Pinewood Derby

A few weeks ago I shot the local scouts pinewood derby. THe gym actually had some nice light situations, which was a plus since the kids just seemed a little bored with having to wait so long between turns and were relatively unemotional. After shooting for a while I decided to go for a panning shot in an effort to get something a little different for this yearly event (the standard photo being image #2 here, which ran as my secondary). I liked the panning enough to offer it as my local lead photo and the paper went for it. So, that's one cheap trick I can't use again soon I guess. Overall an enjoyable assignment I'd say.

Hands

Been shooting more basketball here in Illinois as we work our way through regionals/sectionals. I thought this shot was kind of neat and a little different (because of all the hands of course). I wish there were more face, though. Soon start the state games. More posts once my internet starts working properly again, I promise.

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Remodeled House

By request, here are a few photos from a house shoot I did. The home had a nice rustic feel and also two cats that wanted to be in every picture. I tried to light these in a way that looked natural, using a slow shutter speed and tripod to let the natural light seep in over the strobes.

A Little Spirit

I've fallen behind in my phlog updates lately. So, my plan of action to fix this problem is to decrease the number of photos per update in hopes that I will be able to more quickly throw up a larger number of updates. I'm not sure if this is the solution but, in the words of Jimmy Cliff, time will tell. For my first quick and easy post I give you the Illinois State Championship Dance and Cheer Competition at the Peoria Civic Center. The first photo ran as the B1 centerpiece, which I was happy about. The third shot did not make it into the print edition, but through the magic of online galleries it still made it somewhere. Can I get a
G-O
T-E-A-M!

Journal Star

I'm almost done with my first month here in Peoria. Things got off to a slow start (a little blame goes to the scratch I got on my eyeball from a low hanging tree branch the day before I started at the paper). Here's a sample platter of what I've shot over the last month. First is "Family Fest" at the Peoria Civic Center. The first photo ran as the A1 centerpiece in full color, which was kinda nice. The second photo is of a really cute little girl with a giant balloon hat. Unfortunately, she saw me before I saw her and refused to look at me (or even ignore me, which would have been just as good). Next up, there's the aftermath of a house fire, remodeling at a bike shop, and an Orchids workshop. Last week the temp went from really cold with snow on the ground to almost warm with a little ran, which created really heavy fog that caused a bunch of people to wreck their cars. I also shot the opening night of the musical Ring of Fire. While waiting to get in I took a few slow shutter speed shots and thought this one looked kind of like a painting so I sharpened in PS a little extra to make it more paintingy. Lastly, high school basketball is important to people (including the paper) in these parts. I've never shot basketball before, but, by way of the shear volume of assignments, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it (as a bonus, I've learned how to light the games, too). Also, I changed the html, so now there's room for bigger pictures (!)

A break in Florida

Since my last post so many weeks ago I have made the move from St. Louis to Peoria where I am now the Spring intern at the Peoria Journal Star. Before moving further north into even colder weather, I took a trip back down to Florida where I visited Camille and the all the Gainesville folks. So, here are some shots from Gainesville (and one from Jacksonville) replete with warm sunset light and fireworks. I tried to make this post last night, but blogspot's desaturation of all the photos (which are actually just links on the page, I guess) was unsatisfactory. I've made a temporary fix for the color problems, but if anyone wants to give me the magic formula for posting larger, correctly toned photos I would welcome the info with open arms (the little messing around with the html that I did wasn't getting me what I wanted).

interim update

I'm back down in Gainesville right now, soaking up the sun before heading back north to start a spring internship at the Peoria Journal Star. Here are some more shots from the end of my internship in St. Louis.


Ultimate frisbee practice of the SLU woman's club team on a rainy, cold night (temperature in the upper 30s, I think). I was working the evening shift when I got the call that my horizontal photo from a fire needed to be vertical to fit into the page design. So, I decided to stop and shoot this practice. I only shot verticals, and then rushed back to my car to send the shots back before deadline.


The next day I shot some guys playing frisbee golf. The paper didn't go for back-to-back to frisbee sports pictures, but I thought this turned out alright.


Rick Bess, of Jackson, Mo., goes through the process of taking apart a United States Navy T-34 aircraft for inspection at Sabreliner Corporation's facility in Perryville.


Dan Serafin, of Robertsville, works in the shipping and receiving department of Laderle Machine Company in Pacific, Mo. and prepares to weigh a box loaded with plate rolls that is being shipped to Famira, S.A. in Santa Domingo.


After a full day of shopping, Robbie and Lauren Stites of Atlanta relax with Lauren Stites' cousin Elizabeth Lloyd of Eureka while Lloyd's three children played with the other children at Playtown in the Chesterfield Mall. "I've got three kids, four and under, so we had to come here," Lloyd said of the playground in the mall.


Adeline Jenicek, 3, of Ballwin peeks out at Preston Devlin, 4, of Chesterfield, from inside of a fake log in Playtown at Chesterfield Mall.


Lafayette High School sophomore Jessi Holtz switches from the buttterfly stroke to the back stroke on a turn off of the wall during swim team practice.


I took this photo of the swim coach while I was waiting for the two swimmers that I was assigned to cover to return to my end of the pool.


Ashley Grammar, a sophomore at Lafayette High School, glances at the pace clock after finishing a lap at swim team practice.


Jerry Kronable, center, of Fred Weber, Inc. lays down concrete on Tuesday during construction of the new flyover ramp that will connect eastbound I-64 to northbound I-170.