Cleaning up
A resident of Slapout, Oklahoma poses outside his home in the Oklahoma panhandle in August, 2007. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
I cleaned out my desk and 5 small lockers that I’ve used for storage over the last 6 years. It’s about time. I found printed assignment requests with names scrawled on them dating back to February of 2006, which is just four months after I started here. Those lockers held a random assortment of junk including $1.09 in loose change, a piece of a mini blind from the first house I bought in Oklahoma City and an old delayed baggage claim form.
Cleaning up a six-year stack of assignments, newspaper clippings and equipment brought back some memories too. It was fun to think about the pictures behind some of those assignments. For example, I found a couple of rolls of film that I used in my Holga camera and a picture that I shouldn’t have passed on four years ago (above). I took the Holga on a road trip to the panhandle with former staff writer Ron Jackson back in 2007. He wrote a story about the Northwest Passage, which runs from Oklahoma City to Boise City, Oklahoma.
To see more recent pictures from The Oklahoman’s photo staff, click here.
-John Clanton
Touchdown!
Here is a quick glance at 15 touchdowns.
Saturday was a high-scoring day for the OU and OSU football teams. Staff photographers Chris Landsberger, Nate Billings and Bryan Terry traveled to Texas to photograph the Red River Rivalry. The final score was 55-17 in favor of OU. They captured 6 of 7 Oklahoma touchdowns.
Meanwhile, staff photographer Steve Sisney and I traveled to Stillwater to photograph the Oklahoma State v. Kansas game. OSU won, 70-28. We captured 9 out of 11 touchdowns.
For more pictures from OU v. Texas, click here.
And for OSU v. Kansas photos, click here.
Oklahoma's Tom Wort (21) celebrates after a touchdown by Oklahoma's Demontre Hurst (6) during the Red River Rivalry college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the University of Texas Longhorns (UT) at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011.
Oklahoma State's Jeremy Smith (31) celebrates a touchdown during the first half of the college football game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) and the University of Kansas Jayhawks (KU) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman
- Sarah Phipps
Violent images from a nearby war
A soldier guards next to packages of marijuana that are being incinerated in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010. On a conjoined operation with the army, local and state police seized 134 tons of U.S.-bound marijuana Monday, by far the biggest drug bust in the country in recent years. Eleven suspects were detained.(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
Photographers like Guillermo Arias and Bernandino Hernandez are getting violent, disturbing images that will rarely be used in American newspapers. They are covering the Mexico Drug War. Looking at pictures from war isn’t easy, nor should it be. Arias and Hernandez are putting us just a few feet from people who have been killed for territory, drugs or maybe for no reason at all, in our neighboring country.
These pictures are important and more people should see them. Photographs transcend language and borders. Pictures like these convey desperation, merciless violence and sorrow. Photographs can show the best in people, but they can also show us, and future generations, the atrocities that we’re capable of.
There are more graphic images from the Mexico Drug War that you can see by clicking here.
Tijuana's Mayor Jorge Ramos comforts Celia Urdelia Medina wife of slain assistant municipal police chief Abel Salazar during his funeral in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, May 18, 2009. Salazar was fatally shot Saturday when he was driving to his job at a police substation in Tijuana.(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
The body of a young man who was shot to death lies on the ground at the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday Aug. 23, 2011. The city of Acapulco has been hit by violence as drug gangs continue to battle for control of the region. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)
A gold plated pistol and jewelry, allegedly seized from Manuel Alquisires Garcia, alias "El Meme," sit on display during his presentation to the press of in Mexico City, Monday Sept. 12, 2011. According to the Navy, Alquisires Garcia escaped from prison in 2002, was detained in possession of several weapons on Sept. 10 and is a accused of belonging to the Gulf drug cartel. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
The bodies of two men shot dead next to the Caleta beach, background, lie, one of them covered, in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday Aug. 16, 2011. The city of Acapulco has been hit by violence as drug gangs continue to battle for control of the region. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)
The body of a young man who was shot to death is covered by a forensic officer at the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday Aug. 23, 2011. The city of Acapulco has been hit by violence as drug gangs continue to battle for control of the region. In background, an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)
-John Clanton
Macro photography-A better version
Perched on a window screen, a robber fly eats a small moth in Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
As both of you know, I’ve been trying to get good macro pictures in my spare time by reversing a 50mm lens. I’ve written a couple of blog posts about it. Staff Writer Ken Raymond recently wrote a story about a student at OU who puts my macro pictures to shame.
