As promised, here are a few more pictures from last Friday's football action at the Kiggins Bowl. Hudson's Bay won 24-6 to recapture the Peace Pipe trophy. It was also the Homecoming game for the Eagles.
Above, l-r: Mychal Harrington hauls in a pass which he ran inside the 5-yard line for a gain of more than 40 yards; Trappers' quarterback Richard Vansiclen heads for the sideline in the second quarter; Fort Vancouver running back Bogden Goncharuk (no. 8) was the go-to guy for the Trappers offense throughout the game.
Below: Eagles' quarterback Shane Pacheco hands off to Tim Ivanov in the first quarter; wide receiver Mychal Harrington was the biggest offensive threat for the Eagles throughout the game.
Bottom: The referee was hurt on a play in the second quarter. He missed the next play but returned to finish the game.
More football pics Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Friday night lights Saturday, November 01, 2008
Hudson's Bay High School beat Fort Vancouver 24-6 on Halloween night at the Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver. I'll post more photos here when I get a chance, but you can see some now on The Columbian's website ... click here.
The Kiggins Bowl is a beautiful facility, at least from the photographer's perspective. The light fog that rolled in through the game added an air of mystery, and thankfully the rain held off until I was leaving the stadium.
Headliners: Corb Lund
The latest edition of Headliners is now available on Northwest CanCon. I spoke with Alberta country/roots artist Corb Lund on Oct. 23 before his show at the Doug Fir. Among other things, we talked about European rodeos, a new U.S. record deal, and his inadvertent connection with the late, great Stan Rogers.
Don't forget, you can sign up for our podcast on iTunes: click here, and press the "subscribe" button. Once you are a subscriber, the latest episode of the podcast will automatically download the next time you open iTunes.
Snapshot: America Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I got a call from The Boston Globe last Thursday asking me to shoot a story on the Asian-American community in Beaverton, the suburb immediately west of Portland. It turned out to be a bit of a learning experience for me, as I wasn't aware that the community is as large as it is.
They needed the photos by 2 p.m. (PDT) on Saturday. Since I was already booked for Thursday afternoon, Friday night, and Saturday morning, I squeezed it in between a meeting on Friday morning and the football game Friday night.
The paper gave me the lead on Uwajimaya Asian Food Market, but I had to some quick research and a lot of phone calls on Thursday to find some examples of the Asian community that would be active on Friday. In the end, I think they stuck with photos from the grocery store.
That's my picture in the lower right of Monday's front page. You can read the story here.
Here are some images from the Kohitsuji Japanese Preschool in Tigard, and a few more from Uwajimaya.
[left] Director Sachi Nishio leads preschoolers in a song Oct. 24 at the Kohitsuji Japanese Preschool in Tigard, Ore. The school, whose name means "little lamb," teaches Japanese language and culture to 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. [below] Kyoko Li (right) helps Tei Okamoto with a craft.
[left] Don Sakai is the Store Director at Uwajimaya's Beaverton location. The supermarket, which caters to the Asian-American market, also has two outlets in the Seattle area. [below] Uwajimaya shoppers are greeted by a large dragon at the entrance to the store.
[right] Sonoko Kakizaki of Portland shops for groceries at Uwajimaya. The supermarket stocks Asian foods including roasted seaweed, noodles, fresh vegetables, and sake.
Football pics Sunday, October 26, 2008
Here are some additional pictures from Friday night's football game between Mark Morris and Hockinson. You can see more of my photos here.
Hockinson jumped out to a 27-0 lead in the third quarter in front of a homecoming crowd, but Mark Morris stormed back with three unanswered touchdowns (each with two-point conversions). There wasn't quite enough time for the Monarchs, though, and Hockinson clinched first place with the 27-24 win.
[left] It was a chilly night in Hockinson. [below] Vivian Quintana and Joey Wagner pose for photos at halftime after being announced as the Homecoming Queen and King.
[below] Hockinson fans cheer for a touchdown in the second quarter.
[right] Hockinson's Kyle Lindsley wraps up Sean Atkins of Mark Morris. [below] Kyle Lindsley of Hockinson (no. 81) breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for Matt Lomasney of Mark Morris in the fourth quarter. 
[below] Mark Morris junior Cody Molner stretches across the goal line over George Madrigal's tackle.
[left] Hockinson fans storm the field as the players shake hands after the game.
