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IN PRINT: Hanenburg for the Rocky Mountain News

Todd Spoth — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:00:28 +0000

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: The Rocky Mountain News
PUBLICATION DATE: August 8th, 2008
LINK: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/27/pressure-doesnt-faze-hanenburg/
NOTES: I shot this image of cross country star Kaitlin Hanenburg in late 2007 for the Colorado Springs Gazette before it was picked up a year later by the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado.

HOME SWEET FOOTBALL

Todd Spoth — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:44:09 +0000

Monday was my last day in Colorado. I returned home to Houston Tuesday morning after 16 hours of driving through some of the most treacherous fog and ice I have ever seen. Although the temperatures have reached the 80′s since I’ve been home, it is very nice to be home again. As an odd twist, my last assignment for The Gazette happened to take place not Monday, but tonight as the Broncos played the Texans here in Houston. Mark, the deputy-director of the paper and effectively my boss/mentor/friend etc came in last night and I got the chance to show him my hometown and have our last assignment together be here in Houston. The Broncos ended up losing, however at least the weather was a tad warmer than the 14 degree game at Invesco Field Mark and I were shooting this past Sunday. The photo above is one of my shots from the game.

IN PRINT: Pet feature for the Detroit Free Press

Todd Spoth — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:00:36 +0000

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: freep.com / Detroit Free Press
PUBLICATION DATE: December 7th, 2007
LINK: N/A
NOTES: This image of Monty and his new owner was originally shot for the Colorado Springs Gazette and picked up by the Free Press.

MORE ATHLETES

Todd Spoth — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:45:39 +0000

Its been a little crazy around here for the past week or so. I have only 4 days left of work here at The Gazette before I pack up and drive the 16 hours back home to Houston. It seems like it has gone by so fast, yet at the same time, looking back, my first assignment seems like years ago. The last two days I have been in the beautiful ski town of Crested Butte, so stay tuned for some images from that trip. As for this post, it’s more athletes. After a week of shooting the Athletes of the Year project, I thought I was through with the sportraits for the duration of my time, however on Monday I was assigned to shoot the first Athlete of the Week for the Winter sports season. This is Zach Batey, a wrestler at Air Academy High School here in Colorado Springs. I wanted to light the portrait and give him a menacing look and although I accomplished that aspect I really wish I had the time to perfect the lighting. There was another light in the background that needed to be boosted, but with my subject nervously shaking and a dozen or so of his teammates taunting him nearby, time was limited. I snapped off about 10 frames and liked this one. I had Zach crouch over a medium Chimera box to give it a nice dramatic, mean angle that accented his muscles. I really liked how the eyes connected with this frame as well. I would be stoked if I were him, as he does look mean. It actually reproduced fairly well in the paper. Good stuff. I’m getting better with using my small wireless flashes in time crunches.

ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Todd Spoth — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:35:28 +0000

For the past week or so Ive been working on The Gazette’s Athletes of the Year special section that will come out in about 3 weeks. It’s something they put out each year that highlights the accomplishments of 12 (this year) prep athletes that have excelled in their sport for the season. I was handed a list of 6 girls and 6 boys from the prep sports editor and given a deadline. Ive actually enjoyed it thus far since I dig larger projects like this that give me a lot of creative control. Ive seen some of the previous years’ products and I wanted to do something totally different than what has come before me. I immediately had the idea for the magazine cutouts. Ive tried this in the past with some silly personal work, but now I can actually make it happen with something serious. The basic idea was to nail down a nice, consistent lighting concept in our studio at the paper and shoot each of the kids on white seamless. The lighting I used was 1 background light, 2 rims and a large softbox as a main with a white bounce to even things out. I began shooting the kids Saturday and finished my last one today, so 4 full days of actual studio time. Each athlete will have one shot on the cover and one for their page inside with the shots on the cover being more interactive and playful. I might have shot 2 athletes on different days, but I want to make their cover (cut out) shots interact in a way. Its really a hard concept to explain so I put together the little mock up you see here. It was my first kid I shot Saturday, Kaitlin. I cut her out and added some “tape” in Photoshop for effect and to show our designer Matt what I was going for. Now that I have all my shots, I will edit the shots and get together with Matt and make it happen. Hopefully I can see my vision come to fruition without incident.

IT’S IN THE AIR

Todd Spoth — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:57:55 +0000

Although it was in the mid 70′s here (very hot for this time of year) Christmas was in the air, or at least the smell of trees. My only assignment today was not until 4pm so I went feature hunting and found Arlan, an employee of a tree farm from Minnesota. Every year he packs an 18-wheeler full of firs from the farm and treks them to cities all over the US. Not only is he the driver of the rig, but he climbs on top of the pile and tosses the trees down to his clients. This weekend is one of the most popular times to purchase a Christmas tree, so Arlan is working hard this week. If you turn your head 90 degrees counter-clockwise the tops of the wooden slats and the tree Arlan is holding make a tree shape, with Arlan’s head as the stump!

