We’re all familiar with the saying K.I.S.S., Keep It Simple Stupid. Sometimes that the best advice we can follow. I’ve been known to get carried away with lighting setups. I’ve used as many as eight speedlights in repeating flash mode to create some of my sports portraits. However, often times the simple setup can yield just as nice of results. Case in point, I was tasked with photographing a tennis doubles team that was dominating the conference. I had a short […]
In my experience, the cold months are usually slow when it comes to spot news. Sure, you have accidents due to snow and ice, as well as a house fire or two. But overall, spot news is usually down. That has not been my experience during the last four months or so. I can’t count how many times I’ve been called out of bed in the morning or told to leave an assignment to get to breaking news these last […]
From time to time, everything seems to line up on an assignment. The light. The scene. The people. It happened recently when I was at Palace Shoe Repair. The family business has been a staple of downtown Rockford for about 90 years. The light was perfect. The vintage hand tools and machines had so much personality. I knew I was going to be happy spending some time there. I only could stay for about 30 minutes when I went to shoot […]
I work hard to provide real-time images from the field during spot news. Severe weather is not an exception. Going into Thursday, April 9, we knew Rockford was in an area that was expecting active weather. I prepared my car and planned on staying out all day. Let me back up a bit. While I’m no meteorologist, I know more about weather than the average Joe. I’ve taken multiple storm spotter training courses with the National Weather Service. I have […]
It tends to be that the colder months are the quieter months when it comes to spot news. However, this past December and January kept me busy. Fires. Accidents. Murders. The whole lot. Here is a take of some of what I was chasing these last two months. December started off with an accident between a freight train and a semi truck. The cab of the truck was pushed about 100 yards down the tracks. The drive of the truck was […]