a wolf on the moon

2009_03_07_time for a change, bradvest.com/blog

2009-03-07T15:47:00.008-06:00

2009_03_07_time for a change, bradvest.com/blog

Things are changing. I've decided to finally start hosting my blog on my own web space. I haven't quite gotten my actual website up and running yet, but I think hosting my blog on that space will work out better for me than using a blogger account. No more unsaturated colors and blacks, no more strange sizing methodology before posting. It's a pretty simple blog still but better. I'll be using a word press account on my website which will allow me more freedom to customize my blog, size my photos, and include more personalized posts.

So from now on everything will be posted at bradvest.com/blog. I hope you'll continue to follow my adventures and enjoy the photography and ramblings of myself in this new space.

Again, as always, thanks for looking. And I'll see you at bradvest.com/blog

Thanks,
Brad Vest

bradvest.com/blog

2009_03_02_Way of the wagon

2009-03-02T22:57:00.001-06:00

2009_03_02_Way of the wagon

Heading out of town for a couple days into western Kansas for some assignments; number, location, and information of said assignments remains unknown. Well, I know of one but since we'll be going so far away we try to cover a lot of stuff to make the trip worth while.

I just hope I find some time to shoot random things for myself. I think I'll be toting the tripod along this time also.... maybe do a few nighttime shots. I should really order the trigger for my canon so that I can make an exposure that's longer than 30 seconds.

I'll bring my Rollei and Holga along for the ride also. I'm running extremely low on 120 film though. I've only got a few shots left in the Rollei and maybe two in my Holga. I can only imagine those will be gone by the time I get home on Wednesday. Problem is I shoot quite a bit of film but have so much to be developed I should probably slow down a tad until it's all been souped. It'll be surprising when I get the film done though, I've forgotten what was even shot on some of it.

Probably be a little incognito for the next couple of days while I'm gone, hopefully I'll have some nice stuff to throw up when I get back though.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

2009_03_01_Mining the creative

2009-03-01T15:01:00.012-06:00

2009_03_01_Mining the creative

Heading down into the Hutchinson Salt Mine was one of the more interesting day long shoots I've been on. I drove up to the mine at around 5:30 am to grab all of my safety gear and still beat the first miners arriving for their shift. After a quick introduction to the guys it was time to get to work, for all of us.

Heading down into the mine.

After the miners had quick cup of coffee it was off the the lift down 650 feet into the mine. I was expecting the ride to be a slow jostled trip into the depths, but was soon to be surprised by the little lift that could. The lift, with five miners and a photographer crammed into the small 5x5 space (maybe), shot down must faster than expected. Covering the 650 foot journey in maybe 45 seconds or so with bumps along the way as the sides ground against the shaft in a deep black one would only expect to encounter deep in the Mariana trench. As the cart dropped further and further into the earth the conversation between miners was littered with the sounds of 3 second exposures and the incessant fumbling of controls through the jury rigged, hopefully salt proof protective bag I had taped around my camera in my early morning haze over a giant cup of sumatran coffee.

Just as I started to think about what I would find at the end of this lift ride light started to come up through the floor of the small cart, close. I was surprised at how strongly lit the mine was, this will be easy I thought, things changed. We all gathered outside the shaft as one of the miners walked off and retrieved one of their custom mine transporters, an old chevy suburban that had the roof cut off, no doors, and a completely stripped interior with the seats being bolted back into place. Off we went and off went the light. Soon we were being solely guided by the two headlamps of the old bio diesel salt truck.

The rest of the dark day was spent in the newest areas of the mine and the makeshift break room that the miners keep near the area where they are currently mining. The miners were working on drilling and blasting away new salt faces to bring down 300 tons of new salt each time to haul off to the conveyor and up to the surface.

Hopefully during my time here I can find a few more opportunities to head down into the mine. I am definitely going to try and spend a few more days with these guys and make some more of the infinite images that exist in this place.

Either way, here are just a few of the photos that I made in this strange, unique place.

Thanks for looking.

Best,
Brad Vest

Once you step foot into the salt mine you realize that pretty much everything is coated in a fine powder of salt, like the consistency of powder.

