The Boot

Yesterday I was on the way to an assignment in Byron, my only Saturday job this week. As I neared Five Points(the BIG intersection in our small town) I noticed that folks were out in traffic collecting money. When I got closer I saw it was PEach County firefighters "filling the boot."

They were collecting monmey for Kids Yule Love, a local organization that provides gifts for children at Christmas.

I parked and grabbed my cameras and movedito the traffic. Still a scary thing if you do much driving. You realize how crazy folks are behind the wheel, and here you are looking through a camera while standing on the center line.

I saw firefighter Alan Whittington across the intersection, his boot standing on the white line between two lanes. The sun was looking like it was about the right spot to ad some drama to my photo. I moved around so he and the boot were between me and the sun and popped a few frames before the light changed and the truck on the side moved.

Made a pretty nice image. Cool for a Saturday morning.

Words To remember


”I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don't find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges.” ~William Albert Allard.

The above quote by Photographer William Albert Allard is so true, and are words every serious photographer should keep in mind. So often when we are shooting we get so locked on what is in our viewfinder we forget to look around and check the peripherals.

Working with that thought, go early. There are moments that make great images before the first kickoff, or the opening speaker, or whatever.

Friday night I arrived at Anderson Stadium to see layers of smoke hanging in the lights. There are numerous grills cooking up food for the concession stands. The atmosphere was such that the smoke spread around but was between the lights and the ground.

This made for a cool photo during pregame warm-ups. Another shot was the cartwheeling cheerleaders.

While I was standing around I noticed the flag and the crescent moon. Keep your eyes open, and occasionally glance away from the viewfinder.

The Ginkgo Tree

This morning at breakfast my friend Nick told me I needed to go by and look at this ginkgo tree. It is a couple of blocks from my home. Last year I kept saying I needed to do some photos of it and never did.
On Nick’s advice I went by the tree on the way to the office. I shot some stuff with
My 17-55 and with the 70-200 but wasn’t inspired. I wasn’t doing this beautiful tree justice.

I went back to the car and got my 10mm and got down on the ground. Wow, it clicked. I found one leaf that was in just the right position, just a little above the others. The sun was popping through the tree just above it. I knew that had to be my focal point.
My last shot was the complete tree. Had to have a record of the whole scene.
Ansel Adams summed it up when he said “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”
Okay Nick, this one was for you.

Shooting On The Sidelines

I usually shoot some feature art while coving football games, the band, coaches interacting with players, the crowd, cheerleaders, etc. In the stadium here in Peach County, the light falls off pretty badly at the ends of the field.
Last Friday night while shooting a photo of Head Coach Chad Campbell talking with a player on the sidelines, I noticed how the scoreboard was looking in the background.

Later in the game, I was down toward the endzone and the cheerleaders got cranked up. I usually shoot the cheerleaders from the midfield side so they will have a little fill on their faces. I decided to shoot from the endzone side to work the scoreboard lights in the background. From this side, their faces were quite dark. I waited to shoot when they were looking up, to capture the highlights.
Took a little effort in Photoshop, but made some interesting photos.

Okay, here is something new for me. I am posting a video on my blog.

Making slideshows with your pictures is really cool. Another way to show of your images.
Using programs like IMovie and Windows Movie Maker, it is quite easy to make a nice slideshow and set it to music, or use any audio with it.



I made this one with images from a shoot with model Kimberly Uso.

Check it out.

Flag Burning

I shot a Veteran's Day Ceremony this afternoon in Fort Valley. Our little town has its Veteran's Day Ceremony on Sunday each year. Seems more people will come on Sunday than a weekday.
The last couple of years, the Boy Scouts have done a Flag Retirement Ceremony at the conclusion.

I have shot quite a few Flag Retirements and have always been not quite satisfied with my images. I have gotten some okay stuff, but wanted something that was a real grabber. The flames and flags always make an interesting photo, but this year I decided to really work it.

The old flags are cut up before burning. The blue field is cut out first and used to hold each stripe as the flag is cut apart. The last two stripes are used to tie the bundle, then the flag goes into the fire. Two scouts were holding the blue star field as their scout master cut away a part of the flag and then dropped it into the field of blue.

Today they were positioned so the sun was coming down through the blue, really making the stars show up. I dug out my 10mm, and got down low so I could see the backlight through the flag. It looked really good. Then the scout master came into the frame.

WOW!!! I had my photo. His silhouette jumped out through the flag, with just a bit of flare from the sun popping over his shoulder. It was also magnified about four times bigger which really helped.

I had a decent flaming flag photo to make my package. I am a happy man.

The Little Turtle

Anyone can go out on Halloween and get some cool photos. Kids and costumes always make
for good photos. This year I came up with several nice photos. Definite keepers. The one with Batman and his rivals Riddler and Joker I posted earlier.

Before I shot the Batman photo I photographed young Jacob Carter nad his dad Bill. Dad was holding Jacob in his arms, was a nice enough photo. I wandered around and got several more photos, then on my way back I came back by Jacob and Bill. Bill was about to put him down on the walk. HELLO, time to hit the ground with the old 17mm. Same charm that won young Jacob first place in the costume contest came thru in the photograph.

It is a blessing to be short enough to shoot up at a one-year-old.

Batman Meets Joker and the Riddler

I was covering the Halloween costume contest in Byron last night. After the contest the Moneypenny brothers were about to leave the stage when the young Batman's mom thought it would be neat to get him with arch rivals The Riddler and Joker.

I had already moved in to get a shot of the two villains so I waited, hoping for an interesting photo with the three kids together. Poor little Batman decided he wanted no part of these two. He stopped several feet away and as I saw his expression through my viewfinder, I knew I had a neat shot.