Charity, Robots and Line Dancing.

The Junior Miss contestants went line dancing over on the USS Alabama battleship memorial grounds and did some charity work with kids. Also I made a picture of a few kids at a summer camp building robots one day on my way to work. The Junior Misses have kept me very busy for two days (JD Mercer would make a joke about that sentence if he read this). I don't mix work and play. Much.

Line Dancing and a tour of the USS Alabama.








I think that the line dancing excitement claimed the eyepiece on my Mark2. I noticed this morning that it was gone. I bought another one for a good deal already, this time I'll throw some trusty gaffer tape over the top of the eyepiece to make it stay (longer). At least I didn't break a(nother) filter.

The next morning (this morning), charity work playing with kids:








JD Mercer says I need to use off camera flash a lot more. He is right. We'll see what tomorrow brings. The Junior Misses are touring University of South Al which should be well lit outdoors. But I do need to practice with off camera flash a lot more. Looks like I'll be in need of a guinea pig. Uncle Larry is a prime candidate. Here he is enduring one of my typical test shots.


Summer camp:

Power Tour 2009 and back to work.

I had all of last week off for a vacation. Went on the Hot Rod Power Tour 2009. I posted some images on my Flickr page so if you are interested in viewing them here is the link:
Hot Rod Power Tour

Monday I photographed my cousin's wedding. I am still processing those images so you'll have to wait. They will make their way into a gallery on Flickr before long.

Tuesday (yesterday) I photographed the America's Junior Miss scholarship contestants (they don't call it a "beauty pageant"). They were doing team-building exercises on a ropes course in west Mobile. I will be covering the Junior Miss "pageant" all week long.

Elephants, A Blaze, me on Coke and Monday bonus pics

My post from Monday detailed my weekend activities but not what I did on that day so I am adding those images at the end of this blog entry.
First, today I went on a safari hunt for urban elephants and shot six of them.



The circus came to town this morning and they unloaded the elephants from a boat in Mobile Bay and walked them a few blocks over to the Civic Center. The elephants and other animals are staying in the parking lot outside the Civic Center for two weeks during a layover period between shows. They might appear again in some features.

Then I went to cover the aftermath of a fire that occurred at a Fashion Store yesterday.









Then John David Mercer shot some portraits of some softball players. We are doing portraits of some high school softball and baseball players. Four portraits were shot today, the rest will be shot tomorrow and next week. I was given the option of doing all the baseball portraits which is exciting but I am leaving for a week next week to go on the Hot Rod Power Tour so JD will do them all. I hope another opportunity to practice my studio techniques will present itself later in the summer. I need to grow in that area. I was a guinea pig so JD could get his exposure in the ballpark and he took this photo of me.


Photo credit to John David Mercer.

As I said, I forgot to post what I did on Monday. I went to a threatre camp in the morning and made this picture. Would've been better if the kids had better reactions.



Then me and Mike Kittrell went to the scene of the culmination of a bank robbery/police chase/car crash. It was in a "top notch" part of town if you catch my drift. Mike shot long with a 300 and a 1.4x converter and managed to get an image that showed part of the suspect when they loaded him into the ambulance. I worked short with a 70-200 and took this one of some of the locals evacuating from their house near the crash.



As always, all images are the property of the Mobile Press-Register newspaper.

Tuesday: Portaits and a Press Conference

This morning, I shot a portrait of the editor of University of South Alabama's student newspaper, The Vanguard. Used a 550EX on camera with a second 550EX slaved and mounted on a tripod. 70-200 2.8L compressed all the elements together to create an interesting portrait. This was the best one, however I cut off the "V" in Vanguard while shooting, 'twas a mistake I shouldn't have made.


Ate at Waffle House, then shot this portrait of a local businessman. He is part of a contracting firm in Mobile. Again, two flashes were used, one slaved and mounted on a tripod.


Afterwards, back to the office. It was a slow day, press conference happened later. Coach at the U of S. Alabama was announcing his retirement.

A memorial service and a seaside concert

Sunday I covered a memorial service for a soldier from Foley who was killed in Afghanistan. It was difficult for a moment but it isn't the first death I've covered and wont be the last, I just try to be as respectful as I can. Photos weren't allowed inside the sanctuary during the ceremony so I stayed out in the lobby. I missed making a picture that really would've told the story but I wont go into too much detail about it. There were two dignitaries, a congressman and a representative, who were at the ceremony. They both presented the family with commendations.






The above picture of the mother hugging a family member was the front page of the newspaper today. The image of the family photo ran secondary on the front page.

Following the memorial service I covered a community concert at an oceanside park in Fairhope, AL. It was a lot of fun, many interesting things were happening and I will try to go back to another event there to get some more feature images.


The above image was the front page of the Metro section today.





As always, click the images to view them larger.

Bay Bears, a Bishop and a Girl

This entry will cover Friday and Saturday.

Friday May 29 was a bit slow in the office. I took a portrait of a college student my age for a story. J.D. Mercer and Glen were both out of the office so I had to figure out the lighting studio myself. J.D. had given me a "crash course" in the studio the day before when we shot the Splenda picture from my previous blog entry. Anyway, this girl was exceptionally pretty so it was very easy to make a good picture.


Later that day I went to the Bay Bears game. J.D. was there and gave me some simple and effective pointers on shooting baseball. He called it his "philosophy on shooting baseball."





The next day:
Saturday May 30, I covered a ceremony at an Episcopal Church. They were dedicating a newly constructed building, called The Life Center. It is a gym type place with facilities to minister to the youth of the community. The Presiding Bishop of the whole church made an appearance at the ceremony. I could've made a better shot if I would've stopped and thought harder. I feel like I did a lot of "shooting from the hip" style shooting here and I missed out on some very thoughtful images that came to me after the fact.



Later that night, more Bay Bears.

Thursday - Classical Music and a Hot Meal

I returned to work Thursday after two days off. I went to an outdoor market festival looking for features. It was an opportunity to make pictures but I wasn't able to get in gear to do what I wanted to. Hard to explain but I felt a bit unattached, maybe because I had been lazy for two days. Either way, I didn't make any pictures I'm proud of but it was merely a feature hunt, not an assignment so no loss.
Back at the newsroom John David Mercer and I came up with some ideas of how to shoot Splenda packets for a story about Splenda closing its doors after ten years. Neither of us had very much time to spend on this so we set up some lights and made this picture.


Afterwards I went to a classic music concert and made this picture:

It ran front of Metro today (Friday).

Then on the way back to the newsroom I saw a crowd of people gathering in a nearby park. I stopped to check it out and saw that it was a group of 50 or so homeless people. An independent group of Christian youth gives food and clothing to anybody who wants them every Thursday. I had to get back to the newsroom to get the concert image in on deadline but afterwards I went back to the park and made this picture:

It was very dark, I'd like to go back and see about making some more pictures next week. The cutline I am putting in for that picture reads:
Robert Barlow of Mobile accepts a free meal in Cathedral Park late Thursday night, May 28, 2009. A hot meal and clothing are available in Cathedral Park every Thursday night through a community outreach program put on by an independent group of Christian youth. "I've been on top, now I'm on the bottom," said Barlow. "I'll be on top again, it always gets better."