frames we don't publish

Last week I shot a fire that broke out in an abandoned house a few blocks from the paper. No one was living in the house at the time it caught fire, and no one was injured. We had space for one photo so I chose the more conservative shot of firefighters doing their job.

I was thinking about this today and questioning my decision. The men in the vertical photo were clear they didn't want to be in the paper when they saw my camera, but by that time I'd already shot this frame. On the other hand, I see crowds of people gathering to watch fires or car accidents play out all the time and we, as members of the media, rarely acknowledge this reality. I still don't think this would have been the right photo to put front and center in the paper, but as a standalone on A5 (where the horizontal image ran) it might have been an appropriate slice of a situation we don't report very often. Just my two cents.

Thanks for looking.

Ride Along

A few days ago our cops reporter and I went on a ride along with animal control during one of their sweeps. They were looking for vicious dogs, unlicensed etc. It was a pretty eventful day. . . as evidenced by photos:

I am so tight with these falcons

You may or may not recall, but I've shot these birds from the time they were just eggs in the side of a building. Anyway, I was on top of the county towers building today (it really is the tallest in the county) to shoot they sky for a weather feature. While I was snapping away, one of the falcons paid me a visit. Pretty sweet stuff.

Thanks for looking.

so apparently this is now a landscape blog. . .

But whatever, I totally am down with pretty pictures of nature.

Shot this one a bit after dawn this morning on Center Lake in Michigan Center. Last night was the first frost of the fall; it was fairly mild so by the time the sun rose most of it had melted. Just thought the scene was worth stopping for.

Thanks for looking.

Grand Haven Seriousness

This weekend Marcus and I went to my dear, dear friends Jeana and Dylan's wedding in Grand Have. I promised myself I wasn't going to view the entire weekend through a lens, so I satisfied my itch to shoot by taking a walk to the beach shortly after we arrived on Friday. I'll post some personal shots from the weekend later, but for now here are a few seascapes. Thanks for looking.

School Started

Okay, so it was a while ago, but I found these photos I shot last month of a local middle and high school combining. The assignment was to shoot seventh grade orientation as they checked out the high school and tried to find their place in it. I felt pretty good about this assignment after I shot it, so I thought I'd keep up with the posting and whatnot. Thanks for looking.

Combat Operations are Over. . . ish

On Tuesday I shot another National Guard battery departure. I've been shooting these for probably six or seven years now, and they're always difficult.

I hope my photographs did some justice to the pride, sacrifice and love evident in these people during some of their final moments together.

Thanks for looking.

RUN

I had a really good time shooting a cross country meet yesterday. Some nice light combined with a visually appealing course made from some images I feel pretty good about. Thanks for looking.