Thomas Shahan’s pictures have been published in magazines around the world and even sold to M.I.T. to be used in scientific textbooks. It was by looking at his macro pictures that I found out that the insect doing the eating in the picture above is called a Robber Fly.
You can see more pictures by staff photographers at The Oklahoman by clicking here. You can always click on photographs featured on Alternate Crop for a closer view.
-John Clanton
Recent unpublished pictures
The Honor Guard stands at attention as the casket of 1st Lt. Damon Leehan is unloaded from a plane at the Oklahoma Air National Guard near Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Sometimes there just isn’t enough room in the newspaper for all the pictures that we take. I’ve written about this before, but to put it in perspective, in the last 20 days, we’ve put roughly 1,900 pictures into the Merlin archive system. 1,400 or so were never published in the paper, although many of those have been seen online in our photo galleries, in blog posts or in slideshows.
Here are a few of the many pictures that you may not have seen in the newspaper.
Yukon's Derek Deeds reaches for the ball but comes up short during a high school football scrimmage at Putnam City in Oklahoma City, Friday, August 19, 2011. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Generals cornerback Cheyenne Williams (81) is greeted by his girlfriend, Claribel Zamudio, after a scrimmage at U.S. Grant High School on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011. Photo by Zach Gray, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
Quick portrait of a street preacher
A portrait of Tim Beeson in Oklahoma City on Monday, Aug. 22, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Tim Beeson and I sat on unbalanced chairs under a faded white tent that was once used for old-fashioned tent revivals. He talked excitedly about his shop and his girlfriend; he told wild stories about his time in prison and what led to his ten-year incarceration; and he remembered a recovering alcoholic he’d helped out once upon a time. Then he closed his eyes and quietly sang a song that he’d just written about Jesus.
On Monday afternoon, I finally stopped and talked with Tim, who works under the tent set up in front of the old Owl Court on Route 66, or Britton road in Oklahoma City. I pass by the tent every day on my way to and from work. Beeson, who says he is a preacher, sells fruit, plants, and vegetables out of his roadside tent. He said he tries to give back to needy people who stop to buy vegetables. Beeson leans through a haze of smoke to poke twigs under a 65-pound pot of soup inside his smoker. He talks about giving back 60 percent of all the money he makes by giving customers bowls of vegetable soup and free produce.
Interesting and unpredictable conversations with people like Tim Beeson are still a part of what I enjoy about news photography. Remember that you can click on any image featured on Alternate Crop for a closer look. You can also see more pictures by photographers at The Oklahoman by clicking here.
-John Clanton
Macro photography-the practical application
A grasshopper sits in tall grass in northwest Oklahoma City Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Until last week, my experiments with macro photography were just for fun. An interesting challenge that made popular blog posts on Alternate Crop, but that were rarely used in the newspaper. When I saw that the City Desk made an assignment to get pictures of grasshoppers for this story, I knew my chances of getting a picture of an insect in the paper had increased dramatically.
To get these pictures, I used a reversed 50mm macro lens and walked through a field in northwest Oklahoma City. I didn’t have to walk very far for the grasshoppers to fly away from me so I could follow them to their next hiding place. I didn’t know that grasshoppers came in such a variety of colors, or that if you sneak up slowly enough, some of them will hold still for as long as it takes to get good pictures.
As always, you can see more photo galleries by The Oklahoman photo staff by clicking here.
