Learning to Fly
It’s been almost two weeks since I started my new job at the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyoming, the state’s only statewide paper. The benefits of working for a statewide paper cannot be overstated – there is rarely a bad assignment to cover. I managed to find a few in my first week, but most of that is the product of our new chief photographer not starting until April 9th. With just Dan Cepeda and myself to cover the whole state of Wyoming (all 97,812 square miles of it) there isn’t usually someone here in the office to vet some of the assignments that come in. That said, I cannot complain at all about the work I get to do.
So far I’ve made trips to Lander, Torrington, Elk Mountain, Rawlins and Medicine Bow. Some towns are large by Wyoming’s standards (Casper has the second highest population at just over 55,000) and some wouldn’t even register as towns in most other states (Elk Mountain has a population of 191). It’s at least two hours to just about anywhere, and something about that isolation seems to give this state a plethora of unique stories everywhere I go.
I’ve got a few features in the bank we’re waiting for a time to run, but this week I finished up our Winter Player of the Year portraits heading to Torrington to photograph Jason McManamen (who’s feature will run tomorrow) and then back to Casper to shoot Kaylee Johnson who ran today. McManamen’s portrait was a tough one. It was my first time using the light kit we have here (which is a fantastic kit, but completely foreign to me) and I’d never been to Torrington, so I had no idea what I’d use for a backdrop. The standard court logo was my fallback, and we knocked that out pretty quick, but I noticed far atop the home bleachers a painting done by the class of 1956 that made a great backdrop, and after some work and some help from a human light stand in the reporter for the story, Clint Robus, we knocked out a nice image.
The real fun, though, came with Kaylee Johnson’s portrait. I still hadn’t been in Natrona County’s gym here in Casper, but I had a little more of a sense of what I was getting myself into from the file art I’d seen in the archives. Johnson was also really easy to work with, and having figured out the tricks to the lighting kit, it went by with a breeze. We tried three different poses. One came against a backcourt wall where Mustangs & Fillies stretched across the wall perfectly wrapping under Johnson’s arms as I had her do the classic outstretched arms pose Michael Jordan made famous. It looked a bit busy though as Johnson was so tall the cinderblock wall behind her was a major part of the frame. I went to a fallback with the center court NC. It was simple and I was able to spotlight her with a simple split light setup, which just enough of an angle to get a nice loop on her face and eliminate all of the court but the area around the center circle. That photo accidentally ran as the CP on sports today, which isn’t a bad thing, but I would have preferred the third pose we tried.
As I got ready to wrap up, I noticed a unique bleacher storage system Natrona County uses where, instead of the bleachers sliding stacked into the wall, they seem to each independently fold out and up row-by-row. This left the tops of the seats with their individual numbers showing along the wall. The backdrop was different and I decided to try one more pose. You can check it out below.
Johnson’s story is an interesting one. She’s playing her first summer of AAU basketball this year, but is terrified of flying, which she says she’ll learn to like as she goes through the season. That, paired with her impressive wingspan, is why I’m sure we went with the headline, “Learning to Fly,” on the cover of sports today.
Natrona County High School standout Kaylee Johnson is the Star-Tribune's Girls Big School Player of the Year after averaging 21.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 5.3 blocks per game during her sophomore season. The 6-foot-1 post player has already caught the attention of numerous NCAA Division 1 programs.
Beyond the Battlefield
My last day at the Evansville Courier & Press I received a phone call from New York. I had applied to a bunch of papers, but none on the East Coast, so I was curious but figured it was probably a wrong number. To my surprise, it was The Huffington Post. My name had been passed on to them by friend Rob Carr in Baltimore when they began looking for shooters to help with a book they were putting together from a larger project on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other complications that exist for soldiers when they come home they started in March of 2011. Beyond the Battlefield focuses on individual soldiers and their stories, but also on the armed forces and the challenges they face at home as well.
The assignment itself was fairly easy. The pieces were being compiled into an e-book and they needed a portrait of a soldier in Evansville. Justin Gourley gradually began to suffer from severe PTSD after returning from the Navy in 2004. The condition is mostly under control now, but it’s been a long road to where he is now. Justin and his wife Shawn were very easy to work with, but the weather didn’t help the day of the shoot.
It was pouring rain in Evansville, and heavy overcast skies. I didn’t want to light the portrait as we only had the couple’s living room to work with in the middle of the day, and it was a little tight to try and set up lights. Outside wasn’t an option at all though. Luckily the D3s is the best camera I’ve ever used. I pushed the ISO, grabbed some window light and after a few differed positions, I had what I needed.
It was nice getting to see some work I’ve done published again. The seven weeks have been far too long between assignments.
An excerpt from the book can be seen here and the book can be downloaded for $4.99 in the Kindle Book Store here.
Justin and Shawn Gourley pose for a portrait in their home in Evansville, Ind. on Sunday afternoon, December 4, 2011. Justin served in the Navy, and came home in 2004. Since then he has gradually developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but is now receiving treatment.
One Last Time at the Ford Center
A week or so ago, I covered my last event at the Ford Center in Downtown Evansville, Ind. It was the last sporting event I’d get in Evansville at all with my last day on December 2nd. I ran out in the evening to cover the University of Evansville women’s basketball team playing Ball State followed by the men’s team taking on Alabama State. The women lost 55-50 in a rather boring game. They had every opportunity to win, but didn’t make a shot from 7:58 remaining in the game onward.
The men’s team played an equally sloppy first half of their game, when the halftime score of both teams didn’t equal 50 points combined. Alabama State, who was winless on the season entering the game, and winless exiting it as well, wasn’t doing much to stop shot attempts by the Aces, but the Aces couldn’t get anything to fall either.
