2010 High School Football Preview Cover
I shot this portrait of Eric and Blake Frohnapfel, players for Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, for our football preview last week. I had to sit on it until in ran in the paper. I managed to avoid shooting the 20 or so portraits of the featured players but I’m sure I’ll be doing our All-Area spread this year.
Redskins vs Bills 8.13.2010 – Images by Mike Morones
Well, it’s that time of year again – football season! I spent yesterday at FedEx Field and anybody who has been there knows what a joy that can be. The media room got a fresh coat of paint, warm hot dogs and wireless internet access. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice. Even though it mildly upset my sensibilities to see McNabb in burgundy and gold, any football is good football.
Womanless Beauty Pageant
I went to the Orange County Fair the other day to shoot a feature on the annual womanless beauty pageant. Rednecks country boys in drag, essentially. It was pretty funny, the guys were good sports but the light was terrible. And because it was 1000 degrees with 110% humidity I wanted to travel light, so I just slung two cameras with two zooms over my shoulders and was off. Stupidly, I left the strobe in the car and instead of going to get it, I tried to make do with the D300′s ISO capability. It wasn’t too bad, if you don’t mind a little digital noise.
NCAA Football Recruiting
I shot a portrait of Tim Scott, a football player from Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, to illustrate a story about college football recruiting. In retrospect, there were a few technical details I should have addressed. In particular, I think I should have hit the front of the box with a little light as well as the background to minimize that shadow a bit.
Colonial Forge rising senior Tim Scott, holding a box of his recruitment letters, photographed at his home in Stafford, VA, on July 21, 2010 (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Caroline County Agricultural Fair
Cadence Ferguson, 6, gets a hand from her mother Tiffany Satterwhite, of Beaverdam, as she covers herself in a bin of corn at the Caroline County Agricultural Fair in Ruther Glen, VA on July 2, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
From left, Erica Glines, 11, Rose Sargent, 10, Millie Sargent, 12 and Melissa Trent watch ducklings at the Caroline County Agricultural Fair in Ruther Glen, VA on July 2, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Redskins Minicamp
I spent much of yesterday in Ashburn at Redskins Park for the team’s first minicamp of the year. One of the media relations guys said he was surprised at the amount of coverage for voluntary workouts. Maybe so but I guess with a new coach, Donovan McNabb in burgundy and gold and a few new running backs, it was to be expected. Basically it took 90 minutes to get there, 90 minutes to get back and 25 minutes to shoot if you don’t count the hour-long press conference after practice, for which I had to wait another 90 minutes. I discovered early on that a lot of this job is waiting – waiting for access, waiting for the right light or composition to come together. It also took me a little while to learn that time spent waiting was not necessarily time wasted.
Being There
I spend a lot of time looking at other photographers’ work and often see very pronounced aesthetic approaches and complex styles; lots of layering, different ways of seeing and interpreting what is in front of their lens. Done well, I love that approach though done poorly, it can be a cluttered frame that doesn’t hold my attention or tell me anything. When I look at my own photographs, I don’t always see that complexity – to me my pictures are often matter-of-fact, what you see is what you get. Occasionally I get down on myself about this – that I’m not working hard enough, thinking about my composition enough, that I’m little more than a visual stenographer. Often though isn’t being there and having the presence of mind to take a picture, recording what you see so that others can see as well? I was reminded of that while reading about the Pulitzer Prize-winning project by Craig F. Walker of the Denver Post. From a post at the Society for News Design:
The Ian Fisher story is a linear, classic approach that resists keeping a photographer’s stamp on the images. The strength of the package is not in the artistry or aesthetics of the images. Rather, it is a work of is journalism communicated with the camera that gives us an intimate experience with Fisher’s life. “Craig does not come out in his photography,” [Assistant Managing Editor/Photography Tim] Rasmussen said. “But the people who Craig is photographing do – and for me that’s more important. I want to learn something about the subject, not the photographer.”
Walker says that his photography is about the moments and reacting to them. When the moment happens, the composition is simply the best effort he can make to capture that moment. “It’s not about me, it’s about Ian, I’m telling Ian’s story. I guess my style is what you’re looking at.”
via The story behind The Denver Post photo Pulitzer – The Society for News Design.
Do yourself a favor and click the above link – it’s a good read. And then go here for the presentation on the Denver Post’s photoblog.
