El Wally World part dos

29 October 2008: Dia de Muertos part 1

I was pretty excited when I found out that we were going to be in Mexico during Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead as we call it here.

In Cancun there were a few Halloween costumes and decorations in the store but Dia de Muertos is the big holiday there. The holiday falls on Nov. 1st & 2nd and it is a time for people to remember family and friends who have died. The first day is traditionally to honor children and the second day for adults.

People decorate altars in the homes, cemeteries and businesses to honor those who have passes away.

I first learned of the holiday in about 13 years ago when one of my photographers in Waukegan, Jeffrey Brown, would cover the event locally every year for the paper. I will take a look at this a bit more in a few days but here are a few more shots from Walmart.

The seasonal isle was much like what you might find in the US with a tented area with a giant dragon, inside you could find skeletons and other day of the dead items people could buy for their altars.

Pan de muerto is special bread traditionally prepared and eaten on the holiday.

We ran into a couple in the store and they told us about the sugar skulls. People buy a sugar skull with a child's name on it and give it to the children at a special dinner during the first day of the holiday.

I will follow up more on the traditions in a few days.

john

El Wally World

29 October 2008: I really am easily amused

Day two, we had to attend a breakfast meeting in the morning and after last night Paulette and I decided to pick up a few supplies at Walmart in downtown Cancun. It is about a half hour from our hotel so it only took us about an hour with a 20-30 minute tour of the neighborhoods.

I get a kick out of visiting stores in foreign countries to see what different stuff they have, especially if it is a US chain. This provided us, well more me, with a few hours of entertainment. Plus they are not as anal as stores in the US about taking photos.

The first thing that hit me was we are coming up on Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead, more on that topic later.

In my hunt for for the odd we came across some choice items. Platanitos Sun Chips were pretty darn good, they were plantain banana chips and came in chile and regular flavor. Nestles Freskas are malted milk balls in Pineapple and other flavors. Bubu Lubu candies are pretty tasty too; chocolate, marshmallow and strawberry. Pepsi Retro was just a retro can the pop tasted the same. Milch is a candy bar that we have not tried yet but the name is great and of course there is teh candy bar Mr. Big.

They treat food a lot of food in Central America. In one area they were cooking chicken on a gyros spike for tacos, you can get taco meal for about a buck. In the bakery you grab a tray and tongues and pick what you want. We grabbed some queso bread, ham & cheese bread and an apple pastry did not try things we were not sure about.

Paulette needed some hair spray so we wandered into the cosmetic side of the store. This may have been the best find; moco de Gorila Gel. Or as the bottle says Snott Gorilla Gel.

There really were too many fun moments but here are three; the stuff, the bakery and the snot.

john

Hola

28 Ocotober 2008: OOT for the week

We are out of town down in Cancun for a week at the AAU National Convention. Tough job but someone has to do it.

After checking in on Tuesday and getting settled we decided to take a cab down to the restaurant district to check out a little nightlife. Everywhere you go there are people on the street trying to pull you into their establishments and they all want to make a deal.

It is a little slow in Cancun right now so I am not sure if they are as aggressive in the busy season. As soon as we stepped out of the cab 2-3 guys wanted to sell us tickets to Congo Bongo, some kind of a show that boasts quotes from NYT, LAT and others about how great the show is.

Forty-five dollas a ticket, but we make you a deal. Forty for the women...thirty five...but the guys are still forty-five...forty. We decline but they still hover. I am sure the show is good but not today, so we crossed the street where we were pulled in by more of the bar rip tide.

It did not take long and a buy one get one free deal got us in the door. That turned out to be the last stop of the night for us. We hung out, had some drink, had some dance and a few shots but I learned one lesson. It is best to pay as you go when drinking down here. At the end of the night the tab seemed a bit higher than we thought but we were stuck.

Ah I am rambling and do not want to go down that path. Here are a few pix from the bar.

The beers came in buckets and we used the same bucket to keep the margaritas cold we did not have to take a chance with the ice, so far so good.

From time to time everyone in the bar got in a congo line and danced out of the bar into the street and back into the bar again. After coming back into the bar everyone crammed onto the stage where the wait staff poured tequila for the patrons, no glasses needed.

With everyone dancing on the stage they shot the crowd with a can of CO2.

