|
The hunt for red, (or green,
or cyan) wild art.
Thursday, Feb. 18
Wild art. Wild art. Oh how I hate thee, the search for wild
art. Driving' my life away, chasing cop cars and scanner calls to no avail.
There ain't nothing gonna on in this one horse town. Too
many days when the reporters stories don't need art and I am faced with
finding stand-alone art for the front page.
I have shot mundanities until I am blue in the face. I have
ridden in a helicopter with the CHP - hoping something would happen. Stretched
out on the runway too close to a C-17 cargo plane during takeoff - all
in the search for wild art or adventure. 
A United States Air Force C-17 lifts off from the Bicycle Lake runway
at the Fort Irwin National Training Center north of Barstow. This was
a frightening thrill. The shot was taken with a 100mm lens on 35mm film
- the shot is not cropped horizontally so you can see how close I was
to the plane. The noise. The dirt. The power. Awesome. It ran five columns.
Big story for Friday, 2/19, the indoor pool is closing its doors forever.
So I have to shoot the pool - lead art unless I find something else. Of
course there are always kids. I hate kids. Ok, not totally.
|
Yesterday I shot the early spring blossoms on an ornamental fruit
tree. Spring is springing. The photo was really pretty, the press
guys seemed to forget the cyan ink and the picture did not look
like it should. (big sigh)
Sometimes I feel like why bother. If some of the other people at
this paper do not care about the final product, why the heck should
I? Why do I bust my buns trying to find *good* art - not just a
photo, but something that stands out - even if it is only flowers?
|
Early spring blossoms decorate an ornamental
fruit tree. |
I guess the easy answer is that I am compulsive about my images. They
have my name on them. For better or worse, it is my work and I don't want
to ever look back and say I wasn't trying my best. And yes, that is my
ego talking.
So here I go. Off to the pool for a shot of the sign and then to the
mall to see what's goin' on out there. If nothing then I'll grab a burrito
and start driving and driving and driving and driving... I'll let you
know what happens.
Later that same afternoon.
I love wild art!
I stopped in at the police station to talk with the chief about scanner
frequencies and gave him some prints I had made for him. After chatting
a bit I asked if the department had anything going.
Well he said there was a sweep going on, was I interested - just a probation
one, but I figured that was better than nothing.
|
Went with one of my favorite detectives and we hit a couple of
places looking for probation violations. During one stop Detective
Libby recognized a woman that had started to turn into a driveway
where there were bunches of cop cars and then backed out. He yelled
at her to stop.
She pulled back in and he told her that there was a warrant out
for her arrest. Also the man with whom she was living was under
suspicion of some other illegal activities and he wanted an opportunity
to search their residence.
During all of the radio calling back and forth on i.d.'s and such,
the woman sat next to her teenage son trying comfort him.
|
Darla McGuire comforts her teenage son before she
is arrested for forgery. The woman has had a lifetime of hardships
including a prison stint in Texas.
|
Voila, lead art. I stayed with the group and took a few more shots, but
the man in question would not let me in to photograph the house search.
I did get a shot of him being frisked but we didn't use that one.
|
In looking at the art my editor and I felt that the images needed
more than just a cutline - that they demanded a story. But to get
a full story of this family's hardtimes would take more than just
another interview today and then I wouldn't have anything for Friday.
We were faced with a dilemma. Use the art with a cutline only or
use a photo of the probation officers that was boring and take a
chance that we would never get the real story on this family and
the images would be wasted.
Merrill left it up to me and I decided to run the woman and her
son as a stand alone photo.
|
The common-law husband of McGuire hold his hands
in the air as he is frisked under the watchful eyes of a probation
officer. |
Friday, Feb 19.
I hate wild art. Drivin' my life away.
This shot was taken during a ride-along with the
CHP helicopter dudes. Colourful Afton Canyon from the air. A whole different
perspective of one of my favorite places. The first day after the ride-along
I used a shot of the officers gassing up the copter while out on patrol.
This shot was run a week or so later when I was desperate for art. It
ran five columns wide.
|