I set up an overhead camera with the intention of using a shot from the women’s game from overhead inside and a floor shot from the men’s game on the front of the sports section. With so little going right for either team, though, I was left with only good photos from above for both, but Larry Fink, being the expert designer that he is, made it work.
I had a fantastic run in Evansville, I loved covering the local teams out there, and I’m definitely going to miss that arena. Here’s hoping I land somewhere I can still have as much fun.
Evansville's Rokas Cesnulevicius, center, tries to gather an offensive rebound through a group of Alabama State defenders in the first half of their game at the Ford Center on Tuesday night, November 29, 2011.
Mater Dei Finally into the Finals
In the 2009 season, Mater Dei had a chance to run to the state championship when Paoli High School ended their run in their regional game. Last year Mater Dei made it a step further to a semi-state final against North Putnam High School, but fell short yet again. So this year, with a home semi-state final against Guerin Catholic and most of their star athletes facing their last chance for a state title, everything was on the line.
Quarterback Dane Maurer and Cody Hess first became starters in 2009, the season the first post-season disappointment struck, and have held their posts since. Things had to start looking awfully familiar then when the Wildcats entered halftime of Saturday’s game down 16-7 with Guerin Catholic having their way for the most part.
I wish I could have been in the locker room for that halftime speech, because something sparked in Mater Dei in the second half and they exposed a week Guerin Catholic team. After an interception and a fumble recovery brought Mater Dei ahead, they exposed Guerin Catholic’s lack of a vertical game and it finally began to make sense why Guerin had gone for it so many times on 4th down when their punter shanked three kicks into the stands.
A late field goal from Mater Dei soccer star Travis Wannemuehler put the Wildcats up by 11 and forced Guerin Catholic to pass the ball with just over two minutes remaining for any hope. Mater Dei was ready and forced an interception on the first play and ran out the clock for the win.
Friday’s game will be the first state appearance for the Wildcats since 2001 and will be the final football most of Mater Dei’s seniors ever play. For Hess and Maurer, Mater Dei’s star quarterback and running back, it’s the culmination of their time in the backfield together, and a win would mark perfect ends to their careers in Evansville on the gridiron.
Gallery: Mater Dei tops Guerin Catholic
Mater Dei quarterback Dane Maurer, right, cries as he hugs running back Cody Hess, left, at the end of Mater Dei's 27-16 win over Guerin Catholic on Saturday afternoon, November 19, 2011. Mater Dei overcame a 16-7 halftime deficit to win the game and advace to the Class 2A state championship game in Indianapolis. "We did it," Maurer said as he hugged Hess. "We finally did it." The duo have come gradually closer to the state finals since both became starters in 2009.
Aces Stun Butler, get Routed by Hoosiers
The first two regular season basketball games at the Ford Center were played this past week, and I got to cover both of them. The city actually held a press conference to announce Butler University, who at the time had just made the elite eight in the NCAA Tournament last spring, would be the first team to visit the arena for a regular season game against Evansville and that they would be followed by Indiana University a few days later. None of that should have come as a huge surprise as Butler, who plays in the Horizon League, is still considered a mid-major program and was honoring the second half of a home-away series with Evansville. Indiana would be gaining star freshman Cody Zeller who’s brother Tyler Zeller convinced the University of North Carolina to play a game in Evansville when he was recruited there.
Nonetheless, at the time the games were seen as huge draws, and when Butler made another appearance in the national title game, the excitement only grew in town. Tickets sold out for both games shortly after going on sale, and the only empty seats in the Ford Center at either game were in the student section. Thats not to say UE students don’t support their basketball program, but the school only has 3,000 students, and no school gets 50% of the student body to show up to any single event.
Evansville gave Butler a shock in the opener. After being down 12 points midway through the second half, the team rallied to tie the game when Colt Ryan hit one of two free throws with .9 seconds on the clock at the end of the second half. The game seemed destined for overtime, but Butler drew up a play that almost worked. Catching a deep inbounds pass at the basket, center Andrew Smith turned with two men on his back and laid the ball in before time expired. The team celebrated like they’d finally won a national championship, diving on the floor on each other, but the refs waved the basket off after review, saying Smith was fouled before the shot with .2 seconds remaining. Now, all Smith had to do was a make a basket, it’s impossible to sink a shot with less than .4 seconds on the clock, but Smith missed both and the Aces never trailed in overtime.
The same didn’t happen against Indiana. The Hoosiers were led by their star freshman who looks as if he’s doubled in size since his senior year at Washington High School where I covered his run to a state title. I’m willing to bet he’s spent every day in a weight room since graduating bulking up and it showed as he frequently pushed veteran college players off the ball and moved through the paint with little trouble. Indiana jumped out to a 35 point lead in the second half at one point, and that was when I left. More because I had to make deadline, but there wasn’t much to stay for. Luckily, though, it was the first game at the Ford Center I tried an overhead mount, and it was well worth it.
Gallery: Aces Stun Butler in OT Thriller
Gallery: Aces Can’t Hang with Hoosiers
University of Evansville guard Ned Cox (22) yells to the crowd at the Ford Center as time expires in overtime following his steal in the closing seconds of Evansvilles 80-77 win over Butler on Saturday, November 12, 2011.
Indiana University forwards Cody Zeller, left, and Christian Watford, center go up for a rebound against University of Evansvlle forward Rokas Cesnulevicius, second from left, as guards Kenneth Harris, second from right, and Colt Ryan, right, look on in the second half of a game at the Ford Center on Wednesday, November 16, 2011.
Old Time Rock and Roll
Bob Seger played the first ever concert at the Ford Center on November 9, and in his late 60′s, he’s still got it. I got the chance to be the guy who shot the first concert at the new arena (so go make your bar bets now) and unlike other concerts I’ve shot, it was probably the best event coverage experience I’ve had. Unlike most concerts where the event personnel are fairly rigid in the rules and restrictions and you feel extremely rushed in the experience, the Seger shoot was a breeze. We were initially only allowed two songs, but I talked them into three. I managed to get a pass to the after party where I met Silver Bullet Band saxophonist Alto Reed, who had a great story about how “Turn the Page” was written.
