Being a photojournalist means one never knows what the work day is going to consist of.

Sure, some days I have photo assignments so my day is sort of planned out. But then sometimes I have a 9am assignment to take photos of a bridge being installed in Belfair and I get back to Bremerton after that shoot and suddenly I find myself on the dock of the Keyport Marina looking slightly pathetic and forlorn (that’s my guess on how I looked at least, no one came up to me and said those exact terms) with a giant 400mm lens with whales just out of my view.

And then I have my iPhone up to your ear as reporter Ed Friedrich is snarkily telling me to “Hurry up and get on a boat!” and I reply, “But I don’t have a boat Ed!” when suddenly the nice lady on her cell phone next to me says, “Hurry Judy there’s newspaper photographer down here who needs a boat!”

Yep, that was my work day on Thursday. Because of the kindness of strangers with a dinghy, I was able to get some nice shots of the pod of transient orcas as they frolicked about Liberty Bay. I’m telling you, being as I have only been a photographer here for 4 years and I didn’t get to shoot orca photos when I lived and worked in Michigan or Utah. And the fact that one is able to capture those images in your own backyard is just awesome!

Some on Facebook questioned my distance and hoped that I wasn’t “whale paparazzi”. While there were a lot of boaters who were crowding the whales, circling about them and speeding away at top speed to follow them and creating huge wakes for the little boats and kayaks keeping their distance, Captain Judy kept us a good distance away so we were safe and the whales were not crowded (by us at least). There was one incident, when we lost sight of the pod and i looked back and saw a splash right behind our dinghy and suddenly they were surfacing right next to us. It happened so fast, and I had the giant 400mm on my camera and they were so close I couldn’t even focus on them. Needless to say our hearts were racing at that point. Those are some big and strong whales that dwarfed the small boat we were sitting in.

So I give a giant thanks to Judy Steverson who took me out on her dinghy and another thanks to her friend Ellen Strong who totally offered up Judy’s dinghy to a total stranger holding a giant camera lens on the dock. Oh and one more thanks to boater Steve Tillery who came to our aid when Judy’s dinghy wouldn’t start and we were sitting in the middle of the bay, surrounded by orcas.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from Thursday’s adventure.

Our Sports Editor jokes that Larry and I are like bottom feeding sea creatures and that we “feed off the tears and heartache of athletes”.

Well at least I hope that he’s joking, because I can guarantee you we do not like to see people cry, nor do we like to be the ones snapping away documenting their misery. It is much more fun and easier to shoot happy athletes screaming and jumping around than the tears streaming down the face of someone who’s state championship dreams have been dashed.

Yet whenever the end of a high school sports season winds down, we inevitably end up with those “agony of defeat” images. And there are times, when angry parents of athletes and/or coaches have penned strongly worded emails in our direction because we have published photos of Little Johnny crying on the sidelines. But our job is to document what we see and tell the story with images and most of the time that image of the raw emotion of the loss is what tells the story the best.

Larry shot this wonderful photo (seen below) of a trio of South Kitsap baseball players reacting to their championship loss inside of their dugout this past weekend. I love how each players body language communicates what they are feeling even though you can’t see their faces.  And the empty hangers in the right hand corner seem to add just a little extra something to the image:

Larry and I feel this shot should have ran huge on the sports page. It’s the end of their season, it was THE championship game and it ended with emotion in the dugout…

…it did not run in the print edition. Instead a photo of a player bobbling a missed catch (which also a few angry emails directed at us as well) was the dominant image on the page with a secondary photo of a missed tag.

So here’s the question, if you were designing the page, which would you have run as the main image? The above emotional image or one or both of these two below that actually ran?

Things to consider:

All three images do tell the story in their own way since errors were aplenty in the game which resulted in the loss.

The front page of the sports section featured an “agony of defeat” soccer playoff photo just the day before.

Discuss. 😉

In the crazy busyness of Friday…and Saturday… I never got around to posting a few of my favorite photos from the Stennis homecoming last week.

So here they are a few days late, my apologies: 🙂

I just recently finished scrolling through all of Larry and my images from the last year, in search of the perfect image that can be cropped into the perfect 11×11 inch square, that sums up what our area has to offer for the cover of this year’s West Sound Guide. Every year I’m tasked with this project and let me tell you, we have plenty of images but finding ones that works in a square crop is tough!

