A Very Visual First Year in Baltimore

In the last year I've shot so many new events and stories in new places, but I haven't been sharing it all with the internet. In my first year working as the staff photographer at the Catholic Review, my coworkers and I hauled in a bunch of contest awards from the Catholic Press Association and the MDDC Press Association, including the MDDC's award for newspaper of the year for non-dailies with circulations more than 20,000. Here's a random sample of photos from the last year shot around Baltimore and beyond. It includes the Preakness, graduation features, sports and other sundry pretties that caught my eye. Also, you can now view the photos larger. Just click the little, arrow-square-thingy in the bottom-right to expand the slideshow.

Explore Maryland Magazine

We switched gears this summer at the paper and delved into the world of travel magazines. Explore Maryland hits all the highlights "from the Mountains to the Shore" in the Free State. I got to travel all over the state shooting for all of the stories, including a feature on minor league baseball. Here are some of my favorite shots that didn't make it into the final production (save a couple). If you're in Maryland, keep an eye out maybe, you'll see it around.

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.

Haunted Children's Theatre

Last year at about this time I decided to put together something special for the Halloween issue of the paper.  The Riverside Children's Theatre here in Vero puts on a haunted house every year and I arranged to get inside access to the whole process from the try outs and construction at the beginning straight through to opening weekend.  It was a lot of fun and I came away with a ton of photos and audio. In addition to a nice spread in the paper, I put together this audio slideshow, which ran on http://www.veronews.com/.  For some reason I never posted it on the blog. So, I figure that now is as good a time as any to revisit the haunting. (Also, this blog should now be compatible with all of your iDroidpad devices. Exciting developments.)

Some More Summer

Nothing says summer like Fourth of July sparklers and fireworks. This summer I also shot a fishing event with lots of children gathering to catch tons of (mostly small) fish.  Of course, sprinkled throughout were the regular selection of local artists, a group of late night turtle watchers, a few different golf tournaments and a mad scientists event at the Vero Beach Book Center.  The last slide here is a composite image I made to illustrate the shortcomings of an attempt to regulate an intersection in town.  This shot is made up of all 15 vehicles that, in a 30-minute period, ignored the new "no left turn" sign and decided to turn left anyway.  I lucked out that one car happened to have a dog sitting up in the front seat.

Two Years in Vero Beach

This month marks two years since I moved to Vero Beach and began shooting for the Vero Beach 32963 newspaper and it's sister site VeroNews.com. This slideshow starts out with a photo that turned out to be very expensive. Beach goers are trying to help a beached pygmy sperm whale while I'm behind the lens successfully ruining my camera (with help from an unexpected wave). This set of photos is just a sampling of what I've shot over the last month. The slideshow ends with some photos from Hurricane Irene's offshore passage at the end of August, which made for some great, nasty surf for  a few days. I've got a pretty serious backlog of photos so hopefully I'll post again soon.

Summertime Already?

I disappeared for a bit there. It's summer now. The sun is high, the surf is mostly flat (hurricane season is on its way), and the snow birds have all flown back north. Here's a little sample of what's been going on in Vero over the last couple of weeks. A roller blading banker, retirement community activities, high school graduations and a literary, rock collector; things keep chugging along here on the Treasure Coast.

More Vero Springtime shots

This post's got a little bit of everything: reptiles, a school musical, real estate photos, food shots, at least one dog, art galleries, a mascot boot camp at the Vero Beach Sports Village (formerly Dodgertown), and I threw in shot of the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, not because it's the greatest baseball shot ever, but because it's spring training time down here in Florida and the post just wouldn't be complete with out it. <<< just one sentence.

Season Happens

The sun is out, the days are warmer, and the beaches are filling back up. Spring draws near and I'm staying busy here in Vero Beach. Below are a bunch of photos from the last few months. Beach shots, food, sports, a car show, a sport clay shoot. The last two photos show the crowds that came out to the beach to try to catch a glimpse of the space shuttle Discovery's last lift-off. We love the shuttle around here. Unfortunately, there were some hazy clouds in the sky so the launch wasn't visible. It was still a nice day to be at the beach, though.

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.