Monday, December 05, 2005

MS-13 still a problem for PA

Port Arthur's MS-13 street gang has adopted the name associated with violent Salvadorian gangs, which are rapidly spreading across America. However, this gang is not as violent or organized yet. The gang returned after Hurricane Rita and still poses a serious threat for the citizens and police of Port Arthur.


Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Port Arthur police officer Marcelo Molfino, a first-generation Latino-American whose family is from Uruguay, listens to the gang-related complaints of a home owner in Port Arthur on Thursday, July 21, 2005.


A scar remains where a bullet tore through a handrail section outside Johnny Costanzo's home in Port Arthur. The bullet missed his house and lodged into a neighbor's home.


A gang member shows his tattoos in Port Arthur. The numbers one and three on his shoulders can be read as 13, which is the gang's symbol.


Johnny Costanzo talks about the rise of gang violence outside his Port Arthur home. Several bullets have been fired into his house.


A gang member shows his tattoo in Port Arthur. The "XIII" is the Roman numeral for 13, which is the gang's symbol.


Port Arthur police officer Patrick Arnett gets passionate about fighting crime and gangs in Port Arthur.


Graffiti "tags" abound on buildings in Port Arthur. Gang members paint the tags to mark their turf or communicate messages to other gang members.


Port Arthur police officers Marcelo Molfino (left) and Patrick Arnett (right) talk about crime trends in Port Arthur.

Please see related story by Dee Dixon.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Oklahoma City swat

Oklahoma City University's Ryan Godwin (No. 10, right) swats the ball out of the hands of Lamar University's Matthew Barrow (No. 23, left) during a college basketball game at Lamar University in Beaumont on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005. Lamar went on to win the home opener 89-71.

Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Tired


West Orange alumni Tommy Wilson of Orange holds his son Eric Drake, 1, during a West Orange High School football game against Anahuac at Mustang Stadium in West Orange on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005. It was the first day for high school football to return to Southeast Texas after Hurricane Rita.

Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise


I know, old image. I traveled more than 300 miles yesterday for basketball and football (same team as image) games. Today, I have a parade, tree lighting and college hoops game as well as another flat tire to fix. All the other images I have prepared in my folder are either essays or need some explanation.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Stopped


Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Clear Creek High School's Ryan Bagwell (No. 99, left) gets a handle on West Brook High School's Joe Chaisson (No. 11, right) during a playoff football game at Galena Park ISD Stadium in Houston on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005. West Brook won the game and advanced in the playoffs.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Today's Pictures launches

I got the following press release from Slate today. I thought y'all would be interested.

Slate and Magnum Photos partner with Today's Pictures feature

Slate, the award-winning online magazine, today announced that it will partner with Magnum Photos to launch Today's Pictures, a daily feature offering readers a look at the best of past and current photographs from the internationally acclaimed photo agency.

Each day, Slate will offer a selection chosen by editors of photographs from the Magnum collection. The feature will also include innovative multimedia presentations of special photographic series covering a range of subjects.

See the feature at todayspictures.slate.com. The opening shot is Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous image of a man leaping over water. It is commonly used as an example of Bresson's idea of "the decisive moment."

Enough for now,

2,000 jobs


Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Francisco Diaz attaches a support to an oil rig wall under construction at Beacon Maritime in Orange on Friday, Nov. 25, 2005. Orange County expects 2,000 new jobs in the next year as oil exploration and shipbuilding surges. However, welders, fitters and other construction workers are difficult to find due to Hurricane Rita reconstruction.


Jorge Figueroa (top) and Alejo Alvarez (bottom) work on an oil rig addition at Beacon Maritime in Orange.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Keep away


Kountze High School Fred Boykin (No. 15, left) tries to keep the ball away from Silsbee High School's Kenneth Lockett (No. 11, right) during the Fred Williams Classic basketball tournament at Ozen High School in Beaumont on Friday, Nov. 25, 2005.

Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Black Friday


Sisters-in-law Amy Moore of Bridge City (left) and Christine Moore of Orange (right) take a break from shopping at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont on Friday, Nov. 25, 2005.

Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise


Mauriceville residents Johnny Martin (right) and his sister Christina Holt, 12, (left) take a break from shopping at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont on Black Friday. Martin broke both of his legs when he fell from a tree while trying to recover from Hurricane Rita.



Kaylard LeBouef (left) and Leah LeBouef (right) take a break from shopping at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont. "Black Friday" is the shopping day following Thanksgiving. For many retailers, it marks the day a business begins operating at a profit for the year (i.e. black ink).


Beaumont's Black Friday was somber following the expenses involved with hurricanes Katrina and Rita. By the afternoon shopper fatigue was obvious and some shoppers were still empty handed. However, some recovery workers are expecting their best holiday ever after logging many overtime hours.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Cameron two months later

Not much has changed in Cameron, La. Since the last time we visited. Houses had been removed from roadways, but personal homes still remained as artifacts of a hurricane's destruction. The area is still off limits to residents. Only emergency personnel and specific contractors are allowed into the area.

Some signs of the future are visible. The ferry runs regularly. Birds are hunting in the marshes again. Dolphins breach the canal for air as they hunt for fish.

However, it will be a long time before anything close to "normal" returns. The court house is still surrounded by FEMA tents and portable toilets. Without customers, there's no point in shops rebuilding. Water and electricity run in some places, but there is no gasoline, food or other means to survive.

