Rita Phillips takes in some sunshine Tuesday afternoon while waiting for fish to nibble at Bradley Lake Park in Puyallup. Phillips said it was the journey, not the destination that mattered: “This is awesome. I don’t have to catch – I just like to fish.”

Jessica Hoylman of Buckley takes advantage of unusually warm temperatures and a colorful palette at Tacoma’s Wright Park to take some keepsake photos of her children in their Halloween costumes Monday. Two-year-old Kyla couldn’t help but yawn during the photo, but perked up when Mom suggested going to the playground. Kadin, 10 months, was content to crawl through the leaves.

If you’ve got photos from this year’s pumpkin patch field trip, costume fitting or other special Halloween moment, we want to see them. Upload them to our Web photo gallery and we’ll consider publishing some in the paper.

Ruben Sparks, 4, of Normandy Park dresses up as LarryBoy, a superhero cucumber from the cartoon VeggieTales, at a kids cyclocross race Sunday. The event at Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood also challenged adult riders in the all-terrain bicycle competition.

Misty the sorcerous pug from Lakewood shows off her costume Saturday at the second annual Pierce County Parks and Recreation Department’s Woof Walk. The event, at Spanaway Park, drew participants who walked a 1.5- or 3-mile route with their pooches to admire the fall colors.

To see photos of more costumed pups, visit the gallery.

Deputy prosecutor Raymond Odell winces as he loses his locks. He and about eight other deputy prosecutors and county prosecutor Gerald Horne (center) had their heads shaved by Bates Technical College's barbering students Friday. It was in solidarity with deputy prosecutor Maureen Goodman (below, center) who lost her hair during treatment for breast cancer, and it was to promote cancer awareness after the office had raised $1600 to fight breast cancer.

I recently had an assignment to illustrate a story about the city studying possible changes in the parking downtown. I needed to get shot of a one hour parking sign good enough to be "lead art".

Which meant that the shot had to be interesting enough to run as the largest picture on a section front, "anchoring" the page. And-- parking signs themselves being very uninteresting, and interesting things rarely happening around them-- that meant I needed to do something artful with the inanimate subject matter.

In this case, the artful something was to put together a picture which is complex, but not too messy. And it's layered, meaning that the various elements are at various distances. So it's busy, but your eye is led to the sign.

Which leads me to a favorite compositional style, which I call "busy, but lead the eye".

Often such a shot does not have a single main element.

In the shot above of a young lieutenant trying to reassure a skeptical shiite family in Baghdad, your eye hops around to the various persons, each one of more or less equal importance.

In the Scaleburgers shot, the hut and the sign are the most important elements, even if you don't notice them until after you look at the enlivening cavalcade of people and food.

I suppose I'd have liked it better if the hut was dead center. Fyi, this shot never ran because there was a better one, albeit with out this compositional style.

In the shot of Ardretta Jones and her boys, Jamarae happens to be visually dominant. This one isn't quite so busy, but it certainly leads my eye around and around.

I often get asked questions about photography at prep football games so I thought I would share a two-frame sequence for a discussion topic.
These photos are of Curtis High receiver Stan Langlow in last Friday's game against Puyallup using my Canon 1D and a 300mm 2.8 lens. The first image was made with direct flash mounted on top of my camera body via the hot shoe. The flash didn't recycle quickly enough to fire in the second image so you can easily see the difference between fill flash and ambient (aka natural) light. I also brightened this frame in Photoshop otherwise it would have been too dark to publish.
Proper exposure at Curtis High stadium was 200th of a second at f2.8 at 1600 ASA. I expose manually and use the rear panel LCD to confirm my results. Shooting at that low shutter speed without flash means you will get movement in the photo and a lot of dark shadows under helmets. Most people prefer full illumination in their photos while most photojournalists do not. We'll use ambient light over flash any time we can.
Direct flash at football games produces a lot of nasty reflections and the classic "red eye" effect if the subject's looking straight at the camera. The only way around this is to have a flash off camera which has to be fired using a radio transmitter. This works for Sports Illustrated but its not practical for me or you at a high school game.
These are choices pros make all the time. I've softened my aesthetic stance at prep football because often there's just not enough
ambient light to properly expose the action. Any questions?

While I was working the photo desk Sunday, photographer Lui Kit Wong asked me to help him choose between two images for a memorial story we covered. He didn't have a strong feeling either way, and we only had room in the print edition for one image. I suggested we run the first image in the newspaper because it was a little bit easier read for me. The second image takes a bit longer to understand for me, which in itself could be nice considering the gravity of the subject. The charm I feared would be lost in the paper.
What do you think?

Malissa Kelly, family friend of Ronald McKellar, comforts McKellar's grandson Jordan Fleeks, 7, during a memorial gathering near the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 64th Street in Tacoma. McKellar, 53, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. He was dragged several blocks, then the driver left the area.
(Lui Kit Wong/The News Tribune)

Malissa Kelly, right, comforts July McKellar during memorial for her dad, Ronald McKellar, near the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 64th Street in Tacoma. McKellar, 53, was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
(Lui Kit Wong/The News Tribune)

A family grieves, and waits for information about the hit-and-run driver who took their father’s life.

The top of the story:

By Debbie Cafazzo
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
A week after 53-year-old Ronald McKellar’s life ended, his family members and friends gathered Sunday to pay tribute to him.
They also made a renewed plea for anyone with information about the Oct. 5 incident that took McKellar’s life to speak with Tacoma police.
Police are still searching for information about the hit-and-run driver who struck McKellar as he was attempting to cross Pacific Avenue, then fled.
McKellar was hit near the intersection of South 72nd Street and Pacific Avenue. Police believe McKellar died after being dragged for several blocks.

We didn't have space for this in the print edition but I thought we needed to give it life somewhere.

Top-hatted undertaker Gerald Nicks, of Tacoma, with his 1992 Cadillac Superior Hearse, adjust his look before the second night of Freighthouse Square's "Black Lake Asylum," Haunted House. Nicks is a member of Rain City Hearse Club. Actor from Tacoma School of the Arts performed as well wearing costumes that would frighten a ghoul.
Dean J. Koepfler / The News Tribune

Dean J. Koepfler/The News Tribune

Copy editor Kelly Davenport answered my challenge to write a caption for this photo as a haiku. In the paper, it was one line and its haiku-ness was hidden, but here it is in proper form:

Maple leaves blush red
in contrast with dreamy light
at Spanaway Lake.

Nicely done, Kelly.