portrait of portraits...

This is a story I really wish we could have gone deeper with. This former college QB was injuried during the season and discovered he had a brain tumor. He had surgery, went through rehabilation and has decided to play baseball now that his football career has ended. Very cool story.....

We went out shot him during baseball practice---went to his parents house, shot his parents, letters that random people have written to help inspire the kid. But we lacked something. I wanted a nice portrait of him or something that really showed him in his everyday envirnoment. It became difficult for us to lock down time to spend with him and with our deadline approaching we had to change directions.

I thought this picture really depicts what this kid is all about---sports. It was a nice job to illustrate the story differently- and I like it. However, I wish we lost the lower picture on the page that shows him today. I think we would've been better off running that picture on the jump page inside because it essentially says the same thing as the main picture. But I liked the fact that the photographer was thinking during the assignment---shot a picture that isn't normally a centerpiece....but ended up being something that really told the story perfectly.

心理戦

Ichiro. He is our big baseball player. He spends the off season in Japan. He has his old television show. Apparently, the show is guest and Ichiro going head to head answering random questions.

This was a courtesy picture we got from---you guess it---ichirotv.

We had a choice between this picture and another picture that was taken from the side. The picture taken from the side really lacked the energy and suspense this picture creates. However----there was a huge amount of deadspace in the middle of the picture.

I tend to be more traditional and conservative with my views on picture treatment. (okay, well I guess almost ALL my views are conservative.) But this picture I think works well with the type in the middle. Granted I think it could be slightly tweaked...slightly, but overall I think it works pretty well.

i'd rather be fishing...

well, maybe not during a cold austin, texas morning. I'm so not a morning person. This professional bass fisherman grow up in Washington state. This was the first tournament of the new season down in Texas. After talking to a photographer I know in the area, she recommended a freelance photographer in Austin to shoot this for us.

The story held for about a month. But in the end I as happy about that because it is not too often we get color inside our sports section. (except for seahawks) The freelancer gave me a nice variety of shots and we were able to make a solid package with the pictures.

busted again

Seattle Seahawk Jerramy Stevens has a hard time staying out of trouble. Stevens played high school ball in Seattle, went to college at UW in Seattle---and plays for the Seahawks. Needless to say, people in the community are well aware of the issues surrounding Jerramy Stevens. Not to mention the fact that he dropped two passes in the Super Bowl.

So, he was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of marijuana in Arizona. This was Steven's booking police photo.

You might ask why we decided to make the mug shot the lead image? Well, why not? He is a person of the community with a long history of having troubles with the law. And was this the final straw? Without question, it is a story our readers want to read more about and talk more about.

The designers asked about the quality of the image and so we went for it. It makes for a different look to our sports page. And I'm always willing to try something different....

coug it.

The Washington State Cougars were going back to the NCAA tourney for the first time in a long time. With a pretty rookie team and a new coach, no one had really expected them to have a great year.

The story is about the history of the coaches at the eastern Washington school.

state prep hoop

Like other states, we are currently shooting our high school state basketball championships. At least one of the divisions--(they run about a week apart.) This was semi-final night--and we had changed our front between editions. The page above was our final edition---the page below ran in the first and second edition. It takes a lot of work to change editions and our designers are usually pretty great about it, especially when we go from a vertical to a horizontal. I really like both the pictures we choose to use as our lead on the covers. Although, after looking over the pages, I do wish I would have cropped the final edition picture a little in from the left.

class

Legendary Seattle Supersonic Spencer Haywood was having his number retired during halftime of a recent game. We had arranged to take his photo the day before. And dealing with the typical PR people, things changed consistently right up until the shoot. Our photographer did a great job being flexible and accomdating the last minute changes and the reduced amount of time and made a very nice, classy picture that ran as our Sunday sports cover.

all about the bball

This page isn't anything extraordinary but I think it illustrates a clean design and a simple approach. Just an everyday page that I wanted to show.

college recruiting

This is a great story. Talking about how schools are recruiting players at such a young age. What makes it a little tougher visually is that the story didn't focus on any particular kid or anyone in our direct coverage area. So, we did a photo illustration which I think really tells the story the well by exaggerating the concept. The designer was in the shoot with the photographer so we planned for the type in the picture. I am not always a fan of this technique but I do think it can work well in some instances. I think it might have worked a little better to have make things simpler and easier to understand.

super late super bowl

Alright, I've been absent for some weeks. But I'm back. Focused and ready to go. Here is a one of the previews we ran before Super Bowl Sunday. After comparing coaches for two weeks (Holmgren/Parcells & Smith/Dungy) we were trying to come up with a different approach. This was the idea of the sports designers. I'm not hundred percent convinced it worked. But I like the idea that we are not afraid to push ourselves and try new things---even when they aren't 100% successful.