The roof is quickly becoming a favorite spot to shoot sportraits at the office.
Cheyenne East golfer Quintin Pope
Portraits
The cyclist and the shadow
Shot an on-the-fly portrait today of John Cox, who is competing in the time-trial and road-race cycling portions of this year’s Wyoming Senior Olympics. Didn’t have much time to think up an idea so I decided to try a shadow technique I had seen used before for a portrait of Lance Armstrong. I used fishing line to hang the front wheel from his time-trial bike to the ceiling while the reporter who wrote the story, Alex Riley, held the wheel in position using the line. After going all summer without touching our studio lights, it seems like I’ve shot a lot of portraits as of late. I shot a few of University of Wyoming football players this weekend that I’ll post later after they are published.
National handball champion Lloyd Garcia
On Thursday I had the opportunity to photograph a portrait of Cheyenne native Lloyd Garcia, who recently won a handball national title in a 50-55 age group at the 61st annual U.S. Handball Association’s Four-Wall Championships in Fridley, Minn. The title was the one thing missing from Garcia’s trophy case that is filled with accolades from a career spanning more than 30 years. I decided to shoot the portrait on the roof at our downtown Cheyenne office. I was tempted to shoot in the studio, but I liked the cloud formations from an incoming storm. The lighting was extremely simple: one Canon 550EX shot through an orange gel and an umbrella at full power. I asked Garcia to get into his windup as though he were serving into the camera lens.
Wagon doctor Tom Watson
Cheyenne history buff Rolf Skoetsch
On Thursday I was assigned to photograph a portrait of Rolf Skoetsch, a local history buff who volunteers at the Wyoming National Guard Museum. Rolf is a really nice guy. After I took his portrait, I ended up having a conversation ranging from antique tractors to Germany with him in his driveway for another hour. This might not be the world’s greatest portrait, but it was a nice assignment for me because I got to get out of the office and have a conversation with someone. Connecting with people is a part of photography that is absolutely essential for good community photojournalism. You have to be able to get to know folks and have a conversation with them. As I was told once: always look for the lowest common denominator when working with folks you don’t know.
