The Daily Press Photo Department

Serrano may have won the game by the narrowest margin, but Oak Hills girls wound up looking best, at least in my images Thursday night.

Some days, the breaks are against you. All my photo breaks went one way, but the game went the other. Thursday night I photographed one of the semifinal games of the Serrano Holiday Classic girls basketball tournament. Its fun to cover an all local match up like Oak Hills vs. Serrano.

Who ever has the ball, however the play works out, at least I know I will get an image that a select portion of our readers will appreciate either way. The next step should be easy to accomplish: the photo that best tells the story of the winning team separating itself from the losing team. So that was my goal Thursday.

I was looking forward to photographing with a multiple flash set up, and spent the first half of the game not so much focusing on how each team was playing but more how my flashes were exposing, and if my camera and flashes were executing their assigned tasks. But early into the second half of the closely contested game, I began to notice a trend.

Most of my images illustrated how well Oak Hills was playing. Which was ok, I thought, because Oak Hills was nursing a small lead through most of the first half. But in the second half Serrano took and maintained a lead. I even adjusted my position to Serrano’s end of the court and repositioning the multi-flash set up mid-game. I hoped the move would ensure better expression and emotion from the home team girls.

As I returned to shooting, I noticed how the basketball and photo Gods were not synchronizing my way. Every Serrano play would seem to be plagued by a referee stepping in front of me, a flash misfire, a turned head, or even flying hair blocking a face seemed to interrupt any direct view of a Serrano girl executing a lay-up, rebound, or any other decisive play.

I must give credit to Serrano’s guards to aiding my frustration. I was suckered by every one of their no-look passes and dishouts. I left the game with several photos of Serrano’s guards running empty-handed to the basket while someone on the wing drained a 3-pointer. Usually, I’m happy with just shooting one or two of those types of photos per game.

Even the final celebration of Serrano standouts Nastacia Jones and Jessica Johnson was just slightly beyond the useful range of my flashes, and Oak Hills’ Kortney Bridges was best exposed in the image while she walked off the court.

Fortunately, Jones’ beaming smile lights up the image enough to make it a worthwhile storytelling image of a victorious team on its way to the tournament finals.

Sometimes the photo Gods smile upon me and sometimes the basketball Gods smile upon me in any given game.

Sadly, in this game they chuckled and grinned at different moments in the game.

Though 2011 is nearing completion, this year I began looking back in March. The Daily Press Year in Review DVD, now on sale, is a project that goes against the grain of just about every nerve and instinct of a news photographer. Those nerves and instincts of mine are nearly completely fried, cooked and done. But, as I burned discs and stuffed DVD jewel cases, I found myself proud — not just for the DVDs themselves, but for using skills I know I have but don’t get to use every day.
It’s kind of like trying to open a jar of jelly after riding a bicycle for a 100 miles. Sure you rarely use your arm and hand muscles to ride a bicycle, but you’ve spent so much energy on training and using the  leg muscles, there’s nothing left to power the arm muscles.
As news photographers, we run from news event to feature portrait to football game, then edit out a single picture in as little time as possible, then go home tired and satisfied. The next day you barely remember what happened last week. For 2011, I had to track every picture, video and headline for possible use — some to save for 12 months — only to cut and delete because it didn’t compare.
Usually a news photographer will start 100 percent of his work in a day and complete 95 percent of it on the same day. Through 2011, it was like taking a year to complete a puzzle. Every month I had to come back to the same project, make sure all the puzzle pieces were still there, piece one or two together, run to a news event, return, put a couple more together, then take off again.
Now I sit back and look at the DVDs and hope you all enjoy taking a look at the year, and seeing how individual days meld together into 2011.
Special thanks to Martial Haprov, David Pardo and Brooke Edwards for sitting in on a few editing reviews, Intern Rachel Winter and Online Editor Sarah Batcha for searching through the Daily Press and ordering the top headlines of the year. To Joshua Brunton for continually finding me more storage space. And of course photographers David Pardo, Jonathan Berg, Jose Gonzales, Doug Saunders, Kat Minor and El Kingston for shooting everything, and keeping the wheels on the bus while I edited and rendered video.

The DVD is available at the Daily Press office for $12.

Sam Santellan Jr. brushes away hair after cutting  Thomas Gillette’s hair Wednesday afternoon during the Victor Valley Rescue Mission’s annual Thanksgiving dinner. This year’s event provided several self care services beyond the usual dinner and food giveaways.
Of all the things someone can do for the needy, I noticed today how powerful a hair cut can be. Sam Santellan Jr and his son Roland Santellan offer haircuts for the distressed, needy. poor and homeless through the Victor Valley Rescue Mission and First Christian Church. On Wednesday they greeted, joked, and cut for a long line of visitors at the rescue mission’s annual thanksgiving dinner.

I saw a lot more than expected while watching the father-son team work, and seeing the reactions of the customers. Its a very personal touch reach into and across someone else’s hair, not to mention to sit for a new person to cut hair. More than a meal, the transformation visible right away, the interaction is personal, and the results are deeper than a new look. A new look, a fresh smile and an extra bounce in their step most everyone offered a very special thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Since this winter, one of my newest fascinations has been my new neighbor: a hawk that built its nest in my front yard tree and spent the winter and spring hunting in the large field on the back side of my house.

Most humorous has been the relationship between the bird and my dog. Early in the winter, the mother bird seemed to have eyes bigger than its stomach and she took a few swipes at our lab/shepherd-mix dog. Beyond that annoyance, the dog has enjoyed many a treat from the bird. A few dropped mice, some left over squirrel parts… Our friendly and loyal dog even brought a dead rabbit into the house to share with the rest of the family after the hawk dropped its kill between the hunting field and the nest.

But seeing the two babies start to venture out from the nest has been the most amazing part of the experience. The larger, more aggressive offspring first hopped out of the nest onto a tree branch for the better part of a day before he took his first dive — really just falling gracefully into my front yard. After flopping his wings around, the baby hawk took flight long enough to get onto our lower fence. Soon it was the trunk of my car, next to the higher privacy fence and finally onto the neighbor’s roof. All the while, the smaller chick only popped its head out of the nest to watch.

This morning, just after the baby got its picture on the front page of the Daily Press, It seems both babies have left never to return, with no sight of them all day.

Momma hawk is still around and took another swipe at our dog. I doubt it’s for feeding now. Maybe the bird and the dog just have to settle their own territorial differences. The dog doesn’t really care about hawks in the sky, as long they leave her backyard alone and drop a mouse or squirrel every once in a while.

For the The twitter followers that watched my daily tweets from illinois, here’s a complete collection.

This was a bitter-sweet return to my hometown. We returned for a memorial for my grandmother, and a wedding for a niece. The photos displayed are a heavy manipulation of iPhone images and various iPhone Apps. I used the apps to wipe away some of the realities of the present, and emphasisze the emotions that go with a trip across the country to home.

Welcome to the Daily Press Photo blog. This new blog is one of several new items coming to the photography department. Here you’ll be able to see some of the other work our photography staff does.

We’ll feature some alternative photography, some technical explanations of what we do, and feature work from our readers, and friends from the Daily Press.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops.

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