A Little G in a Big D

Hi all:

As promised, here’s a selection of images from the past year. Some stuff I’d call “my best” — as pretentious as that sounds — others (the majority) would just be photos that made me happy.

It was a pretty good year. Broadened my video skills, started trying to improve my portraiture lighting, enterprised a couple small essays, and lately have been doing a LOT more editing.

Who knows what next year holds. I do have a pretty cool project I’ll be working on in 2012. Fingers crossed I can use a 4×5 on it, although who knows.

Either way, I’m stoked. I’m gainfully employed, my family is amazing, and Louie has been picked up for a third season.

Cheers,

- gerry -

Hi all:

Putting up a quick essay I shot for the paper that ran last week, I think. As most of you all know, it’s been crazy hot all over the country, especially in our neck of the woods. At one point, Dallas was in-line to break the previous, consecutive 100-degree day streak, which was set back in 1980.

But, no dice — we were stopped two days shy.

The essay had a news hook with that, and was set to run the Sunday following the streak break (which would have been two Saturdays ago). Last photo is the day the streak broke — first clouds we’d had in many weeks. Little rain, but with temps in the upper ’90s, it felt GREAT.

Anyway, we’ve been shooting so many heat features here, I thought I’d try something a little different. Almost like heat abstractions.

Hope you enjoy.

- gerry -

Hi all:

Playing catch up one some recent work. Feel like “Mr. Baseball” of late. Not because I’ve done a good job or anything, but I had a bum rush of activity the last month.

Earlier, I was asked to go to Phoenix to cover the 2011 MLB All-Star Game. Primarily we were there to shoot Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington. Since I was credentialed for the whole spiel, though, I shot a little of everything.

Those are the first nine photos. The rest are from two games shot this weekend here in the DFW area.

I’d do cutlines, but I’m lazy, and it’s late. Suffice to say, it was hot at both games, and likewise, the Rangers sucked at both, too.

Make the bad man stop.

- gerry -

I’m still trying to process what happened last night. Between the 40-minute ride home after the game to everything I’ve learned about Shannon Stone and his son, Cooper, during the day, it goes without saying that there’s a lot of complicated emotions running around my head and heart.

First and foremost, I feel nothing but sheer sorrow for the Stone family, particularly the young Cooper. I’m a relatively new father myself (nine months old this month) and I cannot for the life of me imagine what something like that would do to my son … or my wife.

Then there’s Josh Hamilton. It would be a tragedy for this to happen to any player, but Josh is seriously one of the kindest, most decent professional athletes out there. What is going on in his head and heart, I can only imagine.

And then there’s the emotions I’m wildly ashamed of. Deep down inside, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get “the shot.” No, not of Stone falling. For one, that’s macabre; it’s a picture that doesn’t need to be seen. Secondly, as a sports photographer, I wouldn’t even be looking for anything in that direction after a foul ball hit.

But still, I am disappointed with what I came away with that night, given hindsight, the magnitude of it all, and knowing what my colleagues who were also there photographed.

So here’s how it happened for me:

Maybe five minutes before the incident I had been down in the inside, first-base photo well with Sharon Ellman (stringing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and Jeffrey Washington (shooting for the Associated Press). Arguably they got the most meaningful photographs of the reaction to the fall (that’s “the shot” I’m talking about).

With the very low crowd attendance and a plethora of photographers on hand, I decided to play my best Louis DeLuca and move around during the game — try different angles, etc.

I had made my way up to a higher shooting position at the end of the first inning. As I rounded a corner from the suite-level concourse, I heard the crowd gasp. No idea what had happened, I asked someone with event staff, who told me that a gentleman had fallen. “Where?” I asked. “Into the practice pitching area,” she said.

From that spot, I made a couple of frames of the area she mentioned, but it didn’t seem right. I was very confused, but I decided to make my way over to the aforementioned area. Once I got there, I realized that the information I’d been given was wrong. Whatever had happened was nearby, but not in the pitching warm-up area.

Around the same time, EMS showed up and I opted to shoot that.

I didn’t really get the sense that it was anything super urgent, so I went back to shooting game action. I mean, I had no way of knowing how serious this was at the time. Likewise, I was not allowed to get anywhere close to where the EMS folks ended up going.