Busy busy busy Saturday, October 25, 2008
I've been very busy the last part of this week, and I'll post some of that work in the near future. I'm off to shoot another graduation this morning, but before I go I thought I'd give you another look out of the window.
The weather has been fantastic for the past five or six days, and it's supposed to stay that way for a few more.
The pharaoh looks straight at me, but if I look about 45 degrees to the right, this is what I see. If you've been paying (very) close attention you might recognize the hydro pole in the foreground (jog your memory).
You can see pictures from the football game I shot last night here.
Big brother is watching Monday, October 20, 2008
From the building across the street, the pharaoh keeps an eye on me as I work.
Great Big Sea interview Friday, October 17, 2008
Just a quick post to let you all know that my interview with Bob Hallett of Great Big Sea is now online. Check it out now on Northwest CanCon.
We talked about life in a tour bus, Newfoundland pride, Fortune's Favour, the future of the band, and a certain six-letter N-word. (No, not that one. But if you have sensitive ears, beware that there are a couple of f-bombs in there. However, those are offset with excellent use of words like 'gregarious' and 'churlish.')
Canadian Thanksgiving Thursday, October 16, 2008
[right] About 100 Canadians and their families gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving Oct. 11 at The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island near Portland. The Canada-America Society of Oregon organized the event, which included games, door prizes and, of course, a turkey dinner.
[below, left] Jim Baumgartner, Honorary Consul of Canada in Portland, uses a makeshift megaphone to announce the raffle numbers for Tim Hortons coffee and Canadian t-shirts.
[below, right] A number of Queen's alumni (including yours truly) were at the event.
Great Big Sea pics online Wednesday, October 15, 2008
On the final show of the west coast leg of this tour, Great Big Sea played to a capacity crowd Oct. 12 at the Aladdin Theatre in Portland. I posted a photo slide show today on Northwest CanCon. Stay tuned for my interview with band member Bob Hallett (above, at right) which should be online in the next few days.
The band has about a week off with their families before resuming the tour in upstate New York.
Fall means football Monday, October 13, 2008
Southridge runningback Kirk Werhane carries Sam Novak on his shirttail Oct. 10 in the first quarter of the Skyhawks' 42-7 win at Sunset. I haven't seen any stats for the game yet, but Werhane was responsible for a lot of yards.
Fall means football, and all of the necessary stars finally lined up last Friday for me to shoot my first game of the season. I was at Sunset High School for their game against Southridge.
At first glance, the game promised to be a good matchup—both teams had 4-1 records going into the game. Southridge was ranked no. 6 in the state, and Sunset was hovering just out of the top 10.
Those rankings are likely to change somewhat in the next poll, however, as Southridge dominated the game.
Sunset quarterback Michael Verbeek goes to the air Oct. 10 against Southridge.
Southridge kept Sunset close in the first quarter, giving them two personal fouls in the span of three plays.
The Skyhawks nabbed an interception inside the 10 to stop that drive, and then marched the ball down the field only to cough up a fumble.
From the second quarter on, the game was all Skyhawks. They led 21-0 at halftime and 35-0 at the end of third quarter en route to a 42-7 win.
[right] Sunset junior Sam Novak hits the ball out of Kirk Werhane's hands in the first quarter. [below] Southridge defensive lineman Sedric Watson (no. 56) celebrates after scoring his first career touchdown. Watson returned an interception in the second quarter for the major score.
[left] Southridge quarterback Kellen Mastrud (no. 2) has plenty of time in the pocket all night long.
How not to make tea Saturday, October 11, 2008
Tea is one of the easiest beverages to prepare. I learned when I was about six years old. And yet, at least here in the United States, it is really difficult to find people who know how to make it properly. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that there are a lot of shortcuts people think you can take. Either way, good tea is hard to find, even in cafes that should know better.
With that in mind, here are some directions on how not to make tea.
- Any old tea will do. Coffee is a very complex drink, with subtle flavor variations depending on the variety, source, and processing of the bean. Tea is tea, right? Just grab whatever brand is cheapest. And since it's dried, it will last forever. Just keep it in a box in your cupboard beside all your other spices.
- Unless you're drinking ice tea, it's supposed to be hot. But not too hot—you don't want to burn your tongue. You could boil water, but it's easier and quicker just to take some off the coffee maker.
- Tea pots are a waste of time. Why use a piece of pottery specially designed to make tea when you're just going to pour it in a cup anyway? Just put the water in a cold mug and let it sit on the counter for a couple of minutes while you find a teabag.
