BINGO

Some assignments are never what you expect. This was supposed to be a hot dog social. Boring, right? I though so too. That was until I saw them taking out the bingo cards and turning on the nice light.

I hung around for nearly an hour working the situation from all angles including backstage. I quickly learned how difficult it was to find someone yelling "bingo" but I sat on the situation long enough and was rewarded with one frame. 

This is community journalism at the heart. Sometimes I forget to take the assignment for what it really is. I occasionally, as my mentor at the Colorado Springs Gazette Mark Reis would say, "try to be too clever." It's ok to be creative, but tell the story.

When I shoot, I live by the words "show those who weren't there what happened and show those who were there something that they didn't already see."

I think that I did just that with this assignment. If nothing else I'm pleased with what I got out of what was supposed to be just another business assignment.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Denver wedding

This past Saturday I flew to Denver to photograph Sherri and John Meyer's wedding. It wasn't the traditional big-to-do that most weddings are, but yet a more intimate and comedic ceremony followed by a casual dinner reception. Sherri and John are both real estate agents so their pastor, and friend, wrote a hilarious ceremony surrounding their profession and their "binding contractual love." Everyone really enjoyed it. I was only contracted for three hours of coverage so I really had to be constantly looking for different images. Luckily for me Sherri, John and their guests had a great time so I didn't have a problem finding storytelling images.

I'm always looking to put my own touch on every wedding that I shoot to help set me apart from other photographers. In this case I set up a remote camera on the steel structure near the ceremony site to give me another angle to shoot from. It wasn't physically possible for me to stand behind the pastor so the remote allowed me to be at two places at once while I photographed from other locations. You can see an example of what the remote camera produced in image #8.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Extra innings

"Crystal Lake South's Liz Adams (left) doubles to left-center to bring home two runners including Jess Hausl (center) as Cary-Grove third baseman Jen Wirth looks on in the eighth inning at Cary-Grove High School in Cary, Monday, April 27, 2009. Despite scoring four runs in the top of the eighth to give the Gators a commanding four run lead, the Trojans answered with five runs in their half of the inning to come from behind to win 7-6."

Just something a little different from softball that I liked. 

Wedding remote

Greetings from Denver!

I flew home late Friday evening for a Saturday wedding and I'm headed back to Chicago early Sunday morning. I had to keep the trip a secret because it's also my mom's birthday and I wanted to surprise her. I haven't seen the family since I left for Chicago in January so she was pretty excited and shocked to see me. I don't know if she was more excited when she saw me or when she opened the iPod Nano that I got her.

The weather wasn't ideal for an outdoor wedding so the walls to the patio at Cherry Creek Country Club were closed for the 5pm wedding. Since the walls prevented me from shooting from behind the minister I set up a remote in hopes to get some nice images of the couple from a different angle. The minister blocked a few of the shots and they all didn't stand as close to the remote as I thought that they would but I made a few frames that will work, and if nothing else are different. 1,400 frames later I'm exhausted but that's mostly to blame on my lack of sleep the past two nights.

Although it was a short 35 hours in the 303 it was good to see family and friends. I have to work the night shift Sunday so I'll be going straight to my assignment from the airport.

This was my first wedding of the season but it won't be my last. I'll be home again in late May to shoot two more weddings over the course of a long weekend. I'm sad to leave the Mile High city but glad that I'll be back again in a month.

A few wedding selects to come...

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

McHenry County Track & Field

"Huntley's  Marcus Popenfoose sets a new county record of 196-9 in the discus finals during the McHenry County Track & Field Meet at Crystal Lake Central High School in Crystal Lake, Thursday, April 23, 2009. Popenfoose, who shattered the previous record of 164-6 set by Jacobs' Brad Foote last year, also won the shot put."

After yesterday's four assignment marathon I thought that today would be a piece of cake but boy was I wrong.

