 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||
Here’s the photograph we used from Eastmont beating Wenatchee in softball. But the game included many more interesting moments as you can see from the photo gallery I produced. I liked these other ones best:
This game provided more interesting pictures than any other I’ve shot this year.
Saturday morning I attended the Apple Blossom Youth Parade. Okay, so I didn’t exactly attend the parade per se, I was more a part of the parade if you want to get technical.
Allow me to explain.
My assignment was to cover the event while riding a float along the parade route. I happened to hop on board a float with the stipulation that I had to ride next to a clown. Snicker, a delightful and extremely happy human being, ended up being my clown companion for the morning.
I’ve covered all sorts of things while working at The World — including carnies, wildfires, plane crashes and strange criminal cases — but riding in a parade with a clown takes the cake as far as interesting assignments is concerned. I had a blast chronicling the parade from a float’s-hand-perspective. In case you missed it Monday, you can read about my clowning around at the Youth Parade here.
I took lots of photos while riding in the parade, some of them are below. You can also see lots more Apple Blossom photos over on The World’s Apple Blossom page.
On Sunday morning I looked out the window at my house and saw a light snowfall, not sticking on the ground, but still, snow in April! Went to the start of the Wenatchee Marathon where I wandered amongst the competitor who for the most part were huddled under shelter downtown. Two pictures I really like from the start include a slow shutter speed of the adults. Normally you wouldn’t be able to see the snowfall with a slow shutter speed because it would be blurred too much but there is a hint of it in the picture.
And then the children’s race where I was blessed to see this child catching snow on his tongue while running.
We used this as a weather feature photograph. Notice how more defined the snow is with the faster shutter speed.
With a practice session the day before, we decided to not use a live photograph for the weekend paper, relying on the picture I captured from Friday. It was a relief to me to be able to concentrate on producing a video of the race which I had on our internet site by 5 p.m. that day. I think I’m starting to get more quality into my videos with practice and technical knowledge. Some of the stills we ran were taken from the video tape I shot early in the day. I switched to still images later on for higher quality.
This is off the video and ran as the dominant photograph on A1 Monday.
And this one too, from video and ran large inside the sports section. I followed this group of kids as they put their hair up in Pippi style using copper wire. Then found them as they were on the obstacle course, following them to the finish. It helped bring continuity to the video.
What a gorgeous day I had when I went to the North Cascades Highway with reporter K.C. Mehaffey from Twisp. It took some waiting around but the sun finally broke over a mountain, the clouds parted and the snow was lit up as it came flying out of the snow blower the DOT operates to open the highway. The great part about cloudy weather is with patience, you can isolate sunny spots against darker, cloudy spots as with this photograph.
I was able to stay dry until I climbed off the slope created by the blower, pushing a load of snow into my boots and making my trip home a little wet.
I was in Chelan on April 9 photographing a really great golfer on the high school team and had a few minutes to look around town for anything interesting. My wanderings took me to the city park where I found a family enjoying the sunshine. I was able to capture a point when John O’Hara was looking rather devilish, having a handful of mud. It would be a look that my son, Aaron would have. I think Aaron would have flung the handful though, but instead John dropped it with a look from his mother, Gretchen O’Hara.
I covered the Wenatchee vs. Eastmont tennis match Tuesday and what I think is one of my better shots won’t run in the paper because the player lost her match.
This isn’t that uncommon with news photographs where the situation dictates how or if a photograph appears in print.
Photographers in my profession sometimes find themselves rooting for a team (internally) because of a picture they know they have nailed.
I went to the crowning of the Apple Blossom junior royalty at Sunnyslope Elementary School on Wednesday, video gear in hand. I was perplexed at how to shoot the event, initially thinking I would get a frame grab from the video but because there were so many people there, to be crammed into a school room, I went back to the car for the still camera, trusting from my 20+ years of experience shooting stills vs. one month shooting video, that I would come back with a usable image.
I still shot video of the scene and the moment the new queen realized she was queen, but quickly switched to my wide angle lens, still camera when the queen’s mother gave her a quick hug.
It worked well I think to have Queen Carlie Heuple reading her winning essay as the interview with scenes from the announcement running over it for the video. I think the best part of the whole video is at the end when a bicyclist rides past in the background the second she finishes her speech.
Okay, I know I said I was done shooting basketball but Eastmont played last night and it happened to be my night to work. Seems having a couple days off from the sport helped revitalize me and I’m happy with what I came back with. It was a physical contest which makes for some great moments.
I decided to run this photograph as the dominant picture in today’s paper. It shows the nature of the game and plays to the determination of both teams to get to the next game in the tournament.
And then a secondary photo of Travis Yesiki hugging Eastmont coach Mike Waters after the game.
Check out Kathryn Steven’s images of Chelan girls and Brewster boys at the state 1A championships from Yakima on www.wenworld.com soon after the conclusions of the matches today.
I think I need a rest from basketball. From Wednesday to Saturday, I shot nine games; eight in the Sundome in Yakima and my last one at West Valley High School in Yakima. Check out the galleries at http://wenatcheeworld.com/section/PHOTO
They are exciting games - playoff games where the action can be intense - but my body starts to ache and my eyes become weary following the movement of the ball. After the first couple of days, I begin to look for different angles to shoot from and end up for half of each game in the stands shooting with a 300mm 2.8 lens. It’s actually a nice break from the low angles that are still my first vantage choice.
I’m handing the baton off to staff photographer Kathryn Stevens who heads to Yakima for the 1A tournament starting this Wednesday. Have a great time Kathryn!
1 Comment