There was a lot of action last night at the Carolina First Center as the Goodfellows, a local service organization founded by American Legion members, packed food boxes for needy families with the help of volunteers, such as the Boy Scouts.
Close to Christmas
The drive-through Roper Mountain Holiday Lights traffic has been increasing as it gets closer to the holidays. I thought it was pretty cool that they offered pictures with Santa, as well as, my favorite, a marshmallow roasting station!!
Clemson grads
All of my Clemson-fan friends were pretty excited as football player CJ Spiller graduated on Thursday.
Volunteering on Christmas
It was heartbreaking on Christmas day to see all the people lined up for hot meal at the Greer Soup Kitchen. On the other hand, it was great to see all the volunteers at the Greer Soup Kitchen. I shot this picture just before they opened the doors to the public and volunteers grabbed hands and prayed in the kitchen.
Stormy weather
Today, we had terrible rain all day and we watched as the rivers and creeks continued to rise. After shooting all afternoon, this frame was one of the last ones I shot. I loved the raging waterfall, but also the movement of the umbrella and the slight silhouette of the woman holding the umbrella.
Honor Flight returns home
Earlier this week, I photographed local WWII veterans returning to Greenville after being treated to a day in Washington, D.C. From what I heard it was a pretty emotional experience in D.C., but it seemed many veterans were also surprised when their plane arrived home and they were greeted by hundreds of people. It was a pretty moving assignment.
A slow Monday night
After finishing my assignments for the night, I decided to take a walk through downtown Greenville. It was pretty deserted around town, but I guess that is Monday. Here are some shots from my walk.
A day at the zoo
Sunday. Feature day.
An unexpected situation
Today I was sent to photograph day two of a brush/woods fire. I got to the scene and photographed the command center where firefighters were cooling off from fighting fire in 99 degree heat. Because of the location of the fire, there were no picture opportunities (except that of smoke rising from the trees). I asked one simple question to one of the firefighters.....'is there a location where I would be able to get pictures of the firefighters at work?'
This is where I ended up.....
And one more just for fun............
Press conference
I was sent to a press conference that announced that Greenville's Shriners children's hospital will remain open. After the press conference and speakers, a few of the kids buried a time capsule in front of the hospital. This was my favorite shot from the event, which was mostly consisted of speakers in front of a podium.
Miss South Carolina
This Sunday I was sent to shoot the beginning of the week of activities for the Miss South Carolina and Miss Teen South Carolina competitions. The purpose of the assignment was to create an online gallery (you can see all 47 photographs on greenvilleonline.com). While most of the shots were standard faces and people shots, I liked this photo the most because it focused on the crown.
Just a little bit of fun.
South Carolina has some great scenic views and amazing sunsets. Saturday night (I was off of work) and driving home to Greenville from Spartanburg County, S.C., as the sun was beginning to go down. Since I always have a camera with me, I pulled over and began shooting. While this is a 'pretty' shot, it is a welcomed change from a lot of the sports photography I have been posting.
Back to work
This past Sunday, I shot the the Southern Conference (SoCon) Championship game. I always enjoy a good game of baseball and I think this game provided lots of great opportunities. The game was the final game of a five-day series, so there was a lot of emotion from the players and the fans. It also poured down rain halfway through the game, so I am also including one of my after-rain features.
Baseball season
The local Greenville baseball team, The Drive, started their season with seven home games in a row. I really enjoy shooting Drive baseball and here are two of my favorite shots from the games I covered this past week.
Working with what you've got
Working with what you’ve got
My work cameras have been in the shop for the past two weeks. Hopefully, I will be getting one of them back fairly soon. Fingers-crossed. In the meantime, I have been shooting with a Canon 5D with a 24-105mm f4 lens. That is it - no more, no less. In the meantime, I have had to shoot all of the regular assignments given to any night shift photographer, including sports. In some way, it has made me work differently the past couple of weeks. I cannot rely on a fast shutter, which makes it difficult to catch all of the high action shots and I can't rely on a zoom, which means I can only shoot in close proximity.
This week I am posting a couple of shots that I made during a softball game. Since I couldn't rely on action shots alone, I shot some little team features, which I liked.
Spot news
Last week was a busy one in Greenville, which included (in no particular order) an alleged kidnapping, a shooting, a standoff and fatal fire. Then on my days off I also attempted HDR photography. I will share more on that in a later post.
So for this week, I decided to show the photograph from the fire scene that ran on the front page of the paper. Unfortunately, we heard about the fire a little late and once I arrived on scene the fire was practically out, but firefighters as well as forensics were still investigating. Even without showing flames, the photograph shows the damaged building framing a member of the local forensics team taking pictures of the scene.
Welcome Home
On Wednesday, I was assigned to photograph ten marines returning to Greenville from Iraq. Upon arriving to the marine/navy reserve station, I learned the marines were the same men I photographed practically one year ago on the day of their deployment. In the days leading up to their deployment, Ken, one of my co-workers, and I had been assigned to document the process. The story was never published.
In this photograph David Westmoreland is hugged by his mother Shawna. His sister Kaylie, left, father James and brother Jared, right, watch. I like this photograph because the look on his mother's face. While her reaction says it all, it is emphasized by the reactions of his sister and father.
*Below I am including a few of the photographs from last year that were never published.
Welcome home Ammo Co!
Why I finally decided to try blogging...
Lately, when we read the news, we find ourselves - our colleagues - making the news. Everyday we hear of newspapers shutting down, going bankrupt and using furloughs or layoffs to keep afloat.
Just a couple years ago, I never would have imagined that today I would be capable of shooting, editing and producing video and creating photo galleries of 100 pictures or more. The business has changed so much in my short seven years, but these changes are what keeps us competitive. It keeps people visiting our website.
With these changes and the tremendous amount work that I produce daily, I decided to create a blog where I can post just my favorite photo of each week. Feedback and comments are encouraged.
*Note: All the photographs appearing on this site are copyright THE GREENVILLE NEWS, THE MORNING NEWS or HEIDI HEILBRUNN.