Drought Impacts

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese photos were for a story for The Progressive Farmer magazine that detailed the plight of farmers in the Central Valley due to the drought. I photographed Dan Errotabere, a member of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, who was a subject in the article. I met him out at his ranch near Five Points where he showed me several fallow fields.

Summer Soiree Dance Photography

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] provided dance photography of the NOCO Fresno dance company, who were rehearsing at the Fresno Art Museum, for an article in The Bee's 7 section a couple of weeks ago. They were planning for their Summer Soiree concert and performance with members the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra. Always nice to see my friend Amy and her talented dancers, even if it was 102+ degrees in the museum's sculpture garden. At leas we got some good photos and I hear they had a really nice event.

iPhone Panorama Rainbow

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is one of those being in the right place at the right time photographs. This fact doesn't bother me too much since it almost never happens to me. I'll take it when I can get it. Really! It's the truth. I feel like I'm always a minute too late or somebody gets in my way or something else just isn't right in a photographic situation. But this time, thanks to the iPhone panorama app everything worked out.While working on another weather photo in the Fresno Bee newsroom, I got word that there was an awesome full rainbow visible directly over downtown Fresno. I took a look and agreed it was worth running up to the roof to get a shot. Once I started shooting I became frustrated that the rainbow arc was too wide to fit within the 24mm view of my DSLR. Colleague Jeff Gledhill, who happen to be up on the roof taking photos too, heard me complaining about my situation. He said he just used his iPhone on pano mode so he could get the whole rainbow. Hrmm, I thought. I hadn't really messed with that too much, but it sounded like a good idea. So I put down my $3,000 Nikon and held up my camera phone and swiped it across the sky. I was amazed at how it captured the complete rainbow and how seamless the image was. This could work!So I went back downstairs and showed it to an editor who alerted the copy desk that we had a photo for A1. It wasn't too surprising to me to have an iPhone image make the paper since I had done it once before. I also posted it to our Fresno Bee Photography Facebook page where it got over 500 likes and 250 shares. Some kind of a record for us I think.It's nice when everything comes together like that. Wish I could use only my iPhone on assignments. It would be a lot better for my back. Maybe someday... 

President Barack Obama Visits Fresno

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] spent Valentine's Day out at the airport covering President Barack Obama's visit to the Central San Joaquin Valley for The Fresno Bee. He came in to talk to leaders about the severe drought California is having and visit some of the areas being affected by it. Airport duty isn't the most glamorous place to be for a presidential visit, but I'll take it. This is only the second president I've ever covered in my career. The first was President Bill Clinton when he visited Sequoia National Park. I photographed George Bush the second, but that was before he was president, so that doesn't really count. So it was nice to be a part of the Fresno Obama visit.Although it was a long day of waiting, I was pretty happy with the images I got of the president in the few minutes he was here. I'd happily do it again. These are the days that I feel really lucky to be a newspaper photographer.

Road Scholar

I shot this assignment for Road Scholar, which used to be Elderhostel, a non-profit educational travel organization for senior citizens. My subject was a Fresno woman who had traveled quite a bit with Road Scholar.  After talking with her for a while, I decided I need to get my mom on this and brought home some information to her. I think it sounds like a really cool thing to be involved in.

New Chef

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]arris Ranch Restaurant in Coalinga is touting its new executive chef, Erasmo Rodriguez, who is very excited to be surrounded by premium produce and beef. He says the new job is a chef's dream come true. I made a few photos of Erasmo and some entrees for The Bee when I was down there recently. I'm looking forward to making another trip down there for a different reason -  to eat!

Air Pollution Comparison

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a copy of a post made on the Fresno Beehive with a comparison of the downtown Fresno skyline showing a very clear day four years ago and one made recently in the midst of the worse drought California has had on record. Valley residents depend on storms to clear out the pollution and dust that accumulates in the air trapped in the bowl that's formed between the mountains. With no rain or wind forecast anytime in the near future, the hazardous conditions may continue to get worse.

Sgt. Morales

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his was for a magazine article on a single mother and all the ups and downs that go along with serving in the military. The story on Sgt. Morales and her two kids is scheduled to be published in an upcoming edition of GX Magazine. I recently spent some time with the three of them to do some casual photos as well as set up portraits.

Meet & Greet

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese photos are from a meet and greet event at the Tower Theater in Fresno back in December. City council candidate Cary Catalano had hot chocolate and cookies so folks in the district could come by and chat with him and kids could take photos with Santa. Visitors were also asked to bring unwanted coats for the Coats for Kids program. By the end of the night, the little convertible they were putting the coats in was overflowing!

2013 Favorites

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ometimes I think that as a photojournalist, I should have a style - a unique way of seeing that defines my work. But I've always had a problem figuring that out. There are lots of people I admire that definitely have a style, but for some reason I have trouble coming up with words that describe my photography. They are fleeting moments that show jubilation, sadness, death, rebirth, strength, weakness, humor, fun, remembrance, growth and celebration. So in end, maybe my work is simply life - tiny reflections of the world around us.I like working for a community newspaper where I am charged with recording little slices of life to share. I hope that those slices help readers learn a bit more about this place that is our home - and maybe, just maybe those fleeting moments can help make small difference for the better too.Here are a few favorites from the past year. Happy 2014!

Insta-Yosemite

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he images below are all shot with my iPhone 5 and edited with the Snapseed app. It was part of a project I've been wanting to do to engage readers with what we do at The Fresno bee through online contact. I thought that we could start a photo sharing project using hashtags on Instagram. So when an assignment in Yosemite came up, I thought that would be the perfect start to the project. I decided to ask people to share images with a fall theme. I began by making a gallery of Instagram images in Yosemite and tagging them all with #fresnobeefall. We ran a front page story as well as a feature page detailing how people can get involved. We recieved several submissions from people and I'm hoping to keep a series of instagram projects like this going in the future.

SalmonFest

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]oday was a usual day for Saturday assignments at the Fresno Bee but circumstances put me in a place to make a really great shot. I like most of the images I got from the first-ever SalmonFest event at Lost Lake Park but I really love the image of the Fish and Game officer releasing a fall-run Chinook salmon on the San Joaquin as people crowd the bank to watch. I happen to be equally crowded and on the verge of falling into the river on the other side of a small boat launch. I took a spot on the far corner and slowly felt more and more people moving in to try to get a close look at the fish release. I decided to do a "Hail Mary" and hold my camera really high over my head to get the higher viewpoint and highlight the Fish and Game officer against the backlit water. I was really happy to see it all come together. Nice to get that once in a while.