“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

I find the hardest part of working on a long-term project is the proverbial first step. In this case because of language barriers and the differences between Western and Middle Eastern concepts of time, this might be longer-term than I initially anticipated. The writer and I dropped by to talk about what we’d like to do and get some background information. I wasn’t planning on shooting anything but nice light + cute kid = easy picture.

I am remiss in posting stuff from this past weekend… a ton of sports - state field hockey championship, high school football playoffs and the Skins/Cowboys debacle but often I have a really hard time getting excited about my own work. Or at least looking through it again. I suppose it boils down to this: I shot it, I transmitted it and now I’m done with it.That being said, I also feel like they were fairly average and not worth posting. maybe I’ll get around to it this evening….

T/SGT Reginald Beverly, an Army veteran of World War II, salutes during the opening of Tuesday’s ceremony in Milford presented by American Legion Post 221 honoring World War II veterans for their service on November, 11, 2008.  (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)

I spent last night down in Caroline County to cover a Veterans Day ceremony honoring WWII vets. I didn’t have a chance to chat with Mr. Beverly as I needed to leave to make my deadline but I was struck by the fact that he served in a segregated army over 60 years ago, came home to separate water fountains and lunch counters and now Barack Obama is president-elect. Setting aside politics and my usual cynicism, I must say that it is a powerful and moving tribute to the good fortune we share as being born Americans.

So thank you to Mr. Beverly, my brother, my grandfather and all veterans.

My grandfather, Bill Wade, at the World War II memorial in Washington DC in 2007.

The FLS staff has a new blog that we are expected to contribute to occasionally. Check it out here. Ideally we will talk a bit about what goes into getting certain photos, post some outtakes, maybe a bit to tech talk, explain why certain editing choices were made. Whatever. Check it out, subscribe to the RSS feed. Enjoy!

Gov. Palin’s campaign stopped in FredVegas last week. I was going to post sooner but I wanted to simmer down over a lot of the lame rhetoric floating around the crowd. Let me be clear that this came from all sides - both supporters and opposition plus a few folks who felt compelled to tell me precisely their thoughts on the media. (Yes, I am the stuff of nightmares. I am obviously liberal, totally biased, an elitist, a communist, I’m bent on the destruction of the American Dream, etc etc blah blah. Oh yes, and I eat children!) It saddens me that political discourse in America is no more than partisan talking points, shouting, a general lack of respect for anybody who has different opinions, ‘facts’ that are in reality completely untrue and the blather that comes out of cable TV talking heads. I can’t imagine what my amigos who have spent serious time on the campaign trail or even covering DC politics go through. Suffice it to say, I tend to get a little depressed and lose a little faith in people in general.  Anyway, here’s a few photos from my position covering the crowd….

As you can see, pretty slim pickins from my vantage point. Here’s a link to the FLS photo coverage of the event…

I was on assignment the other day at a farm photographing homeless people picking pumpkins.

Don’t ask.

Anyway, I thought this picture of a chicken was more interesting than anything related to the assignment. I guess that sounds kind of heartless but the reality was that most of the people there did not want to be photographed and I got no argument from the chicken. Still, I did want to swing by Popeye’s afterwards for a two-piece combo. Plus, it never hurts to practice my fill-flash skills.

I wrapped up the weekend with the Redskins hosting the Cleveland Browns. I would have to say the game was underwhelming at best. I typically like to shoot football with a 400mm lens and teleconverter but yesterday Fredman and I switched things up and he parked himself in the endzone with the long glass while I roamed the sideline with a 300mm. Click the above image to see the slideshow… While it gave me a chance to shoot the game in a perspective I am not used to, I was getting increasingly frustrated with one of the sound dish guys. He would blindly walk in front of me seconds before the play started, leaving me no time to adjust. The same thing happened at the U.Va. game on Saturday except it was an ESPN cameraman and his cable-pulling lackey. I know, I know - this is nothing new to anybody who shoots sports at this level: stills are always second fiddle to TV and somebody will always get in your way. I think what gets to me is just the lack of decency among people on the sidelines. As if it wasn’t difficult enough with all the non-essential people - the fans, boosters, random jabronis who scored photo creds - as well as cheerleaders, security, medical personel, sideline TV personalities… I’m just saying that if we worked together and were a little more cognizant of our surroundings everybody would get their shots/audio/video and my blood pressure would level off!

