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Just a lightning strike away…

Hugh Scott doesn’t get many bylines in the paper because most of his work is for the advertising and marketing departments at OPUBCO. But he has a collection of lightning photos that is insane! Here are a few from an early August storm. Seems like we’ve had more than normal for this time of the year.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

-Doug Hoke

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LibertyFest Car Show

Went to the LibertyFest car show this morning on the campus of UCO. It was hot and so were the cars! One of the best shows I’ve seen. Something from every decade from 1900!  I love the cars from the 50′s and 60′s. Back when the designers still ruled! Great car stories too. Here are a few of my favorite detail photos. Enjoy the full gallery here.

-Doug Hoke

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Simon Says

Remember playing Simon Says when you were a kid? How fun it was? Well now the fun is taking photos of kids playing Simon Says as I did Monday night in Edmond’s Fink Park at the Girl Scout Twilight Camp. I came across a group of Brownies playing and took some photos as the command was “Simon Says Smile Big!” See more photos Saturday in the MyEdmond section and a photo gallery:  http://newsok.com/multimedia/photos/gallery/501195

-Doug Hoke

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Ashley McKee

Ashley McKee, The Oklahoman’s 2009 photo summer intern started this week. Ashley comes to us from The University of Montana in Missoula. Ashley went to her first assignment Friday, the reopening of the Rock Cafe in Stroud after its destructive fire last year. Here are a couple of her photos. Some were published on Saturday May 30 and more will run with the Food Dude’s column in the Life section this week. Look for more from Ashley as we get her up to speed and she finds some projects to work on.

-Doug Hoke, Dir. of Photography

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High Jump

This photo has extra meaning for me, not only because I think it turned out really well, but because the subject, Toni Young, is a high jumper. I was a 3-year-letterman high jumper in track in high school. When this assignment to shoot Toni, who tied the national record with a jump of 6′-4″ earlier, came up last week as a promo for the state 6A championships it brought back a few memories.

Her school, and the track we would shoot at, Del City High School, is where I set a personal best in 1975, my senior year. My 5′-11″ pales compared to her record, but was still my personal best. My senior season had a couple of distractions for me. One, senioritis–my hat goes off to all those spring sport seniors who can stay focused, and photography, which has become my life-long passion and vocation.

-Doug Hoke

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Capturing the joy of others

Last Saturday I was at Cops Cooped Up, an event to raise money for Special Olympics by the Edmond Police Department and also a safety fair.  It got its name because Officer Aaron Randall stayed in a tent in the parking lot of Academy Sports from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. The Edmond police and fire departments brought out a lot of their equipment to show the public.  Safety fairs are mainly put on to help educate children and let them meet these real life heroes. And kids there were. Which brings me to the point of this entry, capturing the joy of children and their parents photographically. It has always been one of the parts of my job I enjoy the most. Most young children have an innocence that allows them to enjoy things we (adults) take for granted. A young boy watching a fireman climb the ladder on a fire truck. Sitting on a police motorcycle or peering into the K-9 car to get a close look at the dog. Or just saying things to make us laugh. I hope you enjoy the following photos as much as I did taking them.

To see a gallery from last Saturday, click here

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Oklahoma Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service

Jim Beckel covered the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service this morning and came up with some nice photos.

To see the complete gallery click here

-Doug Hoke

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Another Hot Oklahoma Night

If you go to the Oklahoma rock’n'roll exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center be sure to take your camera! Besides lots of cool exhibits there is a Rock Star Photo-Op where you can pose with a guitar, bass, drums or microphone and fulfill your dreams!

-Doug Hoke

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From the Director of Photography

We have lots of tours at OPUBCO and one of the highlights used to be the photo department. I say used to be because in the age digital photography, our office looks pretty much like everyone else’s, a desk and a place for a computer. Gone are the cool things we used to show, the rotating doors to the darkroom, the darkroom illuminated by a dim safelight, the film processing rooms with reels and tanks and turbo dryers. Gone are the trays we used to watch our handiwork appear before our eyes. Watching the print develop was one of the things that turned me on to photography. It was a magical thing to see the photo slowly appear out of nowhere. But also a thing of the past is the repugnant odor of fixer, the dry rot on your fingers from having your hands in liquid all the time and the itchy feeling of being slightly allergic to the chemistry. Yes, we were supposed to use tongs to move the prints from tray to tray, but on deadline late at night it didn’t happen very often!

I resisted digital until the quality became comparable to film, but now I say “FILM IS DEAD!” Yes, the prints from real fiber-based silver prints are superior to anything digital, but they only belong in a gallery hanging on the wall. For most people, digital is an enormous jump in access, cost savings and ease to share. For most publishing, digital is the new king, for better and for worse. Better because we can do things much faster and cheaper and worse because we can do things faster and cheaper!  Because of the low cost of technology, more people can afford better cameras and the software to deal with photos.

But a 10 megapixel camera, business card and photo manipulation software do not make a photographer. The art of photography is just that, art. It is created in the mind through a media that captures light and shadows and takes a lifetime to perfect. Yes, I will concede that anyone can get a good photograph occasionally (several Pulitzers have been won by amateurs who were in the right place at the right time), but it takes a professional to do it day in and day out. Which leads me back to the photo department at The Oklahoman.

Our office is now wherever we can find a digital signal for our laptops. Whether that comes from phone, hardwire or WiFi. Have cameras will travel! Our staff of 16 photographers have an average of close to 20 years in the profession and now we can stay longer and get photos into publication faster than we ever would have thought possible 10 years ago. So that vision, plus technology makes for so great photography on a daily basis. In print, on the web and now in this blog. Enjoy!

- Doug Hoke

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