I’ll post my reflections on the rally later, for now read this post on NPPA.or to learn more about WHY we went over the hill. Click on the image to read it, it’s a good writeup. (photo in capture my Cliff DesPeaux)

I just wanted to recycle some of my facebook comments and photos about the family trip to support Tony Overman at the Olympian and to visit my cousins in Maple Valley this past Saturday.  It was a quick turnaround that tested the kids and Kim and I’s patience, but it was well worth taking a day to be with dear friends and family.

Friday 4 p.m.

Hey all — Kim, the kids and I plan on packing up to stand behind our dear friend and photojournalist Tony Overman in Olympia this weekend. He’s been such an ardent supporter of photojournalists in the Northwest that I hope you can stand with him this Saturday.

Saturday 11 p.m.

Just got the kids in bed. What a day! Thanks to everyone who could make it to Olympia today and also those reaching out to Tony during this difficult time right now. As one rally sign put it clearly, “we are all Tony.”Truly, support and solidarity among colleagues strengthens all of us pursuing noble goals.

I plan to update this post tonight with more commentary from me as well as links and comments from other sources.

Images from our trip

“You are so much more Zen with your iPhone photos — you gotta channel that instead of worrying about A1″ ~ Danny Gawlowski.

It’s such a simple device. That little iPhone.  When asked about my few photos from 2010, Danny nailed the fact that when I shoot with the ‘it’s gotta be for A1′ tomorrow, that I make sure the technical stuff happens and put aside feeling and shooting for the moments.

Another comment in the same vein was from Kevin Martin:

(photo below) “2.  Compositionally, this photo is very affective.  There are all kinds of symmetry, repetition of form, and leading lines going on here.  When you make a picture like this, you are safe.  Go take a risk…”

Cary Campbell from the Daughters of the American Revolution tightens one of over 1,500 wreaths during the nationwide Wreaths Across America event on Dec. 11, 2010, at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima, Wash. This is the third year Campbell has participated along with Civil Air Patrol in the event to honor fallen soldiers.

Another thing Kevin mentioned on getting out of that safe shot was:

“…use your long glass, and try to make a photo from the ground level looking down the rows at the wreath bearers.”

I’m really glad he pointed this out because earlier this year I was focusing on the safe shots.  But lately I have been trying to use my distance shots in better ways — that may not work in the end. But when they do, I can get good stuff.

If I was able to show Kevin my full gallery on this wreath assignment, he would see that my secondary shot was this.

So to close this mini post.  I love feedback and these guys are hands-down awesome to go over what little photos I took and tell me what I needed to gear me up for next year.  Thanks so much guys!

(note to Kevin — I fixed the cutline for the wreath laying woman too…  it was put into the gallery with the wrong one. Thanks for noticing so I could fix it! 

Found out while waiting to shoot Yakima’s Carrie Underwood concert that her handlers have put a crimp on media access.
Rumor has it something happened in Bozeman and now media photographers will have their two songs under full security detail and complete observation.
Fun times. I’ll look into what occurred Bozeman because it may continue to effect shooters on the rest of her tour.  Once I learn more I’ll fill this post out a bit more….

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Update 1.
So I’m home now.  Here’s the link to the four images I posted to the YH-R.

Just a little commentary on this photo of my nephew and a trend in my storytelling acuity.

Lately I have noticed that while working on a shoot that I’m familiar with, that familiarity might be impacting the type of visuals I chose to capture.

The above image is the latest example of… what should I call it… hmm — maybe ‘method photography.’  Kind of like method acting, but with a camera.

method acting : noun
a technique of acting in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part, based on the system evolved by Stanislavsky and brought into prominence in the U.S. in the 1930s. (dictionary)

Yea, this sort of works for what I have been feeling lately.  That when I have a subject, like swimming, to which I have over 15 years under my belt as a competitor and coach, I unconsciously avoid shooting common/banal moments.

Instead I look for things that strike a chord with a particular memory, sensation, setting or mood. I try to find moments that are uniquely tied to the subject’s emotional truth.

That’s where the staging photo resonates for me.  I didn’t bother shooting the start, the curled up tension before the starter buzzer or the act of swimming as a still photo.  They were old-hat.  Been there, done that.

In that moment I saw myself, sitting in the shade with a breeze putting a chill on the excitement of championship swimming.  Young enough to see the pool length as an ocean.  Nerves on edge, toes upturned, knees knocking while rubbing arms to beat back the shiver. Focused, looking down the lane past the starting block drowning out the crowd noise.

