One Last Mission

Today in Sacramento the Liberty Belle, a restored WW II-era B-17 bomber was at Mather Air Force Base giving rides. So last week we found a local WW II vet who served on a B-17 during the war and we brought him a long for the ride.

He had not been on a B-17 since his final mission on June 20, 1944. These guys were suppose to fly 25 missions and their duty was done. His 25th mission was the day before D-day. So he had to fly a few extra missions on D-Day and the following two days.

He was a tail gunner. Flew 31 missions in all. Bailed out once and crashed during one of the post D-day missions.

Great guy. And still sharp as a tac.

It was a lot of fun shooting.

All shots taken with Nikon D3s w/17-35 2.8

I missed the flames but got the real story of the fire

Right off the bat today fire tones rang out over the newsroom from the police scanner. An attic fire. I grabbed my gear and headed out the door.


As I approached the house a lot of smoke was billowing out but flames were nowhere to be seen. As I neared the firetrucks a few flames sprouted from the roof but they only lasted a couple seconds before being doused for good. 

The fire was under control and the opportunity for great action shots had all but passed. 


I watched the firefighters go in and out of the house carrying charred pieces of wood, wall insulation. A firefighter came out carrying some family photos and I knew it was the best thing I was going to get. I shot the photos and waited for him to return to the house with a second load.


I noticed the homeowner and her daughter talking to the firefighters and pointing at the closed garage door. They opened it and the firefighters rushed in as a wave of thick smoke wafted out. 


Expecting to see flames I raised my camera and waited. What I got was more powerful than fire. The firefighters came out carrying two small dogs, one dangling lifeless. 


The firefighters came running to where I was standing, the dog was foaming from the mouth. They got on their knees next to an EMT and got to work, giving the dog oxygen with a mask meant for a person. 


In all the fires I have photographed I have rarely seen anything so compelling and I captured every second of it. I have shots of the dogs being brought out and shots of the dog surrounded by emergency crews, but one shot, after the dog had been stabilized, told the whole story.

*Click photo to enlarge*

Camera: Nikon D3s. Lens: Nikkor 17-35mm. 1/250th of a sec. @f/3.2, ISO 400.

Dancers in the Dark

Being a photojournalist in a sprawling metropolitan city such as Lodi I have covered just about everything the typical daily newspaper has to offer. Fires, city council meetings, professional sports, high-speed chases, dance-offs between Lady Liberty and a giant pickle and everything in-between. Having covered such a large variety of things I've learned what I'm terrible at shooting, what I hate shooting, what I enjoy shooting, and what I shoot best.


If there is anything I enjoy shooting the most and am very good at shooting it's "misery(to quote one of my best friends)" and performance arts. 


I love shooting performers on stage, especially dancers. And if I can get in the mix of the action even better.


Tonight there was no stage. Just a small studio with black walls(a room I have shot in in the past-never this well though, thanks to my D3s). But there were plenty of dancers, albeit little ones.


A few ballerinas were practicing for an upcoming performance of The Nutcracker and I had to photograph one of them for a QNA. But I'm never going to pass up the opportunity to shoot something I love, so I stuck around a snapped off a few photos of the group.


Hope you guys like the photos. 

I apologize for the lack of updates. This time of year there isn't a whole lot going on for work. 


-Dan.

He yelled "GHEET TO DA CHOPPA!!!" before he vetoed everyone in the room with his chain gun.

Totally happened just like that.

Seriously.

Okay. Maybe not so much. But it was still pretty great.

At the News-Sentinel I had two goals; to become the chief photographer and  to photograph Arnold Schwarzenegger(click name to learn who Arnold Schwarzenegger is). I realize the latter is an odd goal to have but I love the guy and with him being the guv'na it was a feasible goal.

I have accomplished both of those goals this year.

On to the story.

Lodi's local super-cop, Detective Eric Bradley, was awarded the Medal of Valor at a ceremony the other day and I was their to cover it with Maggie, one of our reporters. During the course of the ceremony Arnold didn't do a whole lot but I was excited just to be there photographing him. I took a ton of completely unnecessary shots of him just to have them.

And on to the shots.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/250th)

Judge Cinda Fox, who was saved by Detective Eric Bradley, back right, when she was attacked in a courtroom by the defendant in a murder trial, was recognized as well during the ceremony.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 4000 f/4 @ 1/320th)

 This photo of the guv'na speaking to Jerry Brown is just asking to be captioned.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/250th)

Detective Eric Bradley being congratulated by the Arnold.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 4000 f/4 @ 1/320th)

(Nikon D3s, ISO 4000 f/4 @ 1/320th)

 

There's a story with the next photo. After the ceremony Arnold had a photo op with all the officers honored and a meet-n-greet with everyone else. Myself and Clifford Oto, of the Stockton Record, took the opening to race up and get some shots. It was a slow walk to the front, squeezing between the wall and rows of chairs. Cliff got through first and I was right behind. As I got up there I saw Arnold shaking hands with the Judge and I clumsily lifted my camera trying to get the shot before it was too late.

