Cabby O'Neill

This Saturday Jasper was kickin' it old school (well... isn't it always?) with a throwback game at Cabby O'Neill Gymnasium. The gym is vintage 1930's and was just restored this past year. My friend and photographer Jake May was visiting me this past week so we drove the two city blocks from my house to the gym and shot it up.

Waiting...

[Southridge junior Emily Braunecker, left, watched the end of the girls junior varsity basketball game with Southridge cheerleaders juniors Brook Kilian, Jaclyn Altstadt, Alyssa Gehlhausen and senior Rachel Hanebutt on Monday at Memorial Gym in Huntingburg. Both the Southridge girls junior varsity and varsity basketball teams topped the visiting Boonville Pioneers.]

The (Children's) Nutcracker

As soon as I stepped backstage and saw Little Bo Peep and her "lost" sheep I knew that I had my photo. I had to wait a while for it though. It was quite a chaotic scene with Arabian princesses, angels, and little ballerinas running around. It could have been visual overload but I kept coming back to the little sheep. While waiting for her turn to dance Bo Peep scooped one up and held her just long enough for me to snap off a few frames.

I take photos because they tell stories...

...and sometimes cause they're pretty.

Marching

Spent all of Saturday following the three local bands that made it to state. Made for an early morning, but there were plenty photos to made. Emotions were running high and I don't think I've ever seen more tears at one event. First, fourth, or ninth place, it didn't matter... endings are rough.

Also, I looked at the stats for my blog, and is it really possible that I have 1,000 page views from Australia? Doubt it.

Happy Halloween

[Ran six columns on the front of The Herald yesterday. I still get geeked about big photos]

Hunting Feature

Sometimes you get lucky. Saw these two between my regular assignments and couldn't let the opportunity slip by.

Cutline (top photo):
Cody Wolf, 15, and Grant Pund, 12, both of Dale, paused to listen for squirrels as they walked down the railroad tracks with their shotguns while hunting near their homes in Dale on Saturday afternoon. "It's a lot better than watching TV," Wolf said about hunting. The two usually wake up early on weekends and get to the woods while it is still dark to wait for their quarry to start moving.

Yup. Another sports photo.

Headers

Sports from the week (minus action)

Senior Service Day

I've photographed a lot of high schoolers lately. Also, I love fall and shooting under overcast skies. It's like shooting under a giant softbox.

Districts

I'm still on a black and white kick. A reflection photo played big on the front page and referred back to the doubletruck on the inside. Gotta love the photo play at The Herald.

Newspaper Sharp

Kid #1: "I see that guy EVERYWHERE!" said while listing off my assignments from the past week.
Kid #2: "Maybe he works for The Herald." said very matter o' fact.

Tonight was another grainy night under the lights. Since Heritage Hills is on Central Daylight Time they pushed the game back until eight. Living so close to that invisible border our EST schools play CDT schools quite a bit, and unfortunately I had to watch as the last of the sun's rays disappeared again well before the game started. Hello 3200 ISO.




Tomorrow I'm covering all the high school marching bands in our coverage area (five). They are competing in daylight so I'm hoping that I'll have a colorful blog post soon. Stay tuned.

Bass

"What kind of drums are these?" I asked. "Bass," they replied together. "Gotcha, thanks..."

This weekend marching band districts are being held a block from my house. We're publishing a double truck on Monday, so I'll have a bunch more band features to post early next week.

XC

Drama Under the Lights

After getting home late from researching an upcoming Saturday Feature I walked the short distance to Jasper High's football stadium. Jasper was still on the field playing arch-rival Heritage Hills, another local squad, and I arrived just as Jasper tied the game 7-7 in the fourth quarter. I knew my coworker Dave was already covering the game so I left the camera bag in the car and brought a 24mm to shoot a few features. I hung around the Jasper's bench for a few minutes and as Logan Hettinger turned to pump up the crowd and I fired a few frames. The game went into overtime and Jasper eventually came out with the win and stayed undefeated.

Sunset Silhouette

The sun was setting over the Dubois Quasquicentennial festival and I was looking for one more feature to before heading back to the paper to edit. I saw the shadows that the sun was making through the trees but the woods were empty. I knew that I wanted a photo with people so I set my exposure and waited. And kept waiting, praying that someone would walk through the scene. Finally, a few 10-year-olds came to play in the trees and I shot them for about a few minutes until the sun dipped below the horizon. We published the above photo (which is my favorite from the take) although I like some of the elements in each of the other photos as well.

Welcome Home

(above photo by Lauren)

I'm really not sure what to write to introduce this post. It's about family. My family. And I love them lots.

I spent a whole week with them last week and we did the usual Blake things. We went to Lake Michigan (though I think Lake Superior is really more "Blake"), we canoed down the Pine River, and we spent some time fixing up our battered fleet of Hondas and Toyotas while keeping an eye out for new old vehicles. My youngest brother Travis ended the week by buying his first car, a 1990 something Dodge Shadow.

Some snapshots from the week. Dad won a disc golf game through a gnarly woods course. My brother Justin miraculously edged out my sister Lauren in a peanuts game. Lauren and I made great canoe partners. Travis burned his "hobo" pie and then melted a plastic knife and one of Mom's food containers. Mom and Dad shared "ghost" stories around a campfire. Travis and Justin finished editing their Drank video (I'll post a link when it goes online). And we celebrated my 23rd birthday with Mom's strawberry pie and some of the most creative gifts I've ever gotten.

It was a great week. I can't wait until the next time I get to see them all again.

For those of you technically minded (i.e. Sean) all the photos were grabbed from video shot with my Kodak Zi6, the only camera I used all week. The camera's only downfall is that it overexposes everything, back focuses like none other and the quality of the stills are worse than those from a happy snap point and shoot. I really like the simplicity of it though and it's fun being able to chose moments after the fact by grabbing frames while watching the video.





(above photo by Travis)