On an unrelated note, here is a mildly interesting moment from an otherwise boring game.  While Randle-El just collared this idiot, I was really hoping he would destroy the guy. I suppose the jabroni is lucky LaRon Landry wasn’t standing there…  I suppose the big question is whether he gets a ticket from the cops and is released or does stadium security take him to a dark room somewhere and work him over, like in the movie Casino?

I spent day 2 of this weekend’s trifecta covering the UVA-UNC game down in Charlottesville. For much of the game it looked like #18 North Carolina was going to eke out a victory but UVA tied it up with less than a minute to go, forcing overtime. They held the Tar Heels to a field goal and scored on their possession, sealing the win. I feel like I did OK, but a lot of key plays were blocked by refs, including the game-winning TD. It wasn’t totally blocked but it made for an ugly frame. And after the win, the students and fans stormed the field. I had a 35mm lens on my third camera and forgot to pop a wider lens on for reaction pictures. With the 1.5x factor, it was nearly a 50mm lens and wasn’t the best choice for hail mary shots of the postgame scrum. Check my friend Kyle’s stuff. He did some nice work! Anyway, here are a couple favorites of mine:

I’m (foolishly??) undertaking another football trifecta - prep, college, pro - this weekend and kicked it off with the cross-county rivalry between Courtland and Chancellor. It was a good game, lots of action and opportunity for pictures. Whether I made the most of it or not is debatable… And once again, I must trumpet the awesomeness that is the D3. ISO 6400, 1/500-1/640 sec shutter speeds. Crazy! Here are a few favorites:

Chancellor’s Dominique Wallace is, simply put, a beast. He’s big, he’s fast, he excels on offense as well as defense. And he is actually a really nice guy. As I recall he is going to UVA next year. It seemed like last night he would either be stopped for a yard or two or he would leave Courtland in the dust.

I wish i could take credit for this frame but I think Nikon probably should have gotten the byline. It was all autofocus. Chancellor’s Darian Talley pulled in a one-handed interception in the endzone that by all rights should have resulted in a Courtland TD. As I tracked he and the intended receiver with a 400mm lens, I began thinking that I was too tight, I should switch to a 70-200mm zoom. Too late- they were leaping into the air and I jammed on the button, thinking I was too tight and probably chopped out significant parts of the action. As I looked at the four-frame sequence on the camera’s LCD, my heart began to sink. The first frame was back-focused on a guy in the background. I began to curse as I’ve had a bit of trouble with the D3’s autofocus in low light/low contrast situations. The next 2 frames, the peak of the action, were tack sharp. Thank you Nikon for saving my butt! And finally the last frame was soft. As I said, it would have been nice to be a little looser and see how the original receiver fit into the picture but I’ll take what I can get. I’m not too proud to admit that I take full advantage of the technology available to photographers today! The story of the game was Courtland’s 6 turnovers. Here’s one of them:

Finally, just a few celebration shots from Chancellor following their 25-21 win. They doused the coach with water and I was a little bit out of position for that. I should have been right in front of him but instead i was off to the side, enough that all you saw were players laughing, water flying, but no coach! I thought the trainer tossing the remaining water on the players was kind of fun, though maybe a bit too loose. The editors liked it enough to run it lead. Personally I wanted the interception to go lead but I trust the people at the office. Actually as I was typing this my wife picked up the paper, saw it and exclaimed “Awesome picture! I love it!” Ultimately I guess it is how the reader reacts, not other photographers. (And before you ask, just because she is married to me doesn’t mean she holds back when a picture does not work for her!)

OK, high schools down, on to UVA and in honor of my amigos from Roanoke, Jared & Kyle, maybe a pregame trip to Chipotle! And then off to Landover, MD for the Redskins. Hopefully I can get Fredman to drive home so I can take a nap - I think I will be pretty beat by then…

My boss Dave, himself a veteran of our first conflict with Saddam, gave me a nice compliment from the coverage of the Marine homecoming the other day saying that it reminded him of when he came home from war. Now, I’m not telling you this to convince you that I am great or anything, only to illustrate the point that that sort of reaction is what I’m going for in my photography; the idea that something in a two-dimensional picture resonates within a reader or viewer on a level deeper than, “Wow - that’s a [insert your favorite adjective] picture.”  He also noted that he liked it in color better than B&W. What do you think?