The Blink of an Eye

Hazardous Duty

2012-02-14T10:20:00.002-06:00

Monday afternoon was a day filled with crashes and spin-outs as area residents had to re-acquaint themselves with how to drive on slippery roads.
Gosh, but we have short memories.
And I'm always amazed at how some folks believe that four-wheel-drive trumps a little common sense and caution.
The calls starting come in over the scanner about mid-afternoon when the first wave of workers and students headed home after light snow fell most of the day.
I headed out to one such incident just north of Mankato on Highway 169 where, according to reports, a car skidded across the median into the opposite lane, struck another vehicle, then rolled.
The driver suffered minor injuries but it certainly could have been a lot worse.
I had pulled beyond the crash and off the shoulder as far as I could, grabbed my camera and shot a few quick photographs before the accident was totally cleared.
But as I was shooting, even in spite of the slippery conditions and a couple of squad cars with flashing lights, traffic still flew by me way too fast for the conditions.
And way too close, as far as I was concerned.
Police officers will tell you that one of their biggest fears is getting creamed at an incident scene by passing traffic.
I can understand why.
At 60 mph, a car is moving at 88 feet per second. It might not seem that fast for an impatient driver behind the wheel.
But for someone along the shoulder of the road, having all that steel flying by just a few feet away is truly frightening.
All it would have taken was someone to lose control on the slippery road. The federally mandated safety vest I am required to wear at crash scenes would be of little value.
Perhaps it comes with age but I am far more cautious when I'm photographing such events, paying very close attention to passing traffic.
An old adage veteran photographers use to invoke about car crashes was that they would drive 90 mph to get there and then only 30 mph to get back to the office after being frightened by the sobering realities of what they had photographed.
Speeding to news events long since became history for this shooter.
Whatever is happening will wait until I get there at the leisurely pace of the speed limit or existing road conditions.
But all the impatient drivers out there need not worry.
I'll be in the right hand lane.

Farewell Kodak

2012-01-31T10:47:00.004-06:00

It recently was announced that Eastman Kodak is filing for bankruptcy.

What that means exactly for the future of the company remains to be seen but I couldn't help but regard the news with some sadness.

In the course of shooting photographs over the last 45 years, I've burned through thousands of rolls of good old Kodak film in the familiar yellow box.

Indeed, during the summer of 1973, while working as a summer intern at the Dubuque Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa, I made of point of just tossing every box, data sheet and film cassette over my shoulder and into the backseat of my full-sized Ford, just to see how many rolls I would end up shooting over the summer. I don't recall the exact number of rolls but when my 10-week internship ended, the backseat was level to the windows with them.

What is so remarkable is that for all of the rolls of Kodak film I have shot over the years, I can recall only two rolls that were defective. Those two rolls had in inexplicable fog along the bottom edge of the three-foot long strip of film. Naturally, the photos on those particular rolls were ruined so I wasn't at all happy at the time about what I still believe was a Kodak goof-up.

But two rolls out of thousands over four decades...that's still a pretty remarkable example of quality control. And I know longtime photographers who have never had a defective roll of Kodak film over their entire careers.

The makers of, say, televisions, computers or automobiles could only wish for such a record.
In the end, for all of its great products and quality control, Kodak was probably too big to make the adjustment to digital quickly, and admittedly, perhaps a bit too complacent about its standing in the photographic community.

By the time it saw the handwriting on the darkroom wall, it was too late. I shot my last rolls of film of any brand in 2001, the time the Free Press took delivery of Nikon digital cameras.

While I sometimes miss the craftsmanship of the old chemical processes, the magic of a print appearing on a blank sheet of paper, I wouldn't trade it for the efficiency of digital imaging. Given the state of newspaper resources where we're all doing much more with less, we couldn't possibly get done what we need to if we had to burn up a portion of our day in the darkroom.

Nevertheless, I hope the American icon that Kodak has been over the last century survives in some fashion.

Especially since I just bought one of their printers!

Not my usual cup of tea

2012-01-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

Typically at a basketball game I shoot pictures similar to the one I took of Mankato East's Brett Olson a couple of weeks ago at left. Tight, close in to the action, clean (at least blurred out) background. That's more my style: Get the viewer into the action and make him or her part of the game. Give them a view they may not be able to see from their seat.

I took a different approach when editing my photos from the Austin vs. Mankato East matchup Tuesday night. I decided to go with the picture at right, which shows (from a distance) East's Brandon Kowalski taking a long range three point shot. The significance of the photo is in the background. East is down by three as the clock winds down. Kowalski hits the shot to tie the game as the buzzer sounds. The crowd goes crazy. The team goes crazy. Kowalski goes crazy.

I had plenty of pictures like the one at left, even one of Kowalski hitting a three pointer earlier in the game, that would have worked just fine and would have fit my formula for a good sports photo better than this one. But in this case I felt the scoreboard added to the picture, showing East down three (I do wish I could've gotten the clock in the frame too, but that was all I had). The storytelling aspects of this particular picture made it worth publishing over the others.

Too lifelike?

2012-01-25T15:23:00.001-06:00

Now I'm as much of a technology freak as the next photographer. I can be convicted of my share of spot coloring, vignetting, sepia toning, etc. a photo. But I found this use of technology very interesting. Photographer (perhaps artist would be a better term?) Sanna Dullaway, as this blog entry says, "re-imagines photos from the past in vibrant, realistic hues."

Essentially, she has taken famous photos from the past (like the famous Times Square kiss photo from the end of World War II by Alfred Eisenstaedt here) and colored them in a realistic manner. They kind of remind me of the old hand coloring techniques used in that era before digital photography became so popular. They are beautiful, artistic and well done.

But (you knew it was coming, didn't you?), does the technique cheapen the photo? Sure, Alfred Eisenstaedt probably saw the scene as it appears at right. But history remembers the scene in black and white. So is it strange to see a historic photo like this in color, as it was originally witnessed? Or does the photo become less historic because of Dullaway adding a level of non-truth to the picture (if it truly isn't truth she's adding. I'm making an assumption she wasn't there and doesn't know whether lady in the background has on a blue dress or a yellow one, for example).

Don't get me wrong, it's intriguing to think of what Albert Einstein or Samuel Clements looked like in color. But I wonder if these iconic photos lose their icon status when made more "real."

The latest in photographer fashion

2012-01-19T17:36:00.000-06:00

A model wears a creation by Nicola Formichetti, and Sebastien Teigne for Thierry Mugler fashion house's Men's fall-winter 2012-2013 collection, presented in Paris, Wednesday. AP photo

This one's from the "you've gotta be kidding me" department. Now, finding unusual fashion show photos on the Associated Press wire is not groundbreaking news, but I had to share this one just for it's absurdity.

I've been around for my fair share of photographer fashion faux pas. I wore the safari vest for years. I still have the waaaay oversized belt pack with add-on pouches. I have carried the camera bag that makes me look like I've packed everything I own inside it. This one beats them all.

The caption didn't name the outfit, though. Any ideas? Photographer's corset? RoboPhotog?

They could have at least put a bigger camera on it than an all plastic EOS Rebel. I mean, this thing could support a 400/2.8

Thanks to copy editor Josie Belina for pointing it out to me!

Are SOPA and PIPA evil? Well, yes and no.

2012-01-18T14:58:00.000-06:00

A lot of buzz is being made in tech circles today as Google, Reddit, Wikipedia and other online giants are conduction a blackout to protest a pair of bills making their way through the House and Senate that are designed to decrease online copyright infringement. Called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate companion the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the two bills would give corporations the ability to have the Attorney General of the United States shut down Websites that repeatedly infringe on copyright.

On the surface, this sounds fantastic. Creative professionals (like me!) have lamented our work being used by others for their financial gain without compensation. "Borrowing" music, photographs, artwork, video, etc. for use on various blogs and other websites is rampant. Often these secondary websites are making money by selling advertising, charging for subscription services or other means, and not compensating the originator of the work. Worse still, as in the case of newspaper websites, the site taking the story, photo, etc. takes hits away from the organization that paid to have the work produced in the first place. So policing this is good, right?

Again, yes and no. Here's where SOPA and PIPA go wrong, big time. Part of these bills allow an organization to let loose the dogs of the Attorney General's office on anyone THEY feel violates copyright. No courts. No due process. No evidence. Just shut 'em down. That flies in the face of not only the spirit but the wording of the First Amendment. It means I could go to jail just for posting the above image of Wikipedia's blackout on this blog if Wikipedia chose to report me.

It is obvious why tech circles and the blogosphere see this as a threat. There are hundreds of websites and blogs that would shut down if they couldn't steal work from others, perhaps for the better. But there are also so many that help integrate and intertwine the various sources of information on the Internet that would be either shut down or severely limited by these bills. And from a technical aspect, there are too many ways to get around the proposed blocking of a website to make it effective.

Now, don't get me wrong. Something is broken when an organization can pay to have a creative work done, then someone with a fly-by-night "news" website can come along and use the work without permission or compensation. But in today's world of information flow, the Internet has to remain a place where information can flow uncensored. Something has to be done, but SOPA and PIPA are not it!

Being financially dependent the publishing industry, I have a vested interest in how these bills play out in the coming months. It has been difficult for me to formulate an opinion, and I've been following the debate for a while. On one hand, seeing industries like mine lose money to every person who uses a story or photograph without permission in its entirety without any kind of link back really makes me mad. On the other, I wouldn't be able to stand watching industry executives shut down Joe Q. Blogger for putting one picture on their blog in a heavy-handed attempt to maintain the bottom line.

There is a middle ground here. Congress needs to find it. As written, I think these two bills are flawed.

Ironically, Twitter currently has an excellent summary page of information about the two bills and how they threaten the free flow of information, complete with other links to outside analysis. Consider the sources of the information you read, but educate yourself on these two bills.

Where were you?

2011-09-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

Flight 175 approaches the south tower on 9/11. AP Photo

Every generation has a "Where Were You" event, the sort of event where everyone asks, "Where were you when X happened?" It will be hard for most of us to forget where we were or what we were doing on Sept. 11, 2001, no matter how inconsequential it may be.

I was working as the only photographer at the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, a small, 6-day a week paper in northwestern Minnesota. My work day started at 6:45 a.m. (as usual, and yes, it hurt!) processing film from the previous day's assignments. As the editor/page designer and other reporters started to filter into the newsroom, I was sitting at my computer scanning negatives for that day's paper. I was the only person in the newsroom without a direct view of the lone television in the room.

By chance, I turned around to ask the editor a question right when CNN broke through their regular coverage with the image of the World Trade Center's north tower burning. "A plane hit the World Trade Center," I said as I watched the coverage.

After rapidly scanning the rest of my photos I continued to watch the coverage as United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower and as American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. Before United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania I was on the phone with the Associated Press bureau chief in Minneapolis asking to get pictures from the wire (we didn't subscribe to the AP Photostream at the Journal. Too expensive.), which all newspapers in Minnesota were given, whether they were subscribers or not. The Journal, being one of the few afternoon papers left in the state, had the story and photos on A1 about the terrorist attacks in the Sept. 11 paper.

