TODD SPOTH - HOUSTON PHOTOGRAPHER / COMMERCIAL / ADVERTISING / SPORTS / ANNUAL REPORT / MAGAZINE / DOCUMENTARY / MULTIMEDIA - HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA - 832.265.3486 - INFO@TODDSPOTH.COM » America http://toddspothblog.com Wed, 09 May 2012 21:47:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 9 STATES IN 2 DAYS http://toddspothblog.com/2008/08/22/9-states-in-2-days/ http://toddspothblog.com/2008/08/22/9-states-in-2-days/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:15:43 +0000 Todd Spoth http://toddspothblog.com/?p=217 iphonetripblog

So Ive been AWOL for a week or so now, but I am completely settled in here in Baltimore and am ready to work my butt off for the next few months for the wonderful Patuxent Publishing Company. Today was my first day and it went great. I found the days prior to today to be filled more with anxiety to get to work rather than being nervous about how i will fit in and perform. I have my experience over the last year and my previous work in Colorado to thank for that. Maryland and the East Coast is marvelous, the countryside is beautiful and the weather, albeit still hot, is fine as well. I cant wait to venture into some of the surrounding cities as well as the Chesapeake Bay area soon. There are a ton of things on the to-do before I leave list, including eating lots of crab cakes. The city is …interesting. It reminds me a lot of Rio in the way that the rich and poor are sometimes so close its scary. Just like Rio, in its comparison against Houston and other cities Ive lived in, the poor in Baltimore are that much poorer and the rich are richer. The row homes, one of which I’m living in, seem so foreign, but luckily the one I am staying in is absolutely fabulous. I’ll explain more about my experience later but for now, above are a grid of images all taken with my iphone. I took lots of photos from the 2 day trip up to Baltimore with my iphone and uploaded them to my smugmug gallery here: http://toddspoth.smugmug.com All of the images are geotagged which means you can see on a map exactly where they were taken!
]]> http://toddspothblog.com/2008/08/22/9-states-in-2-days/feed/ 0 A LOCAL SALUTE http://toddspothblog.com/2007/11/11/a-local-salute/ http://toddspothblog.com/2007/11/11/a-local-salute/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:55:07 +0000 Todd Spoth http://toddspothblog.com/?p=95 11_10_07_v_s_0106
I had quite the day yesterday. I woke up at about 7am and was out bright and early to nab a decent parking spot for the annual Veterans’ Day parade in downtown. With a start time of 10am, I knew that the streets would be on lock down after a certain time, so I wiggled my way into a lot right up against the parade street. This was another one of those overwhelming events where there is just so much going on. Sensory overload if you will. After working it for about an hour I found my way back to my car and decided to set up the Marantz to capture an audio track. Instead of carrying it around, I wedged the mic in my window and left it going as I went out to cover more. After the parade I had to book it to Falcon High School which is about a 20 minute drive from downtown. I might add as well that I was behind a trailer carrying a dead Buffalo on the way there…on a one lane highway. Interesting. I shot the first half of the playoff match up and headed back to the newsroom to dump what I had and edit my daily material. I found enough time to freshen up at home and was soon out the door to the Pikes Peak Center where a Diwali celebration was being held. And from watching the episode of The Office aptly named “Diwali”, I had a preconceived idea of what the event would be like, and although I’m sure their more intimate celebrations bare more semblances to the show, this was simply a theatrical performance. Theatrical performances are a double-edged sword. On one hand they allow you to sit in a nice spot and snap photos of action on stage with beautiful light set up by lighting directors, but on the other hand, as a photojournalist, you want those behind the scenes candid moments…real interactions, not acting. After realizing I wasn’t going to get that here, I got what I needed for the paper and headed out. I traveled a ways to The World Arena where Colorado College was set to take on Minnesota-Duluth in NCAA ice hockey action. Bryan was already there covering the action for us and AP, but I had other designs on the evening. I set up a remote camera just in the nick of time and I think it was actually somewhat successful as my first real time lapse endeavor. I set the camera up (1D mkIIn with 15mm fisheye attached) using a super clamp and magic arm, in the broadcast booth in the press box so that Id have a nice centered view of the ice. It was a little tough since the ice creates a high amount of contrast, but having done this one, I’m confident I can knock it out in other situations. See a smaller, compressed, version of the time lapse in my previous blog entry. I have a version with a bit of ambient sound from the game, however I posted this in haste last night so we’ll leave it like that for now. While the game was going on and my time-lapse camera was snapping away I put together my multimedia piece for the Veterans’ Day parade that I had shot earlier in the day. That can be found here: http://clients.toddspoth.com/veterans Please let me know what you think. Happy Veterans’ Day (in a few hours) and much respect to our soldiers present and past.


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