Flirting with Insanity

Recent Contest Wins

2009-07-31T15:31:00.000-07:00

NPPA Monthly Clip Contest, Region 11, Spot News, 2nd Place

Sports Shooter December 2008, News, 2nd Place

Sports Shooter April 2009, News, 1st Place

Sports Shooter May 2009, Feature, 1st Place

NPPA Monthly Clip Contest, Region 11, Sports, 1st Place

Behind the Fold Fan Page

2009-07-24T08:41:00.001-07:00

Behind the Fold on Facebook

Month Update

2009-04-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm back to my old ways of sparse updates. How many of you are really missing these, though? I mean, really.

I have kept up my work blog, Behind the Fold, which publishes every Friday at: http://tricityherald.com/behindthefold

Here are a few faves from the last month.

Yeah yeah...you've never seen this before, right? Sometimes, you gotta fall back on some cliches. This was for a Hanford stimulus story about the potential need for increased traffic patrols.

Scott Albin deposits cardboard that he collected from Red Lion Inn in Kennewick, where he initiated a recycling program.

Zumba feature photo. Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/519503.html

Agustin Ocampo, 15, and Adolpho Solario, 16, pass the time with a grass fight as firefighters investigated smoke inside Pasco High School Wednesday afternoon.

Here's a good ol' "America Fuck Yeah" outtake from our local TEA Party. Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/545381.html

And some assorted sports and features:

If this isn't enough for you here are some recent galleries:

Family Fitness
Dance Competition
Richland track meet
Hanford at Kennewick soccer
West Valley at Kamiakin baseball
Kennewick at Hanford baseball
Othello at Prosser soccer
Kennewick at Southridge soccer
Walla Walla at Richland baseball

See you next month?

Prosser Girls Hat Trick

2009-03-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

Three days, three state playoff games, one team I was in charge of covering.

Here are some from tonight when Prosser lost the semifinal game:

And the galleries from:

Wednesday (1st Round)
Thursday (Quarterfinal)
Friday (Semifinal)

High School Friendly Competion

2009-02-28T22:02:00.001-08:00

Better late then never, right? This was a competition of more than 300 high school students with Hanford engineers acting as judges. Teams had 45 minutes to design and build a device that delivered a pencil to a specific distance using only common office supplies.

Gallery: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/492945.html

Also...a week-old item. I did a Soundslides for the first time in months. I'm not too happy with the photos, but I thought the audio turned out OK. It's a very basic, straightforward, slideshow:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/975/story/485464.html

Basketball Double Header

2009-02-28T21:59:00.001-08:00

One local team won the regional title:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/494378.html

The other lost the battle for a state playoff berth and dragged out the game with lots of fouls:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/494421.html

Radcon 2009

2009-02-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

I had a fun time shooting at our local Sci-Fi Convention, Radcon. You can see a full (some might say excessive) photo gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/479632.html

Super Bowl Shooting

2009-02-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Two events, one gallery, one helluva game!

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/465233.html

Plastic Instruments and Botched Basketball

2009-01-31T21:48:00.001-08:00

Two galleries today after getting woken up for a fire and starting work far earlier than I had hoped.

Here's one from a Guitar Hero contest. Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/464528.html

And then one from tonight's basketball game. Kamiakin, whose coach is seen here lacing into his players, was way down at the half when I left to work up photos. They ended up winning and I ended up with very few options of Kamiakin looking good.

Oh well. Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/464706.html

Second Clip Win

2009-01-27T19:55:00.001-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/afa58k

I'm pretty excited about it, too.

It's in the multiple picture category, so check 'em out, if you'd like.

I'll be offended if you don't.

MLK Bell-Ringing Ceremony

2009-01-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

I shot this on my first day as a staffer, Jan. 21, 2008, and it was interesting to shoot it again nearly one year later. Aside from just being more comfortable, it was strange to recognize so many people from past assignments or as local dignitaries.

Here's a gallery from the day: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/450734.html

Congregation Disbands

2008-12-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

Long time no post.

Here's a gallery I put together today: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/428348.html

Also, my blog: http://tricityherald.com/behindthefold is now on the front page of the Tri-City Herald's website. Check it out, click "Recommend" if you like it and comment away so the brass doesn't regret the decision.

Two Basketball Galleries and an extra photo (for free!)

2008-12-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this link from a couple days ago: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/411529.html

Here's the one from tonight: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/415072.html

And here's a shot for the front of Saturday's page for a lighted boat parade.

Holeee Craap

2008-11-22T00:11:00.000-08:00

Woof.

What a night.

I think I've ODed on volleyball.

On the up side, my photos will be published on Saturday in: The Tri-City Herald, The Spokesman Review, The Seattle Times, The Tacoma News Tribune and The Bellingham Herald.

I hope they spell my name right...

