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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.

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.

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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.

Newsmakers

The Comcast Newsmakers show set up on the stage of the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, Vt., to interview several local “Newsmakers” for their program on Monday and Tuesday, January 14 and 15, 2013.

Local interviewees included Gail Nunziata of Latchis Arts, Jeff Lewis of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, Chris Campany of the Windham Regional Commission and several others including Massachusetts State Representative Paul Mark pictured here.

Interviews will air in early February on the Comcast Xfinity Network and will be available in the OnDemand section for comcast subscribers. Viewers can also visit www.comcastnewsmakers.com to see the interviews.

It was quite impressive to walk into the old main theater at the Latchis and see it professionally lit with dozens of lights. There were blue accent lights all along the walls lighting up each panel. There were large flood lights bringing in the red of the old theater seating and of course the rig of lights on the talent. You could smell the heat coming off of them. As a photographer, it was great to have all of the lighting already taken care of so I could focus on capturing the right moments.

Some photo geekery to share:

These images were shot with my trusty old Canon 40D and my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. This is my typical “go to” set up for most shoots. As I said, it was all lit already so I didn’t need to use a flash for anything.

I was shooting at mostly at ISO 1600 and 1/60th of a second varying my aperture as needed.

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Laurence Lynch

I photographed 79 year old Laurence Lynch recently at his home in Dummerston, Vt. Laurence is still living in his childhood home where he and his family were photographed by Jack Delano of the Farm Security Administration in 1941.

I chose to photograph Laurence on the same porch that Delano had in his original photo. 

Also of note, check out this amazing shot that Delano made of the Chicago Union Station.Jack Delano - Chicago Union Station

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you readers. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I thank you for supporting this blog.

-Zach

This selection of photographs was originally published in the December 23-24 Weekend edition of the Brattleboro Reformer.

Tis the season… to decorate your house and yard with the most lights, figures, cutouts, candy canes and more that you can fine.

All around Windham County and neighboring New Hampshire you will find homes that have gone to the extreme with their holiday decorating.

It may take a little searching, but a nice evening drive with the family is well worth it when you come across some of these enthusiastic decorators.

Happy Holidays from the Reformer.

REFORMER LIVE with Emily Peyton.

Reformer Reporter Mike Faher and Executive Editor Tom D’Errico interview independent candidate for Vermont Governor Emily Peyton live in at the Brattleboro Reformer office.

*produced by Tom D’Errico and Zachary P. Stephens

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It isn’t every day that a house explodes.

I got a message from Pat Smith in the office at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning that a house had exploded in Townshend. 

I made the call to wait a little while before making the trek up so access to the scene would be a little better. I figured that the house wouldn’t be any more or less exploded when I got there. 

The scene was very bizarre. I have never seen anything like it. The house quite literally looked like it had exploded. No fire. No smoke. Just a crumpled house with scattered debris.

No one was injured. The homeowner was out of town when the explosion destroyed the house at 3 a.m.

See the full story here.

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© Zachary P. Stephens / Brattleboro Reformer

For 20 years the Westminster Center School has been maintaining a school garden which has become an educational tool in teaching about horticulture and healthy eating.

Students in every class take part in the planting and harvesting of the garden which is then used for school lunches and snacks.

Teachers, parents and local farmers like Paul Harlow and Bob Decoteau, volunteer to help with the garden.

These images show a portion of the school’s planting day.

Purchase photos here.