End of Month Post: Heading to Vacation

Katie Jones, mother of Judge Steve C. Jones, lays a flower on the casket of retired firefighter Louis Ford, Jr., at Athens Memorial Gardens on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 in Athens, Ga. Ford was the first black firefighter in Athens.

I'm going on a much-earned, much-deserved vacation.

So here's some recent stuff. I'm tired, I'm burned out, i have no idea how the rest of this year is going to go. I don't know how we're going to manage with our current staffing levels. I was listening to a sports-radio guy today who was talking about leaving his present job because he knew where he wanted to go and he couldn't handle having to do everything himself or basically knowing that he wanted to work with more people to get the help you need to reach the goals you want.

He's got a valid point. Beancounter cuts (you never see them taking cuts or putting that in a S.E.C. filing) have gotten us to the point where it endangers the quality of work thats being performed. I'm just tired of having it seem like i have to do it all myself due to disorganization and people constantly doing the jobs of two-or-three people when they get their rock-bottom pay cut.

Anyways, photos.



Jessica Miller has her wedding photos taken at the Arch on the campus of the University of Georgia on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 in Athens, Ga. Miller received both her undergraduate and graduate degress from Georgia.



ATHENS, GA. -- Alisa Goler (15), Jennie Auger (12) and Brianna Henson (8) celebrate as the #6 Georgia Bulldogs beat the #11 Ohio State Buckeyes 7-6 in the championship game of the NCAA Super Regional Softball Championships to advance to the Women's College World Series on Friday, May 22, 2009 in Athens, Ga.

Sixth-grader Malik Freeman slides down a water-slide during Madison County Middle School's attendance extravaganza on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 in Daniellsville, Ga. The day of fun and games was a reward for students who missed less than 10 days of school all year.

Tilt/Shift Baseball

Trevor Holder dodges a line-drive up the middle.

I wanted to post a compilation of some of the better T/S shots i got from earlier this season. I had a lot of fun doing it and learned a lot about photography and what i do for a living in the process.

It looks like I'm done shooting baseball for the year. Six weeks ago, Georgia looked like they were going to stomp their way into a National Seed and back to Omaha. I figured today I'd be at the SEC Tourney in Hoover, Alabama. (Florida would be a much nicer venue, IMO). That seems like a lifetime ago with it being 3 murders, manhunts and 6 car accidents ago.

I accomplished only 2 of my goals for baseball this season. Doing the tilt/shift thing and to get a HR robbing shot from Matt Cerione. Beyond that I never made it to any of the games i wanted to in April and the baseball gods have been particularly cruel to Georgia of late.



Colby May fouls off a pitch. (Which came way too close to my head)



Left fielder Johnathan Taylor. (First day of using that lens)



A pitcher warming up pregame. (Its the "Chris Detrick" shot!)




Will Harvil goofs off with a baseball.



More pregame.



Trevor Holder stretches.



Thats the Athens Academy coach laying out the batters boxes pregame with the help of their catcher.




Chase Davidson catches a fly ball.

Late Inning Rally .... Scratcher?????

I have seen my share of late-inning heroics in my life of watching baseball. There's rally caps, rally towels, rally monkeys and even the ever-popular Matt-Freakin-Stairs-Rally-Moonshot, but never in my life have i come upon this.

Top of the Seventh, Madison County leading by 2 with one out and runners on. I'm set up on the 3rd base side, ready for a play at the plate to end the game and i look over and the kids from Sprayberry do something very unexpected - The rally scratch? I'm still perplexed.

Madison County hung on to win.

Its a Red Ball, Bunk.

If you are into spot news, crime reporting or anything resembling homicide investigations, go find David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" as he follows around a squad of Baltimore Homicide detectives around for an entire year. (Yes, The same David Simon that did "The Wire" and "Generation Kill")

I only mention this because we've got a major red ball going in town. For the casual reader, a "Red ball" is a major case where you drop everything in a effort to solve the case/find the bad guy. Something with major media attention.


News broke Friday morning that George Zinkhan's jeep was found in a ravine not far from his house. So if its a red ball for the cops, its a red ball for us. I've never seen that many Law Enforcement officers armed that heavily before. U.S. Marshal's service, F.B.I, G.B.I, GSP SWAT and ACCPD's SRT. The tract of land where it was found can be Googled here. Its a large tract of land that was naturally closed off to photojournalists like myself.

So covering this was myself and another staffer. Our office ran a shuttle for cards earlier in the day. The hardest/biggest thing about spot news is calming yourself down, focusing and making good story-telling images. Looking back, some lack some context.


