YakimaHeraldPhotos.com

‘Tis the season of lights

Merry Christmoose.

–Andy Sawyer

The future has arrived (pt. 2)

When the newspaper’s video equipment arrived two months ago I was anxious and excited about the prospect of shooting video (see “the future has arrived” post). Now, I’m just excited.

Over the weekend the Herald-Republic hosted the Northwest Video Workshop. Spearheaded by YH-R web producer T.J. Mullinax, the two-day workshop brought together newspaper photographers, reporters and web folks to learn the basics of shooting and editing video. We were taught by two of the best videographers in photojournalism – Colin Mulvany of the Spokane Spokesman Review and Kurt Austin of Portland’s KGW-TV television.
Their energy and enthusiasm helped me get over any reservations I might have had about picking up a video camera in addition to my still cameras.

During the workshop We shot and edited a very basic project (thanks to the young ladies carolling in front of Wray’s Thriftway at the Chalet Mall – they were the subjects of my team’s video) which will be posted on the workshop Web site (video.yakimablogs.com/) in the future. The video cameras are the new tools of storytelling and now we have the knowledge of how to use those tools. Or at least the basic knowledge such as which button turns on the camera and how to move video and sound clips around in the Final Cut Pro editing software.

I’m looking forward to when I can shoot and edit a video package for yakimaherald.com. It will be probably be a while, though, before I can get something up on the Web site – I still have to help put out a newspaper each day with local photographs which itself is a full-time job. It’s going to be fun, frustrating and challenging to learn this new way of telling a story. The learning curve is steep and I’m sure my first efforts are going to be rough but I’m asking for the viewers’ patience.

A couple of photos from the workshop:

Central Washington University student Maggie Schmidt photographs the singers at Wray’s Thriftway.

Yakima Herald-Republic reporter James Joyce, left, gets editing help from workshop trainer Kurt Austin.

—Gordon King

Thanks for the memory

I’m a fan of the TV series, “Northern Exposure,” partially because I was living some parts of that life while the show aired in the 90s. A recent Google search on “Northern Exposure” brought up an Alaskan photographer’s work …. a self-described amateur, but a photographer with some great images, for sure.

Anyway, the page also had some photos of the Superstition Mountains in Arizona … mountains that used to be in my “back yard” so to speak. So I did a search of some of my old photos and — among others — this one stood out. I remember it well … these leathery prospectors gathered around a campfire, roasting a pork loin and drinking … what else … whiskey.

I was there to photograph the unlikely gathering of loners in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains while they swapped lies and told stories from their frequent travels into the mountains and quests for gold.

It’s a nice memory, them around the campfire, the smell of dinner cooking and the bottle being passed around. And all that because I was thinking about asking for the Northern Exposure series on DVD for Christmas. I think photo and memory this were a gift enough.

Also, some technical info: I shot this during a time when I lit almost every photo. This was shot on film — probably Fuji 800. I used two strobes, one blasted over the background to make the dark figures stand out, then a second light on their backs to give them an edge in the shadows.

–Andy Sawyer

It’s a tie

Not to say that staged political events aren’t exciting…but in a room full of people waiting around for a candidate to show up, you’ve got to find something to keep those photographic muscles warm and limber. Last night, that exercise was a little essay on ties.

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‘Tis the season of lights

The future has arrived (pt. 2)

Thanks for the memory

It’s a tie

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