The driver of a delivery truck that nearly hit a school makes a call. Sept. 11, 2001.

After the paper was out, I drove through the city, seeking people watching the coverage of the attacks and reacting. While I found those photos, I also found a photo of a school food service delivery driver who forgot to set his parking brake, causing his truck to roll down a hill and nearly hit the school. It would have certainly been a front page photo had it not been for the terrorist attacks. Oh well!

I still have a CD in my personal archive of all the photographs I pulled from the wire or shot for about 4 days after 9/11. It was interesting pulling that CD out this week to take a look at them. That CD will always help me remember the day our society changed. I am privileged to work in an industry that chronicles history in real time, both the good and the bad.

The photographers of 9/11

2011-09-09T16:00:00.001-05:00

The final image shot by Bill Biggart, SIPA Press phototographer killed on 9/11.

News organizations are going crazy this week preparing coverage as the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaches. 9/11 was arguably the most covered major event in history: a horrible, long duration event in cities with the most journalists per capita in the country.

Thanks to those men and women who went into harms way to document an important moment in American history we have images and video to remember what happened that sunny day nearly 10 years ago. Some, like Bill Biggart, didn't come home.

Biggart was killed when the south tower fell on him as he was taking pictures. His equipment was recovered a few days later. The image above was the last one he shot, moments before the south tower collapsed.

Photographer Thomas E. Franklin produced the video below to not just commemorate the attacks and those that died in them, but the journalists that risked their lives to bring back iconic images of an event that shouldn't be forgotten.

It's a must watch for anyone who has an interest in becoming a photojournalist. It's a must watch for anyone who is curious about what photojournalists do. It's a must watch for people like me who sometimes question whether what we are doing is right. The photographers in the video, professionals and amateurs alike, all share a curiosity about what happens in the world around them and a desire to tell that story in pictures. It's worth the 12 minutes. It might be worth 24.

"New journalism" and potential backlash

2011-08-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

Hurricane Irene approaches Tybee Island, Ga. AP Photo/Stephen Morton

There are a thousand names for what's happening in newsrooms across the country: new journalism, crowdsourcing, community-assisted journalism, iReporting. It's an attempt to get real people in our communities involved in the content they see in newspapers, TV news reports, online news sites and radio news broadcasts.

On its face it is a great idea. Ordinary people not only having a say in what's covered, but actually providing coverage. Cash-strapped and staff-starved newsrooms in every type of media imaginable use this type of reporting to bolster news coverage and give their consumers ownership of the news.

But there's a seemier side to the issue.

This method of news coverage not only helps put professional journalists trained in objectivity out of a job, but it can cast doubt over a submission's authenticity and whether the source of a piece of video/photo/story has a bias or other motive than objective coverage, which casts even more doubt over a news organization's credibility.

But let's even put THAT aside for a moment. Facebook and Twitter have been buzzing this week over a couple of requests from news organizations looking for help in covering major news stories. It's not uncommon. Both Facebook and Twitter are excellent resources for journalists to connect with sources, as revolutionary to news coverage as the cell phone, telephone and the various news wire services were before them.

The Associated Press has taken some heat on Facebook this week after putting out a plea for video coverage of Tuesday's earthquake in Virginia. Before the discussion was hijacked, posters questioned whether they would get paid and why AP wasn't doing their own reporting work. Yet, videos and photos galore have appeared across the Internet and on social networking sites.

Today, the Christian Science Monitor put out a tweet suggesting people tag storm photos so they can be retweeted by CSM. Now, this has been hashed out many times. How can a news organization, even back-handedly, ask citizens to venture out into a dangerous situation to take pictures or video for them? I'm sure any damage to life or property would be reimbursed by CSM, right? What about compensation for helping CSM make money as a news source?

Then there's the question of safety. The National Weather Service has called hurricane Irene the most dangerous storm to hit the east coast in decades. People should take cover, not video with their cell phones. How bad would a news director or editor feel if they found out someone died trying to get a picture of a hurricane for their organization's photo gallery?

There are professional photographers and videographers in the region that specialize in covering hurricanes and know how to stay safe in these situations. There's no way I'd blast off into a hurricane to shoot pictures without proper equipment and training in how to stay safe.

It's a sticky wicket to be sure. On one hand you have the need for news organizations to cover the news in any way possible, including asking for help from their consumers. On the other hand, why should consumers participate in news coverage by an organization when all that is needed is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.?

New Week in Pictures up

2011-08-24T15:06:00.001-05:00

Kaohsiung, Taiwan right fielder Chun-Yen Kuo. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

Sorry I was a little late updating our Week in Pictures slideshow. Trust me when I say the wait was worth it.

I stayed away from a lot of the usual suspects this time. No preseason NFL football. Only a couple of MLB photos. I did include a lot of sports images this time, I think. There just seemed to be a lot of good stuff being made out there this week, like the one here from the Little League World Series.

Be warned, however: The sixth image in this week's slideshow may be upsetting to sensitive viewers. My slideshow program won't allow an option to skip or I might have considered using it. The photo was so gripping I had to include it, though. It depicts from a distance a wing walker falling from his plane during an airshow after trying to go from an airplane to a helicopter's skids.

I heart the Brown County Fair

2011-08-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

I have a love affair with the Brown County Fair. Shhh! Don't tell my wife!

I don't know what it is about it. I like many of the other county fairs around the area that I cover on an annual basis, but there's something about the Brown County fair that always lends itself to good pictures.

Perhaps it's the volume of classic, brick buildings on the fairgrounds. Maybe the atmosphere? I'm not sure. But each year I go to the Brown County Fair I come back with at least one picture I really like.

The photo above is one of the first photos I shot at the Brown County Fair in New Ulm after moving here back in 2002. Everything seemed to come into alignment when I went into the sheep barn: The light, the composition, the moment between a young 4-Her and her sheep. I still like this photo.

The photos below I've shot in New Ulm over the past few years. Each one of them has a special place in my heart, and I may never know why. The Brown County Fair just seems to be one of those places where I can wander in, stroll the grounds for an hour or two and find a plethora of great pictures.

Evening light strikes a cow as she's led back to her stall.

Andrew Scholtz shows his prospect steer during the 4-H Beef Show.

Mike Griebel helps his son Isaac get his cow ready outside the cattle barn.

Bethany Seifert sits with her cow.

A rabbit checks out the competition during judging.

You never can tell

2011-08-11T18:42:00.001-05:00

Frank Glick's photo at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

I always keep a camera in my truck. You never know when a good photo will come your way.

The story about the photo at right, taken by amateur photographer Frank Glick during an early morning drive through Fort Snelling National Cemetery on his way to work, is a touching one. As reported in Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin's column in June, Glick tracked down the widow of the World War II veteran on whose tombstone the eagle rests.

The photo spoke to her, and since Tevlin's column, the photo has spoken to hundreds of others. Glick, according to a follow-up story Tevlin wrote recently, has sent reprints of the photo to airbases, veterans affairs offices, Arlington National Cemetery, and a base in Afghanistan. All from a photo Glick captured while traveling from one place to another.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the inevitable accusations of digital alteration (know by the inaccurate and, in my opinion evil, term "Photoshopping") have come into play. The bird is too big, some say. Others point out the sidelighting creating an aura around the bird. Glick reassured Tevlin the photo was not a fake (which is something he shouldn't have to do!), but rather the end result of 60 frames of shooting and a little cropping.

For a photo like this, that's all that's necessary.

Really odd photos get all the attention

2011-08-10T18:08:00.000-05:00

Art project in Beijing, China. AP photo

I had to look at the caption when I first saw this photo, featured in this week's The Week in Pictures. Ed Thoma, one of our page designers, often points out pictures that catch his eye for the slideshow. When he showed me this one I had no idea what I was seeing at first. Reading the caption only helped a little.

That's probably why I like it so much.

Ignore the fact that it looks like a giant box of Crayola crayons for starters (Have you seen the person yet?). Ignore that all you really see at first is the back of two young people's heads (no, not THOSE people). While you're at it, ignore the fact that you can't really see anything going on in the picture at all (yes, THAT person!).

Pay attention to the fact that you really have to see the picture before you figure out what (or who) you're looking at.

It's one of those pictures that grabs your attention because you have to spend some time seeing the picture. You have to study it a bit before you realize there's a third person being painted there. The photo is of Chinese artist Liu Bolin, center, being painted to blend into rows of drinks in his artwork entitled "Plasticizer," to express his speechlessness at use of plasticizer in food additives. A neat statement, and a striking photo.

The photo illustrates the difference between looking at a photograph, and seeing it. Looking at a photograph involves a simple physical act. There can still be appreciation, but in my opinion a viewer doesn't really get to enjoy the entire picture. It's like reading the first and last chapters of a novel. You get the point, maybe even enjoy the "book," but the subtleties are missed. To see a photograph is to read into its meaning, to grasp some of the nuances that make a photograph unique and appreciate those subtle parts of the photograph.

The picture, and the above statements, fly in the face of everything I was taught in journalism school that makes a good picture. Newspaper photographs should be a "quick read," I was told. A reader shouldn't have to stare at a picture to figure it out.

Well, maybe not EVERY photo should be a quick read. After all, they put crossword puzzles in the paper too, don't they?

Who's in town?

2011-08-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

Jim Kleinsasser. John Cross photo

Oh, yeah! That's right! It's Vikings Training Camp season! I was wondering why there were so many cars going the wrong way on one way streets in Mankato. Not to mention all the SUVs with tinted windows and chrome spinners.

Don't get me wrong. Those who know me know I'm a BIG football fan (though I tend to root for a different team). I even enjoy having training camp in town (but don't tell anyone. I don't think I'm supposed to like it!). It would have been odd if camp didn't happen in Mankato this year due to the lockout. Training camp is a good time to see some of my Twin Cities colleagues and shoot photos of something that gets national exposure. How can I NOT like it?

Of course, I can do without the circus atmosphere, the crazy drivers, the piles of extra work and the general nuttiness that goes with camp. It seems that once 90 famous (or semi-famous) people invade town everyone kind of loses their minds a bit.

Not me. A photographer once told me on one of my first assignments shooting famous people to "act like you've been there, cause you have. Just shoot. They're still people, right?" Words I continue to live by.

I haven't been up to MSU yet. I'm scheduled to shoot the Thursday practice, when all the free agents hit the practice fields. I'm kinda looking forward to it. In the meantime, John and I have created a running photo gallery we'll update each day we're at camp. I posted it below, though it's sized to fit our website's column space, so you'll have to hit the full screen square in the right corner. You can also see it here.

Farewell, Little Buddy

2011-07-29T12:38:00.000-05:00

I lost one of my favorite photo models this week. Mokie was a kitten when my wife and I got him 15 years ago and he's been a good friend and constant companion ever since. Needless to say, it's been a long week or so. Any pet owner would agree.

