Green Ribbon Ride

Last Sunday, I covered an event for the day job, the Green Ribbon Ride. "Thousands of motorcyclists, including more than 100 police from throughout New England, cruised through Monroe, shutting down Route 34 and Route 25 Sunday in part of a 30-mile, six-town ride to honor the memory of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting in December. All money raised will be paid directly to Newtown charities, including the Sandy Hook Family Healing Fund, Newtown Police Union, Newtown EMS, the five Newtown fire departments, local children’s charities, the Center for Women & Families and Al’s Angels. Crowds cheered riders, and held signs, and fire departments along the route hoisted flags from ladder trucks."

I was sent to the town of Monroe, but this event was traveling through several of the towns we cover. I decided to shoot this two ways: I wanted people to know that some of the shots were from Monroe, by the background and people in the photos, but I also wanted to take some photos that could be used in the other papers. It felt strange for me to be shooting in the day time with bright, beautiful sunlight. I've spent so much of my time late at night at poorly lit concerts, doing everything I can to come up with usable shots. I wanted to challenge myself in another way and get a photograph I hadn't seen in one of our papers before.

I set up by the 70 foot flag that was hoisted into the air between two fire trucks. Of course it was set up right by a mass of power lines, so I had fun attempting to keep those out of my shots.

I got the shots of the first motorcyclists driving under the flag.

Perfectly fine, clear shots, nothing too exciting.

As always, I brought along the SX-70 with me to take some analog shots. The first photo only partially developed. I didn't do anything differently with it, just a quirk of the film. In most cases, I'd consider this a ruined shot. I was going to use this pack of film to cover a concert festival, which probably would've caused me to curse at the wasted image. It just so happened that it captures the name of the event perfectly: Green Ribbon Ride. There's still one clear motorcyclist in the lower left of the shot. The second take came out slightly overexposed.

The energy of the cyclists was really special. They were waving and beeping their horns, many of them taking pictures with their own smart phones as they passed the crowds of people that came out to cheer them on.

I spoke to this couple after the ride had ended. Sharon and Norm Mercier have had this quilt on their front porch ever since the Newtown tragedy. Sharon explained to me with tears in her eyes how several big, burly bikers pointed at her then tapped their hearts as they passed.

The majority of my time was spent working on a specific shot. Stopping motion is fine, but it's such a static photograph. This event was full of life. It took a lot of patience and persistence, but the end result just might be my favorite photograph that I've taken to date.

Shot with 100mm macro lens at 1/30th of a second, f 32, ISO 200. A monopod was used to keep my camera level as I panned with the motorcycle.

This fun cheat sheet brought to you by Digital Camera World

I had originally thought this picture would look best cropped in, but I always hand in my photo assignments as shot. In this case, the editor, Jake, found a way to work with the dead space of the photo. He ran it as a massive 5 column shot, which, with the masthead, took up the majority of the paper above the fold. It printed beautifully on top of it; no easy feat considering how most photos look on newsprint. I couldn't be happier!

Concert for Newtown Details

These are the front pages that ran last week, featuring my photographs from the Concert for Newtown. To read the entire story and look at the full set of pictures, click here.  Remember that unique page views to that site help me out. The editors will see that people like to look at concert photography and that will get me more assignments. So thanks in advance!

I haven't spoken about my thoughts on Newtown, mostly because it was something that for me, happened very close to home. The newspapers I work for don't cover Newtown, but so much of it effected the towns that we do cover. Grandparents and parents of the children that lost their lives reside in our towns. One of the teachers, Victoria Soto, that died protecting her students was from Stratford, the town next to the one I live in. There are so many people in my life that are teachers, friends and relatives. My mother worked in an elementary school. My nephew is the age of the children that were killed. It was just too much for me to think about.

At times of great tragedy and sorrow, a lot of people turn to their art to find a way through it. That wasn't the case for me. I couldn't go and cover any of the vigils. It didn't seem right to me. I'm not even going to get started on the media frenzy that followed. To me, there are just some things that don't need to be photographed.

When I found out that there was going to be a concert, organized by young musicians, I offered to take the assignment. I was deeply touched by the strength and amazing talent of these young people. To hear an 11 year old play piano and sing an original song, to see a 13 year old not only play the blues but feel it, witnessing a cello trio pounding on their instruments as if they were percussion and being able to photograph it was amazing. A parent came up to me before the show and asked me the question every single human being asks a person with a large camera: "So, you're taking pictures, huh?" I nodded with a smile and held back the snarky comment, "Naw, I just like lugging this thing around for an upper body workout." He followed up with, "Not all that much fun on a Saturday night though, is it?" I smiled wider at that and replied, "Well, it's no Radio City Music Hall, but it's a concert and I'm happy to be here." I didn't wait to see his reaction. I was and always am happy to share my talent, especially in a case like this. I wanted these kids to get the same amount of recognition as any of the artists I am fortunate enough to cover.

Besides the typical shots, I had the opportunity to play around with some details. As my confidence builds, my creativity comes out. My favorite shot of the night is the detail above, where I captured the multiple broken bow strings whipping around.

I adore reflection shots. I've been wanting to take this shot pretty much every time I see a piano player. I haven't until now because it's very hard to move around enough in a photo pit when my focus is on making sure I get shots of the piano player's face. Pianists are really tricky to photograph. There was no pressure on me at this shoot, so I was able to take a lot of fun details that normally escape me.

The guitar detail of 13 year old Bobby Paltauf caught me by surprise. I actually didn't notice it at the time I was shooting. He moved around on the stage a lot and the microphones kept blocking his face. Make sure you look at the photo gallery online to be able to see just how young he is; he isn't even as tall as the microphone stands!

If you're still looking for a way to help the people of Newtown, the performers set up a donation website. The proceeds are going to the CT PTSA Sandy Hook Fund. I've made the link really big so you can't miss it:

Donate Here

Photo of the Week: Week 50