- Teabags are wonderful. Just plop one into the water and let it sit for a minute or two—but no more. Otherwise they might impart too much flavour to the water.
- Offer your guests cream or half-and-half if they want something to add to their tea. Some of your guests might prefer milk instead. In that case, be sure to add more because it's not as thick. And be sure to add it while the tea is still brewing—it speeds up the process. You can also add sugar or honey if you want.
Ron Sexsmith Wednesday, October 08, 2008
[Update: The Ron Sexsmith interview is online now. Click here to go directly to the story. -ed.]
I had the pleasure of interviewing legendary singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith this afternoon before his performance at the Doug Fir Lounge here in Portland.
Look for the interview on Northwest CanCon in a few days.
For me, at least, the toughest thing about doing these interviews and portrait sessions is that it's usually a really rushed process, especially the photo shoots.
Ron was just checking into the hotel when I arrived (at the appointed hour). I don't know where the breakdown occurred, but he didn't realize that he was booked for an interview today, so I was already kind of invading.
He checked his emails as I unpacked my audio gear in his hotel room. We talked for about 20 minutes, then he went back to checking emails as I got ready to do the portrait.
Ron was the first artist I've met at the Doug Fir, and I didn't have time ahead of the interview to look for a suitable place to take pictures. So I made a 30-second scouting trip outside his room, found a decent place, and went back to put my simple kit together.
One speedlight (SB-800) in a softbox on a stand, camera and a couple of PocketWizards ... that's it. I had a reflector I wanted to use, but no assistant and no time to recruit one. So we did without.
I was pushing it to go 5 minutes 17 seconds from the first frame to the last, including a few seconds for some guests who had to walk through our set, and a slight shift of positions to get to a different background.
Total time photo from scouting to walking out ... less than 20 minutes.
Ron ran off to his sound check. I met up with some friends who had conveniently chosen the Doug Fir for happy hour.
Curling season begins! Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Yvonne Liske shows a new curler where to aim his throw Sept. 30 at the Evergreen Curling Club open house in Portland. About 70 novices came to the event for an introduction to the Olympic sport.
Tuesday night was the first open house event of the 2008-09 season for the Evergreen Curling Club. The club plays at the Lloyd Center ice rink from October through April.
The club is running a two-week "novice league" Oct. 7 and Oct. 14. The Fall league starts Oct. 21.
Busy weekend Monday, September 29, 2008
Cindy Sieler, 5, cools off Sunday at Esther Short Park from a late-September warm spell that’s expected to last at least through Tuesday. Sunday’s high, 88 degrees, topped the record for the date; today may be another record-breaker.
It was a busy weekend for me. After working like mad on Thursday and Friday to get the Po' Girl interview online, I was up early Saturday for the "local day" of the NPPA's Flying Short Course.
The conference was held at the University of Oregon's new Portland campus, which is less than two miles from my apartment, so it doesn't get much more convenient than that.
The presentations were generally related to video production. I haven't stuck my toe into that pond yet, but the discussion was enlightening in a general sense, and a lot of the concepts apply to audio as well. It was fascinating to see the work-behind-the-work of television photographers like Kurt Austin (KGW) and Mike Rosborough (KATU).
I went to see Sloan play at Dante's on Saturday night. Chris was getting over a cold or something, so he struggled with his voice a bit, and Patrick flubbed the solo to "Everything you've done wrong," but I think things like that help to let you know that you're not listening to a tape. Other than that they were great. By the end of the show, Chris was clearly having fun with the couple hundred knowledgeable fans in attendance.
The upside to Chris's sore throat came at the beginning of their encore, when they played "Underwhelmed," which he introduced as "a song that doesn't need any falsetto." Although (or perhaps because) it is the song that put them on the map back 1992, they don't play it often anymore.
Debra Callaway, who went to the Gingerbread House in 1968 and 1969, looks at graduation photos Sept. 28 during the daycare center's 60th anniversary reunion. Owner Rosalee Johnson estimates that 2000 children have attended the center since her mother started it in 1948.
Sunday morning I was up and back to the official Flying Short Course day. The FSC is a traveling workshop put on every year by the National Press Photographer's Association. Portland was the final stop on the three-day tour, which included Boiling Springs, N.C., and Arlington, Texas, on Friday and Saturday.
Washington, D.C., photographer John Harrington opened the session with an excellent presentation on business practices. I think Regina McComb's presentation about video skills covered a lot of ground that had been covered the day before, but there were more people there on Sunday.
