National Attention

The busier than usual Art & Clay on Main bustles with energy as a gaggle of people wait for a crew from the Today Show to arrive on Wednesday, July 20. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Columbus based freelance photojournalist, Scott Winters, hoists his video camera high above his head for a birds-eye-view of a table of amateur pottery artists who were hard at work at Art & Clay on Main Wednesday, July 20. Winters was there to film a short video on the Lancaster shop for the Today Show on NBC. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

When a big news outlet comes to a small town, it becomes “news” that we have to cover. The NBC Today Show made plans to shoot a short human interest piece at a paint your own pottery business here in Lancaster, Ohio. We not only did a preview story and photo, (which was shot by our other shooter, William P. Cannon) we also shot coverage of the film crew shooting and did another story about that. I didn’t feel quite as bad about the situation when I saw that a shooter and writer from the Columbus Dispatch also had to cover the event.

The funny thing was to see the disappointment when the locals saw that Katie or Matt weren’t there for the shoot. When the crew of freelance video and sound guys got out of the van a woman waiting outside actually said something like - Aren’t any important people here?

In defense of the fine people of Lancaster, I have to assume that the woman was from out of town.

Pint Sized Players

Richie Mason, 10, crashes through a set of obstacles at the Fairfield County Youth Football Camp at Lancaster High School Wednesday, July 20. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Austin Martin, 8, grimaces as he moves in for a catch at the Fairfield County Youth Football Camp at Lancaster High School Wednesday, July 20. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

I looked at the stuff that I turned in last year from this same event and I realized that I shot the same type of stuff. I really need to step it up. To all of my fellow journalists; if my images start to look too obvious and you think I need some constructive criticism, please feel free to give it. As long as you are helping me improve I can take your comments in stride.

The Lancaster Festival

We have a weeklong event called The Lancaster Festival. It has everything from classical to rock music, children’s activities, art contests and anything else that they can put into one week in order to bring the community together. Aside from our regular daily assignments, we cover nearly everything that is festival related. It’s a blur of long hours and massive amounts of shooting that seems at the time to be redundant. (How many different ways can you shoot a violin player?)

Anyway, now that I am half of a month removed and can look back, I realize that I like a lot of what I shot.
So I know that this is a long post with a ton of pics, but this is just a taste of the Lancaster Festival. I hope you enjoy it.

Fred Hammond, of Carroll, rolls a case of wires and cables to the side of the Wendel Concert Stage at the Ohio University Lancaster Campus Tuesday, July 19. Hammond and a gaggle of other workers from the Columbus based Live Technologies worked throughout the day to install the sound and lighting equipment for The Lancaster Festival. Live Technologies president Rusty Ranney said that his company has been in charge of sound and light for this venue for more than fifteen years. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Live Technologies worker Aaron Ferguson, of Delaware, climbs down from atop a scaffold after setting a pulley system in place, which would later be used to hoist several large speakers into place near the Wendel Concert Stage at the Ohio University Lancaster Campus Tuesday, July 19. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Mitchell Kennedy, 11, of Lancaster, uses his fingers, covered with pastel chalk, to color in the face and facemask of a football player while making a picture at the Italian Street Painting event Wednesday, July 20. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Local metal artist Jeff Gawell works in his metal shop Thursday, July 21. Gawell will be one of the many participants in The Lancaster Festival Art Walk downtown tonight. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Harry Derflinger, 87, of Berne Township partakes of a bowl of chocolate ice cream while listening to the Festival Brass Quintet concert at Zane Square Friday, July 22. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Michael Hough, of the musical duo Mustard's Retreat, plays the acoustic guitar and sings during The Lancaster Festival's Festival Fair Day at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds Saturday, July 23. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Tyler Palmer, 2, of Pickerington, navigates quickly through a straw maze during The Lancaster Festival's Festival Fair Day at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds Saturday, July 23. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Ron Lyles Sr., of the Reynoldsburg based gospel group, The Lyles Family, plays guitar and sings with the group at the Zane Square gazebo as part of The Lancaster Festival Sunday, July 24. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