Like most "children," he was often a ham when I pointed the camera at him. To get pictures of him that didn't involve him either showing off or turning his head I often had to sneak up on him when he was sleeping or shoot pictures from a distance with my 80-200mm so he didn't know.

One of the first pictures I shot of him (the one above) I had to plan in advance. I parked my camera next to me during an afternoon nap one weekend when I knew he would nap on the blanket with me. Of course, my planning wasn't perfect, as I had left my 100mm f/2 lens on and not my wide angle. As I pushed my head into the back of the sofa to try to get enough distance to get a photo of him, he woke up. It's still one of my favorite photos of my Little Buddy.

As is often the case with people, my wife and I used pictures to help us through the grief. We spent the weekend looking for as many pictures of Mokie as we could find and put together a little video memorial. It certainly isn't my best work, but it did help us remember all the good times we had with our feline buddy. He will always be missed, but he won't be far from our hearts, thanks to all the pictures I took of him during the good times.

Over and over again

2011-07-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space
Center Friday July 8, 2011 (from The Week in Pictures). AP Photo

It's hard to cover the same event over and over again. Even if it's not the exact same event, it often may seem like it. Through the course of a year John Cross and I cover a lot of the same events in our area: fairs, parades and festivals, snow making at Mt. Kato, blizzards, hot days, kids swimming in the local pool. All are annual photos we shoot, and all are events where we have to work to find a fresh look to things, which we frequently do. Part of the challenge of shooting for a newspaper is to constantly come up with something new from an event we've seen many times before.

That repetition can work in our favor, though. Having seen something before can help us to plan a unique photo, or gain access we normally wouldn't have.

Scott Andrews probably knows this better than anyone. For nearly 40 years he's been shooting shuttle launches and landings, setting up remote cameras in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable. MSNBC's Photoblog has an interesting story about Andrews and how he managed to gain access to shoot the time lapse video below of preparations for the shuttle Atlantis' final flight.

The end results are impressive, as is his determination and thoughtfulness in using the knowledge he's gained over the years of shooting launch after launch after launch.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gone fishin'

2011-07-06T18:00:00.001-05:00

I shot exactly four frames during my Fourth of July camping trip.

That's almost unheard of. Five days, and I shot only four frames.

I don't know why I only shot four frames. I didn't even get out my SLR gear during our camping trip up to Crosslake, Minn. over the Fourth of July weekend. Usually, spending time with my friends camping and fishing at the Cuyuna Boy Scout Camp inspires me to shoot some nice pictures. It's definitely a picturesque spot. For some reason, call it laziness or apathy or fatigue, I chose not to do any purposeful photography.

There was one exception: The photo above.

When we camp at Cuyuna, we frequently get up as early as possible to do some fishing. This is tough for me, as mornings and I don't get along very well. Actually, mornings and I don't get along at all. It's a shame, since early morning light is great photo-taking light.

I'm usually the one that has to be rousted from my bunk at 6 a.m. while everyone waits for me to get my stuff together so we can try to catch the evening's dinner. By some freak of nature, I was the first one up on Sunday morning. I don't know why. It just worked out that way. As I took my fishing pole and tackle box to the lake so I wasn't the one everyone had to wait for (for a change), I ran across another camper with the same idea we had. We chatted for a bit before he made his way to the end of the dock to try his luck from the shore.

While I waited for my buddies to walk down the hill, I couldn't resist pulling out a digital point-and-shoot I keep in my tackle box in case I catch that lunker Northern and shot two frames of the man fishing. They captured the peace of an early morning I rarely experience, but have come to enjoy on the days I manage to get out of bed early.

The other two frames I shot this weekend? One was of a friend's 4 1/2-pound Northern. The other was another friend's Northern that didn't even qualify as a hammer handle. Brave little fish!

Sorry for my extended absence. Sometimes it seems summer is even more busy for me than winter! Do check out the new Week in Pictures, though. This one is a bonus! It's actually the Month in Pictures. I didn't want you to miss some of the great pictures that have come through in the past month, so I included them in this week's slideshow. More than 50 pictures for you to enjoy this week!

A time to be artsy, and a time to be simple

2011-06-15T17:34:00.001-05:00

I think many photographers who have never worked at a newspaper lean toward the excessively artistic when it comes to shooting and editing pictures. Newspaper photographers always have in the back of their heads to tell the story first, then add complexity or artistic flair to a picture. In our mind, artsy does no good if you don't tell the story.

In general I believe that's true, but from time to time the artsy genie won't stay in the bottle and insists on coming out. When that happens, I often have a dilemma. I know editors and page designers often look for the simple, basic photo. On the other hand, I now have this creative image I've probably fallen in love with for some reason or another. Maybe I found a unique angle. Perhaps I worked hard using a slow shutter speed to streak a background, or maybe invested some extra time to get just the right framing.

No matter what the reason may be I have to pick one of the two, or persuade an editor or page designer to pick the more unusual photo.

The two photos below of Mankato West runner Joey Booker, which are also in The Week in Pictures right now, illustrate what happens when the artsy genie's out of the bottle. Waiting for the race to start, I laid on my belly with my 300/2.8 to see if I can get a shot of Booker through the hurdles. I got lucky, and he took a moment to compose himself before the start of the 110-meter hurdles at the section track meet.

Mankato West’s Joey Booker prepares for his 110-meter hurdles race during the Section 2AA track and field meet in St. Peter.

Of course, I saw a couple of problems with the photo right away. I couldn't see Booker's face, for starters, and he's pretty small in the frame. Of course, the unique angle, good moment and interesting framing had the genie screaming at me to put it in the paper.

During the race I shot the next photo. This is usually more of what the paper's looking for: Clear face, tight framing, little wasted space.


Mankato West’s Joey Booker qualified for the state meet in the 110-meter hurdles with a qualifying time of 15.22 seconds.

While not a bad photo at all, I really hoped we would run the first picture. Under these circumstances I will often lobby our page designers to run one photo over another, but in this case I wasn't able to be in the office when they put the page together. I was surprised when I saw this:

Thanks to Shane Frederick, who was designing sports pages that night, for picking the more unusual photo to run. It's often hard to decide when to go out on a limb and listen to the artsy genie. Sometimes you just have to go for it!

You know, that camera won't protect you much!

2011-06-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

I ran across these videos recently displaying the dangers of being a photographer. Of course, there are many other professions that put a person in more harm's way, but there can be an element of danger to getting the shot you really want.

All I can say is, I'm glad I don't have to shoot rally racing on a regular basis!

Of course, in both of these cases, I think the photographer is being a bit cavalier about the dangers his chosen location poses. In this one, I don't know if the photographer is that good to know the wall would protect him, or that lucky that the wall DID protect him.

This one really looks like it hurt. The sound is a bit disturbing.

One of my favorite near miss stories is this one by racing photographer Mark Reblias about his experience losing thousands of dollars in camera gear after a remote camera got hit by a dragster's parachute during a NHRA race. The Nikon D700 and 400/2.8 lens he lost carry about a $12,000 price tag! At least he wasn't standing behind it!

A couple of weeks ago I nearly had a close encounter with an errant softball. A foul ball rocketed off the bat and hit the dugout next to my head before screaming past the front of my camera. Now, I've had plenty of close calls in a variety of sports, but this one rattled me a bit.

I've also seen many photographers who think the chunk of plastic, metal and glass they're holding will insulate them from any harm. Yes, I've had my share of moments after a puck whizzes by my face where I don't want to show anyone I was scared out of my mind.

But hiding behind the camera will NOT keep you safe!

The risk you take

2011-06-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Photo by John Cross.

As an artist, I can sympathize with Kate Christopher.

I didn't get to meet the Mahtomedi artist during the installation of "Look and You Will Find It," one of the sculptures I photographed on the CityArt Walking Sculpture tour in the last post (by the way, that's the photo in the slideshow I did NOT take with my iPhone, if you were wondering). Her sculpture instantly drew my attention the moment I saw it, both for its simplicity and its message.

“It’s a piece about attitude and how you look at things and how you approach the day,” Christopher said in a story today in The Free Press. “If people start their day looking down, that’s the life they see."

It is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it also drew the attention of a vandal, who managed to break off and steal one of the figures.Another piece on the sculpture walk was vandalized recently too.

I have a hard time imagining why someone would vandalize art like this. It seems like outdoor artwork attracts vandals. You may recall the stone buffalo in Reconciliation Park in Mankato being vandalized a couple of years ago in a spray painting incident. The organizer of the art walk in Sioux Falls had similar stories of occasional vandalism.

Christopher summed it up well in a comment in The Free Press. “You have to rage against people who want to destroy public art," she said.

As it is, artists take a risk displaying their work to the public, regardless of the medium. There's an emotional risk that no one will like it. There's a monetary risk that no one will buy it. Now there's the physical risk that some one will vandalize it.

Christopher said she plans to come to town soon to fix the sculpture, which is insured.

CityArt art

2011-06-03T10:00:00.009-05:00


My wife Lisa looking at "Fowl Ball" by Lee W. Badger.

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned to shoot the installation of the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour in downtown Mankato and North Mankato. 25 sculptures were placed in the two cities for a year for walkers to enjoy.

My wife Lisa and I took advantage of one of the few spring days without rain to look at the sculptures. We both definitely had our favorites, and no, we didn't really agree. The good part of the sculptures selected for the walking tour is that they are so varied in style and substance that everyone should find a piece they like.

Our excursion took place on a Sunday morning after going to church downtown. While my cameras are in the truck nearly all the time, we took Lisa's car that morning and all I had with me was my relatively new iPhone. Now, much has been made of all the photography apps available on the iPhone and how handy the little gadget has become. Since the photography bug hit me that morning I thought I'd put it through its paces.

I had a good time taking various pictures of the sculptures, exploring their angles, details, and the way the changing light fell on each sculpture. The iPhone's camera performed pretty well, though it was certainly not my trusty SLRs. I chose not to use any of the App Store's many photography programs to process the images. They're pretty much straight out of the phone. Of course, being a gadget freak, if anyone has any recommendations on a favorite camera app for the iPhone, I'll listen!

I didn't shoot a picture of every sculpture. I did include one photo shot with my D300 from my installation assignment. Any idea which one it is?

We're back!

2011-06-02T15:52:00.000-05:00

"The Blink of an Eye" has returned! After a nearly year-long hiatus from blogging we're back with a new design and new features. Take a few minutes to look around and see what's new.

We've added informational links across the top and renamed our "Photos of the Week" feature "The Week in Pictures" to better reflect what it is: A look back on the images that caught our eye in the past week. Click on it each Tuesday after 5 p.m. to see a new slideshow of images from local, state and national photographers.

Most of the posts will be by me. John Cross will be making occasional posts as a contributor, but I'll be doing the heavy lifting. We hope to turn "The Blink of an Eye" into a place to share some of our personal work and continue to give insights into the stories behind the photos we shoot every day.