I give the Ford Center staff credit for really having their stuff together. For the first major event at the arena, everything from a media perspective, went off without a hitch. I even got out of there with enough time to get the photos in the paper, and get back to catch the end of the show. Seger went for almost 2.5 hours and sounded just as good at the end as he did at the beginning.
I came in to the tail end of Reed’s story on the writing of “Turn the Page” at the after party, but it seemed to go something like this: The band had been in the recording studio trying to get a vibe going, but nothing was coming out the way they wanted. One of the producers decided to paint a picture for Reed to see where it took him. He said to imagine he was walking out of a bar into a dark alleyway late at night, a single street light illuminating the area as a fog rolled in. Off in the distance you can hear a sound, what does it sound like?
From there the infamous opening saxophone solo to “Turn the Page” was born as that’s exactly what Reed played to the surprise of those around him in the studio. I wish I could remember the particulars, but it was definitely awesome to hear stories like that you only ever see on VH1 specials. That is if they can fit those in between terrible countdown shows.
Gallery: Bob Seger opens the Ford Center
Bob Seger performs "The Fire Down Below," at the Ford Center in Downtown Evansville on Wednesday night, November 9, 2011. The concert was the first at the new arena.
IceMen Offer Komets a Cold Welcome
I got to cover history on Sunday night when the IceMen played the first professional sporting event at the new Ford Center in Downtown Evansville. I’ve covered the arena’s construction a couple times throughout the year I’ve been here and when I found out I wouldn’t be staying on here past December, it was a bit of a blow knowing I wouldn’t get to enjoy the new stadium much. I did get to cover the IceMen’s home opener though, and I took advantage of the new arena’s amenities, mounting a camera on the catwalk to shoot one of the goals through the game.
The game was delayed by 40 minutes because one of the set-up crew members at the arena slipped on the ice and was knocked unconscious. The Zamboni also had to be brought out to run the ice again after the man who fell left a pool of blood where he hit his head. I didn’t see any of this, but the words “pool of blood” were used to describe it to me, and I did arrive as he was loaded onto an ambulance strapped down to the stretcher.
This all amounted to a tighter shooting window for me, with our deadlines at 9pm. I got some decent stills of the game action from the ice level and kept triggering the remote hoping I was getting good action on the opposite end… Unfortunately the pocket wizard I was using on the body was toasted and only got a few frames, one of which turned out to be the game winning goal when the IceMen went ahead 2-1 in the second period.
After flipping the wizards around and getting a working system, though, I was able to get great action from the position and get them in the gallery online. Next game, I’ll be ready.
IceMen Beat Komets in Ford Center Debut
Ft. Wayne center Leo Thomas (44) takes a stick to the face from Evansville left wing Josh Beaulieu (20) after taking a shot that glanced off of Evansville goaltender Pier-Olivier Pelletier and past the goal in the third period of Evansville's 3-1 win over Ft. Wayne on Saturday night, November 5, 2011 in their first game at the Ford Center.
Soccer is a Contact Sport
Anyone who tries to argue soccer is not a contact sport has no idea what they’re talking about. Just ask Didier Drogba who might still not be sure where he is after he suffered that concussion against Norwich early this season in the English Premier League.
Indiana Class A soccer isn’t quite the EPL, but while spending my whole Saturday cover both the boys and girls playing a total of four games, there was plenty of contact, and a lot of good soccer to watch. The girls team won their first semi-state game on Saturday morning after a late foul in the box and a penalty kick placed just outside the reach of the goalkeeper put them ahead 2-1. They weren’t as lucky in their semi-state final where the game remained tied with just under 4 minutes to play when Providence managed to break the deadlock to win 1-0.
The Mater Dei boys team, on the other hand, wrote the book on how to play high school soccer. Their first semi-state game ended 6-3, but the score is misleading, it was only close for the first 5 minutes. Greencastle scored right out the gate, but Travis Wannemuehler, Mater Dei’s wonderkid midfielder, performed a hat trick as Mater Dei scored 6 unanswered goals before Greencastle nabbed a few back in the final minutes.
I didn’t see much of their semi-state final, as the girls game stayed close the whole way through, and they were played at the same time on neighboring fields, but Wannemuehler apparently achieved another hat trick, and there was plenty of contact as three yellow cards and a red were shown. Most of the fouls seemed to stem from Lawrenceburg’s attacking Wannemuehler.
I got lucky enough to get this shot from the girls field, through a group of spectators lined up along the fence when I peaked over to see the score and noticed players setting up in the box for a free kick.
Gallery: Mater Dei rolls Greencastle
Gallery: Mater Dei defeats Lawrenceburg
Gallery: Mater Dei Girls edge Lawrenceburg
Gallery: Mater Dei Girls fall to Providence
Mater Dei's Andy Hamilton (4) collides with Lawrenceburg goalkeeper Michael Lynch, right, as Mater Dei midfielder Brennan Murphy (12) and Lawrenceburg forward Mick Murphy, left, also crash in on the play as they all attempt to reach the ball off of a free kick in the first half of Mater Dei's 4-0 win over Lawrenceburg in their semi-state final on Saturday evening, October 22, 2011.
Ravens Rock Reeling Rams
After jumping through more hoops than I ever expected, I got credentialed to cover the Ravens again this past weekend, this time playing the St. Louis Rams. It was of course awesome to cover my home town team again, but having never been to St. Louis, it was even cooler to see a new stadium and new city for the first time. The prospect of being inside a dome shooting while the elements outside consisted of cold rain and wind made it even better.
