Saturday, November 15, 2008
GOOD THINGS, BAD THINGS
One of the good things about being a photographer is that, most of the time, you don't work in an office. One of the bad things about being a photographer is that, sometimes, you don't work in an office...
COACH STALLINGS
I didn't know who Gene Stallings was... mortal sin! (at least in Alabama). Among other achievements, he was the Alabama coach when the Tide won its last national championship. Let's put it this way: if Bear Bryant was a god, Stallings was the pope. He was at the dedication ceremony of a playground for special need kids. It was named after his late son, John Mark, who had Down syndrome and died not long ago at 46 years of age. A young man called Harley Truman, also with Down syndrome, went to greet Stallings after his speech and that's the moment in the first picture above.
The former coach also spoke at a church service. After taking the usual speech shots (to be on the safe side), I went around the huge gym to try to get something a bit different...
Thursday, October 9, 2008
GOODBYE MICHIGAN, HELLO AGAIN ALABAMA
Downtown Bay City, MII think it was a wise decision to leave Michigan before winter hits hard that part of the world and come back to the warm south, changing the waters of the Saginaw bay in Lake Huron for those of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama.
Saginaw Bay
Saginaw Bay
Tennessee River, Decatur, ALNow, seriously, I'd have happily finished my internship at the Bay City Times if I hadn't gotten a job in Decatur, AL. It was great to work with the people at the Times. That internship gave me the chance to do a lot of new things, mainly to do video again (I hadn't touched the camera or the editing program since I finished my documentary in February this year). I shot and produced 6 pieces in 3 months (baycitytimes. blip.tv), which is not too bad. I'm grateful to Mike Randolph for that; not only because he gave the time to do it, but also because I learned I great deal from him. Thanks Mike!
Also, I had the opportunity to shoot some things I'd never shot before, like high school football, cross country, swimming, soccer... I at long last started to understand those Friday nights and what a big deal they are in American life. As an European person, I never quite understood all the excitement until I got in the midst of it. But, hey, now that I'm in Alabama, and I'm always doing the night shift, I'm fully into it (pity that those HS stadium lights suck and you've got to use flash if you want the get anything. At least, in Michigan there was daylight until 8 p.m. or so...). I'm going to throw in here some of the pics I took in the last couple of weeks in Bay City.
These little dudes are the Little League State champions.
Hats off!
Diving champ
Nice light to work with
Winner
Labor Day weekend feature
Sisters
Encircled...But no doubt my best memories from Bay City are the great moments I spent with my friend, roommate and fellow photo intern Scott Mussell. Oh, those long nights of talking, drinking, philosophizing, listening to the Rolling Stones, watching David Lynch's films, the Big Lebowski... Here's Scott:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
WAKE UP CALL & portraits
I haven't updated this blog for almost 3 months, shortly before I left Alabama and move to Michigan. That's a lot of time. Probably I wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't had a phone interview with a photo editor yesterday in which he told me that, when people apply for jobs, he's more interested in looking at their blogs than their portfolios...
So, I thought, where to start? I've shot a lot of stuff over the past 3 months. Come to think of it, a big deal of our daily work is portraits, and yet I hardly post portraits here. So, I'm going to throw a few of them that I've taken since I moved to Bay City.
Portrait of a biking/hiking trail promoter. I had never taken any in-motion portrait before. The idea came up while driving to the state park where the trail is. I took it with a very slow shutter speed, panning and flash (-1 stop).
I had been taking portraits of volleyball teams for the season previews and got sick of the usual poses with the ball or behind the net and all that kind of stuff. So, this time I decided to do something different. I pictured the team in my mind as an all-girl rock band and my photo was their album cover, and this is what I got. It may not look as a "volleyball portrait," but the girls were very excited about it.
Figure-of-eight auto racing champ
Faithful voter: Charles Hamm's American flag has only 48 stars. "This is the flag under which I served," he says. The Monitor Towship resident has voted in every major election since World War II, saying it's his duty as an American.