From there it was like a mental shot checklist. Jeep? Yup.



Guys in pickups armed for bear? Yup.



Convoy of cars? Yup.




GSP roadblock? Check.



Helicopter? Check.



Scene setter? Ehhh.... little fuzzy and from about a mile away but yeah, just run it small.



Constant stream of onlookers? Shoulda thought of that one. Something to think about next time.

Presser? I've had these conversations at a former paper before. Something to the effect of "you want me to leave a crime scene to go photograph someone with a microphone in their face?"

So after awhile it gets mundane. You can either stay at the main entrance/exit and get those shots over and over or you can become enterprising and start driving around and searching for any photo that your competition doesn't have. Once you've CYA'd, you just cant sit there especially when it seems that the search has become fruitless. You get a feel for what's going on and rumors run rampent through a crime scene. Plus its common sense - you're not going to see 17 car loads of SWAT team members go into a scene where the suspect is deceased; You're going to see forensics, CSI and coroner type people. So i went and drove around until i found a pickup truck full of FBI people and photographed them going through a neighborhood or two from a safe and respectful distance.






And then a resident appeared.



You don't want to be overly aggressive because you can't do your job from jail. So bring the 400/2.8 and the teleconverter and stay back on the public easement and give them their space. Respect them, be professional and they will respect you. They probably will mess with you some but thats the nature of cops sometimes and really, some levity to break the moment isn't a bad thing.

Other good lessons? Crime scene food/water. Stash it in the trunk. You don't want to be off getting food when everything goes down. Sunscreen. Bug Spray. Comfy and appropriate shoes. (IE flip-flops are a very bad idea to be traipsing around a crime scene in) ANSI-Approved Highway vest (for standing on that easement next to the road). And bring your manners. Be professional. Be tactful of those not in the press that might be around you.

Athens Twilight Criterium

Heath Blackgrove, right, celebrates with teammate Sean Sullivan, left, after winning the 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.

Okay, Part Two of the Epic Saturday meant going from covering a triple murder to covering a cycling race. The biggest problem was light and the lack of it. By the time i finished editing all the murder stuff, the sun had completely set. Usually you can get some great "twilight" pictures as the USCF amateur finals starts at 5:45 and then the women's pro race at 7:45, so there' plenty of time to get lots of neat cycling photos..... assuming you're entire day isn't killed by a huge, national story.

So i did the best i could with panning, slow shutter and just trying to spot meter with what light was out there in the midst of dehydration and not having time to eat.

It was a fun time and certainly was a good way to depressurize after the events of the afternoon.



Riders head through a spotlight on Thomas St. as they turn onto Clayton St. in turn four of the 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.



Brooke Miller puts her arms in the air as she wins the women's race at 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.



Evan Fader (123) crosses the start/finish line mid-race in the 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.



Phil Gaimon (13) crashes into another rider in turn two on the opening lap of the 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.



Racers race pass city hall in the 2009 Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday, April 25, 2009.

Triple Murder

University of Georgia SWAT team members ride in the back of a pickup truck as they search for Professor George Zinkhan after he allegedly shot and killed three people at a community theater picnic on Saturday April 25, 2009 in Athens, Ga.

I get a call around 2 PM asking if i could flip on the scanner. Our desk editor and a stringer were at the scene of a triple murder. Moments later, a friend calls me asking I listen while i got dressed before heading in. Ended up chasing SWAT teams all over downtown before heading back to the scene, which is how i got the long shot of the UGA SWAT teams in the back of the pickup. Walking back to the office, i saw the ACCPD SWAT guys searching a local law office.

Confusion reigned as the fog of breaking news made for lots of wild things being said all around. As for the story, I will point towards our news coverage for that. We did the best with the (few) resources we have. I'm proud of the coverage we had.



Athens Clarke-County Coroner Sonny WIlson, center, looks over the scene with crime scene investigators as they overlook the scene where three people were killed three people at a community theater picnic on Saturday April 25, 2009 in Athens, Ga.



Athens Clarke-County Police enter the Law Offices of J. Henry Hue as they search for Professor George Zinkhan after he allegedly shot and killed three people at a community theater picnic on Saturday April 25, 2009 in Athens, Ga.



Athens Clarke-County Coroner Sonny Wilson wipes his forehead after walking away from the scene where three people were killed three people at a community theater picnic on Saturday April 25, 2009 in Athens, Ga.



University of Georgia SWAT team members surround Brooks Hall as they search for Professor George Zinkhan after he allegedly shot and killed three people at a community theater picnic on Saturday April 25, 2009 in Athens, Ga.


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