For whatever reason I have never covered Track and Field before today. I am, however, rather familiar with it since my dad was a coaching stud wayyyyyyyy (sorry dad, you're no spring chicken) back in the day. With that in mind I was really looking forward to it.

The weather forecast was good and thankfully the late evening showers held off until after the event was over. The light was going in and out of the clouds but when it decided to show it's face I made a few nice frames.

The race finals are Friday (today) so I focused on the field events. There were a few key characters that I need to cover including Huntley's dominant force, Marcus Popenfoose. This kid could flat out through but did it with such grace that you wouldn't think that he could launch it. He toasted the county discus record by more than 45 feet and also took home the shot put title.

The most difficult thing for me was trying to keep track of all the kids and their events. They don't have numbers on their jerseys to identify them so I used the voice memo function on my camera to record their jump/throw distances and later matched them up with the results sheet. Thankfully by now I can at least recognize school colors which is a huge help. I had another late night as the events didn't end until nearly 9pm and I had to edit, caption and throw up a gallery.

For my first time covering track and field I'll take the results. I know what to expect the next time I'm assigned to a meet. I do know that I will approach it a little bit differently next time. I realized that shooting tight at 400 and 560 are great if you "hit it" but results are slim. The wide angle is my best friend for the event which I really like because most sports are shot with a telephoto lens because you're so much farther away. I enjoy being different and this is a great sport to do it.

I'm back on the grind early so I'm hitting the sack.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Bring your kids to work

April 23rd is National Take Your Child to Work Day. Yes, I'm a day late on this but after a 4 assignment day I was a little to busy to post.

I had to pull this one out of my (you know where) on zero notice in the basement of a reporter's home. She has five girls, all under 5, and was happy to let me use one of them for the illustration. 

Who knew that having a five-year-old as the talent and three-year-old twin co-art directors would be so much fun.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

High flyin'

"Darryle Sims from the Indiana Pacers Power Pack entertains the crowd with a high-flying dunk during halftime of the McHenry County Area Boys All-Star game at Tigard Gymnasium in Alden-Hebron, Sunday, April 19, 2009."

This wasn't your typical high school halftime show.

I sure am glad that I set up my lights tonight. When I arrived at the gym I immediately could tell that it was a cave (1/500 3200 ISO at f/2) so my lights were a must. The problem was, it took me nearly 20 minutes to find power and a place to mount my lights. The gym was super old and wasn't wired well like most of the schools in our county. Thankfully I brought extra extension cords and three-prong adapters. The good thing about the gym being so dark was that I was a good five stops over ambient with my lights at about half power so I could freeze the action.

When the game finally did start (read: 24 minutes late) it was almost too fast paced to get quality shots. All-star games are notorious for a run-and-gun mentality and a lack of defense. This game wasn't any different. By halftime the score was 68-50. Most of the final scores in high school don't get that high. 

The game was going back and forth so fast that I wasn't making the pictures that I wanted/needed to make. By the time I would switch camera bodies the ball would be at the opposite end of the court and I inevitably had the wrong focal length in my hands.

Halftime gave me plenty of time to edit images on the back of my camera to save me time back at the office. After the girls three point shootout the Indiana Pacers Power Pack took to the floor. I had seen similar acrobatic stunts at NBA games but never as a group. I don't know what I thought they were going to do but they shocked me. They flipped upside-down and passed the ball to each other in sequence before the final one slammed it home. 

What really made it seem awesome was that it was in such a small gym. It looked like they were going to hit their heads on the ceiling. My lights made them pop against the antique ceiling. Had I tried to shoot the game on ambient the above picture would be grainy and flat.

After what seemed like easily the longest halftime in high school history the game got going again. I changed my approach a little bit and tried to stay with one body for a few possessions which made a difference.

My deadline was approaching and I still had to drive back to the office to edit and tone all the photos for the paper so I decided to pack up with half of the second half still remaining. The game was getting closer but I just didn't have the time to stay considering the drive I had ahead of me. I made it back with just enough time to edit, caption, create a gallery from the game, edit my other assignment from the day and then tone all the images for the Monday paper.

