A still photo I took of a girl crying at the memorial.

Rarely do I dive into Apple Final Cut Motion software unless I have extra time on a project. It is very useful when you need a bit of polish to your visual effects, but it can really bog down your workflow.
When planning to cover the yearly event, remembering homeless persons’ who have died, I expected to use the names in my video.
However, while editing I was not happy with the traditional fade-in, fade-out, of their names.
Since the light in the video was so wonderful, I decided not to scrimp on the text for the names and use Motion.
It took awhile to organize the Motion timeline (as seen below) that animates each name but the final video looks very nice.

I chose a moment in the video where the text is in the midst of animating to the next name. It's a 3D revolve type animation.

What I see from behind the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board interviews.

Every year the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board conducts election related interviews to provide recommendations to the public.  Even though this is a relatively closed process, the YH-R actively pursues ways to make the editorial boards more transparent and available to the public.

One way the YH-R provides greater access to this process is through shooting video of the editorial board interviews and publishing the videos online. The quickest way to watch the videos is by going to yakimaherald.com’s election page.

The setup:

The goal is to record the candidates or initiative spokesperson’s responses and post them online.  It’s not the most active video because, well, it’s an interview process, not theatre.

Challenges: lighting, audio, streaming software and consistency.

1. Lighting — The room lights are dim so they must be augmented with additional lights, stands and power cords.
2. Audio — We currently use an on-camera microphone. If someone is talking quietly they are barely heard.
3. Software — We use two different services depending on the use. One has consistent quality and annoying ads.  The other has fewer annoying ads, however it has inconsistent quality and sometimes crashes.
4. Consistency — The recording area is a multiple use meeting room and the setup has subtle variations day-to-day. There are no set places for the lights, camera or computer. Also, if the software fails, portions may go unrecorded.

What I see when recording the editorial board interviews on the computer screen.

This happened recently as we covered the Monastery Complex wildland fire. Access to the area was uncertain; the state highway going to the fire was closed off and on throughout the first day of the fire and the only other route to the fire would take hours longer.

Not knowing if we would get any ground-level access we decided to charter an airplane for aerial photography of the fire.

(I want to give credit to my bosses for ponying up the $250 for the flight. Despite tight-as-a-drum budgets they came up with money)

The Monastery Complex Fire, photographed from 8,500 feet Sept. 8, 2011. Nine homes and 10 outbuildings have been destroyed in a forest and brush fire that continues to grow in the Satus Pass area. About 300 people in 150 homes have been evacuated in the fire that some estimates place as large as 2,100 acres. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

Aerial photography poses a unique set of challenges. A few basics I’ve learned over the years of aerial photography:

1. Helicopters are best but planes are cheaper. WAY cheaper.

2. Make sure your airplane is a high-wing aircraft.

3. Make sure the passenger window opens up enough to provide an unobstructed shot from the aircraft.

4. Remove all the lens shades from your lenses. Lens shades will catch the airstream  if you poke the lens/camera out into the airstream.

5. Small planes vibrate a lot. Use as high a shutter speed as possible to minimize any vibration effects on your photos.

6. Do not rest your arms on the window edge as you shoot because you will transmit vibration from the plane to your camera and photos.

7. Dramamine motion-sickness pills can be a big help if flying makes you queasy. Take two an hour before you fly.

8. Fly on an empty stomach if flying makes you queasy. Less to throw up, if it comes to that.

9.  Communicate your needs to the pilot before you take off to ensure he can accomplish what those needs.

10. Check for any flight area restrictions. No sense wasting money on a flight if flight restrictions are going to keep you too far from the news event. The pilot should also do this so he knows where he can fly. If he doesn’t I’d recommend another pilot.

11. If you are photographing a forest/wildland fire think about possible smoke and haze issues. There may be too much smoke in the area of the fire to get good photos. Often it’s a crap shoot – it was quite hazy and smoky as we flew from Yakima down to the Monastery Complex fire but the haze and smoke had parted by the time we got to the fire.

11. An experienced pilot is key (besides just keeping the plane in the air). A good pilot understands your needs and can get you to the right spot for photographs in a minimum amount of time. Remember, time in an airplane is indeed, money.

