leftover turkey

Been digging through old work and realized that I never posted any pics from this assignment back in November. The Godfrey Family Farms, a Marysville farm hosted day on the farm day for their customers. They have fabulous chicken and farm fresh eggs and sell in the Bay Area if yr interested . Since it was right before Thanksgiving everyone got to pick out their own turkey and participate in the slaughter as much or as little as they wanted. Here's a link to the article by the Ashley Gebb.

"a door closes and a window opens somewhere"

Is what my grandmother always says.
My life seems to be taking me in a new direction right now.
Where it's going I am not quite sure.
Scary, exciting, stressful.
Hell ya!
But I have never been on to back down in the face of adversity.
This to will pass.

2011's Angel

There are some things you get the opportunity to shoot over and over again as a newspaper photog. The first baby of the new year is one of those and it forces you to make something different from year to year and it never ceases to amaze me that people let you experience/photograph these private moments. You can read the article here by Ashley Gebb.

Crystal Pitts, 28, holds newborn Angeline Jean Henderson, the first baby of the year, with big sister Nyla Pitts, 8, and father Anthony Henderson, 22, all residents of Olivehurst, Saturday afternoon at Fremont-Rideout Hospital, on Plumas Street in Yuba City on Jan. 1, 2011.

finding gold

Last week I went out with one of our reporters Howard Yune to find people along the Yuba River for a story on the rising water level due to releases from dams upstream. Its rained more than normal here in the mid-valley do to El Nino and with the summer snow melt the reservoirs ( what we call lakes in Cali) are full. You never know what you're gonna find out there either and we got lucky when we came across a man and his dog panning for gold. Read the story here.

Gary Bingham of Gridley pans for gold Thursday with his dog Sam along the Yuba River at Parks Bar Road in the Yuba foothills. The water level rose Thursday on the Yuba River with the scheduled release of water from Englebright Dam and is expected to rise even further do to a larger release at New Bullards Bar Dam. The New Bullards Bar Dam release will increase the flow from 66 cubic feet per second to 2000 cubic feet per second and is expected to last up to three weeks.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people

David Lewis shaves in the living room of his Linda apartment that he shares with his girlfriend, Carla Burnside. On March 3 Lewis, who was the service manager for Sanchez Truck Repair & Towing, stopped his mechanic's truck on the E Street bridge to assist a driver who had run out of gas. He was struck by a passing car which fractured his left leg and amputated his right leg just below the thigh. David and Carla are such wonderful people for letting me invade their lives at 6:30 am. The couple let me shadow them for several hours (which getting that kind of time with a subject is a rarity in the newspaper world) so our readers could see just how much their lives have changed since the dreadful night on the E Street Bridge from Marysville to Linda. David and Carla inspired me so much with the amazing love that they share with each other. We should all be so lucky. Read the story here and more pics here.

Donors also can help Lewis' medical costs by contributing to Account No. 295712 at Sierra Central Credit Union. Checks should be made out in Lewis' name and are accepted at all Sierra Central branches.

All-Area Girls Basketball

More sports portraits wrapping up our all-area basketball season
All-Area girls basketball team, from left: Gridley High senior forward McKenna Cox, Sutter High junior guard Courtney Clingan, Lindhurst High junior center Brenna Gates, Sutter High junior point guard Courtney Gravel and Colusa High junior forward Caroline Meyers.
MVP Abby Cranford, junior, Williams High School
Tim Sheridan of Biggs High School girls basketball coach of the year

Hydroponic Tomatoes

Had the chance to check out a local tomato growers greenhouse this past Saturday here in Sutter County. It was pretty neat. The article from the AD by Ashley Gebb can be read here. Also check out Ashley's green life blog here.

Alan Claphan harvests vine-ripened hydroponically grown tomatoes in the greenhouse which he built with his business partner Peter Myburgh last year, just west of Yuba City, on the 5000 block of Franklin Road. The men hope to expand their business by adding another greenhouse and exploring the options of growing cherry tomatoes, peppers and lettuce.

All-Area Boys Basketball

Lately I have been working on trying to shoot better portraits in my daily photographic life. I feel like this is an area where I can always improve. So I took it upon myself to set-up a shoot of all the first team all-area boys basketball players for the Sports Department here at the Appeal-Democrat. So with the help of Nathan Weyland who assisted me and after spending 5 hours in the Yuba City High School locker room I came away with a couple of shots that I kinda really like. That's Nathan trying to kill some boredom between shoots and the lighting set up of 4 lights.One main in umbrella softbox, two rim lights and one background light. The final images is how it ran in the paper.

Live Oak Teens

When I lost my mom several years ago it just about devastated my brother, father and I. It was hard to pick up the pieces of our lives. So when I met the Short family it really struck a chord. The three teens lost both their mother and father over a period of five months. The older brother Drew dropped out of Chico State to come home and take legal guardianship of his twin sisters.Sometimes I find myself wondering how these teens are doing now since its been about two and a half months since this was taken. When I got the assignment it was put in as a portrait but while sitting in on the reporter's interview with the teens this lovely little moment happened between the siblings and the light from the large bay window in their living room was just to lovely to ignore. This photo also recently won first place for general news in the December clip contest. You can read the story from the Appeal-Democrat here.

From left, Kiley,17, Shaina,17, and Drew Short,19, sit with the family dog, Scout, in their Live Oak home. The Shorts were orphaned after losing their father to a heart attack in May and their mother to cancer in October.

black friday

had the pleasure of shooting black friday for work which i meant i got to crawl outta bed at 2:45 a.m. to bare witness to rampant consumerism. it was kinda amazing, but at the same time all i could think is, "what hell is wrong with these people and why do they need like 2 t.v.'s, a blender, several dvd's, and a tom-tom gps device at 4 a.m.
Here is the story.

haunted houses

With Halloween on its way i've been shooting several haunted houses in the area The one of the kid moving the coffin in the last frame is probably my fav. which never made the paper. Oh and i did scream like a child when i had to traverse the haunted house with the freaky clowns, not cool. you can read the story here.

the zeppster

i like working in teams. last week i worked with fellow AD reporter Ryan Klocke on a great story about a young man,Tyler Zepp, quarterback for wheatland high. A humble 18 year-old suffering from a congenital heart defect that put him on the sidelines in his senior year, the year he was to lead his team to victory. Anyway, so the kid gets cleared for 2 plays by his doctor and scores 2 touchdowns. It's kinda amazing! Read Ryan's story , Oh and there is video too. also check out Ryan's blog. and many thanks to the Zepp family for letting me invade their son's live with my camera.

now, i present to you the graduating class of 2009

yep, this has been most of my Thursday and Friday nights for the past month. the high schools have been a lot of fun. especially, since i am quite often mistaken for someone who works for the high school yearbook.