Gallery from the Kamiakin game at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/393008.html

Here are my four favorites from tonight:

Graduation Galleries

2008-11-19T20:17:00.000-08:00

One's for the 20th anniversary DARE class: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/388743.html

And the other is for Liz Evett, a high school senior with terminal leukemia: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/390172.html

Love is in the air

2008-11-15T00:24:00.000-08:00

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/384702.html

I made a fan!

2008-11-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

Somebody was so moved by my photo in today's paper, he wrote a letter to the editor:

Dear Editor:

I laughed at the Army Officer who referred to the paper as the "Tri-City Tribune", but maybe he was only forecasting something better for the area. I often refer to it as the Birdcage Liner, and Friday's paper exemplifies why I use that designation.

On Thursday evening the US Army Field Band Jazz Ambassadors played a great concert at the Kennewick High auditorium. What coverage did they get from your paper? One of the absolutely poorest pictures I've seen, in fact better pictures appear in high school publications. Did the paper provide any information on the band, or members of the band? No, instead we were treated to half a page about the search for a football coach and a full page on the woes of bordello workers in Nevada!

Congatulations (sic) on the poor showing. Once again coverage of any good things in the community in the fine arts goes by the way.

Here's the photo:

It's not a great photo, maybe not even good, but he was a bit harsh, methinks. The letter is now printed and posted on my cubicle wall.

Soccer in the rain

2008-11-11T22:24:00.000-08:00

Brought me back to shooting in Oregon.

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/380908.html

Volleyball Gallery

2008-11-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/376110.html

Wine Judging

2008-11-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/374774.html

Sportsshooter Update

2008-11-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

I finally updated my sportsshooter page.

sportsshooter.com/kaiyau

Soccer Gallery

2008-11-01T17:19:00.001-07:00

Here's how I capped off a long day of shooting a flooded crawl space, a WWII vet, grieving family members/a disembodied ear, and soccer:

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/370275.html

Two Galleries

2008-10-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/369579.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/369347.html

Three galleries and a blog

2008-10-31T08:24:00.001-07:00

They're short, I promise.

Also, a new posting, just like every Friday, at http://tri-cityherald.com/behindthefold

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/368175.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/366811.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/368358.html

Motorcycles

2008-10-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a photo before leaving work, but I'll still shamelessly promote my new gallery.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/362836.html

Saturday Soccer

2008-10-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Short gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/362136.html

Emotions

2008-10-24T23:34:00.001-07:00

Some from tonight's game.

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/361378.html

Tight is right?

2008-10-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday's football game.

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/360072.html

Also, a new blog post at: http://tricityherald.com/behindthefold
at midnight every Friday.

Lil bit o' volleyball

2008-10-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Yet another blowout. CBC rolled over Yakima Valley, sweeping them in three sets.

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1382/gallery/358762.html

Saturday night lights

2008-10-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

So...many...football...galleries...

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/354639.html

It's Friday again

2008-10-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

That means football and a new post at: tricityherald.com/behindthefold

Here's a gallery from Hanford's homecoming game tonight: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/353737.html

Yet another short gallery

2008-10-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

The African Children's Choir performed tonight.

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/348017.html

Duck race

2008-10-12T12:43:00.001-07:00

Gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/347078.html

Another Double Header

2008-10-10T23:32:00.001-07:00

One night.

Two games.

Two galleries.

I'm tired.

See the galleries at:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/346539.html
and
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/346537.html

Finally, a good game

2008-10-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

After shooting blowout after blowout this season, I finally got to cover a good game. My hope is that my photos convey this excitement. Here are a couple of my favorites from the night. I tried out the 200/1.8 with the 1.4x teleconverter tonight. I'm not terribly pleased with how it worked.

See a photo gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/345139.html

Another week another couple galleries...

2008-10-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

In other news, I can't find a folder of photos I thought I'd backed up.

Feck.

Here are a couple galleries I put together today. Sorry for the lack of photos, but I had to get outta the office.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/344102.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1382/gallery/344104.html

They're short.

I promise.

Double Gallery Saturday

2008-10-04T16:12:00.001-07:00

I covered two big-ass high school events today.

Here, Richland High School marching band members get a squirt of lemon and lime juice to keep their mouths from drying out prior to competition.

I was looking forward to this after all those Jolesch work-for-hire gigs, but ran into an overzealous field manager. I'll blog more thoroughly about it on Behind the Fold soon.

You can see a gallery of the Cavalcade of Bands at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/339893.html

And I got to shoot cross country for the second week in a row. I didn't approach it with as much gusto as last time, mostly because of all the running I had to do in order to cover the marching band competition, but I got a few shots I liked and put together a very short gallery: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/339899.html

Rainy Night Lights

2008-10-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

When it started raining on me while shooting a football game in Burbank, some Oregon nostalgia crept up.

Until it started smelling like diarrhea was falling from the sky.

Here are a couple from tonight:

You can see a gallery at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/339345.html

Also, here's one from last night's vollyball:

Kids love getting candy thrown at them!

