Change of Plans

The plan was to shoot a pie eating contest. That was cancelled so I did what I wound up doing all day, shooting features. When looking at the big picture throwing a bunch of features of the 4th of July throughout the Magic Valley isn't really a bad way to go. Gives the reader a little snapshot into the lives of communities. While almost nothing went according to plan on Sunday, I think the paper had the opportunity to run some really nice general art. In the end I was content.

Cowboy Up

An outfielder dives for the ball, and yes he caught it. Shooting the outfield is often tough but I liked this one enough to throw it up here. Twin Falls ended up winning the game.

4th of July 2010

Game Plan A: Shoot parachuters raining down upon the masses and nail a vertical fireworks photo. Deadline 9:45 pm. Problem with Plan A is parachuters got cancelled due to liability issues I was told by CSI Security detail and the fireworks weren't taking place until 10:20 pm.

Plan B: Shoot the band playing on the CSI campus. Problem, band was done with their sound check and not playing until 9:15 pm. Not enough time for a turnaround (keeping in mind I have no way to transmit from location)

Plan C: Shoot vertical features....done.

Diamondfield Jack

Went all the way out to Albion with one of our new reporters Laura and I made this image of Spencer an eight year old that participated in a look-a-like contest. The whole community came out and had a grand ole' time while listening to bands and eating greasy food.

Rural Fire

Chalking it up to T-storms there were a number of fires last week. After noticing smoke about 2 miles away from where I live I did what any photojournalist worth a damn would do. I grabbed my gear and scoped it out. Here are two that I sorta liked. I turned in another one with flames for the paper.

Wet and Wild Regatta

This was my second year covering this little gem. Still ran into some of the same issues such as why my name was left off the media list again and how could I forget sun block. While my action images were no better then last years I do feel I got better feature images so I guess I'm headed in the right direction. It was great to get outside and get paid to do what I love.

Canyon Jam

Top image is one of the first I shot and it's what ran. I like the moment and the fact it shows location. The second image implies what the event is suppose to be, good times with friends. While the third is a bit cliché I like the waterfall in the background and the fact it shows that unlike the top image there's more than two people there.

Catch

I rarely get shots at home plate period. While this is certainly not the best I've seen it is one of my better ones at the plate. Plus, to catch a catcher without his mask is often a feat in my mind.

Wild Horses

Wild horses being tamed. I have mixed feeling on the subject. Apparently while being wild they have limited food sources but at the same time I think as a person I would rather be free I guess it's sorta like the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. Be free and risk or be comfortable and assimilated. Let's hope these guys at least find good homes.

Splash

It's that time of the year again when kids get out and get wet. This was a camping story I covered with intrepid reporter Ben Botkin. Good times.

ReMix

It felt like a little Deja Vué considering I had just covered the CSI graduation at the exact same location. Not to mention another reporter had shot another ceremony at the college the day earlier. So this is the third graduation at the same location in one week. While it was nice to know my angles it was also a challenge to try and find a new and unique perspective. I figured I had to jump into the trenches and try and find some sort of emotion. I think I found it with this image. I remember thinking about all my friends and where they were going to end up and doing many of these same high-fives 11 years ago. So I ran with this.

Field Trip!

This was great stuff. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel (pun intended) While it took me way back to go on a field trip with third graders it was weird to have the parents there being my age. It's odd to think I'm actually old enough to have a 9 year old. Anyways, after the fish hatchery we went out to the fossil beds and once again had a blast digging up fossils with a beautiful over look. It was a great day to be a photojournalist.

Reaction

I decided to combine these images into one post for obvious reasons. The top one didn't run even though its a jubo image of the winning team. No matter I like it and here it is, granted I'm not a fan of the back of the head but oh well. As for the bottom image I got a call from my former photo editor out of Idaho Falls and was asked to cover my old high school rival the Bonneville Bees. They lost.

Shootin' Birds

Once again shooting birds from inside my bedroom with a 300 2.8. While I quickly slapped the lens on I went straight to shooting, ignoring one of the earliest rules my high school photography instructor taught me. While I did have my gear within 5 feet of me I didn't have it set up for immediate shooting. I had covered a low light assignment earlier and hadn't reset my ISO to a reasonable sensitivity. Hence, outdoor bird photos at 1600 ISO. lol.

Otto Pilate

Outside of terrible light this band was awesome to cover. I shot their practice in an old theater behind a local bar. I later watched them perform to a full crowd a week later.

Truckin'

While I was on limited time due to deadline this was a great little event to cover and all the drivers were really cool albeit upset at times due to their times. All in all it was a nice night out.

Iraqi Grub

Had the op to try a bunch of amazing traditional Iraqi food the other day with our awesome feature reporter Melissa Davlin. I was trying stuff I would normally shy away from but while she couldn't eat most of it for health reasons I got to enjoy some amazing dishes. Normally due to ethics I wouldn't touch food but it was cleared and encouraged by the bosses that be which eased my uneasiness.

Business of Baseball

While being a pitcher is certainly an A-Type personality usually this guy was having fun during a laid back practice slanging typical baseball slurs at his jovial teammates but once on the mound he was all business. I was able to get a few pitches out of him before the manager started getting concerned and cut my shoot short.

Geriatric Skydiving!

Jeanne Meyer, 70, jumped out of a prop plane for her birthday as some of her closest friends came to watch. Her husband may have been there as well but apparently no one told him what she was doing. When asked about it she sheepishly grinned and said "Oh, he'll find out about it tonight on the local news" which of course got me and Benito (KMVT reporter) laughing our asses off. Good natured and strong spirited Meyer's had a great time and so did I. Thanks.

Line of Sight

I've covered frisbee golf before. I've covered golf before. I've covered tournaments before. I have not covered a Frisbee Golf Tournament before though and while in doing so I was cussed out by this group of golfers for being in their line of sight. That's a new one for me especially since I was using a 300mm about 20 yards away from the bucket. See with Golf you're not supposed to shoot before the golfer makes contact with the ball, hence why golf shots are sometimes Extremely boring. While these guys didn't give a damn about me shooting through their throw they did care about being able to see me while doing it. Well, lesson learned guys. Thanks for not kicking my ass because I know that one of you was thinking about trying. :)

Ground Breaking

No Golden tipped shovels here! Apparently no one told these high schoolers with the Youth Council that a ground breaking was just a bunch of old dignitaries with shinny shovels performing a PR stunt. These kids were Breaking Ground for real. The reason you may ask is why and the answer is for a new BMX track on the south side of town. A pretty cool thing for some pretty cool kids.

CSI Graduation

Even while I had to cut it short due to deadline I still ended up with enough images for a slideshow. I didn't turn in many of these because I thought they didn't tell the story as well other more mainstream graduation images did so I'm sharing some of them here. If you've been following my blog for over a year then you may remember the fact that I didn't attend my own college graduation and so when I go to these events I get a kick out of the look of accomplishment on the students faces.

Softball Mayhem.

While it was a botched play it made for a chaotic shot which I don't always get during a game.

Taking out the Trash

Talk about spring cleaning, I covered another clean-up story. Around a dozen people showed up in the early A.M. while the wind howled and the cold was bitter and picked up tons of trash. To keep from freezing I jumped aboard a new front loader and rumbled along for the ride.

Mother's Day

Shot some of my Ma's tulips for a Mother's Day present. Wish I had a real macro. Oh and as for a side note I used a flashlight to illuminate the images so I could kill off the rest of the background along with a little help in curves.