There is absolutely no light down in the working area of the mine except the light that comes from the machines and the miners headlamps. In other words, it was harsh to shoot in.

A long exposure of the LHD, load haul dump, front end loader coming to drop off a 4 ton load of salt. The salt is then hauled off by the conveyor over to the mine shaft where 2 buckets bring the salt up to the surface.

A shot from my camera as it rides along the conveyor belt with the salt.

The salt that is blasted off the walls is in relatively large chunks that need to be ground up before entering the conveyor. With that said, all the salt that drops on the ground, drilled, and cut out of the walls is turned into a fine powder after being run over by the large machines hundreds of times.

A long exposure of miners working at the end of a tunnel. Again, the only light in the mine comes from the workers machines and headlamps.

This way.... to the batcave.

The salt mine was nothing like I expected. No small spaces, just large vast areas of blasted salt with columns set to hold up the ever increasing grid of openness where the salt is mined from.

This is my favorite shot from the day. The salt pattern, the chairs, and the miners during one of their breaks says a lot about the place, and the people that work in this place.... Not to mention the calender on the wall.

The miners have to sharpen about a 2 gallon bucket load of the cutter and drill tips each day to keep them sharp enough to cut the salt efficiently.

Heading up after a long day in the mine.

Listening to: Blame it on the Tetons, Modest Mouse

2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated

2009-02-28T23:01:00.003-06:00

2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated

peace,
Brad Vest

2009_02_27_

2009-02-27T23:10:00.002-06:00

2009_02_27_

Airplanes rarely venture near this place, just jet streams on the horizon.

Best,
Brad Vest

2009_02_26_

2009-02-26T23:58:00.000-06:00

2009_02_26_

-brad

2009_02_26_mining preview

2009-02-26T21:32:00.008-06:00

2009_02_26_mining preview

As you know I headed down into the Hutchinson Salt Mine this past Tuesday. I spent the entire day shift down in the mine with the workers. The Ad Astra photo page isn't inked until this Sunday so I can't share any of the actual photos. But here are just a few behind the scenes shots.

I had to tag up before heading down into the mine like every other miner. You leave one tag at the surface and keep one tag on you. This is in case of emergencies they know who is down in the mine. As I was going through the safety training the manager joked... 'for some reason they make them out of brass, so when you're stuck in the mine and burn up it's easy to identify you by the melted drop of metal seeing as brass melts at 200 degrees.' Haha, not very funny.

The self rescuer that turns poisonous CO into CO2. Granted it doesn't add any oxygen so if you're using this thing you better be moving quickly to the exit.

Sparkly salt ceiling.

I was shooting the powder man who's in charge of setting the explosives in each and just as we finished up the first wall it was time to move on to the next wall a few hundred yards away. The truck he uses the get around only has one seat in the front so I saddled up with my legs hanging over the side of the flatbed. Just as he was getting in the front he called back, 'you can sit on the explosives if you want'. Why not. Riding around with the powder man on top of around 1000 lbs of ammonium nitrate explosives, it was ironically comfortable.

ESCAPE WAY!

I turned a 5 dollar camera rain jacket into pretty much a completely sealed jacket to keep the abundant salt particles off my gear.

Since the camera was completely sealed with the bag and close to a full roll of electrical tape this made controlling the camera difficult. I do know how to control everything in the dark by touch, but the bag made the controls much more sluggish and slippery. It was tough when adjusting from a iso3200 @ 1/15th shot to an iso 640 shot @ 1/50th.

Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Vampire Weekend

2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

2009-02-25T18:55:00.000-06:00

2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

I felt like the obsessive fictional hero as I somewhat frantically drove around the four square miles or so of roads that surrounded the thirty-three newly constructed windmills outside the small Kansas town of Marienthal. However, instead of battling the windmills in a more chivalrous endeavor, I was dealing with something much more fleeting and obscure, the light.

After driving over four hours straight west into the vast, barren, brown land known as western Kansas and only being a few handfuls of miles from the Colorado border I was banking deeply on the fact that the sky would open up and give me one of her more fantastic sunsets to work with. After all, the sole reason I came all this way was to make a pictorial type photo, beautiful in its nature, of the windmills for the upcoming cover for one of the four sections of The Hutchinson News' yearly progress section.