And again, here's that gallery link: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/338356.html

First Clip Win!

2008-10-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah. I've posted these photos already, but these, along with a few others won me my first NPPA monthly clip contest!

I also covered a volleyball game tonight and a gallery can be seen at:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/338356.html

Galleries and Photos

2008-09-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Just some recent photos with the gallery links below.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/328567.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/329590.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/328572.html

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/329767.html

Thanks for looking.

W.O.W.

2008-09-24T21:43:00.001-07:00

Or Wings Over Washington, to be more specific.

I hadn't been to an air show in a while and had a pretty fun time.

Here's my favorite from the shoot.

You can see a gallery at:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/327364.html

Some recent galleries

2008-09-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Just me shamelessly promoting my work at the paper:

Girls Volleyball
High School Football
Parent/Child Golf Tournament
Sausage Fest
Equinox Celebration

I'll post some more photos soon.

Annihilation

2008-09-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

I witnessed quite a decimation today when the Richland Bombers nuked the Kennewick Lions 12-0.

I hadn't planned on staying the whole game, but it's a slow day today and I was morbidly curious about just how bad it was going to end up.

Here are a few faves:

See more at http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1382/gallery/316057.html

Football is Here

2008-09-12T23:25:00.001-07:00

Here are two of my favorites since high school football "kicked off" last week.

Get it? bwahahahahahahaha

Ok, maybe I'm a little tired.

If you have some time to kill, here are links to the four galleries I've done so far, ordered from my favorite to least favorite:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/314411.html
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/315493.html
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/315492.html
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1418/gallery/306512.html

I also have a new blog posting at:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1390

A few from Bumbershoot

2008-09-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

Including some shots of Australia's Strange Fruit and Stone Temple Pilots.

Also, I love my G9.

Three from the last week

2008-08-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here's one of a couple getting married on a ferris wheel at the fair.

A fairriage, if you will...

More photos at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/fairphotos/gallery/289126.html

A candlelight vigil for a local teen who's been missing for two months.

And some deputy secretaries from the DOE and DOI taking a tour of Hanford's B Reactor before making the formal announcement that it had been designated a National Historic Landmark.

More photos here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/galleries/gallery/291643.html

Super mondo update extravaganza

2008-08-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Now with no context!

Here are some of my favorites from the last couple months.

Fair 'n' Rodeo, Yo

2008-08-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love the rodeo. One major complaint is that all the good light is wasted on opening jibber jabber and the stadium lights are worthless by the time the real action starts up.

Mutton bustin' makes up for it, though.

Here are a few of my faves from the night and a link to an excessively long photo gallery: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/fairphotos/gallery/288214.html

Wow

2008-08-21T18:18:00.001-07:00

I updated both of my blogs today...

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/behindthefold/story/286569.html

Horses at the Fair

2008-08-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

I hung out for about an hour yesterday at the Fair and put together a little photo gallery.

Here are my two favorites from the take.

Here, a very responsible 11-year-old cleans her horse's hoof before competing in bareback competition. I think it's a good argument that all little girls should get ponies...you know, to build character and instill work ethic.

A funny little guy then excitedly introduced me to all the horses that his extended family owned. Here, he's bragging about how a horse in a nearby stall blew diarrhea all over the stall.

New blog

2008-08-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

I've just started one at the Herald.

Check it out at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1390

I'll still try to update this one in online-diary fashion, however.

Another Pseudo Update

2008-08-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to get better at this newfangled video stuff. What I've found most helpful in this process is actually editing my own footage. Nothing reminds you better about shooting more variety in your b-roll than not having enough while you're slapping something together.

Here's a recent one from a fun story about Wii being implemented in physical therapy for some Wiihabilitation.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/958/story/268883.html

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Photo Galleries

2008-08-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

Like so many of my self-improvement resolutions, the one to update my blog more frequently hasn't held true.

In my defense, the last two weeks have been hectic between my car dying in Seattle and boat race weekend, but even without that, this update would've been a month and a half late.

Oops.

In lieu of a legit update, here are links to some recent photo galleries I put together.

Baseball
Little Kids Baseball
Flea Market
July 4th Parade
Talent Show
Partners N Pals

A real update to come soon...I promise.

Pomp and Circumstance

2008-06-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Covering Walla Walla high school's graduation last year caused me to dread this year's round of coverage. The rigid affair was preceded by pat-downs for students.

This isn't a violent school. They weren't searching for weapons. They weren't even searching for drugs or alcohol. They were looking for beach balls and silly string. Needless to say, I was happy to see this during the ceremony.

Apparently, students had taped deflated inflatables, such as this orifice-equipped sheep (which I thought looked bovine), to the undersides of their chairs.

Clever.

Now, I understand a certain level of decorum should be present at these commencements, but to stifle the graduates' fun as much as they did takes the day away from them.