More tomorrow.

salute,

john

Underwater football

13 September 2008: North-wet-stern

It has been a busy month in our house. Paulette was on the road again this weekend so instead of sleeping in I went in the opposite direction. We did not have a staffer to shoot the Northwestern game so I grabbed a credential and some long glass on Friday night and figured I would polish up on my football, I just did not realize I would need a boat to shoot the game.

When I woke up Saturday it was raining and I briefly thought, "I can sleep in and use a wire photo," but I did not want to wimp out so I rolled. I gave myself 2 hours to get to the game but that was not enough, I missed the whole first quarter of the game because traffic was so bad.

With the Edens Expressway flooded all the side roads were gridlocked. When the game started I was about two miles from the stadium and traffic was still so bad it was going to take another hour to get to the game. Being the genius I am, I figured I could save some time on the side streets and my GPS would guide me right to the game. What I did not know was that half the streets in Evanston were underwater. It still took me about 25 minutes to get there and I almost washed out my car in a few puddlakes.

I had rain gear for my long glass but it rained so hard I never bothered to shoot action with my 70-200, by the time I could find the camera in all the plastic and vinyl I would have missed the play. When the action got to the goal line I just backed up as far as I could and shot it with the 400mm. No great shakes on the action I lost a lot of images because of my rain covered lens.

I worked a few rainy features of miserable looking fans and puddles but did not want to get to brave with my cameras.

This game reminded me of a season of Illini games I shot during college in the 80's. I was stringing for AP and was always the guy who stayed on the field while the staffer went in to process and transmit. Every week I shot a game and had to take my gear apart and let it sit for a couple days to dry out. That does not work so well with cameras these days.

Once again a dry set of clothes saved me for my editing shift.

-john

The family photojournalist

11 September 2008: Amira at home

At one time I thought about just doing a blog and calling it the family photojournalist since most of the photos I make these days are of family. Here are a few more.

This was our first visit to see Sue and the baby after they got out of the hospital. Sue needed a hand so she could go to the store. So this is Amira at home and her first trip to the Walmart.

Still working on the Amira blog, I created the blog but I am toning the photos.

-john

Strike three

05 September 2008: Walking the line

On this Monday Paulette was out of town with the USTA national team and I told the office if they needed any help out my way to give me a shout. Turned out the Huntley area teachers went on strike and they needed a photo for the metro section. Woohoo, a news assignment.

With the flooding in the city and a depleted suburban staff this was not a real big story and Huntley was a long way from the city but not to far from me.

The teachers were in a few different locations and our reporter was at the school district office and trying to talk to families in some of the neighborhoods. I called her and told her if she was able to talk to some of the families to give me a call and I would swing by.

So the first place I went was the high school that is out a way, surround by farmland.

When I walked up on the scene the first person that spoke with me had to tell me no one could talk to me and give me the phone number of the official spokesperson. I told them I was not writing the story and just need to get names and basic information but of course to the minority I was the evil media.

It puzzles me why some of these people wonder why media coverage seems one sided but they will not even give their names to a photographer. I did talk to several of the teachers who were very nice and I even told one of them who’s son is a journalism student that I would be happy to show his son around the newsroom when he is in Chicago.

As I was leaving the high school the same teacher approached me when I showed up yelled out to the group, “Did anyone even ask for an I.D. from that guy? How do we even know he works for a newspaper?”

I walked back and presented my id to the first person I saw.

Two days later the strike was over.

We used a pretty generic group of teachers walking with signs shot in the paper but I like these three better.

I shot a lot on long lens pix because all the wide stuff looked busy until I found a low angle with a nice puffy cloud background.

After shooting at the high school for a while I swung by the school district office and trying to get anything different I used a the reflection in a puddle to make a photo.

At the high school I recognized one of the teachers who used to coach cheer at McHenry High School when Kati was there. He was taking his turn keeping count of motorist’s opinion with notches on his sign. No response was the leader with positive reaction running a distant second.

-john

Cheerios and TV

01 September 2008: TV time

With Sue and Aran at the hospital Paulette and I stayed with Guin at her house. Guin does not watch a lot of TV but those kids shows grab her attention.

Here are a few fames of Guin enjoying her breakfast and watching TV. Later we brought her to the hospital to visit her new sister Amira who was born while we were sleeping.

