Fun at the Fair
It’s been a few days with no posting. that’s for a few reasons to be honest. Personally I don’t think the work I’ve done this week has really warranted it. Some of it has been the stories, but I think I hit a bit of a wall this week and just dropped the ball a few times or came back with fairly average stuff.
I shot some spot news a few nights ago, a fire at 35th Ave and South Land Park Dr. Unfortunately it was out by the time I got there and had only taken out a few shrub-like trees and knocked down some power lines that took out power to 13,500 people in South Sacramento. It wasn’t all that visual though and the images were really just that of fire crews milling about.
I shot a protest at City Hall the next day that had promise going in. Two unions were combatting with one another and the City Council. One union was willing to take concessions the council was asking city workers to consider to help close a $40+ million deficit while another union was outraged their leaders were considering concessions. It was expected the two unions would get in each other’s faces, yelling and shouting would ensue and images would be abundant. Unfortunately the union willing to concede outnumber the other about 300 to 5 so that didn’t produce any conflict and it didn’t seem many of the protestors took the issue seriously. Many laughed or halfheartedly participated in chants. Most of the chants didn’t even make sense. ”Hell no, we won’t go,” doesn’t do much when you’re trying to fight a 5% pay cut…
Last night I had The Sacramento Sirens cheerleading tryouts. The Sirens are the women’s football team in town. Not that lingerie league Baltimore was lucky enough to get a team from, but real football. No real football team is complete without cheerleaders though. Unfortunately, again, the shoot didn’t pan into what I wanted it to. Where the Sacramento Kings tryouts featured 72 girls… 6 showed up for this one… Without visual variety the shoot was going to be tough. That was just the start though. The shoot took place inside a very dimly lit gymnastics center that didn’t offer much of a background between the unfinished ceiling and the mirrors I always seemed to pop up in on the walls. (Fun Fact: The Baltimore Colts invented cheerleading as they were the first team to have them. They were also the first with a marching band.)
Finally today…
With no real assignments I went down to the California State Fair to shoot the winning county exhibits for The Modesto Bee, one of our sister papers in Northern California. While there I decided to make some pictures for fun, since the Fair ends on Sunday.
The below photo doesn’t have much of a story behind it, it’s just great afternoon light and luck. Inside the “Days of the Dinosaur” exhibit there are a ton of animatronic dinosaurs in black light and enough cheesy Jurassic Park special effects to terrify any child below age eight. But most of those expected shots had been made by all the other shooters in the two weeks the Fair has already been open. After sitting around for 30 minutes waiting for kids to walk past different backgrounds I was noticing I decided to give up and move on, but walking toward the exit I saw the light flowing through the doors and lighting up the dust in the air. I had snuck in through the exit and not noticed it when I came in. I crouched down and waited for someone to walk out the door with the right body language. Below is what I got:
Fairgoers exit the Days of the Dinosaur exhibit at The California State Fair on Thursday afternoon, July 29, 2010.
The Science of Thrill
Last week I had to run out in the middle of a 100° day to shoot people enjoying rides a The California State Fair. What better time to shoot people having fun at a fair than 2pm on a Tuesday on July, right? Such was my shift though and despite feeling like a night shoot would go better, I didn’t want to leave Buster at home all day to come back. Plus, kids still have fun during the day no matter how hot it is or how flat the light might be. I lucked out with a couple great photos and Autumn Cruz was able to grab some better light at night later in the week when she went to do helmet cam videos of the rides.
There is a bit of a funny side to the photo beyond the girl’s expression. I had already ridden once prior to her hopping on and I wasn’t exactly thrilled to ride it again. I needed a better photo, though, so I sucked it up. On my first ride I didn’t anticipate the G-forces making it so difficult to shoot. Leaning your head forward to look through the lens made you almost instantly sick and if you tried to hold the camera out it was instantly sucked back into your body. I was also positioned trying to get a fisheye effect on the ride the first time, but realized it was just easier to play the curve given the limitations.
