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Posts Tagged ‘During’

Dallas photojournalist recounts capturing photo of gunman during yesterday’s shooting

19 Jun

Yesterday morning, a gunman dressed in tactical gear opened fire at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas, Texas with a semi-automatic rifle. While at the courthouse for a separate assignment, Dallas Morning News photojournalist Tom Fox was caught in the middle of the chaos and managed to capture a stunning image, embedded below, of the gunman as he appeared to be reloading his weapon outside of the building he fired into.

As Fox explains in the above interview conducted with Dallas Morning News, he was at the courthouse waiting for a defendant to arrive for jury duty when he heard what he believed to be a backfire from a vehicle. What he heard though was the sound of gunshots that were being fired toward the federal courthouse.

After realizing it was gunshots he heard, Fox says he instinctually looked around to discover where the shots were coming from and ‘establish a safe perimeter and take a knee [to] see what I could [photograph].’

Shortly after hearing the first shots, Fox says a security guard and another individual, with whom he was talking with earlier, started running in his direction as pieces of granite from the Earle Cabell Federal Building were being kicked in the air from gunfire (the first photo in the embedded tweet below is implied to be the individuals he was referring to in the interview and shows both the gunman [left, in front of the blue sedan] and the granite turning to powder [top of the image, above the security guard’s head]).

It was at this point that Fox turned and ran to seek cover. Eventually, he noticed an alcove near the entrance of the building and took shelter behind it (Fox can be seen behind the alcove, just feet away from the shooter, in a screenshot from a video captured by a citizen in an adjacent apartment building in the embedded tweet below [second image]). When he peeked around the corner, he saw an individual down the street. At this point, he took out his telephoto lens and composed a shot when he realized the individual he saw ‘looked to be someone that would fit the shooter profile and made some frames.’ Fox says it was when the shooter went to pick something up and he saw the ‘nozzle’ of the gun that he got up and ran to safety.

According to Dallas Morning News, the shooter was shot and killed by federal agents as he was running away from the building he opened fire at. No one else was injured or killed.

Dallas Morning News has put together a video using footage captured by Fox that shows the moments shortly after he captured what has become a viral image in the aftermath of the events. We had originally planned to include it in the article, but the thumbnail used for the video shows the shooter collapsed in a parking lot adjacent to the federal building after being shot by a federal agent, so we decided to link out instead. Bear in mind the video is graphic in nature.

Fox said he thought he ‘was gone’ in a follow-up interview with Dallas Morning News that dives into more details of the shooting. In 2017, Fox won Dallas Morning News staff photographer of the year.

Update (June 18, 2019): This article had originally stated the photo Tom Fox captured of the gunman was done so as the gunman was running from the building. However, it appears the image was captured at a different point in the timeline of the events and the article has been updated to reflect this.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer hit with ball during ceremonial pitch at recent White Sox game

30 May

Photographer Darren Georgia was struck with what is being called the ‘worst first pitch ever’ during the Royals and White Sox game that took place on May 28. Georgia was positioned near the mound to capture the ceremonial pitch, but the toss didn’t go as anticipated — instead of travelling to the catcher, the ball ended up bouncing off the photographer’s lens hood.

The ceremonial pitch was thrown by an unnamed White Sox employee, according to White Sox Talk, which shared a brief interview with Georgia. According to the photographer, both he and his camera gear survived the unanticipated contact without injury or damage. As well, Georgia successfully captured an image of the pitch seconds before the ball made contact with his camera.

This isn’t the first time a sports photographer has been hit while photographing a game. Last year, for example, Olympic skier Lara Gut collided with photographer Sean Haffey after one of her skis struck a gate.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Elderly camera store owner suffers broken arm during violent robbery

24 May

K&R Photographics, located in Crescent Springs, Kentucky, is the latest camera shop to report the theft of expensive camera equipment. According to store co-owner Rob Kumler, who spoke with Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO, his 70-year-old wife and shop co-owner Wilma was attacked by masked, armed men who broke into the store on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 22.

