The 2019 Fairdale Prom
Fairdale High School Got Down!
44 Photos |11:13 a.m. EDT May 19, 2019
Assigned to shoot kids arriving, parents taking pictures, dancing inside, DJ, fun and maybe the King and Queen, I was there to stay as long as I could.
At some point I had to leave to edit photos and send them, but I really wanted to get that crowning for my coverage to be complete. Of course, I asked around to find out when it would happen, but they weren’t sure. I kept shooting the scene.
I was about to make an Irish exit when a teacher found me. They were ready to do it and had waited for me! I followed her through the crowd to the stage. I said let the crowning begin.
I had no idea how they planned on doing the ceremony, so I went with the flow. What I didn’t realize until almost too late is that they did the juniors first, before the seniors … When the seniors were crowned, I was in the wrong place and then everyone dispersed! I had the king, so I got him to help me find the queen so I could do a portrait of them. We found the queen, but she and the king weren’t a couple, so the photo was a bit awkward, but it worked. I got out of there.
See the gallery on the Courier Journal website:
Louisville’s Fairdale High School has a night to remember at the 2019 prom
A first look at the new Old Forester Distillery on Whiskey Row in Louisville for USA Today.
See the gallery:
First look: Old Forester Distillery in Louisville
Jake Emen, Special to USA TODAY, Published 2:03 p.m. ET June 13, 2018
The Short Rib Sliders at The Manhattan Project looked great and photographed well, but I was too busy to eat. I had to shoot all this food, the interior and exterior and get out as soon as possible. No time to mess around!
But I did stop to have another go at the drink from the inside of the bar looking out towards the patio window, backlit. The bartender made a fine hand model and held the drink, making for a better drink photo.
Then I was out of there.
Special to Courier Journal
The Manhattan Project is where sports bar meets cocktail lounge
See the story by Lindsey McClave, Special to Courier Journal Published 11:25 a.m. ET Oct. 24, 2018:
The Manhattan Project is where sports bar meets cocktail lounge
We were supposed to get names for everyone.
Zahria Rogers, an editorial intern at the Courier Journal, and I were ready.
She was there to assist me in taking names of VIPs being photographed with Teddy Bridgewater, the New York Jets and former University of Louisville quarterback and guest speaker at the Courier Journal Sports Awards at the Louisville Palace. We’d gone over how I wanted to receive the caption info.
So we waited for Teddy to arrive. When he did, it was with his manager or handler who wanted to get going. I wanted to get names first, before their photo, he said after. Once we got going, the line began to back up across the room. Zahria was trying to write down everyone’s name from the left as I’d instructed her, until someone came along and said no more names. Too much of a bottleneck! Everyone got shot right as the lights dimmed.
After photographing 70 some VIP guests posing with Teddy, he grabbed me for a last photo.
Saying something like, “I know how it is for you photographers,” he pulled me in for a photo. I gave my camera to another shooter named Justin to capture the moment. (And Justin, thanks. Sorry I didn’t have your full name to give you proper credit for the photo that appeared of me with Teddy in the CJ gallery!)
Teddy wanted to do something special, so we both adopted poses. Then I noticed that Justin was in landscape orientation with my camera, so hollered at him to go vertical. I wanted my photo in that gallery, too!
The photos were posted that night in a gallery anyone could download from on the Courier Journal website:
Inside the VIP room with Bridgewater at Courier Journal Sports Awards
I’ve posted my own gallery of the full-sized originals if anyone is interested:
Here’s coverage of Friday and Saturday at the Kentucky Reggae Festival at the Water Tower, for the Courier Journal.
See the spread in the Sunday paper or the web gallery, Kentucky Reggae Festival 2018 on their website.
See my full gallery of images from the two days I was there and purchase downloads or prints, go to Kentucky Reggae Festival 2018 in my archive.
See the story on the Courier Journal website: Louisville bakery helps rescue exploited women through baked goods, by Nancy Miller, Special to Courier Journal, Published 12:44 p.m. ET May 8, 2018 | Updated 11:32 a.m. ET May 9, 2018
A portrait and food shoot
I made a portrait of Rachelle Starr, owner of Scarlet’s Bakery in Smoketown for a Courier Journal Cook’s Corner column. They featured recipes for the bakery’s Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice muffin, Oatmeal chocolate caramel bars and Grilled chicken pesto panini.