The Ravens didn’t disappoint me this week. They jumped out early on three long touchdown passes to rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith who’s first three career receptions in the NFL all went for scores, an NFL record. While it was certainly a lot more fun shooting a Ravens win, it made my job a little tougher since I was there to ever the Rams. The Rams didn’t just lose, they looked terrible. Sam Bradford looked like a college freshman, not an NFL sophomore.
Probably the coolest part of the game came afterward. I got a little fist bump from Ray Lewis as he ran off the field past me, and had a full conversation with Ravens wide receiver LaQuan Williams on his way to the team bus after the game.
For all the hoops I had to jump through to get the credential for the game, I’d do it again. St. Louis was a great time and I’ve definitely got to get back out to the city and have a little fun. It’s a shame the O’s aren’t playing the Cardinals next year… though I supposed there is always the World Series…
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis (52) and defensive end Haloti Ngata (92) converge on St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) as he slides at the end of a scrambling run in the first quarter of the Rams' 37-7 loss to Baltimore on Sunday, September 25, 2011 in St. Louis.
Titan-ic Upset
I got a chance to cross something off of my bucket list today: Cover a Baltimore Ravens football game. While it wasn’t at M&T Bank Stadium, and it wasn’t a win, it was still an awesome experience. Forget getting to stand on the same sideline as my childhood heroes. Forget getting paid to do what most people would gladly give a paycheck to do. Forget getting to work with two photographers (Gene Sweeney Jr. and Karl Merton Ferron from the Baltimore Sun) who’s work I’ve admired since I was a kid. This was just flat out awesome. I only with the outcome of the game had been different.
From a fan’s perspective, the Ravens just sucked today. From a journalist’s perspective, the Ravens just sucked today.
The team had no rhythm in the first half, completely abandoning their game plan against the Steelers in which they lit them up through the air and struck early, instead opting for a much more conservative approach on the ground. The Titans reminded everyone in Nashville that they were one of the best teams in the league just three years ago and looked like it today. They lit the Ravens up through the air and ripped off a few big runs in the second half with back-up Javon Ringer.
The Titans were not, by any stretch of the imagination, supposed to win this game after losing to a rebuilding Jaguars team in week one while the Ravens rolled over rival Pittsburgh. Tennessee, though, fed off of a sellout crowd in their home opener and with an experienced quarterback at the helm in Matt Hasselbeck, probably caught the Ravens underestimating them. They took full advantage of it.
Regardless, this was a great experience for me and I hope I get to repeat it next week in St. Louis when the Ravens travel out to play the Rams. Hopefully, I’m covering a Ravens win then.
Full Ravens and Titans Gallery
Ravens running back Ray Rice breaks through the tackling attempt of Titans safety Michael Griffin on his way to the Ravens only touchdown of the game off of a screen pass in the second quarter.
Mater Dei has a Field Day
On August 26, I covered my first high school football game in Evansville. Is started last year on December 1st, so I didn’t get any football in at the high school level, only the Colts. Neither USI nor UE have football teams either, so high school dominates in this little city. Hasn’t taken me long to figure out who the good teams are either. Mater Dei, the West Side’s major Catholic School, has a legitimate shot to win the state title the year, but they’ll have to get past the West Side’s public football powerhouse, Reitz High. Oddly enough, the two West Side rivals share the same field, the Reitz Bowl, at Reitz High School. So far I’ve only covered Mater Dei, and their impressive 49-6 win on the 26th in this game over Central High and another the following week over Memorial.
Mater Dei has a pretty complete package on offense. Wide receiver Hunter Owen breaks a lot of tackles, he’s quick and has good hands, not much more you can ask for there. They’ve got a strong running back and strong quarterback too and I’m not sure I’ve seen their QB, Dane Maurer, get touched in the pocket by the defense yet. The odd thing is, all these star players seem to play on the defensive side of the ball too. I don’t know if that’s a product of Mater Dei being a private school with limited depth on the team, or maybe they’re just really that good all around, but they’re not giving points up either so if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
Mater Dei wide receiver Hunter Owen (11) shakes off the tackling attempt of Central safety Austin Fuchs (10) on a long pass play in which Owen found himself wide open in the second quarter of a game at the Reitz Bowl on Friday night, August 26, 2011. Mater Dei scored 42 unanswered points in the first half of the game with Owen scoring on a punt return and on a reception in which he flipped over a defender and into the end zone.
Wings of Freedom
The Wings of Freedom tour rolled through Evansville right before I left for the UK. It was an interesting segway into my trip as the only flying B-24J bomber, one of 10 flying B-17s and a P-51 Mustang, all used in the UK to defend the nation from Germany were here for me to photograph. I even got to take the ride of a lifetime in the B-17 for free and document the flight. It was unbelievable!
The coolest part of the assignment wasn’t getting to fly in a WWII plane or see how they all work and the amazing technology of the day, it was meeting the WWII vets who came out to see the planes again. Almost all I met and talked to had flown in similar planes and had could talk your ear off all day with amazing tales of what they saw, what they did and what happened to them and their mates over there. I met one man who flew 15 missions and came back from every one. I met another, who you’ll see in the photo below, who went down on his fifth mission and was held as a POW for 15 months before he was freed.
I met a man on my flight whose father was on a B-17 and was a radio man when his plane crashed in Japan and he lost a few teeth and suffered a back injury when I believe poor weather conditions brought the plane down just after take off. I met another man who served in Afghanistan and who’s grandfather served in WWII on a B-24J and I believe died. I started doing research on his father and found out he actually had a different rank and served in a different regimen than this soldier believed. He was extremely close, he’d just inverted the numbers on the bombing group and had his rank off by one class, but I found a wealth of information on him that I wish I could send him, but I can’t remember his name for the life of me.
