The Frugal Scholar

Educator, scholar and poet T.R. McIntosh sits in his study surrounded by his vast collection of books Wednesday at his Rocky Mount Home. McIntosh lived frugally for much of his life, saving his salary as a teacher to collect books and other valuable papers.

Golf Blogger

This is Trevor. He wants you to read his new golf blog From Tee to Green.

Yorick Bites!

'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him...' David Nields has fun with a prop skull in the spirit of the classic scene from 'Hamlet.' Nields will be teaching an upcoming acting Shakespeare class at the Imperial Centre.

Losing her Home

Ethel Rivera poses at the front door of her home on Hunter Hill Road on Nov. 11. Rivera is in the process of moving out of the home that will be demolished to make way for a widening project for Hunter Hill Road.

Pharmacy Business Portrait

Pharmacist and owner Dr. Angela Stokes shows off the compounding lab at Northside Family Pharmacy on Bishop Road. The compounding lab is a facility used to mix custom capsules, creams and ointments--a feature not found in many modern pharmacies.

Face Off

SouthWest Edgecombe quarterback Chris Ellerbe, left, and Rocky Mount High quarterback Collins Cuthrell.

The sports editor came to me with an idea a few weeks ago. We would shoot these two quarterbacks facing opposite directions and run the photos side by side so that the end product would look like they were starring each other down--except they would each be on their own turf.

It inspired me a little. The above photos are what I ended up shooting. I lit and posed the two exactly the same way (except in in opposite directions of course), and tried to expose the sky so I had dark skin on a lighter background and light skin on a darker background for contrast. If only they had different color jerseys...

Anyway, I was pleased with the outcome.

The picture below is of Nash Central High School multi-sport standout athlete Dominique Holloway, taken for an athlete-of-the-week type feature. It's unrelated to the above photos, except that it was taken on the same busy evening of football portraits across two counties!

Comic Shop

Shop owner Jimmy Taylor surrounded with comic books at The Reader's Choice in Rocky Mount.

I was thrilled to find out that my new town has a decent little comic shop with a friendly owner. I was also thrilled to to see nice soft light flooding in from big windows in the front.

Taylor, like most people I photograph, was a little uncomfortable in front of the camera. When I shoot portraits I typically ask my subjects to stand where I need them and tell them they can just relax while I take a few test shots. At some point I discovered that some of the best poses and expressions where in the test shots when the subject was at ease.

Now I sometimes use the 'test shot' statement as a little trick when I want to get people just being themselves with minimal posing or instruction from me. It's pretty cool when you think about it; that with this little slight I'm able to set up lights and go about doing a location shoot right in front of a person without them even realizing they're having their picture made!

Jump!

The above shot is from a feature on back to school fashion. It was a very energetic and fun shoot, the kids seemed perfectly comfortable in front of the camera--maybe even too comfortable.

Oh, and I nailed this shots on the first take!

Prom Perfect

Portraits, Portraits, and More Portraits!

Art Duckworth with his new wind turbine at his Apple Orchard Farm in Stanley on Saturday March 21, 2009. The wind turbine, originally installed in Intercourse Pennsylvania, was built in 1946 by the Aeromotor company and will pump water from a cistern for home and farm use.

Sometimes you don't get what you want--Sometimes what you get is even better!

Just last week I was thinking it would be nice to shoot some portraits--more specifically the environmental type. I enjoy the challenge of capturing a person's character and telling their story in a portrait. Sometimes a portrait can do something that straight new photos can't, and often they compliment one another to do even more.

This week I got what I wanted: two portrait assignments and a third that needed a portrait as part of the package. I already made a post about the first assignment on Thursday--the Faceless Portrait--but some of the others were an adventure as well.

Friday I went to shoot portraits of an athlete and coach of the year at a local high school. I had a ton of great ideas, and two friendly and eager subjects. Unfortunately my lighting equipment wasn't on the same page.

The PC to hot shoe adapters I use to trigger my flash units off camera gave out as I was taking test shots with my first set up. After losing valuable time fumbling with gear trying to improvise a solution I decided to just use the rather nice ambient light instead. They were understanding, and while I didn't get what I wanted I did get something very usable.