For me, the moment right before being called up onto the block was surreal and especially so during my first couple years competing.  These were emotions that I understood and capturing them felt gratifying.

This scene portrays a moment that may be a bit too insider.  But to a former competitive swimmer they should evoke small, unique memories of times past.

At the end of the day, however, I fear images that have storytelling layers known among a small group fail for the general population.

method photography : noun

a technique of capturing a moment that is emotionally unique to it’s subject, however understanding its complexity escapes the general public. (TJ)

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Some of the most profound storytelling images provide a path for everyday viewers to put themselves into.   I feel that on stories that I really know, I sometimes miss the photos that people can identify with and readily understand the layers within the image.

If I go to shoot something I’ve never been exposed too, I find myself approaching it as an everyman.  Ya’ know — ‘just tell the story stupid’ — kind of direction.

Then on the flipside when I’m investing time with something dear to me, I push hard to capture those few, sometimes fleeting moments that not everyone may understand.  All the while muddling though the moments most people can identify with because I’m in pursuit of that unique moment.

Ultimately  — on known subjects, I want to provide that insider/unique perspective to the public and I’m concerned that because of that desire I am not making the everyday blue-collar photo stronger.

This is probably something that I will be talking with the great people at the herald who are willing to lay it down when I need help.

Who knows, maybe I’m doing fine. But I will be paying closer attention to more general subject images after my time-off this week.

Most newspapers cannot afford having Final Cut Pro on every workstation, let alone one, so FCE has been the affordable answer.  That was, until the HD video DSLR’s started coming out then editing became quite the process dealing with raw video that needed to be rendered.

I don’t want to get into my frustrations and of those I know dealing with the raw HD video.  Instead, I’m posting my Streamclip export setting and how-to videos below.  I hope this helps anyone with problems getting their video into Final Cut Express, or is dealing with the “size vs quality” setting for online video export.

These are by no means authoritative, but based on using the tools to get work done at my paper.  Anyone with comments, questions or suggestions please post it below, thanks!

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Getting 7D video into Final Cut Express

Anyone with Final Cut Express and the new Canon DSLR cameras know the frustration of getting their video ready to edit.  Here are my settings, that I have set up as “preset” in Streamclip to export it out for FCE use.

Streamclip, export to Final Cut Express from 7D

I  know the 1440 is not 1920 but is, by my guess is, that FCE was designed to play nice with the many 1400×1080 HDV tape camcorders on the market.  The menu says it’s a 4:3 aspect ratio but when you put the converted clip into FCE it adjusts the workspace to a widescreen format.  Also, I have not ran into a noticeable quality problem using the 1440 size.

Watch the How-to: (if you cannot read the menus click here to go to the youtube file and enlarge it to full screen)

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H264 mov export for Web use:

There are so many recommendations on saving for Web that it can be very, very confusing.  I found no distinct output that gave me a small enough size for the quality so I fiddled around, and around, and around until I hit on this.  For short or long videos (that would be uploaded to Blip.tv, youtube or vimeo) I used this set of settings in Streamclip.  I hope it works for some of you.

Streamclip settings for HD for Web

Watch the How-to:  (if you cannot read the menus in the video click here to play it in a new windown and hit full-screen)

I’ve been catching up a bit on strobist.blogspot.com and the more I read the more I wish I could duplicate the great techniques for fun around family and maybe non-editorial work.

What I like about the strobist talk is use of light, not just the gear head stuff but how to use light well, and the occasional tweaking of it.  Getting down to this post; I took the boys to the Playdate expo at the convention center then over to Dairy Queen for a treat, giving mom a break.

I took an open seat near a window and played with the natural light and lucky for me the lights in the place were not on, dropping the background light off nice and dark.  Also closed the depth of field to nil…

I brought the photos into photoshop and they were beautiful but I wanted to try out a couple post-processing experiments… how should I say… to magazine contrast it up.  I think it worked out OK but I wish the depth wasn’t soooo tight now…

(more photos on the jump)
Well it’s been state basketball craziness around Yakima for two weeks and we have one left.  I suppose I should get around to posting some of these random shots of non-game stuff and of game stuff sooner than later right?!?

Here’s a couple photos of photographers working the games, then I will try harder this week to get more up, along with the videos I post… -TJ