Good Company Players

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ool projects don't come around too often so when they do, I get pretty excited. I was asked to help with the photography for The Fresno Bee's first-ever e-book to be written about Fresno's Good Company Players, who have been performing shows in Fresno for 40 years. I jumped at the chance to be involved, one: because it's our first e-book, and how cool is that? and two: I finally get to do a bit of photojournalism on one of my favorite subjects - live theater. So reporter Donald Munro and myself followed co-founder Dan Pessano around for a couple of days doing stills and video. Donald actually followed Pessano and many of the other people involved in the program a lot longer than I did - after all, he had to write a book. But I was happy to see what it was like to be behind the scenes before a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" and that was pretty cool. A lot of what I did involved video, galleries of past shows and other online components. For more on that, see the section about it on the Bee's website. This blog shows mainly the documentary work I did plus an image I made for the book cover.

City-County All-Stars

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]hot the annual City-County All-Star football game a couple of weeks ago. It's alway a fun football game to shoot because there's still quite a bit of sunlight during the first half, unlike prep football games during the regular season. For some reason though, this one attracts TONS of other photographers. I know Horn Photo sponsors it and I think they have a few guys out there but it's just funny to watch all these guys with cameras shooting an event they don't usually shoot. Anyway, I felt pretty good because I felt I had the shot of the game when I captured Edison's Khari McGee hurdling another player along the opposite sideline. I heard the crowd "OOOH" loudly after it happened. I was just glad no one stepped in my way and I had it pretty sharp. I saw that our reporter pretty much topped his story with that one play in the paper the next day so it was a pretty good thing I got it.

Stone Fruit

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]id a quick stone fruit shot in the studio using nectarines, peaches, plums and apricots. A couple of things I try to do with still life food shots is really work on the lighting to make it look natural. Then I locate some kind of background that works - in this case it was one side of an old pallat. After than I try to arrange what I have into something interesting. Obviously I wanted to show the stone, or pit. The nectarine worked best for this. Some of the stones didn't look too great even after cutting them as they were the cling type. Oh well. They still got used pretty well.

Holy Trinity Weather

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]icked up a cool weather shot on my way to lunch when I passed the Holy Trinity Armenian Church in downtown Fresno this week. I saw a guy working on a ladder in the doorway of the church. Now, having been in the church and looking out from inside, I knew there would be a nice silhouette to be had there with a few puffy clouds in the background. And since we had little going on news-wise and a good weather photo could definitely have a place in the paper, I stopped to take a look. The guy there was really nice, and even a little excited at the thought of being in the paper. I guess he was even more excited when he looked at the paper the next day to see that he was the lead image on the front page.

Light it Up Concert

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ere are a few images from the Wiz Khalifa "Light it Up" concert at the Save Mart Center last week. It's quite a ways from my style of music but I will say that I rather enjoyed the spectacle. The lights, the crowd... the smoke - it was all quite a sight.. and smell. This was a deadline challenge for me since we wanted to use one shot of Wiz in the paper and he wasn't going on until 10 and my deadline was 10:30. He was late too and didn't go on until maybe 10:12. But I managed to just be a few minutes late transmitting the image and then created a nice online gallery of the whole show. We broke from our usual mainstream performance coverage and worked in some diversity here, which I can appreciate. And yes, I had my earplugs.

Track Championships

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Thursday I covered the Tri-River Athletic Conference track and field championships at Clovis East High School. I stayed the entire four hours of the meet because I really needed to cover the first races as well as catch the winner of the long jump at the very end. Although the heat was tough to work in, it was a very exciting meet to watch. The unusual part of this meet was how many freshman contenders there are - especially in the girls events. Perennial powerhouse Buchanan had several up-and-comers as did meet winner Clovis North. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of some of these athletes over the next three years.

May Day March

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n May Day, May 1, also known as International Workers Day, is a day where protestors take to the streets to urge for change. In recent years, it has been a time for demonstrators to push for comprehensive immigration reform which could be passed by Congress this year. May Day Marches were held all over the country including Fresno, which I covered for The Fresno Bee. I was actually surprised by the number of protestors who came out. The newspaper cited 1,000 in the mostly latino crowd. They held a demonstration, organized by the May Day Coalition for Immigrants' Rights, with speakers, music and dancing in Courthouse Plaza and then marched along M Street on out to Fresno Street. The police blocked traffic on the routes to make room for the group which held signs, chanted slogans, beat on drums and played music. A standalone photo was used on the front page of the paper the next day, with the story running inside.

Clovis Rodeo

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Clovis Rodeo is one of the more sought-after assignments we get at The Bee all year. It used to be a real fight to be the one to go but now that there's only a few of us, it goes to the lucky guy working the late shift. In particular, the first Thursday event, the Pro Bull Riders tour, is primo. Instead of waiting until the very end of the show, you get bull riders the whole time. That's like a fireworks finale from start to finish. The hardest part, and the least attractive part, is trying to get the names of the riders. Between the loud music and the announcers who seem to gloss over many of the names, it can be a real chore. You'd think they'd have names and numbers like other rodeo events, but not this one. I guess you're supposed to *know* these guys if you're a real rodeo fan. Oh well. Anyway, enjoy the photos.

Genocide anniversary

Today was one of those super busy days were I was bouncing back-and-forth from one assignment to the next, jumping from downtown, to uptown, to across town. But the final assignment of the day had to have been the best. I observed a special prayer service held at the memorial to unknown Armenians killed during the Armenian Genocide that occurred in the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1915. It is estimated that between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Genocide. The anniversary of the beginning of that terrible time was April 24, 1915. Local Armenian clergy gathered to remember the tragedy and offer prayers to those who were lost. I really enjoy being able to witness events like this even though I'm really not a part of their community. I just have a lot of respect for their reverence and reflection.

ArtHop Exhibit

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y first-ever art exhibit is being held through the end of April at P*de*Q near Fresno High. I was asked to show some Fresno Bee images at the bakery starting on ArtHop night, April 4. I had 10 images printed up to 12x18 and mounted on foam board. So it was pretty easy to put up. Thanks to Antilabs for having me there and for the help putting them up. I chose a variety of images including sports, news, portraits, entertainment and landscapes. I titled the show "Your Valley" since it's kind of a reflection of what the Valley is and what it means to those who make this place home. I hope someday I can do a much bigger show with, of course, much bigger pictures.

Spring Blossom Festival

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]aturdays are event coverage for me when I'm working at The Bee. On this day I lucked out with an incredibly beautiful, sunny day and was treated to an assignment at the Fresno Bonsai Society Spring Show and Spring Blossom Festival at the Shinzen Garden in Woodward Park. This is definitely worth checking out. The Bonsais are really cool, but I was mesmerized by the azaleas which are at their peak of bloom throughout the park, but especially in their enchanted ume garden. If you love beautiful gardens, you have to check it out.

Fresno State softball

Here's some Fresno State softball from Friday afternoon. This was a big test for the team with their new coach since they were facing rival Boise State. And everything worked out apparently, since they won.