According to Kumler, Wilma was thrown to the ground roughly and suffered a broken arm as a result. ‘Tens of thousands of dollars’ in high-end camera equipment was stolen. In addition to harming Wilma and stealing the hardware, the robbers accidentally dropped and destroyed a $ 12,000 camera.

The masked thieves were reportedly armed with a gun and a hammer; they are said to have immediately moved toward the most expensive equipment in the store, indicating that at least one had likely been in the store prior to the robbery. Four security cameras were live in the store at the time of the assault and theft.

Kumler points out that due to the expensive, high-end nature of the stolen equipment, the thieves will likely struggle to find buyers who both need the gear and are willing to purchase it without asking questions about its origins. ‘High-end cameras,’ Kumler said, ‘that’s a small market.’

The store maintains a Facebook Page, but hasn’t yet posted about the robbery; it’s unclear whether police or Kumler plan to publish a list of the stolen equipment’s serial numbers. The public is encouraged to contact Villa Hills law enforcement with any information related to the violent robbery.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Camera Store employees were attacked with bear spray during robbery

20 May

The Camera Store, located in Calgary, Alberta, has reported a camera theft incident that involved an attack on staff using bear (capsaicin) spray. The incident took place on May 16 at around 5PM local time, according to the company, which says the thief took off with a Sony A7R III camera and Sony 16-35mm F2.8 G Master lens.

The thief is described as a middle-aged man wearing a grey jacket, dark pants, sunglasses, and light running shoes. The Camera Store’s Evelyn Drake said in a post on the company’s blog, ‘We knew there was something ‘off’ about him since the moment he walked in, and our team was on high alert.’

As the security footage shared on YouTube shows, the man attempted to run away with the camera and the store’s employees took off after him. To evade them, the thief sprayed two of the employees with bear spray before fleeing in a black pickup truck.

‘Although it is not our policy to chase down thieves, the loyalty and bravery of the staff who risked their safety are commendable,’ Drake said.

The stolen Sony A7R III camera body has the serial number 3372445 and the stolen lens has the serial number 1803243. The Camera Store is seeking reports from anyone who finds the products for sale or who has knowledge about the theft.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Using Photoshop Filters During Post-Processing to Correct and Enhance Images

24 Nov

When you think of filters in photography, your first thought might be those specialized glass pieces you affix to the end of your lens. Most of these filters serve a specific purpose (e.g. a polarizing filter to reduce glare), although some are for artistic effects (e.g. colored filters).

But if you want to apply artistic/special effects in post-processing, Photoshop has a number of filters you can apply during this stage of your workflow. They can also be used to clean up or retouch images.

Recommendation

When working with an image, it’s good practice to work non-destructively (i.e. you don’t change the pixels). Using Photoshop filters directly on a pixel layer will change the pixels, so wherever possible you should use Smart Filters.

A Smart Filter is a filter that’s applied to a Smart Object – a layer that saves the image’s source information with its original characteristics and allows you to edit non-destructively. So before you start applying filters, convert the layer you’re working on to a Smart Object.

Note: Depending on your version of Photoshop, you may not be able to apply some filters as Smart Filters.

Filter Gallery

The filter gallery in Photoshop gives you quick access to a number of filters. From the menu choose Filter, and then Filter Gallery to view them on the screen. It’s an easy way to see the effect a filter would have without changing the original image. Here you can apply one or a combination of filters to your image.

The easiest way to understand what they all do is to select each one and look at the preview. It’s a simple artistic edit that can come in handy when used selectively.

The Filter Gallery showing the options that can be applied.

Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

This is also available in the Filter menu and can be useful for correcting distortion issues resulting from wide-angle or fisheye lenses. These lenses sometimes introduce curves that weren’t actually there. You can also use the adaptive wide angle filter to straighten lines that appear curved in panoramic shots.

