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“The Geese” I’m driving along a back road in Brattleboro, Vt., and on my left I see this amazing, picturesque pond in a vast field with a big open sky. In the pond are a gaggle of geese swimming. Immediately I’m thinking that I can get some kind of good image from this scenario. I drive down the road a little way so I can find a place to turn around and I head back to the pond. I park in front of a sign that reads “Stay out of pasture” which easily translates into “Your best shot will be from the pasture.” I get my gear from the car and start snapping away. First I’m thinking that I could get some nice tight shots of the geese. I do that a little and realize that it’s not what drew me to the scene. I swap lenses and put something a little wider on my camera. That’s it. That is what I was looking for. It’s the whole landscape that is speaking to me. Not just the geese but the pond, the sky, the field and the light. The light is soft  and broken up by the clouds just enough to have some great shadows playing across the scene. It adds texture and depth to the image. So much depth. I get a little closer to clean up my shot. Correcting the horizon line, making sure I include all of the geese that I want to, eliminating any distracting trees and of course nearly falling into the mud from the wobbly rock wall I was standing on. There. I got it. Time to go.

“The Geese”

I’m driving along a back road in Brattleboro, Vt., and on my left I see this amazing, picturesque pond in a vast field with a big open sky. In the pond are a gaggle of geese swimming. Immediately I’m thinking that I can get some kind of good image from this scenario.

I drive down the road a little way so I can find a place to turn around and I head back to the pond.

I park in front of a sign that reads “Stay out of pasture” which easily translates into “Your best shot will be from the pasture.”

I get my gear from the car and start snapping away. First I’m thinking that I could get some nice tight shots of the geese. I do that a little and realize that it’s not what drew me to the scene. I swap lenses and put something a little wider on my camera.

That’s it. That is what I was looking for. It’s the whole landscape that is speaking to me. Not just the geese but the pond, the sky, the field and the light. The light is soft  and broken up by the clouds just enough to have some great shadows playing across the scene. It adds texture and depth to the image. So much depth.

I get a little closer to clean up my shot. Correcting the horizon line, making sure I include all of the geese that I want to, eliminating any distracting trees and of course nearly falling into the mud from the wobbly rock wall I was standing on.

There. I got it. Time to go.

3 notes

Homeless Brattleboro

Four men share their experiences of being homeless in Brattleboro, Vt., at the First Baptist Church and Winter Overflow Shelter. 3/25/13

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(This man chose to be known as his initials F.E.H.)

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(Victoro Johnson)

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(Kevin Regan)

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(Ferris Cathey)

Behind the scenes:

The videos for this assignment were shot on an iPhone 4 with the Kitcam app utilizing the black and white filter.

The still images were shot in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Brattleboro, Vt., with a single Canon 580 EX II on a stand with a shoot through umbrella at camera right.

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Circus Spectacular teaser

Mario Diamond performs his act “Robot Love” during the New England Center for Circus Arts’ Circus Spectacular at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro. 3/2/14

Check in later this week to see more photos and video from this event.

Behind the scenes:

I shot this video on my iPhone 4 with the Kitcam app. It’s a fun little app that gives you a whole lot of features and creative freedom. The quality of the video isn’t amazing giving the conditions but being able to nab a little clip here and there to tease the photos is fantastic.

Reformer 100th anniversary

The newspaper I work at, The Brattleboro Reformer, has been in operation since 1913. Today we are celebrating our 100th anniversary weekend with some festivities at the Reformer offices on Black Mountain Road in Brattleboro, Vt.

To help share this event with the community I will be taking photos throughout the day of the festivities and the Reformer community and uploading them to the paper’s Instagram account. @BrattleboroReformer

This slideshow is a new tool that I have incorporated into our workflow to share photos immediately from events on our website and encourage the community to contribute by using specific hashtags for events.

If your coming by the Reformer today, share your Instagram photos with us by using the hashtag #reformer100.