Here is my criteria when I choose these:

1) It must be an “eye-popping” image. This is the most important criteria. I don’t want a boring photo on the cover…this is the cover, it needs to draw people in to opening the pages.

2) It must be different than the previous West Sound Guide covers (which i have a stack of to reference)

3) It has to sum up our area…not just because it was shot here, but at first glance it has to say something about this lovely home of ours.

4) I always try to find a wide variety of subjects, because let’s face it, pictures of ferries and mountain over and over can get pretty boring.

5) Something humorous and/or whimsical must be included because it just does.

So here were a few of the finalists that were pulled and cropped into that dreaded square shape. I don’t think I can tell you which one was chosen yet…since I think it’s still between two shots and the big reveal doesn’t happen until next month…but the cover is one of the photos below.

Leave me a comment and tell me which one you would choose if you got a vote and why you would choose it!

Apologies go out to Randy Kruzan, who’s name I spelled “Kruzen” in last week’s stand-outs.

My excuse is that that tiny beer photo was so…serene and even ZEN like that subconsciously I typed ZEN into the byline….yeah that’s it, that’s the ticket! It’s of course not because I was typing fast and didn’t proof the cutlines…no not at all. 😉

Again, sorry Randy, I’m running your photo again right here…GIANT sized! Well wait, the blog template won’t let me…so hmm I’m running it again um normal sized but your NAME is BIGGER as I continue to grovel:

“Bremerton Summer Brewfest” by Randy Kruzan

I’m finally getting around to posting a few of Larry’s shots from the recent Mixed Martial Arts fight at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion.

Covering MMA is fun but also tough because:

1) It can be a really tricky lighting situation with only those ring spotlights.

2) It can get pretty bloody and we can’t show that kind of gore in the paper.

3) You can get stuck shooting through the ring fence since above the ring photo positions are very limited (and all I have to say about that is, if you are in one of those coveted “card-carrying/real-life” photographer shooting positions, and an actual accredited newspaper photographer asks to shoot 1 bout from that position because they have a job to do, don’t give them attitude and deny them access to that position since that it ACTUALLY what the spot is for and it’s their job to be there, so just share the space and let them get the shots they need…trust me we are very nice and we will not hog your coveted spot nor will we be there for long, we just need a few shots from that angle and we will move on to a new one…I mean geez, we’d make room for you. Okay I’m stepping off of my soap box now). 😉

Anywho, here are a few from Larry’s shoot:

MMA fans watch at ringside as Brock Gorang, of Bremerton, battles Adam Loredo, of Aberdeen, in the cage at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighter Brock Gorang, of Bremerton, tangles up Adam Loredo in their 185 pound match  at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighters warm up backstage before the bouts begin at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighter Jeremy Potter blocks a kick from Terran Mace at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighter Eugene Mullens Jr., of Tacoma, gets pinned in a corner by Freddy Bauman, of Eatonville, in his bout at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighter Brock Gorang, of Bremerton, enters the ring for his bout at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighters Dane Drake and Kyle Kautzman meet in a 155 pound bout at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

MMA fighter Terran Mace, of Eatonville, warms up in the lockerroom with his coach Brad Pole before his bout at the Kitsap Sun Pavilion Saturday night. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Here are a few shots from Larry’s coverage of the Whisker Club Competition in Bremerton this past weekend.

Aarne Bielefeldt, from California, gets close to the judges to show off his curled whiskers on Saturday at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge . He scored a perfect score and won first place in the freestyle category. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Gary Johnson, of Olalla, has a Buffalo Bill theme for the judges at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday.  (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Summer Santa Dennis Simpson, of Port Orchard, talks with Dan Wrenn, of Shoreline, about having a job with a beard at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday. Wrenn placed first in his beard category, and Dennis was second. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Gandhi Jones, of Seattle, works on his mustache at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday. He was going for the Dali look and won first place. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Judges show their votes at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday.   (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Oggie Ogden, of Bremerton, has his beard combed before the judging  at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday.   (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Jon Javor of Auburn is ” The General”  at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday. He won his beard category.  (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

Nathan Roberts of Bonney Lake, gets a hug for his second place finish  at the North American Beard and Mustache Championships at the Bremerton Elks Lodge on Saturday.   LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN

I don’t know if any of you made it down to the Charleston Historical District of Bremerton for the Cinco de Mayo Street Fair today (and no it wasn’t near the adult bookstores or anything so you Bremerton haters can just move along and comment elsewhere), but if you did not attend than I am sorry but you missed out on a whole lot of fun and some great photo opportunities!