A grasshopper sits camouflaged in tall grass in northwest Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Grasshoppers like this one are being driven into cities from rural areas during the drought to look for food. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
Room with a view
The Santa Fe parking garage seen from 34 floors above downtown Oklahoma City at the Petroleum Club in the Chase Tower in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
I sat in an empty bar at the Petroleum Club in Oklahoma City on Tuesday afternoon. I was waiting for a Naturalization Oath ceremony to start, but I had arrived too early, so I sat and looked out the window and at the wallpaper. Using a 300mm @2.8 lens pressed up to the tinted windows, I looked for interesting shapes and designs in the city below, since I don’t often see the city from over 300 feet up.
Here’s a few of the pictures I took on Tuesday. You can see more pictures from The Oklahoman photo department by clicking here, or look for Oklahoman Photography Department on Facebook.
The view of a nearby building seen from 34 floors above Oklahoma City at the Petroleum Club in the Chase Tower in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
The view from 34 floors above downtown Oklahoma City at the Petroleum Club in the Chase Tower in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
A parking garage seen from the Petroleum Club in the Chase Tower in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
Fifty pictures from around the world
In this Saturday, June 25, 2011 photo, Peter Diefenbach as he participates in the German snuff sniffing championships in Kucha, Bavaria. (AP Photo/dapd/ Timm Schamberger)
Every once in awhile, we like to feature pictures from news events outside the United States. This installment features images from events as light-hearted as the snuff sniffing championship (above) to more serious topics like the trial of Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s second in command during the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Click here to see a gallery of fifty images from around the world or click here to see all of our photo galleries.
An Israeli man scuffles with police after he clashed with a supporter of the Islamic Movement in Israel during a protest calling for the release of the movement's leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, from his arrest by British authorities, outside the British embassy in Tel Aviv, Thursday, June 30, 2011. British officials were left red-faced after Salah, banned from the U.K., managed to get into the country anyway. The Islamic Movement leader has since been arrested and is in the process of being deported. At right on wall is graffiti of Herzl, the founder of Zionism. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
An Indian man flexes his muscles as an image of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is painted on his body during the annual chariot procession of Lord Jagannath in Ahmadabad, India, Sunday, July 3, 2011. Jagannath is considered by Hindus to be the lord of the universe. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
A man grabs a wild horse during the traditional round-up of wild horses in Sabucedo, north-western Spain Saturday July 2, 20011. The round-up and breaking-in of the wild horses, where the mainly young men of the village get a chance to demonstrate their skills, originates from the 16th century. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)
People look at a heart created by smoke from the L-39 jets of the "Russ" aerobatic team during an air show at the International Maritime Defence show in St.Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, July 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's No. 2 and the group's chief ideologist, sits during the second trial of the top leaders of Khmer Rouge in the court hall of the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, June 30, 2011. The tribunal on Thursday held its fourth day trial on top four surviving members of the Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s. (AP Photo/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Mark Peters)
-John Clanton
Chasing spot news
Oklahoma City police take a suspect into custody after a brief chase near NW 10th and Doris Drive in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , Wednesday June 29, 2011. The suspect received bites from a K-9 unit. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman
Spot News is a term we use to describe news events that aren’t planned. Fires, tornadoes, shootings, floods and robberies would all be considered spot news. Staff Photographer Steve Gooch chased down an interesting spot news event on Wednesday and got some unusual pictures. Using one of our police scanners, he got into position to photograph a suspect who was taken down and bitten on the face by a police dog.
While looking for a place to park close to the event, but not too close, Gooch heard police alert each other to a white male in a black Impala driving slowly through the neighborhood. That just so happened to match the description of Gooch. While he was watching the Oklahoma City Police, they were watching him too.
You can read the story by clicking here or you can follow this link to see more pictures by photographers at The Oklahoman.
A suspect is taken into custody by Oklahoma City police after a brief chase near NW 10th and Doris Drive in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , Wednesday June 29, 2011. The suspect received bites from a K-9 unit. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
