Pictured Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. are: front left to right Kylie Moates, 9, Colby Moates, 12, and Lauren Cochell, 7. Back left to right Jake Prior, 15, Lisa Cochell and Derek Moates. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

A move to Dallas has not kept Lisa Cochell and her family from their tradition of attending Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Cochell starting attending the camp in 1973. Her little brother and sister joined soon after.

She now spends her summer vacations at the camp with her son, nieces and nephews. They have been attending since 1997.

The turtle and frog races have always been a favorite highlight at the camp.

“I love watching their faces. They are all so excited. I had a little camper today, she gave her turtle to the office because we had two turtles in the same category and her turtle won second. Even though it wasn’t for our group, she was like ‘My turtle won second’ and that is the best feeling. That is why I take my vacations to do this, ” Cochell said.

The night before the races, Cochell and several of the others counselor catch frogs on the pond at Camp DaKaNi. It is an activity they have done for several years.

“My son is great at catching frogs and it is because he has been doing it since he was four years old,” she said.

The family is pictured in this 2002 Oklahoman photo. Bottom, l-r, Derek Moates, 7, and Jake Prior, 8. Top row, from left, are Colby Moates, 5, Sarah Kerr, 4, and Jared Kerr, 10. Staff photo by Jim Beckel.

Lauren Cochell, 7, poses with a frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Derek Moates, 14, poses with his bull frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Jake Prior, 15, poses with his bull frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Colby Moates poses with his bull frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Kylie Moates, 9, poses with a bull frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Camp counselor Lisa Cochell poses with a bull frog after the frog and turtle races, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at Camp DaKaNi in Oklahoma City. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Click play to see all frog racing photos and to hear audio from the race.

-Sarah Phipps

When the photo shoot is done for each issue, I go through hundreds of photos, and edit out photos that I feel best represent the section. Some of the photos are to run for the inside spread, and then there are others those that are potential cover options. The cover options are a little more difficult to edit out. They have to meet a very specific size constraint that is very narrow, but also keeps the visual requirements of artistic value, composition and content. In the end there are usually between 7-12 photos that make the cut as options for the cover.

From there section designer Suzanne Green takes these options and makes up a few mock cover choices for the team to look over and proof.

As with all committee type input sessions, everyone has different cover options that are their favorite(s). After everyone has their input and offers up critiques, sometimes the cover that is chosen is the one we were hoping for, and other times it is not. Maybe next time right?

So after thinking about it for a while, I thought why can’t the next time be now. Why not provide a little behind the scenes look at some of the hard work that goes into the other cover options, and keep them from being lost in the mix.

To provide for your visual consumption, Each month when the new OKC Nstyle is published I will post the 2-4 cover options that did not make it to the presses. As and added bonus for the first installment there will be cover options from the last few month that differ from those that were actually published.

Hope you enjoy another look.

November 2008 Cover. Photo by Chris Landsberger/Cover Design by Suzanne Green

\

December 2008 Cover. Photo by Chris Landsberger/Cover Design by Suzanne Green

February 2009 Cover. Photo by Chris Landsberger/Cover Design by Suzanne Green

March 2009 Cover. Photo by Chris Landsberger/Cover Design by Suzanne Green

NoApril 2009 Cover. Photo by Chris Landsberger/Cover Design by Suzanne Green

Don’t for get to check out the online version of  April issue of OKC Nstyle at okcnstyle.com, and fashion editor Linda Miller’s blog at Fashion Matters.

-Chris Landsberger

Thunder super fans, from left, Zeb Benbrook, Thunder Man, Derrick Seys, and Angela Love pose for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Here’s a little something that I wanted to share with you all from last month. Bryan Terry took photos of super fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder for a Jenni Carlson story. Originally, the editors just wanted to get pictures of the NBA fans cheering at the games. Bryan decided it might make more interesting photos to take portraits of the super fans outside of the Ford Center. He even lit them to give a super-hero quality to the shots.

Check out some of the pictures below, along with a couple of photos showing his lighting set up.

You can see a gallery of all of the photos here.

Thunder super fan Zeb Benbrook poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Derrick Seys poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Thunder Man, who keeps his real identity a secret, poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Angela Love poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

A wide shot of Thunder Man showing part of the lighting set up.

Here you can see all three lights used in the photo. Our intern, Brenda O’Brian, who assisted Bryan on the shoot, is on the left in the photo. 

To see all the photos, click here.

To read Jenni Carlson’s story, click here.

-Nate Billings

-Chris Landsberger 

www.highvelocityphoto.com 

When evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were brought to Camp Gruber three years ago, a former colleague and I discussed a way we could take a little bit different angle on the news. We never got the chance to spend time on it, but when Oklahoma City received evacuees from Hurricane Gustav, I decided to give it a try. The idea was to photograph people holding the one item that they couldn’t bear to leave behind. I bought a tarp to use as a background and used two off camera strobes to light the subjects. Because the media wasn’t allowed inside the building, except on guided tours, I set up in the media area and passed out flyers and talked to anybody who would listen about my portrait project. I photographed people holding the item and recorded them talking about it. If you get the chance, take a look at the slideshow.

http://downloads.newsok.com/flash_video/theoklahoman/slideshows/SpecialItemSlides/

I thought all day about what I would take with me in the same situation. I heard some interesting answers; cell phones, pictures, a stereo, a comb, a bible. I heard alot of frustration too. One guy told me that the next time a hurricane threatens New Orleans and south Louisiana, he’s going to take his chances and stay home, no matter how bad things get. If the evacuation is mandatory, he said, he just won’t answer the door.

-John Clanton

Carl Albert High School football player David Oku poses for a photo at Frontier City where he works in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, July 16, 2008. BY NATE BILLINGS, THE OKLAHOMAN

Photographing football is one of the things I really enjoy doing. Every summer when we start to work on our football preview section, I know that fall and a return to roaming the sidelines are not far away. This year I photographed the portraits for the covers of the three different sections in the preview, OU, OSU and high school football.

The theme of this year’s section was “Dirty Jobs.” For the college players we focused on what were the tough things that they do on the team. The high school profiles dealt with the jobs and hobbies of the athletes.

The first portrait I took was for the cover of the University of Oklahoma football section. OU offensive lineman Duke Robinson was the subject. Duke was nice enough to stand in the hot sun and pose with the pieces of sod I purchased to illustrate his dirty job of working in the trenches.

Here’s the photo of Duke that’s on the OU cover:

Below are some of the other photos from the shoot. Click on the thumbnails to see them larger.

OSU’s Zac Robinson is a quarterback who can run as well as throw. Because he’s a mobile quarterback, Robinson gets hit a lot. Despite the extra abuse he just gets up and keeps on going. He agreed to pose for us with some ice packs. Here’s the cover photo and below it are two alternate takes from the shoot.

For the high school cover I photographed David Oku of Carl Albert. Oku, one of the best running backs in the state, works at Frontier City trying to convince people to play the carnival games in his spare time. Below is the photo on the high school cover. The shot at the top of this entry, which was my favorite photo of the from these sections, was used on the inside. The only reason we didn’t use it on the cover was because we needed a vertical photo for the cover.

I was very happy with the way the shots turned out this year and think the sections look great. Thanks to Matt Strasen, Amy Rymer, Hayley Riggs and Phillip Baeza for assisting on the shoots. And special thanks to the athletes as well as the sports information departments at OU and OSU, along with Frontier City, for working with us.

Be sure to check out the football preview section when it publishes on August 24.

If you’d like to see all the photos that were in the section and more, check out this gallery:

http://newsok.com/photo/gallery/?gallery_id=3955

-Nate Billings