-john

Hey goat, say hi to your motha for me

24 August 2008: Milwaukee Zoo

I could not resist. If you have not been following SNL your have to check out the skit Mark Walberg Talks to Animals by Andy Samberg.

Okay, back to the pix. Sue is ready to deliver the baby so we took Guin to the zoo to walk it out. Since I just don't know when to put down m camera I put in two triptychs; family and animals.

This was Guin’s first trip to the Zoo so she got to feed the goats, walk with mom and hang with mom and dad.

Here are my 3 fav animal shots.


A flamingo with a cigarette butt in it’s mouth, a bored ape and a peacock family eating popcorn.

-john

More flowers

11 August 2008: Flower power

Visiting Sue in Bartlett I was shooting some flowers when Jude popped in for a peek.

Flowers.

Jude.

Leaves munched on by Japanese beatles.

-john

Catchupalooza

01 August 2008: Lolla

It has been way too busy this summer but I see a light. I have been trying to get this blog fired back up but if it is not one thing it is another.

USTA nationals...Done. Olympics...Done. Cubs & Sox...Done. Bears...not done yet. Trib redesign...Done. Summer...Done. Bears & Blackhawks...not done. Bulls...getting started. Basement...working on it. Adoption...still waiting.

I have caught up on everything that happened over the summer so here goes.

Lollapalooza was in town at the beginning of August and I always wanted to get out there and see what that was all about. So before my editing shift I bounce out to Grant Park to help Red Eye editor Chase Daniels cover a stage and look for a few features. We also had a request in to shoot people wearing fedora hats for the At-Play section so I was looking for that in the mix.

It was smoking hot out there so I brought a change of clothes to work in since I knew I would be drenched by the time I was finished. My personal goal was to find a couple nice features but it was early and the crowds were still pretty sparse.

I shot the band Yeasayers from New Jersey on the AT&T stage. The music was fun but they were pretty typical concert photos, nothing to blog home about. Most of the crowd were there waiting to see Radiohead play one of the headline shows at night.

I ran my ass off for about 3 hours before I had to cut bait and walk back to the office and jump on the sports picture desk.

I was just starting to get warmed up but here are three okay features, no real moments but just trying to make something out of nothing. My card with hot weather features that I downloaded to a laptop at the event is still out there. I waited so long even the edits are no longer in our archive because we did not run one in the paper. If I get the images I will do a hot weather tryptich later.

After wandering though the crowds looking for some fan photos I came across a guy who lives near Grant Park and had been to every Lollapalooza framing up a show in his camera. I used a 300 and stopped down to f14 to get maximum depth of field to just make out the Lollapalooza banner on the stage behind him.

My second of this day was a fedora shot of a guy from NY another photo that I used a stage banner as my background.

Finally a shot of Yeasayer on stage. Usually you get to shoot the first two or three songs at concerts before getting the boot so you have to figure out what you want to shoot and git er done. I usually like to back off and shoot bands with longer lenses and I shot both here but this wide worked out.

A few photos were used in our web gallery and I could have stayed and shot all night, but the desk called.

Rock on!

john

Fiesta parade

July 20, 2008: Everyone loves a parade

Just another event from the summer. We took our tumblers and cheerleaders from 5 Star to march in McHenry’s Fiesta Day’s parade Sunday July 20. It is one of the bigger parades in the area and the kids had a lot of fun.

We have been in parades before but this was the first time all the parents got together and built a float.

Tumblers taped their fingers to protect them from the rough streets, cheerleaders were tossed in the air and Joe in his party hat showed off his Diablo skills as we marched the route.

John

Baby Two

September 01, 2008: Run, Run Run, stop

I have never been accused of standing in one place too long. Many moons ago as a senior in high school I managed to compete in 5 sports (cross country, gymnastics, indoor track, wrestling and outdoor track) in one year, I’m still not to sure how I pulled that off.

This summer has been no different. Between the Olympics, White Sox, Cubs, Bears, and all the departures at work. National tourneys, parades, running a website and remodeling at 5 Star. And cleaning up after the dog, helping the kids get back to college and trying to finish our basement at home I have fallen a bit behind on this blog

I have been shooting a bit over the summer and managed to squeeze a few hours of Lollapalooza in before working a couple weeks ago but most of my pictures have been of family.

