photographing the Amgen bicycle race

After a year hiatus in Patterson, the Amgen Tour of California, the nation's premiere cycling event, once again passed through the city for Stage 4 from San Jose to the downtown Modesto finish.

When I first heard that the Amgen was returning to Patterson after rolling down Del Puerto Canyon and Mines' road from the hills to the west, my mind began to think of all the possible vantage points I may want to photograph the race from. A fellow from a helicopter company gave me a call at the Irrigator asking if I wanted to go up and get some aerial shots. Who wouldn't want to go up in a helicopter right? Well, for $350 an hour I had to pass him up on his offer.

As race day May 19th was upon us, and final preparations were being put into place, I found myself in Modesto on the main stage of the Gallo Center for the Arts at 10:30 a.m. where they had a media center set up.

It was my first time in the Gallo Center and the facility was nothing short of impressive

While waiting for my media credentials, Modesto Bee photographer Joan Barnett Lee noticed me and we struck up a conversation. I had met her previously when I was interviewed for a position there, but couldn't be guaranteed enough hours, so I tried to pass the job onto my girlfriend Lori Marklund, whom Joan also remembered. I informed her that Lori was working for me that day at a vantage point we had scoped out the day before in Del Puerto Canyon, and she told me that Bee photographer Bart Ah You was going to be getting aerial shots via a Cesna airplane.

For a brief moment I had almost wished I had taken that helicopter guy up on his offer, and although I like the images that Bart produced, after seeing them, I have to say that I'm glad I stayed on the ground... well, sort of on the ground.

With the help from the City of Patterson's bucket truck, and friend Cody Manning, we got these aerial shots much like those when the Amgen rolled through two years ago. This is typical Patterson, 100 year old palm trees, Apricot trees in an orchard to the left and the historic center building at the vanishing point of Las Palmas avenue behind.

Excited fans cheer on the side of Las Palmas avenue as the peloton of riders passes by.

This photo, that my girlfriend Lori Marklund helped me take, required quite a bit of planning to accomplish. I had always noticed how one certain boulder along the Del Puerto Canyon roadway in the Minnear day use area always seemed to hang onto the hillside, looking as if it would fall from its place at any moment, and some how I wanted to incorporate this into a shot. So we went up the day before, and scoped it out to see if it would work. From the roadway where the cyclists are pictured I could see that through a clearing of trees and bushes there was a barren spot of hillside across the creek that looked like would probably be a good vantage point to incorporate the riders and the canyon's Wile E. Coyote boulder.

The hike to the hillside clearing wasn't as easy as it at first seemed, but no pain no gain right? The vantage point and composition of the photo was decided, and Lori agreed to return the next day before the race came through.

Back in town, on the circle, where I had another of the cities' boom lifts situated, excitement was building in anticipation of the riders.

A few folks were using team Radioshack banners as makeshift umbrellas as the sky began to drop some rain.

Tina Dudley from Oak Valley bank on the circle, helped keep us all current on the racers while we watched the live feed from inside.

The first group of break away sprinters roll through town while members of the Red Hat Chicks cheer them on.On the other side of town, the peloton of cyclists with Lance Armstrong (center) pushes its way fervently down Las Palmas Avenue between Las Palmas School and Patterson High.--photo by Kendall Wright/Patterson Irrigator

From my slight aerial position, I photographed the image at the top of this post as well as these images of the break away riders and the peloton passing through Plaza Circle and on its way to where Cody was positioned in the bucket truck. Notice the green helmet from the spectator at lower right? Gotta love those Patterson Vegetable Company green helmets.

This photo shows the peloton, and the traffic held up behind on Hwy 33, as well as the blue genie boom lift (doh!)

The break away riders reach Cody Manning on the edge of city limits.

And the peloton and entourage of team vehicles stocked with extra bicycles follows shortly there after.

Nice wide angle of the 100 year old Canary Island Date Palms, nearby Apricot orchard, and peloton of riders as they leave city limits.

And the racers continue on towards the Modesto finish to hopefully return another day.

After quickly compiling all the images and selecting those to be submitted to the copy desk editors (seven submitted, and three used) for a deadline held specifically for the Amgen, Cody Manning and I were back off to Modesto to see what else may be going on.

Everything was pretty much shut down by 5:30, but we made our way into the media center mentioned earlier to see what and who we might see. Everyone was busy working away on their laptops, but in the lunch room, folks were socializing and I got a chance to talk with former Modesto Bee photog Al Golub. He had worked with the Bee for many many years and it was quite interesting to hear his point of view on a craft that we both know so much about. He is quite set in his ways and completely denounced film photography, but then said that he still uses his film photos; then talked smack about the famous black and white photgrapher Ansel Adams, then later said he helped spread his ashes with the family of Ansel on Mt. Ansel Adams when he died. Intersting guy Al is, full of stories, and very pointed points of view, but still a wealth of information and experience when it comes to photography.

