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.
Covering Local Government
Last night I was sent to cover a meeting of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors as they held a public hearing and vote on whether or not to join the Virginia Railway Express. It started at 6:30 and my deadline was 10pm. I figured that was plenty of time. I wasn’t expecting to make a particularly great picture but the decision to join has been argued back and forth for nearly two decades. A fair number of people turned out to support and oppose the county joining. Arguments included everything from opposition to a new 2% gas tax, to the morality of joining or not joining, that supporting VRE is just another example of socialism, that it would improve the quality of life, that it would bring revenue to the county and somebody even floated the idea that VRE is unconstitutional. The public comment portion wrapped right around 9pm and I was excited – plenty of time to get the vote in and beat my deadline. I’d be home in no time.
I should have started out by saying that I do not regularly cover local government meetings and I now have a new respect for my colleagues on those beats. After the public comment had ended, the supervisors started talking. And talking. And then another one would talk – no wonder this process has been going on for years.
9:30 rolled around, still talking.
9:45, more talk.
9:50, now I’m getting nervous.
9:55, and I am trying my best to employ a jedi mind trick on the chairman, “This is the time to vote. Vote now. Do it!” Alas, it didn’t work.
9:58, I’m sending text messages to the office saying the vote will happen any minute if only these guys will stop listening to themselves talk. The crowd was kind of keyed up and I wanted a reaction picture so I held off on sending anything.
A couple of minutes after 10, they vote to join VRE but with the provision that the date be moved to February 2010, after any new supervisors take their seats, essentially opening the door to another vote and the possibility of NOT joining. Read reporter Dan Telvock’s story here. The reaction picture I was hoping for didn’t happen and the pictures I moved could have been sent a hour earlier. So, 4 hours and 3 mediocre pictures later I stood in the parking lot, transmitted pictures and contemplated punching myself in the face.
Doing More With Less in Radford
I’m in Radford, VA for the annual VHSL spring sports championships. My allergies are kicking up (or I caught the swine flu), and the forecast is fairly ugly. I decided to skip trying out any remote cameras as I have had little to no success with them this season. Might as well keep it simple. Today is tennis. Tomorrow is 2 softball games and a soccer match. The best part – all 3 games start at 10 and I am on my own. A couple of years ago we would have had 2 shooters down here but not anymore. As newspaper managers across the country have said in the face of crushing layoffs, do more with less. I’ll let you know how that works out for me…
Editor & Publisher pic of the week
E&P selected a picture I shot last week at the dignified transfer of Cpl. Ryan McGhee as their Photo of the Week. I appreciate the attention though I wish it wasn’t for such a sad photo.
http://tinyurl.com/qqzpre
shameless self-promotion
Contest season is over and not surprisingly I got shut out of the major ones – NPPA, World Press & Pictures of the Year. That’s OK there was a lot of big news this year and some really powerful work entered and my stuff didn’t come close.
On the upside, the judges of the Virginia News Photographers Association’s annual contest apparently saw fit to recognize a fair number of my pictures this year. Even more surprising was that I won a regional Edward R. Murrow award for News Documentary from the Radio Television News Directors Association for a radio piece I produced for the paper’s sister station WFLS about a local National Guard unit in Kuwait. Yes, you read that right – radio. I knew my telecommunications degree was not in vain and I was pleased to tell my long-suffering parents that their tuition money finally paid off, ten years down the line. Holy $#!* – ten years since I (barely) graduated?!?!! that’s a completely different story… Anyway, the piece is now in the running for a national Murrow award but I’m not holding my breath… Check out VNPA.org to see all the winners. Also, here are a couple of my photos that won in VNPA:
Sports Feature - First Place Colonial Forge's Joe Pantaleo jumps into the arms of coach Bill Swink following his victory over Fauquier's David Yost in the championship round of the 2008 Virginia Group AAA wrestling tournament at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, VA on February 23, 2008. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Portrait - First Place Buddy Hayes of Chesapeake, VA , Miss Wheelchair Virginia, waits to give a presenation to the Lions Club with her service dog Ellie at Falls Run Community Center on February 27, 2008. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Daily Grind – Business Portrait
Mary Petro at Mt. Olympus Berry Farm in Ruther Glen, VA. Petro runs Farm 2 Family Direct, a delivery service for locally-produced food. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
I shot this last week for the paper’s business section. Every week we have a profile on a local business owner. For a while we got an endless stream of cube dwellers which resulted in an endless stream of man-and-his-computer pictures. Lately there has been an opportunity to meet some interesting people doing interesting things. In my conversation with Mary, she reminded me that there is TON of locally-produced food. Everything from fruits and veggies to meat and dairy products. I think i should make an effort to check that out a little more often…
The tech information: Nikon D300, ISO200, 17mm, f4.5, 1/2000 sec. I used the pop-up flash to trigger a small softbox i was holding off to the left. Gotta love Nikon’s flash systems!
I’ll make an effort to post the tech stuff for the three people out there that care…
Winter All-Area Sportraits
2008-2009 All-Area swimmer Meredith Cavalier
North Stafford's Megan Melendez, All-Area Gymnast
2008-2009 All-Area basketball players of the year, Courtland's Josh Hairston and Colonial Beach's T.T. Carey
Mountain View's Thomas Porter and Kaitlyn Davis are the 2008-2009 All-Area winter track athletes of the year.
Colonial Forge senior Mike Garafalo is the 2009 All-Area Wrestler of the Year.
2008-2009 All-Area co-swimmer of the year Trevor Carr
Stafford High School's Marquel Davis,
Well, it’s that time of year again – All-Area Sportraits. I’ve been shooting a ton of these lately and I was hoping I could pass these to a coworker to see what he could do with them. Sadly he got laid off and bought a plane ticket to China. I remained in Fredericksburg to herd cats coordinate with high school kids to shoot some pictures. I’ve been running on fumes when it comes to these shoots but I think a couple of these turned out OK, aside from one kid not showing up and another refusing to put on a uniform. Nothing makes me feel better than getting big-timed by a teenager! We also have to shoot group pictures of the All-Area teams. I will be the first to say if portraits are a weakness of mine, then group portraits are the weakest of all. The lighting is no problem but I always have trouble organizing the shape of the group. As the seasons roll on, we tend to switch between mugshots of each athlete or a group shot. I think the group shots look better but the mugs are way easier.
All-Area Gymnasts
Foreclosures in Spotsylvania County
I spent part of yesterday following a Spotsylvania County sheriff’s deputy as he cleared houses that had been foreclosed upon and the new owner, usually a bank, was taking possession. Of the three places we visited, the bank representative never showed and the other two were empty. He said that often times the tenants are long gone. I’m no Anthony Suau – he produced a great essay on the financial crisis – but I think it is a good first step on one of my portions of the paper’s Stimulus package called Bringing it Home. I plan on going back out next week but in the meantime need to shoot this season’s All-Area sportraits first!