Anyway, I came away from this assignment with a healthy respect for the aging generation that, in my opinion at least, is hands down the bravest and greatest in our nation’s history.
Henry Kiesel plays with the machine gun turrets inside the B-24J Liberator at Tri-State Aero on Monday afternoon, August 1, 2011. The Collings Foundation brought the plane to Evansville along with a B-17 Flying Fortress and P-51 Mustang as part of their "Wings of Freedom" tour. Kiesel flew in a B-24 during WWII as an engineer and said it was his job to pull the pins on bombs before they were dropped over targets. That meant walking a narrow walkway surrounded by explosives with the floor open beneath you as the plane flew over targets. Kiesel was shot down on his fifth mission, captured by the Germans and held as a POW for 15 months.
A Night at the Holiday Drive-In
Before I left for the UK, I worked on a story on the Holiday Drive-In in Reo, Ind. The story had a lot of angles to it. The closure of the Blue Bridge connecting Owensboro (the third largest city in Kentucky) with Indiana right near the theatre threatened to kill it’s summer business. Interestingly enough, there are only something like 100 drive-in theaters left in the US and Indiana has like 20. I’d have to double check those facts, but I think I remember hearing something to that effect there. Uniquely, the Holiday Drive-In has five screens, and still uses film, which makes it even more unique.
I’d post the link to the gallery, but for some reason the photos only ran in print.
Anyway, if you’ve never been to a drive in, check it out. On a cool summer night, I can’t imagine a cooler way to see two movies at in theaters.
Grant Huey, 11, lays atop his father, Scott's, SUV while his dad remained below him in the driver's seat trading the humid outdoors at the Holiday Drive In for air conditioning as they watch Captain America on Saturday night July 23, 2011. Moviegoers at the drive in all pick their own ways of enjoying the big screens. Some bring lounge chairs and set up on the ground, others make the back of their pickup truck more comfortable with a mattress, chairs or a couch and some prefer lounging on the top of the car.
Franklin’s Inferno
Right when I was worried working the desk all of July and disappearing for three weeks in August to return to the desk shift would leave me without any clips for the month, I was treated to the biggest fire I’ve ever seen late at night on July 31st. I had literally just sat down at the apartment after finishing my night on the desk just a little bit early, maybe 5 minutes, when the late-night editor asked me to “check out a possible fire.” It was a raging inferno when I arrived at the building just four blocks from our office, and I could smell the smoke as I passed the Courier & Press on the way. I could feel the heat from the flames from a block away. It was crazy.
As far as I know the cause of the fire is still yet to be determined, but everyone in the neighborhood who came out to see the blaze had their theories on how it started. One man swears Habitat for Humanity started the fire so they could take over the lot and build homes. Of course meth use was a prime suspected cause as well. I’ll have to dig around and see if the cause ever was found, because now I’m curious, but it certainly was hellacious.
Here’s a link to a full gallery of images from the blaze, including some by our intern at the time, Eamon Queeney, who I called once I got there to help back me up on it. Eamon did a great job on the shoot, and on his internship overall, and was a pretty cool kid to boot.
Flames kick up higher than firefighters spraying water atop a ladder truck as a fire rages at a commercial garage at 610 E. Franklin Street on Monday night around 9:30pm.
Pudding Pie
If I don’t get these posts up now, I’m not getting them done. I leave Thursday for the UK for two weeks and I’ll be thoroughly out of communication as my Verizon iPhone doesn’t work over there… Such is the price I pay for domestic reliability.
I’ve been stuck on the desk half the weeks in July, but manage to make a few decent frames the past few weeks. Keeping my streak of placing each month at least once in NPPA Clips is going to be tough with the bogging down in the studio I had in June and the split desk shift in July… Here’s hoping I return to some good news.
Anyway, this image came at a cost. Shortly after making it, I dropped my camera and split my 24-70 into two pieces, with the lens coming apart at the mount. While none of the glass broke, I was still without a 24-70 for the rest of the day at the Vanderburgh County Fair. I’m lucky I got this image and most of the B-roll for my video done before my mistake cost the company a few hundred dollars.
It certainly was funny seeing a bunch of fair pageant girls burry their faces in pudding pies, but it was even funnier getting their reactions to it, especially the queen, who evidently hates pudding.
Vanderburgh County Fair Queen Jaci Turner, left, sticks her tongue out after tasting a chocolate pudding pie during the pie eating contest at the Vanderburgh County Fair on Thursday afternoon as Queen Attendant Melissa Blythe, right, digs in to hers. "I hate pudding," Turner lamented during the pie eating contest.
Burned but not Bitter
Back in probably February, maybe March, Bob brought in some photos from one of his students for us to look at. He warned us they were a bit graphic, but we had no idea until we saw them His student, Kimberly Crecelius, has taken portraits of her boyfriend/fiancé Chris Schraner after he got out of the hospital following a horrible accident. We didn’t know much at the time, other than Chris had been doing something with fireworks and had lost his right hand, sections of his abdomen and other muscle areas. The portraits were fairly simple, but they told the story well.
We went on about life at the paper and pretty much forgot about the images and the story, but then a few days ago our intern was out doing a St. Mary’s story and heard from their PR director about a man rehabbing from fireworks injuries and that it may be a good pre-July 4th story. Once we heard what his injuries were, we realized it was Chris, and that we should probably pursue the story again.
I was sent out on Wednesday to photograph Chris at therapy. His attitude and determination is simply unbelievable, and the support he receives from his family has to be a major driving factor. Kimberly is there to help Chris in whatever he needs, but he two-year-old daughter Peyton might be the most helpful of all. Every therapy drill Chris had to perform, Peyton was there trying to help. Every chore at home, Peyton wants to be a part of. I think she has to be Chris’ driving force through this recovery and with another girl on the way, Chris will soon have twice the reason to work hard to recover.