Neighbors were there having coffee together, so I began by shooting interiors and exteriors to capture them in the space.
Rachelle needed to leave, so I set up a softbox to shoot her portrait. The interior was already bright, but I wanted to be sure to balance that with a great exposure for her against the high-key background. The bakery’s sign below the counter branded the photo, but you have to be careful with text in your photo. I also shot it with the words obscured, and that’s the one the editors chose for the lead photo.
With the owner photo taken care of, I turned to the food items. They were ready to go, so I began by shooting standard food angles to cover those bases. Then I decided to go graphic.
I altered their presentation by using the plastic silverware to break the muffin in half and take a corner of the chocolate bar to show their insides. Then I took the Panini sandwich and turned it on it’s side for an angular composition. Those were the photos they used in the paper.
I finished shooting details as the two employees cleaned up, which made another nice photo. When I packed up, I left with the food as they closed.
Scarlet’s Bakery, 741 E. Oak St., (502) 290-7112, scarletsbakery.org
That’s my Derby Day assignment for the Courier Journal.
I shot the Derby race from outside the rail as they came out of the first turn, made it down the back stretch without incident and then as they passed by after the finish of the race.
Those were the wettest 15 minutes of kneeling on a garbage bag in the pouring rain that I’ve ever had to endure to make a picture.
I’m humbled by my colleagues who had to work in those conditions all day.
I was fortunate enough to have a commercial job that morning photographing corporate guests leaving for the track, and wasn’t expected until late in the day. By the time I arrived, everyone was in a flurry of editing photos on deadline. There was no place that wasn’t taken up by wet and muddy people and gear, no place to sit. I checked in, grabbed a track vest and left as soon as I was packed. I had time to shoot for myself before I had to be in place before the Derby race.
So I roamed the grandstand, shooting candid scenes and close-up faces of gamblers taking refuge from the rain in the grandstand near the betting windows. It was all 35 mm at F2, shoot and move, no names.
After making my way out to a view of the track, I realized that it was time to return through the masses to the media center to repack myself and walk to my spot for the race.
At the media center everyone was preparing for the race. I used cheap plastic camera covers I’d bought for the occasion in hopes I wouldn’t need to use them. They were barely adequate, but my gear stayed dry for the walk around the track, and I was lucky to find open media boxes where I need to be that I used for shelter until close to the race.
There were two people there with backside passes and cameras around their necks. They owned a horse stabled there at the Downs, but not a “Derby” horse. We talked until the horses were at the gate. Then I went to my place by the rail, put down plastic to kneel on and waited for the race.
“And they’re off!” I could hear in the distance. I waited and here came the field of horses, coming around the first turn. I made my pictures and watched them go down the back stretch. As they came back around, the jockey wasn’t visibly jubilant, but I watched for any moment that might be worthy until they passed me on their way back to the winner’s circle.
Back at the media center, I sat on the floor on a garbage bag and edited my race pictures, turned them in, and walked out of there with an Irish goodbye.
The ribbon-cutting at Rabbit Hole Distillery for the Courier Journal
21 PHOTOS | 5:42 p.m. | EDT May 2, 2018
Wooded hiking trail in Iroquois Park hosts pumpkin art display
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY BRIAN BOHANNON
SPECIAL TO COURIER-JOURNAL, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016
The annual Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular opened at dusk on Thursday in Iroquois Park, where visitors toured the artistically carved, illuminated pumpkins on display along a quarter- mile hiking trail in the woods near the Iroquois Amphitheater.
This year’s theme, “America The Beautiful,” is set to music in scenes dedicated to states and current events.
Erika Nelson, community relations administrator with Louisville Metro Parks & Recreation, said with 3,528 visitors, Thursday could be the best opening night to date.
The Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular runs through Nov. 6, and is open from dusk until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from dusk until midnight Friday and Saturday.
Tickets range from $9 to $15, with discounts for seniors and children 12 and under. Proceeds benefit the Louisville Parks Foundation, which raises money for Metro Parks projects.
