Fighting back

Instructors Victoria Little, Sam Barksdale and Ryan Hoover, rear, demonstrate martial arts techniques for neutralizing an active shooter on Thursday January 10, 2013 at Ryan Hoover's Extreme Karate in Gastonia. Hoover is now offering classes for educators to prepare for an active shooter situation on campus. 

I'd like to state for the record, this was a fun assignment. 

This local martial arts school is offering classes just for teachers and other school employees to learn how to neutralize an active shooter on campus, which, if you don't mind me sharing my opinion, is a much better idea than arming custodians as one Ohio school board just voted to do. 

I had the time, so I went ahead and set up some studio lights, which was really necessary, since the place was darker than a coal miner's backside. I seem to get good portrait and studio assignments less and less these days, so I always value the opportunity to pull that gear out when I can. 

It didn't hurt that the instructors were perfectly cast for their parts; just look at the face on Sam Barksdale (the bad guy) in the bottom picture! 

The Woman in Pink

Two-time cancer survivor Kim Beverly, founder of The Woman in Pink, poses for a photo at It's A Girl Thing Salon on Second Ave. in Gastonia on Thursday October 4, 2012. The Woman in Pink, which she runs with two partners, works to donate wigs to women suffering hair loss due to cancer treatment. 

Firefighting Couple

Husband and wife firefighting duo Kenny and Julie Griffin pose in their turnout gear in the exercise room at their Lincolnton home on Monday February 13, 2012. Julie is employed full-time with the Charlotte Fire Dept. and Kenny is full-time with the Gastonia Fire Dept. 

I had an assignment to photograph this Lincolnton couple yesterday. I think if they ever decided to quit fighting fires for a living they could probably make it as interior designers. Their rural home was beautiful and game me a couple of excellent backdrops for photos. 

It was abundantly clear after spending half an hour or so with these guys that they love (at least) three things; each other, their careers and their dogs. 

I think the top photo sums it up, but as always, I think it's important to try to get at least two distinct shots from a portrait assignment, if possible. 

I also wanted to incorporate the red striped walls and vintage piano into a photo and have an option where they weren't in turnout gear. I ended up framing such that you can hardly tell they're at a piano, but I still like it as a more intimate compliment to the above photo.  

The ruins of Alba Mill

I recently explored the ruins of Alba Mill in rural Gaston County north of Stanley, thanks to the tip of my colleague Leo Hohmann who makes it a hobby to find old abandoned historical treasure like this.

As best as I've been able to find out, this is an old paper mill, but the internet didn't offer much information.

In any event, it's been long abandoned and barely any of it is still standing. I thought it was a pretty cool place to explore and I'll probably return to take more pictures in the future.

The Haunted Mill

Check out these terrifying scenes from The Haunted Mill in Belmont and get in the mood for Halloween.

Full slideshow here

Artificial Portrait

I think it's important for portrait photographers to occasionally remind themselves what it feels like to walk away from a shoot seeing doughnuts (from a ring flash).

So, as I was tooling around yesterday taking some self portraits I decided to make like Brad Trent and do what he calls an "artificial portrait" by pulling back to show the reality of the lighting being used to create the picture.

I usually find including your lights in the frame to be cliche, but Trent's portraits are about pulling back the curtain rather than than saying "Ooh, look at the cool gear that I have and you don't." He pulls it off.

As far as portraits go I've largely been influenced by the work of Dan Winters and Ben Baker, among others. I think my own style is somewhere in between the subtle but dramatic Winters and the high-contrast, almost surreal look of Trent, but for these pictures I went for the more contrasty look.

To do this right I should have pulled the camera back and included my ring flash in the shot too, but there was a wall right behind the camera position so I had to zoom out rather than back it up.

Also, I cut my feet off. Oops.

Below is the shot that I was originally going for (in my defense, I didn't have the best raw material to work with).

Extreme Runner

Runner CJ Barnhart poses on top of Hidden Wall at Crowders Mountain State Park on Tuesday July 5, 2011. Barnhart runs the trails at Crowders to train for races involving obstacle courses like the recent Super Spartan 8-mile race in Winnsboro, SC where he took home a medal.

WWII Vet

World War II veteran Foy Mercer at his Gastonia home on November 10, 2010. Mercer has survived the battle of the bulge and brain surgery, but still remains lively in his nineties.

I thought it was cool listening to this vet tell his story. As it turns out, he's lived just about everywhere I've lived, only a few (or more) decades earlier. He was a pastor in Brevard, where I went to College, and in Rocky Mount, where I got my first newspaper job and lived for a year. Small world.

Etiquette Edge

Photos for a cover story in The Gazette's women's magazine Gaston Woman about Julie Roberts, owner of Etiquette Edge, which provides good manners and decorum education for children K-12. Roberts teaches proper etiquette for every aspect of social life, including writing thank you notes, talking on the phone, online interactions, and text messaging.

Orchid Cactus

A flower of the 'Epiphyllum oxypetalum,' commonly known by names such as orchid cactus, dutchman's pipe, or Night Queen, at the home of Hilda Olive on Saturday October 16, 2010. The species of cactus native to Sri Lanka commonly grows in trees and rarely blooms, and only at night, with flowers wilting before dawn.

Back in the Saddle Again...

Dan Hughes rides the mountain bike trails at the U.S. National Whitewater Center on Friday August 27, 2010.

It's good to be back in a place where there is singletrack. It's no secret that being close to good trails is half the reason I chose to come back home and work for The Gazette again.

They sent me out to shoot some mountain biking today at the Whitewater Center where I used to ride four or more days a week when I lived here before, and it's making me want to get back on the bike bad. 

Maybe when I get finished moving and getting my truck repaired I'll actually have time to start riding again.

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.

The Week of Portraits

Norma Trunage, the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen of the Year..

One of the things I love most about my job as a newspaper photographer is the incredible diversity of assignments I shoot, from sports to breaking news and everything in between.

Sometimes, things can get a little monotonous, though.

Like last week, when I think I must have had eight portrait assignments in as many days (I sort of lost count). I like shooting portraits, but after that week I was ready for something else!

I thought I would share this one that I liked a little better than the others.

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.