Taking Advantage of Opportunity

As a photojournalist, you often come across very redundant or familiar situations. It is quite simple to take the easy way out, and come away with the same photo every time, just settling for the safe shot that you know will run in the paper and satisfy everyone involved. These situations could be an annual event that has been covered since the existence of your publication, or in the case of the photos in this post, something very topically similar that was and has always happened a month apart.

The Christmas and New Year's Baby assignments are all too simple. Get a call to show up at a maternity ward, go in, pose the parent or parents up on the bed with the newborn, take a few frames, and leave. You leave with a photo showing the family and the new baby; you just did your job as a photographer and in the process got through a fairly quick assignment on a holiday.

Going into these assignments I knew I was going to be the shooter on both days, so I wanted something different from each situation, something nice that I would be pleased with. I decided to forego the obvious and simple photo, and take advantage of the opportunity that I had been presented with. It is not often that you get to witness parents' first interactions with their child. It is one of life's moments of pure joy and excitement, and you are allowed to be there to record it. You are not there to intrude on a moment but to experience and celebrate it with the family.

When I showed up on Christmas morning, it was my first brand newborn baby photo experience. The parents were glowing. I chatted with them for a while before removing my camera from the bag. They were new parents, with their first child. I watched how they explored and interacted with their new son, and decided it was too beautiful to pass up. Instead of having them pose, (at first, because I did also take the posed shot incase no one liked my different take on the newborn assignment) I just snapped photos of them experiencing their child.

By taking time and advantage of the situation I was in, I walked away with a touching little moment that couldn't really be recreated or experienced again:

I am not saying that you can't get a nice moment or emotion by taking a portrait shot either though: 

With that experience under my belt, I approached the New Year's Baby with a different attitude. I knew that I would be able to capture nice moments AND that my trying something different was appreciated. A risk worth taking once is worth taking again; as I walked into the over-sized maternity room I was trying to figure out how to be different from my thinking outside of the box just a month ago.

The situation was different; there was not a pair of glowing parents, no father doting over his first-born (nor would there ever be), it was a second-born child, with grandma and a tired, but happy mother. It was also dark. A far cry from the very nice side lighting that I was getting from the window on Christmas. I still took the time to chat with the family, Grandma making more of an effort to hold a conversation. The baby was not as active as the Christmas baby, and mom was very tired, but still curious. A lot of my photos became about mom exploring her new child.

Completely satisfied with what I had taken I got up to leave; I noticed that the dark room created a nice contrast with the light over the hospital bed making kind of an ephemeral glow to the room. Now not wanting to focus solely on tight detail shots, I felt that the mood of the lighting matched the situation perfectly. It was just mom and baby and the rest of the world didn't matter at that point. Changing the angle of my shooting to make the best of the contrasting light gave me a very telling image. (Which is sadly appearing over-exposed through blogger, I think blogger brightens posted pics for the web or something. Try to imagine darker edges.) I also really like the body language and that everyone is in adoration of this small, sleeping child. I did not take a safe portrait in this situation because I did not think that it did justice to the story.  

The moral of this blog post is: do not be afraid to spend a little extra time and go out of your way to make a nice photo of something that you have to shoot all of the time. Not every situation or day allows you to do this, but taking the moment to enjoy and experience humanity always pays off in the end.

Wait? What's this? A new blog?!?!?

Hey everyone! It has been a long time since I have posted on here (almost 3 years to be exact.) In that time I have landed a full-time job at the Watertown Daily Times as Photographer, and have already been there a year!

This first blog is just going to be a collection of clips from the past year and why I like them. (probably just one shot from each month!) This should catch everyone up on everything. I probably won't be too detailed.

Also, I am going to try to make a point of updating this blog once a week. It can cover pic of the week, clips, or just photo techniques/shooting strategies. Now for some photos! (Apologies to people who follow my photo updates on Facebook religiously; you have probably already seen most of these shots.)

December 2010:

One of the first pics I took as a part timer at the Times. I like the curiosity in his eyes, as well as the light in the scene and on his face. Case in point as to why I generally always have a camera on my person; you never know what you will run into that would make a nice photograph.

January 2011:

Part of my job is finding features/stand-alone images. As a small, rural community, we do not always have days that are packed to the rim with news. Boys doing sports will always show-off/ be glad to be photographed; being a girl with a camera multiplies their willingness ten-fold.  I like the flying snow, the colors, and the angle of this image. It is also nice to have the other boys at the top of the hill! 