As the rain begins to fall, the dried dirt becomes mud again. The stench of dried, dead animals is refreshed and the unsettling quietness, isolation from safety and destroyed surroundings make every storm more menacing.


Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

A truck remains trapped under a house in Cameron, La. on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005. The parish got as much as 15 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Rita and is trying to get property owners to submit right-of-entry forms so U.S. Corps of Army Engineers can demolish most houses.


An overturned truck remains next to a destroyed power transmission terminal in Cameron, La.


A truck remains destroyed by a house marked for demolition in Cameron, La.


An alligator decays by a destroyed house in Cameron, La.


Destroyed trucks remains scattered throughout Cameron, La.


Clifton Hebert, Cameron Parish's emergency operations center operations chief, (right) lightens the mood in the planning trailer in Cameron, La.


Clifton Hebert, Cameron Parish's emergency operations center operations chief, (right) walks past the remains of his home in Cameron, La. He believes his neighborhood was destroyed by tornados before the storm surge carried away the debris.


Charles Primeaux, Jr. shovels inches of mud from his home in Cameron, La. His home is one of very few which can be rebuilt. It was originally constructed in the 1930s of shipgrade lumber.


Patty Cope of Houston (left) holds a shovel as her daughter, Jenny Broussard (right), cleans it in Cameron, La. They were trying to open a clogged sewage line.


Jenny Broussard (right) checks her boots after her mother Patty Cope of Houston (left) spray-cleaned them in Cameron, La. They borrowed a neighbor's hose as water to Broussard's home no longer ran.


Some areas show modest improvement. Debris from the Cameron Parish Library has been removed by the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers in Cameron, La.


Vehicles travel down Louisiana Highway 27 through the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge near Holly Beach during a storm. Power line poles erected since Hurricane Rita begin to slide into the water as tornado warnings were issued for Cameron Parish. Each step forward in the area seems to be accompanied with a half-step backward.

Understand basic flash exposure

We've discussed making correct exposures under available light conditions. Anyone can do this with varying success. Now we're going to discuss one of the key ingredients to separate pros from amateurs - artificial light (flash).

As we've determined, the flash is a critical part of photojournalism. When there is no light, it's impossible to make a photograph. At times, a flash becomes the only light source available. Even available-light purists must use a flash or go home without an image (not an option for a deadline PJ).

It's easy to talk about the marvels of through-the-lens (TTL) flash metering. It allows PJs to operate with speed and accuracy most of the time. However, the flash may fail in TTL mode while on assignment. Likewise, a complicated lighting scheme may require the PJ to make manual calculations. Consequently, PJs must know how to handle the situation, or they'll fail.

Many people avoid flash because the terms and mathematics sound complicated. At first it is. With a little practice, it becomes second nature and frequently the PJ can use previous experience to "guess" the correct exposure on the first try. However, it's still advisable to double-check with both a flash meter as well as a quick manual calculation (not to mention chimping).

Basic flash definitions
The following are critical definitions while working with flash. We'll keep referring to the terms, so they need to be understood. Once we need to change EV ratios with flash, lack of understanding these terms leaves some people in the dust. The next step is basic calculus. It'll leave even more folks scratching their heads. But let's not rush into it yet.

If anyone's eyes ever glaze over when talking about photography, it's now. Consequently, I'll simply give the terms, definitions and some practical equipment testing advice today. We'll talk about how to use a flash later. Hang in there, it's worth it.

f-stop
An f-stop expresses a focal ratio of the aperture diameter to the effective focal length of the lens. For example, f/8 represents a diaphragm aperture diameter that is one-eighth of the focal length. For a 50mm lens, the opening would be about 6.25mm at f/8 (50 / 8 = 6.25 or 6.25 * 8 = 50).

The effective focal length varies with zoom lenses.

Guide number (GN)
The guide number is a numeric value for the amount of light emitted from a flash (flash output). It's represented in whole numbers. By knowing a flash unit's GN, PJs can determine the correct exposure for any subject at a known distance from the flash.

Don't trust the manufacturers suggested guide number. Instead do your own equipment calibration at 10 feet. At 10 feet (FD for this example), fire the flash at the flash meter. Multiply the f-stop by 10, and it'll be the correct guide number for the flash.

GN = FD * f
At 10 feet:
f * 10 = GN
f/8 * 10 = 80

Where
GN – Guide Number
FD – Flash-to-subject distance
f – f stop

This calculation should also be done for various flash attachments (softboxes) and gel combinations to understand all possibilities.

Flash-to-subject distance (FD)
The flash-to-subject distance is literally the distance light must travel from the flash to the subject. This distance includes the distance to a bouncing surface (a wall or ceiling) and the distance from the bouncing source to the subject. Unless the flash is on-camera and directly pointed at the subject (yuck), it'll almost always be different than the camera-to-subject distance.

GN = FD * f
f = GN / FD
FD = GN / f

Where
GN – Guide Number
FD – Flash-to-subject distance
f – f stop

Or:

80 = 10 * 8
8 = 80 / 10
10 = 80 / 8

With an accurate GN, PJs can correctly calculate exposures with a flash set on manual (or fired with remote, slave or pc-sync). To calculate the correct exposure, establish the flash-to-subject distance (FD). Next divide the GN by the FD to get the correct f-stop.

Enough for now,