You can't blame Mike Carrell for blowing a little smoke. After enduring the last legislative session in Olympia and all the joys a 9 billion dollar deficit brings, State Sen. Mike Carrell, Rep. 28th. Dist. found release in volunteering his help in the renovation of a 1941 Plymouth narrow gauge locomotive at the DuPont Historical Museum Thursday. The engine was used to transport munitions and materials around the old DuPont Powderworks Plant and will be on display at the Museum protected by a new timber framed canopy.

I had some time to kill before assignments. And what a perfect opportunity that was to shoot some spring scenics in Tacoma's Wright Park. Enjoy!

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In our recent story about the future of McNeil Island Correctional Center I shot only photos that avoided showing faces of prisoners. We photographers have to avoid showing the identity of persons in a photo from time to time, and the reasons vary.

Before being allowed into the prison I had to agree to the Department of Corrections' requirement of not showing prisoners in a manner that might allow them to recognized later. Which mostly means 'no faces'. The DOC has that requirement to protect the state from possible lawsuit.

So I'm photographing prisoners with this constraint in order to protect the state-- not to protect the prisoner, nor the TNT.

Here's the logic:

There's no law restricting photography of prisoners, but civil lawsuits are a risk.

The Department of Corrections has total control of the prisoners. If a prisoner says to me, "go ahead and take my picture", and I put him in the paper identifiably, he could later file a lawsuit against the DOC arguing, in effect, "The DOC failed to protect me! I didn't want to be depicted in the paper at all. I only said 'OK' because I might get in trouble if I didn't cooperate. I have no free will. Because I've been seen in the paper, I'm now infamous as a criminal. After I'm out I'll be subject to humiliations and discrimination because of that negative publicity. I've been harmed by the DOC." And he might win such a suit.

So the DOC protects themselves and the taxpayers by keeping prisoners out the paper.

This limitation can be overcome, however, if the prisoner signs an agreement that he's not under any pressure, that he really does want to be in the paper, and he holds the DOC harmless. But the procedure is cumbersome enough that we only use it when we know in advance whom we want to photograph.

The reason that the newspaper isn't at risk of such a lawsuit is for basic first amendment reasons. As long as we don't publish false or misleading things nor invade privacy, we're pretty safe against suits.

As far as protecting the prisoners themselves, like anyone else, if they don't want to be in the paper, they won't be. We rarely photograph someone if they say 'no'. Exceptions mostly are public officials, celebrities, and criminal defendants.

And I ain't no Paparazzo.

Photojournalists encounter similar constraints in primary schools and hospitals. Kids and patients are presumed to not have totally free will or legal authority regarding publicity, so those institutions only let us in if we agree not to photograph someone until a release has been signed or some equivalent.

When I was embedded in Iraq, the American military enforced the restrictions of the Geneva Conventions and wouldn't allow us to photograph prisoners of war at all. Civilians who were detained for searches or were arrested, such as the men above near Mosul who were arrested for trying to evade a dragnet, were OK.

We also generally avoid showing faces (or printing the names) of those arrested until actual criminal charges are filed, or at least certain. A picture of someone in cuffs creates a pretty strong impression of criminality, and if they end up not being charged with a crime, they might have a slander case against the paper.

Of course, there's another way to conceal a person's identity: obscure their face. Everyone has seen done it a zillion times on TV, but we're purists when it comes to manipulating photos.

The above photo of a kid being detained at gunpoint in 1993 is the only time I can remember publishing a photo with the face obscured. It was a valuable photo for the TNT's project on violence, so we bit the bullet (so to speak) and used one of Photoshop's filters.

Puyallup's Salvatore Arena hits a line drive for a hit against Curtis and helped his team win 5-1. Puyallup took a big step toward claiming the SPSL South baseball title for the second consecutive season with a win over Curtis. For more photos from the game. Check out the prep photo galleries. Click here.

Stadium High School soccer players plead with the referee for a call against Bellarmine Prep. After failing to get the call, Stadium still beat Bellarmine Prep 2-0. For more photos from the game. Check out the prep photo galleries. Click here.