Pilot Joshua Grubb brings the aircraft into the Yakima airport. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

As it turned out that day, staff photographer Andy Sawyer got some great photos and video from the ground. The following day Sara Gettys did an equally-fine job capturing the scene in Goldendale, the town closest to the fire.

–Gordon King

Some photo tools work well for today and others simply stand the test of time.   For me one of those tools has been the LumiQuest Softbox II.  It’s been used and abused for over 15 years following me from my time as a journalist-in-training at WSU to today at the Yakima Herald-Republic.

And yesterday it was a faithful companion shooting exuberant Harry Potter fans outside Yakima’s Majestic Theatre.  (See gallery here) — Watch video at bottom of post…

Mariah Wildgen, 17, dressed as Harry Potter for the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter film at the Majestic Theatre in Yakima, Wash., on July 14, 2011.

No matter how much I love natural light, I oftentimes find myself wanting to dabble in strobe work.  Not often enough I admit, so I try to break out lights every now and then.

So before the Potter assignment, I broke out an old friend, my LumiQuest and Velcro’d up the head of one of my work Canon 580 EX strobes and tested it out.

My well used and abused LumiQuest Softbox II

My initial though of shooting the Potter assignment was to shoot them on a black background.  So I tested using a single strobe with the LumiQuest attached in the darkened basement of my home.

The best part, I had exuberant kids on hand to help me test.

My son Declan running around in our basement

NOTE: This is how I have almost always used the small softbox: While having the strobe on manual and on a cable or chord.  The softbox is not a ring light and can be a bit too much as a camera mounted strobe with close in subjects.

Now I know there are some LumiQuest haters out there, but I have found the medium soft light and shallow falloff a comfortable friend compared to bouncing or using a complex lighting setup.

The photo of Declan above is a good for instance.  He was running around me in circles.  There was no way I could have predicted where he would be to eliminate the background and just cast him in soft light without direct control.  I just pivoted around following him by holding the chord-mounted strobe relatively in the same place above him to get several shots to choose from.

My younger son, Liam, trying to grab the camera.

This next shot of Liam was just as challenging.  He was basically attacking me on the floor. It was really close-in.

To get precise light control, like in this situation, I prefer to put the strobe in my hand.

As for the Harry Potter portrait above and the ones in the gallery?  I used the LumiQuest to soften the bounce off a nearby wall. I did that because I didn’t have a black background at work to duplicate the tests I did with my boys.  Even with the change of plans, it helped me do my job yesterday and I expect it to help me out for years to come.

There are a few more images in the video I shot for this story.

We decided TJ would get a few still and video from above as the paddlers came around the point and I would get some stills and video of them coming straight at the camera from my vantage point near the dock. After TJ got what he needed, he’d drive down to the dock in time to get the boats coming in. The boats arrived and people jumped off quickly — in 15-20 minutes all the action was done. Because there were two of us, we were each able to focus on our task, rather than having to juggle seeing and shooting still and also video, trying to grab everything in the short amount of time we had. As we wrapped up shooting, Molly finished up her interviews.

As a team, we were able to create a complete and interesting story in several mediums even when everything happened relatively quickly. TJ’s stills added to the gallery and print package, and a little bit of my video ended up in his finished version. Two vantage points gave the package more visual variety and the time we had to devote to doing only stills or video added to the depth and quality of both. Plus, I got to spend the afternoon outside with two fun fellow journalists.

Photographer Sara Gettys prepares to move away from her perch overlooking Columbia River paddlers from Canada as they head toward Vantage, Wash., on June 22, 2011.

Juanitz Gonzalez pays little attention to the media and Washington state gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee as Inslee declares his candidacy June 27, 2011 in Parker, Wash. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

Rep. Jay Inslee stopped in Yakima to announce his candidacy for Washington governor. The event was predictable – Inslee arrives dressed in jeans, blazer and no tie (appropriately casual as befits central Washington), chats up supporters, stands with his wife Trudy as he’s introduced by old friends, makes a speech, mingles with supporters a little while longer and finally meets with the media afterwards.

The photos were equally predictable. Candidate arriving (dressed in jeans), mingling with supporters (hugging a few), standing with his wife, making a speech, more mingling and finally, talking to the media. Not bad photos, just predictable photos.