Check back with us a couple of times a week to see what's new!

The last roll of Kodachrome

2010-07-28T08:00:00.029-05:00

Award-winning National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry shot this photo of an Afghan girl for the magazines cover in 1984. The photograph is one of the magazine's most recognized pictures. What isn't as widely known is that the medium the photograph was shot with is perhaps more iconic than the photograph itself: Kodachrome slide film.

Immortalized in a Paul Simon song, Kodachrome has been used by professional photographers for decades for its color saturation and archival qualities, until now. Last year Kodak discontinued the film in favor of concentrating on its digital offerings. There is only one photo lab in the world processing the last rolls of Kodacrome in circulation, Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons, Kan.

McCurry was given the last roll of Kodachrome ever to come off of the production line. The roll was recently processed at Dwayne's, but it's contents are a closely guarded secret until next year, when it will be the subject of a National Geographic documentary.

National Public Radio did an interview with McCurry last week after completing his shoot. Take a few minutes to read or listen to it. It provides some great insights into McCurry's thought process. What got my attention was how nervous he was shooting assignment. I guess it's good to know that even very accomplished and successful photographers like McCurry still get nervous once in a while.

Vacation?

2010-06-02T21:24:00.010-05:00

While we're on vacation my wife often asks me if what we're doing is really vacation if I'm taking pictures all the time. I usually tell her it is, and try to tone down my tendency to wander off with the camera, at least for a little while. It can be difficult to separate work from play sometimes when your vocation and your favorite hobby are one in the same. While I've taken "photo vacations" where I specifically go somewhere to take pictures, I do my best to not spend an entire vacation behind the viewfinder.

This weekend, while camping in Lake City, I didn't shoot a frame. Not one. Not with our point and shoot. Not with my professional-level cameras. Not even with someone else's camera. A very rare thing indeed, but sometimes a welcome one. The long Memorial Day weekend came at a perfect time for me to recharge before the spring high school sports tournaments start. In this case, recharging meant putting the camera down and walking away slowly.

Most of the time, I'm pretty good at keeping my work-style shooting separate from my recreational-style shooting. I can usually take time here or there as we do things to pull out the camera and explore something I find interesting, but not let shooting dominate our precious vacation time. Of course, there are times when I can't resist. Let's face it, a lot of the places my wife and I like to go are very photogenic. But I work pretty hard to not follow around someone else's family on vacation because I really need a person in a photo.

(Ok, there was that one time at Gooseberry Falls with the dad and his daughter on his shoulders walking through the water, but it was just that one time!)

In Praise of Life magazine

2010-05-10T15:33:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is to page through a vintage Life magazine.
The magazine may be unfamiliar to anyone younger than a baby-boomer but in it's day, it was the weekly magazine to subscribe to.
The whole basis for the magazine which first was published in 1936 was as photo-journalistic endeavor where words and photographs, especially photographs, brought the news of the week, of lifestyles, features, to the American citizenry.
It was a fixture in millions of other households during the 40s, 50s and 60s.
The list of staff photographers found in the masthead over the years read like a who's who of famed image makers: W. Eugene Smith, Alfred Eisensteadt, Larry Burrows, Gordon Parks, Margaret Bourke-White, just to name a few.
And it's a fair bet that if you conjure up some vintage iconic image, odds are good it first appeared in Life.
At its peak in the 1960s, the weekly magazine had a circulation of more than 8 million.
In its day, Life was a gold mine from the ad revenue it earned for its parent company, Time, Inc.
An ad in Life was considered the gold standard of advertising. Nowadays, you'll see an item hanging in a store aisle touting "As seen on TV!" but back in the 50s and even into the 60s, the mantra was "As seen in Life!"
As a photojournalist I enjoy the editorial content of a vintage Life magazine, but even more entertaining is the advertising that was replete in its pages.
The advertising provides a revealing peek into the way things were. Or in some cases, the way people wished things were.
How about pink appliances? No doubt there were a few folks who wound up regretting their early 50s purchase of the pink refrigerator and matching stove they saw advertised in Life by the time avocado-green and copper-toned appliances became stylish in the early 60s.
And the shine of a '58 Packard automobile that was glowingly spread across two pages of the Sept. 22, 1958 issue of Life may have dimmed a bit for anyone who purchased one and just a year later, the Studebaker-Packard Company then decided to drop the Packard name plate.
Life magazine folded in December, 1972.
I was a photojournalism student at the University of Minnesota when the announcement was made that the magazine was ceasing publication due to rising postal rates and declining ad revenue.
I and several of my classmates indulged in numerous libations that evening as we discussed the significance of the magazine's demise. Life magazine was, after all, the photo-journalistic summit to which we all aspired.
From 1978 to 2000, Life was revived as a monthly publication and arguably, it still published some memorable images by talented photographers.
But I think some of the luster of Life, a grandly formatted weekly magazine that arrived without fail in millions of American households was lost in the transition to a smaller, monthly version.
And today when I find one of those old copies of Life, whether it's in pristine condition or moldy and mouse-nibbled like the one I carefully paged through the other evening, it's always like finding a treasure.

The tougher side of photojournalism

2010-04-26T08:11:00.009-05:00

It was a very tragic weekend across Minnesota for traffic fatalities.

Chasing sirens has always been a part of a photojournalist's work day. Word of a possible 10-54 (a fatal car crash) crackling over the scanner will send us rushing out the door. It's never pleasant duty and has grown less so as I have grown older.

Nevertheless, those tragedies are grist for the news of the day so we dutifully head out to the scene to record the roadway mayhem, like it or not.

In such instances, as in so many news events, I try to be the fly on the wall when photographing them. I don't want to interfere at all with the rescue people whose duties are of far more importance than mine. And I'd just as soon not be noticed.

We depend on the cooperation of the law enforcement officials on the scene to gain access and frankly, sometime it is just a lot easier to deny access to everyone, media included, in the confusion and activity around a crash or other spot news event like a fire. If I'm working unnoticed, I'm less likely to be asked to move along.

Believe it or not, there was a time long ago when law enforcement actually would call a reporter or photographer, even late at night or on a weekend, to tip us off about a new event. In my hometown of Worthington, Minn., the reporter or photographer on weekend duty would leave his number with the dispatcher in the event something happened.

And Bill Altnow, who was a longtime photographer for the Free Press from the late 1950s through the early 1990s would make a habit in the early days of his career of riding with local police or the sheriff's department on evening and weekend patrols. (And by the way, Bill still resides in North Mankato.) It is a different time now.

After having worked in the area for 35 years, many law enforcement personnel recognize me when I show up at a crash scene. Most of them have come to know that I will respect the boundaries of sensitivity and professionalism and they allow me to do my job without interference.

Probably the biggest hassles have come from the part-timers _ volunteer firefighters in particular _ who believe they are the arbiters of good taste and what is news. The best complement ever paid to me was a time at a fatal crash on Highway 14 several years ago when a part-time fire fighter was yelling for me to clear the scene. A trooper took a break from his investigation to tell the fellow to let me do my job. "He's a professional and he knows what he is doing," he told the firefighter.

The big challenge now is getting to know all the new, younger faces on the forces and earning their trust as the old line of officers have retired in recent years.

New feature at Blink of an Eye

2010-04-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

We've started a new feature this week here at Blink of an Eye. Each week, John and I will update the slideshow on the left side of the blog with photos we like from our own shoots during the week and various wire sources we have access to at the Free Press. Some, of course, will be of big news events and other weighty things. Others will be photos that simply give us a unique view of the commonplace, or those slice of life moments that make us smile (like John Cross' photo at left).

Enjoy, and let us know if you see a picture somewhere (whether it's ours or not) that you like!

Deja vu

2010-03-30T13:02:00.004-05:00

Last week I got to spend a little time shooting in a place where I first learned how to shoot basketball, St. Cloud State University's Halenbeck Hall. Sibley East's boys basketball team was playing Foley at my alma mater for the section championship. Little has changed in Halenbeck since my college days sitting at the corner of the court with my trusty Nikon F3, motor drive and 85mm f/1.8 manual focus lens (that's right, DIY at its finest!). The light's still limited (or as I like to call it, "available darkness"), everything still has this dingy, yellow cast to it and the stands are still small. But, like most people say when they're trying to be polite, the place has some character.

Halenbeck Hall, home to the St. Cloud State University Huskies men's and women's basketball teams, and where I learned what "available darkness" means.

Sibley East's Ian Berg dribbling the ball near the center court logo during the section championship.

It does have character, and I do have a soft spot in my heart for that gym. I first learned how to deal with challenging lighting conditions in there. I learned how to push process Tri-X 400 up to 1600 so I could get a passable shutter speed in there. I learned how to get up into the balcony once in a while to get a different view of the action in there.

These days I would much rather shoot in the well lit, shiny, spacious, newer Bresnan Arena than Halenbeck Hall. It's just a little easier. Every once in a while, though, it's fun to go back to one's roots, so to speak.

The real beauty of the flood walls

2010-03-24T08:39:00.011-05:00

Ever since 1975 when I moved to the Mankato area, the community's relationship with the Minnesota River has been cut off by the flood walls which at the time were still under construction.

Over the years, longtime residents have shared appealing photographs of Mankato/North Mankato during the pre-flood wall days when the riverbanks of the Minnesota River were shrouded with woods as it flowed between the towns.

Back in those days, residents had a closer connection with the river _ both good and bad. Of course, there were the floods, most notably in 1951 and 1965 when Mankato and North Mankato valiantly battled the flooding Minnesota to varying degrees of success.

But on the more positive side, during the river's more gentle moments, residents found the tree-shrouded banks a source of recreation.

The existing flood walls have largely severed that connection and undeniably are aesthetically unappealing.

We spent a lot of time trying to find some drama during this year's flooding but the protection afforded by the flood walls really made the rising water in Mankato proper something of a non-event.

Likewise, in the 35 years I have been at the Free Press, the Minnesota River has been kept at bay several times, especially in 1993 and 1997.

Photographs of a human chain of residents urgently passing sandbags to protect West High School or floating boats along Range Street in North Mankato certainly would have provided some drama but it would have been at such a high cost.

Now that the river is receding and this year's threat of flooding diminishes with minimal damage, ugly as they are, the real beauty of the flood walls once again came through.

A wider view of things

2010-03-18T22:13:00.002-05:00

My college photojournalism instructor told me to always take a wide angle lens to a sporting event. It sounded contradictory at first. "Don't you want a tighter shot than that," I asked myself. As my skills improved I started to take the advice to heart, and was rarely disappointed by the end result. Still, even though I would occasionally pull out my 17-35mm for sports action, most times I felt more comfortable with my longer lenses.

Of course, I realize that my bag full of cameras, lenses, flashes and other gadgets are tools to be used in the creative process. But like most people, I gravitate toward the familiar and comfortable sometimes. While that feeling can sometimes lend itself to good photographs, it can also contribute to a creative rut.