It has been a run, run, run summer. Last weekend was more of the same getting up early to help build a new cheer floor at the gym before work. Monday afternoon rolled around and we took a ride up to Wisconsin to visit our new granddaughter and time stopped, what a beautiful thing!

Monday at 4:15am my stepdaughter, Suzy, and her fiancé, Aran, had their second baby, Amira Athena. We watched Guinevere the night before and after about 5 hours of working on the cheer floor we took her to see her baby sister for the first time. I edited the afternoon down to about 80 pix but here is a triptych of big sister’s first visit.

Guinevere is almost 2-years-old now and she kept saying “baby,” “touch ‘em,” “hug “em,” “kiss ‘em” and that was the first thing she did. We got Guin a big sister t-shirt and she is handling it pretty well, so far. Another of my favorite moments was when Aran and Guin were sitting on the bed with mom drinking milk shakes.

Tuesday it was back to run, run, run again. Up early to finish the cheer floor and back to work.

Next on the list…build a first year blog for Amira.

Cheers,

John

Ode to an All-Star Game

July 15, 2003: All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular Field

FROM THE ARCHIVES.

With the 79th All-Star game at Yankee Stadium ending here is my ode to an All-Star Game.

Boy the All Star game has changed a bit over the years. I remember covering it when it was more of a social hour when all of the top players from around the league came together to hang out and have fun.

Tuesday's game was completely the opposite, 15 innings and 4 hours and 50 minutes and the American League once again prevailed with a 4-3 win in the Midsummer Classic.

We had Phil Velasquez, one of our baseball aces, covering the game for us but he was solo and they did not allow laptops on the field. If the game had started at noon I would have liked it a lot more but because of the late finish I feel like I could not get the best of Phil's images in the paper.

We have been using a new piece of technology to send photos directly from the camera to the office and if that had worked we would have been golden. But alas we have not gotten it to work at any big sporting events yet. It crapped out last week during the LifeLock 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway but luckily it started working after the race and we were able to get the celebration in the paper. When it is working right we can get a photo from camera onto the web in about five minutes. When it is not it is like the old analog wire transmitters minus the high pitch transmission tone.

Enough of now, here are a few photos from the last All-Star game in Chicago in 2003 at U.S. Cellular Field. I was covering it for the Tribune and we had a crew of about 3 shooters and 1 editor. We were set up in one of the hallways under the stands and before the Futures game Phil made a frame of Giants mascot Lou Seal giving me a few picture editing tips. I wish he would have been around to run cards for me later during the All Star game we could have used the help.

The slowest time editing on the road is always the beginning of the game when you are waiting for cards to roll in, so I went to the upper level where we did not have a photog to shoot an overall of the field. I did not want to have an empty aisle in the middle of my frame I worked my way to an empty seat. As the national anthem was finishing up the U.S. Navy Blue Angels roared overhead and much to my delight the guy in front of me raised his fist in the air. I made the photo grabbed my gear and ran down to edit the first batch of images coming in.

One editor on 3 photogs at a big event is a bit much and I was pretty swamped trying to keep on top of the game and get key photos back to the Tower. It was not till after the game was over and Scott Strazzante was looking at the back of my camera did he see this frame and told me I should move it.

Though I still love to make photos I know what my job is editing at an event and I always edit my photogs images before I even look at my own photos. I will head out to shoot some features or pick up a ball game here and there is we do not have a staffer to cover. I like to keep my shooting skills as sharp as I can because if you left your skills fall off to far it is hard to get them back.

The photo of Oakland's Keith Foulke was from Monday workouts.

-jk

Movin' on

July 12, 2008: Wes B-Q

In newspapers and I guess in every field of work, if you are lucky, there is a time when you get to work with really talented people who care deeply about what they do. When you can surround yourself with those people you are really in a great place.

I always want to be around people who are as or more talented and motivated than me because it makes me take my game to the next level. My few year editing at Copley Northern Illinois Newspapers (Waukegan, Elgin, Aurora, Joliet, Naperville and a bunch of zip code weeklies) were pretty amazing. The bar was always set high, the talent was even higher and the work and stories were amazing.

