I won an award... for sports photography?

One of my magazines entered me in the annual Virginia Press Association journalism contest. I won the second place award for sports feature photography. This was for a business story about amenities at a Northern Virginia tech company, but I’ll be happy to call it a sports photo if I get an award.

It was a tough shot because the room was small, so it necessitated the use of an extreme wide angle lens that I rare use. There’s a strobe to camera left illuminating him. I believe it had a barn door to prevent spill from getting on the screen. White balance was difficult because the screen was throwing green and blue light in the room.

Thanks to art director Joel Smith for entering me into the contest and hiring me for the assignment.

The last time I won a VPA award was back in 1994 for graphic design.

BTS: Editorial shoot in Reston for Virginia Business

Arnold Newman once said, “Photography is 1% talent and 99% moving furniture,” and he wasn’t kidding. In about half my shoots, I’m moving furniture to make a little studio for myself on-location. Here, I’m at the lobby of SAIC headquarters in Reston to photograph Toni Townes-Whitley, one of two black female CEOs in the Fortune 500. Sure enough, I had to move two coffee tables and six chairs.

Two of the setups were here in the lobby and the third was on an 8th floor conference room. Luckily, it was a snow day, so my daughter, Caroline, could come and help. Ms. Townes-Whitley generously gave us an hour for the shoot, which is rare. I think we needed less than 30 minutes of her actual time.

For the cover shoot, I used a 3-foot Octa with a strobe in the back for subtle hair light. I ended up moving a large negative fill to camera right (not seen here yet) to add some contrast. For the interview shot, I used ambient because the lobby lighting was gorgeous.

Photos coming once the magazine publishes in February.

Simple two-light setup.

I almost always use the Color Checker. We have a collection of Caroline holding these things in various offices.

Map of assignments in 2024

Here’s a map of my photo assignments for the past year. They’re mostly concentrated in Arlington, City of Fairfax, Lansdowne, McLean/Tysons and Reston. But, as you can see, I do a fair share out in western Loudoun and the Middleburg area. The furthest I’ve traveled for an assignment was 47 miles to the Shenandoah River. The shortest distance I’ve traveled for an assignment was a mile away from my home.

From the archives: Jerry

This is my father-in-law, Jerry, last year after Christmas. He’s about to move into a retirement community after 50 years in his Walpole, MA house. My daughter and I drove up to say goodbye to the house and visit Jerry and his wife, Nancy, before they moved. This photo was taken in their breezeway which often had fantastic quality of light. I tell my students that ambient lighting is rarely that great, but the breezeway was the exception.

National Gallery of Art

Waiting in line to see the new retrospective of Impressionism at the National Gallery of Art on Saturday. First sunny day in a week. Looked up, and there was this.

Caroline on Homecoming Night

Here’s Caroline about to go to her final homecoming dance.

Emma, 11 years ago today

Going through Ye Old Archives and found this from 13 years ago.

As Seen on A Run

I’ve returned to bringing my camera on runs. This was on a lunch outing in the Glade Woods - a fallen, lichen-covered branch glowing in the dappled light.

A Palm of Chardonnay

These are chardonnay grapes. I asked the vineyard manager if he could be kind enough to put some in his hand, and this is how many he was willing to spare. (Understandably: Anything wasted doesn’t go in the bottle.) He let me taste one. I’ve heard wine grapes don’t taste good when eaten by themselves, but this was delicious. The skin was a little thick, though, compared to supermarket grapes, and I had to spit it out. But the juice? Yum.

From the Archives: No Mood to Party

This is from 10 years ago today. We were in Boston for the 70th birthday of Amy’s dad. Like many New England houses, this one lacked AC. So our lovable lab, Grizzly, took to cooling himself on the stone floor of the breezeway.

Nursery Wall, Purcellville

With apologies to William Carlos Williams:

so much depends

upon

a red wagon

glazed with rain water

beside the cyan

windows