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Blessing the Animals

I was about to give up on this assignment. I wandered around a completely empty First Presbyterian Church in Norman for about 15 minutes looking for the Blessing of the Animals service. Finally, I found Rev. Pam Normile and the service, which was held in the corner of a parking lot across the street from the church.

Visually, the service was very interesting. A semi-circle of chairs in a half empty parking lot,  a small table with a cross and dogs running around everywhere. You can watch a slideshow of the service by clicking here.

-John Clanton

Fishing at night

As a photographer, when I think of ideas for an audio slideshow, I usually think of what pictures I might be able to get to go with a particular story, and then I back up the pictures with audio from the event. A few weeks ago I went out to Lake Hefner and hatched an idea for a new slideshow by doing the opposite. I listened to the sounds of the lake and how peaceful it was late at night, the animals, the water,  the creaking of the docks, and decided to take pictures that would back up the sounds of the lake. On three trips to the lake, mostly late at night, I met people who fish off the docks at Lake Hefner. Some people said they spend all day at the lake. They’ll start fishing at 2 pm and keep fishing until atfter 10 pm. Another group said they usually show up after work at 10 pm and sometimes fish until 3 or 4 in the morning.

For pictures of the fishermen and the fish, I used 50mm and 35mm lenses. The Canon 5d markII takes pictures very well at high ISO, so I usually set it at 5000 ISO. Just last night I took a tripod out to the lake and used a 24-70mm lens and a really long shutter speed to photograph the docks. I did almost no color correction to the pictures in the slideshow. There are so many sources of light that are mixing together in the pictures, that I wanted them to look as natural as possible. There’s the moonlight, the yellow lights inside the dock and on the streetlights, and the white and green lights above the dock, lighting up the water. I almost never use a tripod for still photographs. I can’t remember the last time I did, but before I knew it last night, an hour and a half had melted away while I took pictures. When I sat on the rocks on the shore long enough for a spider to crawl up my leg, I knew it was time to leave. You can see the final slideshow by clicking here.

-John Clanton

It is the most wonderful time of the year

There is nothing better than October Friday nights in Oklahoma. What is there not love?  Football, crisp nghts and a full bright moon are all perfect element to building a fall evening. It is cool enough to wear a long sleeve shirt but not cold enough freeze your fingers.

I wish it could stay fall forever. Bring on the hot chocolate, apples, nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkins. I am ready to leave summer in the dust.

Here are some pictures from my fall night at the Shawnee vs. Carl Albert football game.

Pictures I Like

The Oklahoman Photo Department has been busy in the last seven days. Henry Bellmon’s funeral, OU vs. Miami football, a feature story about T. Boone Pickens and, of course, high school football are a few of the assignments we’ve photographed. Here are a few images that stand out over the last week.

-John Clanton

Carnival workers at the Oklahoma State Fair

Every year that I cover the Oklahoma State Fair, the carnival workers want me to take their photograph.  This year I decided to do just that.  I interviewed some of the workers and put together an audio slideshow with the pictures from the fair.

To see it click here.

Here are a few photos from the slideshow.

To view the entire slideshow click here.

-Bryan Terry

Thunder media day

If either of you have looked in the paper and seen a nicely lit portrait of Sam Bradford, Dez Bryant or Russell Westbrook, chances are we didn’t take the picture the night before. We probably took the picture during the team’s media day. Professional and collegiate-level teams hold media days to try and meet a portion of media’s requests for access to players and coaches all at one time in one place. Basically, it’s a chance for still photographers, reporters, and video photographers to take pictures, ask questions and tape interviews so that later in the season we can concentrate on coverage of the teams. We usually archive the pictures so that when the sports department needs a nice portrait to augment a feature story, we can use a picture from media day instead of sports action photo from a game.

Chris Landsberger and I set up our station between the Associated Press and the official NBA photographers. We brought a backdrop, three lights, stands for the lights and background, pocket wizards, a pile of cords, battery packs for the lights and a partially filled basketball. The photographs that Chris took will be used throughout the season on NewsOK.com and in The Oklahoman.

