Here We Go Again!

Because I had Tuesday off for Memorial Day holiday credit, I've included a bonus image from Thursday...

5/31


5/30


5/29


5/29


5/28


5/27

Five More

As I sit here watching Billy Wagner blow the save for the Mets and lamenting how that affects not just my favorite baseball team but my fantasy team as well, I'll share with you my latest batch of one-a-days...

5/23


5/22

This was a sad one. My paper said goodbye on Thursday to more than a dozen journalists and/or editorial staffers. They took the buyout offered to them by management, a first step taken by the paper in an attempt to improve the economic situation of the company. Our acting editor-in-chief said that combined, this group of retirees accumulated nearly four centuries of journalistic experience. These are scary times in this industry. Scary, scary times.

5/21


5/20


5/17

Just One From Today

You might or might not see this when I post my weekly pix, but I wanted to share this with you today anyway...

Another Week, 5 More Photos

All my assignments ended up being rained out last Friday, so I had to wait until Friday to post five more photo-a-days. So from now on it looks like Friday will be my photo-a-day day rather than Thursday. Did that make any sense at all? Anyway, here are my five favorites from the past week.

5/16


5/15


5/14


5/13


5/10

Another Week of Photos

5/8


5/7


5/6


5/3


5/2

Another Week of Photo-a-Days...

So here's another week's worth of images, using only my favorite photo per day.







This gang of bad-ass chickens actually chased me off the farm that I was shooting. (OK, not really, I was done shooting anyway, but the other story sounds better.) They did approach me menacingly though. Luckily, I wasn't too far from my car. The tough looking character with his leg in the air is the ring leader, one tough son-of-a- ... -hen?

Also, today I was featured for the first time on APAD's daily front page. (APAD stands for "A Photo A Day," and the front page photo is changed daily. You can click on "Past Fronts" to see their amazing, inspiring archive of front page photos.) With all the great photographers contributing great work, to see my photo (from November) up there was quite an honor... and a shock. Here's what the front page looked like with my photo on it.


That's all I've got. I'll try to update weekly with 5 images. (That's not to say I won't have other updates with more photos than that, but I'll still try to do the photo-a-day thing once a week.) Until next time, thanks for stopping by...

A Photo a Day?

So one of the photojournalism websites that I frequent is APAD, which stands for "a photo a day." Using that great group of people as a model and inspiration, I decided that every day I shoot something, I will try to find something that I like for me, regardless of whether or not it's acceptable for work. In other words, I'm going to try to find a photo a day for myself... I'm hoping that'll spark back some of the interest that I lost when I was denied the trip to cover the Giants in the Super Bowl. Since then I've really been on autopilot, pointing and shooting rather than photographing. One of my career goals is to shoot a Super Bowl, and my bosses basically told me that as long as I remain with their paper, I will never achieve that goal. I kinda just shut down for a while...

So my first step in trying to wade my way out of my self-pity pool will be to try and make something for myself every time I touch a camera. I've been doing this for about two weeks now, and just been too busy to post until now. So here are some of my last few, the most recent at the top. I hope you enjoy.

A Sad Day

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I haven't shot anything I'm happy with in quite some time now. The president (yes, of the United States) even stopped by Freehold on Friday, but I wasn't assigned to cover it... even though images shot by reporters with point-n-shoots were the only photos used in our web updates throughout the day. Nice, right? Anyway, I digress. Yesterday I shot a very sad event, a funeral for a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. I don't think there's really much more I can say. Here's a slideshow of a few of my images, they'll tell the story much better than I could with words.

It Has Arrived!

Just got my prize for placing third in the SportsShooter.com clip contest. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they hadn't shipped me the 30D they'd promised, but a brand-spankin'-new 40D! Awesome. I just want to publically say thanks to SportsShooter.com for running such an awesome contest and to Canon for sponsoring said contest. Thank you guys, you rock! Keep up the good, no, great work!

R.I.P. Wall Township Speedway

Wall Township Speedway, a local racetrack, has announced (here) that it will not reopen this spring, thus ending its long run of great racing and entertainment near the Jersey Shore. Although I will freely admit that I'm not particularly fond of auto racing, I will say that I am sad to see the place go. Everyone there always looked like they were having a great time, and during the day and into the evening the light there was just great to shoot in. The article on my paper's website had over 100 user comments, a few from people glad to see the track shut down, but the majority of which recounted memories from a wide variety of people, of all ages, from all over the country. It got me thinking about my memories at the track, and I put together 10 of my favs and posted them on my SportsShooter page. Lo and behold, the next day they'd spotlighted my gallery! Here's the SportsShooter front page, followed by a slideshow of the 10 images. Thanks for looking!