To straighten a curved horizon, click and drag from the left side of the horizon to the right. This adds a blue line (called a constraint) around the area of distortion. The constraint marks the area and straightens it.

An image taken with a fish-eye lens

This filter has a number of correction types:

  • Fisheye corrects those extreme curves made with a fisheye lens
  • Perspective corrects converging lines resulting from your angle of view or camera tilt
  • Full Spherical corrects 360-degree panoramas with a 1:2 aspect ratio
  • Auto applies what Photoshop deems an appropriate correction

Image adjusted using Adaptive Wide Angle filter

Note: The Panorama correction type is also available if you apply this filter to a photomerged panorama.

Lens Correction

The Lens Correction filter fixes different kinds of distortions. Similar to the Adaptive Wide Angle filter, it remedies distortion created by wide-angle and fisheye lenses. It can also straighten images taken at an angle and make them appear as if shot straight on. One of the great things with this filter is you can choose to either manually correct the image or have Photoshop correct it automatically.

Angled image.

  • Geometric Distortion is another easy way to remove a fish-eye effect.
  • Chromatic Aberration can remove any colored fringes around your subjects on high contrast edges.
  • Vignette does a good job of adding a vignette.
  • Transform gives you sliders to help you correct perspectives, with options for vertical and horizontal perspectives, as well as rotating to compensate for camera tilt.

Edited with the Lens Correction filter.

Liquify

The Liquify filter can be used to push and pull pixels around and is one of the most powerful filters under the Filter menu. You may associate liquify with body transformations, but it can do much more than that.

Within the liquify filter menu, the forward warp tool (at the top left) is the most popular. The key to using this tool successfully is to use a brush size slightly larger than you think you need. You should also use a lower pressure brush (for more subtlety) and increase your density (to affect a bigger area within your brush circle).

The Liquify Tool used to reshape a piece of fruit.

Vanishing Point

The Vanishing Point filter brings an image in line with the perspective of another. For example, if you want to composite a picture frame into a room, this filter will help you match the perspective of the frame to any wall in the right perspective.

Third-Party Filters

Photoshop lets you easily add hundreds of third-party filters (available via plugins) to your arsenal.

These can help you make the most of your images or get super creative. Many simplify the steps Photoshop is capable of achieving so you can perform them in a shorter time. Some of these include the Nik Collection, Topaz and ON1.

Above Image with two Nik filters applied: Paper Toner and Vignette

Conclusion

Using Photoshop Filters is an easy option if you want to get creative. Photoshop has a few standard ones you can experiment with, and stacking them can create a unique image.

Which filters do you use? Share some of your results with us.

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Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions

01 Nov

As a photographer who captures rare and priceless moments, you can’t afford to have disasters during photo sessions. However, sometimes things go wrong regardless.

If you have a recovery plan in action before anything goes wrong, you’ll never have to freeze up and panic at that moment. You’ll never have to fear a photo session getting ruined.

If you psychologically prepare yourself for disasters in advance and rehearse the crisis in your mind, then you can switch to autopilot when it happens.

Let me walk you through what to do when cameras fail, families fight, or photos fall short of your vision.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 1

Knowing that you are prepared for any disaster will allow you to banish your worry and focus on the moment.

1. Technology

If you show up to a session with only one camera and one lens, you’re asking for a disaster to happen. You should always have a backup camera with you. Even if you have no intention of using it during the session, you need to have something to fall back on.

I heard of a wedding photographer who showed up with one camera and one dead battery. The wedding was delayed for an hour while she searched around for somebody to help her find a battery. Don’t let that be you!

Instead, bring two cameras and two lenses to every photo gig (along with spare batteries). I bring a Fuji camera with a 56mm lens. It’s the only camera and lens I’m interested in using.

However, I keep a Nikon with an ultra-wide 10-24mm lens tucked in my camera bag (from before I switched to Fuji). It’s there in case I want a unique wide-angle photo. It’s also there in case of disaster.

