Featured in “The Visual Student”
I was recently featured in NPPA’s new blog, “The Visual Student,” talking about my experiences during my internship at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Thanks Kevin!
Balloon Glow
Some fun at an annual event where they light up six hot air balloons at dusk.
Mike Peiffer holds open a hot air balloon named The Tinker-Too to let the air in at the Balloon Glow held on the grounds of the Brucemore Mansion on Thursday, June 25, 2009. The event was part of the Freedom Festival. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
From left to right, Jim Thomas, Joan Nickol, Carla Huber and David Peiffer stabilize a hot air balloon named The Tinker-Too during the beginning of the Balloon Glow held on the grounds of the Brucemore Mansion on Thursday, June 25, 2009. The event was part of the Freedom Festival. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Hot air balloons glow in the sky at the Balloon Glow held on the grounds of the Brucemore Mansion on Thursday, June 25, 2009. Six hot air balloons participated in the event. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night came to the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival over the weekend. It’s always fun shooting bands with sweet concert lights, let alone old(er) rockers trying to be hip.
Danny Hutton (left) and Cory Wells (right), of the band Three Dog NIght, perform during the Classic Rock Concert Night at the Freedom Festival held at Kirkwood Community College on Saturday, June 20, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Fans watch Three Dog Night’s performance at the Classic Rock Concert Night at the Freedom Festival held at Kirkwood Community College on Saturday, June 20, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Danny Hutton (left) and Cory Wells (right) of Three Dog Night perform during the Classic Rock Concert Night at the Freedom Festival held at Kirkwood Community College on Saturday. Wells was performing a new hip-hop version of “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” one of their hit songs of the ’70s. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Ode to Cedar Rapids’ Skyline
Last week, after two of my shoots had been rained out, I was assigned to shoot buildings in downtown Cedar Rapids to put into our new online banner. At first glance, this might seem like a typical “intern assignment.” But there was good light, so I strolled around and I had freedom to shoot basically whatever I wanted.
The Tree of Five Seasons sculpture located where 1st Avenue crosses the Cedar River on Friday, June 19, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Smulekoff’s building on 3rd Ave SE on Friday, June 19, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids on Friday, June 19, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Alliant Energy tower in downtown Cedar Rapids on Friday, June 19, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Gazette Communications building, 3rd Ave SE, on Friday, June 19, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Ducks
Yesterday I shot a rubber duck race. I must admit, seeing over 14,000 rubber ducks bobbing up and down in the Cedar River was pretty adorable – and fun to shoot.
Rubber ducks are released off of the Third Avenue Bridge into the Cedar River during the Great Eastern Iowa Duck Race presented by the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary and held in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, June 6, 2009. Over 14,000 ducks were sold, with the funds going to Four Oaks, Boys and Girls Club of Cedar Rapids, and Daybreak Rotary’s work with Polk Elementary School in Cedar Rapids. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
A sea of rubber ducks float down the Cedar River during the Great Eastern Iowa Duck Race presented by the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary and held in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, June 6, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
A sea of rubber ducks float down the Cedar River during the Great Eastern Iowa Duck Race presented by the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary and held in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, June 6, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
President of the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary John Helbling collects rubber ducks after the Great Eastern Iowa Duck Race presented by the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary and held in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, June 6, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Volunteers Kyle Boesenberg (left), Keith Brooks (center) and Ainsley Hogan (right) pass up baskets of rubber ducks for collection following the Great Eastern Iowa Duck Race presented by the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary and held in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, June 6, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Soccer
So I’ve been shooting a lot of sports lately. The other night I shot soccer, which I haven’t shot in years. I think I got a pretty cool image out of it.
Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Zach Brunscheen grabs the shirt of Iowa City West’s Alan Bedell as they both go after the ball in the second half of the Class 2A substate soccer match held at Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Monday, June 1, 2009. West advanced to state with a 4-1 victory. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
And how it appeared in the print edition:
Recent Favorites
Brooklyn, IA
Drivers practice maneuvering through figure eights before the opening-day races at Brooklyn Raceway in Brooklyn, IA on Saturday, May 9, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Kelly Ellis helps daughter Katie Goetzinger, 6, (both of Brooklyn) plant tomatoes in the family garden located off of Spring Street in Brooklyn, IA on Sunday, May 10, 2009. The family harvests tomatoes, radishes and other vegetables in the garden annually. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Brooklyn’s flag display on Sunday, May 10, 2009. The display boasts flags from each of the 50 states and the four branches of the military. The display was built and dedicated in 1992 by volunteers and funded by private donations.(Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Track & Field
Marion senior Kelsey Labs races toward the finish line en route to winning the 100meter dash on May 15 during the Class 3A district at Thomas Park in Marion. Labs won in 13.13 seconds and also won the 100 and 400 hurdles. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Anamosa State Pen
Anamosa State Pen warden John Fayram in one of the penitentiary’s cell blocks on Monday, May 18, 2009. After being deputy warden for six years, Fayram was appointed warden in March 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Unprintable
This was “too inappropriate” for our print edition. But hey, I shot what I saw.
