On assignment to shoot the opening ceremony for the Central Meadow at Chambers Creek Properties I wanted any lead shot to show the place. The only trouble was that the place is large and flat. The only way to show it well is to shoot from a higher angle than I can reach doing the usual "hail mary" (holding the camera over my head).

The solution in this case was to shoot a higher hail mary, with the camera atop a monopod, using a radio remote release (in my bottom hand).

Composing accurately is trickier than it is for the usual hail mary, and trying to catch a good moment involving the people at the event meant that I had to wander around with the camera up and at-the-ready for 20 minutes.

As a gonzo skier it's hard for me to feel good about melting snow, but the winding rivulets made by the melting snow on Mt. Ruth (near Mt. Baker) actually were lovely.

An unidentified man ran shirtless across Safeco Field during the Mariners and Red Sox game at Safeco Field Wednesday July 23, 2008.
Darren Breen/The News Tribune

Someone being arrested is no laughing matter . . . usually.
Is it more fun to laugh with someone, or at someone? I think this photograph gives ammunition to the latter.
Hopefully his friends bet him enough money to post bail, because shortly after I made this frame the shirtless man was being hauled away in handcuffs, actually I think his friends should give him extra cash for the extra skin he accidentally showed the crowd.
Hopefully the humor in this photograph helps people learn some valuable life lesson.
As a photographer I first thought of this photograph as a near miss because of the umpire's back blocking the security guard. But after looking at it again I chuckled, and when I noticed the way the umpire's arm framed the runner I began to like it, and I thought it might make other people chuckle as well. So I hope it made you laugh a little.

Any event that has kids and bugs seems like a natural for good pictures, but it can be surprisingly hard to shoot them.

At this bug show at a library, I figured that a good shot would either need to show a bug clearly (with kids still visible), or catch a good expression on some kid's face (with a bug shown, even if small).

I figured that in this situation the chance of a lively expression was pretty small because the "Eew, yuck" factor was small: kids came there expecting to see bugs. Had it been, say, the captive audience of a classroom of fifth-graders, I'd expect more grimaces.

So I opted for a clear shot of some bug with kids in the background.

Bugs, being so small, pretty much cannot be shown as more than a small dot unless the camera being really close.

If I used a 50mm macro or any telephoto for such a shot, the result would be a shot of a bug with a very blurry background containing the face of, at most, one kid. And it would require careful positioning of bug, kid and camera and careful focusing through the viewfinder. This would be hard to do when the bug guy is moving the bug around so that all kids can see it. It would also require me to move continuously through the scrum of seated kids as I followed the bug, trying to frame and focus shots. No-way.

What proved more do-able was to pre-focus a 17mm wide angle lens, stop down as much as I could for added depth of field (f4.8 at ISO 1600), and shoot hail-mary-style, holding the camera about six inches from the bug, just guessing where to aim it to get the bug with kids in the background.

This is the best of about 40 frames. Many of them aren't sharp, either due to movement of bug or camera, or because I held the camera a little too close or far away.

The pain of the needle piercing the skin is pretty minor. It's actually less bothersome than the anxiety and cringing that comes beforehand.

At the crucial moment I usually look away, but this time I was mostly looking at the camera in my left hand, trying to position it to get both needle and my face (and as you can see, I only partly succeeded).

By the way, Cascade Regional Blood Services on So. I st. by Wright Park is the most in need of donors during summertime. Call 383-2553.

Reader Bill Casper sent us a note about a photo at ran on Thursday, January 11, 2008 on page A10. The photo is Staff Sgt. Jon Hilliard and his wife, Danielle, from the ceremony where he was awarded a Silver Star for helping to save the lives of seven wounded men in his Stryker vehicle.

I just came across this Subject page while moving some stuff on a cluttered shelf. I cannot look at Peter Haley's photo or hand it to some one without tears and choking up. About all I can do is type with tears flowing. I would like you to nominate the photo as the number one TNT photo of the year and also submit it for national recognition.

To me the emotional effect is partly my joy in seeing the pride in that wife's eyes and pissed off anger that so many Americans do not share her pride and devotion.

Bill

On slow news days we often send a photographer out to "find some wild art", meaning some picture that can stand alone on a newspaper page without a story.

Having been thusly dispatched on a recent warm day I snooped around the little park along the White River next to the Sumner library. No one was there, save Library Assistant Sally Alger who was keeping up with her work during her lunch break.

Walking around her, but not so close as to catch her attention, I didn't see any interesting angle and doubted that I could make a photo of her worthy of our pages.

Then I considered looking down through the tree's foliage at her. It seemed worth a try, and it might be fun to be paid to climb a tree.

I couldn't climb over her without being detected, so I approached her and asked first if she minded being photographed for the paper. Like nearly all folks out in public, she didn't mind at all.

Leaving the camera bag and my second camera body on the ground, I was able to maneuver to several different vantage points from about 20 feet up.

As you can see, my favorite angle was with several parallel branches crossing the frame.

Lightning strikes beyond Northeast Tacoma late Wednesday night. Photo by Craig Sailor/The News Tribune Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

Spectators line up on Mason Street at North 39th Street in Tacoma watch a lightning show across Commencement Bay towards northeast Tacoma. One commented, “This is better than the Fourth of the July.”