BurntPhotons

Copyright Tim Norman

The Village Cleaners sign sports a couple of images of what looks like Elvis on the square in downtown Sunbury recently.

During a recent wildart scramble in Sunbury, I was passing by a sign when a couple images caught my attention. Is this good for a wildart photo? Probably not, but it made me wonder why it appears that Elvis is on the sign at the Village Cleaners.

Was it vandalism or by design? I think by design. They weren't open at the time or I might have wandered in out of curiosity.

Copyright Tim Norman

A collection of items in front of an antique store in Sunbury is covered with the warm glow of the morning sun recently.

This is the third photo in a group from a recent wildart assignment in Sunbury. The Ohio State University Buckeyes will be playing LSU for the national championship in college football on January 7. I decided to photograph this scene because of that and also because of the interesting items found outside the store. The sun's morning yellow rays helped sell the shot. My editor initially liked this shot but the newspaper editor wanted a person in the photograph so we went with another shot instead.

I hope this collection of outtakes from the wildart assignment shows some insight into the job. Sometimes when you have nothing to photograph, you still have to come back with something.

Copyright Tim Norman

Keeping watch for holiday shoppers a metal rooster sits out front an antique store in Sunbury.

This is one of a series of photos I took while hunting for wildart in Sunbury recently. The first of the photos was put up on December 26 and I go into more detail about the day on that day's entry. On the town square there are several antique stores with items out front and one of the items caught my eye.

This rooster just seemed like an oddity to me with the fact that it stands about 4 feet tall and looked to be guarding the square. The sculpture has a bit of a patina from weathering and would probably be great for someones rooster collection.

As a photographer looking for wildart on a day when people are staying inside I tend to look for anything that might just be an oddity or something that you don't see. In truth that is most of our jobs as staff photographers. We look for something that the average person wouldn't see or hasn't seen. I guessed that most people haven't seen a 4 foot tall rooster unless they've visited the town square and even then they may have not seen it among the other stuff sitting in front of this store.

The only thing I would have liked is for the rooster and the ground to have more snow covering them. I think it would have added to the oddity.

Copyright Tim Norman

A frosted wreath sits in front the columns of markers at the Ohio Fallen Heroes memorial in Sunbury.

Over the next couple of days I will be showing a series of photographs I recently took in Sunbury, Ohio. I was assigned to find a photograph for the front page of the newspaper for ThisWeek Community Newspapers' Sunbury edition. As a staff photographer being sent out for wildart, also known as feature hunting, happens occasionally and when I get this type of assignment I try to look at it as a time to challenge myself and think more artistically.

On this occasion I was sent out in the morning with a photograph needed by noon. My plan of attack was to go somewhere where I thought I would find people doing something visual, so I went to the town square in Sunbury in hopes of finding someone shopping for Christmas or maybe working or enjoying the cold weather.

Generally our newspapers like to highlight the people that make up our communities but Sunbury seemed pretty deserted in the morning, so I started wandering and looking for anything that interested me. I figured if I couldn't comeback with a person I could at least find a visually interesting photograph or find something to make the reader think.

Eventually I made my way to the Ohio Fallen Heroes memorial where the memorial markers, morning frost and snow on the ground caught my interest. This visual made me think about some of my relatives who are serving in the armed forces and I thought that it would be nice to remember those heroes who are currently serving as well as those who have fallen and their families during this holiday season.

I spent about 20 minutes photographing different parts of the memorial and liked the image of the Christmas wreath in front of the markers. In the end this photograph was not selected to go into the paper. It was probably not the best image and the editor ran a photograph I took of a 90-year-old woman getting her hair cut for Christmas.

I do want to note that I manipulated this image. I desaturated everything but the wreath in the image to enhance the visual of the colorful wreath. This would break my personal ethical guidelines for photographs for the newspaper because it no longer shows reality. I chose to do it here (and make note of it here) as burntphotons.com is a weblog more for showing my personal vision than my newspaper skills. If you would like to see my newspaper work you can go to TimNormanPhoto.com.

I will always make note of any manipulation I have done to a photograph that misrepresents reality. (Excluding minor brightening and darkening to a photograph that is done to enhance portions of the image.) If you have questions about the ethics of photo manipulation for newspapers and what is and isn't acceptable please ask or check out the guidelines for photojournalists at the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).

The subject of photo manipulation can be a murky area for photographers, and I believe the public does not understand what is and is not acceptable in getting a photograph ready for the newspaper industry. It is up to the newspaper industry to properly inform people what is and is not acceptable in this age of digital photography where it is simple to remove or add items to photographs. (Both of which are unacceptable.)

Copyright Tim Norman

The Sunbury, Ohio water tank is reflected in the shoreline of the towns water reservoir.

I was out photographing a couple of guys from Ohio Department of Natural Resources shocking fish in the reservoir so they could count them species. (After counting and measuring the fish were returned to the water, with probably a splitting headache and a good story to tell all of their fish friends.)

I'm drawn to reflection photographs for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe it stems from some sort of youthful love of the mirrored sunglasses that were so popular in the 80's.

Copyright Tim Norman

Uncle Don walks his daughter Michelle down the aisle to the waiting groom at the The Bell Event Centre in Cincinnati this past Friday.

It was a beautiful event.

My cousin Michelle was married to Steve over the weekend. The place was beautiful (although a bit dark for a photographer) and the bride was gorgeous.

They were married at the Bell Event Center at the Verdin Bell & Clock Museum in Cincinnati. It is an old church that has undergone renovation. From what I understand the city sold the church for $10 to a company who renovated it. It is available now for a fee to be used for events.

Stain glass windows surround the inside. I love stain glass windows in old churches.

Copyright Tim Norman

Shoes hanging from a wire.

This is more or less another test image. I've added a module and I'm testing it's capabilities out.

This is another test image for more content and to check the Recent Photographs block and page.

Please feel free to check out the site. I'm learning to use the content management system Drupal and figure out how to upload images as well as change the over all look.

I haven't gotten to the themeing portion of it yet, but I'm getting a better understand of what is possible.