I almost got it. My aim was a bit off.

Immediately after the greeting the Judge turned around and hugged Det. Bradley. A great moment captured by Cliff. I got it but the first shot was blurry and the second shot, while technically good, just didn't do it for me.

We were then approached by a member of Arnold's staff and told to go back to the press area. But we already got what we wanted.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/200th)

And here's Cliff for good measure. He may work for the competition but he's still a highly respectable fellow shooter in my book.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 800 f/2.8 @ 1/200th)

There you have it. What a great day of shooting that was.

*For some unknown reason the photos can't be enlarged when you click on them like they can on every other entry. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. Sorry about that.

Eid ul-Fitr-I'm still learning this whole video thing.

Yesterday morning I shot the Eid ul-Fitr service at the Lodi Mosque. Basically, it's a holiday celebrated the day after Ramadan ends. Several hundred people were there, crammed into the masque and overflowing outside. It's all about building relations and creating a stronger brotherhood between people and they truly demonstrate that. 

Many, many people came up to me, shook my hand, and said things like, "Good morning, brother," "Welcome, brother," asked how I was, and spoke to me in a language I don't understand with a big smile on their faces. On my way out after speaking to the Imam and president of the mosque, a man met me at the door, shook my hand and asked, "Do you know what we do on this holiday?" Obviously not knowing I said I didn't know to which he replied, "We hug." And the promptly hugged me and patted my on the back.

They were friendlier and more welcoming than many of the other churches I have worked in.

 While I was there I took the opportunity to shoot some video along with photos to practice my skills and hopefully improve. I wouldn't call what I have "skills" yet, but I am improving I think.

A couple things I did learn-I really need a steadicam and I an external mic. The built-in mic picked up way too much ambient noise while I was recording the prayer for audio.

 So here's the video. I pieced it together using Adobe Premiere Pro, which I'm starting to understand a lot better. I did have to put in a couple crappy video clips because I needed them for filler. It's not easy getting interesting clips of people sitting. Let me know what you guys think. 










And here are some of the photos.

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th)

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th) 

 (Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th) 

  (Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.8 @ 1/8000th)

 (Nikon D300s ISO 200, f/3.5 @ 1/3200th)

 (Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/4.5 @ 1/6400th)

 (Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th) 

 (Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.4 @ 1/8000th) 

Making the Old New Again

Whenever I go out shooting i always save every photo, even the bad ones(unless it is absolutely, without question, 100% unusable).

The reason I do this is because when I'm bored I go through old collections of unedited photos.

I go out and shoot a project and when I come home I always get straight to editing. I find all the best photos and I'll go through 3 or 4 edited versions of each before I have the "final" version. I upload them to flickr, post them on a photo message board, and then I blog about them. All of that done within a matter of hours, at most a day or two.

But when I go back through the photos on those boring nights and weekends, months after the photos were take, sometimes years, I always come across a new photo to edit. Time away from the photos can give you a fresh eye. You'll see something you didn't see before. Or you may re-edit a photo because you've learned a new technique, you've fine-tuned your existing editing skills, or you have a better program to use.

That's what I did last night. Over the last month or so I've been using Adobe Lightroom 3 to do most of my editing and I now prefer it over photoshop. Last night I was bored and revisited the pepper harvest from last year. I've looked through these photos many, many times and I still managed to find photos I could edit for the first time or improve in some way.

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1250)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1600)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1600)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1250)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1600)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/4000)

When I originally edited the pepper harvest I did everything in black and white. That's just what I prefer for this kind of work. But for these I decided to keep the color to really show off the great tones in the sky, peppers, and plants.

I might even prefer these over the originals.

Friday Night Lights, Sept. 3, 2010

Another Friday, another game of pigskin. Not a terribly exciting or action-packed game, but at least I don't dread football season like I use to.

Friday's game was held at Sheldon HS in Elk Grove, a newish stadium, but surprisingly darker than the stadium I shot in the week before. I had to push my ISO up to 8000at a point. I didn't help that the midfield bank of lights were off during half the time I shot. Still looks great though. That vertical shot down there is cropped way down from the original image and it's still usable. And thanks to Clifford Oto, photographer at the Stockton Record, I know what my camera is capable of. He also shoots with a D3s and he shot at ISO 12,800 during the Galt/Manteca game last Friday and even those look great.

Hopefully in just a couple weeks I'll have a 300mm lens in my hands.

(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/3.2 @ 1/800)

(Nikon D3s ISO 8000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D3s ISO 6400, f/3.2 @ 1/800)

(Nikon D3s ISO 8000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)


(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)