Denver University's Matt Glasser hits Minnesota State University, Mankato's Andrew Sackrison in a photo I took with my wide angle lens in 2008, probably the last time I committed to shooting wide at a sporting event.

These days I rarely shoot game action with my wide angle lens, though I often have it with me for celebration photos at the end of big games. I shoot most sports with two cameras, but they are usually a 70-200mm on one camera and a 300mm on the other, tight and tighter. Last night, while shooting the St. Peter girls basketball team's State Class AA quarterfinal game at Target Center, I decided to break out of the rut and shot the game with my trusty 17-35mm wide angle instead of the 300mm. Once again, I unconsciously proved my instructor right by coming up with this photo.

St. Peter's Katy Kuiper saves the ball from going out of bounds, but is pinned in the corner by Rochester Lourdes' Aubrey Neumann (23) and Stephanie Helt (5) during the second half of their Class AA state quarterfinal game Thursday at Target Center.

When shooting sports, I tend to gravitate toward the close in, intimate, in your face-type shots that bring a viewer into the action, shots that I typically get with a longer lens. I wonder how many times I'll have to prove to myself that I can get that same feeling out of my wide angle lens too?

Working for the National Enquirer

2010-03-04T08:27:00.004-06:00

Perhaps it is a sign of an impending journalistic apocalypse, maybe not, but the National Enquirer is being considered for a Pulitzer Prize for its investigative and national news reporting for its coverage of Sen. John Edwards and his carrying on with Rielle Hunter.

So as the grocery store tabloid basks in a new-found legitimacy of being considered for what in this business is the Holy Grail of journalistic recognition, let me share a secret: Over the decades, I have accepted a few freelance assignments for the grocery store tabloid.

No, it didn't involve hiding in the bushes, hoping to catch some politician or celebrity in some misdeed or illicit tryst.

Instead, the assignments were to photograph mundane, odd, little slices of life _ the day-brightening photographs the publication frequently printed on the inside pages to supplement their cover stories about sightings of Elvis or JFK.

One assignment that comes to mind was one I completed while working for a paper in Lawrence, Kansas, shortly after I graduated from the University of Minnesota. The photo assignment was passed down to me from our chief photographer who took the call and felt such an assignment was beneath his dignity. For a fresh-out-of-college journalist, however, there is not much that is below one's dignity when money is involved.

And say what you will about the Enquirer, but at least in those days, they paid handsomely. In this case, it was more than twice what I was making in a week for what essentially was a few hours work.

The assignment was to shoot photographs of a duck who had adopted a family's Labrador retriever. I expected a little reluctance on the family's part when I called to arrange a time to make photographs, particularly when I mentioned as briefly as I could, that all of this was for the Enquirer. That they were so delighted at this suggested that the address they gave me would lead me to the rougher part of Kansas City.

Instead, I was amazed to find myself outside an iron gate in a wealthy part of the city, talking into an speaker, announcing myself as John Cross, the fellow here to take photographs for the, uh, National Enquirer. The gates slowly swung open and I followed the winding drive through a hundred yards of manicured gardens and lawn to a sprawling mansion.

To make a long story short, the family was absolutely delighted to have the Enquirer at their home. I spent an hour or two making photographs or the duck and Labrador cavorting, thanked them for their time (thought not nearly as much as they thanked me), and headed back to Lawrence.

I developed the film, made a half-dozen prints and sent them off to their offices down in Florida. Several weeks later, a nice check arrived in the mail. I'm assuming they eventually ran the photographs, though I never actually saw them.

Not that it mattered. Back in those days, photographs weren't routinely credited to the photographer anyway.

For those of us working for "legitimate" papers, that was just fine. The only place we really wanted to see our name associated with the National Enquirer was on one of their checks.

The cost of doing business

2010-02-26T08:35:00.005-06:00

I just approved a repair order for one of the Nikon digital cameras I use.
Now I'm old enough to remember nickel candy bars, when a dollar bought four gallons of gasoline, and a meal of a hamburger, fries, and a drink at the Golden Arches was 46 cents.
So maybe I can be excused for once in a while thinking "Wow, but that's expensive."
The camera failure was nothing cataclysmic. It wasn't dropped, drenched, or otherwise destroyed.
In the middle of a shoot, it simply quit working.
Without getting too technical, the camera display registered "FEE" meaning that for whatever reason, the lens was not communicated with the camera body.
I cleaned the contacts, switched out lenses, etc., to no avail. Whatever gremlin was at work, it wasn't one that I was going to track down.
So I packed the camera up and shipped it off to California.
I got the estimate back the other day: $224. With shipping and handling, the total came to $253 and change.
I'm suspecting that there was nothing real serious wrong with the body, that $224 is the minimum charge for merely unpacking the camera and taking a quick look at it.
And I'd bet that since the shutter and most everything else still functioned, the "fix" will be a simple one, albeit one that I wasn't going to figure out.
While the repairman is at it, he'll clean the camera up, make any other adjustments, as well.
The camera originally cost $2,000 so all in all, the repair/refurbish fee is reasonable. For some people, a couple hundred bucks is just walkin'-around money anyway.
I only work for a newspaper, I don't own it so I'm one of those guys who feels pretty flush if I'm carrying an unbroken twenty in my back pocket.
I approved the estimate and am impatiently awaiting the return of the camera body.
Oh, just more thing: The factory warranty on it ran out six weeks ago.
Imagine that!

Great video on the making of a great picture

2010-02-03T00:39:00.001-06:00

It's a moment most sports photographers dream of. A big game (in this case, THE big game), close score, time running out. The team's driving down the field. Then, there it is. The pass to win the game comes YOUR way. The crowd goes bananas. But the question remains: Did you get it?

Of course, today it's a matter of looking at that 2.5-inch screen on the back of your camera to see if your hard work and planning have paid off. Sometimes that little screen can carry a lot of disappointment. We all hope that in those brief moments all of the planning, practice and study of the craft and the game has paid off. Many times Lady Luck (or a stray referee, or the Evil Autofocus Fairy) has a different plan.

With this year's Big Game just around the corner, NFL.com has this fantastic video about about Getty's Streeter Lecka and Sports Illustrated's Al Tielemans and their experiences trying to capture the defining moment in last year's Super Bowl, Santonio Holmes' catch in the corner of the end zone to win the game for the Pittsburg Steelers (Tielemans' photo made SI's cover above).

The video not only shares the experience of two great photographers and how being separated by just a few feet can make all the difference, but the technology used to make the video itself is absolutely fascinating!

Haiti and the desire to know

2010-01-28T17:18:00.003-06:00

I can only imagine what Haiti must be like right now in the midst of overwhelming devastation. Fortunately, as I sit here comfortably in my office, brave journalists have picked up cameras, computers, pens and notebooks and headed into harm's way in Haiti so we can know what's going on there.

I admire these brave men and women and the work they do. It's not easy to jump into a situation like this, when people's lives have been destroyed in an instant, and take pictures. The images coming from Haiti are extraordinary, not just from a journalistic point of view, but from a technology point of view.

As you can probably imagine, the majority of the country has been leveled. There is no going to the local library to plug in your computer and use the Wi-fi to transmit. Generators and satellite phones are the modern tools of the trade in a situation like this. A video of an Associated Press reporter's impressions on arriving in Haiti is here.

Solving problems isn't new to a photojournalist. For decades, solving the problem of getting news out of inaccessible areas has been one of the hallmarks of a good journalist. Undoubtedly, technology has made solving that problem a little easier (imagine trying to get a roll of film developed in Haiti right now!).

A major discussion in journalism circles right now is the use of "citizen journalists." It's a term I don't like, because in a way we are all citizen journalists, but the concept is accurate: An average person, not trained to be a journalist in any way, sees something happen, records it in some way, and tells as many people as possible. Is information gathered in this way any less valid than what is gathered by a professional journalist?

In the context of the disaster in Haiti, I would say the answer is "no." Some of the first photos from the disaster area were pictures taken by cell phone cameras from people who were there and posted on Twitter before Internet services went down. Of course, the work professional journalists are doing right now to bring accurate information to us is the reason why I choose to seek out the work of those professionals when gathering information.

Check out some of the work Damon Winter of the New York Times (a touching example is here), Chuck Liddy of the Charlotte News and Observer, and the Associated Press' Gerald Herbert (who shot the photo above) have done over the last two weeks. Their work is the reason we all need professional photojournalists seeking images of newsworthy events.

2010-01-04T12:10:00.003-06:00

I'm not much of a fan of winter. I don't mind dealing with it when winter conditions are "normal", especially when I'm out there on my own terms, say, hunting or fishing.

But it's another matter entirely when you've got to be out there in sub-zero conditions we're now experiencing, regardless of whether one's working or playing. In any case, mom had good advice: wear a warm hat, gloves, and boots.

Taking photographs outside when it's this cold is a lot of work and takes some special precautions. Naturally, wearing gloves makes it hard to make camera adjustments. I wear glasses so dealing with frost on them can be a pain.

And likewise, condensation from going from a cold car to a warm building is always a possibility so on the coldest days, I bring my gear inside. (And keep it in the bag so that the condensation occurs on that instead of the lenses or cameras).

In the old days of film, the watchword was slow down. Film got brittle in very cold temperatures, requiring that we rewind our film back very carefully. And just like with our cars, batteries lost power. Today's digital cameras don't use film and the lithium batteries remain remarkably functional in cold weather. Still, I noticed that the spec sheets for the lithium batteries we use warn against using them below 32 degrees F and 104 degrees F. I'm guessing who ever designed the batteries never lived in Minnesota during January.

Fortunately, old habits die hard, and I still find myself slipping my camera inside my parka and next to my body when I'm outside shooting photographs for extended periods on days like today to keep the batteries strong.

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Our favorite photographs of 2009

2009-12-20T14:26:00.006-06:00

One of my favorites from 2009.Check out what we consider our favorite photographs of 2009. As we wrote in our story in Sunday's Currents section, we are often greeted with amazement when we tell people how many frames we shoot at an assignment. Of course, it varies depending on assignment, but in an attempt to average things out, I figured we shoot more than 100,000 frames a year between John and I.

That's a lot of shutter movement!

But I'm a firm believer that if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a couple of eggs. I would prefer that no one sees the broken eggs, so to speak, so I often delete, or at least not download from the digital camera's card, all of those out of focus, overexposed, or just plain rotten photos that won't ever see the light of day anyway. Thanks to modern technology editing through all those frames is much easier than it used to be. The modern equivalent of the light table we use is a program called Photo Mechanic made by Camera Bits. It makes working with that kind of volume easier.

Some photos, like the ones John and I picked as our favorites this year, just stand out in our minds from the moment we see them. They get filed away, set aside for contest entries and our annual photographers' favorites section.
The photo gallery below includes the six photographs (three from each of us) that were published in the paper and an additional three apiece that didn't make the cut in the paper, but were still among our favorites.

Enjoy!

