spring is (finally) here!

I spent my spare between-assignment time for the past month seeking out signs of spring. After the harsh winter we had, I can't get enough of sitting on my front porch, attempting to grill, soaking up the sun, and afternoon naps with the breeze blowing through my window. I don't even mind when birds start up chirping at 6:30 outside my window (and, while I was awake, I recorded some audio). Check out the slideshow here... it's been called soothing and meditative by a certain photo intern.

spring is (almost) sprung

I have some "real" posts coming soon, but for now, here's a quick little something from a project I'm working on about the sights and sounds of spring. If only we'd have more than one day of sun in a row, maybe I could make some progress..

illumination

I just got back from a prep wrestling dual, where every corner had a photographer with a flash. (An unusual situation, since usually we're all on the same side of the mat.) This can occasionally be a good thing, when their flash fires at the same time as my shutter and I end up with interesting light. No such luck tonight..

cropping woes and a long day

After a long Saturday at the funeral last week, last Sunday felt nearly manic, with four assignments. I was disappointed to see the softball photo below was cropped into an awkward vertical-ish square in the paper, so here I present it as it was intended. It was one of four photos cropped in a two-day span. Fortunately, they left the fire photo below alone.

'We help you cry'

Saturday, I joined photographers Brian Ray and Jonathan Woods in covering the funeral for the Sueppel family. Reporter Scott Dochterman wrote in his lede, " In forgiveness and reconciliation, the Sueppel and Kesterson families stood as one Saturday in the face of pain, suffering and questions that can never be answered." Read Scott's story here. Brian was selected as the pool photographer for the funeral and the burial, which meant he was the sole photographer inside the church and close to the family at the burial. I waited at a coffee shop around the corner to transmit Jon's photos from outside the church, making the Gazette the first paper to have photos online. I shot a few photos as the funeral ended, before heading to a location I had scouted the day before along the procession route to photograph the six hearses on the way to the cemetery.

The light outside the church was gorgeous, and gave the white caskets of the children an almost ethereal glow. This boy's angelic innocence was amplified by the adults that surrounded him.





While Brian photographed the burial from closer in, I stayed back with the other photographers at a respectful distance to capture a wider view.



The mass of people surrounded the caskets, so making photos was nearly impossible from my distance (even with a 400 mm lens and a 1.4x converter), until people started to leave.

It's easy to let yourself focus on your work when covering something like this, and forget about the meaning behind it. But when I saw this boy leaving the burial with (I assume) his father, it became more real for me. The nature of the situation made the presence of children more poignant, and I can't imagine what this boy had been through while he tried to understand the events of the week prior. Once they were out of my range, I finally took the camera away from my eye for a moment and let the meaning and sadness of the day sink in. The strength and faith of these two families in the face of such a tragedy was so moving to witness.






After we all finished editing our hundreds upon hundreds of photos from the funeral and burial services, Jon and I got to work digging through two hours of audio from the funeral (where we had plugged his Merentz in to the soundboard) and building a slideshow. We went three or four hours past the deadline we had originally aimed for (9 p.m. against a 5 p.m. deadline), but the extra hours were worth it; the audio makes the photos all the more meaningful, and really presents what we hope is a powerful, moving tribute to the family as those left behind struggle to comprehend and forgive. Jon's posted our new and improved version of the project here.

'With a wave and a tear, we say goodbye.'

Last Monday, Steven Sueppel killed his wife and four children in their Iowa City home before killing himself. Photographers Jim Slosiarek and Cliff Jette covered the first day of the story outside the house as the pieces came together. On Friday, I went to their church to photograph people going to the wake. Read Gazette reporter Jennifer Hemmingsen's story about the vigil and visitation here.