Chyanne was hopping on the ride for the first time with her twin sister. I saw the pair from across the ride looking around like they had no idea what to expect, which gave me an idea they might be better to shoot that the group of teenagers to my left that would probably be too cool to show any emotion while riding it. I walked over, introduced myself and instead of the normal reaction you get from a seven-year-old who’s about to get their photo taken I was asked, “Is this ride scary?” The Gravitron was actually one of my favorite rides as a kid, so I replied, “I don’t like really rides at all, but this is one I’ve always liked. It’s not scary, don’t worry.” I thought about explaining the fun I used to have as a kid on the ride when we’d flip ourselves upside down or lay across the wall sideways, but I realized I might be putting ideas in her head so I held back. Personally I don’t think I lied about the scariness level, but Chyanne might given the look on her face.
Link to the story: Science of Thrill
Link to the gallery: Fair Rides
Link to videos: Helmet Cam Videos
Chyanne Stone (left), 7, rides "The Starship 3000," (also known as "The Gravitron") for the first time with her twin sister Cierrah (second from left) at the California State Fair on Tuesday afternoon, July 20, 2010.
Title Wave
A good while ago I went out to do a portrait of a man in Auburn who had a very interesting collection of books. Bill Ewald has over 700 copies of “Two Years Before The Mast,” which is apparently a fairly well known book. I have to admit I haven’t heard of it, but any book that’s worth collecting over 700 copies of, several of which are worth over $12,000, must be a pretty good book. The shoot became a portrait and some details but the portrait came out fairly well. You’ll see what appears to be various copies of different books behind Ewald, but those are all different versions of the same book, something that made the shoot pretty interesting.
Link to the story by Sam McManis: Title Wave
Bill Ewald poses for a portrait in his home in Auburn, CA with one of his 700 copies of Two Years Before The Mast. Ewald has been collecting copies of the book for decades and the copy in his hands is from 1910.
Fair Fare at the Pear Fair
Today was a very long day. Mostly it was because I didn’t get home from Bobby’s party until after 1am last night and Buster still decided he wanted to wake up with the sun around 7am. I think the lack of sleep contributed most to the length of the day. Regardless, I made some photos and found some potential stories, so all is good.
I ventured down to Courtland, Calif. today to shoot the annual Courtland Pear Fair. Now, being from Maryland I’m not used to the annual harvest festivals of the left-coast. At home we have apple festivals and pumpkin celebrations and so many corn mazes you lose yourself in them when harvest time rolls around. A pear festival was something totally new to me, and honestly, the pear itself may be the easiest fruit I’ve forgotten since I think the last time I had one was the 4th grade and it probably came from a can.
The pear festival was great though. It’s certainly not the PawPaw Festival in terms of oddities and redneckery, but fun nonetheless. The tiny town of Courtland (population 600, elevation 60ft) swelled to about 2,600 as crowds packed the small town streets for the parade. The local high school ball fields housed the parking areas and food stands and tents. Overall it was fun to slow down and shoot something fun with little pressure attached for a change. The Bee is just doing a gallery, and running a pair of photos as standalones for the Monday edition.
Here’s a link to the gallery, and of course a single (a pretty predictable one, but I love nice light): Courtland Pear Fair
Joan Monroe digs through a bin of pears at the annual Courtland Pear Fair in Courtland, CA on Sunday, July 25, 2010. Monroe, of Walnut Creek, comes to the fair every year for pears. Monroe and her family lived on a pear orchard when her kids were young, but when the orchards were demolished they began coming to the fair every year to find fresh pears. She plans to use the pears for her annual Christmas presents - homemade pear jam. "It's one of the few hometown things you can still do," she said of the fair.
5 hours in 47 seconds
As promised, here is one of the many things to come this week as a bunch of stories I’ve been working on start hitting the paper. Here’s a time lapse I did of a recent River Cats game on fireworks night. The game went into extra innings that night which meant my timing for the lapse was in jeopardy of going completely off. I had to run up to the roof in the ninth inning and reset the intervalometer on the D3, I was lucky I did too because the total frames hit over 1,100, and the Nikon intervalometer is set to only go to 999.
Unfortunately WordPress seems to be run by a strange Nazi regime that blocks embeds from being inserted in the HTML code unless you want to pay $60/year when you host the site on WordPress. I could always move the damn thing over to my hosting account on GoDaddy, but it took long enough to set it up here, I’m not about moving it again, especially after I already paid $10 to reference the GoDaddy domain name “granthamphoto.com” on here.
