A CITY MANAGER FOR DECATUR?

Some days ago, I was asked to do a photo illustration for a story about the city vote on a change of government in Decatur, from a mayoral system to a city manager system. After thinking about it, I came up with the idea in the picture above.
This is the first time I've used photoshop to combine two different images. I usually do all my photo illustrations on camera: it's more challenging and, therefore, more fun. But obviously, I couldn't do this idea on camera. Anyway, it was a challenge to find the right spot to photograph part of downtown, find someone and photograph him in the same light (which was impossible since the clouds disappeared one hour after shooting the first picture), and then putting everything together. And, in the process, I learned from my colleague Gary Cosby Jr. some photoshop stuff of which I had no idea.

By the way, 2 days later, the majority of citizens voted YES to change the form of government, but I don't think my picture had anything to do with that...

A GREAT PROJECT

Today, Easter Sunday, the Decatur Daily published a project that my coworker Gary Cosby Jr. (pictured above with his late son Reece in the center of the cover) has been working on for months. I'm not going to write anything about it. I'd rather just provide a link to Gary's blog and you'll take it from there. It is absolutely worth checking. All you have to do is CLICK HERE

WATERCOLORS

A rained-out baseball game led me to mess around for a little while before driving to the next assignment.

LIGHTPAINTING

Sloane Bibb creates multimedia art using a wide array of materials, from old magazines' cutouts to speedometers, old car parts to you-name-it. In this image, he's seen with his latest work-in-progress.



Some days ago, I was reading in Jim Richardson's blog the behind-the scenes, or "making-of", of his photographs for the story about the Hebrides islands published in the February issue of National Geographic. When I saw the images in the magazine several weeks before, I thought he had used strobes in his picture of the stones of Callanish. Instead, he writes in his blog, he used the technique known as "painting with light." Then I said to myself, "dude, you haven't painted with light since that assignment for Rita Reed's class in 2006!" Suddenly, I felt the urge of doing some lightpainting as soon as I found a subject that lend itself to this technique. Little I knew that, on the very next day, I'd have the opportunity to do it. One of my assignments for that day was to photograph a Decatur artist who was having a solo exhibit in Santa Fe, NM. I didn't know anything about him and had no time to research before going to the photo shoot. But when I arrived at the warehouse where he works and saw all the cool things he does, but arranged (or, I should say, "disarranged") in absolute chaotic fashion, it dawned on me: if I could sort of isolate all the clutter by pointing light at specific things, I would get something more interesting and, even more, I could portray an artist by using an "artistic" technique. Went back to the car to get a tripod and a flashlight (or "torch" for those more familiar with the British term) and arranged the scene. The selected frame was my fourth and final attempt. I wish I'd had more time to perfect the portrait, but Sloane had to leave to pick someone up, and I reluctantly settled with whatever I had. Thanks to Sloane for playing along and not moving or breathing for 15 seconds, and thanks to his 6-year-old son, Calwell, for turning the lights on and off. Also thanks to great photographers like Jim Richardson who lead the way and, by sharing their knowledge with the rest of mortals, inspire and teach us.

For those with technical curiosity: this is a 15-second exposure, f/6.3, ISO 100 and focal length of 31 mm.

Some stuff from last year (III) - a couple of portraits

This portrait was trickier than it seems. The sun was behind and to the left, and obviously, the water was several stops brighter than the boys' faces. I needed to capture the water (it was part of the story) and underexpose it to bring up the blue color. Problem was the only place to put the stand with a flash and umbrella was on top on a rock over the water, which was impossible. But then, my boss, who was driving home and knew I was taking a picture by the river, stopped and came down to se how things were going. He ended up on that rock, in a tricky balance, holding the flash and the umbrella. How cool is having your own photo editor working as your lighting assistant?
The National Council of Boy Scouts of America awarded Alex Standridge, left, a Medal of Merit after he pulled fellow scout Julian Lucky, right, to safety during a canoe trip on the Buffalo River in Tennessee last year.


We often receive calls, or they just show up at the newspaper's door, from people who have or caught big things: a 6-foot catfish, a huge cabbage, a monstrous pumpkin... Usually we take a picture in the parking lot, and that's it. One Sunday, I got a call from this man, Paul Hastings, saying that a tomato grown in his back yard was 18' 14" in circumference and weighed 2.5 pounds. I met him in the parking lot, but when I saw his hat and how photogenic he was, decided I wanted to take a portrait in the studio (I think I used 4 lights). Soon enough I had forgotten about the tomato and was concentrating in his face.


Angie Anders with her 2009 World Champion halter horse, Emmie, at Anders' farm in Hartselle.


I asked Daniel, an online editor at the Decatur Daily, to model in this photo illustration for a story about the Alabama and Auburn radio stations as part of our Iron Bowl previews. I've got to say he's a great actor.

Some stuff from last year (II)

Can't even remember what this was. I just like the excitement and the colors...


That kind of picture that I've tried to take so many times, but there's always something that makes it wrong. Not that this time I got it, but at least I came pretty close.


It was real hard to keep shooting while witnessing this man's pain.
Keith Barber moans in pain as his son, Joey, and his mother, Faye Barber, loosen the bandages on his left arm Monday, July 6, 2009. Barber, 49, has been paralyzed and unable to talk since a traffic accident almost two years ago.


I saw these guys playing on the street on my way to an assignment. I decided to stop and then hanged out with them until I got something I liked. Needless to say I got late to wherever I was going to.

Some stuff from last year (I)

While sorting out archives, burning CDs, throwing away crappy work, and, in general, those things that we usually do earlier in the new year, I came across some pictures that I like for one reason or another, but I never posted here. So here it comes the first batch of those.

The woman on the left is the wife of the guy in the ambulance. He was the victim of a hit-and-run. Fortunately he recovered.


One of the many fires I photographed last year. I just like this one picture. The way the firefighter is framed, I guess.


An osprey bringing a dead fish to the nest built on an electric power tower.


This lady, Harriette Rost, has been caring for her husband, Tom, since he had a stroke in May 2006. Harriette` invented and then marketed a simple device for pulling him up and turning him in bed.