General Photos
Prepairing for the State Fair
James Marcum, from Oklahoma, helps put a large tent up near several rides at the State Fair grounds at Fonner Park in Grand Island on Wednesday.
I have been out to the State Fair grounds almost every day the past week shooting various preparations. With the fair starting on Friday, here are some of the published images and outtakes from the past week.
Stephanie Steele walks her llama on Thursday inside the State Fair swine barn. Steele and her llama will be competing on Sunday in the llama show and will also take part in the opening ceremonies of the State Fair on Friday.
Feature
Katie Priess, right, lies on a table cloth covered in shaving cream at Cathedral Daycare's "Messy Night" which was a family fun night with food and activities for the kids.
I was leaving the paper for dinner on Wednesday when I noticed there were several kids across the street from the paper covered head to toe in white. It looked as if several of them had been involved in a shaving cream war. So, I just had to stop and take pictures.
As a newspaper photographer there are many times where we have to “feature hunt” or basically look for something interesting to photograph around town. Well, this was definitely the perfect combination for a good feature photo.
Hayden Pfeiffer, 5, wipes his face after playing in shaving cream at Cathedral Daycare's "Messy Night" which was a family fun night with food and activities for the kids.
Summer Heat
Emma Saathoff, 6, of Trumbull, reacts to water falling on her head at the new splash pad at Cole Park in Aurora on Monday.
I am the newest staff photographer at The Independent and even though I am from South Louisiana, it was a hot day by anyone’s standards on Monday. My first assignment of the day was to shoot pictures of kids enjoying the new splash pad in Aurora. Seeing how much all the kids were enjoying the jets of water shooting from the ground made me want to jump in there with them. But unfortuantely my cameras are not waterproof so that would have been a bad idea.
Later in the day, I photographed football practice at Northwest High School. Since it was a hot day, I tried to capture that in the photos.
A Northwest High School football player cools off during a water break during practice.
Portrait: Dalton Sealey
I’ve been wanting to blog about this image for quite some time, but couldn’t until it was published. Dalton Sealey was named The Independent’s Boys Athlete of the Year. During his senior year he hoisted state championship trophies for St. Cecilia in football, basketball and track. It was the third straight time for the basketball trophy, by the way. Heck of an athlete and a really nice guy.
I didn’t quite know how to photograph Dalton. Traditionally we try to incorporate all the sports in which the athlete of the year participates. We want to try and show how talented they are overall, not just one side of them. A basketball and football were easy props for those sports, but what about track? Shoes around the neck? Been there, done that. It was then that I started thinking about the starting position for sprints and how similar it was to the three-point stance in football. I had my pose.
The lighting was a different story. I wanted the background to go dark, so that meant controlling the spill. I also had to light the basketball which would be far away from the main light (which was on the ground on the left pointing up). An umbrella pointing down worked for that. Then for good measure I tossed in a small flash on the left to help light that side from a different angle and fill in some shadows. I tossed a reflector on the right, but I don’t think it added a whole lot.
Dalton was great to work with. He bought into the idea and got in and out of the pose several times while we tweaked it all. In ten minutes or so we were done shooting and had captured an image that merged who Dalton is, with the vision I had for the image.
Origami on the Plains
As over 100 students from Japan’s Senshu Middle School visit Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, (from left) Sho Hirasawa, Ryohei Goto and Koutaro Fujita work on origami cranes with their classmates in the museum’s Fonda House.
Vegetables
The boy on the right is great, but I love the boy behind him.
Dressed as vegetables for “V” day, Trinity Lutheran School first-graders (from left) Dominick Witter, James McClure and Wayne Bilka watch the show as AriSon Records artist Jen Williamson prepares to perform at Trinity Lutheran School as part of Lutheran Schools Week. Many students were in costume, including these three, for “V” day at the school, as they celebrate the letters in the word “serve.”
Framed Diver
Grand Island’s Tess Merrill competes in the diving portion of a swimming meet against Columbus at the Grand Island YMCA.
Sundog
A snow plow makes its way north on Sky Park Road as a sundog shines through ice crystals in the sky.