According to our sportswriter Joe Stevenson the game turned out to be a real show stopper ending with a three-point basket with eight seconds to go to give the Green team the 121-120 win.

Darryle's expression really makes the above image but I can't decide how much I like it. At the gym I initially thought that I might have a portfolio winner but I've come to realize that there is something missing to take it to the next level. Regardless I'll take it for daily work.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Ashley Jo

Ashley was in town on a short vacation with her parents so I took the train downtown to have dinner with her on Thursday. Ashley and I studied abroad together in Rome during the fall of 2006 and we've kept in touch ever since. After dinner at the Billy Goat Tavern we went back to their amazing condo on Michigan Avenue for a bit before ending up at a hip little tea house; the name escapes me at the moment.

On our way back to their place I noticed one of the Chicago 2016 ads that was lit up on the back of a bus stop. The ad had tons of white space which to me translated into a softbox. I mean don't you just walk around envisioning how you can put random sources of light to use? I had Ashley stand really close to the sign and made a few quick frames before we were on our way. Her personality really comes through well in this photo.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Rock-Paper-Scissors

"Carpenter Chuck Friedel (left) helps home owner Paul Kleven (middle left) clear debris along with Kleven's sons Paul II (middle right) and Nick after a septic tanker was removed from the living room of the Wonder Lake residence, Friday, April 17, 2009. The parking brake on the truck gave way while it was being filled up across the street and crashed into the Kleven's living room, not harming anyone."

This was a first.

I had a really busy day driving all around McHenry County for assignments but the 70 degree sunshine was welcomed. Denver is in blizzard mode at the moment. Considering what I've had to endure here the last few months I call that um...karma.

I got sent to the scene above after loosing a game of rock, paper scissors to Travis right at the end of my shift. Naturally, after making the 25+ minute drive in traffic, the tanker is being hauled away by a tow truck as I turn onto the street of the residence. Awesome, not.

I made a few frames to try and set the scene, gathered some necessary information from the homeowner and was on my way in about 15 minutes. I got rewarded as it ran in today's paper on 3A, in color. 3A is never color so I guess today was just my lucky day.

Horseshoe

I enjoyed this one.

Horses are such intriguing animals to me and really drew me into this assignment. Six horses from a carriage company in Chicago were seized from the owners because of neglect and sent to the Hooved Animal Humane Society to be nursed back to proper health and put up for adoption.

When I arrived I was lucky enough to find Bill Watson removing old shoes and getting their feet set correctly. I had no idea that there was so much that goes into the proper walk for a horse and how their hoof affects that.

He was a self-proclaimed "good ol' boy" from Arkansas and full of character. What blew me away was his lightning fast assessment of each horse. Bill could watch a horse take two steps and know exactly what he needed to do to fix their walk. Watching him work was really interesting so I stayed long beyond what the assignment called for to make a few more images. He wasn't involved with our story whatsoever so all these images are just a bonus.

It was great to find an assignment that was out of my comfort zone, yet be able to make some great images out of, even if only for myself.

I think that the way Bill works will really lend itself well to video so I'm going to do a small piece on it in the next week, hopefully.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Twitterrific

I am now (finally) a member of the overly addictive social networking site. You can find me @justincedmonds

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Re-edit

"Johnsburg goalkeeper Natasha Kopystymsky (right) tries to punch the ball away from Marian Central's Kelly Petty (23) on a corner kick during the first half of Marian Central's 3-0 victory at Johnsburg High School in Johnsburg, Monday, April 6, 2009."

This frame has grown on me in the last week so I decided to post it. For whatever reason I didn't select it to run in the paper which just goes to show that feelings toward a particular image can change over time, even in as little as a week.