The story is much deeper than recovering though. Read Rick Iorio’s write up to see how it all happened.
And to see a gallery of Chris at home and as he recovers:
Chris Schraner and his daughter, Peyton Crecelius, 2, color as his girlfriend Kimberly Crecelius watches on the couch in their apartment off of Cass Ave. on Thursday, morning, June 30, 2011. Schraner credits his daughter with much of his positive attitude that he tries to hold despite the pain he endures daily since a fireworks accident claimed various limbs and sections of muscle on his body. Schraner tries to set an example for Peyton that if he can overcome his struggles, she can overcome anything.
Still Without Answers
Last week I went down to a little nook of Vanderburgh County where residents who lost everything in the April flooding are still without answers. Some of it sounds like they’re just not asking the right people. Whether that is actually their fault or not is up to debate.
I’ve been covering these stories for a month now and I’m still not sure how the process goes to get aid when you’ve been effected by a disaster. I saw how quickly FEMA worked in Tuscaloosa, and while I understand they’re dealing with victims in the South and in Joplin, the flooding here is real and just as severe as that in Louisiana and the Mississippi River Valley.
Residents have no answers though and the complex process isn’t something they have any knowledge of. My understanding is one first must contact Indiana EMA and get them to assess your damage. Indiana EMA must make a disaster declaration to Governor Mitch Daniels and he must submit that report to FEMA. I think Daniels did so about two weeks ago. From there FEMA comes out and assesses the damage again (yeah bureaucracy) and then they make an assessment and send that to the president. It would appear FEMA is in their evaluation stages, but it doesn’t make any sense that they’re just getting there two months after the damage. FEMA was going around with Tuscaloosa victims three days after the tornadoes.
Brian Elwood lost everything in his home and is now living with his daughter in Henderson. It was an emotional return when he walked around the shell of his home last week that is now inhabitable.
Brian Elwood looks around what's left of his home on Thursday afternoon, June 23, 2011. Elwood has been living with his daughter in Henderson since flood waters started rising back in April. He got out before the water overtook his small neighborhood. Elwood, who lives just 50 yards or so from the river's edge, hasn't been back to his home much since the flooding hit as he said it's just been too hard to handle. His home has been declared inhabitable.
Pro Wrasslin’
I’ve been waiting 10 days to post this story, and we finally got it running!
On June 15th I went to the Coliseum in Downtown Evansville and covered possibly the best kept secret in the town, the CCW. That stands for Coliseum Championship Wrestling. That’s right, “professional” wrestling, in Evansville. Who knew?
Well a pretty good number of people, but they’ve all been going since they were kids and in recent years as the league has shuffled and transferred ownership, it’s lost some of it’s following. It’s now owned by an 18-year old North High School graduate and her 10-year old brother. I couldn’t believe it either, and they put on a hell of a show.
I’ve never been one into pro wrestling on the national stage, but I will find myself watching every now and then when I’m flipping channels. More for the acrobatics than anything, and trying to guess who’s going to come out of nowhere to win. I wondered how a local league that only has a dozen or so wrestlers to rotate through could keep it fresh, but I was shocked at the quality of the show. I even bumped in to a guy I who’s filled in on our softball team a couple times and had no idea he did this on Wednesdays.
The CCW puts on a great show. If you’re free on a Wednesday in Evansville, check it out, it’s just as good, if not better for the intimate experience you get, as what you get on TV. The wresters take what they do seriously, and oddly enough the fans do too. I had to be careful which wresters I shot and how as they were getting changed because certain wrestlers are supposed to hate others. We all know it’s “fake,” and it’s grown men and women in the crowd, but they work hard to maintain the soap opera storylines they develop.
Below is a link to the gallery. The photo is of Micas Harris, who I mentioned I’ve played softball with a time or two.
Coliseum Championship Wrestling
Micas Harris does his introduction routine as he enters Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Coliseum for his bout on Wednesday night, June 15, 2011. Harris is a "baby face" favorite of many fans.
Otters Flounder Against River City
I heard the Evansville Otters weren’t a good baseball team when I first got word there was a pro baseball team in town. The independent A-level team in the Frontier League shattered my expectations though, and not in a good way. While the team puts on a good show, and they’re not the walking dead in baseball uniforms yet, but they presently sit at 6-24 after their 5-3 loss today to the River City Rascals.
I’ve covered several Otters games so far, and I’m not sure I’ve seen one of their six wins. Opening day they were down 4-2 before tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, but the losing 8-4 in extras. Another game later down the road I think I left to make deadline with the team trailing by a run midway through the game. If I recall right they went on to lose. Today, a rare Monday afternoon game, the team fell into a 2-0 hole early, but got the lead back in the sixth, going up 3-2. They turned around and lost it in the seventh and never got it back.
They’ve blown up half the roster, cutting underperforming players and bringing in players fresh from college, but it hasn’t seemed to help. I wonder how, with little hope of contending at all, they can put fans in the seats.
The best photo I got came from River City as their right fielder dove for a ball and lost his glove as he hit the ground. Not something you see every day. A link to the full gallery is below as well.
River City right fielder Stephen Holdren loses his glove as he dives for a shallow fly ball in right field from Otters short stop Greg Fontenot with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Victory at Victory
It’s been a long gap between posts again, and not for lack of assignments and things worth posting. In fact, May was probably my best shooting month in a long time. The biggest reason I’ve been away has been lack of time. I think I’ve worked six days each week the last four, picking up some OT and some decent assignments. For June, it’s been a plus, because I’ve been bogged down in the studio shooting portraits for our magazine, the Evansville Business Journal, but it’s also starting to tire me out a little.