February 2011: 

Winter time usually results in a multitude of shoveling and snow-blowing photos; it is difficult to make the photos different and visually interesting. While shooting this, I noticed the light in the back yard, and was happy when the man decided to continue his work in the back. Because of that I was able to capture a moodier image of a mundane task. A photo does not have to be technically perfect to be interesting! (This was also one of the photos that convinced my boss I was capable of coming on as a full-time staff member, another reason to like it!) 

March 2011: 

This photo, aptly titled "Waiting," was about waiting for both my subject and me. Not only was the quilt in the background the most beautiful quilt in the show, but there was a bench placed right beside it. I knew that I wanted a shot with someone on the bench, maybe looking at the quilt, but what I ended up with was better. After waiting around on the ground, my shot already composed, for what was probably 20 minutes, a man sat down and began waiting for his wife to make it into the room.  To me this photo shows that a little patience can pay off. Otherwise I would have been stuck with a boring snapshot of a quilt show.

April 2011: 

 Car accidents can be very frustrating situations to shoot. Thankfully no one was hurt in this one, but there was a police pursuit as a result of it. I like that it is wider to show you the obscurity of the situation. Photos don't always need to be super tight in. The police officer with the flashlight ties this image together (or is just a nice little bonus). 

May 2011: 

This was a fun event to photograph; it had a lot of opportunity to play visually. I noticed the horses lined up "watching" the horse pull, and decided to use them as a frame. Once I knew I could have a sharp audience and sharp horses as a frame, I wanted to accentuate the motion of the horse in competition through the image. This was a simple technique of dragging the shutter (slowing the shutter speed down) while bracing my camera on a railing.

June 2011: 

I went to photograph an astronomy night in the woods, a situation where there would be almost no light. I tried using my off camera flash a little, but decided it wasn't working and looked unnatural. Instead I decided to focus on shapes of people and the laser pointer cutting across the image. I also made sure to take advantage of the twilight so that I could get a deep rich blue sky. I am glad that I went graphic instead of trying to be too literal with this event. 

July 2011: 

I really just like the angle of this shot. I managed to get a lot of white house paint on my lens as a result. However, this was the cleanest angle that kept the work she was doing obvious. On top of that, I love how she has paint all over her face and hands! It is always smart to try and pick out the best character at every situation. 

August 2011: 

A long exposure at dusk can create a great mood in a scene. The warmth of the boat house balances out the coolness of the sky. The fisherman completes the scene (and his reflection is visible, which is a nice perk). I feel that all the elements lead you in to a nice scene, whilst showing the beauty of a local area. 

September 2011: 

I love shooting sports, and sometimes you can get a gem of a moment like this one. I knew that the shooter aced the last direct kick she had taken, so I lined up to shoot it like the goal was going to be made and a goalie would be diving. Instead, I got this shot of most of the line diving out of the way of the shot! There are a lot of things that could make this more perfect, but moments like this don't happen often; a little preemptive planning can go a long way. 

October 2011: 

 I always say that I would rather go to 100 fires before I would go to a car accident; shots like this are one reason. Every other news organization had left the scene by this point. However, I had noticed the smoke and structure of the house as firefighters walked through it. I laid on the ground and composed my image and waited for some one to place themselves nicely in the frame. It took about 20 minutes of waiting, but I finally got the shot that I was waiting for. I did make sure I had an OK spot news photo BEFORE I waited for this one, but I feel as though my patience paid off. 

November 2011: 

This shot won a clip in the NPPA contest, or it had, until the region's postings disappeared from the NPPA site. This was in all honesty a quick, drive-by kind of shot. I got out of my car with a wide angle lens on, clicked a couple of frames, and left. I tried to keep it clean, had to battle with show-off teenage boys who were trying to ruin the shot by being stupid, and I wanted it pulled back so that you could see both the store and the length of the line (in all its bundled up and tented glory).  The primary colors also help this shot out. 

December 2011: 

I had a couple of shots from this month that I wanted to show, but I decided that I would post those in a different blog. 

This photo is a result of taking advantage of a different shooting angle. I love that you can see through the backboard in this particular gym, and I always make a point to try and get a nice shot through the basket every time I go there. I like that this photo is all about the moment of anticipation. All of the players' eyes are on the ball and the ball is about to fall into the basket after bumbling around the rim. The ability to change up the perspective took a boring and quite normal moment in a high school basketball game to a different level. 

Stay tuned for pics from January 2012.... and Beyond!