The paper published the horizontal picture. I like the old look of the vertical one. My idea was to make it look a bit like a "World War II" picture shooting it with a very shallow depth of field and then taking the color saturation down.
James Murray and his son, Aevrik, were both born on the same day at the same time: June 20 at 2:33 a.m. James, in 1985 and Aevrik, in 2008.
This 16-year-old girl is a weight lifting champ. I asked her to give me a mean look, but I don't think this is mean enough; she still looks very lovely for a weight lifter...
So, I thought, where to start? I've shot a lot of stuff over the past 3 months. Come to think of it, a big deal of our daily work is portraits, and yet I hardly post portraits here. So, I'm going to throw a few of them that I've taken since I moved to Bay City.
Portrait of a biking/hiking trail promoter. I had never taken any in-motion portrait before. The idea came up while driving to the state park where the trail is. I took it with a very slow shutter speed, panning and flash (-1 stop).
I had been taking portraits of volleyball teams for the season previews and got sick of the usual poses with the ball or behind the net and all that kind of stuff. So, this time I decided to do something different. I pictured the team in my mind as an all-girl rock band and my photo was their album cover, and this is what I got. It may not look as a "volleyball portrait," but the girls were very excited about it.
Figure-of-eight auto racing champ
Faithful voter: Charles Hamm's American flag has only 48 stars. "This is the flag under which I served," he says. The Monitor Towship resident has voted in every major election since World War II, saying it's his duty as an American.
The paper published the horizontal picture. I like the old look of the vertical one. My idea was to make it look a bit like a "World War II" picture shooting it with a very shallow depth of field and then taking the color saturation down.
James Murray and his son, Aevrik, were both born on the same day at the same time: June 20 at 2:33 a.m. James, in 1985 and Aevrik, in 2008.
This 16-year-old girl is a weight lifting champ. I asked her to give me a mean look, but I don't think this is mean enough; she still looks very lovely for a weight lifter...
Friday, June 20, 2008
More City Stages
3 days of shooting music, music and also music. Thousands of pictures. These are just a few, a random selection (you know the trick: shoot the 3 first songs and then you're kicked out).
The Roots
Joe Bonamassa
The Roots
Shooter Jennings (like going back to the early 70's)
Old Crow Medicine Show
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Interpreter that translated the main bands' lyrics into sign language (I don't know why I keep referring to him as "The Prophet")
Joe Bonamassa
If I had been in the crowd...
... instead of taking pictures for the paper at the Buddy Guy concert, I would have been the fan on the center-right. I swear.
Buddy Guy... What a Guy! He's 70-something and still can make you feel the blues like nobody else's business.
Buddy Guy... What a Guy! He's 70-something and still can make you feel the blues like nobody else's business.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
SOME MEMORIES
While browsing through my archives trying to find a particular picture, I came across two photos, almost forgotten, that brought me some memories.
I shot the first one at a game between the US women's soccer national team and Australia. It was the first time (and only one so far) that I was to shoot a professional soccer game and, obviously, I was pretty excited about it. To tell the truth, the action on the field wasn't very good and the crowd was really small (maybe not even 1,000). So, all in all, not a very exciting atmosphere. It was only towards the end of the game that I realized that most of the spectators were schoolgirls that probably didn't care much about the defensive gaps or the midfield tactics: they were there mainly to get an autograph from one of their soccer heroes.
To me the look on this girl's face (her name is Mackenzie Johnston), who was hoping to have her ball autographed by Abby Wambach, said it all. And that's why I like it better than any other picture I took at that event. Fortunately, this time the sports page designer felt the same way and played the picture bigger than the action shots.