As the first smuggled beach balls started bouncing around, the veins in the administrators' heads protruded. When one got away from the crowd, they would angrily chase and stomp them down. I only wish I would've been more on top of my game to capture one of those moments.

As this past weekend loomed, I kept my expectations low. It didn't help that I had to photograph these two students who wouldn't be graduating earlier in the week.

The two had recently come to the U.S. from Sudan and India, where neither spoke English as their first or second language. After barely failing to pass the standardized WASL examinations, they were denied a chance to graduate with their classmates. You can read the full story here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/901/story/202556.html

So with low expectations in hand, I set out to cover this milestone for a couple hundred local students. As it has been with several assignments with low expectations, however, I was pleasantly surprised with my three: Othello, Connell and Kiona-Benton High Schools. Here are a few of my favorites, and you can see more at our graduation galleries: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/gradgalleries/

Bad Juju

2008-05-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

I love shooting sports, but I loathe covering the Tri-Cities Fever, our local AF2 indoor football team. I think I'd be able to enjoy watching a game through a standard-lowering fog of beer, but covering it is torture.

There are few places to shoot from, a lot of tedious entertainment during the downtime, and the offense hinges on long bombs. All of this takes place on uneven, worn turf that you can trip on while walking around on it.

Now I have to add bodies in the river to that list of grievances.

Of the two games I have shot this year, both have been preceded by waiting in a Richland park for rescue crews to fish bodies out of the Columbia River.

"Where are the bodies?!" you may be screaming through your foam-coated teeth.

Well, we have a strict no body policy and even though the second guy survived (and is still in critical condition last I heard), the possibility of death was enough to nix the shots I had of dive rescue fishing him out.

Odds are, tonight's Fever game won't bring on a wet body hat trick (that would've been more clever if it was a hockey game), but as I prepare for work, I can't help but notice the dreary, windy, gray and, dare I say, deathly weather we're having today.

Wish me luck.

Slap(shot) to the face

2008-04-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Tri-City Americans re-tying the playoff series against their rivals, the Spokane Chiefs, I'll share a stressful Saturday story.

"But you don't get stressed, Kai," you may be yelling at your computer screen. "You, sir, are the picture of calm and composed."

"Calmposed, if you will."

Well, thanks. That's very kind of you. And, yes, I will.

I showed up plenty early to make sure I got a good spot to shoot from, but that turned out to be a wasted effort. The Toyota Center has limited spots to shoot from during regular season play. Between me, the three TV stations and another local photographer, there's just enough room from the designated spot below the press boxes.

Come playoff time, we have to share that space with the folks doing the live telecast and Western Hockey League bigwigs.

Did I say share? I meant forfeit.

I spent the night bouncing around between spots where I had to contend with excited fans jumping up between me and the ice or the dirty glass behind the net. On top of this, everybody was buzzing that Americans co-owner and Washington Capitals goaltender Olie Kolzig was in attendance, so I was on the lookout for somebody whose appearance I wasn't familiar with.

Finally, after regulation ended, we spotted him in the nosebleeds (which really aren't that high in a 6,000-seat arena). I crouched in the aisles after introducing myself to him and grabbed this shot of him laughing a kid who was trying to get the wave started.
After getting that shot, I made the erroneous judgment call to stick around. It was 3-3 going into overtime, so I figured it would be over pretty quick. I ended up running out to the car after the first overtime ended thinking "fuck, fuck, fuck..." over and over to myself and feigning a smile at the guy who yelled out at me, "gotta make deadline, huh?"

My computer was as cranky as I was while I multi tasked it into the ground. I was also responsible for sending a photo to the Spokesman Review and scrambled to find one for them and two for us as the rainbow pinwheel taunted me. One of my 2GB cards refused to download and ended up submitting a menage a trois of goalie photos for them:

And us:

My computer must have been running on the vulgarities I had been muttering because as soon as I sent the last photo through, my computer completely froze up, which somehow ended with some photos moving themselves to the recycle bin and a couple not getting saved. All while not noticing this photo before deadline:

To make matters worse, I had to be out at the Pasco flea market by 8 a.m. the next day.

But that's a story for another day.

Stopping Down the Sun

2008-04-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

If there's one technique I'm too fond of, it's this one.

Marathon Monday

2008-04-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of witnessing and shooting my first Boston Marathon today. Wellesley's campus is the halfway mark and its students form the backbone of the famous "Scream Tunnel," a bit of a misnomer because they're all lined up on one side of the street.

While it's always nice to get paid for shoots, it was pretty fun shooting just for the heck of it, and being able to stop by the beer garden for a brew break sweetened the deal—something I'd never do on a paid gig.

Here are a few of my favorites. You can see more at sportsshooter.com/kaiyau

Walking in Lines and Shadows

2008-04-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's been nice to have been shooting for myself lately, though it remains to be seen whether this has been a period of improvement for me. My mindset as a photographer is still quite different from when I'm on assignment compared to when I'm on my free time. Everything from how hard I work a scene to how willing I am to approach a stranger is fairly contrasted. There are some influences that facilitate these differences, however, more often than not a friend or family member who doesn't want to watch me make pictures.