The three presentations I was most interested in came after lunch: Kelly Jordan's "Producing Multimedia," Betty Udesen's "Audio and Stills," and Dave Honl's lighting lecture.
Unfortunately, I had to miss all of these because I had a last-minute assignment for The Columbian.
Sunday was the 60th anniversary reunion at the Gingerbread House daycare center in Vancouver, so I went over there to see what was going on. You can read more about it (and see one of my photos) here. I don't know what other pictures they ran in the paper, but this one (below) is my favorite from the assignment.
Linda Griffiths (front) and her husband Richard get down to kid level Sunday afternoon at the Gingerbread House 60th anniversary reunion. Linda graduated from the school in 1965.
And, as often happens, one assignment leads to another. While I was at the Gingerbread House, the reporter handed me her phone with the editor on the line. I guess another story fell through so they needed something to fill the hole. I went off looking for pictures of people enjoying the record-breaking heat.
After getting a couple of so-so photos down on the Columbia River, I headed over to Esther Short Park and found the picture at the top of this post. I think the paper publishes pictures from that park fairly often because it's right across the street from their office. But when you put kids in a fountain it's like shooting fish in a barrel, and when you need something in a hurry you go with it. Here's the story they ran.
I got the pictures in with a couple of followup phonecalls to the paper by 7:45. Then it was time for dinner, a bit of television, and zzzzz...
A bird on a wire?
Last week, while I was sitting at my desk and talking to my parents on the phone, a large hawk landed on the telephone pole about 150 feet away from my window. At first I thought it was a red-tail, or maybe an osprey, both of which are pretty common around here. But I knew that wasn't quite right.
It was still sitting there some 15 minutes later when I finished talking to my parents, so I got out the bird book.
It didn't take long to narrow the choices down to either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk, but even so, my eyesight wasn't good enough to positively identify it. So I put the 200 mm lens on my camera and took some pictures.
The book says that the two birds are pretty hard to distinguish in the field. Comparing my photos to the pictures and description in the book, though, I'm pretty certain that it was a Cooper's Hawk.
According to the book, its habitat is "mature forests, open woodlands, wood edges, [and] river groves," none of which describe my neighborhood, but a large tract of forest is only a mile away, so maybe that's close enough.
Panorama! Sunday, September 28, 2008
Photographer Doug Wyland mounts a Fuji GX617 camera on a magic arm Sept. 23 in preparation for a photo of the senior class at Mountainview High School in Vancouver, Wash.
I had the opportunity to learn a bit about old-school photography last week. We shot a class portrait of some 400 seniors at Mountainview High School in Vancouver. Unlike almost every other job I've done, though, this one was on film. We didn't use the typical 35-mm roll, though. For a higher quality negative and because of the wide shape of the group, we shot it on medium format film with a panoramic camera.
[left] Michael Flanigan hands the shutter release to Doug Wyland.
The Fuji GX617 that we used is not an SLR camera, and everything is manual, so you have to focus with a ground glass focusing screen before you load the film. Basically, that's a translucent screen that fits into the back of the camera exactly where the film will be when you expose it.
Once you have established the focus and measured the exposure with a light meter, you can load the film.
As its name suggests, the GX617 shoots a 6cm x 17cm image (considerably larger than the 2.4cm x 3.6cm size of 35-mm film, and much wider). But you only get four shots per roll.
[left] Bill Berger looks through the focusing screen.
Once we had everything set up, we herded the seniors into the gym, arranged them on the bleachers and took the photos—two formal, and two "spirited."
And, because we live in the digital age, we took a few with a D300 "just in case."
Headliners: Po' Girl Saturday, September 27, 2008
My interview with Po' Girl is online now at Northwest CanCon. You can find it here.
The whole thing was set up in a bit of a hurry—I didn't get confirmation on the interview until less than 12 hours before it happened, and I was committed to sleeping for about seven of those.
We met at the Ace Hotel in downtown Portland, where the girls were staying. I'd never been there before, and I didn't have time to scout it out ahead of time.
The hotel desk staff said I was welcome to do the interview in the lobby but I couldn't do photos in the hotel without arranging it in advance and signing a contract.
No problem. After the interview, Allison, Awna and I stepped outside and found a convenient wall right across the street. Not the most original portraits, but not bad for five minutes of prep.
[left] Allison Russell (left) and Awna Teixeira of Po' Girl are close friends as well as band mates.
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