Well, recapping on the day, I was quite satisfied with the images that team Irrigator produced, and while I may not have had a helicopter or a Cesna plane, I still got a variety of aerial and ground level shots with the help of a few polite requests and some dedicated friends of mine, thanks again to all who helped.

fire in the hills

It's fire season again in Patterson.A vehicle accident along southbound I-5 near the Patterson exit sparked a blaze that was fanned by evening winds into the hills.
I first heard and saw emergency response vehicles driving to the vehicle accident while I was photographing a baseball game. When I saw the smoke I figured it was time to leave the game and get to the hills.

Encroaching flames were visible from Del Puerto Canyon road.

Flames and smoke visible from Sperry ave.

Fire Chief Kinnear assessing the flames and communicating via radio to helicopters, bulldozers, and fire trucks from Jeff Arambel's hill top orchard.

Traffic backed up to near the Westley exit.

Scattered remnants of the wreck that started the blaze photographed the next morning.
A few charred peach trees, but all in all I think the trees will make a full recovery and maybe receive some added nutrients from the black ashes of the fire.

After photographing the fire, it was back to the high school and still time for the second half of a contentious girl's soccer match against Livingston.

not feelin' the 5th

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo isn't quite for everyone, as this Pattersonite demonstrated on Wednesday May 5th with his fist-pumping, American and Confederate flag display on his Ford Ranger.

Photographed along south 9th street near Las Palmas avenue 5-5-10

stylin' ?

I know this may be the "Pants on the Ground" style, but I honestly think this guy needs a belt, and maybe some longer pant legs.

Photo taken yesterday at the intersection of Las Palmas and 9th street Patterson.

rafting the San Joaquin river

Got the ol' flat bottom Jon boat ready for the river and took it out a week ago to see what's been happening on the San Joaquin River. It's just a small 14ft boat, good enough for up to 3 people, but it's perfect for the river when the water levels get really low in the summer time. With the flat bottom, you just pull up the motor and skim right over the sand bars to get to the fishing spots.
I haven't picked up my fishing license yet this year, but I need to get it soon, because we could see and hear tons of fish jumping in the river around us. The purpose of the trip wasn't for fishing this time though, it was just to see how long it would take to float with the current from the Las Palmas boat launch in Patterson, to the Grayson landing at Laird Park. I'd floated from Crows Landing to Patterson before, and it only took a few hours, but traveling by the twists and turns of the San Joaquin is a lot longer than the distance that the crow flies and decided to try it for myself.
I was surprised to see so much wildlife along the river. Only using a trolling motor and some paddles, we were able to sneak up on a lot of wildlife that would have otherwise heard us a lot earlier had we had an outboard. This was one of a handful of beavers that we'd seen between Patterson and Grayson, as well as quite a few other river faring mammals that were probably muskrats or some kind of river rat.
Although there was alot of birds and animals abound, it is always quite sad to see how polluted our portion of the San Joaquin River is. It may look like the chocolate river from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but you definitely don't want to drink these fluids. With the high water levels, alot of the trash has been washed away, however, more trash from upstream has washed down and become lodged anywhere it can. Besides the entire river being lined in some sort of trash, these barrels of who knows what and two half sunken boats could be seen.
But it was still a very beautiful day, a little sun, a little clouds. Many many Red Tailed Hawks, Great Blue Herons, Egrets, Mallards, Mergansers, and Cormorants could easily be seen. This natural by way may be very close to where we all live, but it seemed a world away that afternoon.
I doubt many folks are seen traveling this water way that was once the pathway for paddle boats headed to Grayson, Newman, or Gustine. Probably why these cows were so curious.
Also passed by this skumpy looking teepee as we neared closer to Grayson.

I knew we were getting real close when we could see the inmates of the Stanislaus County Honor Farm. I had no idea that the river was so close to the correctional facility, but when we floated by, the inmates all came up to the fence to ask if we had caught any fish.

All in all, the trip took about 3.5 hours, way shorter than I originally anticipated. As we pulled around Laird Park and docked the boat, I noticed and photographed this strange looking water fowl. I've looked in a few bird identification books and have come up clueless as to what this bird may be. I'm guessing it's some sort of goose with an interesting color mutation on its plumage, but it seemed like a permanent resident of Laird Park.

parting images of 2009

Alas another year end issue of the Irrigator has come and gone, and my chance to showcase all the news photos from the previous year that meant alot to me... problem is, there's not enough space in our paper to show all of them.