Perceptions at a tea party
UPDATE: I clarified some language here as I accidentally referred to the 2nd photo when I should have been referring to picture #1. It is now correct! -Mike
I spent last Saturday covering a tea party rally in Stafford. I expected that there would be a lot of signs and flag-waving as seen at every other tea party and I was not disappointed in that regard. I wanted to try and get an overall shot that didn’t misrepresent how many or how few people showed up. The reporter and I took an informal count and estimated 200-300 people. In order to get the overall I put a 14mm on the camera and held it above my head with a monopod and came up with these two frames. While it doesn’t show the entire crowd, many of whom were off to the side, at least it didn’t make it look like 10 people showed up.
Initially I preferred the first one; the guy was giving a speech called An Angry American, getting pretty worked up and gesturing a lot with his hands. We ended up running the second one, mostly because nearly every person I showed frame #1 to thought of a nazi salute. I wonder if that is because of their own feelings about this political movement or if it really does look like that? I was concerned that using the first picture would be considered unfair or at least editorializing if readers saw the same thing. The idea of objectivity (and that discussion is worth an entire post on its own!) is drilled into your head in the newspaper world but I wonder if I went too far in the other direction and sanitized what actually was going on there out of some kind of political correctness. Was I unnecessarily concerned about this? Am I overthinking this? Which one would you have published?
Recent Work: High School Hoops
I spent a few days over the past couple weeks covering a few area teams trying to make it to the state title game. Sadly for them, they fell short. Luckily for me, it means football season is another day closer. I just need to make it through baseball… On a technical note, the first picture was shot with a Nikon D300 at ISO4000, hence the noise, and the other two with a D3 at around ISO3200.
District Swimming
King George's Rachael Webb (center) celebrates with Heather Jones (left) and Emily Pelto (right) following Webb's finish in the 50-yard freestyle at the Battlefield District swim meet at the University of Mary Washington on February 13, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
King George's Tyler Grigg competes in the 100-yard butterfly at the Battlefield District swim meet at the University of Mary Washington on February 13, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Skydive Orange
Kane Crisler or Arlington, Va was one of several skydivers at Skydive Orange to take advantage of the warm weather and clear skies over Orange County on February 21, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Shot this on the way back from an assignment at Montpelier in Orange County. It likely will not run in tomorrow’s paper due to the hole available was something like 1 column. If it did run, the skydiver would look like an ink smudge. Oh well – it was nice to sit around and chat with the people at Skydive Orange for a while!
Quick pic from the General Assembly
I’m sitting in the basement of the General Assembly building in Richmond, killing time between the opening session this afternoon and tonight’s last State of the Commonwealth speech by Governor Kaine. Below, a nice slice of life amid a morning of procedural matters.
Delegate Bobby Orrock introduces Speaker Bill Howell to his granddaughter Abigail Orrock at the Capitol in Richmond, Va on January 13, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
First Assignment of 2010: New Year’s Baby
Emily Alejandra Hernandez was born at 1:05am to Silvia Hernandez Berrera and Emilio Vega at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Va on Jan. 1, 2010. Emily is the first baby born in the Fredericksburg area in the new year.
Looking Back on 2009
Here is a quick slideshow of some of my pictures from 2009. For lack of a better term I’ve titled them my best but that may not be totally accurate nor would calling them my favorites. I suppose when I think of my experiences in 2009, at least as far as the paper goes, these pictures come to mind.
Northwest Region Football
I covered the Northwest Region quarterfinals yesterday at Liberty High School. Because of all the bad weather, the games had been moved from Friday night to Saturday, which made working on a day off a bit more palatable. The first game, Colonial Forge vs Franklin County was one of the better games I have seen in a long while. It was a barnburner – blow-for-blow scoring, great athleticism on the part of the players, great crowds and lots of emotion, all which make for good pictures. I also have to say that usually I can’t stand most high school bands, particularly when they butcher the national anthem but Forge’s band was even good! In the end, with seconds on the clock, all Forge had to do was hold Franklin on 4th down but the Eagles completed a pass, converting the first down. Forge held them off for two downs but Franklin kicked a field goal, leading 37-35 and leaving .8 seconds on the board. Point-eight?!?! As I was working the sidelines, trying to get a picture that showed the proverbial agony of defeat, an assistant coach gave me a hard time, telling me not to take a picture of a kid who was beside himself. I told him I’m trying to work here and he said he’d block my camera every chance he got. It’s funny how everybody loves you when they’re winning but when things get tough, that changes very quickly. I suppose he felt like he was protecting the kid but unfortunately for him we don’t live in a fuzzy and warm fantasy land where everybody is special and a winner. And I had already taken the picture. It gave me a some joy to tell him that.
