Feb. 4, 2010
This is crazy. The AP photographer and I transmitted at halftime the exact same moment in time from Thursday night’s IU/Purdue game. His was shot with a Canon (left) and mine a Nikon. Even freakier is that, when viewed through a lorgnette, the pair of photos combine to make a perfect 3D image! Coincidentally, we both live in Columbus, and he formerly worked at the newspaper I currently work for.
Jan. 8, 2010
This guy had such a good day of ice fishing that he decided to drive straight to the newspaper office and show off his catch. I ended up taking his picture and writing a little story filled with funny quotes from the old man. My favorite: “If you don’t catch nothin’, you gotta go to Captain D’s.”
Yellow and red
Nov. 14, 2009. Was working on the other side of the tracks today and found a bit of color in otherwise dismal settings.
Stabbed. Shot. On lunch break
Sept. 16, 2009. Actors on break during a homeland security crime scene exercise at a nearby military base.
If my blog were a pet, it would be dead by now due to pure negligence. I’ve been busy working on my documentary, buying a house, playing that stupid Mafia Wars game (help, I’m hooked!) and just generally enjoying the summer sunshine. I’ll try to be a better blog owner once I finish my other projects.
On to the World Series
August 15, 2009, Indianapolis. Kentucky celebrates after defeating Indiana in the Little League Great Lakes Division championship.
Jazz doc trailer
Here is the trailer to my first feature-length documentary, currently in post-production.
Come to the light
July 21, 2009. Found myself in a dark place without the D3. I forgot how hard it was to shoot in dark conditions with the D2h. Luckily, this gymnast was climbing toward a light.
At the pie eating contest
July 16, 2009. County fair. I’ve been a lazy, bad blogger. I’m so wrapped up in editing my documentary that I’ve been somewhat ignoring my still work lately. Just cranking them out. This assignment was a lot of fun though, and for once I didn’t get ill around food. Maybe I’m over my phobia of shooting people while they’re eating?
They’re Really Saying I Love You
A few frame grabs from the most ambitious project of my career – one that will also be my best. The hardest part about making a documentary, especially a feature-length one, is sewing all of the fabric together (and throwing away the raggedy bits that don’t work). I don’t know how long this is going to take me, but I sure as hell ain’t getting anything done blogging about it. I haven’t ruled out a second trip to OKC to gather a bit more, uh, thread.
Here is a very rough scene, and I suspect it will change a lot before I’m done. In fact, it may not even make it into the final cut. I’m purposefully holding off on looking at footage from the “ending” of this film. Something so unexpected happened … But you’ll just have to wait.
Back home
June 11, 2009. Feels good to be home. Had an assignment this afternoon out in the country with a nice family and their farm animals, and it just felt right. Anyway, my posts will probably drop in frequency for a while as I work on editing the documentary I shot in Oklahoma last week. It was good to see old friends, and this doc is going to be my best ever (and no gaping head wounds this time!). Might even be feature-length, but we’ll see. Going to pursue getting into a couple of smaller film festivals too.
Indiana
May 29, 2009. Leaving my Hoosier state in a couple days to visit old friends that I haven’t seen since 2003. Really looking forward to Oklahoma.
Picture hangover
I think I’m suffering from what can only be described as a picture hangover. I feel like I’ve been sprinting, and now it’s time to ease back into a jog for a while. Or maybe I’m just feeling lazy, phoning it in until vacation in two weeks (gonna turn OKC back on its ear). In any case, I’m thinking of getting back out my Loreo 3D lens in a cap and giving it a whirl. There is something about stereo that turns ordinary pictures into something incredible. And making neat little viewing cards is fun too (and I’m on the lookout for an old-timey Monarch viewer). The perfect antidote for post-essay depression.
Channel Surfer
My pictures from the English Channel swimmer story published today, and I’m pretty happy with the way everything turned out. I realized a couple of things while working on this story: 1) I need to do essays more often, because I find them really gratifying; 2) I forgot how much I missed designing my own pages.
And, speaking of photo essays, yesterday I won another first place for a flood photo package in the IAPME contest. I’ve said before what I think about awards, and the banquets are painful at times (my threshold for hooray-for-everything biz chat is rather low). But I’m beginning (kinda sorta) to see the good in them. If nothing else, they might help me prove myself. The more work I’m recognized for, perhaps the more leeway I’ll be given for future pieces. Or maybe that’s all just bunk, and awards are nothing more than junk that collects in your desk drawer. Whatever.
What I find more meaningful is building friendships — I got to know this amazing young man during the course of this story, and I’m rooting for him to complete this crazy adventure. He just called me and told me about how he tried something a little different today during training, and that it worked great. I could hear the excitement in his voice, and it made me sad that my part in this story is over. It has been a while since I’ve felt that way about this job. I wish it could always be like this.
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