I shot the second one for a section called "Fashion Ambush." It's about fashion but not about models; just ordinary people at their work places. It has to be a full body picture and shot quickly (no lights or umbrellas or other stuff); so, usually we take these pictures outside. This time, the problem was a HUGE thunderstorm with tons of water and strong wind... OK, let's do it inside. And you know how office light usually is: yes, as one of my teachers used to put it (I believe she still does), it's F-LIGHT (which usually means both: fluorescent light and f* light). To make things worse, this 60-something year old wonderful lady, whose name is Michael Boutwell (yes, yes, that's correct: Michael) had had foot surgery and was wearing one of those medical boots and a big bandage. Anyway, long story short, I went back to the newsroom with the picture below and very, very disappointed:
But a couple of days after the picture was published, I got a message from Mrs. Boutwell. I'll copy here a couple of lines:
"You may not remember me, but I am the lady at Blue Cross that you came to take pictures of for the 'Fashion Ambush' article, that could not keep her mouth shut! I must say you may the subject look better than ever before. The picture was great. I had so much fun with this and appreciate all your time and patience. I am sure in your line of work all over the world you meet
many interesting people and I am just a little drop in the big bucket. Anyway, thanks again and good luck in all your endeavors and in your career (...)
Michael
P.S. You mentioned your Mom might have foot surgery. Remember I had the boot on from surgery. Hope she does well."
Isn't this amazing? While we photographers are all concerned about composition, light and so on, and about hitting a home run almost everytime we take a picture, "normal" people can be extraordinary happy with just A picture. And this simple anecdote made me think that if, in our line of work, we can make someone happy, that's far more exciting than taking an award-winning photograph (granted: this is also a consolation for those of us who have never won an award...)
I shot the first one at a game between the US women's soccer national team and Australia. It was the first time (and only one so far) that I was to shoot a professional soccer game and, obviously, I was pretty excited about it. To tell the truth, the action on the field wasn't very good and the crowd was really small (maybe not even 1,000). So, all in all, not a very exciting atmosphere. It was only towards the end of the game that I realized that most of the spectators were schoolgirls that probably didn't care much about the defensive gaps or the midfield tactics: they were there mainly to get an autograph from one of their soccer heroes.
To me the look on this girl's face (her name is Mackenzie Johnston), who was hoping to have her ball autographed by Abby Wambach, said it all. And that's why I like it better than any other picture I took at that event. Fortunately, this time the sports page designer felt the same way and played the picture bigger than the action shots.
I shot the second one for a section called "Fashion Ambush." It's about fashion but not about models; just ordinary people at their work places. It has to be a full body picture and shot quickly (no lights or umbrellas or other stuff); so, usually we take these pictures outside. This time, the problem was a HUGE thunderstorm with tons of water and strong wind... OK, let's do it inside. And you know how office light usually is: yes, as one of my teachers used to put it (I believe she still does), it's F-LIGHT (which usually means both: fluorescent light and f* light). To make things worse, this 60-something year old wonderful lady, whose name is Michael Boutwell (yes, yes, that's correct: Michael) had had foot surgery and was wearing one of those medical boots and a big bandage. Anyway, long story short, I went back to the newsroom with the picture below and very, very disappointed:
But a couple of days after the picture was published, I got a message from Mrs. Boutwell. I'll copy here a couple of lines:
"You may not remember me, but I am the lady at Blue Cross that you came to take pictures of for the 'Fashion Ambush' article, that could not keep her mouth shut! I must say you may the subject look better than ever before. The picture was great. I had so much fun with this and appreciate all your time and patience. I am sure in your line of work all over the world you meet
many interesting people and I am just a little drop in the big bucket. Anyway, thanks again and good luck in all your endeavors and in your career (...)
Michael
P.S. You mentioned your Mom might have foot surgery. Remember I had the boot on from surgery. Hope she does well."
Isn't this amazing? While we photographers are all concerned about composition, light and so on, and about hitting a home run almost everytime we take a picture, "normal" people can be extraordinary happy with just A picture. And this simple anecdote made me think that if, in our line of work, we can make someone happy, that's far more exciting than taking an award-winning photograph (granted: this is also a consolation for those of us who have never won an award...)
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