©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

One of the first big decisions I had to make upon returning home from 18 days in Beijing – was wether or not to pack right back up and go cover Hurricane Gustav.   A major news magazine was asking me to go – and they gave me overnight to make a decision.   While the newsman in me definitely wanted to go, I knew that A. I just didn’t have the mental energy to live through another Katrina after an Olympics and B. it just wouldn’t be fair to my wife who had just spent 18 days alone taking care of our son.

So I passed on the assignment – which is never an easy thing to do for any photographer –  but I’m now confident that it was the right move (I’ve been catching up on a LOT of sleep these past few days – your body and mind know when to decompress and let go…) Read the rest of this entry »

This shot confirming Michael Phelps victory in the 100 M butterfly took years or planning. ©Heinz Kleutmeier and Jeff Kavanaugh/Sports Illustrated

I finally got one of the issues of Sports Illustrated today from the Olympics (a good friend of mine had mailed it to me because I was “lucky” enough to make it into the Leading Off section – no – not a photo that I made, but a photo of me – in the scrum of photographers covering Phelps getting a hug from his mother after the race…) and I saw something extremely refreshing:  the credit read:  Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier and Jeff Kavanaugh. Read the rest of this entry »

©Damon Winter/The New York Times

Off to a crack-o-dawn shoot this morning…. so here’s an early post:  If you haven’t done so already – check out Damon Winter’s Neighbors Lens series – something that I think truly separates Damon from most newspaper photographers out there.  It’s absolutely inspirational – not only is it old school – but man does the guy have … well … you know…  cojones.  Double exposure on 8 X 10 sheets of film – two exposures on one single sheet of film over a 4-8 hour period – an entire day’s work… wow. Read the rest of this entry »