While I wasn't able to get the parts I needed before Saturday's assignment, I was able to work around it. I headed to Apple Orchard Farm in Stanley where Art Duckworth (top) was having a windmill installed, and I already had an idea in the back of my head.


(MULTIMEDIA FROM THE EVENT)

The photo at top is an example of vision meeting reality. Typically, when I get a portrait assignment I have some ideas of what I want to do, but I often end up going a different rout after scoping out the location and meeting the subject. In this case the idea I had in my head was the only shot I took--and I got almost exactly what I wanted!

In photography there is a lot to be said for the little happy accidents, but it's always satisfying when I can come up with and idea and make it a reality!

All-Gazette Girls Player of the Year Shannon Smith helped take Forestview High School's girls and boys basketball teams to the state championship games in Greensboro earlier this month.

Faceless portrait

Bessie Dickerson, who declined to have her face shown in this photo illustration, poses for a portrait behind the counter at the Steuart's BP station on Bessemer City Road on Thursday March 19, 2009. Dickerson was recently held up for the fifth time in ten years.

This may not be the most interesting picture in the world, but it was an interesting assignment. After her recent brush with crime, police advised Bessie Dickerson not to show her face in the newspaper. My challenge was to shoot an environmental portrait that showed who she was and what she did without actually showing her face.

I came up with several ideas during the drive to the station, and tried several, but this worked out best. light from the windows was sufficiently bright to give me a total silhouette, but I wanted more detail. I put my flash on a cord and held it up at arms length so that the cigarette rack cast a shadow over her face but the rest of the scene was well lit.

Looking at the LCD screen I believed I had her face very close to totally obscured. Looking at the pictures on the computer, however, I could still see her face too clearly. Enough light from the flash was bouncing off the counter to provide a little fill...BLAST!

Honoring the subject's wish not to be shown was the primary concern, so I had to burn down her face to get it completely obscured. Subtle burning and dodging is ethical in editorial photos, but in conversation with an editor we decided this photo just crossed the fuzzy line.

We were still able to use the picture, but as a photo illustration rather than an editorial photo. I very much wanted to pull off this effect in-camera, and while the final result very closely resembles the original intent of the image and the reality of the scene I had created with my flash position, ethics are something I don't play games with.

To me, the fact that I had to darken her face cheapens the image a bit. Lets face it, if you were to go that rout you might as well pixelate her face like they do on COPS. I wanted something natural-looking and more creative. I suppose there wasn't anything I could have done differently though, so it is what it is--a photo illustration.

The real challenge was finding a way to make the subject the visual focal point. The eye is naturally drawn to the brightest part of the frame, and with the dark face the subject sort of blends in with all the clutter on the counter.

Futbol to Football

North Gaston High School senior Drew Stewart practices kicking field goals at Revolution Park in Charlotte on Monday January 26, 2009. Stewart, a soccer player since childhood, has become a skilled football kicker in just two years and has chosen to make football his sole collegiate sport.

Y Pals

Rhonda Adams, right, volunteers her time to mentor Margaret McCoy, 16, through the YMCA's Y-Pals program.

Home of the Future

Shelly Duncan is reflected in the energy-efficient oven in her new Cramerton home that was designed to incorporate many energy efficient technologies, including a full suite of efficient apliances in the kitchen.

Self Portraits

Some people take self portraiture to a fine art form. If you don't believe me, just check out some of the 365 Days stuff people are doing on flickr. Personally, I'm not narcissistic enough do take pictures of myself every day, and as a photographer I prefer to have better raw material to start with!

In any event, I have been doing some selfies lately, as a way to experiment with lighting equipment and techniques I seldom get to use. I had this idea of a bright background portrait with a snooted light on the face of the subject. I didn't want a completely white background or a completely silhouetted subject, but instead just enough detail to impart some texture.

I decided to take it a step further and light the background unevenly in an effort to create a sort of chiaroscuro effect contrasting light with dark (a style that I like and use frequently in portraits). With no models or athletes of the year around, I recruited the closest thing to an athlete I could find--namely me in my fencing whites.

These are the results. Not exactly what I wanted--largely due to space and lighting equipment limitations--but still the effect I was going for. Lighting is one flash aimed at the background from the lower right, and one tightly snooted flash high about 45 degrees to the left. aimed at my face.