So here they are, in the order that I prioritized them in, from #1 to #34, with a little bit about each one. When you see numbers missing, those were the photos that were chosen by editors to be included in the print edition of the Irrigator.

#1 Spectators at the Stan Co. fair destruction derby

Trying to find a new angle on the derby I noticed members of the pit crews peeking over fences and standing on top of fences to get a better look at their competing contestants. I was really trying to capture that feel of everyone trying to get a glimpse of the action and decided to do my own tight rope act by standing on a fence, holding the camera high above my head to really try and emphasize that aerial shot. Compositionally I love this photo, the entire frame is filled with something interesting going on. The lower foreground, mid ground, and back ground are filled with spectators giving immense depth to those in attendance yet those in the foreground don't block out too much of the action. The upper left quadrant of the photo is filled with the familiar smashing and bashing of the derby that everyone wants to see.

#3 Water Allocation
Taken during an amazingly beautiful day in February. I was photographing the local waterways for a story on the scarce water allocations being handed down by the state. I had some other shots of the Delta Mendota, but the other ones didn't have the red and white life preservers that were near this bridge in Westley and I felt that those floating balls gave the photo more depth and scale of how much water runs through our community that we don't have access to. Looking closely, you can even see the blooming almond orchards over the levee at right.

#4 Fig Avenue house fire
This one was one of my favorites. I elaborated more on this in the article that I wrote for the Irrigator which you can check here. This one I thought told the story well. Fire, spreading through the roof and to the yard, threatening the animals penned up behind before the owners came to let them free.

#5 Vernalis River Fire

I also recounted these accounts in the article, but I really liked this one because, although it didn't show the majority of the flames, I did feel that it portrayed alot of the mayhem going on in that small portion of isolated vegetation fire. Volunteer firefighters going every which way with their hoses in hand while the flames and smoke continued to surround us.

#8 "Performance Evaluation"

It may have been just a routine evaluation of our city manager Cleve Morris, but a crowd of well over a hundred people packed city hall with signs and banners ready to voice their opinions about their support for Morris, and make sure that this routine evaluation didn't go sour. Many of the anxious folks in the crowd (many of them city employees) wished to speak to the council before they went into closed session but were denied by the mayor. As they walked into the closed session chambers the crowd began to grumble, some of them saying out loud "...what about the BROWN ACT..." Then councilwoman Annette Smith turned and leaned into the microphone, furtherly supporting the mayors decision in denying the people their opines. "This is a performance evaluation", before they left into closed session. A few days go by after the meeting and a political watchdog group notified the city that they had violated the Brown Act and broken the law for not allowing the public to speak before the meeting.

#9 Crash Landing no.1

Stockton flight instructor Rick Tutt begins to diagnose the problem that caused the engine on this Piper Malibu passenger plane to fail. The single prop airplane was on its way to the Tracy airport before it crash landed in a field by a farm in Vernalis. The reason why this one is titled #1 is because about a month later, another single prop plane crash landed, that one into a waste water treatment pond.

#10 Gerry Kamilos and Patricia Snoke at the Crows Landing Air Base

When photographing the ground penetrating radar search for a lost cemetery at the Crows Landing air facility, Gerry Kamilos the developer in charge of the proposed West Park project, showed up to check on the progress. I had no idea that he would show up, but as I recognized him driving up I began to position myself for photographs. This photo is symbolic in so many ways, developer Kamilos (center) with Deputy Executive Officer in Stanislaus County's Chief Executive Office, Keith Boggs (left), standing next to Gustine's Patricia Snoke on the completely opposite end of the spectrum. Snoke also had shown up to check on the progress of the g.p.r., a family member of hers was buried in the lost cemetery, she's the one who spearheaded this entire search when she brought the issue to light for consideration going into the West Park EIR (environmental impact report). Then of course, Kamilos is standing in the middle of thousands of acres of prime farmland, the additional 3,273 acres that he plans on converting from ag use to that of an inland port and train yard for the port of Oakland. It helped that this photo was taken while the vegetation was really green on the surrounding farmland, no fallow fields here, even the walnut orchard in the background was looking strong thick and healthy for the photo. Anytime you can frame a photo with its surroundings makes the image that much more interesting as was done with this one being framed from the top by the hanging overgrowth of the unkempt trees at this ghost town facility. And final notes on this photograph, Pat Snoke's hair is glowing as it's back lit by the sun, giving almost a kind of halo effect.