Here's a couple more from Boston. One's at Kendall Station, where those MIT bells weren't working, and the other's at the Museum of Fine Arts, where my preconceived notions about the ill effects of sunlight on paintings died.

Orange Siblings

2008-04-20T07:24:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because I've been in Bahstun with my brother visiting my sister, who's snoring right now as my stomach grumbles in anticipation of breakfast. Here's the first few from my trip shot during a nighttime walk through the Wellesley campus.

A new personal record

2008-04-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

It's not great, but it's not bad either. I cranked this bad boy out in about 20 minutes, not counting the import time. Editing my own videos whenever possible has taught me a lot about shooting videos, which is still very tough to juggle with shooting stills. I've gone from shooting too little footage and finding myself desperately needing b-roll to having far too much footage to handle, and I've now started migrating toward a happy medium. You can see the video here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/958/story/153045.html

Let me know if any of this improvement shows through.

I shot a kid

2008-04-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Actually, I seem to shoot a lot of kids lately. It's a problem I have and I can't seem to stop. Really, it's just because they're easy targets.

In unrelated news, I think puns are so funny.

Here's a shot that ran today from a spring break camp at the Boys & Girls Club:

It's not great, but it was one of the fleeting real moments I was able to capture as staffers helped kids finish their pipe cleaner butterflies. I ended up being a major distraction as soon as I walked in, with kids confused about why I had two big cameras and why I wanted pictures of them. I snapped a quick frame of one particularly inquisitive child (who also wanted to know why, if I was indeed a boy, did I have long hair?):
I thought I would win them over by showing them the pic on the back of the camera.

Boy was I right.

Suddenly, everybody wanted his or her picture taken and the room erupted in a cacophony of "Take my picture!" and "Let me see!" Kids were waving things in front of my lens:
and striking goofy poses:
All in all, a pretty entertaining feature hunt.

One of those days

2008-04-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

As I started the last half of my eight-day week, I was optimistic. My weekend assignments hadn't been too fun, except for hanging out with the Long family for a bit on Sunday.

"Today will make up for it," I thought.

I understand the job isn't non-stop great assignments, but the trying weekend came at a craptacular junction of having turned 25 away from family and close friends and wrapping up my third week of quitting smoking.

The day started with some feature hunting, which can be tough on Mondays. After a brief cruise, I got a call about a house fire on Pasco-Kahlotus Road—about 30 minutes northeast of the Tri-Cities.

The fire ended up being fairly minor (visually) with an unusual number of responders, partially due to the fact that a fire station happened to be a couple hundred yards away. I headed out, but turned back after two miles because another fire engine was heading toward the house. It still looked pretty tame.

I headed back toward the office until I got a call about a truck in flames that had some oxygen tanks on it. This was way outside of Prosser—about an hour west of the Tri-Cities. After driving the whole length of Bert James Road, six miles of which was gravel full of twists, ups and downs.

As you may have guessed, there was no sign of a truck. I did come across an interesting house that had a back yard full of old vehicles. I stopped and left a card, trying to get a potential future story out of the deal, but as the case has been numerous times, somebody from the Herald had already been in contact.

As I headed back on Highway 240, a brilliant rainbow appeared. I took the first exit and tried to find some clean context to put it against.

Can you see where this is going?

I made my way down to the river in under five minutes, but the rainbow had faded by then. As I grinded my teeth to their roots through the park on the way back to the office empty carded, I stopped to snap this:

That's right. My day of wild goose chases ended with an shot of wild geese drinking rain water from the road.

Whoops

2008-04-04T22:07:00.000-07:00

It's probably pretty obvious what the whoops is about. No, not whoops because this photo sucks. See it yet?

Well, somehow I didn't notice while I was shooting it and had to rush to get my proofs printed before the daily budget meeting, so I didn't actually notice it until I had turned it in for consideration.

Maybe it was a subconsciously immature attempt to get a crude penis drawing into print.

Or maybe I just suck.

Doubly.

Which brings me to the second point of this post: the "green" I use to describe myself refers to my inexperience—not my earth-friendly ways. Sure, I recycle and whatnot, but I also continue to patronize restaurants that use styrofoam containers if I like the food.

I also drive the three blocks to work, but that's not out of laziness (which may be hard to believe for those of you who know me). I need my car close by in case a company car is unavailable. Why not just leave my car at the office then? Well, I guess I'm lazy...

Also, last time I took my recyclables to the bins, some astute Tri-Citian had put a sticker that read: "Recycling is for fags and communists," which really made me reconsider my pseudo green ways.