So, with that ranted, here’s a link to The Bee’s multimedia page where the video is displayed and where future multimedia posts will be:
River Cats game in 47 seconds.
Here’s one of the singles that ran with the original story we did this for, with the link: River Cats Attendance Story
Fireworks go off after the River Cats extra inning win over Fresno on July 2, 2010. Fans stuck out the long game for the display.
Wait for it… Wait for it…
So little to post today because I have to wait for the photos to actually be published by The Bee, but a bunch of content is coming. My first piece of multimedia, a time lapse of attendance at the local Triple-A affiliate of the Athletics, is slated to run soon. I was supposed to go with a story that ran last week as a larger multimedia piece, but stuff got complicated. I’ll post the stills that ran with the story when the multimedia hits the web.
Also have a portrait of a local street art gallery curator coming, though it’s vertical so it may have to wait… I’m having issues with vertical images still showing up in the slideshow…
Did a physics story on rides at the fair today, that should show up soon too, was slated to run CP tomorrow, but it got held to run CP on Thursday, so we’ll hold on for that one too boys and girls.
Vintage baseball is 65% complete so look for that project by mid-August.
So yeah, in short, look for a bunch of posts toward the end of the week!
For now, here’s a shot from the fair I grabbed for the paper tomorrow. It’s already run in Photos of the Day so I can get it up on here now too. Nothing special, just something to help fill the paper.
The Queens of The Kings
Yesterday I had the daunting, overwhelming, mind-numbingly AWESOME task of shooting The Sacramento Kings dance team tryouts at The California State Fair. As far as The Kings said, and I can find via brief research, this is the first ever open tryout an NBA team has done for the public to see. In my personal opinion, I think they all should be this way… siiiigh…
I’ll let the images speak for themselves, see the full gallery here: Dance Team Tryouts Gallery
Nicole Whittaker (second from right, 155) looks out at the crowd as she prepares for the start of tryouts for the Kings dance team on Sunday afternoon, July 18, 2010 at the California State Fair.
No Thanks Neil
Here’s what I knew about Neil Young before last night… and mostly still what I know about him…
1. He is in fact, though I could only presume until seeing him, white and old.
2. He was in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
3. He wrote a song, creatively titled “Alabama,” that bashed the state of Alabama, leading Lynyrd Snynyrd to voice their disapproval of said bashing of Alabama in “Sweet home Alabama”… I hope I never have to write Alabama this much in a post again.
4. I probably don’t like his music.
I was right about everything. But more surprising was how right I was. Young hobbled onto the stage 15 minutes late. You could hear him groan into his mic as he slumped into his chair and picked up his guitar. Without a word he just began playing a raspy song I could barely understand and I attempted to shoot what I could see of him as he looked down the whole time.
Now, I was supposed to be shooting side-stage for the first three songs, but after waiting an hour for them to find my pass and being escorted in by someone I can only describe as Sara C. Tobias’ long-lost twin (who also served as my body guard) I was told there was a change. I was now shooting from the back by the sound board and only the first two songs – Neil Young’s rules, not The Mondavi Center’s. I’m lucky I brought my 300 on a whim, but I really needed a 400 and maybe a teleconverter if I had hoped to get a decent shot of his face – assuming he ever looked up.
As he began his raspy song for the non-sellout crowd that must have had a “You must be 50 or older to purchase tickets prerequisite,” I began to shoot what I could. I knew when my DOP last summer, Ron Soliman, had gone to shoot Beyonce under similar restrictions, he had motored the whole two-song set, bringing back over 600 photos. I thought to do the same at first, but mostly relied on the motor because at ISO 3200, f/2.8 I was getting 1/50 of a second trying to hand-hold a 300.
This is where I began to piss off everyone in a 6-foot radius and my Sara Tobias clone became the world’s smallest body guard. The sound board guys claimed I was ruining their recording with my clicks and asked me to stand exactly one foot farther to the left. I now was confined to a one foot by one foot space to shoot from, so much for variation in my images… The guy directly in front of me turned around and said quite tersely, “If I have to listen to your god damned clicking all night it’s going to ruin this concert for me. I didn’t pay $250 for this ticket to hear you.”