I’m not going to complain, though. My future at the paper is becoming cloudy as the end date for my contract is getting closer and closer and I still don’t have any clue whether I’ll be here come September or not. I have no desire to leave, and with Sarah finishing just outside the final 20 for grad school, I’d like to stick around for at least another year. Hopefully I’ll have an answer soon, and a future position. One can only hope the extra effort I’ve put in lately will pay off in that realm.
Speaking of extra effort, the extra work yesterday came on a road trip to Indianapolis for the Class 2A Baseball State Finals. South Spencer High School is on the edge of our coverage area, and I don’t think we covered them much if at all during the season. They made the state finals though, and since we do the occasional story in Spencer County, I got the call to head up to Victory Field and cover their game against Hanover Central.
It wasn’t much of a game at all to be honest. South Spencer’s starting pitcher, Jordan Meece, almost threw a two-hit shutout until the final inning when he allowed a few base runners and Hanover Central’s only run. South Spencer still came away with an 8-1 victory and I came away with a few good shots.
South Spencer players dog pile on each other after recording the final out of the seventh inning in their Class 2A State Title game against Hanover Central. South Spencer defeated Hanover Central 8-1.
Bringing Comfort Amid Destruction
On April 29th I was enjoying a nice day off. I got the Jeep washed and waxed, ran to the mall and took advantage of some deals on Foursquare, stopped at a travel agent to see if they had any deals for the trip Sarah and I are planning to Scotland and then I got a phonecall from the office. The question was simple, “how would you like to go to Alabama,” but it meant more than I could imagine.
Just the day before many residents of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham had awoken to find their lives changed forever. Many had lost family members, lost businesses, lost their homes and everything familiar to them. Looking at the initial images the devastation looked similar to a miniature Katrina. I couldn’t imagine, though, why our mid-sized paper in Southern Indiana would invest in coverage with the AP all over the story. I told Kevin I’d head straight to the office and we could talk.
I got in and Kevin called me over to our Editor in Chief, Mizell Stewart’s, office. They informed me about a relief group that was heading down to Tuscaloosa to provide aid to the children there. The group, called C.J.’s Bus, was formed after powerful tornadoes ripped through the Evansville area in November 2005 and killed Kathryn Martin’s two-year-old son C.J. and two other family members. The bus travels to disaster areas and provides a safe place for children to play while their parents deal with the realities of the disaster. Kevin and Mizell were both worried the group wouldn’t be thrilled with our interest in the story because we hadn’t really covered them at all since the bus was founded and they’d had some bad media experiences in the past. A few phonecalls later though and I was all set to go.
The bus was leaving at 9am on Saturday, and by the time we were done meeting it was about 6pm. We had to rent a car, get supplies and I needed to get some sleep. It was probably 10pm before the car was taken care of, and unfortunately, that weekend we also needed to make a decision about our intern for the summer. To top it all off, I had to get my expense reports in too. I figured, this being my four-day weekend, I’d have plenty of time to do it before. Now I was faced with a late night and a long drive the next day. I had no idea how long it would be either.
It was 2am before I got home and got to bed, and it was 5:30 when I was waking up to finish packing and loading up the car. I met the crew and we headed out just before 9am. It wasn’t long before I got the first ominous sign of what was to come when just 10 minutes into the journey we stopped to fix the brake lights on the trailer the bus was pulling. We never did get it fixed.
All was normal through Tennessee, but as soon as we crossed the border into Alabama, another ominous sign awaited us. Six or seven large billboards that would normally stand 20-30 feet high atop large steal poles were completely destroyed. They sat strew across fields twisted and bent, the poles either knocked over completely or bent in the middle completely in half.
We made it all the way to Warrior, Alabama, just 80 miles away, before disaster struck the bus. A piece of storm debris in the roadway kicked up into the engine and punctured the radiator. We were stuck on the roadside for 11 agonizing hours and suffered several failed repair attempts before we had to call a tow truck.
Little damage was visible between the border and Tuscaloosa. Some light posts were bent. Some trees had been uprooted. Nothing screamed cataclysmic tornado though. We got the bus to Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa, now all of us having been up for 24 hours, and prepared for the children. I shot the set-up, but I was really struggling to keep focused having gotten just a few hours of sleep the night before, and then none.
It wasn’t long before 66 kids filled the play area around the bus and the bus itself. I set down the cameras a few times and just had fun with them. It was great to help give them an escape. After a couple hours, though, Kathryn had to meet CNN for an interview in one of the hardest hit areas and offered for me to go along. I hopped in the car, and it wasn’t long before I saw what really had happened there.
Police had every other road blocked off. Homes were destroyed while others across the street stood untouched. When we arrived in the community of Holt, we saw some of the worst damage. The heavily wooded community was completely destroyed. It looked like an atomic bomb had gone off.
The resilience of the people there changed my life. They had lost everything, but were incredibly upbeat. They had survived and their stories were incredible. It put an amazing amount of life into perspective and gave me a great chance to give them a platform to tell their stories to a greater audience. Everyone I met, I felt needed to have their story heard, they were all so amazing.
Below is a link to the story I wrote on C.J.’s Bus and what they did for the community. I could continue writing about what I did the entire five days I was on the road, but it would take up a week of everyone’s time to read it. There’s also a link to the gallery we settled on at the paper. This story was a fantastic opportunity and I’m so glad I got the chance to undertake it.
Jay'Quan Bates, 4, holds tightly to the shoulder of Tony Goben as he is walked to his aunt's car to return to the shelter where his family now lives. Their home in Alberta City was destroyed by an EF4 tornado on April 27th and the family lost everything.