Golden hour, wide angle, landscape portrait, Disasters During Photo Sessions

This is the sort of photo that I would take with my spare Nikon camera and wide angle lens. A couple of nice wide angle photos like this balance out the look of the photos taken with the portrait lens.

Last spring, I timed a maternity session for the golden hour. If you’ve ever photographed during the golden hour, then you know how quickly the time passes. When the family arrived, I pulled out my camera, dialed in my settings, and then noticed with surprise that the battery was dead. ‘That’s strange; I always charge my batteries,’ I thought. I reached into my camera bag to pull out a spare battery and panicked when I realized I hadn’t brought any!

Decide right now what you’ll do when your camera stops working, or you make a foolish mistake as I did. Decide right now what your backup plan is so that when it happens, you can switch to autopilot and get the job done.

Most likely, you’ll reach for your second camera. That’s what I did.

I had no choice but to shoot the whole session with an ultra wide angle lens! It’s the last lens I would ever choose to photograph portraits.

Golden hour maternity photo - Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions

All of the photos in this article are from the photo session with the ultra-wide lens. You can let a family down with your mistakes, or you can rise above and make whatever you’ve got work. I’ve seen enough episodes of “Pro Photographer, Cheap Camera” to know that beautiful photos can be made with nearly any camera and lens.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 3

During one session, I was waist deep in a river. There was one camera around my neck and one in my hand. After a few minutes, I realized I had been dunking the camera around my neck into the water. Panic rushed through my head and chest – I just drowned a $ 2000 camera. But I calmly walked ashore, packed away the camera and got back to work. Nobody knew but me. I allowed the need to capture memories to overcome the panic I was feeling in the moment. I could deal with the camera later, there was a family counting on me. Decide in advance not to let your negative feelings rule you.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 4

I’m more concerned about the people I’m photographing than the gear I’m using. Personality knows nothing about cameras and lenses, it shines whenever it wants to.

2. People

Beyond technology, other disasters can happen during your photo session.

How about a family that arrives at the photo session in miserable moods and arguing? They probably found it stressful getting ready for the photo session.

It’s uncomfortable for the photographer and might even lead to the family completely blowing up at each other.

You can get upset and stressed out (how dare they treat me like this as a professional photographer?), or you can diffuse the situation.

These scenarios can be tricky to figure out. Try to get them focusing on something else by asking questions and bringing up topics they love. Focus more on the kids first. If you can cheer them up, their excitement becomes contagious. You’ll find the moment that the tension is released, the scene turns to laughter.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 5

Laughter is so contagious. My wife always comments that I come home from photo sessions in a better mood. It’s because there is so much laughter.

Challenging Kids

Once in a while, families bring me very challenging kids. One mom came with her non-verbal child. He didn’t take direction at all, and immediately ran off into the woods! All of the photos from that session were candid because the child didn’t sit long enough to pose. It wasn’t until he rested with exhaustion that I finally got a photo of him and his mom.

It was the first session where I thought I had failed. However, upon reviewing the photos, I discovered many wonderful moments, and the mom loved them.

You need to begin every tough situation by telling yourself, ‘there is a way.’ I now know that completely candid photo sessions are possible.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 6

As a photographer, I prefer candid moments over posed ones. Even when posing a photo, I wait for the candid moment to appear.

Terrified Kids

I remember one little guy who was terrified of cameras. Just the sight of one sent him into hysterical tears. Beginning with the phrase, ‘there is a way,’ I built a trusting relationship with the child. It naturally led to smiles and no fear of my camera. It took a while, but it worked.

3. Photos that Fall Short of Your Vision

Every master was once a disaster – T. Harv Eker

You may feel like some photo sessions were a disaster because you weren’t happy with how the photos turned out. It is perfectly reasonable for creative photographers struggling with their vision. It’s part of how you grow as a photographer. Allow that dissatisfaction to push you harder next time. Learn from your mistakes and let them prepare you to avoid future disasters.

