Results tagged “york” from Bil's Eye View

Schools administrations often wonder why newspapers don't print more positive news about students.

Good news doesn't have its police scanners and reports, which is generally how we get the bad news. So, we rely on teachers or other school personnel to tell us about the good news.

But sometimes, I call schools and ask if there is anything going on. "No," they say. "Just 300 kids jump-roping for a heart fund raiser". I'm usually at the school before they hang up the phone. That kind of news is terrific for pictures-- cute kids doing positive things in the community. It might not be a big story, but it's good for pictures. It's active, visual and shows our readers and viewers that not all kids are stealing cars and doing drugs.

Monday, I wandered into Devers Elementary in York, checked in at the office, talked with the principal, picked up a visitor's badge, checked with the school's privacy registrations. And then meandered up and down the halls until I found Cyncear Preston in music class.

She was 'into' Olivia Hartlaub's music class. They sang, banged on basic instruments, laughed and sang some more.

There much worse ways to spend a day off than watching good kids having fun -- and learning at the same time.

Whether shooting for the media or your family, there are some events you must record every week, month or year-- birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. The fireworks on the Fourth of July is one of those. But how do you capture a fresh look every time? You want something new, different and interesting, but not so unusual that the subject is obscured because of the picture's uniqueness.

At the same time, remember what one of my mentors once said -- "Excellence is always excellent." Meaning, of course, that's if it's a terrific picture, it'll be terrific again next time, and on and on...

Since Jason Plotkin was scheduled to photograph fireworks Saturday night, I was free to experiment, to look around for possibilities. And if nothing worked, it didn't matter. Jason's got it covered.

There was no one watching the fireworks from the overpass at Penn Street Street as I had seen once before (railroad tracks and silhouettes), so I moved to Kiwanis Lake, hoping for reflections. Trees there hid most of the color.

Rushing across the street was an intersection where the stream of car lights on the ground added color to the fireworks in the sky.

Don't think it worked-- too much of a stretch. Maybe shot from a higher vantage point would have shown the car lights better, and that would have helped. Jason's photo on C1 of the York Daily Record was excellent and that's good.

The next time I'm scheduled, I know three places from which NOT to shoot.

Charu has done well for herself. And for those lucky enough to meet her, their lives have probably changed for the better as well.
It's been a bit more than 10 years now since Charu Newhouse, a Springettsbury Township woman, begged Yorkers for food and clothing, all to be sent to the refugee camp at which she was working, a world away. Yorkers responded with tons of goods, all of which she maneuvered to the Debrecen, Hungary, facility.
She plopped herself down in the middle of camp and proceeded to organize paperwork and the frayed lives of everyone she met there. Some wanted to go back home to Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Bosnia or one of another 33 countries. Others wanted to go someplace new that they could call home.
Above are two photos from the camp. That's Charu on the left, speaking with a crowd of Pakistani men. At right is Abed, who would later become her husband. The other photo is of a young boy-- one of 1,000 people in the camp-- who tried to make the best of a very difficult situation.
Charu lives in Miami today, the state director of an immigration advocacy center. She married Abed Al-Sahli, the Palestinian refugee she met at the Debrecen camp and is now the proud mother of two young daughters. The oldest, Leila, is four years old, smart as could be, says grandma Debra Newhouse, and looks just like Charu-- blonde and beautiful. Yasmine is one year old, and the image of her handsome father, dark eyes and dark hair.
Charu's zeal for helping the underdog was, and is, remarkable. She could have graduated from college and settled into a comfy, suburban lifestyle. Instead, she traveled to Hungary, looking to help anyone who could use it. And she's still working for the underdog today.
The Daily Record's recording of her work was a fascinating study of many world cultures tossed into a mixing bowl of one broken-down former army camp. I almost felt sorry for the camp director who tried to defend her camp's poor conditions against Charu and YDR reporter Melissa Tyrrell's questioning.
Charu's fight for human rights continues today, and I thank her for the opportunity to record her work. The refugees thank her for the new direction in which she was able to point them.

This recent trip to Canada for skiing,(Mont Tremblant), touring and visiting (Quebec), celebrating (Quebec City), eating (raclette), exploring (Maine), eating (lobster), driving, and of course eating (unknown from the French menu) was nearly perfect. Met new friends, found new exciting places and took a lot of pictures, including many with my point-and-shoot digital.

On Bailey Island, Maine, I stopped to ask permission to take pictures of a portion of the rocky, icy coastline dotted with lobster traps that was obviously someone's property. George and Peg Johnson invited us inside like we were long lost friends, and we spent a good part of the day talking and laughing with the lobsterman and his new wife.

We learned that George is hoping to get one more year of lobstering under his belt next season, and then he could retire at 65. But that's not 65-years old, that's 65 years of lobstering on the southern Maine waters. George is 82 years old-- that's right, 82 years old!-- and he's still lobstering, fighting the waves, the frigid spring and fall temperatures and the summer heat.

Wrestling his more than 200 traps would exhaust men 60 years younger.

He and Peg are truly a love story. They had dated more than 55 years ago, and an old black and white picture of the two of them together sits on the television. But life took them in different directions, and they each married someone else. George's marriage lasted 45 years, but cancer took his wife. Peg's husband also passed away after 51 years of marriage, and she returned to the island with daughter Mandy Bello for a visit.

As it happened, Peg and George met again, and today are newlyweds of six years. Peg's gentle blue eyes smile when George says "Hey, I've got something here to show you." As he leaves the room, Peg knows what he's gone to find, and says quietly, "He's quite a talker".

