Back to School

It's almost time for the kids to head back to school again. Last year for the paper's back to school issue we ran a story about a young lady with Down syndrome who was preparing to make the transition from middle school to high school. You can read the story here: Seton Keough to Welcome Student with Down Syndrome

Some Video

And now for something completely different... I've been shooting a bit of video lately for my paper. It's been a learning process but since I already know how to compose a frame and do all of that visual stuff I was already halfway there to start. The fun challenge has been learning how to weave a story together from a series of moments and trying to let the subjects fill in the details (I'm not a big fan of voice overs). I could definitely use a few pieces of equipment to help me in this video endeavor, but right now I've been doing what I can with what I've got. Below is a new, short video about some Baltimore City youths who spent a weekend camping out at Rocky Gap State Park. I also won some multimedia awards this past year for a piece I did about a church group who walked 100 miles to promote religious liberty. So, why not give that one a watch, too.

Super Bowl Champs Ravens' Party in the Streets

Last night the Baltimore Ravens beat the favored San Francisco 49ers to become champions of Super Bowl XLVII. Then the fans of Baltimore took to the streets. The party grew quickly as people emerged from homes and bars out into a chilly winter night, cheering and squirrel-dancing as they congregated around the city. It didn't take long before the revelers began impeding traffic, leading some drivers to just put it in park and crank the stereo. The dance party mixed with chants of the Ravens' pump-up song, Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, as snow flurries mixed with the spray from cans of Natty Boh floating down onto the crowd. Thrice cast as the underdog, in a city that's no stranger to the role, the Ravens' win brought people together for the kind of party that, as I heard more than just a few people say, Baltimore needs and deserves.

Big Bonfire on a Farm

Over Memorial Day weekend I took a trip with some friends up to the Pennsylvania border to hangout by a bonfire and camp for a night. Lots of fun. My fellow phojou, Matt Roth, was doing the heavy documenting on the trip, but I grabbed a few photos along the way, too. The farm was full of barley and old Volvos. Neat place. The last shot is a view of the tree across from the front door of my apartment when it was in full bloom back at the beginning of the spring. At this small size you miss out on some of the fun little things in the photo, but I think the image looks pretty nice as the background on the 27-inch monitor I've got at work. Oh, I forgot to mention that I started a new staff job at the Catholic Review a couple of months ago, which is keeping me busy and shooting. Just wanted to put a quick edit of something up onto the internet.

Baltimore Walkabout

The other day I went on walkabout in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. I snapped a few shots, too. I'm looking forward to revisiting a few spots.

End of 2011; New Endeavors in 2012

A new year in a new place. After more than two years in Vero Beach, Fla. serving as the Director of Photography and lead shooter for the Vero Beach 32963 newsweekly the time has come for me to branch out into new adventures. As tough as it is to leave behind my coworkers, friends and the sunshiny beaches of Florida, I've packed my bags and moved to Baltimore, Md. in search of new opportunities. Here's one more gallery of images from Vero 2011 that have yet to be featured on the blog this year. 2011 was a diverse year in Vero.  There was a wealth of strong portrait subjects and colorful arts festivals and fairs (image 8 is from the Spring Under the Oaks art fest - the woman is standing in front of a painting of people looking at art in a gallery) and also a couple of storms. The island was also faced with unexpected tragedy. Here's one last batch of images from 2011 in Vero Beach.

Rotate, Add Text

Every week for the Vero Beach 32963 newspaper I shoot for Arts, People, Health and Real Estate sections in addition to the bevy of news stories at the front of the paper. Each of those sections gets it's own magazine-style cover that runs as a full-page, vertical photo. At every assignment I shoot I've always got it in the back of my mind to make sure that I get a "cover" shot to run. It's got to be something that will look good and sharp at 12 x 15 inches (which is a pretty big photo) with room to fit text. Shooting a vertical real estate photo every week poses unique issues (I've always got my fingers crossed for high ceilings) and sometimes the health story for the week really doesn't lend itself to obvious art, but that hole is always there to fill. The upside is that I get lots of practice turning my camera on its side. Here are some of the "covers" from the last few months. Some of the photos may look familiar. If anybody has been paying really close attention to the blog (ha) and ever thought "it's odd that he seems to shoot so many vertical real estate photos" well, here is the reason.