Splash! A truck plows through a large puddle on Western Avenue in Brattleboro, Vt., as rain melts the snow causing flooding in some areas, Wednesday, February 27, 2013. (Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer) Behind the scenes: I drove by this puddle earlier in the day and thought that it might make a good shot to illustrate the nasty weather that we were having. I had some other things to do first so I decided that I would stop on my way back. I parked on the other side of the street and had to navigate my way through the giant puddles without falling in ( I should have brought my floaties). Once I got across I had to play the waiting game. I wanted to get the biggest splash I could and it turns out that I lucked out with getting the mail carrier with the umbrella in the background, which is my favorite part of the shot. Overall I think I shot 4 or 5 different cars going through this puddle. There were a surprising amount that would actually drive around it. The key was to wait for traffic coming from both directions so the cars would be forced into the puddle. I shot this with a Canon 70-200mm f/4L so I could stand a little further away and not get soaked by the cars. Even so, every shot I took I had to quickly jump back into the snow bank as the cars came closer and hit another one of the giant puddles right near me.

Splash!

A truck plows through a large puddle on Western Avenue in Brattleboro, Vt., as rain melts the snow causing flooding in some areas, Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)


Behind the scenes:

I drove by this puddle earlier in the day and thought that it might make a good shot to illustrate the nasty weather that we were having.

I had some other things to do first so I decided that I would stop on my way back.

I parked on the other side of the street and had to navigate my way through the giant puddles without falling in ( I should have brought my floaties). Once I got across I had to play the waiting game. I wanted to get the biggest splash I could and it turns out that I lucked out with getting the mail carrier with the umbrella in the background, which is my favorite part of the shot. Overall I think I shot 4 or 5 different cars going through this puddle. There were a surprising amount that would actually drive around it. The key was to wait for traffic coming from both directions so the cars would be forced into the puddle.

I shot this with a Canon 70-200mm f/4L so I could stand a little further away and not get soaked by the cars. Even so, every shot I took I had to quickly jump back into the snow bank as the cars came closer and hit another one of the giant puddles right near me.

ROBOTICS


Windham Regional Career Center student Kyle Champney won the championship at the VEX Robotics Competition in Worcester, Mass., and is going on to compete in the world competition in April.
See Kyle and his classmates from the Robotics class at the WRCC as they work with students from Youth Services Big Brothers Big Sisters program at Vernon Elementary School. 2/26/13 
(Video produced by Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)

Behind the Scenes:

This is one of those assignments that I shot stills and video at to create a more comprehensive multimedia story. I shot it with a small Canon VIXIA and edited in iMovie. Right now it seems that although iMovie has it’s limitations it is still the fastest way to go in the newsroom to get a video clean cut and uploaded.

I’m planning on doing some experimenting with other editing programs in the future. I have used Adobe Premiere in past but it tends to be a little too slow to get the content out in the timeframe that I’m working with at the paper.

Visit our youtube page at www.youtube.com/brattlebororeformer to see more of the video work that we have done in the past 5 years.

Spring is near! Despite a mild weekend storm daffodils are starting to sprout up alongside the TD Bank building on Main Street in Brattleboro,Vt.(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer) After a sloppy weekend of snow, rain and ice, it’s nice to see a little bit of Spring popping up. I try to get out and find these types of images that show off the changing of the seasons. They work really well for what we call “Stand Alones” or “Features” which are images that stand alone by themselves without a story and tend to be more of a public interest type of image. Working in Vermont, people really care about the weather and when it’s going to change again. So an image like this is going to get the community really excited that the dreary Winter months are almost behind us. ALMOST. It does look as though we will be getting a little more snow this week. This is also one of those cool moments of being a newspaper photographer. You get to be out there photographing pretty much EVERYTHING. One minute it’s a car accident the next minute it’s flowers or kids playing. Every day is something different and interesting.

Spring is near!

Despite a mild weekend storm daffodils are starting to sprout up alongside the TD Bank building on Main Street in Brattleboro,Vt.
(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)

After a sloppy weekend of snow, rain and ice, it’s nice to see a little bit of Spring popping up.

I try to get out and find these types of images that show off the changing of the seasons. They work really well for what we call “Stand Alones” or “Features” which are images that stand alone by themselves without a story and tend to be more of a public interest type of image.

Working in Vermont, people really care about the weather and when it’s going to change again. So an image like this is going to get the community really excited that the dreary Winter months are almost behind us. ALMOST. It does look as though we will be getting a little more snow this week.

This is also one of those cool moments of being a newspaper photographer. You get to be out there photographing pretty much EVERYTHING. One minute it’s a car accident the next minute it’s flowers or kids playing. Every day is something different and interesting.