The field was fantastic because unlike most high school fields it wasn't surrounded by distracting backgrounds. There was open land on three sides of the field which meant that finding a clean background was easy as pie. I couldn't really complain about the early evening light either.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Light tricks

"Part-time magician Glenn Chelius performs a trick on a custom built stage in the basement of his home in Crystal Lake, Thursday, March 5, 2009. Chelius, who is in sales, has been hooked on magic since he got a kit when he was six years old."

Last month I photographed Glenn for McHenry County Magazine. He was extremely accommodating and really worked with me to make the shot work. The real trick with this shot was lighting the shot while trying to overcome all the reflective surfaces present. The custom table and stage in his basement were fantastic but the tight quarters made it somewhat difficult to get all my lights into position. 

This image is shot straight out of camera without any toning in Photoshop so keep reading to learn how I lit it.

I ended up using four lights in the final image that made it into the magazine seen above. The main light was a Dynalite head at camera left and I used a 20 degree grid to control spill and provide him with a little more definition around the edges. The sign/table is lit from below using a Dynalite head and a medium Chimera softbox. Since Glenn's last name is written in a reflective material I used the softbox to bring out the shine. 

The white surface of the softbox would have created a nasty specular highlight on the red/black part of the sign if I didn't place it at the correct angle so understanding the family of angles played a big role in the success of this shot. Essentially you have to light the sign just how you would photograph someone with glasses, place the source off axis and use a relatively long focal length.

Since the background was only three feet from glenn I used Canon speedlights for the last two sources because their compact size allowed them to fit in the tight spaces. The background was black velvet so I added a purple gel to my flash to match Glenn's shirt. I set the zoom at 24 on the speedlight and placed it really close (about 8 inches) from the background. This would allow the light to fall off quickly around the edges.

The final source is a hair light using a speedlight with a grid at camera right behind the subject. I set it up so that it would just barely add enough light to show up. It's barely noticeable but that is, in my opinion, what takes this image up a notch.

I used a Canon 5D with an 85mm f/1.8 with settings of 50ISO, 1/200 at f/4. The main light and fill light were metered at f/4 while the background was down one stop and the hair light was down a stop and two-thirds.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com

Gamma Phi Circus

"Nena Woo of Burbonnais, a sophomore and member of the Illinois State University Gamma Phi Circus, hangs suspended from a steel ring during a performance at Huntley High School in Huntley, Saturday, April 4, 2009."

I don't know about you but I can't do that.

I have a bunch of friends who are gymnasts and they amaze me but the Gamma Phi Circus blew gymnastics out of the water tonight. The circ de soleil type performance is a real jaw dropper from start to finish. The group is comprised of students, faculty and staff which make up the oldest running University run circus in the nation.

When I got the assignment I was thinking that this would be fish in a barrel, and it was, except for the fact that the show was in a high school gymnasium with awful backgrounds and house lights. As with most any high school gym I was at 1/500 f/2.8 at 3200 ISO. The gym is full of basketball baskets, ugly rafters, school banners, signs, ect., which make finding a clean background really difficult. Thankfully I brought a 300 along with me which helped but still was not enough to get rid of the distractions in a lot of the frames. I had originally planned to shoot some features backstage but I wasn't there a minute before they kicked me out.

To make matters more difficult I didn't have much time to shoot since I had to go to a major accident this afternoon and didn't get to tone any photos or work on an illustration that I needed to get done before I left for the circus. Working with the 300 almost exclusively I finally found a clean background when Nena Woo took to the steel rings. The things that she was able to do with her body were outstanding but without a clean background her spectacle would have lost it's "pop" in the frame. I've said it time and time again, "clean make backgrounds make photos," as is the case with the frame above.

After getting the names that I needed I was out the door and back to the office to tone god knows how many photos for our Sunday section, finish my illustration and edit/file the circus assignment.

I've been shooting a lot since my last post but pretty much everything has been for upcoming stories so I haven't been able to post anything. I'll try to get some more images together and post them soon.

-JCE

www.jcedmonds.com