Brandi Miller, of Iowa City, “installs” a “The Swing Crew” bumper sticker on Roger Lewis, of Cedar Rapids, during the first Uptown Friday Nights event of the season held at Greene Square Park in Cedar Rapids on Friday, May 22, 2009 (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Skydiving Outtakes
The Gazette has a monthly segment called “Coffeetown” where the paper profiles a randomly selected town within the circulation area with a couple of stories and photographs, and then invites the town to lunch with Gazette Employees. This month’s coffeetown was Brooklyn, IA. While shooting locals gardening, I saw people jumping out of planes. I went to investigate. (Photographs copyrighted Chris Mackler / The Gazette).
Corey Coleman, of Cedar Falls, receives final skydiving instructions from instructor Matt Yount (of Des Moines) before jumping out of the plane in a tandem skydive on Sunday, May 10, 2009. Skydive Iowa, located at 1922 Highway 6 in Brooklyn, Iowa is one of only a few airports that is skydiver owned. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
Corey Coleman, of Cedar Falls, jumps with instructor Matt Yount (of Des Moines) in a tandem skydive.
Aerial view of Brooklyn, Iowa on Sunday, May 10, 2009. (Chris Mackler/The Gazette).
First Couple of Weeks in Cedar Rapids
If you didn’t already know, I’ve accepted an internship at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Here are a few images from my first couple of weeks:
Tornado Clean Up
(From left) Dustin Lange (14), Ryan Recker (15) and Stefon Brandt (15), all students at Alburnett High School, help clean up a tornado’s aftermath in Alburnett on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. A tornado struck the area on Sunday, causing no injuries, but downing large trees and destroying at least three large campers. Two Alburnett High School teachers, Linda Franck and Vicki Meadows, organized the student clean because many students were affected by the storm.
Josh Langhoff (16), Ryan Young (16), and Sam MacDonald (13), all students at Alburnett High School, help clean up a tornado’s aftermath in Alburnett on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.
Same-Sex Marriage
Patty Glass (left) and Rita Wall embrace one another while waiting for marriage license paperwork to be filed at the County recorder office located in Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids on Monday, April 27, 2009. The couple has been together for almost one year. Said Wall, “I’m so proud to be an Iowan today.” Monday marked the first day that same-sex couples could fill out a marriage license application in the state of Iowa.
Hawkeye Downs
(From left) Jarrett Dulin (7), Taylor Christiansan (6) and Mckenna Dulin (8) “race” toy cars in the grandstand at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids on Friday, May 1, 2009. There were many children in attendance as Friday marked Kirkwood Kids night.
2008 Favorites
Happy New Year to all! 2008 was filled with a fantastic trip to India, a good internship at The Elkhart Truth, a look into an historic political season, and graduation. Here’s hoping everyone has a good 2009.
Teagan and Blake Mast fidget during the singing of the National Anthem Friday July 25, 2008 on the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds in Goshen, Ind.
A worker sets up the Giant Ferris Wheel on the Elkhart County 4-H fairgrounds in Goshen, Ind., on July 16, 2008.
A tourist feeds a monkey at the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India, the capital city of Rajasthan on January 1, 2008. The elegant fort was built in 1592 by Raja Man Singh I and is a major tourist attraction.
The bride Divya Agarwal prepares to receive gifts during her wedding ceremony with Suketu Soni, Jan. 4, 2008. Agarwal and Soni met on an Indian online dating service in 2001.
A wedding guest watches a wedding parade in the town of Navsari in Gujarat, India.
An Obama supporter stands in the doorway as the final Presidential debate is projected on the wall at the Campaign for Change student headquarters on Court Street in Athens, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2008.
Gujarati Wedding
After nearly 1 year from my India trip, I’ve finally compiled the photos into a wedding story. You might have seen some of these photos before, but now they’re all presented together in a story.
Traditionally, Indian weddings are elaborate celebrations filled with rituals and customs dating back thousands of years. Weddings are usually between arranged couples, or those who have been partnered together by the bride and groom’s families for financial gain and family partnership. The marriage between Suketu Soni and Divya Agarwal was a more modern love marriage. The ceremonies occurred between Jan. 3, 2008 and Jan. 5, 2008 in the state of Gujarat, in northwest India.