I made this video yesterday and cut it today. We had a chance to hang out with some folks from the DOT at the Nalley Valley bridge project. I can't get my mind around the number of details are involved in building something like this bridge. The guys we saw were making 14-foot wide holes in the earth so that other guys could come and fill them with concrete so that other guys could follow them and build the bridge...wow! Cool stuff.

Lakes' Mackenzie Allison is tagged out at home plate by Franklin Pierce catcher Kerilynn Spafford. To see more photos of Spafford's reaction and game action. Check the prep photo galleries. Click here.

There's been a fair amount of discussion about some photos I made Wednesday, April 16, of Russell Investments employees
carrying out their possessions after layoffs were announced. It was apparent to me that these folks were uncomfortable or
unhappy that I was taking pictures. So was I. But, I also knew I was standing on a public sidewalk and I had a legal right to work there. I felt it was particulary important to show readers the human face of local people affected by the recession. This was the first time The News Tribune was able to document with photos the terrible cost of lost jobs by one of our most dominant employeers.
I feel it was important and necessary to do so. Asking permission was out of the question because understandably the employees didn't want to converse. Would I have wanted myself or friends to be photographed carrying cardboard boxes out of their employer's offices? Probably not. But I would have understood the need to do so. In some sense, these employees were wronged
by forces out of their control. I feel we need to share their pain.

Neither of these T.E.A. Party photos are particularly notable, but they demonstrate the challenge of capturing
subject matter as it exists into something meaningful. Ironically, Sandra O'Reilly brought her Portugese Water Dog "Auggie" to the Tacoma staging point for the Olympia Rally. For those aren't aware, this is the same breed the Obamas chose to be the new White House Dog. The "No Bo" sticker is O'Reilly's humorous dig. But I found the sticker hard to read in a photo and Auggie, being a willful canine, didn't hang around long for pictures. The teabagged hat made a nice supplemental image, but again, I didn't feel it quite had enough visual interest for broader display.

A downcast Alexis Boenisch sits in the dugout near the end of the game. Boenisch's Federal Way softball team loss to Auburn Riverside 12-1. For more photos check out the prep photo gallery.

More than thirty years ago, when I first "got into" photography, I used to sit around late at night, playing with my camera, snapping pictures of almost nothing. Pictures like this one of my fingers.

What has changed? My exposure to time has added a ring and wrinkles.

Gig Harbor soccer players' wall couldn't stop South Kitsap's Nico De La Cruz from scoring on a free kick. For more photos check the prep photo gallery.

I discovered Joe and Amy Cooper soaking in the sun while walking to my car after shooting an assignment in their neighborhood. We didn't need the photo for the paper but I couldn't resist capturing them, the blossoms and their colorful adirondacks. To frame them with the blossoms meant climbing the tree.

Personally what I appreciate about the photo is it's implausibility. When I started working at the TNT thirteen years ago this neighborhood around South I and 8th Streets was notorious as one of the city's problem high crime zones. A combination of police and neighborhood involvement has transformed an area formerly plagued by drive by shootings to one with a thriving community garden, park and is attracting young couples like the Coopers who recently moved from Kent. (Janet Jensen/The News Tribune)

Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo will open a new penguin exhibit in early May. In this video essay, AP Photographer Ted Warren introduces us to the penguins and their new habitat for the first time.

On the phone with my photo editor Jeremy Harrison while driving back to the office, I simultaneously saw a welder on top of a giant cylinder of rebar and heard Jeremy say that we needed some sort of photo for tomorrow's page B1.

So I pulled over, looked around for good backgrounds, and chose which angle to shoot the welder from. I walked back and forth, scrambled on top of my car, moved the car, attempted to climb a nearby bridge support, all while shooting frames. After ninety frames, I thought I had an adequate picture. It was only adequate, but the situation didn't look like it would improve anytime soon.

I started to drive off, then decided to stop and try from the other end. Just as I got my camera up to my face, the welder left. I shot only two frames as he walked away, and one of them turned out to be unsharp.

But Jeremy like the other one, and so do I.

I set up a camera to make a photo every 30 seconds. I then turned it into a short video in case you weren't able to be at the parade. Enjoy!

Decatur's Dominique Dismuke battles Rogers' Josh Carbullido for the ball as Decatur beat Rogers 2-0. For more photos on the game. Check the prep photo gallery.
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