I got to spend some time earlier this week at the Aurora Police Department as recruits were training in the firing range. Crime is down in Aurora, which is obviously a good thing, but the Beacon wanted to illustrate officers working. Instead of getting the usual shot taken during roll call, it was nice that they invited us to check out training and that I got to shoot this assignment.
There is a lot of negative press going around right now about police departments and officers. Rightfully so in some cases, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. The APD has a great relationship with the media when we cross paths in the field and they invite us into their home to see what goes on behind the scenes.
Sometimes your editor adds to your list of stops on a day when you already have three assignments lined up and simply says “We need pictures of people shopping downtown.”
OK, you say, imagining a quick one-and-done shot of someone walking into a store carrying shopping bags. But instead of calling it a day after getting that shot in less than five minutes, you decide to walk around in the cold and see if you can’t make anything better.
You find the sun shining through an archway to create a spotlight effect and wait. Click. You stand near a busy intersection and wait until crosswalkers hit it from two directions. Click. You play with some light shining through an alleyway, crouch down near a trash can and let people walk through the frame. Click click click. Nothing earth-shattering or portfolio-worthy or, hell, even your favorite shots of the day.
But it’s nice to see a few days later when that extra effort turns a single-photo inside story into a cover shot with an inside spread.
For a player, free throws are all about ritual. For a photographer, there’s not much reason to shoot them unless it’s in the final seconds and they can have an outcome on the game. But the faces are interesting. I think I might start shooting the faces.
Who ever said there’s no such thing as nice light in the winter?
While shooting a video the other night I couldn’t help firing off a few stills.
Outtakes from a protest. Some of these are a little too abstract for the paper. You can see what made the cut here.
I spent part of my evening yesterday at Hesed House in Aurora photographing intake and dinner services at its emergency shelter for the homeless. I was sent there for tomorrow’s cover story on how many shelters in Illinois are at risk of running out of funds by the end of the year. That would be a terrible thing, because Hesed House had to turn people away less than an hour after it opened last night because it had already run out of beds.
With a readership that expands into some of the most affluent suburbs around Chicagoland, I hope this photo is jarring enough to make at least one new person realize that homelessness doesn’t just affect the stereotypical down-on-their luck drunk hobo.
The rest of the gallery can be seen here.
File photo of mine is the lead on the Sun-Times right now? I’ll take it.
See it bigger
EDIT: This has been a terribly sad story to have been following. I’ve shot Max’s mom on three occasions. Getting these bans passed has been her goal since we met a couple of weeks after Max’s death. First to pass was Aurora, then collar communities around Fox Valley, and now Chicago. I’m happy to see the success she has had on her mission.