These girls went to school with the Sueppel kids; the woman was a stranger to them until Friday, when she helped keep them warm as they stood in a nearly two-hour line.

food+friends

A day off together is reason enough for a great meal, but throw in the Easter holiday, and we're ready to glut ourselves on delicious homemade treats (except for the hot crossed buns, which Panera did a fantastic job of preparing for us). Courtney worked quite hard on her from-scratch apple pie, which I think I'm going to help myself to right now (a benefit of playing hostess -- leftovers!)...
See more photos here.

thaw

Warmer temperatures (above freezing, which to me feels warm) have finally come to Iowa, and the frozen river started to thaw. Now, I'm new to this whole frozen bodies of water thing (in Texas, swimming pools are used year-round), but I think the way this works is, a huge chuck of ice upstream broke loose, then got stuck downstream, causing flooding. I was there when it broke free again, and it was pretty impressive to watch. Soon enough spring will be here, and I'll be able to feel my toes again for the first time in four months.

After a too-short vacation to Colorado, I headed to Des Moines to cover the girls' and boys' state basketball tournaments. We have lights set up in the catwalks, which gives us much better photos when the timing is right, but some frustration when I'm just a bit too quick..(and a lot of frustration for me and the photog here before me when they decide to not fire, a problem that we fixed by eliminating the hardwire connection between all the lights, and just hooking them each up to their own pocketwizard.) (at the end of this week, I'll post my favorites of the tournament.)

from above

I took my first helicopter ride last week, to hopefully capture what the DNR biologists see when they're working on the winter aerial deer count. I'm not going to lie, there was a little queasiness, but I didn't lose my breakfast, so I consider it a success.

boston, sort of

Lately, I've tended not to shoot much ("much" being a relative term) when I'm on vacation (though some of my friends would disagree), so this weekend my camera spent most of its time in my bag. Here, then, is the story of my weekend, through photos from the plane and portraits of Ross around the city.

I got on an early enough flight out of Cedar Rapids to watch the sun rise from the plane.


A two-hour layover in Chicago gave me time to send postcards and buy a my first book of Sudoku, which I was immediately addicted to and infuriated with.


First order of business, after lunch, was a tour of Harvard, where Ross takes a class (the rest are at BU). I felt smarter, and a little more pretentious, just being on campus.



Those are some snazzy boots, hm? Texas pride, I've found, increases based on the distance one is away from home. This was also about the time Ross realized he had lost his hat. Sadness.


Dinner at a delightful place in the North End, after walking the Freedom Trail and eating some, uh, chowdah.

A gorgeous day Monday was reason enough to walk all 364.4 Smoots (plus an ear) of the Harvard Bridge to Cambridge.


Then I ran from K19 to G17 at O'Hare in about seven minutes to catch my plane to Cedar Rapids, and only made it home about an hour and a half behind schedule (after getting help from an airport maintenance guy with a scraper, a shovel and a good shove out of my plowed-in parking spot).

mercy

I photographed a prayer service last week at Mount Mercy College, held for the victims of the NIU shooting. I got there early and found beautiful light streaming in from the stained glass windows, and hoped for someone to sit in *just* the right spot. It was a small turnout, but I don't think I've heard that kind of quiet in a room in a long time; rarely has the sound of my shutter - or even the squeaking of my wet boots on the floor - seemed so intrusive.

getting out of town

Ahh, three day weekends. I've felt a little off lately, so this is the perfect time for me to get out of town and visit an old friend (Ross) in a new city (Boston). This photo of Ross is from 2005, at my old house in Columbia, on the previously mentioned fabulous front porch. (from the old full frame madness archives.)

welcome home

I finally have a mini-tour of my new house up on facebook... here's a 'before' of the living room.. click here for the afters.

snow hiatus

Sometimes, believe it or not, I get to shed the fleece neck warmer, red boots, scarf, and two pairs of gloves and cover something inside. Recently,

Send off ceremony for a National Guard unit, being deployed to the Sinai Peninsula. It's this mother's first deployment in 15 years.


the Icky (Iowa Cultural Corridor) Awards, complete with red carpet.


Two top-ranked basketball teams -- and this star player fouled out with a few minutes left, and spent it watching his team lose.


.. and a press conference.