Recovering From Disasters During Photo Sessions 8

In the end, I learned that an ultra wide angle lens can lead to nice photos. I broke my dependency on my favorite lens. It makes me wonder what other disasters will help me grow as a photographer.

What is Your Biggest Fear?

Technology, people, and our lack of creativity threaten our photo sessions all the time. But if you create and rehearse your backup plan in advance, you’ve got much less to actually worry about.

What’s your biggest fear about a photo session going wrong? Let me know in the comments and see if we can figure out your backup plan in advance.

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4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

10 Sep

Sooner or later, almost everyone has to sit alone in front of a camera for a grad portrait or professional headshot. It is almost always an uncomfortable experience for portrait clients. But it’s easy to forget this as photographers.

When I great people for their portraits they often confess things like, “I’m terrible with photos,” “I feel sick,” or “I hate my face.”

Perhaps because I’m so empathetic, I’ve developed a knack for making the most nervous and hopeless people shockingly excited about their photos.

In this article, I’ll show you how I do it so that you can make even your most uncomfortable portrait clients happy with their experience.

Black and white head shots - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

I am personally drawn to black and white portraits.

1. Simple Light Setup

Since everyday life already throws you a heavy load of distractions and difficulties, I always encourage photographers to keep their projects as simple (but meaningful) as possible.

No matter how you choose to light your portrait subject, I recommend you do it as simply as possible. The point is to put all your focus on the person you’re photographing, not on equipment.

I either use natural light (a window and a reflector), or a one light setup inspired by Zack Arias.

Window Light

The benefit to natural light is that there are no flashes of light or large umbrellas to make the person feel as though they are at a high-pressure professional photo session. Your subject’s imagination is filled with the photo shoots they’ve seen on TV and you should relieve that pressure for them.

Natural light studio setup - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

This is my natural light setup.

Window light portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

This is a portrait taken with that window light studio setup.

Using natural light and a silent shutter with a mirrorless camera allows the photography part to be as invisible as possible.

One Speedlight

My one light setup includes a speedlight with a 60-inch umbrella and a reflector.

One Light Setup - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

This is my one light setup. It’s one speedlight with a 60-inch umbrella.

One light portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

This photo was taken with that one light setup.

Once set up, you should forget about your gear (the window, speedlight, and the camera) and focus 100% on your subject.

2. How to Focus

This isn’t about your camera, but focusing on your subject in order to make the best portraits possible.

If you are at all self-conscious as a photographer, it is absolutely critical that you do not focus on yourself.

Perhaps you’re nervous because of a lack of confidence, or because you’re worried they’ll hate their photos. Forget all that and just focus on your subject.

Small talk

“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” — Edward Steichen

Female head shot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

You can use small talk to distract the subject from their own nervousness and self-consciousness in front of the camera. Talk about their business, their kids, or the last trip they went on. Anything that will distract them from being camera shy.

Warm up

Feel free to warm up with some “test shots,” even if you don’t really need them. Have your subject sit in front of the camera for a few shots where you’re doing nothing but “testing the light.”

Direct them a little bit, but nothing too serious. I sometimes transition into the real photos by saying something funny like, “Okay the light is perfect, now let me see a cheesy smile.” It can often lead to some laughter and the first candid photo.

Female headshot, laughing - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

Candid portraits are the most joyful part of a portrait session for me. You don’t have to be a comedian to make people laugh. Just connect over something in your life and laughter will eventually flow.

Male headshot with suit. 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

I’ll often try to match the expression with the clothes my subject is wearing. I think a softer expression is more suitable for formal wear. But I’ll try everything at the moment and decide what looks best later.

Candid portraits

“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” — Robert Frank

Yes, even a professional headshot session should include some informal candid photos. Candids are real, and even if you’re after a posed photo, candids are the path to discovering who they are when their guard is down.

Female headshot laughing - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

When people can laugh together there begins to be a comfortable connection.

Female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

We often laugh because of the tension created by a joke. But even real-life discomfort or tension can lead to the eventual release through laughter.