Coffee or Bust
Streets are closed, but nothing stops these three ladies from getting their morning coffee.
After getting their morning coffee, three women make their way through drifts of snow on Wheeler Avenue in downtown Grand Island after windy conditions blew around 10 inches of snow the night before.
Protecting the Ball
Good emotion in an unusual battle for a loose ball.
Grand Island Senior High’s Emily Mierau (right) and Courtney Holder of Lincoln High battle for a loose ball during the fourth quarter of their game at GISH. The Islanders won the game 75-20.
Cowboy Entrance
Skeeter Kingslover is introduced during a Professional Bull Riders event at the Heartland Events Center in Grand Island.
Pig Races
The kid on the left wore the right T-shirt for this race.
As Cedar Hollow students (from right) Sydney Simmons and Ashley Kenyon urge on their class’s entry, Jordan Beck celebrates as his class’s purple pig prepares to win a opening-round race during the school’s annual mechanical pig races.
Christmas Feeling
Nice how the girl’s arms mimic the patterns in the lights behind her.
As the sun sets and the Christmas lights behind her mimic the form of her dance, Shana Havenridge, 14, joins other Heartland School of Dance students in a performance during the Downtown Christmas celebration in downtown Grand Island.
Season Changer
Not the best football photo ever, but possibly the turning point of the 2009 season.
Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara (left) intercepts a pass to Adron Tennell of Oklahoma and returns the ball deep into Oklahoma territory during the second quarter of their game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
District Winners
Love the hair.
Grand Island Northwest’s Amber Riedy (right) celebrates a point against Lexington in the third game of the Class B, District 5 final match at Kearney High. GINW went on to sweep Lexington 25-21, 25-7, 25-13.
Fumble Shape
Amazing how shapes form in unlikely places.
Morningside College’s Tim Richard (left) and Jake Peterson (right) dive for a loose ball as Tyson Buresh (top) of Hastings College closes in on the play Saturday during their game at Hastings College. Morningside won the game 46-0.
Red and Green
Husker Harvest Days is a busy, lots of stuff, place. I was looking at green scene and a boy in a red shirt walked in.
A Husker Harvest Days visitor walks past a 12-row corn head on display on the John Deere lot Thursday at the Husker Harvest Days site west of Grand Island.
Madisyn Springer
Tracy Overstreet and I just did an update about Madisyn’s story yesterday. Turns out that after she bought calculators for her class, members of the community donated money and calculators for the rest of her school (except kindergarteners and first graders.)
Harvest of Harmony
The Harvest of Harmony Parade can be a tough assignment. There are only so many ways to shoot marching bands, not to mention bands going down the same street. More often than not though, the sun pokes out from behind the clouds and creates pretty light that helps make the colors pop. It also helps to inspire and keep me working to get better and better photos that have cleaner and cleaner backgrounds.
This was shot on Eddy Street looking up at the overpass while the Senior High Band was marching. The dark background helps really bring out the bright colors of the uniforms.
Fashion Shoot
Sometimes things just work out. The assignment was simply that Kayla Van Wie would be wearing her gradmother’s homecoming dress (from 1956) to her own homecoming. With some time to think about it, and willing subjects, I turned the assignment into an outdoor portrait/fashion shoot. This is one of the outtakes from Pioneer Park of just Kayla and the dress.
Wet Yellow
Saw this at an assignment today. It’s just yellow. Not sure why someone left the lid there, but I’m glad they did.
Making Waves
Just like this photo and the touch of gold mixed in with the black and white.
Duane Becker swims laps in the Grand Island YMCA pool Friday afternoon. “I’ve got a few miles in this pool,” joked Becker after he finished his workout. The YMCA’s America on the Move Week program begins Monday, Sept. 21, 2009, at YMCAs across the country.
Not How it Looks
It looks like this gentleman is all alone out in the cornfields somewhere, but behind his back are thousands of people at Husker Harvest Days. Not only is it possible to be lonely in a crowd, but you can look like it too.
An older Husker Harvest Days visitor rides his scooter around on the north end of the site Thursday at Husker Harvest Days west of Grand Island.