Again, hindsight is a bitch. I should have worked this harder, but I just didn’t think it was a big deal. A fall from the front row into the pitching practice area was a dozen feet. He was all right, right? I just didn’t get a vibe from EMS or the in-house folks I was watching that this was life-or-death.

About 20 minutes or so later, I was back to an elevated shooting spot. The TV guy that was next to me leaned over and said he was being told the gentleman who fell had died. I didn’t believe it; just chalked it up to machismo and misinformation. But, I did notice police gathering around there, scoping it out, so I figured whatever had transpired after the fall, it wasn’t good.

By the end of the game word had spread to all the photographers that Stone indeed was dead. What’s worse, his son watched everything that happened. The mood in the photo workroom was about as dark and sad as you can imagine.

Photogs are a universally silly bunch — after a long game, we like to sit around, poke fun at each other, tell “war stories” and complain about stuff (usually our editors or other photographers). None of that last night — you could have heard a pin drop.

I wish I could tell you we get used to this death thing. As photojournalists we see it more regularly than some — car wrecks, shootings, house fires, and of course natural disasters and conflict. I mean maybe it is easier for some, but not for me. Each one affects me deeply, especially when a child is involved, and even more especially now that I’m a parent.

So anyway, thanks for your time. You gotta talk about these things, you know? We see a lot, but we’re human too.

- gerry -

My paper hosts a quarterly, in-house clip contest. It’s divided into two sections — the print side of things, like best stories, headlines, etc., and the visuals like photo, video and newsart. The trick is whatever you’re submitting had to have been published, and your max (at least for visuals) is eight entries.

There’s a cash incentive for the winners, and it’s just a fun, cool thing that the paper does. I’ve won it a couple two three times. It’s just a neat way to go back and look over what you’ve been shooting and what’s running. That may sound odd to some, but the thing is I’ll shoot something that doesn’t run for months some times, so I never really know what’s being used and where.

Anyway, just for fun, here was my submission to the most recent quarterly contest. It’s just a mix of daily work, which I like because my job is super random and I feel like the images reflect that. I’ve done this contest too where I only turn in from one essay or the like, but this way (the daily work thing) is my favorite.

- gerry -

Don Henley stands on the pier of a bootlegger’s cabin on Caddo Lake Friday, April 8, 2011 near Uncertain, Texas. Henley, a Linden, TX native and iconic musician, underwrites the Caddo Lake Institute, Inc. The foundation aims to safeguard the lake’s ecology and cultural identity.

N.L. “Boss” Winter stands in front of the burnt remains of the home he grew up in, which was damaged during wildfires in West Texas last month. Born and raised in Aspermont, Texas, the 106-year-old lived a long life working ranches and farms in the area. An additional home owned by Winter, one in which he raised his family of two girls, was also destroyed by the wildfires. Photograph taken Tuesday, May 10. 2011 in Aspermont, Texas.

Johnny Pinchback (right) embraces his mother, Lillian Bunton (center) as wife Sandra Pinchback looks on after Johnny Pinchback was declared innocent following 27 years in jail during an exoneration hearing Thursday, May 12, 2011 at the Dallas County Courthouse. DNA evidence cleared Pinchback of two rape convictions that garnered a 99-year prison sentence in 1984.

The Manchester Park apartment complex – located just west of North Collins Street and north of I-30 in Arlington – shot Friday, April 1, 2011 in Arlington. Photo taken with an iPhone, and file processed with the Camera+ app.

Oklahoma City Thunder power forward Nick Collison (left) gains possession or a loose ball after stealing it from Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki during the fourth quarter of their playoff game Thursday, May 19, 2011 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Hastings 3000 of Minneapolis, Minn. performs on a street corner during SXSW Friday, March 18, 2011 in Austin.

Storm clouds roll over Reunion Tower as a storm moves into the area Wednesday, May 11, 2011 in Dallas.

Keegan Bradley throws his hands into the air on the 18th hole as he wins the HP Byron Nelson Championship Sunday, May 29, 2011 at the TPC Four Seasons hotel in Irving. Bradley beat Ryan Palmer with a par score on the first playoff hole.