Wheat
Nebraska is known for its corn crop, but when I leave I’m going to remember the fields of wheat.
Portrait: Dalton Sealey
I’ve been wanting to blog about this image for quite some time, but couldn’t until it was published. Dalton Sealey was named The Independent’s Boys Athlete of the Year. During his senior year he hoisted state championship trophies for St. Cecilia in football, basketball and track. It was the third straight time for the basketball trophy, by the way. Heck of an athlete and a really nice guy.
I didn’t quite know how to photograph Dalton. Traditionally we try to incorporate all the sports in which the athlete of the year participates. We want to try and show how talented they are overall, not just one side of them. A basketball and football were easy props for those sports, but what about track? Shoes around the neck? Been there, done that. It was then that I started thinking about the starting position for sprints and how similar it was to the three-point stance in football. I had my pose.
The lighting was a different story. I wanted the background to go dark, so that meant controlling the spill. I also had to light the basketball which would be far away from the main light (which was on the ground on the left pointing up). An umbrella pointing down worked for that. Then for good measure I tossed in a small flash on the left to help light that side from a different angle and fill in some shadows. I tossed a reflector on the right, but I don’t think it added a whole lot.
Dalton was great to work with. He bought into the idea and got in and out of the pose several times while we tweaked it all. In ten minutes or so we were done shooting and had captured an image that merged who Dalton is, with the vision I had for the image.
Youthful Exuberance
Late last week we were working on an advance about a program today at the local water park to encourage kids to stay active and safe throughout the summer. It was late in the afternoon and I was in jeans. I was going to stop by shoot a bit and then head home. That was before I saw Entisar Gebraeil and her sister playing in the shallow end. There’s something contagious about children’s exuberance and utter joy at simple things. I photographed them for quite a while hoping I adaquetly captured what I saw. Read the story about the “Catch the Wave” event.
Just a Feature
New Chapters
I shot a wedding this weekend for the paper. It wasn’t the ceremony, just a few last minute preparations shots for a story we did about June weddings. It was a bit funny since the photos ran on my first anniversary. Weddings represent a lot of things, and the main theme is change.
While my final day hasn’t been set, I’ll be leaving Grand Island. My wife and I are going to be moving to Albuquerque. She’ll begin as a full time therapist at Desert Hills, a residential treatment center, and I … well I’m still looking for something. I have a feeling that I’ll be working on digging up some freelance work and quite possibly shooting a few weddings. The other thing I’ll be doing is preparing to begin taking classes in PHP and SQL programming and other web based systems and languages.
The change will be awesome and we’re both looking forward to all of the possibilities while not getting too terrified of the uncertainties. Grand Island over the past 10+ years has been wonderful to me and allowed me to grow as a person and in my profession. I’ll definitely miss it here.
