I spent a few days at the Macon County Fair back in June… my apologies to the three people that check my blog repeatedly. I’m sure you were all anxiously waiting for pictures of miscellaneous livestock and rain-soaked carnival workers. Your wait is finally over.
I got to photograph a local boxer at the SkyWalker International Sports Complex training for the 2010 USA Boxing National Championships earlier last month. I would have loved to spend more time with her and actually covered her fighting in a match, but it was a quick in-and-out assignment at the last minute right before she left for the competition in Colorado.
Watching her train was enough to make me tired. I challenged her to a match of Wii boxing, knowing full well that she’d beat the crap out of me. She politely declined.
Heck, my arm hurt after the fist-bump she gave me on the way out.
The newly renovated Monticello Family Aquatic Center finally opened up at the beginning of July and I had the rough assignment to make some images for the newspaper. Yes, I got to kick my shoes off and walk through the children’s play pool for a few minutes while on the clock, but there were some challenges with the shoot… apparently most parents just drop their kids off and take off, so I tried to keep myself focused on kids that I knew had parents present at the pool.
I always get uneasy taking pictures of kids, especially in swimsuits. I know I’m a nice guy. My friends and coworkers all know I’m a nice guy. But to some random person at the pool I probably look like a fat, sweaty guy taking pictures of their kids. I always wear our newspaper press pass, but it’s not exactly the most official looking thing in the world. I’ve heard stories about a guy in Decatur that was taking pictures of little kids at a park with his own replica Herald & Review photo pass. That’s unsettling…
Enough creepy stuff. Here are a few more photos from the new pool. I’m excited to have this a few minutes from my house… hopefully I’ll get the chance to take my son there a lot next year.
One of my morning assignments had me walking through fields of 14-foot tall grass. University of Illinois researchers are studying the grass, known as Miscanthus, as a source of biofuel. Andrew Wycislo, a graduate research assistant with the U of I’s Energy Biosciences Institute, who led me around the different plots of grass said they estimate up to 15 tons of this stuff can be harvested per acre. That’s a lot of grass.
I’ve only seen the movie once, but I felt like a character in Field of Dreams while I was trying to find my way through the Miscanthus. Fortunately, I’m not stuck spending an eternity playing baseball with a crazy farmer.
I tried to take a quick picture of myself coming out of the field, but I held my head weird and gave myself about five-too-many chins.
Another part of that assignment had me taking pictures of a local family that turned a good chunk of their property into a native prairie. Some of this stuff grows to 10 feet tall. I think I’m going to spend the next few days trying to convince my wife that we need to convert our back yard into a prairie restoration site… that way I only have to mow the front yard.
I think I’m on to something here.
I got the chance to go down to EIU last week to talk with students about photography at the Illinois Press Foundation/Eastern Illinois University High School Journalism Workshop. I’ve been helping out for the past several years, with the exception of last year when my then-pregnant wife was ready to pop at any moment.
My buddies Jay Grabiec and Robbie Wroblewski, along with Daily Eastern News photographer Audrey Sawyer, worked with groups of students and helped them take portraits of each other for a profile assignment that they were working on.
My two groups went outside for a little bit, but we spent most of our time in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Man, do I wish this building was open when I was on campus. It’s a photographer’s playground.
Here a few photographs that I shot while working with my two groups –
I got to shoot a flag retirement ceremony at the Mount Zion Lion’s Club Monday evening. Things get pretty toasty when you’re burning more than a thousand kerosene-soaked flags.
I drove down to Charleston to shoot the IHSA Boys Track and Field state finals Saturday at EIU… I don’t know if the heat fried my brain, but I had the hardest time shooting the celebration shots (jube for short) as athletes crossed the finish line.
Nine times out of ten the runner crosses the finish line and points straight up in the air. Apparently that memo didn’t get sent out to all of the schools.
I didn’t have any local kids in this particular race, but I shoot most every race for fun. I can’t stand sitting around doing nothing and it seems to keep my brain from going into full attention deficit disorder mode.
I had my camera ready for a nice vertical when this guy, Ryan Todd of Jersey High School, won his race and decided to pretend that he was the lead singer of Creed — who stretches his arms out more than any human ever should.
Poop.
Can’t run a picture of a kid with his hands cut off (unless, of course, his hands are actually amputated from his body).
I decided to shoot another race horizontally, which is how I prefer to shoot anyway, and hope that I could get another chance at outstretched arms.
What did this guy do? Stick his hand straight up in the air and point.
Crap.
Luckily this wasn’t a local kid or I’d be out of luck.
I get to a race with a local runner and he’s doing well… I get excited. I take a chance that he’s going to stretch his arms out. He does nothing. He put his hands on his hips and goes about his day like he didn’t just run a half-mile in the billion-degree heat.
Too bad I wasn’t doing a story on fellow photographer Eric Hiltner… I got him pointing. Apparently he got the memo about keeping his body parts in the frame.
I’m rocking a new bike (a 2011 Giant Escape) thanks to my work and our local bike shop, Spin City Cycles… I brought her home last week and have put about 20 miles on already. This is definitely the fanciest bike I’ve ever been on… it’s not even a ridiculously fancy bike in bike terms, but it’s a definite step up from grabbing something off the rack at a big box store.
The ride is smooth, everything was adjusted for my body… I think I’m in love.
But my mistress remains anonymous for now because I’m drawing a blank with a name.
My first thought was Black Beauty, but my morbid fear of horses makes me nervous to use that name. A few hours after my first ride I thought about naming it Lee, after our parent company (Lee Enterprises)… but I think that was more about the pain I felt in my ass, not the company’s nice act of giving me a bike. Plus, I don’t want a male name for the bike…
“Honey, I’m going to go ride Bob for a while”
Any suggestions?
(Promotional image from Giant Bicycle)
I noticed this phone on a table while shooting an assignment in a recording studio at Millikin University last week. It’s always good to know where your nearest Bat Phone is in case of an emergency.
I got to shoot the derby yesterday. Sadly, not the Kentucky Derby… but the Greater Decatur Duck Derby in the parking lot of the Children’s Museum of Illinois. You can’t go wrong with 5,000 rubber ducks, a boatload of kids and thousands of gallons of water. I was hoping for some more excitement from the kids, but I honestly think they just wanted to go back inside and play.