I had photographed Juanitz Gonzalez earlier, when Inslee introduced himself to the elderly woman.

Having taken a couple of meaningless photos of Inslee talking to the media I noticed Ms. Gonzalez sitting quietly, paying no attention to the hubbub just behind her.

I was struck by her seeming indifference to the media gathering just behind her and by the contrast of her silence to the sounds of the media and the candidate.

This photo did not run in the newspaper or on our website because it’s not relevant to the story of Inslee’s candidacy. Still, I think it was the best photo I shot that day.

–Gordon King

Today's front page photo illustration

Here’s a 10 step-by-step breakdown of how today’s (June 13, 2011) front page photo illustration was put together.

The story was headlined, “Prices fuel debate behind tribal gas tax exemption” (read story) which was about the complicated, and troubled Yakama Nation tribal fuel tax system.  So here’s the breakdown.

1) Coordinate with editors and reporter(s) on what the story is about.  Sort out that the story will be best served with a photo illustration instead of standard editorial photography.

2) Work with reporter on what the illustration needs to include and how the illustration helps introduce the story to readers, without being overcomplicated.  Determine what, where and how the photo part of the illustration will be created.

3) Shoot the idea, and as many variations as time allows to select from when returning to create the illustration.

4) Begin editing by selecting the best variation.

(step 4) digital contact sheet image selection

5) Begin editing selected image.  (From here on out I will be referring to what this story assignment required of the illustration.)  So, in this case, I needed to crop the photo and remove all the text from the receipt.  I selected the only receipt then copied it to a new layer (layer 3 in my layer window.)

On that new layer, I then used the clone and healing brushes to remove the text while being careful not to go beyond the natural border of the receipt or Gordon’s thumb.  I must say he was a great model, he needs an agent.

You may ask, why with a new layer when you can just work on the original photo layer?  I choose to work on an edit layer so I still have the original behind it just in case I need to go back.  I also use it for visual reference (mentioned in the steps below.)

(step 5) Croping and removing of the reciept font.

6) Time to add shading and highlights to the now very flat receipt to match or be as close to the original paper.  I use layer effects like soft light, overlay and differing opacity to replicate what the original paper looked like.  Again, I am using new layers with layer masks to ensure I can go back and fine tune specific elements throughout the process.

(step 6) spectral highlights and shades have been added, especially under the thumb and curves of the paper.

7) Add the fonts.  Select a font similar to the original receipt (in this instance), make it bigger so it can be read without a magnifier and add color where it’s important.  Thankfully Phil, the reporter, was very clear about what text needed to be in the illustration so it was easy to apply his text.  Both he and the editor went through the initial mockup (seen below) and I made their text changes.

(step 7) The original mockup text put over the receipt that was edited by the reporter and editor..

Rasterize the fonts once everything is edited.  I do this because it’s the only way to use the transform ‘warp’ on a font to make it look like it actually is printed on the curvy paper.  I then apply a layer over all the text where I brush highlights and shading on the text to match the paper’s lighting.  Notice (in the layer window) that I did not delete the unrasterized font group so if I needed to backtrack because of a late edit or whatnot, I can quickly make a change.  I do not like having to rebuild something I have already created once before.

(step Transforming the rasterized fonts to fit the paper.

9) Take another look at the nearly final version and make subtle space edits, and toning on the background image.

In this graphic, the black gas pump handle was not dominant enough for a front page illustration.  I wanted people to see that pump handle from the street then draw them into the ‘what is that.’  In this case, when standing back and looking at the illustration, I wanted that pump handle red.  The same red I used in the fuel prices on the receipt.

To do that I needed to again copy and paste a new layer of the pump handle (so I don’t mess up the original) then apply a layer style ‘color overlay’ of the desired color and apply a layer mask over that to clean it up.  When you use a color overlay, it pretty much turns everything in that layer the color you want, for the most part.  So you must clean it up.  I typically like to brush out elements with differing opacity because the spectral highlights on the pump are very important to me and I want them to look as realistic as possible.

(step 9) Create a new layer, apply color overlay to punch it up.

10) Save the psd working document, so if I must revisit the file for a last minute edit, then I can.  The last step is to save a jpg version to be used in print and online.