-John Clanton

A New Way Of Looking At Something Old

For this year’s State Fair I wanted to do a photo project that captured the sights and sounds of all the activities that take place during the ten day event. The thing that I wanted to do was display the package in a little different way than other projects are done.

The next thing was ‘how can I do this’. I thought about how digital cameras have made picture taking an instantaneous process these days. So this started me thinking about how in the ‘old days’ that instant photography was only available if you shot on a polaroid camera. The two of these processes quickly brought my idea together.

I would combine today’s digital photography with the ‘retro’ polaroid. Next, find a way to accomplish this. Since my digital SLR cameras can only do 35 mm format, I had to set them aside for this project and find me a digital polaroid camera? My search only had to go as far as my IPhone to get this done. I found an app that turned the built in digital camera into a digital polaroid. So now I was on my way. I grabbed my IPhone and my audio recorder , and was on my way to the 2009 State Fair.

As I walked through the fair I shot some of the little things I saw along the way, and recorded natural sound along with a few personal accounts of the thousands of people I saw enjoying themselves. In the end, I cam up with a slideshow that gives you a one minute and 30 second look at some of the things I saw at this year’s fair. Hope you enjoy. – Chris Landsberger

Military Funeral

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2009, I covered the funeral for U.S. Army 1st Lt. David Timothy Wright II who was killed Sept. 14th by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. He was only 26 years old.

Unfortunately, I have had to cover many of these military funerals over the last few years, and over time I have developed a love/hate relationship with covering them. I hate to see another young military person passing away before their time, and the pain their family goes through. On the other hand I want to be there to cover these funerals, and capture these emotional moments to document, pay tribute to these fallen heros, and show our readers who this person was and what sacrifice this person and family paid for our country and each and every citizen of the United States.

Sometimes there is a big misconception that I, being part of the media, am there to exploit the situation. I can say for sure that the photographers I know and for myself, this is the furthest thing from the truth. When I am photographing a funeral, I have had many reactions to my presence. I am met with some that are very upset, and can not believe that I am there doing ‘this’ to the family. Others are of complete gratitude that I am there to remember the one that has fallen. The latter is always the reason that I am there. I never attend a funeral without the family’s permission, and in doing so I comply to the fullest extent to the family’s wishes. Each family is different, some have given almost full access, and others very limited to none at all. These request are absolutely fine with me, because these difficult situations are about the families not about me, it is a privilege for me to be there.

In doing my job I want to be able to do the best I can to pay tribute, and not let them be forgotten for what they have done for all of us. I admit it is not easy for me though. I am a husband and a father, and it is hard for me to see the pain these families go through. I see these difficult situations, and I put myself in their shoes at every funeral I attend.  I can not begin to comprehend the pain they are going through. It is an emotional roller coaster for me, because I do get emotionally involved, I have a job to do and it never gets easier. I am not afraid to say that I have had to take pictures through many tears that roll down my cheeks. All in all, I am always honored to be there, and always very sorry for the family’s loss.

I do want to say thanks to all the families for allowing me and my coworkers to be in attendance, and to say thank you to those that have fallen and to those that continue to serve on their missions. I wish you all God Speed.

-Chris Landsberger

Please take the time to view the slideshow from the funeral of U.S. Army 1st Lt. David Timothy Wright

Mid South Wrestling

Over the last month or so I’ve been collecting photos and audio from a group of wrestlers at the Golden Goose Flea Market and Event Center in Midwest City. The events are held every two weeks at the event center. The story ran in Sunday’s newspaper, but  I realized driving back from Holdenville today that I hadn’t blogged about the slideshow I made of the wrestlers.

I’ve included two of my favorite images here, but you can watch the entire slideshow here.

-John Clanton

More State Fair

In years past I spent so much time working at the Tulsa State Fair that I was sick of it by the time my wife wanted to go. This year I got the family out to the fair early on Friday, and then went to work on Sunday for the paper. Here’s a picture that I like from Sunday evening. You can see a gallery of pictures from the fair as well as this weekend’s football games by clicking here.

-John Clanton

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