One, you didn’t pay $250 for your ticket. If sitting outside of Will Call for an hour while they located my pass taught me anything, it was the pricing for the seats. The cheap seats all the way in the back where we were ran $90. Two, who inflates the price of a Neil Young ticket to sound cool outside of the 1970′s? Three, if he’d have shut up and stopped bitching at me, he’d have done a much better job of listening to Neil.
After he complained, the guy two seats down actually got up and was stopped by my “body guard” and told to sit down as he approached me… I’ve never met anyone who took an old guy wheezing into a microphone so seriously…
Needless to say, I’m getting a bit uncomfortable now and the hand-holding 1/50 of a second is not going to well. As soon a the applause for the second song hit, I turned to the long lost Tobias twin, before she could look to me and said, “I’m ready to head out when you are.” I wasn’t sure if the continued applause from the back was for Neil’s survival of the two-song set, or if it was for me. Either way, I’m honored.
Neil Young performs at the Robert Mondavi Center on the campus of UC-Davis on Thursday, July 15, 2010.
Bringing Back Buster
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, mostly because I’ve been off. After working the entire week last week and racking up over 80 hours, I took some much needed break time. I came into the newsroom on Monday, just to get a hard drive and got roped onto the rest of the rescue story, as the rest of the dogs were set to arrive that afternoon. I suppose it’s ironic now that that was the first and now ONLY time I will ever have worn my flip-flops into the newsroom.
As the day went on, the dogs got later and later arriving, until I couldn’t shoot it anymore, so I hung around for no reason really. It did give me plenty of time to research how I would care for a certain dog if I adopted him… Well I’ll make a long story short – I got a call at 5:30 from the SSPCA telling me the chocolate lab I shot from the rescue would be the first to go up for adoption and he had done very well on his behavioral tests. I had 16 hours to decide if I wanted him, they would hold him for me. After calls to my parents and e-mails and more research, I took the plunge the next morning and brought home “Buster.”
The first few days have been a challenge, but he’s catching on. Because of the hoarding situation he has never been properly socialized with humans and is therefore pretty terrified of everyone. He’s sweet as can be though. He rarely barks at anyone, only if he gets startled. He really just shies away and hides behind me. He’s also become the closest thing to surgically attached to me one can be. As the vet explained to me yesterday, he’s only known true pack life for most likely the better part of his three year life with other dogs. Now I’m his whole pack, and if I leave, he doesn’t know what to do.
I’ll tell you what he does know how to do though – open doors.
Now I’m not talking like how most dogs are used by guys in the park or at Stroud’s Run (a select few of you know what I’m talking about), but LITERALLY he knows how to open doors. I found this out after I came home from shooting Neil Young last night.
I’ve been putting him in the bathroom connected to my room when I’ve had to go to work the past two days. I figure if he makes a mess in there, it’s easy enough to clean up. Yesterday, though, he figured out how to open the door… and my room isn’t remotely dog proof… He chewed my sandals to shreds, somehow got his nightlight out of the socket in the bathroom and chewed it up (yet if properly reassembled it still flickers), scratched a few holes in the blinds… not sure how I’m going to explain that one… and was laying on my bed waiting for me to come home.
Now, I know the destructive behavior is all part of the separation anxiety, it happens. I can’t be mad at him. I just need to find a way to get him to enjoy his crate and stay in it while I’m gone. I might try that on Sunday if the next few days go well. Last night he managed to sleep in the crate… though I had to sleep on the floor a foot away as opposed to in my bed three feet away…
He’s going to be a sweet dog once he gets his head on straight, I only hope I’m going about getting it there the right way. For every mishap, I’m usually able to find a silver lining. Even with all the destruction yesterday, he didn’t go potty in the house which is fantastic. He’s finally started eating too and this morning didn’t dally around when he went out to use the bathroom. I’m even to the point where I don’t feel I need to watch him like a hawk in the apartment anymore – I know he’s too scared to wander too far away from me and he won’t use the bathroom in the house (knock on wood).
I know everyone wants pictures, but he rarely holds still long enough for me to take a decent one. Once he starts calming down, plenty will come.
Helping Hands for Hank
Here’s the story on Hank Gibbs I worked on yesterday morning. Give the story a read. Miranda, another intern at The Bee, did a great job despite the challenges of trying to interview an 8-year-old who was a little more than overwhelmed by the show of support he was receiving.
