MY FIRST TV COMMERCIAL

I'm wondering whether this is the beginning of the end, if my photojournalism days might be numbered... I sure hope not.



Go to www.Shelter-Partners.org for more information on this program.

Produced by Mobo Studios
Directed by Jeronimo Nisa
Music by Kevin MacLeod

Post Production: Ryan Sims
Camera: Jeronimo Nisa, Ryan Sims, Suhyun "Dawn" Shim
Producers: Michelle Amaral, Gwena Sims
Dog trainer/owner: Jessica Bush

Cast:
Homeless Dog: Judy
Mom: Maree Jones
Dad: Russell Jones
Son: Dalton Jones

Location:
Home of Tamela and Darrell Seymour in Birmingham, AL

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

Slices of everyday life that remind me of the fact that I actually live and work here.








(It looks like their team wasn't doing too well...)

HOUSE OF HORROR

Yeah, it's that time of the year...
A new haunted house in Courtland, AL. These guys have done an awesome work transforming the old Courtland High School into something magical. The place is, obviously, so dark that there was no way to take "action" pictures. So I settled for a portrait with three of the many actors. For this portrait I used a 5-second exposure during which we "painted" with a flashlight, and then, before the 5 seconds were over, I triggered a strobe hidden behind the actor on the left.



The next day, I did a video about the house. It was difficult to convey what the place is like without giving too much away at the same time. I was lucky that night there was a full moon and clouds.

You can watch it bigger on this link:Haunted House of Horror from Jeronimo Nisa on Vimeo.

IRONMAN 5

This year, we planned to feature the "iron men" of each team (yeah, those guys who work out even when they don't have to) in our high school football preview special section. So, I thought it would be cool to do something related to the movie Ironman. I hadn't seen it, so when I finally watched it, I thought it would be easier to go for the look of the first Ironman, the more rustic one that the protagonist builds when he's a prisoner of the Taliban (or whoever they are). Actually, to go for the building process itself.

The picture above, which I took for the cover, would have been impossible to make without the help of my friend Ryan Sims and Bill Pettey, the owner of "Pettey Machine Works," the place where the photo shoot took place. Ryan built the "iron" mask just a couple of hours before the shoot and helped me with the lighting greatly. Mr. Petty, besides providing the location and some of the props, fixed the smoke machine (which got busted at the beginning of the shoot) and made sparks on command with his welding equipment.

- "Arc reactors" (those lights on the kids' chests): $18.00 (found in the camping dept. at Walmart).
- All of the other props: borrowed.
- Working with Ryan, Bill and the kids: PRICELESS.

A short life

Terrella Joan Otto reaches for her two-month-old puppy, Tookie, as paramedic Cassey Rutherford and Decatur firefighters try to resuscitate the dog, who was in Otto's house when a fire started. Despite the efforts, Tookie didn't make it.

Distractions backstage

ANOTHER FASHION SHOW...

TORNADOES. TERRIBLE. SAD.

RAINY DAYS

30 minutes = amount of time I spent in the rain to get the picture above.


Honestly, for me baseball (and softball) is the most boring sport to photograph. So, imagine how much more boring is to photograph a baseball practice. But if, due to rain, the practice is inside a gym, then it becomes the mother of all boredom (I know, I know, it's the American pastime and blah, blah, blah... It must be just me). Anyway, I started playing around with slow shutter speed, panning and using the folded stands as a graphic element. I threw this picture in, together with the "safe shots," and (oh, surprise, surprise) it got printed. Something must be changing... and I'm grateful for that.

DISCO BOWLING

While looking for some stuff I shot last year, I came across pictures I took at an event here in Decatur. A local organization had organized a bowling night (probably there was some fundraising involved or something like that). Yes, in this newspaper, we shot "party pics" from time to time (more often than we would like to, I should add...). That kind of assignments basically consist in photos of people posing for the camera and cheesy-smiling. But when I arrived at the bowling alley, I saw all these people dressed in 70s outfits and the assignment got a bit more interesting. I completely forgot about the bowling and decided to focus on the costumes. Then I discovered an orange and blue wall, and that was it. Went back to my car to get a couple of strobes, umbrellas and stands and told the bowlers that I was setting up a photo booth and whoever wanted could have their picture taken. All of them showed up, got really into character and had a great time. These are just a few of many portraits I took that night.

SNOW, MUSIC, REFLECTIONS AND BASKETBALL

... and a fogged up lens.

IS THIS THE WARM SOUTH? C'mon, you gotta be kidding...

If you ask me, I'm sick and tired of snow and, specifically, snow pictures. But, hey, it's so rare to see stuff like this in Alabama, that I thought I should post some images here just for historical purposes.
These next three pictures are just outside my apartment:






Today, just before sunset, the sun came out for the first time since Saturday. It was only 20 minutes or so, but I drove out of town to get something in the countryside before it was completely dark, and I found this stuff (I swear I didn't know there was a camel there; apparently it's been in that enclosure for a long time, but I noticed it it only today, right in the snow... very proper):




This is my favorite one of these days, and the very last one I took today, right before the sun disappeared again. It made me feel I was in Montana or a place like that...