It’s done!

So that’s 10 easy step to create this particular front page photo illustration.  Take care everyone!

-TJ Mullinax

One of the photos I took of Marissa McCafferty while preparing the lights for her portrait. McCafferty, 19, survived cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma,) wrapped up her high school years at East Valley in about three years and works nights at an assisted living facility. A real Supergirl.

Are the unlucky last words I said while talking with the subject of today’s portrait when a sudden storm whipped up around us.

While out in East Valley shooting a high school senior feature for the paper’s graduation coverage I had an amazing student that was declared cancer-free.

With the weather being nice at the time I planned to get outside and use the great clouds in the background.  Sort of giving it a ‘Supergirl’ type of look.

Little did I know those nice clouds would turn ominous, bringing first wind then a few sprinkles of rain.

That’s when I opened my mouth as she struggled to keep her hair under control, “all we need now is hail.”

As if on que we were grabbing lights and ducking for cover because the hail started raining down.

Once I realized the humor of everything, I laughed saying, “I’ve gotta blog this” and hastily snapped a photo of the hail on the ground next to equipment that was now slightly damp.

Whenever you get an opportunity to laugh at work — do.  This little chaotic moment made my day, because both she and I will be laughing long after the soft box dries.

-TJ Mullinax

Small hail melts next to the hastily moved lighting equipment during today's outdoor photo shoot.

Simply put; what people hear in your video can deeply impact the viewer, so it must not be disregarded.  To this day I remember my reaction after watching some spot news raw video of the Atlas aluminum foundry explosion in Tacoma a few years back.

The scene went like this — 1 OK someone is shooting video down a long street at a column of smoke.  2 Hmm, fire and debris shoot up into the sky. 3 I jump back in my seat as the sudden sound of explosion at 12+ db on the computer speakers hits me in the chest unexpectedly.  I watch intently as the cameraman quakes and exclaims ‘whoa!’ 4 photographer darts next to a neighboring building and video ends.

Why it sticks out is that for me, in that moment, I was physically (or emotionally) captivated by the sounds within a video.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that shocking, unexpected or frightful moments make for the best video.  Certainly not. My point is that audio can add another dimension that helps the viewer identify, be captivated by, or draws a person into your story.  It takes effort to pay attention to the audio when working hard to capture video and still moments.

And that’s where this helps me out on assignments when I cannot risk missing an audio moment.

Rode powered shotgun mic with an Olympus digital voice recorder strapped to it's back, atop a Joby mini tripod.

What is this?  Well it’s an audio recorder on steroids.  Normally the audio recorder does a great job for simple interviews or meetings.  Simply press record and let it run, and run, and run, and run… you get the point.  It’s easy, can record for a very long time without fear of it running out of space or battery power.

I usually don’t go crazy with the audio recorder unless of special circumstances.  Yesterday was one of those special gear up days for me when covering the community of White Swan as they buried a young Marine who was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device.

When covering funerals and other sacred events, you only get one shot yet you usually need to be far back from where things happen.  If you are too far back, you won’t get decent audio.

So I put together a quick mic stand from an available Joby mini tripod.  Put the Rode powered shotgun mic on top, then strapped the audio recorder to it’s back.  Before the ceremony I put it about 15 feet away from the podium, discreetly hidden in some grass and behind a tombstone.  I pointed it in the direction of the podium, rifle team and the trumpet player for taps to capture the primary military sounds.  I hit record and walked away, only checking on it periodically.

To it’s credit, I used it for nearly the entire sound track of the Marine’s funeral because my camera audio was going in and out depending on where I was pointing the camera and whether I had it recording or not.

It also avoided the occasional “clackety-clack” sounds of still photographers, Ted Warren from the AP and YH-R’s Andy Sawyer, who were near me and my video camera.  (In the video below, you may hear some audio variances, because at one point someone near the audio recorder started making noise so I had to switch to my on camera microphone)

When I reviewed my audio recorder track, then the video clips, I wasn’t surprised that many audio moments in the raw video were not as clear, truncated or simply missed because I was focusing more on the visual elements.

I was able to tell a more complete account of the funeral because I prepared a second audio recording device.

Thank you weird looking little audio recorder.