Portfolio December 2008: Singles
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Campaign for Change
Students played an important roll in Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. Students, residents, paid employees and volunteers alike bonded together to show support for their candidate. Obama’s campaign harnessed the youth vote in a way that had never been done before. According to College News:
The youth, a notoriously unpredictable constituency in voter turnout, dashed to the polls in historically high numbers. And they leaned toward Obama overwhelmingly, by a ratio of greater than two-to-one, according to exit polls.”
My independent study for my final quarter at Ohio University focused on Barack Obama’s student-led campaign in Athens, Ohio. I met many committed and tallented individuals along the way. Enjoy.
The Photograph with a Story
Let me tell you about my crazy election day.
So, being a media photographer, I naturally was going to be photographing this historic election. Anticipating the madness of the day, I went to the Athens County Board of Elections on November 3 to check on the guidelines on photographing inside the polling places. There, I was informed by Debbie Quivey, Director of the Athens County Board of Elections, that in no uncertain terms I could not photograph inside the polling places, even though I was a credentialed media photographer (for The Post).
Now, I knew that she was incorrect, as you see photographs from media outlets all the time of people in polling places voting. I continued to push the issue, and Debbie Quivey gave me an advisory from Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State, dated February 26, 2008, which Quivey said backed her position. An excerpt from this advisory is below.
The Secretary of State’s office is commonly asked whether the media must be granted access to polling places during an election. While it appears that statutory authority exists to keep the media from entering polling places…a federal court has effectively enjoined election officials and authorities from enforcing that statute against representatives of the media. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Beacon Journal Publishing Company, Inc. v. Blackwell, 389 F. 3d 683 (6th Cir. 2004), stated that the media must be granted “reasonable access to any polling place for the purpose of news-gathering and reporting so long as [they] do not interfere with poll workers and voters as voters exercise their right to vote.” Poll workers must grant representatives of the media access to polling locations, but they must consider several factors in granting access so as to ensure voters are not disturbed or delayed.
Now, I wondered if Debbie Quivey actually read what she gave me. I proceeded to call the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, but got nowhere inside the phone tree. I decide to take my chances and get in on election day.
Election day comes, and I am kicked out of every polling place I try to photograph in, even though I identify myself as a credentialed photographer working for The Post, and have credentials visibly dangling from my neck.
Around 6 p.m. (polls closed at 7:30 in Ohio), I decide that I’m just going for it and photograph the polls (as I am legally allowed to do as a credentialed media photographer). I position myself at the door of a polling station within Ohio University’s Baker Center and begin shooting.
Immediately, an angry poll worker was running my way. She was getting bigger and bigger in my frame as I continued to fire way. I was thinking to myself, “bring it on.”
The poll worker angrily asked me what I was doing, to stop photographing and to put my camera away at once. I calmly explained that I was a credentialed photographer working for The Post, and showed her my press pass. She said no way, nobody is allowed to take photographs inside polling places, and that The Post was not a recognized media outlet (which is false). I asked to speak to her supervisor.
The head official of the particular polling place came up and told me that no, I could not take any photographs whatsoever. Furthermore, as she pointed to my camera, she said she said a camera that technological could zoom into people’s ballots. I had my 16-35mm wide angle lens on, and explained that I would literally have to be within a foot of a person’s ballot to “zoom in” on it. Besides, that wasn’t even the point.
I whipped out the advisory from the Secretary of State which Debbie Quivey gave me the day before, and showed it the head official of the Baker polling location. She said that no, this does not say I am allowed to take photographs (which it does). I told her to call Debbie up.
She called Debbie, and Debbie, of course, said in no uncertain terms that of course I could not take photographs. I asked to speak with her myself. I explained that I was a photographer for The Post, and from the advisory she gave me yesterday, I had access to the polling location as a credentialed member of the media, as long as I did not interfere with the voters or voting process. She finally agreed that I had access, but that did not mean taking photographs. She did not want to see photos in The Post or in any other newspaper tomorrow, or else….
Furthermore, she said that she had security “down there,” and, in fact, security was “on its way.” She said if I took more photos….and then trailed off and stopped short of saying that she would confiscate my gear.
I thanked her for her time, and headed down to the offices of The Post to talk to the Editor in Chief. He called Debbie Quivey, and explained that as a media photographer, I am allowed to photograph within the polls. He told her that if she turned on CNN, you would see reporters reporting from within polls in Ohio. She hung up.