When the light started to fade I knew it would either be a great sunset or there wouldn't be one at all. Clouds had started to roll in which is actually a great thing since clouds make the sky more dynamic and actually enhance the colors of the sunset. But, with those benefits also comes a huge downside, clouds can completely kill a sunset by blocking out the light. At the beginning it was great, the sun was parting the clouds and creating beautiful shades of color on the clouds and reflecting off the large reflective bases of the windmills.

I became worried though just as the sun was starting to get into it's peak position it was matted out by the clouds. I waited and waited but nothing changed the sun just stuck to the back of a huge set of clouds concealing all the light except for a few shades of not so fantastic grey. Just as I was about to call it a day she broke through right at the horizon line and lit up the entire cloud mass that used to be blocking here.

It worked out for some wonderful pictures and a great trip.

Thanks for looking.
-Brad Vest

After about 20 minutes of nothing but grey, the sun appeared again and gave a wonderful show of color for about ten minutes before continuing on to other parts of the western hemisphere.

This is the photo we chose to run for the cover of the wind progress section. It was so great to see the way we used the photos for the covers of each section. We went big! Each section front was just a photo, no text, no graphics, just a giant photo welcoming readers into the section.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Stork and Owl, Tv on the Radio

2009_02_25_hear that sound

2009-02-25T18:36:00.004-06:00

2009_02_25_hear that sound

I miss the Puget Sound and that city that sits off her eastern side.

Best,
Brad Vest

2009_02_24_ballers

2009-02-24T20:34:00.003-06:00

2009_02_24_ballers

Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: I Hold Nothing, Mount Eerie

2009_02_24_Working in a sodium chloride mine going down down down

2009-02-24T07:02:00.006-06:00

2009_02_24_Working in a sodium chloride mine going down down down

Right about now I'll be stepping onto an elevator and descending about seventy stories below the surface of the earth into a strange, dark, and dusty place, the Hutchinson Salt Mine. I'll be spending the day with the workers documenting their underground lives. I'm not quite sure what to expect except for really challenging lighting and a nice dry 65 degree day without the sun.

I lightened everything out of my bag except for the essentials and a lunch consisting of a couple pb and j sandwiches, a banana, a granny smith apple, and a bottle of water. That way it will be much easier to get around all day.

Lightened load, only the essentials.

Fully charged batteries for a full day of shooting. I marked them a while back so that I know which are spent and which still have a charge when I am sifting through my bag.

Other than that all I have to carry, among other things, is a certified breather that's about the size of mango, but in rectangle form. The breather only weighs about 3 pounds and in case of emergency it turns poisonous carbon monoxide into harmless carbon dioxide to allow for greater time to run out of the mine. Knock on wood, don't worry though, salt mining is actually very safe, especially when compared to coal mining.

Waiver and releases let you know what you'll be doing is exciting.

I also sorta enhanced the seals on my camera with some electrical tape and rubber bands to keep the salt dust from getting in where it shouldn't. If the mine is worse than I am anticipating as far as particles in the air and getting all over my camera I'm also bringing down two weather bags that fit around my cameras and lenses. I really don't want to use those though, they are a real pain in the butt.

Super seal, patent pending.

Other than that I guess there isn't much. I'm really excited to get down there and start making pictures. I'm leaving my apartment at 5am or so to get to the mine before the workers start to arrive to capture the whole process of one of their full work days.

So, if you need to get in touch with me tomorrow, good luck, my phone won't have much signal due to the interference of 700 feet of rock, sand, dirt, and salt.

See you topside,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Your rocky spine, Great Lake Swimmers

2009_02_23_partly organic

2009-02-23T21:00:00.005-06:00

2009_02_23_partly organic

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: I've got it all (most), Modest Mouse

2009_02_23_Youth rodeo

2009-02-23T07:26:00.009-06:00

2009_02_23_Youth Rodeo

As always, thanks for taking a look.

Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: upon this tidal wave of young blood, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

2009_02_22_Ignoring generics

2009-02-22T21:33:00.004-06:00

2009_02_22_Ignoring generics

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Once Around the Block, Badly Drawn Boy

2009_02_21_Five angry bulls and a puppy

2009-02-22T17:50:00.001-06:00

2009_02_21_Five angry bulls and a puppy

Yesterday I had the chance to shoot a rodeo for the first time. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I definitely knew it would have its fair share of excitement. Turns out it was a little more exciting than I bargained for.

When I first got to the small rodeo I wandered around the outside took pictures and grabbed a coffee. I knew the best pictures would be in with the bull riding competitors that stay inside a fenced in area at one side of the large rodeo ring. The competitors enter the confined ring where they are safe from the large bulls, get dressed and prepared to mount the bulls. The bulls come in on the right side and follow a path around to the front into their holders before being released into the ring with a rider on top. After the ride, the bull is guided out on the left side of the small fenced in ring where the riders wait and out into the pen behind the building.... At least that is the plan.

He's a Blue Healer and he was awesome.

Young cowboy getting his gear ready for his upcoming ride.

I entered the confined ring and started making pictures as the riders prepared to start riding the bulls. There was a tiny puppy in the ring and that took up most my attention for a little while. Either way, I was shooting pictures of one of the younger riders getting his rope ready and all the sudden people were yelling and jumping all over the place. Apparently someone forgot to make sure the gates were chained together which allowed five angry bulls to bust through into the 'safe' area where the riders were getting prepared. As I looked left I saw three bulls running right at me. I ran across the area and leaped onto a large metal grate that riders climb up onto before lowering themselves down onto the bulls. I tried to make a few photos as soon as I was safe from the 5 pairs of horns that continually raced around the small area butting at anything that came near them.

The shutter was triggered as I ran across with the giant bulls chasing me down.

After I thought I was in a relatively safe position I turned and tried to make a few images of the bulls reeking havoc in the small 'safe' zone.

Bull runs full steam into the fence where guys scramble to the other side.

It was a very exciting experience and my heart was racing a little when it was all done. Luckily no one was injured, and who knows how, but the little puppy made it out unscathed also.

The little guy didn't even seem to mind after the whole ordeal was over.

What a great little kick to get the day going.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

One cowboy was scared out of his boot.

Listening to: Chicago, Sufjan Stevens

2009_02_21_A window on Kansas

2009-02-21T22:46:00.004-06:00

2009_02_21_A window on Kansas

I didn't think of it at the time of making this image but while editing it reminded me of a project I like that Chris Hondros created while in Baghdad, Iraq. Hondros gathered images that he made from his travels inside of the US Hummvees that he was constantly traveling around in.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Our Swords, Band of Horses

2009_02_19_Hostage camera situation

2009-02-21T20:46:00.005-06:00

2009_02_19_Hostage camera situation

This past Thursday there was an armed standoff in downtown Hutchinson. It started out as a hostage situation, but by the time I got there the hostages were released unharmed and the only thing being held hostage apparently was my ability to make nice photos and the time in which I had to make them. A man confronted his ex-wife, who had just enacted a restraining order, at the law office with a loaded pistol and took her and the other people at the office hostage. He quickly released the hostages but stayed holed up in the office with police surrounding the building.

Police Officer with very large gun.

This was my first time covering something like this and I wasn't surprised at how hard it was to make photos while there. The first thing that hinders photos is proximity. With the cops pretty much shutting down an entire square block around the scene nothing was going to be tight with a 70-200mm zoom lens. I tried to overcome this shortcoming by using contacts that I had made in this small town. It just so happened that the scene was right across the street from a downtown loft that I shot an assignment in earlier this month. I made may way the loft talked with the owner and got permission to get up on top of his roof to shoot photos down at the scene. The top run on the ladder placed outside was as far as I got before a SWAT member politely stared at me, shook his head, and pointed down. Well it was worth a try right?

Either way, nothing really happened for a few hours and then my photo editor called me and told me that I had to move on to an assignment to cover an art walk that happens every third Thursday on the south side of downtown Hutchinson. We did have another photographer covering the scene from the other side of the block, but I was caught off guard to say the least when I was asked to leave an armed stand off to cover an art gallery. I mean, I was ready to sit there all night and wait for anything to happen, that's what journalists do.

