Got a call to photograph former track star Marion Jones as she works towards a WNBA tryout next year. After a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators about her steroid use and the birth of her third child, Jones started training in September for her comeback as a professional athlete.
I was impressed by her candor with reporters and how articulate she was about her fall and potential rise. You can read Kevin Blackistone's column for AOL FanHouse here.
The Center for American Progress used some photos from my Raising Emilie story in their recent report 'A Woman's Nation' which included several chapters on the changing roles that men face at work and at home.
I was impressed by their use of documentary images throughout the 450 page document. In an age when generic iStock imagery is slapped on just about everything, it was refreshing (and, dare I say, encouraging) to see someone taking the time to seek out real moments and stories.
I spent five days this last week covering the shootings at Ft. Hood for the NYTimes. My role was a supporting one for the Times staffers that were already on the scene. I covered the daily pressers and enterprised what I could on the side, running down leads with reporters and revisiting important sites. It was a great learning experience to see how a large publication covers an evolving news story of this magnitude.
took a hike at e-rock last week. i thank the parent who took their girls hiking in pioneer dresses.
catching up on posts from travels earlier in the fall...
while visiting family in bend, oregon i felt the need for a photo walkabout and wandered to the old mill, a shopping district on the banks of the deschutes river. i stumbled upon the orvis national casting competition and spent the day photographing a sport that i didn't know existed.
i grew up fishing with my dad. i snarled lines in trees and, more often than not, tried to keep the rainbow trout we caught as pets. fond memories. fly fishing isn't foreign to me, but competition casting was a whole new world. i was surrounded by casting royalty with 13 time world champion steve rajeff, floyd dean and henry mittel. who knew?
the course is a permanent installation, the only one of its kind in north america. think frisbee-golf, but with hoops instead of baskets.
after the scores were tallied there was a cast-off for 6th place. matt paluch hit the target in two tries and made a bet with chase jablonski. hit it in one, and he'd take a swim.
chase hit it in one try,
and matt took a swim.
Some of my adventures at MPW are highlighted on the NPPA's Visual Student blog today.
the first few hours (days) of the workshop are spent wandering around looking for story ideas and getting a lay of the land. here are some singles and stories that didn't make the cut.
some bonus footage. halfway through day 3 i got stuck knee-deep in mississippi river mud. jennifer (looking out over the river, above) was kind enough to take a shot of me in this ridiculous position.
part of the difficulty of editing work at MPW is honoring the discipline of a photo story. this is what the missouri photo workshop does better than any other workshop out there. they don't dabble in multimedia. they won't teach you final cut. they simply demand hard work and thoughtful photographs that service the story.
inevitably, part of telling a good story is letting go of some single images you love to move the narrative forward. here are some i had to sacrifice.
