to force myself to decide which ones to show. Here's just a random handful to get something of my portrait shooting up on the photo blog. There are so many more. Maybe they'll make it into a future post.

Birds and a Bug

No people in this post. Just some birds on an old abandoned dock in Sebastian, Fla., a couple of shots of birds on power lines on an overcast day, and a white bug I found camouflaging itself on a white door frame. The third photo reminds me of musical notation.

House Fire Dog Rescue

I've shot a few pet rescue photos (it's been awhile since my last, though) and today's house fire provided yet another opportunity to photograph a fire fighter carrying the family pet out of a smoldering building (today's house wasn't as smoldery as some have been). I also hung around and got a couple of shots of the dog (named "Q") getting oxygen in the back of the ambulance and a shot of Q being reunited with one of its owners (four-year-old Ceterria).