Hank Gibbs wipes water off of his face after taking a turn in the dunk tank at his fundraiser in Elk Grove on Saturday, July, 10, 2010.
Rescue
I worked late again today, but again because I chose to.
In the morning I covered a fundraiser for Hank Gibbs, an eight-year-old boy diagnosed with Perry-Romberg Syndrome. The syndrome is a very rare condition in which tissue in the face breaks down and essentially wastes away. Hank had facial reconstructive surgery in New York where tissue from his back was placed into his face where the degenerative tissue was removed and looks like any normal kid once again. Unfortunately, though, insurance only covers half of what I can only imagine is VERY costly surgery. You can read the story tomorrow and check the images out. Because it hasn’t appeared on the website yet I can’t post it.
Once returning from that I heard Paul Kitagaki cursing the picture desk as he tried to find a photographer to shoot an incoming truck-load of dogs rescued from the home of a hoarder somehow closely related to Gregory Peck (famed star of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Days of Glory,” and “The Keys of the Kingdom”) named Kimi. We believe she may be his daughter or daughter-in-law.
That’s not the point, though.
What is: The 144 dogs en route to the Sacramento SPCA.
Only 30 or so arrived today, over 100 Chihuahua’s are expected on Monday. The shoot was challenging. A: I was heartbroken for the dogs who were all as sweet as one can imagine and all in pretty good shape (aside from the need for a bath and grooming). Somehow they all maintained a great demeanor and seemed well fed. It was hard for me not to want to take the vast majority home and I’m strongly considering fostering a chocolate lab mix that was on me like a shadow every time I walked by (see below). The driver of the rig that brought them all up even got a bit emotional as he hugged a group of mix-bread dogs in their pen that he bonded with on the rescue.
The gallery is here: Rescued Gallery
The Story FULL STORY is here: Full Rescue Story
If I don’t foster the chocolate mix, I plan to follow him, a pair of bonded golden retrievers and a small dachshund/chihuahua mix through (hopefully) to adoption and onward through a multimedia piece.
Jim Sowden hands a dog rescued from the home of Kimi Peck to Jeff Knight as dogs are unloaded at the Sacramento SPCA on Saturday, July 10, 2010. The Sacramento SPCA took in 30 dogs, and other animals as well, rescued from the home. Over 100 Chihuahua's are expected on Monday.
A mixed chocolate retriever looks out of his pen at the Sacramento SPCA.
Dinosaurus Rex
The California State Fair is different from any state fair I’ve experienced before. So far I’ve done a couple “set-up” stories, but todays was fun. They’re shipping in giant animatronic dinosaurs for a portion of the fair. The story should run tomorrow, I’ll link it then. Here’s my favorite from today’s shoot. 14 were supposed to arrive, but 11 were stuck in customs so I had some fun with one of the three there…
A T-Rex dinosaur model, to be displayed during the California State Fair, sits in a covered area at the California Exposition Center shortly after being unloaded on Friday, July 9, 2010.
River Cats Walk-Off
I’ve covered the Sacramento River Cats three times now. July 1, July 2 and July 8. I’m never there to actually cover the game. It’s been a player, or a coach, or a crowd feature. Each game the River Cats have won. Each game the manager has been ejected. Each game has come down to a walk-off or extra innings win. Here’s the final image from the win last night.
River Cats center fielder Corey Wimberly is hoisted onto the shoulder of catcher Josh Donaldson after Wimberly drove Donaldson in from third in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the River Cats the victory. The River Cats beat the Portland Beavers 4-3 on Thursday night, July 8, 2010. Beavers pitcher Adam Russell (left, out of focus) walks off of the field after giving up the run.
One Minute Before I Leave a Plane Crashes…
I’m sitting in the newsroom, it’s 11pm on Wednesday. I’ve been working since noon, but my shift actually started at 3pm. The night before (after working the same shift) I stayed up until 3am trying to shoot the moonrise, only to fail when I got the compass degree it would rise at wrong. The only reason I’m still around (after I even considered ducking out early) was to help another intern, Jackie Baylon, edit some multimedia. I mean it is what my whole fellowship is about and there are so many tricks that those who haven’t had Chad Stevens as a professor don’t know.