Press Conference

It's tough to make photos at a press conference. Especially one as lightly-attended as the one I had to shoot this afternoon. Nine or so politicians gathered at the front of the room to complain about funding being taken away. I'm sure it was very important and all, but I guess my paper was the only one that thought so because the room was basically empty. I was there, the reporter I was working with was there, the Senator's PR woman was shooting with a point-and-shoot camera, and there were two other gentlemen with cameras, too, though I'm not sure who they were shooting for. Not exactly the turnout the politicos were expecting, I'm sure. So with nothing (and no one) in the room to photograph other than the talking heads up front, I actually wandered out of the room to make a frame I liked.





The other frame I made was one of these two aforementioned photographers. He was wearing a very loud shirt, considering the business attire of everyone else in the room.





But that was it. Other than the obligatory "head shots" I turned in (of which I'll spare you), there was nothing going on. No one getting particularly passionate, no faces in the audience, nothing. Gotta love the loud shirts that sometimes come to the rescue... If not for the story (it'll never run in the paper) then at least for my sanity as a photographer.

High School Basketball State Championship Game

State championship games are always fun... even if the lens I use most often decided to crap out on me at halftime. Here are some more moody, grainy, black-and-white selections from this afternoon's state championship game.

Dodgeball!

Lately I've been into the whole high-ISO-grainy-black-and-white style. I think it probably reflects my mood right about now... Anyway, shot some dodgeball during "Fun Night" at a physical fitness and education center. The place is really cool. They help kids 8-18yo with their homework and other studies and keep them healthy, fit and in shape for school sports... or just healthy and fit for the sake of being healthy and fit. Nifty idea.

The Night From Hell

Ever have one of those days? You know, the type of day that made you wish you'd called out sick or lived on another planet or been torn apart by a pack of wolves? Welcome to my night. It started on I-287 on my way to the basketball games.

I left at 4, the trip should've taken about an hour and in stead it took almost two. Yes, it was rush hour but there must've been an accident because no one was moving at all. Wonderful. Took me forty five minutes to go the last 10 miles.

So I finally get to the school about 15 minutes to game time. I set up my lights and get ready for the game when I discover ... I left my camera batteries in the battery charger. At home. Wonderful. Luckily, I keep a backup battery in my trunk. (It had been there for over two weeks, but surprisingly still had enough juice to shoot both games. I got lucky.)

Between games I worked on the pics from the first game. When I went to send them I discovered that there was no reception inside the gym. Wonderful. It took the entire first half of the second game to send just three photos from the first. I decided to just send the rest after the second game.

After the second game, I quickly worked on the images, but since everyone had left the building and reception inside was so poor, I decided to send them from my car. Only by the time I got to the car, my computer had crashed. And when I rebooted it, the pics from the second game were gone. Wonderful. I still had them on the compact flashcard, but now in stead of working on them at a desk in the school, I had to work on them in the front seat of my car.

I did what I needed to do, and by 10:30, all the photos were sent. A little late, but just under my deadline for an 8:00 game. But the worst part of the night was, yet again, I didn't get anything I liked. I've now shot an entire basketball season and I'm still waiting for my first good shot. Here are the best pics from my crappy shoot...





I guess I'd still rather have the night I had than the night he had...

Until next time, thanks for stopping by...

Cleaning Up

One of my jobs today was to photograph a group of students from two different local colleges as they helped clean up a local lake. Among the junk pulled from the muddy water was a bicycle, completely covered in lake muck, but still nearly 100% intact.





This last photo had nothing to do with the bike, I just thought it looked nice and was a neat little story within the story. The two people in the pic are sister/brother, and the boy is still in middle school, but gave up part of his Saturday to come help out his sister and her cause. That just struck me as really classy.

HS Girls Basketball

Just an action shot from tonight's game...

Not sure though whether I like it better cropped like this... aside from removing the annoying background elements, this crop is also closer to a "natural" 4x6 image, though it's still not quite 4x6.



What do you think?