Radiolab

2008-03-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite radio show, thanks to Scott Brauer, a member of APAD. It's called Radiolab and it's gotten me thinking about storytelling. Their stories are delivered via quirky editing and a style that seems to be deliberately unpolished at times while delightfully refined at others. They tackle exceedingly broad subjects such as laughter or mortality, and in an hour-long show somehow leave you pretty satisfied with the coverage.

As for how this applies to me and my budding career? Well, my aural skills definitely need improvement and this show has definitely got me thinking.

While I don't have a new pic to post with this, I found an old one of Oswald Cobblepot's first trip to the vet a few months back.

Do yourself a favor and check out this show. If not for me, the for little Oswald.

Every 15 Minutes

2008-03-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

Pasco senior Ashton Bott finishes off her transformation into a walking dead as part of the Every 15 Minutes program, which seeks to raise awareness for drunk driving-related fatalities.

The "every 15 minutes" part refers to an old stat that claimed one death from alcohol-related accidents every 15 minutes. The rate has dropped since the program started, thanks to numerous programs aimed at getting heads pulled out of asses.

I shot some video for this and planned on editing it, having thought out a tight edit during and after shooting. Unfortunately, a last-minute A1 story came up and I had to pass the footage along to be edited. What I had envisioned as a quick 1:30 about the event clocked in at a flabby 4:09.

Now, I'm not talking shit about the coworker who edited it. I dumped it on her toward the end of her shift and it's much faster to edit loose than tight. There's that famous Mark Twain quote: “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

Well, that rings true for these multimedia pieces too, and with our current drive for quantity of videos over quality, it's tough to find the time to edit properly. Week before last, we slammed our interactive media department with four videos in one day. My fear is that by the time we get our video priorities in order, a good percentage of our readers will avoid our videos out of conditioning.

My hope is that things will settle down before that happens and we are given the time to produce some quality storytelling.

True. I got pulled away from editing the Every 15 Minutes video to go hang out in a bar and shoot some Cougar fans watch the Tar Heels smother WSU. I got an hour of overtime to hang out with a pretty fun bunch and catch the first half of a bitter Sweet 16 game. And sure, I'm pretty happy with the frame I got of a 1993 WSU alum leading the crowd in the fight song:

But I would've happily traded that to edit my own video—even from a less-than-stellar event. Why? Because every time I slog through my own footage, I learn a little more about what I need to do next time, and while we're in this orgy of video production, I want to use the lack of demand for quality to work out the kinks so when the quantity/quality formula is reciprocated, my pants are snug around my waist and not wrapped around my ankles.

Crashes and Cars and Jesse Jackson, Oh My!

2008-03-28T22:39:00.001-07:00

That's probably the worst play on the Wizard of Oz line for a headline ever, but I'm staying late after work to uphold my blog updating promise.

So sue me.

Here's the aftermath of a semi rolling into a bank. The driver didn't set the parking brake on his rig while he grabbed a bite next door and a gust of wind pushed it across the street. No one was hurt, but the driver was embarrassed. "They probably thought I was robbing the bank," he said. He declined to give me his name, acknowledged that we'd be able to get it from the police anyways and asked that we didn't print his name.

We printed his full name, age and where he's from. I won't do that here.

Happy, Randell?

That was before heading out to the highway to shoot an illustrative piece about a section of Highway 240 between Kennewick and Richland, which, according to a DOT survey records the highest average speeds of any 60 mph highways in Washington—an unimpressive 63.2 mph average. Granted, more than 1,500 were clocked at 90 mph or faster, but c'mon, Washingtonians...63.2 average? That better factor in a couple traffic jams or something.

Anyways, I tried out a zoom burst for a story that I didn't think needed a photo, and actually, it didn't even run next to the story. This ran on A1, while the story ran on B1, and there was no teaser for the actual story next to my photo. It did run 2.5 columns, though, so I'm not really complaining.

Finally, the Rev. Jesse Jackson stopped by the local WSU satellite campus to wrap up his two-day Tri-Cities tour. If you're interested, you can read about why he was visiting here and here. They served food that appeared semi-appetizing and Jackson had kind of a free form ramble. He seemed most enthused about answering students' questions, but unfortunately had a plane to catch and only had time to answer a couple.

Special Olympics

2008-03-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Usually, I'm not a fan of camera awareness, but I dig this frame for some reason. It's from a story I shot a few weeks ago about a group of special olympians who bounced back from a nasty bus wreck to compete a month later. I did a video/photo multimedia mutant for this and was relatively happy with it, as well.

Durr.

2008-03-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well. That was kind of a silly way to update my blog, but what's done is done.

If you want to be as good as I am at photoshop, check this out: http://tinyurl.com/3c4w3h

VA Roundtable

2008-03-25T20:35:00.001-07:00

Monty Hays of Kennewick, who suffered hearing loss in Vietnam, cups his ears to help him hear panel members sharing stories of their dealings with the Veterans Affairs system at Worksource in Kennewick. Hays says that he has been repeatedly denied benefits by the VA. "I'm scared to even file a claim anymore," he says.