#12 Civil War re-enactments at Knights Ferry

I had never been to one of these, but am glad I did. It was tons of fun, I followed the Reynolds' family from Patterson around a bit during the event which lasts a few days. At designated times during the day, the war ready troops line up and perform what a civil war battle may have been like. The two battling parties blasted gunpowder at each other across the Stanislaus River with the historic covered bridge nearby. Costumes and authenticity, it all made for some pretty impressive images, which I gave a little bit of a rustic look in photoshop.

#13 Grayson's Moses Alvarado shot dead at age 19

The murderer(s) of Moses Alvarado have yet to be apprehended in this unsolved mystery that occurred March 16th of this year in a remote section of the San Joaquin River north of Grayson leaving these two family members to console one another, while Sheriff's deputies stand nearby trying to work on any leads in the case.

Police surrounded a vehicle at Grayson's One Stop Market where the vehicle that supposedly carried Alvarado from the river, was left behind.

#14 Low Snow in Del Puerto and San Antone Valley

Last year we had two really low snow days, one in early March, and one in December. I love photographing the snow especially so close to home. But the low snow in December came at a particularly difficult time. A day before the phenomenon, friend and Del Puerto Canyon resident Dave Currier had unexpectedly died. I hadn't been up to the canyon until going up there to inspect the snowfall and I couldn't help but think of Dave as I drove up the road, it was almost as if he left a small reminder of his presence with the blissfully beautiful snowfall that graced his and wife Bj's hilltop home that day.

#19 Power Team display

The Power Team came to town and Creekside Middle School in August, to perform their inspirational, motivational, downright fun strength show. They broke stacks of bricks, splintered wooden planks, bent the occasional cooking pan, and oh yeah... exploded cans of soda all over the unsuspecting crowd!

#20 A blustery day

Late October brought some windy days, toppling tree branches, uprooting tumbleweeds, and this huge tree in front of a house on Spooner Ct. When I got to the scene, city workers were inspecting the problem, which consisted in the tree blocking the whole street. This phenomena attracted all of the neighborhood children, as they played on and in the felled tree until city workers dismembered it and shredded it.

#22 City Manager's Smile

While it may seem like less of a smile than that of the Mona Lisa's, but I consider this expression from city manager Cleve Morris to be one of relief, as he glances at the huge crowd that amassed in his support during the "performance evaluation" mentioned earlier.

#25 At the scene of the Grayson shooting

While much of the drama was unfolding at Grayson's One Stop Market where 19 year old Moses Alvarado was dropped off, the Sheriff's were busy at the scene by the San Joaquin River where Alvarado was fatally shot, looking for clues, trying to piece this case together. This photo is actually two images taken next to each other at the same time, only to be stitched together later in photoshop. This allows me to retain more detail in the image by not having to zoom out or get farther away from the scene to take the photo.

#26 Fig avenue house fire's flames

Being able to see fire chief Steve Hall through the heat waves mottling the depiction of him was unpredicted yet welcomed, especially knowing that each firefighter that is shown in the paper gets fined(usually with pizza or icecream), hopefully this gave him a little slack since it's a little hard to tell who it actually is (although I could tell).

#27 Patterson City Council

Patterson Mayor Becky Campo explains to council member Dominic Farinha why farmland mitigation should be excluded from the city's latest industrial annexation at Tuesday's council meeting, as they voted 4-1 not to save farmland elsewhere. Strong expressions from the councillors made for this interesting photo.

#31 Skateboarder Stabbed

A skateboarder who tried to break up a fight was stabbed on the street intersection of Las Palmas and Pipit dr. near the Save Mart parking lot June 27th. Droplets of blood including these wrangled sun glasses could be found on the ground at the scene.

#32 Grainger Ground breaking Ceremony

I'm not one for ribbon cuttings or official ceremonies, so I took this shot from one end of the new Grainger distribution center site with earth movers and churned soil in the foreground, while the officials pulled out the golden shovels and performed their own ground breaking in the tent beyond.

#33 Firefighters at the Vernalis River Fire

These two firefighters didn't seem to care that the large tree behind them was going up in flames, but I knew some thing was about to happen, the wind was beginning to pick up. Sure enough, flames from this very picture, shot into the sky and spread spot fires that grew and spread rapidly on their own. After the flames were subdued, the firefighter at right said "I thought that was going to happen" as he walked by me. I told him that I saw it happening too.

#34 Wal-Mart's big wall

For the stories that the Irrigator did on Wal-Mart, I was sent to some of the surrounding supercenters for photos. I waited outside of this one for a bit until everyone came into the composition that I kind of had in mind. Cluttered, chaotic, some of the words that come to mind when I see this picture and think of Wal-Mart. I feel that this picture does no justice to chaotic and cluttered, as some of the other instances in Wal-Mart lore that I have witnessed.