Shoot Me Once, Shoot Me Twice…
Shooting the same thing over and over again and finding different ways to make basically the same photo is a challenge. It’s one I like to be honest, it makes me think creatively and get outside of the box, but after a while you start running low on tricks. Sometimes it feels like you’re making the same pictures at sporting events because the games don’t change, and most of the time you’re stuck outside the same boundaries. When it comes to the sandbagging I’ve been shooting for the last four days, I’d pulled out everything in the book. Monday I shot firefighters bagging and got lucky with some nice light in the afternoon as they carried the bags into place. On Tuesday I went to a small town in Illinois (population 95, no joke) and got lucky again with inmates helping with the bagging and guys rolling through foot deep water to deliver the bags. Unfortunately on Wednesday when I ran out to New Harmony, I had already tapped the inmate angle so the ones there weren’t of much help, but the Indiana National Guard had been on the scene for three days setting up what had to be a wall a half-mile long when it was done and made for some different photos.
So today, when I was met with another sandbagging shoot, I was tapping out. I had volunteers, I had inmates, I had soldiers and I had firefighters and all but the inmates would be present today. The one thing that saved me today was a lack of water. We managed to get blue skies and break from the rain for a day, and where the sandbags were being filled was more a distribution point for the rest of the area. Thousands of bags were filled by Civil Air Patrol members as well as local firefighters and volunteers in a large church parking lot. The church itself had water encroaching on it, but wasn’t immediately threatened and I’m sure with the estimated 10,000 sandbags they had on hand, a wall could be built by the 100 plus baggers in no time.
With no water surrounding the mounds of bags though, I could finally move around and get low. Laying down in a parking lot is a lot more feasible than laying down in the Wabash or Ohio River. I could play with patterns and repetition and have a little fun, and a blue sky to shoot into didn’t hurt either.
Brett Schelhorn hauls a sandbag over to a wall of thousands at the Faith Bible Church on Thursday morning where he and dozens of other volunteers and members of the Civic Air Patrol filled and prepped thousands of sandbags to be distributed throughout the area.
When Lightning Strikes
Finally, after hours of blogging this afternoon, I am up to date on this blog! May it never get that backed-up again.
Last night I had had enough of the constant thunderstorms that have kept me up all night every night for a week and dumped almost seven inches of rain on the city since Friday. I’d been mulling over going out to the Casino Aztar parking garage and shooting the skyline in the hopes of catching a lightning strike or two in the background. Finally last night I did it, and last night may have actually been the best time.
It wasn’t quite as windy or chilly as it had been other nights, storms were positioned to provide me with a good hour of lightning filled strikes and a couple days worth of research to see how I should go after it. It wasn’t really beyond what I’d have done on my own, but having a little help with what ISO to start with was a plus. In the first five minutes of shooting I scored this image at ISO 640, f/18 and about a 7-second exposure triggering the BULB setting on the D3s manually. The original image came out a little hot, so I probably would have been fine with a 5-second exposure, but the strike came at the end of the exposure so I let it run for a little longer than I would have otherwise.
I shot for another hour and got eight more frames with lightning, but nothing compared to this. I missed two different strikes where lighting streaked everywhere, but I’m happy with the frame I got, especially considering it’s already hit the AP wire and someone here at the office messaged my editor to tell him they’d made it their desktop background.
Lightning arcs across the sky over Downtown Evansville, Ind. on Tuesday night, April 26, 2011. Severe thunderstorms hit the tri-state for the sixth consecutive night as heavy rains and thunderstorms have already flooded out numerous roads and towns and forced the set-up of a flood wall along the riverfront downtown.
Ten Years and Tens of Thousands of Babies
The Women’s Hospital at the Deaconess Gateway Medical Campus turned ten years old on Sunday. They’re not celebrating the tens of thousands of babies born there until September, but the Courier & Press did a piece last Friday that I had the pleasure of shooting. Nothing for me is much more rewarding that shooting new mothers and fathers. The emotion is so real and the love in the air is infectious.
The hospitals here in Evansville are pretty awesome in my opinion. The Deaconess campus is very impressive and the Women’s Hospital, where I’ve had a chance to shoot a couple times, blows away any hospital I’ve been in before. If you’re going to have a baby, it seems like an incredibly comfortable place to do it. The rooms are private, they’re huge compared to most hospital rooms, and they have great amenities for new mothers and fathers. The technology in the hospital is amazing too. Palm scanners give mothers and fathers access to both the nursery and neonatal intensive care units 24/7. Special radio bands around the babies and mothers legs and wrists respectively chime when mother and baby come together to guarantee you have the right child and the same bands lock down the hospital if someone tries to take the baby out of the wing without clearance. Webcams in the nursery allow mothers and fathers and extended family to view the babies anywhere in the world over the internet, saving costly trips for families far away with new nieces, nephews and grandkids stuck in NICU for weeks. A new milk bank helps get breast milk to babies whose others can’t produce it. It’s just a great place to have a baby, though I’m speaking as someone who will never know the experience firsthand.
I got to shoot Jackie Monroe, who I later learned is a fellow journalist on the broadcast side here in Evansville, as she saw her newborn twins for just the second time. She had given birth just 10 hours beforehand to the twins who came seven weeks early and weighed about 4.9 pounds each, but by the time I was there to shoot, both were breathing on their own and had a positive outlook. Jackie and her husband Nate where great to shoot and as excited as you’d expect new parents to be. Of course, everyone on the website was most concerned with when Jackie would be heading back to the airwaves at NBC-14.
Jackie Monroe, a WFIE-NBC 14 news anchor, sees her newborn son Jude Monroe who was born at 12:24am on Thursday, April 21, 2011 with his twin sister Ava, who is younger by a whole three minutes, for just the second time. The twins were born seven weeks early and are each about four pounds and nine ounces. The twins will have to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Deaconess Gateway Women's Hospital until they are strong enough to leave, but new technology allows the Monroes and Jackie's family in Minnesota to watch the babies on webcam.