He comes back with this month's Esquire magazine. The feature article is actually a series of articles--50 in all--and one man from each state's story is told. Clint Eastwood, Woody Harrelson and a list of other celebrities are the highlighted stars of their own state. For Maine, it's 82-year old George Johnson, and he's standing like a triumphant general next to a stack of lobster traps.

Of all the houses in Maine, I happened to knock on the back door of one of its biggest celebrities, at least for this month. And certainly among the most friendly.

The two are headed at the end of January for the warmer climate of Florida and Grand Cayman Islands. There, they'll recharge their batteries for another lobster season.

This trip demanded a fist full of pictures, and another storage card or two.

But none of the pictures were any more satisfying than this simple photograph of George Johnson. Sometimes, a simple picture tells the whole story.

In an 11-point study in composition I got together quite a few years ago, each letter in THE BEST RICE corresponds with something to keep in mind as I take my next picture. Check the previous blog entry, called Entrance and Exit.

Now, it works for me and we passed it on to correspondents who shot pictures for the York Daily Record. But yours might be different. One reader, Brian Hermans, came up with his own at my request, and while it's different, it makes plenty of sense. I'll be including his list soon.

The first "T" to remember is the Three Hundred Sixty Degree Rule. Imagine your picture from a different angle; maybe shooting into the sun, maybe higher or lower; maybe from behind. And look at 360 degrees as time, as well. Would the photo look better in the morning sun, or evening? Maybe at night?

Or as this photo shows, shoot from higher or lower perspectives than what people usually see. Fellow YDR photographer Jason Plotkin always searches for high or low angles-- he's always searching for something 'different good". And "different good" is terrific, but "different bad" is awful. Find a different angle, but keep in mind what you're trying to show. If you confuse the viewer with convoluted lines, colors, subjects, he's gone.

This picture was taken from a man-basket dangling from a crane while workmen built a 'dish" frame (radio, telelphone, I don't remember) atop the smokestack at Pershing Avenue and Philadelphia Street in York. The Codorus Creek is near the top, with Philadelphia Street bridge over it.

Yep, we could have gotten the shot from below, but it would have shown nothing that anyone else had already seen while driving past. I was harnessed in the bucket, the workman was tied off. Everyone was safe, but the photo doesn't make it seem that way.

Splashing through the creek at York College could have been so much fun this summer; and you wished you could just forget about mortgage payments, gas prices, your job-- just for a moment.

Newspapers once used a lot of what we at the YDR call 'free art', that is, just photos that are fun, pretty, or unusual. Generally, however, newspapers have now steered away from this type of photo unless it goes with a story. By itself, it's too much 'fluff'. People want news, and photos that are linked only to those stories.

This photo was shot years ago on one of those miserable hot days in summer, when kids were finding ways to cool off. You see some interesting things just cruising around town...

Silhouettes are relatively easy to shoot, and often, especially with point and shoot cameras, you'll get a silhouette even when you don't want it. The light meter will read all the strong light from behind the subjects and adjust accordingly, giving the silhouette. Many cameras have a backlight mode which will allow more light into the camera, and put more detail in the subjects.

York Fair week is, in my mind, one of the best times of year, for a carload of reasons. It signals the end of a usually hot, miserable summer (my least favorite season), football season begins, autumn and all its color may be just a month away, depending which part of the country you visit.

But of course, it's Fair time. Photographs are everywhere-- kids joyfully fighting with a stick of cotton candy, the animals, the carnival workers and of course, the rides. I wouldn't pay the high prices they ask to just enjoy the ride, but to get a picture, now that's another story.

Instead of getting the usual off-ride, blurry night action picture of a ride, take a camera on the ride, hang on tight and start shooting. If you are traveling the same speed as the rider, you might get a blurry background (that's a good thing) and some terrific expressions, as in this photo taken years ago.

I'll be at the fair every chance I get. It'll be over too soon.

Normally, when we think of contrast in a photo, it's lightness or darkness.

But use other kinds of contrast--big and small, short and tall, fat and thin, old and young or black and white --to create an interesting picture.

This picture of York's Matthew Dorgan, taken in 1981, shows Matt sitting in his grandparents' pool on a floating chair. His aunt, who was watching him, swam up behind and stuck her feet up. It created a kind of head-scratcher moment. It's kind of comical, the size difference.

It was unrehearsed, candid and funny. Have your camera to catch moments of contrast. It's more than light and dark.

As our Mommy-in-Residence blogger Amy Gulli points out, the first day of school can be traumatic. And for the four-year old in this picture, maybe meeting someone just a few steps away from God in a Catholic school is even more intimidating.

While Sam (Amy's little doll) is finally understanding that school is indeed a good place to be, this kindergartner in the photograph wasn't so sure about his strangely-dressed teacher, a nun. He wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

Terrified.

This photograph was taken 30 years ago. By now, this little boy probably has kids of his own, battling the same kind of terror he did. Somehow, we survive.

To read more about Sam's last few days, click here.

While it might not be the world's most dangerous job, washing windows must be one of the most interesting.

This photograph, taken 20 years ago in downtown York, shows a washer hard at work, taken from an angle different than most people would see as they pass on the streets below. Maybe this picture's interest is the soap suds trails, but maybe it's more of a "wish I could try that for about a day."

Myself, I prefer a job where both feet are planted on the ground, with only an occasional fling in the air, under water, or upside down.