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.