After that game I was kind of tired – with that much action I found myself hustling back and forth all game long – but I had a second one to cover. I was hoping Brooke Point vs William Fleming was going to be a nice 14-10 kind of game. Initially I was right, the Black Hawks took an early lead. I thought, “Great, it is a nice slow game, they are winning so I won’t get any grief after the game.” And I said as much to a guy on the sidelines. Well, for my sins, the game quickly developed into another score-for-score slugfest. Brooke Point came out on top in the end 44-35 and I was whipped. The party doesn’t stop though – Redskins vs Broncos today and MORE high school playoff ball on Monday. It could be worse – I was originally slated to head to Virginia Beach to cover the state field hockey tournament. Nothing against the athletes but even after years of shooting the game, I am still baffled by some of the nuances of the game.
Recent field hockey
You’ve gotta love nice, fall afternoon light. Now if I could just apply that light to some football…
Walking in the Woods
Jason Applegate, a natural resources specialist at Fort A.P. Hill, stands amid a grove of bald cypress trees near a live-fire range on the installation on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. Several of the trees are estimated to date from the early- to mid-nineteenth century. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
I started out the day at Fort A.P. Hill working on a story about environmental stewardship on the base. Jason Applegate, who I discovered is a fellow Penn Stater, took me to a few spots on post including a grove of bald cypress, apparently the farthest inland grove in Virginia, an eagle nest, a low impact parking lot as well a couple other spots. It was nice to start the day outdoors and try and light a tree with two strobes. It’s no National Geographic action, but it works. Here’s a few more:
A bald cypress stands in a grove near a live-fire range at Fort A.P. Hill. The installation was given the DoD's Eagle Award in recognition of environmental stewardship efforts at the installation. The tree is estimated to be over 150 years old. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
One of the environmental efforts underway at A.P. Hill is a Low Impact Development parking lot that reduces run-off by using permeable materials rather than a pad of asphalt. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Looking down a tube that protects seedlings from hungry deer.
The Fallen Marine Photo
“America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war; America is at the mall.”
A couple weeks ago I wrote about whether is was appropriate to publish a photo of Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard being tended by two comrades after he was wounded in Afghanistan. He later died from his wounds. I posted my thoughts and a link to the photo on my blog on the website of my employer. Within a few days I got a stern chat from the editor and managing editor and was told to take down the post. I guess it had to do with the fact that my opinion differed from the paper’s position on the photo and I posted before the editor had a chance to run a column about the issue in the paper three – 1, 2, 3 – days after the AP story about Lance Cpl. Bernard ran. I posted my thoughts the day before the AP story was published though I did not discuss the editors’ decision nor did I say what the paper decided to do. I provided a link, which I was informed was equal to putting the picture on the newspaper’s site. I disagreed with that point but whatever, it isn’t my newspaper so I removed the post.
The New York Times’ Lens blog addresses the aftermath of the release of the photo far more eloquently than I could hope to so check it out here. The quote I opened up with was from a photo by Getty’s John Moore that leads off the column.
Recent Daily Work
A week or two ago I was sent up to Colonial Beach, the so-called Playground of the Potomac, to get a picture to illustrate a story about some proposed beach ordinances that on face-value, appeared to eliminate fun and/or shenanigans at the beach. Locals the reporter and I spoke to suggested it was directed specifically Latino people. I suppose the bottom line is why would you do anything to drive tourists away, especially these days when a place like CB could benefit from those who would ordinarily be going to the Outer Banks or Delmarva. Anyway, here’s the photo I came up with:
Pedro Marquez, of Manassas, gathers up his fishing poles after fishing along the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Va. on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009. Several ordinances have been proposed that would restrict certain activities including fishing from the beach. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
I’ve said before that I like shooting sports and some days a bad game is still better than some of the dross that passes for journalism but I think I need to draw the line at high school volleyball. I think part of this stems from my lack of interest in this sport and part of it is the awful high school venues – bad light, cluttered backgrounds. All that aside, in an effort to clean up the ugly backgrounds, I went up into the bleachers to shoot down on the action and came up with this:
Colonial Forge's Erin Godshall (#12) and Morgan Hymes (#15) collide as they both attempt to return a shot against Mountain View on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Despite my dislike of volleyball, here is a series called The Season by my friend Scott at the Chicago Tribune about a high school volleyball team. Proof that sports is about so much more than just game action. Good stuff!
