I hate this time of year. This is the time when photographers pull together their best frames from last year. The solid daily frames are tossed aside and we’re left with an internet that is overwhelmed with the best of the best. It’s an amazing thing to see. But I hate it. Photographers make connections with their pictures. Sometimes you make a killer frame. Sometimes the story behind making the image is better than the image itself. That is something a viewer […]
Volleyball can be a challenging sport to photograph. The plays are quick. Tracking action through the net can cause problems for the camera’s autofocus system. And sometimes all the action looks the same. I was lucky this year. The main volleyball teams I covered had really emotive players. While I got decent action, the reaction really made this season. Here are some of the photos that really stood out this year. And of course, a few action photos from the season.
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 […]
With the changing newspaper landscape, photographers are being asked more and more regularly to produce video pieces for the web. Sometimes these take the form of longer, more developed and produced video pieces. More frequently, they are projects that need to be turned around in day. These can pose a challenge. It is hard to take stills and video at the same time. Inevitably, when you’re shooting video, you’ll miss a great opportunity for a still. In contrast, when you’re […]