At the Tribune we have some incredibly talented photojournalists as well and over the past few years I have seen a bunch move on to other opportunities. This week was Wes Pope's turn, he is heading to the Rocky Mountain News as their multi media photographer. Wes' last day at the Tribune was the Fourth of July and he starts his new gig in Colorado July 28th.

I have known Wes for almost 10 years from his first tour of duty at the Tribune as a 1-year. I have always been impressed with Wes' images from the lake front series, his photos outside Wrigley during the Cubs playoff run years ago, his Guinea worm story in Ghana to his pop can pinhole series from Route 66 and many more great stories. He has always brought back fresh images with his unique point of view. Now, Wes has taken the next step in newspapers and taken the lead in multimedia from slide shows with music to video he is still taking his work to the next level.

Saturday I got to hang out with Wes at a little BBQ in Forest Park before heading into work. The hour I got to hang out was definitely not enough time but here are a few frames from the afternoon.

Good luck at the Rocky Mountain News Wes. I am sure you will continue to kick ass out there.

Here are a few moments from the BBQ.

-john

A quick fix

July 12, 2008: More lights in the sky

Wow, am I in need of a good photo fix, it is like I am going through photo withdrawals. At the end of last week I was really feeling it bad. It has been a couple weeks since I posted anything on the blog and I have not shot a photo let alone three that I would even think about posting.

I keep my camera with me most of the time and have knocked off a few frames here and there but they are not even worth downloading to my computer. If I make one more traffic photo from the car I might have to retire the cameras for a while. But driving home Friday we had another thunder storm so I thought I would try again to catch lightening through the windshield on the way home I thought, "maybe the third time will be a charm." ( First try: Painting with light, Second try: Chasing lightening, again )

As I got out of the city I got the usual streaming street lights and a couple neat blurred road sign photos but the bolts were just not big enough and in the right place for this photo to work. The only two really big strikes I was were when I was in light traffic but I do not shoot in traffic or when there are cars around me.

On Route 31 between Crystal Lake and McHenry I was talking to Paulette on the phone and she was not home yet so I pulled over and made a few hand held frames out the window of my car. I probably could have found a better foreground but it was about midnight and I was just experimenting with shutter speeds and aperture settings. When I got home I grabbed my tripod from the garage and shot a little more around the house till Paulette got home.

As far as lightening photos go these are nothing to write home about but here are a few shots from that night.

-jk

A walk on the Pride side

June 29, 2008: hands on at the Pride Parade

This is the second time Paulette and I wandered down to Lakeview for the annual Pride Parade. This year Kati just moved into the neighborhood so she came with us and we met up with Joe at the end of the parade.

With over two hundred groups participating and about 450,000 people in attendance there is a little bit of everything in this parade. Anything goes out there and if you are offended by shirtless men in underwear it is best you stay home.

I was caught between shooting photos and hanging out, my problem is that when I am working an event I get in a zone and lose track of the people around me. I wandered off a few times but it was good that Kati was there so I was not abandoning Paulette. I really like to sit back with long glass everything was so crowded it was hard to get off much from the street with my 300. As it turns out all three in this triptych are shot wide.

We camped out at Halsted and Brompton for most of the parade. When everything came to a stop for about 45 minutes and the rain rolled in so we retreated to Las Mananitas Mexican Restaurant for a few margaritas and a window seat.

My original goal was to find 3 photos that I could never get published in the paper. I just did not see that much that was crazy over the top or maybe I did not look hard enough or maybe I just was not in the right place.

I always shoot for the best moments and edit for what something unique about the event. The one thing that struck me Sunday was how close the people were to the parade. Every ten minutes or so a police officer would stroll by on a 4-wheeler, a Segway or even on horseback to push the crowd back but as soon as they passed the crowd just moved back into the street.

The crowd is as big a part of the event as the floats and walkers. People run into the street for hugs, beads, condoms or whatever is being handed out. Others run out to take photos with friends and characters in the parade. We even ran across a guy with his leather whip giving everyone a little slap here and there. I shot a couple cards and have a ton of fun photos. These are the three that give me the feel of the blending of the parade and the people.

-jk

Best of the rest

June 18 & 21, 2008: a few more holders

Here are a few more frames I liked from the Cincinnati trip.

