I was recently inspired to rework the look of the Kingsley Images website.  While it will look a bit different, the new design will improve functionality, while maintaining the simple feel and look current site.  The navigation will be similar, but we will offer more information on the subsequent pages (i.e. more detail on the plans and pricing)  This will make the site more useful and give you the information you need at your fingertips. The picture is a mock-up I’m working on for the direction I want the site to take.  It’s not finished yet, so if you’d like to pass along your thoughts on the concept feel free to let me know by commenting on the post.  Thanks!

This photo comes from a few days before I left The Grand Island Independent in July.  We were working on a story about the new tax on tanning booth sales and the consequences of using tanning beds.  Ideally we always liked to have people in the photo, but we weren’t able to make that happen in this case.  The lights from the bed though made interesting colors and shapes which helped make this an effective photograph for the story.

What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than covering the annual Bear Parade and Picnic in Central City, NE. More than 100 kids took part in the event including this older brother playing keep away with his popsicle from his younger counterpart.

The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall made a long stop in Grand Island over the holiday weekend.  While it’s only a 3/5 replica of the one in Washington it proved to be a very moving experience for many. I’d always thought of the memorial as just that: a place to pay honor and respect to those who died in the Vietnam War.  Marlin Seeman put it in a different light for me.  One I think veterans relate to more so than another: “My name would have been right there,” Seeman said. “If I hadn’t turned my head, if I had raised my head, that bullet might have killed me.”

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.

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.

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.

There’s an old adage that luck is the combination of preparation and opportunity.  That may be true, but there are still intangibles working in a “Hail Mary.”  In photography, a “Hail Mary” is when a photographer holds a camera over their head to shoot down on scene.  They are shooting blind since they can’t see through the viewfinder.  You’ll see this primarily after football games as the photographers in the second, third, fourth and fifth rows of the scrum try to get the all important shot of coaches shaking hands.

It’s an attempt of last resort, like the football variation, and (for me at least) results in a good shot 5 percent of the time or less.  It’s a technique not to be relied on.  But… When it works, it works.

Like this shot from Grand Island Central Catholic’s graduation on Sunday.  I joined the melee in the lobby of the gym as the graduates left the ceremony and began celebrating their accomplishment.  These two hugged right in front of me.  Then in almost slow motion they both leaned their heads back in joy.  I raised the camera over my head and let the motor drive fly.

When it works, it works.

Last week I shot the Class B, District 5 soccer tournament in York.  A two day event in generally cold and blustery conditions.  That didn’t keep the games from being pretty good.  Soccer is an interesting sport to shoot because the field is so big and the action takes place all over the place.  It’s not like football where you have an idea of where each play is going to go.  And it’s not like tennis where the ball is going to the person you’re photographing.  So we follow the ball and try to anticipate plays on corner kicks and find the person heading the ball before it gets there.  The best part about soccer and tournament play in particular is the reaction to goals.  In the first image today Hastings celebrates it’s overtime goal to put them up 2-1 over Central Catholic.  That also ended up being the final score.  After the end I was able to get a shot of the other side of the field as a Central Catholic player reacts to the celebration in the background. 

On the girls field I was able to get another happy shot, this time of Northwest after they scored their only goal of their game against Hastings on a buzzer beater shot.  They ended up falling 2-1.

On the girls field I was able to get another happy shot, this time of Northwest after they scored their only goal of their game against Hastings on a buzzer beater shot.  They ended up falling 2-1.