So what if the weather's bad

2009-12-11T20:03:00.018-06:00

GAC student.I find it ironic that when Mother Nature really throws her worst at us, it's often the photographers who end up venturing out to find a picture. Let's face it, when the wind chill is -40F and the snow is coming down in flakes the size of Volkswagons there are good photos to be found.

Usually our first accumulating snowfall of the year is a couple of inches. Just enough to cover the grass. Ease us into winter. Not this year. An 8-inch blast of white stuff, followed by single-digit temps and some wind to boot, shoves us into winter. Usually these are the last conditions anyone wants to venture out in. But this is the stuff I'm compelled to venture out in regularly.

Mike Endreson blows his way through a drift in front of his Mankato home Thursday morning.

A day off from school made for a full house Thursday at a sledding hill in Mankato's Sibley Park.

As storytellers and newsmen at heart, John and I have headed out into conditions that make most people curl up inside with a good movie and wait for the snow to let up. In our case, people want to see just how bad it is outside. They want to see whether or not they should venture out to work or church. What's been canceled due to the weather?

A pair of City of Mankato snowplows work their way down Riverfront Drive during Wednesday's snowstorm.

Don't take me wrong, I respect the weather. I take "no unnecessary travel" warnings seriously. As a sailor and a former pilot I have seen what bad things the weather can do to people. But when the weather gets ugly, that's unusual, and it's news. And I'm probably out in it somewhere.

Football is football is football. Right?

2009-11-12T23:55:00.007-06:00

Football at all levels, from high school to the pros, is reaching a pinnacle right now. Professional football is at the halfway mark. The Minnesota State High School football tournament starts today around the state, and the Minnesota State University football team will host a NCAA tournament game for the first time Saturday at Blakeslee Stadium. It's an exciting month for football.

In general, football is football. The basic rules are the same at all levels. Score touchdowns and field goals while keeping your opponent from doing the same. Certainly this is true, but the game is obviously made different by the level at which it is being played.

Over the last month I've photographed football at all three levels: Professional (Green Bay vs. Minnesota at the Dome Oct. 5), Division II college (Minnesota State) and high school (Mankato East & West, among a host of others). Each game at each level presents unique challenges for me as a photographer, and my approach to the game is different for each one.

I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to photograph the Monday Night Football tilt in October between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings, a fairly rare assignment for the Free Press. Those of you who know me know I'm a Packer fan at heart, but live in a Viking world, so the whole Favre-drama-playing-his-old-team-who's-gonna-win thing was certainly not lost on me. It's a rare thing for the Free Press to send me to such an event, so I certainly wanted to show up with my A+ game, so add that to the level of nerves flowing through me at the time. Add to that the more than 100 credentialed photographers, the VIPs, the on-air TV talent roving the sidelines and you have a crowded house full of restrictions to navigate, on deadline.

Just a few photographers trying to get a picture of Vikings Brett Favre at the same time.

Again, while the basics are the same (I use a similar equipment setup for all three), shooting the much faster and more crowded professional football game takes a different approach. I spend more time in the back of one end zone or the other so I have clearer sight lines past all the other photographers, VIPs and guys carrying big parabolic dishes. Being on deadline, I chose to sacrifice much of the third quarter to transmit photos back to the paper, then return to shoot the fourth quarter and post game.

Busy sideline.

Minnesota State football is a much different game, and I take a different approach to it. While I like to shoot from the end zones at Blakeslee Stadium too, I tend to move up and down the field with the play a bit more. Since they are a team I cover more often, I do my best to get to know who the key players are and the style of offense and defense so I can be watching the right people at the right times. I also have more freedom to move in among the players if I need to for brief periods to get pictures of coaches or specific players, something that would get me promptly thrown out of a Vikings game.

Shooting from the back of the end zone gets players like MSU running back Ernest Walker coming right at the viewer.

Photos like this one of MSU receiver Chris Nowlin are made easier by knowing the team's tendencies.

Shooting the Mankato East vs. Mankato West football game is an even more different matter. Weather not withstanding, high school football offers the ultimate freedom. Freedom to move up and down the sidelines at will, mingle with players while looking for photos, go on the field after the game. That freedom often comes at a price, however. Most high school football games are at night under lights that don't quite light the field evenly or adequately (I often describe a field or gym that has some light, but not anywhere near enough as shooting in "available darkness"). I tend to shoot with shorter lenses and a flash and move up and down the sidelines with the play much more than while shooting college or pro football. The payoff, for me at least, is the raw emotions that come from high school players that seems to diminish as they move up in level.

The raw emotion of West football players after defeating crosstown rival Mankato East is a common thread in high school sports.

Photos like this one of a lineman's feet in the mud are more difficult to get when access is limited.

I find it funny that the photographers I know who regularly shoot professional sports, with few exceptions, say high school sports are their favorite things to photograph, while those that regularly shoot only high school or college sports say they'd love to shoot the pros.

Photographers that have to deal with the circus of professional sports regularly say that the access granted by high schools and most colleges allows an unmatched flexibility and creativity. This is very true. Those that don't deal with it as often find the circus atmosphere of the big game alluring.
I tend to live in both worlds, to some extent. While I don't photograph professional sports frequently, I am in the ring often enough to appreciate the big-ness of the event and be annoyed by it at the same time. I also do it often enough to realize how lucky I am to get to work with the great high schools and colleges of this area, who, with few exceptions, are willing to bend over backwards to help me do my job to the best of my ability.

2009-10-12T12:10:00.002-05:00

For the first time in many, many years, when the Minnesota pheasant season opened at 9 a.m., Saturday, I had a camera rather than a shotgun in my hand.
I decided that Madelia's first annual Pheasant Phest was a big enough deal that I ought to take that in instead of traveling to my customary opening day spots with my usual hunting buddies. Duty called, as it were.
Of course, I could have been carrying a shotgun in addition to the Nikon. Early on, I was invited to hunt with the contingent of Madelia area hunters who were celebrating the opening of the season.
But I learned long ago that when one divides his attention between making photographs and another activity, in this case, hunting, neither ends up being done very well.
So I just committed to carrying a camera in the field as I trailed the group of hunters and dogs, enjoying the camaraderie that is part of such an event.
Of course, as it turned out, two of the three roosters the party bagged got up at my feet. I missed 'em with my camera but others in the hunting party managed to drop the birds with their shotguns.
Now I'm sure there those folks out there, particularly after watching Vikings Twins games, who believe that being a photographer at various events must be a great thing because, after all, photographers frequently have what appears to be the best seat in the house...and for free, no less.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Sidelines are not the best place to watch a game. That's why football teams always have coaches stationed high above the field to relay to the sidelines what's really going on.
What's more, court side or the sidelines aren't the place to be if you are an ardent fan. It's considered bad form (even to the extent that officials will ask offending parties to leave) if someone in the press ranks is openly rooting for one team or the other.
Dispassionate detachment is the expected sideline decorum in the working press corp. And work it is, as we compete informally with all of the other image makers who are shooting photographs, as well. There's a reason it's called work and that we get paid to do it.
It turned out that there was really nothing remarkable to shoot photographs of at the pheasant opener. What's more, by all accounts, the bird shooting was sparse enough within my circle of hunting buddies that I really didn't feel like I missed too much. Just way too much corn out there, yet.
But on late Saturday afternoon, after I'd written the story for the Sunday edition and edited the photographs, I finally managed to get out for the last hour of daylight to give my spaniel a chance to stretch his legs.
We hunted a public area that undoubtedly had been pounded by hunters earlier in the day. Our efforts were rewarded with a brace of roosters that we intercepted as they headed from the corn back into their roosting areas.

John Cross photo exhibit this weekend

2009-10-02T16:00:00.011-05:00

Sweet Taste of Summer by John Cross.
If you're looking for something cool to do this weekend, my colleague John Cross has an exhibit opening tonight at the Blue Earth County Historical Society on Cherry St. called "Faces and Places of South Central Minnesota." You should really check it out. He has some great work from his 34 years of photographing this area.

While the exhibit is up through October, there is an opening reception tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the Heritage Center and a meet and greet with John from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. I got a look at the exhibit catalog yesterday. It's all beautifully matted and framed, courtesy of Brian Fowler at the Artisan Gallery (part of Quality 1 Hr. Photo), and it's all for sale!

Check it out. It's worth your time. Maybe I'll see you there.

Canons and Nikons: The Debate

2009-09-02T15:57:00.007-05:00

I'm frequently asked by people purchasing their first serious SLR digital camera: Nikon or Canon?
It's a little bit like asking someone if he or she prefers a Ford or a Chevy. Personally, I use Nikons and except for my very first camera _ an East German-built Hanimex Pracktica for which I ponied up the then-princely sum of $100 in 1968 _ I've always used Nikons.
One reason was that back in the 1960s when I embarked on this career, Nikons arguably were king of the professional shooting hill with Canons coming in a serviceable but distant 2nd.
For another, my hometown paper's publisher somehow had wrangled a coveted Nikon dealership out from the U.S. distributor of Nikon products in the early 60s when the brand was just becoming recognized as top-flight pro gear.
Since I worked part-time at the paper, I could buy Nikon gear for cost, which was significantly less than what it sold for at retail prices.
And forty years ago, as a senior in High School, that's exactly what I did. After saving and scrimping, I ordered a Nikon F body (in professional black, naturally). It retailed for $225 and ended up costing me $152.
I've still got it (along with several other film Nikons of various vintage that I hung onto a little too long into the digital age and now are worth so little I use them as bookends). In spite of its dings and dents, the old F still remains silky smooth, functional, and nearly bulletproof.
But back to the Canon-Nikon debate. Each brand has had its positives and negatives in recent years and really, both are excellent cameras.
I still use Nikons for a couple of reasons. One is that the Free Press always has been Nikon-based and the specialized, really expensive lenses it owns/owned have been Nikon
For another, Nikon lenses focus exactly in the opposite direction that Canon lenses do. Auto focus is great but frequently, I prefer manual focusing. After so many years it just comes naturally.
Trying to focus a Canon lens is for me a little like getting into a car and discovering the gas and brake controls have been reversed.
Bottom line? They're both good cameras. Compare a $1000 Nikon digital camera and a $1000 Canon digital camera and you'll discover they usually have similar capabilities and features.
Buy either one and you'll soon find out that as just as quickly, a newer improved version inevitably will be introduced making you wish you had waited.
And unlike my old Nikon F which wears its patina of hard use well, nothing ages less gracefully than a digital camera.

CJR Q&A with Damon Winter of the NY Times

2009-08-14T11:49:00.004-05:00

I've had some rough days back at work after a vacation before, but nothing like what Damon Winter went through Tuesday. His first assignment back from vacation was a town hall meeting with Sen. Arlen Specter. The photo that led the Times' A section Wednesday morning was a photo of a very angry Craig Miller confronting the senator on the meeting's format. (To respect the Times' copyright, I won't repost it here.)

