Sometimes you’ve got to start early or stay late to get the right photo.And to get an authentic photo.

My car tells me it's a chilly 42 degrees as I start my work day at 5:04 a.m. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

We take our photographic ethics very seriously here at the Herald-Republic. We don’t stage our photos (such as asking subjects to pretend they’re doing a particular activity or to re-do something just for the sake of the camera. This is an all-too-common practice of TV people). It’s important our readers and viewers know our photos are real and authentic, not something staged for the sake of a photo. It’s an issue of credibility. Plus, the best  photos come from honest, real actions.

Which means we take photos when they actually happen, not when we want them to happen.

Which is why I went to work at 5 a.m. That’s when school custodian Mitch Young fires up his school’s ancient boilers each morning.

Naches Primary School custodian Mitch Young starts up the school's 60-year-old boilers just after 5 a.m. Wednesday, Jan.25, 2012. The boilers, like many other parts of the school, are old and inefficient. The warren of heating pipes are all insulated with asbestos and they, and the old boilers, are part of the reason the school district is asking voters to approve a construction bond to replace the aging school. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

I know this isn’t the most dramatic photo. But it does illustrate the story and, just as important, it’s an honest photo.

–Gordon King

More?

Or less?

So this week I cooked and shot the meal for January’s Fresh column. And made what is probably a rookie mistake when it comes to food styling. I pulled the chicken out of the oven, and without even thinking, started to tear into it with a knife to see if it was done. Which is what I would be doing if I was eating it right away. However, when I got it over to the table to photograph, I realized my mistake. While my stomach only cares if something is cooked and tasty, a chicken with a big ragged hole in it does not a pretty picture make. I ended up cutting off some of the breast meat and styling a plate to work around my mistake. It was still tasty, but next time I will remember the goal in the project is mainly a nice photo first, and a delicious lunch second.

This applies to photography as well – you’ve got to have the right tool for the job. Our “tools” come in all sizes and shapes from a 400 mm f2.8 to a homemade mount for camera flash.

Sometimes the right tool for the job is a point-of-view video camera. Or a small, easy-to-mount remote camera.

So that’s why we just purchased a GoPro Hero2 video camera, a  small POV video camera that will expand our video and still capabilities.

The GoPros have been around for several years – they’re a favorite for those shooting adventure videos such as skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, etc.

The GoPro Hero2

With a little extra money in our photo budget at the end of last year we were able to jump on the GoPro bandwagon and buy the latest version of the camera.

My first assignment shot using the GoPro:

Ethan Hughes takes an afternoon flight in a Sport Cub airplane Jan. 11, 2012 over Yakima, Wash. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

I mounted the camera on a wing strut of the aircraft and used the time-lapse mode to shoot one photo every 10 seconds.

I certainly could have achieved nearly the same results using a conventional digital single-lens-reflex camera mounted to the aircraft. However, doing that requires a much beefier attachment system paired with a remote triggering system. Lens availability is another problem; our widest-angle lens is a 16 mm. The Sport Cub is a fairly small aircraft with limited places to attach a remote camera so I doubt a 16 mm lens would have given me a wide-enough field of view for the photo.

In short, it’s a project to mount a camera to an aircraft. Certainly doable but a project nonetheless.

Between its small size, easy mounting, time-lapse feature and 170-degree field of view, the GoPro was the right tool in this situation.

This photo isn’t perfect. Because of the wide field-of-view relative to the aircraft there’s quite a bit of distortion in the photo (but I do like the curved horizon). I didn’t aim the camera exactly as I’d hoped.

And the GoPro isn’t perfect. The “no viewfinder” feature left me guessing exactly what’s included in the photo or video. It’s an auto-exposure camera so the exposure may not be exact (but there is a spot-metering feature which partly addresses the lack of manual control). But I have yet to use a perfect camera (though the Canon Mark IV is close).

Still, it’s a good tool to have in the tool box.

Accidental self-portrait while checking the positioning of the GoPro camera mounted to the wing strut of a Sport Cub aircraft. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

–Gordon King