Some Color

2008-03-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

The first shot is from a tasting event sponsored by the chamber of commerce that featured local restaurants, wineries and breweries. The second is from a circus-themed bowling party for Junior Achievement.

Some recent sports

2008-03-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

So, I know. It's pretty weak to do these updates all on the same day, but I'm trying to make an effort to update more regularly. Here are a few sports shots I liked from the last month or so. I wish the background was cleaner on the soccer shot, but I like the triangle formed by the heads at the peak of action. Even better was that I was supposed to get a shot of that kid for a sports feature anyways. The baseball shot is nothing really special, but I liked that the dirt is still flying in the air from picking up the grounder. I still hate shooting baseball, but I'm getting better at it, at least.

Spot News Sunday

2008-03-25T19:51:00.001-07:00

A couple Sundays ago was my last Sunday on that shift rotation. I'd heard for some time that Sundays can get hairy with breaking news and as the only photographer on duty, that prospect left me excited and nervous simultaneously. After seven weeks of boring Sundays, it finally hit the fan when a body was found in the river at the same time a house in Benton City caught fire.

It's weird to be thinking of aesthetics when covering a house fire. The trees and the light clouds in the sky made this house seem like it was so picturesque before it burned. I tried working the scenery to accent the sense of loss in the absence of emotional homeowners.

From there, I hustled back to a park in Richland in the hopes I'd get to cover the body recovery. That haste (and the speeding ticket risk that came with it) turned into a hurry-up-and-wait situation. Camping out on the opposite bank was as close as I could get to the crews waiting by the body, which had gotten stuck on an island. I put a 300/2.8 with a 1.4x teleconverter on my 30D, effectively having a 672mm lens and the resulting images is still substantially cropped. After 45 minutes of waiting and tiring out my left arm and wrist, they finally worked out the jurisdictional logistics and I got a serviceable shot. Still, I was glad to have heard both of these come over the scanner and still made it to the Fever football game with a quarter and a half left.

Don't mistake my excitement for sadism, however. It's not that I want bad things to happen.

I just want to be ready to cover them when they inevitably do.

Recent Multimedia

2008-03-24T03:46:00.000-07:00

Well. I'm terrible at updating. Not that there are any people really checking in, I suspect, though if there's never anything new to see, why bother checking, right? Vicious cycle. Blah.

Blah.

Anyway, here's a multimedia piece I did recently. Happy to hear any feedback.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/958/story/135390.html

Seniors' Super Bowl Party

2008-02-05T01:03:00.001-08:00

The paper mixed things up this year and we covered a Super Bowl party at a senior community instead of the usual bar coverage. Sure, nobody was wearing jerseys from either team, no faces were painted and a few people didn't fully understand the game, but they did have a betting pool and the people that were into it were animated. I only wish I could've stayed the whole game to get the reaction to that amazing fourth quarter—especially Eli's Houdini-esque escape and the ridiculous Tyree helmet-aided catch.

CUTLINE: Vintage residents Helen Nostrant celebrates while Ed Slezak bemoans a Giants third down conversion in the second quarter.

Prep Sports, Week 1

2008-02-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

I had been warned by my collegiate colleagues from UO that I should've enjoyed Mac Court as much as I could while I was still there because the prep sports arenas I would eventually be shooting in would be dimly lit with nasty lighting.

I was pleasantly surprised when I shot my first two high school basketball games to find not only adequate lighting, but infinitely more freedom to choose where I shot from. I plan on taking advantage of this fact at the next game I shoot and hope to have a new addition to my portfolio soon.

Long Time No Blog

2008-01-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

For the thousands of you who have been waiting, here's the much-anticipated update.

I finished my first week back at the Tri-City Herald, where I am now a staff photographer. Here's my favorite shot from week one.

CUTLINE: Wanda Gilmore of Pasco sings Monday while Elouise Sparks of Kennewick plays tambourine and sings along with the song Glory Glory Hallelujah during Morningstar Baptist Church's celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Pasco, WA.

The first image is how it ran. The second is a crop suggestion from Matthew Hinton, a member of APhotoADay. I like the wider shot because it shows a little of the diversity in the day's celebration, but the cropped version does have more visual impact.

Any thoughts?

Brush(fire) with death.

2007-07-31T23:48:00.001-07:00

Well, not really, but it was a little scary for a bit. I had my yellows on and a firefighter drove me down to where they were starting a burn out to try and hold the fire at this road. I figured they'd kick me out when they started things up, but they didn't, and despite my chauffeur assuring me that he wouldn't ditch me, he did. The wind was blowing pretty hard in the wrong direction and they were worried about it jumping this road. All of a sudden, there were big flames to my left and right and the wind was blowing all the heat and smoke right at me. I stuck to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife firefighter who said "Fuck!" at least a couple times when we had to pause for an extra thick wave of smoke and heat. I thought for a moment about what my exit strategy would be should it get worse and couldn't really figure anything out. Just after we passed where they burn out had reached, it jumped the road 15 or so feet behind us. I snapped this when it jumped again and they called in the air tanker to help keep the jump from spreading.

