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.

(more…)

No Comments

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.

No Comments

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.

No Comments

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.

No Comments

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

I wanted to do a video on the first day of basketball tournaments in Wenatchee and kept my eyes - and ears - open to find a suitable subject to focus on. Jade had walked by while I was getting ready to shoot the first Entiat game and I noticed her shoes, thinking that might be an interesting photograph so at halftime I looked for her in the stands and to my surprise there she was, the most vocal person in the crowd. I wired her with a remote microphone and spent the first half of the boys game telling her story in video.

No Comments

Photographer Kelly Gillin was out with reporter Jay Patrick, looking for places that might be in trouble for not keeping the sidewalks clear of snow. I was headed home for lunch, just starting to cross the George Sellar Bridge when I spotted Amaza Clothier having a difficult time as he began the journey across the bridge making his way along a narrow path of tramped down snow and ice. I crossed the bridge, trying to decide if I should try to get the photo and called Kelly to see if they had found anything yet. They hadn’t so I made my way back to Wenatchee across the bridge then back across and found a place to park. I ran to a spot on the East Wenatchee side with a minute to spare as Clothier walked the final few feet across.

I’m glad I went back for the picture and missed a few minutes of lunch.

No Comments

Caught an interesting moment on video Monday at the scene of an accident on Mission St. when Glen Widener with the Wenatchee Fire Department nearly went down on ice. Here’s a still from the scene and a video link but when you get to the link click on the auto accident video.

Glen looked like he came out of it alright but I’m guessing he may have had to make a visit to his friendly chiropractor.

No Comments

Had an okay night of shooting basketball Friday at Eastmont. It was an exciting game, close till the end, but my best photographs came from an unexpected and unplanned halftime show.

Up:

Up:

And………… Down

No Comments

You may not have realized it but Thursday’s paper contained images on page one and page two that were revolutionary for The Wenatchee World newspaper. On those pages contained photographs produced using frame grabs from videotape. It’s almost like stepping back into shooting film. The photographs by Kelly Gillin and one by myself,

were pulled from our new video camera.

And today’s newspaper’s front page has a frame grab image made by Kathryn Stevens.

This quality means we can begin using the video camera more and more and use video and sound as an exciting tool to tell your stories.

Check out our video page for the videos that came from these stories.

No Comments