In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review's Alexandra Fenwick, Winter, who won the Pulitzer Prize this year in Feature Photography for his work covering President Obama's campaign, talks about the event and his approach to shooting it. What struck me was the level to which he prepared himself for what was probably going to happen, going so far as to watch video of prior town hall meetings with the senator. He was also prepared for how the crowd had been taking over events like these and intentionally getting into the photographers' lenses to get their point across, not to mention the less-than-warm welcome he and another Times photographer received.

I've often talked about preparedness with other photographers, but usually only in a sports environment. So many things are out of a photographer's control, especially at a sporting event, that advance preparation is crucial. Is the team's offense primarily a passing or running offense? Who are the major players? Do they do trick plays? How about the pitcher? What are his stats this year? Does he lead the league in strikeouts? Give up a lot of home runs? Does he have a good pickoff move? All of these questions can be answered long in advance, and give me a hint as to what might be a key photograph.

Being prepared can make all the difference when the storytelling moment happens, whether at a football game or a town hall meeting.

The games we play

2009-08-03T15:03:00.013-05:00

Bernard Berrian hauls in a catch during practice.

I don't know if you've heard yet, but there's a professional football team in town.

I know, I know. It's hard to believe. Here? Now? Yes.

The annual football circus has rolled into town, and even though Brett Favre isn't with them, Vikings Training Camp is still a circus. For the record, I'm glad Favre didn't show up (the circus would've needed two big tops, one for the players, one for all the media), but I'm also a little disappointed (things would've been more interesting and unique with him here). It's still busy at MSU. More media than past years. Tons of fans filling the stands to watch players stretch.
Media shooting the first day of practice.

The good part about the busy is it brings friends and colleagues from the Twin Cities media outlets to town. It ends up being a great chance to catch up, commiserate, share a meal and some stories together, and try to lift each other's spirits and creative juices, since it seems I only see them when the Vikes come to town.

Besides the game being played on the field, there are a myriad of other games being played off the field during training camp. Media outlets trying to out-blanket-coverage everyone else. Photographers struggling to make an interesting photo of a 350-pound lineman who isn't doing anything but standing there in a half hour or less (more on that later). Reporters mobbing today's player du jour hoping he'll say something interesting.

The problem isn't necessarily in how you play the game, it's in the game itself. Rules and restrictions set forth by the team make uniqueness nearly impossible. Photographers are limited to shooting individual drills only (usually the first half hour of the two-hour practice) and are asked to stop shooting once anything interesting starts to happen or if a player is injured(even though I saw 3 fans in the stands today with the exact same equipment I use shooting 11-on-11 drills). Reporters have limited access to limited players. Coaches say few details about what's happening on or off the field.

Great evening light, and Vikings lineman Anthony Herrera.
So the rules are stacked against us, yet we play the game, especially as photographers. We struggle against security folks saying you can't kneel as we scramble in the limited time available to make interesting pictures for those who follow the Vikings religiously (and for those who are simply curious). I think in some strange way I like the restrictions. It forces me to either find a new recipe for chicken salad or come back with a boring photo of Heath Farwell just standing there sweating. It makes me work harder to make the most of those few good moments: a quick contact drill, great evening light, a laugh between a coach and a player.

Come fly with me

2009-07-14T13:26:00.012-05:00

Aluminum Overcast on the ground in Mankato.I remember as a high schooler how busy the airport I worked at got during the Experimental Aircraft Association airshow in Oshkosh. I refueled small airplanes at a small general aviation airport in Juneau, Wisc. (UNU, for you pilots), 26 miles from the airfield at Oshkosh. It was a great stopping point for pilots of every type of plane imaginable needing information before making their way up to the airshow. It was fun meeting people from across the country making their way to aviation's Mecca.

Each year, some of us from the airport would either rent a plane and go up for the day, or get in a car and drive up, both of which were a traffic nightmare. Our favorite part of the show wasn't necessarily the aerial displays, but the plethora of restored World War II fighters and bombers on display on the ground. P-51s, T-6s and the big, lumbering B-17 bomber. All of these classics were painstakingly restored to better than their original glory (fewer bullet holes and grease stains, I'd imagine). I even got to sit in the cockpit of a P-51 Mustang (but that's another story).

I remember seeing Aluminum Overcast sitting on the tarmac at OSH when I took my wife there in 2001, thinking it would be great to take a ride, but $400 wasn't in the wallet at the time, especially to spend on a half-hour plane ride. Fortunately, eight years later, I got the chance to ride in Aluminum Overcast on a half-hour flying over Mankato during the EAA's tour stop here. The plane has been beautifully restored and is used as a promotional tool for the EAA's restoration activities, and for the Oshkosh air show itself.

Me in the bombardier's seat on Aluminum Overcast. (John Cross)
I was a kid in a candy store. Too much to look at. Too much to photograph. Too much to ask of the former Flying Fortress pilots riding with us. I sat in the bombardier's seat, looked through the Norden bomb sight, imagined dropping 8,000 pounds of bombs on the Northstar Bridge. Then, after seeing a photograph of a B-17 crew on the table in the bombardier's compartment and the replicas of the .50-caliber machine guns sticking out the side of the plane, I imagined how scared these crews must have been, seeing German ME-109s shooting at them, with only some thin armor plating and a plastic bubble to protect them.

The Norden bomb sight.All I can say is thank you to those crews, and thank you to the EAA for the opportunity to fly in a beautiful aircraft.

2009-07-06T08:48:00.005-05:00

I've been shooting photographs for the Free Press for more than three decades now _ ever since Nov. 17, 1975 _ so it's inevitable that I find myself revisiting versions of stories we have done in the past.
Like the story Brian Ojanpa and I did about the St. Henry Catholic Church near Le Center celebrating its 150th anniversary that appeared in the July 6 edition.
We were the reporter/photographer team that did a story about the church for their 126th anniversary 24 years ago.
Relatively speaking, Brian and I are the the newsroom old timers, both coming to the Free Press in the 1970s. We like to think we offer what charitably might be referred to as "historical perspective" for our office colleagues.
During our original visit, I took several photographs including the one shown here. It kind of had an American Gothic feel to it and even 24 years later remains one of my favorites.
Brian had pulled out a clipping of the article and we speculated that it was highly unlikely that after more than two decades, any of the subjects were still with us.
We showed the clipping to the three parishioners who were there to be interviewed and they confirmed that all four gentlemen indeed had passed on.
When the interview was completed, I had to make a photograph of the three men to accompany our story. I chose to pose them inside rather than going to the front of the church.
For one thing, I am not inclined to go to same visual well I have visited before. For another, over the years, the trees that were saplings in the original photograph had grown into towering maples and now obscured the clapboard-sided steeple.
One of the best things about this job is the people we get to meet. Our visit to St. Henry was no different.
As we shook hands with the church members, they all suggested suggested that perhaps we'd return in another 25 years for the 175th anniversary.
Maybe....

You can't just drive by

2009-06-30T14:24:00.015-05:00

Zach Zellmer stays cool by taking his turn down a water slide in Mankato.

There are certain scenes that just beg to be photographed. When you see them, you're compelled to stop and photograph them. It doesn't matter if you're in a hurry or have somewhere else to be, you find the five minutes it takes to pull over and make some pictures. Kids having a water fight is one of them. It's almost like the scene has its own gravitational pull, drawing you in.
I even tried to drive by these boys playing on a water slide in their front yard. It didn't work. I had to go back. So what if I'm a couple of minutes late to my next assignment. This is worth it.
Fortunately for me I made it worth it. The kids, for the most part, let me hang around for a little while without showing off for my benefit (they did try to squirt me twice, though. Water and cameras don't mix well!). They just continued their fun in the water.
And I had a pretty good picture on a warm summer's day.

Always a photographer

2009-06-18T13:59:00.009-05:00

Frederick listening to the radio.

My wife's father Frederick died last week. He was only 67. He had struggled with his health for many years. He died June 9, peacefully, surrounded by family. We should all be so lucky.
Frederick and I had a number of things in common, one of which was that we don't like to have our picture taken. Often when I'm at a portrait assignment and the subject is nervous about being photographed, I tell the story about how I hated having my picture taken as a geeky-looking high schooler, so I was always the one to volunteer to pick up the camera. Years later I've turned my dislike for being a subject of pictures into a career in photography. It always seems to put people at ease knowing I dislike having my picture taken as much as they do.
Frederick may not have been a willing subject, but he was a good one. His natural, thoughtful nature made him interesting to photograph, whether he knew I was taking the picture or not. I took the picture at the top one Christmas from the end of our hall as Frederick, a retired United Methodist clergy, was listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on the radio. He rarely missed the annual broadcast from Kings College in Cambridge, England. I think the picture shows Frederick's thoughfulness, intelligence and spirituality.
I take pictures for a living, but I don't just turn off my visual curiosity when I'm sitting around with my family. Sometimes my family may get annoyed with my sometimes-excessive visual curiosity, I feel it's important to document those people and places that are important in our lives. Don't let the opportunity to take pictures of your loved ones pass by, even when they shy away from the camera.

2009-06-18T07:19:00.002-05:00

It was hard not to feel a little bit like a bull in a china shop the other day while photographing all those restored Chevys on display at a gathering of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America.
Typically, I wear two cameras when I'm shooting an event _ one equipped with a wide angle lens and one equipped with a telephoto lens.
The telephoto _ an 80mm-200mm _ has a very prominent lens shade just begging to get banged against something. And if you take a closer look at it, it bears all kinds of scars from door jambs, etc.
I wasn't concerned at all about putting a few more scars on the lens; while I don't abuse them, they are tools designed to be used so we expect some wear-and-tear on equipment.
I was more concerned about inadvertantly dinging the pristine paint that those vintage cars with one of my cameras as I looked for the best angles.
And judging by some of the side-long glances I got from a few car owners, they were just as concerned that a clumsy photographer might mar their pride-and-joys.
And I can't say that I blame them. I know how I feel when I discover a ding left by some careless parking lot miscreant in my wife's Chevy Impala.
And the Chevys we're talking about here raised the bar a whole lot higher than that.
So I took extra pains to be very, very careful _ to the point of taking a camera off my shoulder and putting on the ground while I used the other one.