On Thursday night, from our room on the 13th floor of the Millennium Hotel, I noticed the top of the PNC Tower building was lit up. (Meaningless aside: Have you ever noticed most hotels skip the 13th floor? Not here.)

I figured the skyline view might make a nice frame at sunrise so the next morning after my 5:30am wakeup call, I stumbled around, put a lens on and a card in one of my cameras, knocked off this frame and grabbed another 15 minutes of sleep before kicking off the day. When I am in a shooting mode I always look for something different in my hotel rooms. Done.

Jumping back a few days on Wednesday we were having dinner at Cadillac Ranch when someone noticed a Congo African Grey Parrot perched on the handlebars of a Harley parked in front of the restaurant. I talked to the owner who was sitting outside the restaurant enjoying a beer. He said the bird loves to ride on his bike. He can open it up to 70 MHP and she just grips the handlebars a little tighter. The bird has a 400-500 word vocabulary, everything from "polly want a cracker" to a few phrases that might make a hooker blush. He also said the bird is a great chick magnet.

Finally I have to sneak in a beer photo, Tom enjoying a cold one in the Millennium Hotel bar Friday night.

Cheers!

-jk

Take me out

June 16, 2008: a beautiful day for a ballgame.

We were in Cincinnati last week for the USTA National tournament. After the first day of tumbling competition we got discounted tickets to the Great American Ballpark to see the Reds Dodgers game. I went with the cheap seats, $7, because it was more about checking the park out and having a few drinks than watching the game.

If it were the White Sox or Cubs playing I probably would have kept a scorecard but we just kicked back and enjoyed the night. Armed with my 17-55 I made a few frames between the beers.

I thought the clouds and the stadium lights looked cool as the light got low in the sky.

The batters box caught a shaft of light as Jolbert Cabrera grounded out to third for the third out in the third inning (it's a triptych thing.)

Finally, I like my angle on Sam and Kiylee posing for the roving ballpark photographer better than the straight on shot from down the aisle.

Oh yeah for those keeping score the Reds lost 3-1 and got swept in the series. The ballpark was great, the beer was good but the dogs do not compare to a Chicago Vienna.

-jk

Hanging out in Crystal Lake

June 14, 2008: Guinevere's first trip to the gym

I have been out of town for a week so I am a little back blogged. Here is one I shot just before heading out of town.

This is Guinevere's first trip to 5 Star, she was there for a while jumping around before I showed up and she was a little worn out by the time I started taking photos. She did not want to jump on the trampolines any more but the big balls were still fun.

After the gym we grabbed lunch at Noodles, I always wanted to make a photo with the ceiling panels in there.

Finally we swung by the AT&T store to pick up a sim card before I had to head downtown for my last day of work before a week of vacation.

-jk

I hate Friday traffic

June 13, 2008: don't try this at home.

A twofer today, driving is the theme of the day.

A 2005 US Census study said the average American spends more than 100 hours a week commuting to work. I am sure that number has gone up in the past three years. For me it is way up.

I estimate my annual commute time is over 700 hours. That is just over 29 days. Almost a whole month. In my car. Driving to work. Yikes! With gas prices I have considered taking the train but that adds another 2 hours a day, fergitaboudit.

The worst day by far is Friday rush hour and if the weather turns bad or they are working on the roads well, let's not go there.

Here are a quick three from the drive downtown today. I do not make a habit of shooting and driving and it is more like shooting a hail marry. I do not recommend you try this at home.

Today's commute was really not too bad for a Friday. About two and a half hours. Thank God tomorrow is Saturday.

-jk

Chasing lightening, again

June 13, 2008: maybe next time.

We have had our share of stormy weather this year in the Midwest. Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin are just a few of our neighboring states that have been hammered pretty bad in the past few weeks.

On the way of from work Thursday night/Friday morning we had more tornado warnings around my home up north. It was pretty clear leaving Chicago but along the Northwest Tollway the light show started. Some how even though I was driving into the storm I missed it.

Following up on my last set of driving long exposures I thought I would try again to catch a lightening bolt. There was not much traffic. I could see the lightening in the distance and the road was covered with leaves and branches from where the storm winds had blown through. In Crystal Lake there were power lines and trees down along the road but the worst I faced was a bit of heavy rain.