FINDING RAE

Todd Spoth — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:22:12 +0000

Today was a rather slow news day. My only assignment was a business assignment about a Best Western motel (formerly The Palmer House) a staple of the Westside for a number of years. From the assignment sheet I learned that the motel had shutdown and a developer has purchased the property and has plans to turn the location into a retail center. It was also understood that there “isn’t much going on at the location, so a building mugshot to accompany the story will do.” I get to the location to find exactly what the sheet lead on…a deserted motel. I snapped a few mugs from the front of the property before I ventured around the rear of the property. As I turned the corner it looked like I had stumbled into the lower 9th ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The place was in shambles; glass windows busted out, torn sofas and mattresses littered the parking lot, trash strewn about. Obviously the place had been used, in multiple senses of the word. Although the neighborhood seemed pretty rough, I decided to get out and explore, besides what else would a good journalist do? Soon after getting out I found two young boys roaming about the property. They had built a fort with all of the old furniture and were all over the roof and rooms like they owned the place. They were cordial as was I, so I followed them around for a bit, making sure they get into TOO much trouble, but capturing their playful nature at the same time. These two frames are of 11 year old Rae “Rae Rae” Earlie. If you look closely, you can see that Rae is sporting a nice NASA Johnson Space Center – Houston, Texas shirt. I felt so at home. I asked him where he got it, but he had no idea. Maybe he found it at the abandoned motel?

SOLDIERS AND SUSHI

Todd Spoth — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Yesterday was a whirlwind day in my life as a photojournalist. I was originally slated to start my Veterans’ Day late shift off with a few photos to accompany a restaurant review at 3pm, until I got a call from our DOP (director of photography) asking me to be at Fort Carson, the nearby Army base, at noon. When I arrived I met up with our military reporter and a handful of other media personnel. We were escorted onto the base and led to the Welcome Center where there was to be a group of soldiers arriving for a homecoming. This was one of those experience events. Ones you may see on TV or read about, but that you never quite understand the scope of until you are there. The Welcome Center was a small gym type facility that was packed to capacity with friends and family of the 759th Military Police Battalion. Apparently this particular group of men had not been home in over a year and had a pretty rough time in Iraq, completing dangerous missions and losing a number of their own in the process. The soldiers arrived from the airport on two chartered buses complete with a police escort. They marched into the center in formation and saluted the gathered crowd with restraint as their friends and family went nuts. After a small word and the singing of the national anthem it was complete chaos. An indescribable flood of emotion that almost had me in tears at one point. Regardless of my thoughts about our current government and war, I could not deny the fact that these men, some younger than I, have seen so much in the past year and they were getting to see their wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, etc for the first time in a long time and it was amazing to say the least. At one point a father, also a veteran, placed his hand on one of the older commander’s shoulders and said, “Thanks for bringing my son home.” Both of the grown men completely broke down into tears at that point. The first image is one of Staff Sgt. Matthew Frye kissing his wife Farrah during the ceremony. It ran as the main art, A1, today. The lighting inside the center was horrid, but its OK…the moment is telling in and of itself. After that event, I headed to my restaurant review which surprisingly was at a smaller Japanese grill. I had a great time talking to the owners and chef about my being Japanese and we made some neat images of their food and restaurant. Their famed stuffed mushrooms, which I tried and loved, against my better journalistic judgement were awesome. Hey, they review was already written and we couldn’t let the food go to waste, right? I obliged and instead let the food go to waist.

THE TUTU TAILOR

Todd Spoth — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:15:57 +0000

I put off this story that I was supposed to shoot yesterday, until today, my day off. It was a life story about a lady who is a custom ballet costume maker. It was one of those assignments where you have no idea what it’s going to be like before you get there. Her name is Susi Hubbs, often dubbed “The Costume Lady”, and is a former ballet dancer who now runs her own business designing and making custom costumes for a primarily dance/ballet/performance clientele. I had a great time getting to know her and sharing my experiences with dance and turned out that we knew some of the same people in the industry. Small world. After shooting her working with some of her pieces a younger, male, ballet dancer came in to get fitted for a costume, which added another element to the set of photos. The above image is Susi fitting a young ballerina. The look on the girl’s face says it all. It’s stories like these that I’m really reminded of how diverse this job really is and makes me thankful for being able to meet people like this on a daily basis.

A LOCAL SALUTE

Todd Spoth — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:55:07 +0000

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.