At 11:01, I look at my phone and see the time, but I’m committed to helping Jackie finish this project. Suddenly a photo tech walks over, very nonchalantly, and asks if I’m working. Thinking he’s referring to what I’m presently doing, I said, “no, just fooling around.” Now, at The Bee, there’s only one photographer on the night shift (3pm-11pm) most nights, and tonight it’s me, so when he said he’d go call another photographer my ears perked. ”No, I meant I’m not working on anything,” I quickly replied, “I’m the late guy.”
“Oh,” he replied. “Good, there’s a plane crash in Rachno Murieta if you want to go shoot it.”
Before he could finish the sentence I had each D700, two strobes, fresh batteries, a tripod and an extra 17-35mm lens in my hand and was looking up the address.
Now, for those that don’t know, (a.k.a all of you) Rancho Murieta is a private gated community, but the area it’s in is a wide-open, completely dry and arid grassland. Homes sit on huge plots of land and your neighbor isn’t within shouting distance. I’m expecting a bad scene and an impending brush fire that could wipe out a 10-mile radius. Thinking I’ll seen the flames miles away, I’m not even really worried about the address.
When I got there, (unfortunately for the photos, but fortunately for those involved) there was none of the above. The plane had apparently run out of fuel so no explosion. It landed in a back yard missing the propane take by a mere 20 feet (not another house maybe for a mile so not sure how he managed that) and the pilot walked away unharmed. The family wasn’t even that shaken, more shocked, and the dad (a self-proclaimed light sleeper) slept through it.
BUT I did make a badass photo, and I credit it to Marcy Nighswander’s small systems lighting class and Larry Hamel-Lambert’s reinforcement of those principles in portraiture class. Below is the portfolio-contending shot I was able to make.
A small plane sits in the back yard of the Weiss family's home in Sloughhouse just off of Jackson Highway on Bisbee Drive. The plane was piloted by Daryl Ketcher, who walked away from the crash. The plane went down when it apparently lost power. The crash occurred about 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
A Few Assignments Prior to Launch
Here a few photos and links to their respective stories from my fellowship at The Sacramento Bee that were taken and/or ran before I relaunched the blog. Some ran as standalones and may not have links.
Sacramento architect Jason Silva poses for a portrait at The Urban Hive on the corner of H and 19th streets in Sacramento, CA on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Silva uses Post-It notes like few others. Once, with his laptop battery dead and stuck on a flight to an important speech, he built an entire presentation on Post-Its. He even touts the Post-It pad as more functional than a pad of paper, citing it's pocket-sized convenience and the fact that the three by three inch squares can be assembled into any size sheet of paper on the go. The ubiquitous Post-It note turns 30 this year, and it's not going anywhere. There are electronic versions of the sticky notes now for Iphones and laptops, but the paper version endures.
Danielle Silva, Galt mother of 10, sits in the school bus she transformed into "The Twilight Bus," which carried her brood to the midnight premiere of "Eclipse." One of her daughters introduced her to the series. "I read all four books in five days," said Silva. "I was like a hermit in the corner."
Steve Decker, watching Sacramento's Matt Watson take a cut, has the Grizzlies atop the division in his first season with Fresno. The Former River Cats catcher is thriving as manager of the Fresno Grizzlies, who are threatening to end Sacramento's stranglehold on the Pacific Division.
Michael Chang, making his season debut for the Sacramento Capitals, plays Lester Cook in the men's singles set against Newport Beach on Monday, July 5, 2010. Chang won the set 5-4 winning the tiebreaker 5-4.
Spectators watch the Cal Expo fireworks from the railroad tracks off of Elvas Avenue in East Sacramento on Sunday night, July 4, 2010.
Let me know what you guys think! I’ve done a bunch, but these are some of my more fun assignments.
It’s About Time, Right?
It’s taken me forever and a day, but I’ve FINALLY taken the time to use my photo blog and get it off the ground. I’m not sure if it was how busy I’ve been since graduating in March or just flat out apathy for spending hours staring at a computer screen but for some reason it’s taken me forever to get this done. It could also be my complete lack of shooting (mostly for lack of time) from March to the end of May while I worked for my dad, but still, I should have done this forever ago.
Anyway…. I finally produced some recent images worthy of blogging about and as I start giving this blog life, I’ll continue to post and link images, stories and multimedia projects from my fellowship here at The Sacramento Bee.