Granted, I was going to go shoot this event, edit my photo for the feature section of the paper, and then rush back to the scene to hang out for the rest of the night. But just like anything that one waits for a long time and then ends up leaving, it happened without me. Just as I was getting back from shooting the feature walking into the Hutchinson news building 9 bangs were heard rolling from downtown, flash-bangs. In an instant it was over and I was 3 blocks away.

Keep in mind, even if I was there I probably would not have made any decent pictures of the relatively peaceful arrest at nighttime, luckily no one was injured. But it's those kind of moments that as a photojournalist I live to be there and cover. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen whether I'm there or not, and I want to be there.

Cheers,
Brad Vest

I got pretty bored and found a double reflection of me, woot.

There were a lot of pigeons trying to get a better look at the crime seen, they were also shooed back.

This is the feature photo that I went and hastily made.

Listening to: The Strain, Blockhead

2009_02_20_Seized

2009-02-20T22:43:00.003-06:00

2009_02_20_Seized

Listening to: In the lost and found, Elliot Smith

2009_02_19_

2009-02-19T10:43:00.002-06:00

2009_02_19_

Cheers,
Brad Vest

Listening to:

2009_02_28_ISBOP Story

2009-02-18T23:15:00.000-06:00

2009_02_28_ISBOP Story

Picture Story—sty—A maximum of 10 images that
together tell a story.

I've posted this story on here a couple times. So if you'd like to see the entire 9 image story go here.

Best,
Brad Vest

2009_02_18_ISBOP News

2009-02-18T22:45:00.000-06:00

2009_02_18_ISBOP News

News—nws—A photographic report of a scheduled
or unscheduled news event.

2009_02_18_ISBOP Portrait/Personality

2009-02-18T22:36:00.000-06:00

2009_02_18_ISBOP Portrait/Personality

Portrait/Personality—pop—A picture of a person
that reveals the essence of the subject’s character.

2009_02_18_ISBOP Pictorial

2009-02-18T22:16:00.000-06:00

2009_02_18_ISBOP Pictorial

Pictorial—pic—A picture that exploits the graphic or aesthetic qualities of a subject with an emphasis on composition.

2009_02_18_ISBOP Feature

2009-02-18T21:55:00.000-06:00

2009_02_28_ISBOP Feature

Feature—fea—A picture of a “found” situation that features strong human interest, or a fresh view of an everyday scene.

2009_02_18_ISBOP FEA

2009_02_18_IPPA Student Best of Photography

2009-02-18T21:07:00.007-06:00

2009_02_18_IPPA Student Best of Photography

ISBOP is a photography contest between all the Illinois students and interns within the photojournalism community. Each year the IPPA, Illinois Press Photographers Association, gets together at some exotic locale (last year was Champaign, IL this year is Madison, WI) to discuss photography, listen to speakers, judge the contest entries, and of course have a much needed get together party.

I just sent off my disk of images shortly before the already extended deadline to get your entries into the mail. This will only be the second ISBOP competition that I have entered but I feel that I learned a lot from my last years entries and I am pretty happy with what I will be showing this year.

I entered the maximum 20 entries including a photo story entry. This year I am also entering into the student portfolio of the year competition, why not.

After gathering what I thought were my best images and editing those down to just 20 entries I know I still forgot some and overlooked a diamond in the rough here or there that I will stumble upon while looking through my archives sometime in the future. The process of having a few friends share my screen using Mac's Leopard operating system helped out a lot as they went through all my images that I had up and could talk directly to me while reviewing the images. It was just like looking over images being only feet away instead of hundreds of miles. I hope that the images that I sent are a pretty good representation of my 2008 year in work, and I am excited to hopefully be able to make it up to the conference at Madison in late March.

Either way, I figured I would share the images that I sent off to the competition here on my blog and get any feedback you have to offer. I know there are a couple that I had a hard time leaving in there, but the images meant something to me and the way that I shoot.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

I'll start out with the sports photos. Here's what I entered in the sports action category and the sports features category.

Sports Action—spa—A photograph that captures
the competitive spirit; peak action.

Sports Feature—spf—A photograph that increases understanding and appreciation for individual and team sports or celebrates the role athletics play in the lives of amateur and/or professional athletes and fans.