Fore more information, check out www.jackolanternlouisville.com or visit www.iroquoisamphitheater.com.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL WITHOUT BARRIERS CAMP AT U OF L
I photographed the American Football Without Barriers Camp at U of L Saturday for the Sunday, June 26, 2016 edition of The Courier-Journal. Many thanks to Kasey Mathes, our UL media contact for feeding me names! She was awesome to have near.
It was hot in the midday sun beaming down on Papa John’s Stadium. But the former UL football players/current NFL players were cool as could be running practice drills for the city’s future football greats, and the kids were sweating hard and loving it. So were Angela Shoemaker, shooting video, and I, as we worked the scene. Mopping my brow between periods of shooting, I’d find Angela taking refuge in the shade. Time to join her, and give her hell for taking a break. This was supposed to be held in the Trager Indoor Center, but it had AC issues, and the kids could say they played on the stadium field.
In the midst of all the group drills, one student was getting one-on-one attention from one of the camp co-founders, ex-Card and current NFL player Gary Barnidge. Barnidge led the kid through at least four different drills down in a corner of the field. I got the student’s name, Donovan Pleasant, 13, an eighth-grader at Ramsey Middle School, after the first one and kept looking back to find them doing something else. At the end of their time together, I captured them doing a fist bump.
I caught Barnidge walking across the field and asked, “How did that kid end up with a personal session with you?” He looked off smiling and said, “Yeah, I should send him a bill for $4000,” and went on to explain that he wasn’t paired with any other players, so he had nothing else to do. “The kid asked me, so I worked with him.”
I found Donovan Pleasant again before their lunch break as I was leaving. I told him how awesome that was – he worked out with an NFL player! I pointed out that he had asked for what he wanted and got it, and to remember to always do so in the future. How could he forget?
See the whole gallery of images in my archive: Cards Give Back – American Football Without Barriers Camp
My first few frames shot on the Belvedere Friday when I arrived to stake out my position for the photo of the Muhammad Ali funeral procession to pass by on I-64 before exiting onto 9th Street were in color, then black and white … A woman brought her daughters and made a nice feature with the flag. They were actually there for the event. It made a better B&W than color, but didn’t want to send it to The C-J as a “mistake.” I don’t know what setting it was on, just glad I fixed it before shooting more.
Intead, tweeted a picture of the Muhammad Ali Center and I-64 waiting for the arrival of The Greatest.
Spoke with other photographers and waited for traffic to stop on I-64W, a sure sign of his arrival.
After almost four hours of standing there, traffic did stop, and police cars whizzed by. The procession followed, and stopped across from the Ali Center. Eastbound traffic stopped too, and photojournalists jumped out of the back of an SUV that was riding ahead of the hearse. You could hear the folks on the Belvedere chanting, “Ali, Ali,” in a video I made with my phone. It all lasted a few minutes. The motorcade took off, people left the railing and waited for the memorial to begin.
For me, off to edit and sent out photos.
Shot food for a restaurant review for The Courier-Journal, “Proof on Main decadent, despite blunders | Review” that published Wednesday, May 18.
Many thanks to Chef Mike Wajda for his patience – I couldn’t keep up with the pace of dishes being brought out to photograph!
I had photos on the cover of the Wednesday, April 27, 2016 issue of The Courier-Journal for the story, “Director Addresses Overcrowding in Jails: Bolton assures public that old jail now housing inmates is safe.” Louisville Metro Department of Corrections Director Mark E. Bolton made his case to the media.
After the jail press conference to explain why new inmates are being placed in the old jail, a few of us were taken on a tour by LMDC Assistant Director Steve Durham to see the space and take pictures along the way.
After seeing a few empty but soon-to-be-filled cells, we ended up at a block that had already been filled with around 30 inmates. It’s always best to have a person in your photos, but unless corrections has a signed photo release for an inmate, you’re not allowed to show their face. Durham and a lieutenant that were showing us around were speaking with inmates through the bars while inmates mugged at the TV camera. But then I went around the corner and noticed the horizontal slot where trays are slid through the bars. In the foreground an inmate in orange jumpsuit with “LMDC” printed on the pants leaned on the pay telephones, and the group of inmates to the left were soft and in brighter light. They paid attention to the reporters and TV photographers while I made a candid photo through the slot with and without flash.
Then it was gone. Everything changed as Durham and the others were on the move back to the conference room where we began and the other inmates had busted me, looking my way. Tour over.