A bow glides lightly across the stings of a violin as Lancaster Festival Orchestra violinists Susan French, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Darrell Murray, of Charleston, West Virginia, play a duet at a concert at the Fairfield Center for Disabilities and Cerebral Palsy Tuesday, July 26. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Esther Messerknecht, 72, of Baltimore, recites her poem Friendships are Forever during The Lancaster Festival's Poetry Open Mic night at the Campus Cup Wednesday, July 27. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Miles McGee plays the chimes during the Lancaster High School Percussion Ensemble's free performance at the Zane Square gazebo Wednesday, July 27. The LHS Percussion Ensemble was one of many musical choices from The Lancaster Festival's Wednesday lineup. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Amy Grube, 33, of Cleveland, accepts a handful of dirt given to her by her 16-month-old son Samuel, as the two found a moment away from the crowds at The Lancaster Festival's Rising Park Day Thursday, July 28. The Grube's were in Lancaster this week visiting family. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Cole DeLeon, 3, of Lancaster, shows off his fancy foot work as he dances to the music at The Lancaster Festival's High School Band night concert at the bandstand on Broad Street Wednesday, July 27. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Jack Nauman, 2, of Lancaster, peers through the side of a small aquarium while looking at a baby snapping turtle at a Lancaster Parks and Recreation station displaying live and stuffed creatures from the area at The Lancaster Festival's Rising Park Day Thursday, July 28. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Devon Ramey, 8, of Fort Meyers, Florida, focuses one eye and then the other on a small hole made between her hands in order to find out which of eye is her dominant eye. Ramey and other children participated in other fun scientific experiments at one of the stations at The Lancaster Festival's Rising Park Day Thursday, July 28. The Ramey's were in Lancaster this week visiting family. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Percussionist Gino Mirizio provides the backbeat for guitarist Pavlo at a Lancaster Festival concert at Zane Square Friday, July 29. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Guitarist Pavlo performs with his band at a Lancaster Festival concert at Zane Square Friday, July 29. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Ride 'Em Cowboys

I love the rodeo. The people are great, it’s easy to find good shots and this year – the light was perfect. Anyway, not a lot to say except, I hope you like seeing these as I did shooting them.













Bull Rider Bo Weddle, 23, of Woodsfield, stands with other ropers and riders prior to the start of the rodeo at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds Saturday, July 9. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)







Courtney Niles, of Clayton, Michigan, lassos a steer at the rodeo at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds Saturday, July 9. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)











Klint Zimmerman, of Martinsville, rides a bucking bronco at the rodeo at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds Saturday, July 9. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Golf Pro In Training

Okay, this shows that if a subject is willing to go along with a portrait idea, you can make a fun image out of an otherwise ho-hum assignment. The headline in the paper read “An Eye For Golf.” Last week I had an assignment to shoot two brothers that got back-to-back hole in ones on a golf course in July. They were very nice but totally uninterested in doing anything more than standing on the green that the hit from and holding onto golf clubs. But it’s cool; at least I got this one.

Jimmy Shaner, an assistant to the golf pro at the Lancaster Country Club, has recently graduated from the South Carolina Golf Academy. He will now spend time working under an established golf pro for real world training. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Mom's Watching

My assignment sheet said that we were going to be sitting in with a county commissioner who has weekly breakfasts with people from the community in order to keep in touch with what they need from him and his office.
It was a round table of about seven people in an unattractive little restaurant. I got the obvious shots of the commissioner surrounded by locals and a shot from above the shoulder of one of the locals with the commissioner laughing in the direction of that person.
Those are the “insurance” shots, or the shots that I have in mind for basic coverage in case I get called out on some other last moment assignment or breaking news.
After getting those shots, I told by our reporter that one of the people at the meeting was the commissioner’s mom. Apparently, she shows up for most of his public engagements. So I looked for something in her expression that told of her feelings for her son and his position.
I liked this shot and I am not sure that they used it. I know that they used the large group shot as the dominant image though.

Dorothy Upp, 82, of Lancaster, listens to her son, Fairfield County Commissioner Mike Kiger, as he leads his weekly breakfast with the public Wednesday, July 6, a Nicks Pizza on West Wheeling Street. In order to keep a campaign promise, Kiger meets with county residents every week to find out how county policies affect them and what the people need and expect from the commissioners. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Skate Park Concert

Hello,

Here are my first photos to be posted to my blog. What I hope to do is post images from my previous month’s work with thoughts on the photos or overall assignment.
This assignment was part of the normal workload where I am. In addition to the normal assignments to provide art for our reporter’s stories, our other photographer William P. Cannon and I are told to find wild art everyday if possible and two photo packages each per week. Our packages must include at least a short article, and a gallery for the web whenever possible.
While I had been waiting to shoot anything at the skate park this summer until I was totally out of wild art options, I was told that a band was going to be putting on a free show the next weekend. So, desperate for a photo package, I shot the concert.
Here are the images that I liked.

Jedidiah Cranford, 24, of Athens, takes his board over a rail while Denver Fowler of the Columbus based band, The Jaded, sings one of the band's original tunes during a free concert at the Miller Skate Park in Lancaster Saturday, July 2. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Chris Lloyd, 22, of Hilliard, tries to defy gravity as his propels himself high into the air off of a ramp at the Miller Skate Park in Lancaster Saturday, July 2. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Guitarist John Wolanin and singer Denver Fowler of the Columbus based band The Jaded perform at a free concert at the Miller Skate Park in Lancaster Saturday, July 2. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Cyclists maneuver through the ramps at the Miller Skate Park in Lancaster Saturday, July 2. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)

Bassist Patrick Stockhausen of the Columbus based band The Jaded performs at a free concert at the Miller Skate Park in Lancaster Saturday, July 2. (Copyright Ken Ritchie/Eagle-Gazette)