There was sunshine, blue sky, colorful costumes, tons of unique atmosphere and masked Lucha Libre wrestlers…really just about everything a photographer longs to capture on a daily basis was present.

Here are a “few” of my favorites, and seriously grab a camera and check it out next year!

ALL PHOTOS MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN

With the completion of this year’s West Sound Guide (a project which forces me sit for hours and hours in front of my computer searching through endless files of images from Larry, our freelancers and I… as I mutter over and over again, “why do we shoot so many photos?!?!?) we get to have a sigh of relief and an opportunity to share with you all a little bit of our process for choosing a cover.

Here’s how that process goes; I search through a whole year’s worth of images looking for interesting/scenic/photos that scream “KITSAP!” and I start widdling down from there. When I get to about 30 I hand them off to managing editor David Nelson and he edits them down, and then the office votes and then a few of us get together to make the final decision.

That’s right, the process is not even close to as interesting as say picking the next American Idol or whichever reality show one may fancy.

But anyway, once that cover is chosen we have a whole folder of “cover wannabes” that never get to have their cover destiny fulfilled. And there are a few of us, who begrudgingly accept this year’s cover but think there was a better option…not that I would be one of them…I mean I may or may not have been pushing pretty hard for the lawnmower man photo or one of umbrellas because come on who are we kidding, it rains here and we all know it. 😉

So what do you think? I’ll post our 2012 cover and than our rejects and you can vote at THIS LINK HERE!

THE 2012 COVER WINNER

#1. Paddling At Island Lake by Larry Steagall

THE “ALMOSTS”

#2) Sunset On The Shoreline by Larry Steagall

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#3) Casting In The View Of The Olympics by Larry Steagall

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#4) Colorful Sky Over Mt. Ranier by Steve Zugschwerdt

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#5) A Man and His Dog by Larry Steagall

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#6) Kayaks Lined Up by Larry Steagall

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#7) Paddling in Dyes Inlet by Larry Steagall

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#8) Black Umbrella by Meegan M. Reid

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#9) Silverdale Picnic by Larry Steagall

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#10) Snowy Olympics by Larry Steagall

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#11) Sailboats by Meegan M. Reid

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#12) Reunion To-to-Toe by Meegan M. Reid

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#13) Carrier Flag Waving by Larry Steagall

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#14) Hood Canal Shrimp by Meegan M. Reid

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#15) Little Umbrella Girl by Meegan M. Reid

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#16) Paddle Board Sunset by Meegan M. Reid

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#17) Viking Fest Flag by Meegan M. Reid

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#18) Sunset at the Dock by Larry Steagall

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#19) Ladybug Flower by Meegan M. Reid

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#20) Stand up Paddler by Meegan M. Reid

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#21) Tiny Catch of The Day by Meegan M. Reid

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#22) Lawnmower Man by Larry Steagall

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#23) Summer Backflip by Meegan M. Reid

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#24) Ferry View by Meegan M. Reid

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#25) Duck Trio by Larry Steagall

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#26) Manette Bridge at Twilight by Larry Steagall

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#27) Ferry Rainbow by Meegan M. Reid

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#28) Hipster shoreline by Meegan M. Reid

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#29) Kayak Trio by Larry Steagall

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#30) Umbrella Crew by Meegan M. Reid

 VOTE HERE!!!

Are you going to be free on Thursday night and want to talk about photojournalism, maybe make some new photo friends and even heckle a Kitsap Sun Photographer from the back row for not choosing one of your Frames Challenge entries as a “stand-out”?

If you answered yes to any of those questions than you might consider coming out to the monthly meeting of the Kitsap Photography Guild where I have been tapped to give a presentation on Thursday at 7pm.

That’s right little old me will be there rambling and stammering and showing a whole bunch of photos because come on, no one wants to hear me talk they just want to look at photos. 😉

“Photographers of all skill levels are invited to attend the guild meeting and presentation. April 26, 2012 at 7PM in the Cavalon Place Building, 2011 Myhre Road, Silverdale, WA (Elevator to the 3rd floor conference room)”

~Meegan