1 note

2013 Queen’s Pageant

Last Friday, February 21, 2013, was the annual Winter Carnival Queen’s Pageant in Brattleboro, Vt. The pageant is held at the Brattleboro Union High School in the auditorium and draws quite a crowd from the community.

Behind the Scenes:

One of the really nice things about shooting events like this in an auditorium is that you really don’t need to worry about the lighting at all. All you have to do is crank up your ISO and pick out the right moments. Someone else has basically already taken care of the lighting for you. One thing to watch out for though is the white balance. Theater lighting can be a little funky. Hues of magenta and green and yellow tend to get a little exaggerated. I find that the best thing to do is shoot in AUTO WB with RAW files and correct the color cast in Lightroom during the edit. Most of the time the camera is smart enough to nail it in auto but sometimes you will have to make some manual adjustments. If you go the Custom WB route in camera you will run the risk of the light changing too often and having a serious color problem.

Photos from the 2013 Winter Carnival Queen’s Pageant can be purchased here!

The 10th annual Collegiate A Cappella Concert


A benefit for the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, the 10th annual Collegiate a cappella concert at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, Vt., featured performances from the Amherst Zumbeyes, Dartmouth Aires, Smith Smiffenpoofs, Syracuse Mandarins, Tufts Amalgamates, Tufts Beelzebubs and Wesleyan Quasimodal on Saturday, February 2, 2013.

*The following playlist features a video from each of the seven groups.

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Red Sox Small Talk

First and Second grade students at Oak Grove School in Brattleboro, Vt., were interviewed by a film crew from NESN for their show Red Sox Small Talk, Wednesday, February 6, 2013.
The interviews will be shown during the Red Sox pre-game show on NESN during the regular season and will also be shown during the little league coverage.

Matthew Bentley-Toney and Avery Bennett sing “Dynamite” while being interviewed for NESN’s Red Sox Small Talk at the Oak Grove School in Brattleboro, Vt.

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Shumlin visits Academy School.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin got a tour of Academy School in West Brattleboro, Vt., Tuesday afternoon, while visiting the southern part of the state.

Accompanied by Vermont Education Secretary Armando Vilaseca, the Governor met with student reporters from the Red Clover Times, the school newspaper, and was given a tour of the school. During the tour the Governor met with students and answered their questions like “What it is like to be governor?” and “What does the governor eat?” (Kindergartners are cute)

After his time at the school the Governor met with Reformer Reporter Mike Faher at the Brattleboro Reformer office to talk about his recent childcare proposal.

As part of what he calls “a very ambitious education agenda,” Gov. Peter Shumlin wants to boost child-care subsidies for lower-income families. - Reported by Mike Faher for the Brattleboro Reformer, Feb 6, 2013 pg.1.

2 notes

Anti VY Protest.

After paying their fines and court costs from a November conviction for trespassing at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vt., members of the Shut It Down Affinity group gathered for an anti Vermont Yankee rally at the Wells Fountain in downtown Brattleboro, Wednesday. 1/30/13

“If there is a law that says you can’t shut that place down, we must ignore it,” Nestel told cheering supporters earlier at a rally at Windham Superior Court in Downtown Brattleboro. “You must trespass. You must shut it down.” - Reported by Mike Faher on page 1 in the Brattleboro Reformer. 1/31/13

Jerry Goldberg.

After spending the past 6 years as the Executive Director of the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce, 74 year old Jerry Goldberg will be retiring at the end of the year.

“I will not trade one minute of the past six years. I could not have written it any more perfectly,” Goldberg said during an interview in his office Tuesday. “Now it is time for me to move on, and let someone else try this.” (Reported by Howard Weiss-Tisman, 2013, Brattleboro Reformer, pg. 1.)

Behind the scenes:

Image 1. Goldberg is standing on the sidewalk on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vt. I dropped down the ambient exposure to darken the background just a little and keep the focus on Goldberg. I then used an off camera strobe , hand held, to light Goldberg.

Image 2. Goldberg in his office. Lit by a off camera strobe , hand held, bounced off of the wall at camera left.

Image 3. Goldberg stand on the sidewalk in front of the Brooks House, an iconic building in Brattleboro, Vt. Shot using only natural light and converted to black and white in Lightroom .