3. Finding Soul

“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” — Yousuf Karsh

I don’t care whether I’m photographing real estate agents, future lawyers, high school grads, or “mompreneurs.” I treat everybody like an executive, valedictorian, or royalty during their portrait session.

We’re all much deeper than our occupation, even though it may be a deep expression of who we are. Fill your sessions with lightheartedness and true human connection. When you look through your photos later, you should be able to see the moment that your subject finally became relaxed.

Once relaxed, you’ll find the “real” person that was trapped below the surface of fake smiles and self-consciousness.

It may take you 10 minutes or more to get there, but it is the point in the session that you can move through your creative vision with your subject. You can show them how to squinch (Peter Hurley’s famous technique with the eyes), strike more advanced poses, or move in for close-ups.

Female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

Once I know I have made the portrait that the subject needs, I move on and try other things. I love this very soft expression and the way that her hair creates a frame around her. This won’t likely appear on her business card, but I think it’s a wonderful portrait.

4. Completely Candid

“It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” — Paul Caponigro

Being inspired by photojournalism and the idea of capturing truly raw, candid, spontaneous photos, I decided to try a portrait session with no posing. All there would be was conversation and pictures.

Here are some of the results, which I love.

Close up female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

This photo is all about the eyes, and whatever is going through her mind makes me want to laugh!

Female soft light headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

A completely candid photo portrait session means taking a lot of photos. Some of them looked posed, but it was a matter of quickly noticing something that looked right and capturing it before the moment passed.

Window light headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

I used a window as a natural light source. There were moments of silence during our conversation when she just looked out the window. Those were wonderful chances.

Portrait of a mother and her son - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

Leave room for surprises in your portrait sessions. You may find yourself thinking, “Did this client dare to bring their kids to a portrait session?” True, they’ll tear your studio to pieces and distract her from her professional portrait session. But along with a little chaos comes life and surprisingly human moments. In the middle of it all, her son came up to be nursed. Maybe this is what Robert Frank meant about the “humanity of the moment.”

Mother hugging son portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

The portrait session was supposed to have been for her. But who she is on her own isn’t who she is completely. We’re all much deeper than ourselves and are who we are partly because of the people around us.

Portrait of a mom nursing her baby. 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

Perhaps you know your subject has reached their maximum level of comfort when they can nurse their baby even while the camera is still clicking. I’m thrilled to photograph people one on one and make portraits that they’ll use as authors or business people. But I’m even more thrilled when those portraits become intensely human moments.

 Get Comfy

The next time you greet a nervous portrait client, remember that the experience has been hyped up in their mind. Distract them from their discomfort with small talk, warm them up with “no pressure” test photos, and make laughter a part of your session.

Include the candid photos when you deliver their photos. Even if they don’t use them for business purposes, they may be the photos they (and you) love most.

I’d love to hear what else you do to help people get comfortable in front of your camera. Let me know in the comments below.

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Video: 360° 8K timelapse of the aurora borealis during a lunar eclipse

15 Mar

Photographer William Briscoe captured this spectacular 360° 8K timelapse on January 31st near Fairbanks, Alaska. He shared the video on his YouTube channel and Facebook page a few weeks ago, alongside this description:

Here is a 360 video of the Lunar Eclipse, Alaska style, which I filmed on January 31st near Fairbanks. Lady Aurora, being the Diva she is, just couldn’t let the moon have all the attention that night, so she made a nice showing as well.

If you have VR glasses of some sort, by all means slap them on! If not, simply drag the video around until you spot the moon, then watch as it disappears and becomes a black disk by about 30 seconds in, allowing the aurora to cover it entirely for the duration of the eclipse.