I rested the camera on the dashboard and popped off 10-20 second exposures as I drove. There were a few bursts behind the clouds and just off camera but again the most interesting frames were the street lights.

I'm not done chasing this shot yet.

-jk

Painting with light

June 8, 2008: colors of the night.

This was a pretty slow weekend for photos. I had my camera with me all weekend but really could not get motivated to shoot. We were out in Bartlett on Sunday visiting Rick and Sue and there were plenty of things I should have worked but my long days have been catching up with me and I just wanted caffeine.

With a few clouds in the sky it was a beautiful night. We were hanging out in the driveway when I noticed a little lightening in the north, I knocked off a few frames of the clouds because they looked so peaceful. It was not long before that changed.

About halfway home the lightening started picking up. It was pretty cloudy not too many bolts were visible just flashes behind the clouds. From the passenger seat, I thought I would try to catch a bolt so I stopped down and set the camera on bulb. I captured a few weak photos of flashes behind the clouds but no bolts.

The long exposures did make for some fun images. A few foul balls but here they are, I call it art.

-jk

Remembering Dimebag

March 2, 2001: Pantera at the UIC Pavillion

One from the Archives.

In March of 2001 I grabbed a Saturday night assignment to shoot the legendary heavy metal band Pantera during the Reinventing the Steel Tour at the UIC Pavilion for a photo essay in the Tribune's Tempo section. The assignment had no takers and we were a bit tight on staff that night so I dusted off my Nikons and took a stab at it.

The assignment was to get some behind the scenes photos of this legendary band before and after the show. Pantera had been around since the early 80's and still had a huge following. I must admit I was not a huge Pantera fan so I went out and bought a few of their CDs to make sure I knew some of their songs and I made sure I knew all the band members names. I figured if they were going to let me hang out with them the least I should do is know a little of their music.

My credential was waiting for me at the venue so I went in and found my contact. I was told wait here and we will take care of you when the band is ready. The waiting is definitely the hardest part because no matter what it says on the assignment you just don't know what you are going to get.

After hanging out for about a half hour or so I was told I could shoot the whole show and would be allowed in the locker room after the performance. The concert standard has always been shoot 3 songs and get out so I thought it was cool I would be able to hang out a little longer. I grabbed my credential and made my way out to the stage area to look around.

LIFE LESSON #63: Always carry earplugs in your camera bag or fanny pack.

Some things you just learn the hard way, thank God for a security guard this was not one of those for me. While I was hanging out I started talking to one of the security guards when he asked me, "Do you have ear plugs?" I did not so he gave me an extra pair he had. This would have been like the sun screen lesson I learned in high school during a spring break trip to Florida when I told a friend, "I never get sun burn." Uh uh.

The show was so loud when it was over my ears were ringing even with ear plugs. Maybe the three song limit was not such a bad idea. To this day I always keep ear plugs in my fanny pack.

After the show I went to my spot backstage and I waited and waited and waited. Standing outside the locker room with all the groupies wondering if I was going to get in, how much time I would have, what these guys were going to be like.

Finally the contact came out pointed at me and motioned for me to come in. Inside they introduced me to the band and these guys were among the nicest people I had ever met. Each band member had their own corner with their cases and belongings. Vinnie was hanging out on a couch with a rebel flag on his lap and a friend sitting close by. Dimebag was in another corner by his case drinking a can of Coors Light with his beard dyed bright red. I was handed a refreshment and just shot as the guys were winding down after the show.

While talking with some of the other people hanging out someone said "hey let me take your photo!" Usually I do not hand people my camera or shoot photos when people say "take my picture" but I said what the heck. Standing behind me was guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, I set the camera and they knocked off a frame. I have never been a big autograph or celebrity hound so I did not really think twice about the photo. The frame was a bit so I skimmed right by it during my edit after the show.

A short time later I noticed one of the guys pouring shots of Crown Royal in plastic cups. It was time for everyone to make a toast. I worked my way in to get a shot of the guys tipping one back as I held my cup in my teeth. I gave up doing shots a long time ago but did not want to insult my hosts so I had one (I think) and it was pretty smooth.