2009-06-16T10:23:00.005-05:00

A cardinal rule of photography, one of the first things I drum into the students attending photojournalism class I have taught at Minnesota State University for the last 29 years is the need to get close to their subjects.
And on that count, I could find all sorts of things to criticize about the attached photograph on the left. Too far away, odd composition, etc.
And like many of my students, I can find all kinds of excuses for not closing the gap. But honestly, there is a reason the peregrine falcons that have taken up residence for the last several years at the nesting site beneath the North Star Bridge that links Mankato and North Mankato via Highway 169.
The only way their nest can be reached is, if one can fly as adroitly as peregrines can, is by air or with the assistance of one of those booms used by MnDOT to inspect bridges.
But the other thing I tell students is that in the end, compositional considerations are trumped by the the significance of the image and the message it brings to viewers.
In this case, peregrine falcon watchers will be glad to know that the Mankato/North Mankato's pair of peregrines for the third time in as many years have successfully hatched offspring.
Peregrines are what many rank as the sports cars of the raptor world. Reaching diving speeds of nearly 200 mph, they knock their prey _ in urban areas that usually means pigeons _ right out of mid-air.
The only way to see the birds beneath the bridge is from the Mankato side and even at that, they are still three spans and probably 300 yards away.
The photograph was made with a 300mm lens with a 1.4X extender attached. That translates to about a 420 mm lens.
And even at that, as illustrated by the uncropped version of the image at right, the chicks still remained very small in the frame.
The camera was a D300 Nikon and the exposure was 1/40 @ f11 at 2000 ISO.
No tripod was used but between trucks rumbling overhead, I braced the camera against a girder to steady it.
That the photograph held together as well as it did when tightly cropped and at such a high ISO is an illustration of how much better digital technology has gotten in the last 8 years.
Still, it's safe to say the photograph won't win any prizes.

2009-06-08T08:06:00.003-05:00

Most photographers would agree that rain can make for interesting photographs.
But they also would agree that working in such conditions can be very difficult.
Using an umbrella is out of the question since it takes both hands to use a camera. And a raincoat will keep the photographer dry but is of little value in protecting the equipment.
There is the issue of keeping the lens surfaces clear of moisture, of course. Likewise, just being able to see clearly can be a challenge if one wears glasses as I do.
And while moisture has never been a camera's best friend, this is especially true with modern cameras which are largely electronic.
The cameras we use are Nikon D300s. While they won't survive a fall in a lake, fortunately they are sealed fairly well against the incidental moisture and a few rain drops.
Even with that, I was fairly nervous about their extended exposure to Saturday's wind-driven rain while covering the D-Day battle re-enactment near Le Center.
Not only were my glasses rain-smeared, but the cameras were pretty much drenched as well. While its possible to use specially-made camera rain coats or protection rigged from plastic bags, I generally find them difficult to use.
I tried to minimize my and my cameras exposure by finding shelter beneath one of the several tents on the Traxler Hunting Preserver grounds until showtime.
But once the action started, coincidentally about the same time another heavy rain shower moved through the area, I had no choice but to venture out to take the photographs I needed.
I found that if I stood downwind from _ and close to _ someone who had an umbrella, my lenses would stay reasonably clear enough to make a few quick photographs.
So if anyone out there wondered about the guy with a couple of cameras around his neck who was trying to get too cozy...it was all in the name of journalism.

It's tournament time! Time to elevate your game!

2009-06-02T11:02:00.008-05:00

There's a flurry of high school section and state tournaments going on right now. Almost too many. Track, softball, golf and tennis all have their state tournaments this week, and section tournaments are well under way in baseball. Somehow, though, through all the rushing around to cover all these events, there are opportunities to elevate my game, so to speak.

Often times things can get formulaic in the news business, especially where sports photos are concerned. When you're seeking a specific athlete in a specific event, or you only have 20 minutes to get a good photo from a softball game, it's easy to say a photo works fine and go on to the next assignments. Tournament time is different. The games are more important. The emotion is higher, and there's a little more time built into the schedule to let yourself out of your comfort zone.

While shooting a section track meet Saturday I got the opportunity to shoot track photos for one of our Sunday photo packages in our Valley section. I get more leeway to create a more abstract picture for the photo package than I do when I'm shooting

track to go along with a sports story. Don't get me wrong: I seek creativity in every photo I shoot. But let's face it, I'd get either yelled at or laughed at if I came back with this photo instead of the top one. Both photos tell a story, but the bottom one tells a much different one than the top one.

I like them both, but they are very different photos for very different situations. Now excuse me, there are a couple of state tournaments I need to shoot.

Media frenzy

2009-05-27T13:32:00.003-05:00

I first heard the news about the Hauser family on a Friday afternoon while driving north for the Minnesota Fishing opener and immediately guessed it would be a story that would attract at least statewide attention.
But Colleen Hauser's decision to disappear with Daniel virtually assured the story would grow to have national, even international, interest.
From the handful of local media that attended their first press conference, the media contingent quickly grew to a veritable herd of state and national outlets.
And with the growing hordes of national media, the intensity level ratcheted up considerably. The news business is, of course, a very competitive one. On a local level, we all naturally want to be first with getting the story or in the case of photographers, getting the image that best tells the story.
And while we're competitive, we all know each other and there is a degree of cooperation we afford to one another. And since the news business isn't that big of a family, even if you toss the Twin Cities media which arguably is more competitive yet into the mix, there is a certain degree of familiarity with one another.
But the national media is another matter. Many of them frequently hire videographers on a free lance or contract basis.
A freelancer who doesn't consistently come back with the goods isn't likely to be tapped for other assignments. In other words, they are only as good as their last shot.
Hence, the spectacle this past week of cameramen literally running down the street along side the Hauser's family van when it showed up at the Brown County Courthouse earlier this week.
Of course, my job is to come back with the goods as well, so like the rest of the pack, I found myself sprinting across the courthouse lawn to elbow out enough shooting room to get an image or two of the family getting out of the van.
It's not something I'm particularly proud of doing, but it's my job.
I can only imagine what the Hauser family may have been thinking as dozens of news cameras closed in around them.
Certainly, the national media spotlight they found themselves in in recent weeks is far harsher than the quiet ambiance of the dairy barn.
At least for now, the satellite broadcast trucks, the coiffured news anchors, the video and still cameras, have vanished from Brown County.
But whether the Hauser family likes it or not, theirs is a story that will continue to be watched and reported, whatever end it may come to.

Old School versus New Wave

2009-05-15T08:17:00.007-05:00

I began taking photographs for newspapers way back in 1968 so I am very familiar with the "bathroom" technology we relied on in those days _ a room with running water and a lock on the door so the dark didn't leak out.
Nowadays, of course, everything is digital and darkrooms are a quaint historical reminder of the way things used to be done.
I'm frequently asked which process I prefer and truthfully, tradition film and digital imaging have their advantages.
From purely a selfish view, the ability to go into a darkroom and lock the door behind you for a couple of hours each day sometimes was a welcome refuge from demanding editors and other distractions.
In addition, there is a certain "feel" to a film image that is lost in a digital translation.
However, in an era when everyone in a newsroom is expected to do more with less, the speed and efficiency of digital imaging allows us to get so much more done.
I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit to some trepidation and concerns about being an old dog learning new tricks. The transition to digital imaging steepened the learning curve a bit but in the end, of course, a good photograph is a good photograph, regardless of how it was made.
I am something of a traditionalist: I still prefer to hold a sheet of newsprint in my hand to read the news of the day.
But the advent of the Web and newspaper Web sites has expanded the possibilities for photojournalists, as well.
Reproduction has always been an issue for photographers because newsprint is not the optimum medium for capturing the colors and nuances of an image. Photographs displayed on a glowing monitor always look much better.
And since our digital images are basically just a code of zeros and ones, there are not the space constraints to limit the number of photos we can post on the Web.
As a result, we frequently can offer more photographs of an event like the bird banding Thursday at Rasmussen Woods.
Only three were published in the Free Press, but we were able to post 10 of them as a photo gallery at our Web site.

Earplugs required

2009-05-14T14:40:00.009-05:00

My iPod is a disaster. I listen to so many different types of music I can't find anything half the time. That's probably why it didn't bother me a whole lot when I got the assignment to shoot the Slipknot concert Wednesday night in Mankato. Now, my heavy metal days are long gone, so relating to these guys wasn't happening. The beauty of photography, though, is you find you always have something in common.

Most concerts are a challenge to shoot, regardless of the type of music being played. Some bands make you shoot from next to the sound board near the back of the arena (about a 300mm lens' throw away). If you're lucky enough to shoot from the pit (the area between the stage and the fans), you have security personnel, speakers, wires, body surfers and a host of other stuff distracting you. And you only get three songs to get the lighting right, so you'd better shoot quick.

The benefit to shooting a heavy metal concert from the pit is you're face to face with both the band and the fans, both of which are really, really into the music. Bands like Slipknot, who have been around for a while, know they're being photographed and will seek you out for the briefest of moments and give you an opportunity to make an image of them doing something right at you instead of over your head.

Needless to say, from my three-song vantage point between two stacks of speakers, there were plenty of distractions. Everything from huge security guys shoving me around to body surfers reaching the end of the line came flying my way.

Fortunately, no blood was spilled. At least not any of mine. More photos are in the web gallery here.

He can't be any happier

2009-05-07T12:19:00.012-05:00

I can honestly say that I can't list bowling among my favorite sports to shoot. I've seen a lot of sports, and a lot of things you can barely call sports, and in some way I've liked

them all. Not bowling. No bowling alley is lit well. There's little drama, little action, little emotion.

Until Tuesday night.

I was assigned to shoot the Mankato East and West adaptive bowling meet against Austin Tuesday night. I had photographed some of these kids before, so I knew in some respect I could throw at least one of the bowling stereotypes I had out the window: There would be excitement.

These kids are excited to be bowling competitively. They smile all the time. High fives abound whether they get a strike, make a spare, or get a pair of gutter balls. What I didn't know was Sam Wright was on his way to putting up some big numbers, and a lot of Xs.

As I was shooting some of the bowlers from West I heard a huge cheer from the East lanes. Not unusual, except I had already heard it a few times recently. When I looked up at the scoreboard, Sam had already gotten a Turkey (three strikes in a row). Knowing how happy I am to get two in a row, I decided to watch and hope he would maybe get another.

He did. And another. And another. Each time his celebration got more demonstrative, more excited. Sam's high fives to his coach and teammates got more exuberant. It's rare to get a second chance at a celebration photo, much less a third or fourth. It gave me a chance to figure out an angle where I would see his face, his teammates and his lane devoid of pins, and figure out how to light it so I could see all of that.

Welcome to The Blink of an Eye

2009-05-06T12:37:00.007-05:00

The moments go by so fast. Whether it's a baseball game or a portrait, they key moment flashes by in the blink of an eye. How do we pick those moments? How did we decide to use the particular picture that appears in your newspaper or online every day? Here's your chance to find out.

From time to time, "The Blink of an Eye" will give you an insider's look at the photographs the staff at the Mankato Free Press take every day. Some make the newspaper. Some (thankfully!) don't, but we'll tell you the stories behind them.

We hope that "The Blink of an Eye" will give you an entertaining and informative look at what goes on behind the camera as we're out on assignments taking pictures for The Free Press and the various other publications we shoot for. From time to time we'll also throw out some opinions on photography and journalism in general (and believe me, we have plenty of opinions to offer!).

The Week in Pictures

2009-05-05T17:48:00.007-05:00

May 29 to June 7, 2011

Link list

2009-05-05T16:11:00.006-05:00

Mankato Free Press

SportsShooter - A sports photography community

National Press Photographer's Association