Bay City

I picked up an internship at the Bay City Times.
I, unfortunately, just spent the past two hours retoning already toned photos to make them look better on screen rather than on print.

Anyway. I like it here. I live in a quaint half-house with Scott, the other intern.
I've only been here not even a month, but I'm still anxious. I shoot a lot of portraits... construction... and high school sports.
Though my editor did ask me yesterday if I was ready to get started with some multimedia stuffs.
Oh yes I am.
I want to cover something sweet. I want our "OH SHIT" pager to actually have something for Bay City when it goes off.

Oh by the way, nothing against high school sports. I like shooting sports. So long as it's not terribly dark.

And nothing against what I've been shooting so far either. It's still fun making neat images from construction and stuff like that. I've got a neat shot from some construction I shot today that I'll put up tomorrow. Because, a) I'm pretty sure it's a big no-no to post something online before it's even ran in the paper and b) For some reason it didn't get transferred to my memory card anyway when I tried bringin all my work photos home.

Anyway. On with some photos.

This was my first photo to run in the paper.
I had to go find a feature since ... something fell through. I drove around, getting lost, trying to find anything in a town I knew nothing about. Finally, I found a farmer's market downtown. I spent the whole time shooting customers and vendors interacting, when suddenly this moment with the baby happened. It was originally tons darker since I had been shooting the woman talking to a couple out in the sun--this moment happened under their tent.
They call the baby "Market Baby".

High school soccer. It rules, and I love shooting it.
Btw, that's the Cadillac Vikings getting their butts stomped by... ahh whoever the Bobcats are. Anyone else think it looks like fauxhawk boy is peeing on his paralyzed teammate?


Just a story we did on some kids learning how to make a school newspaper. 7th graders giggle a lot when someone strolls into their classes with a camera. Also--getting caught in the halls in between classes is terrifying. I almost had a door swing right into me and my camera.


Construction. I guess nobody liked that first photo as much as I did. (didn't run. oh well)
And the second one I like because.. well the guy just seems so nice. Perhaps I'm biased because I had a chance to chat ("chat?") with him a little bit while shooting. Just about everyone else in that building didn't seem to much care that I was there taking pictures. Normally I wouldn't mind, however when they keep looking at the camera or making faces or hiding, it makes my job a little hard.
Anyway. And that last photo ran main front page. So that's cool.


More soccer. This time much, much later in the evening.
I drove an hour and 45 minutes to get to this game. Shot in the rain all night. Drove back.
Listened to the presidential debate on the way back. Nothing new. Except for this moment.
But that's neither here nor there. The game was very cold and wet. Oh and it was a doubleheader. So even more time in the rain.
I wasn't sure how I felt about that celebration shot until I saw it in the paper. I dig it pretty thoroughly now.


I had to shoot this real quick before heading to that doubleheader also. This family used to decorate their lawn rather extravagantly for Halloween, until a bunch of stuff was stolen this year. Not all of it, but enough to make them take down the decorations.
I had to reshoot this because the first time the family looked too happy. Understandable. And for the second shoot (which took me 2 minutes), they had that sign up, which wasn't there originally. So. Plus.


More construction. And don't worry, I'll have more for you tomorrow after the stuff I shot today runs. These guys (or, as far as you can see, this guy) were redoing the outside of the Chamber of Commerce in Bay City. I really liked the white specks that were getting all up in that dude's beard.
I almost got to go up on the roof to shoot down at them, rather than standing on the sidewalk, but unfortunately no one could find a ladder that would get me to the secret roof portal. Bummer.


Also didn't run. This was taken at the Obama rally in Bay City here. Carole King (oh hey, let's get washed up old famous people to talk politics) came to talk to everyone.
The building was packed. I was sweating. And Carole King was an hour and a half late. This guy decided to show everyone the songs he and his kids had been working on. They're from the bible. And apparently the dude used to play guitar for R. Kelly. He was good.


Now, guess how much football I've shot in my life. If you said "not very much", you'd be correct. I don't play any sports. I don't watch any sports, yet I enjoy shooting them.
I, however, do not enjoy being just as easily duped as the other team is when it comes to faking who has the ball. I find myself following the wrong dude many times. But I still had fun. And apparently came out with some decent shots. Unfortunately, they were all of the wrong team.
Yeah, we were covering the purple guys.


Volleyball. Now there's a game I can shoot.
Or, at least, I've shot it many times before.
This was my first real time shooting with a light kit too. Luckily Scott, (roommate/photo intern), came along with to help me set up. I got through one match and then some dude came and asked who the lights belonged to.
... maybbbe the guy with the antenna coming out of his camera?
So I had to turn off the lights. They were blinding the refs apparently. Lame.
I had no idea what to do or say either. Do I say "Fuck you!" and keep shooting? Or play the nice, polite role and say "Oh, okay! Sorry!"
I played the dumb "uhh.. oh. Uhm... o..kay" role... and then shot the rest of the game with available light. Luckily, Midland's gym is quite bright. That last photo was actually the one that ran main front sports page art. No lighting. heh.


This was part of the True North magazine. I had to go drive out into the middle of nowhere (I do that a lot) and photograph this guy giving a seminar on sustainable living at his home/bed & breakfast out past West Branch. He lives off the grid, so all his energy is generated by wind and... something else. I want to say hydro, but I'm not positive.
I liked the Welcome sign. O. Yeah, the way I had to shoot this was very different from how I'm used to shoot. I was told to shoot in the style of a Home & Garden magazine or some shit. Never done that before but I sure pretended like I knew how. I hate photos of stuff without people in them (usually) so it was weird for me.
(Btw, "photos of stuff without people in them" seem to run quite a bit in the paper here.)
Anyway. Please note the dude in the upper right corner of that last photo. It made me giggle.

That's all I've got for now. Sorry so long, but I had to catch up on 3 weeks of shooting into one entry (for some reason). Entries in the future should be much less painful.

Also--if the photos are supersmall in this blog entry, it's because I'm still figuring out this blogger..blogspot thing.

What else? Anything else?
I'm shooting another high school football game tomorrow. Shit. This time I don't get the luxury of Scott's ... whatevercameraitishehas and his 300mm. Oh well.