TGFF*
*thank god for football
I tend to get down in the wintertime. I guess it is the cold and the gray skies. My wife on the other hand told me she can’t stand the summer, especially August. Come to think of it, I don’t like it either. And not just because I sweat like a pig at a sausage factory. I think it’s because there is no football. But that is all behind me. Football season is in full swing and I am beginning to get into midseason form. I must admit my first two weeks were pretty ugly – think of it as the photographic version of the Redskins!
Plus I decided to change up my approach. Last season I toted a 400mm lens to most of the games I covered and the ‘look’ began to get a little stale so this season, I decided to go a little looser with a 300mm. The longer lens gave me a little less reason to move around and find different angles. I would sit in a general area, pop on a teleconverter and wait for the action to come to me. Now I’m staying much closer to the line of scrimmage and moving more. So thank you to SI’s Robert Beck and his article at sportsshooter.com for motivating me to change up my game!
So here are a few pictures from some recent prep games. The puddle one was from the first game of the season. I think its an ‘almost’ -too quiet a picture for the paper. Probably too quiet a picture to ever see the light of day, really. I think I need to make an effort this season to take some time at each Friday night game to make more ‘flavor’ pictures. Mostly because the action is usually fairly lackluster. That is my mission tomorrow night!
Massaponax players, reflected in a puddle following heavy rain, watch their teammates warm up prior to the start of Friday's game against Spotsylvania. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Christian Barham, center, and his Eagle teammates listen to the pregame prayer before the start of Fredericksburg Christian School's first football game. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Chancellor's Tony Russell tries to avoid Massaponax's Andre Wyche on a punt return during Friday's game at Massaponax. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Massaponax football players lay their hands on a stone with a plaque honoring Ryan McGhee, a Massaponax graduate who died in Iraq, before the start of Friday's game against Chancellor. His jersey, number 33, was also retired. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Some recent work
I haven’t had many positive things to say and I’m trying to minimize my griping about the newspaper business. I guess I should address that soon though as it has a bearing on my work. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from recent assignments including the Redskins/Ravens preseason game, a balloon festival, the start of high school football practice, the area’s sole remaining cannery and a portrait of a young man heading to college.
Samantha Schuldt, 10, of Fredericksburg, holds onto line attached to a 1/4-scale balloon while pilots waiting for fog to dissipate at the Annual Balloon Festival at The Flying Circus Aerodrome in Bealeton, Va. on Saturday, August 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Children stand inside of Richmond resident Bubba Winslow's balloon at the Annual Balloon Festival at The Flying Circus Aerodrome in Bealeton, Va. on Saturday, August 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Washington Redskins punter Hunter Smith punts the ball from deep in Redskins territory. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Washington Redskins tight end Fred Davis fumbles the ball in the second quarter of the first preseason game in Baltimore, Md. on August 13, 2009. Davis recovered the ball on the play. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Caroline County High School graduate Marcel Anderson is heading to Norfolk State to start college on Saturday. photographed at his Doswell home on August 12, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Andrew Lucas, a football player at Fredericksburg Christian School, take a water break during the first day of practice on August 10, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
John Brown pulls a basket of tomatoes from a steamer at the Caroline County Cannery near Bowling Green on August 6, 2009. The Cannery nearly closed but will remain opne for at least another year. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Mini Michael Jackson
Saw young Michael Covington as I wandered around the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair looking for a feature. I’ve been incredibly deep in the weeds lately and haven’t had much motivation to write about it. Maybe this weekend…
Working With What You’ve Got
My friend John Tully works for the Midland Daily News in Michigan. Recently a soldier from his coverage area was killed and he covered the story of Staff Sgt Timothy David’s return home. He was able to photograph the return of the remains to Michigan at the airport but not the actual funeral. However, I think Tully did a good job of shooting around the edges of the story and gave a good impression of what the loss of Staff Sgt David meant to the community.
Check out his blog for not only his coverage of this story but for all the great work he is doing.
