Hey, take my picture, drag boat edition
I spent part of the weekend taking photos at the Oklahoma City Nationals drag boat races. For much of the time I was at the river, racing was stopped because the wind had made the water too choppy. Eventually, the water calmed down and racing got going. Because of the delay, I spent a lot time just talking to fans. Here’s a fan shot, a cool helmet and a pic for our on-going feature “Hey, take my picture!”
Fans Dee Dee Hayes, left, and Mitchel Watan watch a boat take a test run during the Oklahoma City Nationals drag boat races on the Oklahoma River, Saturday, June 6, 2009. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
Dan Rogers waits at the ramp in his boat, Flat Black, for his qualifying race during the Oklahoma City Nationals drag boat races on the Oklahoma River, Saturday, June 6, 2009. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
HEY, TAKE MY PICTURE-From left, fans Betty Harwick, Jo Choate and R.T. MacIntosh hang out during the Oklahoma City Nationals drag boat races on the Oklahoma River, Saturday, June 6, 2009. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
-Nate Billings
‘Take my picture’ returns
In the last week I’ve had a few ‘take my picture!’ requests. Today I stopped at a church in Lexington, Okla., when I saw the congregation waiting on the sidewalk for troops returning from Iraq to pass by. I spent a little time with them, trying to make a picture, but I knew I had a blog entry when Pastor Buck Jordan and his wife ask me to take their picture. Last week, I was photographing the second day of a triathlon. Just before they began their race, a couple of swimmers posed for a picture.
-John Clanton
Take My Picture
I’ve gotten a little bit behind on the “Hey, take my picture!” posts. To update new readers, photographers hear that phrase a lot. So when we started the Alternate Crop blog site, we started taking pictures when people asked. This one I took in Moore when the members of Westboro Baptist church were protesting Moore High School. Nate Billings took the picture below by request at the Oklahoma Youth Expo junior livestock show.
It’s funny, I think most of the time people don’t think we really took the picture.
-John Clanton
Take my picture, again.
I’ve gotten way behind on my updates from the “Hey, Take my picture” series. Here’s a couple from the month or so. 
For anyone just joining our blog site, newspaper photographers are often asked by people to take their pictures while we’re on assignment. For the most part, we are looking for pictures of people going about their lives or activities. But, now that we have a blog site, I’ve started collecting “Hey, take my picture” snapshots.
-John Clanton
Hey, take my picture! Mascot edition.
Doug Hoke, our director of photography, contributes this “Hey, take my picture!” entry from the OSU football game against Baylor this weekend. As characters whose sole purpose is to get attention, mascots are naturals to appear in this feature. Here’s Bruiser, the costumed version of the Baylor Bear.
-Nate Billings
Hey, take my picture! cont’d…
Steve Gooch contributes this “Hey, take my picture” entry. He writes, “Here’s a shot from the movie set ‘Pearl’ being filmed in Guthrie. The crew wanted me to take photos of the people who are behind the camera.” Enjoy.
-Nate Billings
Hey, take my picture! Part 2
Well, I think John Clanton may have started something with his “Hey, take my picture!” entry. Fellow staff photographer Steve Gooch asked me to post this photo for him. These girls were at a youth football practice at Millwood school and asked to have their picture taken.
-Nate Billings
Hey, take my picture!
Newspaper photographers have interesting days, we could go from a rodeo to an arts and crafts show or from a church service to a motorcycle race in a single afternoon. One of the constant things that we hear, no matter what the assignment, is people shouting “Hey, take my picture!” Over the last ten years of working for newspapers, I must have heard some variation of that request hundreds of times. Usually it’s kids that ask to have their pictures taken. I always oblige and pull my camera up and take a few pictures, even though the paper would never use them. I don’t think kids even care if the picture is ever used, mostly they just want to hear the shutter click.
But, from now on, if I get that request, I’ll try to post the pictures on our blog site. Should make for a fun collection of pictures. Anyway, I was driving around looking for pictures of people in the rain. I saw that the students at Oklahoma Centennial High School were having football practice, so I stopped to see if I could make some rain pictures. Even though I didn’t get any pictures that I liked, I did get “hey, you should shoot my picture,” as I was leaving the field.
-John Clanton