Dangerous Terrain

2007-07-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

There's nothing really special about this shot except for how much effort it took for me to get it. I was led to a trail along the Spokane River where the "rapids" were, and told that I had about 20 minutes to decide which one to shoot. After I finally settling on one to head toward, I stupidly opted to scramble along the boulder-laden riverbank instead of heading back up to the trail. This was pretty tough with two big lenses (300 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8). I'm not exactly in shape and navigating the rocky terrain while balancing awkward and expensive weight was pretty tiresome. Without warning, they showed up in the rapids I was heading toward and they were just a little too far for the 300, so I quickly ran/hopped along the rocks to get to a good spot for this extremely short section of "fast" water. They ended up sitting on this story for more than a week and then this photo ran about two columns.

D'oh. I guess this blog is quickly turning into me bitching about stuff. I'll try to post a positive experience next.

Dangle Dangle.

2007-07-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

After a long and bleak wild art hunt on June 28, this came over the scanner as a "high angle rescue." I drove around Finley trying to find it for quite a while, sure that I had missed it, but found the house just as they were starting to get him down. The best part was seeing a TV news van drive right by this house. He didn't arrive until a couple minutes after they had gotten the guy down.

We already published this with all his info, but I'll spare the poor guy more Google hits of his name and his business. Long story short, he was was setting up some outdoor lighting for his friend, who lets him advertise at his meat shop. He had never set up lights that high before and was determined to learn it himself. One of his knots got stuck and he didn't want to try and free himself that high up, so they called the fire department. The chief, who used to perform mountain rescue, gave the embarrassed dangler some pointers for next time.

Triathlon

2007-07-09T20:28:00.001-07:00

I'll continue working backwards chronologically. Here's a frame from the Richland Sprint Triathlon on June 30. I know, I know...this is pretty standard as far as triathlons go, but I'd never made this frame, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I brought hip waders with me, but they weren't of any use because the depth went from knees to balls in four feet and then balls to armpits in another two. The head guy told me my best bet would be to stand on a dock that was 50 yards or so past the starting point. I opted to throw on my swim trunks and wade out—after tying my hair into a sassy bun, of course. Crossing those sensitive thresholds in the chilly Columbia River at 8:30 a.m. is pretty eye-opening. I picked what I thought would be a good spot, slowly inching my way along the rocky bottom, and terrified that I would slip and dunk my unprotected camera along with the Herald's $1,000+ lens. After I finally settled on a good spot, somebody yells to me, "I hope that camera's waterproof, 'cause you're gonna get run over there." I quickly moved aside, hoping that somebody would swim close enough to get a dramatic shot and I was pretty pleased to see this frame when I was able to chimp on dry land.

Then came the tough part: identifying this swimmer, who I thought was a guy until several people said, "I have no idea who she is." I went around asking pretty much everybody and keeping my eye out for girls that bore any resemblance. Finally, a woman said without hesitation, "Oh yeah. That's Robyn Paulson. She won first place overall for the women." "You have got to be effing me," I thought. "There's no way I lucked out that much." Turns out I was right in my doubts, but luckily saw this girl leaving with her family a full two hours after my I.D. hunt. After all that, it ran about three columns in black and white, buried somewhere in the sports section.

Bah.

Fireworks

2007-07-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

I ended up working a split shift on the fourth because a coworker had a family emergency. I suspect my photo editor didn't really trust me to get a good firework shot, and seeing as how I had never shot fireworks before, I can't really blame him. We ended up tag teaming it and I'm glad he did come because he helped me find a good spot and knew a quicker way out of there to avoid the crazy traffic and to make deadline. He like this shot enough to pick it for A1 and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Note: This did happen before my last post, but after Zac Goodwin urged me to actually start blogging, I decided to put this months old Blogger account to use.

Hunting for Wild Art

2007-07-08T22:50:00.000-07:00

I've now been an intern at the Tri-City Herald for about five weeks now. It's been great experience so far and they thankfully don't just jerk me around and send me to shitty intern-ish assignments. I do, however, get sent on a lot of wild art hunts like the staffers. Being new to the area, this is tough for me. Even tougher is the fact that I'm usually on the hunt around noontime. Aside from the fact that this is a time of inactivity in the day (though it's gotten much better since school let out), the light sucks.

With the triple-digit heat we've been having out here, I was inevitably sent out to seek some heat-related wild art. I already had a kid in the sprinkler run the day before, so I tried to find something different. The ducks and geese caught my eye, as they weren't even heading to the water—just hiding out in the shade except for a couple who I guess were working on their tan. Then I happened across a family heading out for some wakeboarding and they graciously let me tag along, so I got to throw on some shorts and hang out on a boat for an hour.

Sometimes this job really rocks.