We were finally able to get in contact with a superior, and around 7:15p.m., I was allowed into photograph the polls. With 15 minutes left until the polls closed, there were not many people to photograph.
As a result, I am slightly appalled to announce that I was the only media outlet in the county to be allowed in to photograph the polls. I am stunned that none of the other media outlets in town did not fight for their right to cover the polling locations. I had to spend more time on election day fighting for my right to cover a historic election than actually covering it. What a day.
Election Live Gallery
Welcome to my live coverage of Election Day in Ohio. This live gallery will be updated frequently throughout the day tomorrow (November 4) with fresh images from the 2008 Presidential Election in Ohio. In Ohio, polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. Feel free to embed this gallery in your blog or website, or share in any other way. All images included in the gallery are fully liscensable. Thanks for viewing!
Matthew Maxwell Kennedy
Matthew Maxwell Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, visited Athens Thursday, October 30, 2008 to campaign for Obama. Kennedy spent his time with the student members of Campaign for Change. Said Kennedy, “You guys are smiling and having fun…I’ve never seen energy like this on a campus before.”
Even the restroom at Wendy’s is having its say about this election.
5 Days Left
With 5 days left, we’re getting down to the wire ladies and gents. More from my independent study:
Suzi Hawk, Communications Chair and second top-caller for Ohio University’s College Republicans, makes calls on behalf of the McCain/Palin campaign, Wednesday October 22, 2008.
Ken Chapman, Regional Field Director for Campaign for Change, watches Senator Barack Obama’s 30-minute TV ad on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. The ad, which aired on 7 different networks simultaneously, featured profiles of families and high-profile endorsements.
Is anyone getting sick of election coverage yet?
Biden Comes to Athens
Joe Biden visited Athens Wednesday, October 15.
Surrounded by Secret Service agents, Senator Joe Biden poses with Rachel Kleinman and Nicole Smith, of Athens, October 15, 2008. Vice-Presidential hopeful Biden appeared alongside Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to campaign on behalf of Obama.
Last Debate
I photographed people watching the last Presidential debate last week for my independent study. Here’s my favorite catch from the night.
An Obama supporter stands in the doorway during the final Presidential debate at the Campaign for Change student headquarters on Court Street in Athens, Ohio, October 15, 2008.
India Photos
For those of you who remember my trip to India, and have waited patiently to see some photos, here they are:
Yellow – Suketu Soni gets covered in traditional turmeric in a wedding blessing ceremony in Gujarat, India. Traditionally, Indian weddings are elaborate celebrations filled with rituals and customs dating back thousands of years. Weddings are usually between arranged couples, or those who have been partnered together by the bride and groom’s families for financial gain and family partnership. The marriage of Suketu Soni and Divya Agarwal was a more modern love marriage.
Divya – Divya Agarwal prepares to receive gifts during her wedding ceremony with Suketu Soni, January 4, 2008. Agarwal and Soni met on an Indian online dating service.
Rajendra – Rajendra Parekh waits for the wedding ceremony between Suketu Soni and Divya Agarwal to begin in Navsari, Gujarat, India, January 5, 2008.
Celebration – The wedding celebration between Suketu Soni and Divya Agarwal moves into the streets in Navsari, Gujarat, India, January 5, 2008.
A wedding guest watches the wedding parade.
A girl holds a flower in her henna-decorated hands during the wedding ceremony between Suketu Soni and Divya Agarwal in Navsari, Gujarat, India, January 3, 2008. Traditionally, Indian weddings last days longer than their American counterparts.
Doorman – A doorman holds the door in front of a sari shop in downtown Surat, Gujarat, India, January 7, 2008.
Monkey See, Monkey Do – A tourist feeds a monkey at the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India, the capital city of Rajasthan on January 1, 2008. The elegant fort was built in 1592 by Raja Man Singh I and is a major tourist attraction.
Birds – Streetscape in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on the evening of January 1, 2008.
Mumbai Airport and Delhi
Hi all,
It’s been an interesting past couple of days full of jet lag and culture shock. I don’t have much time to post. The goal of this blog is not to show a typical tourist viewpoint, but without further ado, here are some (hopefully not typical tourist) photos:
Gopal’s aunt, Saroj Sonwadiwala, at Mumbai airport
Worker at a shoe locker outside Birla Mandir temple in Delhi.
Our driver, one brave soul. Driving in Delhi is interesting, as everybody ignores the lanes and lights.
The Lotus Temple, Delhi.
I’ll post more later. Hope all is well, and thanks for reading. Comments are welcome.