The photos ran, I filed a handful of negs and I tossed the outtakes into an envelope in my drawer and went back to the life of picture editing. On December 8, 2004 I came into work and heard that Dimebag was shot and killed on-stage at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio by an obsessed Pantera fan while performing with his brother's new band, Damageplan.

I dug through my drawer and found the negatives and scanned a few fresh frames to offer with the story. I also came across the frame of Dimebag and me and scanned it in for the first time, it was a smiler and it brings back memories of a good assignment.

-jk

Morning in Lake Geneva

June 6 2008: breakfast at Egg Harbor

Paulette and I were in Lake Geneva Friday morning to give Suzy a break and take Guinevere to breakfast. It was my first trip to Egg Harbor and it was just too yummy for my own good.

I do love to shoot food and always get strange looks when I pull out a camera at the table, probably the Greek in me. Now I have a place to use those photos, beer photos coming soon.

I ordered the Raisin French toast, Paulette had the Cinnamon Bun French toast and Guinevere got some flap jacks with bacon and strawberry orange juice, of course I got to eat a little of everything.

After we filled out bellies we walked around a bit and Guinevere made friends with a little dog named Scooter at the Red Pony.

-jk

Stormy weather

June 6, 2008: storm clouds roll through southeastern Wisconsin.

I was driving back from Lake Geneva Friday morning when the weather turned on me. The radio was reporting tornado warnings in southeastern Wisconsin and before I knew it the winds picked up and it was raining like there was no tomorrow.

So what did I do? Of course I pulled over and waited for the rain to stop, so I could get the rest of my gear out of the trunk. I drove up the road a bit further and pulled off on Route 120 near Highway B to watch the storm. The front was moving northeast but overhead the clouds were dark and I was never really sure what they were going to do. A few times the clouds reached for the ground but the pulled back up as the storm rolled by.

Though part of me thinks it would be cool to photograph a tornado, I am glad the storm did not reach that level.

-jk

A slow rainy day

June 3, 2008: flowers in the front yard.

Yup, I was playing with a macro Tuesday, definitely not brain surgery.

Not even that creative but aren't they purdy?

-jk

Guinevere at the window

May 31, 2008: weekend in Lake Geneva

Paulette and I were hanging out with Sue, Aron and Guinevere in Lake Geneva before I had to head into work Saturday. I have not shot nearly as many photos of Guinevere this year as I did last year but it is still fun trying to get something new.

Guin was watching her dad try out his new lawnmower. I chose a low angle today and with a lot of waiting for a profile shot I caught this moment at the window, I love the wind blown hair. Just to my right was Frodo having a moment to himself. It was a perfect day to cut the grass.

-jk

Three, tria, tres

June 2, 2008: Zoey enjoys her first ride.

Guinevere Arielle Ackley, Good Better Best (a work in progress) and now Blahg Blahg Blahg. There is just something about the number 3.

After talking with Scott Strazzante Tuesday I decided to focus this blog on photo triptychs, my little 3 picture essays. Scott has been working on a photo essay on the Cagwin farm near Lockport for over 10 years now. These days the farm is gone and where corn, soy beans and cattle once grew the current residents are now raising their families on that same land. Scott continues to document the neighborhood and recently started matching his older photos of Harlow and Gene with current photos of the family life in the subdivision. Just this past year Scott's diptych essay ran in National Geographic and the Chicago Tribune magazine. You can view a gallery of this essay on the Chicago Tribune website HERE. The photos are awesome.

As a picture editor my job involves picking, cropping, sizing, designing, assigning and waiting for photos but I still really love to make my own pictures. For me there is still magic in my cameras. To chase the perfect moment, to find art in the world around me it is just an adrenaline rush I can't get anywhere else.

In an attempt to keep myself from becoming a photo potato so I am getting back to my roots; carrying a camera with me everywhere I go.

I have never been a 1 frame shooter so a triptych is perfect for me. I always work a situation looking at different angles, composition, different lenses, exposures, depth of field, etc. The hunt for that perfect moment. Sometimes it is the first frame but I always think to myself I can make a better picture.

To keep my shooting eye fresh I am going to try to fill this blog with current photos of my life and the journey, 3 frames at a time. I will also go back into older shoots and pull out some archived triptychs.

This weekend we took Zoey for her first ride in the convertible, she loved it! Good thing I was not driving.

-jk