The full video is only a minute and ten seconds long, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to shoot. Responding to a comment on YouTube, Briscoe revealed that it was -31°F (-35°C) out that night, so just getting his 360° rig (a custom-built array of numerous 35mm DSLRs) to work was a challenge.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer hit by Olympic skier Lara Gut during wipeout

20 Feb

Embed from Getty Images

//

Swiss Olympic skier Lara Gut crashed during a run last week, and slid directly into a group of sports photographers on the sidelines. While most of them were able to get out of her way in time, one photographer, Sean Haffey, was hit square on. Fortunately, Haffey was quick with his camera and managed to capture multiple excellent shots of Gut as she slid toward him (embedded above).

Neither individual was hurt, but the collision, which was caught on video, still looks pretty intense:

According to Reuters, the crash may have happened due to one of Gut’s skis hitting a gate. She lightheartedly said to reporters after the incident, “No, I‘m OK, I‘m OK. I asked the photographer if he was OK too and he said he was. I think it’s getting scary to be a photographer on skiing hills.”

As for Haffey, Getty told NBC that he and his gear are both fine. “Sean is all OK as is his gear,” said Director and Head of External Communications for Getty Images, Anne Flanagan. “Like a true professional, he was shooting the entire time.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Musician kicks photographer in the face during rock concert, sending her to the ER

12 Dec

Queens of the Stone Age leading man Josh Homme did something at a show last night that seems both willful and horrifying. In the middle of a song, with no reason or provocation, he walked over to photographer Chelsea Lauren and kicked her squarely in the camera and face. Lauren, who was shooting the show for Shutterstock, seems to have been simply doing her job from the pit.

The whole incident was caught on video as well as in photos, with Lauren taking to Instagram to vent her disbelief and ask “WHO DOES THAT?” after the show last night.

Thanks to Josh Homme @queensofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!? #joshhomme #queensofthestoneage #qotsa #qotsafamily #concertphotography #musicphotographer

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on

Later, Lauren uploaded a series of three photos from the incident. Two showing the moment right before she was kicked, and a third showing Homme “later after he cut his own face with a knife. I was in the pit in tears – and he just stared at me smiling.”

Thank you everyone that has reached out with supportive messages. A small update, as I’m being flooded with questions: My neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I’m a bit nauseous. The doctor released me early in the morning. Here are three images. Two of them as Josh looked at me, smiled and then kicked me. The other one is later after he cut his own face with a knife. I was in the pit in tears – and he just stared at me smiling. Assault in any form is not okay, no matter what the reasoning. Alcohol and drugs are no excuse. I was where I was allowed to be, I was not breaking any rules. I was simply trying to do my job. I hold nobody accountable for this but Josh himself. KROQ has nothing to do with this and I will always support them. The irony is someone had thrown an ice cube on to the very slick catwalk before the QOTSA set. I was afraid that one of the band members might slip and hurt themselves so, when the lights went dark, I used my arm to wipe down the runway so nobody would hurt themselves. Thank you to @variety for their immediate concern and care with this matter. As of now, nobody from QOTSA has reached out to me. #queensofthestoneage #QOTSA #JoshHomme

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on

Lauren tells Variety that it was “obviously very intentional,” saying later that she spoke out because “I feel like if I don’t do anything, he gets to kick people in the face and not get in trouble because he’s a musician.”

For his part, Homme has since released two apologies. The first, published through the Queens of the Stone Age Twitter account characterized the incident as an accident.

Last night, while in a state of being lost in performance, I kicked over various lighting and equipment on our stage. Today it was brought to my attention that this included a camera held by photographer Chelsea Lauren. I did not mean for that to happen and I am very sorry. I would never intentionally cause harm to anyone working at or attending one of our shows and I hope Chelsea will accept my sincere apology.

But with both photo and video evidence seeming to show that the kick was intentional, this first apology came off more callous than sincere. It was followed by two tearful video apologies posted to Instagram:

Interestingly enough (though, perhaps, not surprising) it seems that other photographers have been warned about Homme in the past. In a post on her Facebook page, photographer Tanya Voltchanskaya said that she was told not to stand in front of Homme during a show back in 2014 because, and here she quotes directly, “[you] will get a boot in the face.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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