By Seth A. McConnell

I had the distinct pleasure of photographing Sen. Hillary Clinton today. It was a change of pace from seeing Bill the last couple of weeks and a completely different set of rules. They actually let me into the buffer (area between the stage and the audience.) completely different perspective and a whole different energy.

I stayed until the bitter end, getting those much wanted glad handing images when I managed to capture a pretty cool moment. Two nice moments actually. We went around the copy desk and asked the few stray writers in the room what they would pick as the lede (lead).

or

Originally we selected number 2, its a calm moment and Sen. Clinton doesn’t look crazed but switched to number 1 after the vote.

I like number one, it has a great moment thats a little out of the norm and is a lot of fun.

Which one would you pick and why?

There will be a slideshow of images up here shortly.

Got tons of great stuff on a cold and dreary afternoon.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

I’ve spent the last week as a journalist on the go, or a MoJo (Mobile Journalist), which is a welcome change from the daily grind of being in the office.

I’ve traveled to nearly every part of the state in the past several days working where ever I could find the internet (and sometimes in places I couldn’t, getting my images corrected and ready to go and then setting out to find a place I could connect). I’ve been sitting on couches in Vermillion, in bedrooms and at dining room tables in Chamberlain, on a table in front of the Fort Thompson Fire Station, in a hotel room in Sioux Falls and the best so far in the front seat of my car in Brandon. The last couple of days have been grueling but fun. Long hours and less than pleasing weather conditions but over all it was a good experience.

A few images from the last couple of days:

hanging out waiting for President Clinton to show up.

This was a gamble shot, he shouldn’t be visible in the car due to the shadows but he just barely comes through.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the names of these two. I had a little run in with Clintons SD press secretary who wouldn’t let me out of the media area to get their names, when I asked why she threatened to call the secret service over and have me removed… (Give some people a little power and they abuse it, in the two other Bill Clinton speeches we’ve covered as soon as the speech is over they don’t care what the media does and will allow you to interview people and move around the floor and photograph whatever…) By the time I was done trying to get back into the “special” media area I lost them.

It blows my mind that if you sign in as a member of the media they lock you into a far off section of the room and dig through your equipment, yet if your a member of the general public you can walk freely around the entire place, bring in whatever you want and not be searched or restricted as to what you can do. It makes me not want to sign in the next time a candidate rolls through town. Less hassle better access.

The battle for first.

This was the second to last race of the State Track Meet. It was tight coming down the home stretch as these two battled for first in the Boys A 1600m relay. Despite being in separate lanes there was a ton of contact between the two as they neared the finish. I locked my focus on the two hoping to capture an exciting finish when 196 started to lose his balance. I took nearly 20 frames in 3 seconds capturing the entire fall. This was my favorite frame of the 20, it puts some distance between the two and the look on his face totally made the frame for me. This is my favorite image from the track season and probably the best track photo I’ve ever made. The entire trip was worth it for just this one shot.

Just as they were crossing the finish line.

I have two slideshows and two videos up from state track.

They can be viewed here.

-S

Sadly, I took a week off from the Journal. I volunteer my time for American Diversity Project, a documentary group that creates multimedia projects about rural towns across America. Okay, maybe I wasn’t sad to take a week off work, but I definitely missed Rapid City. For 9 days I slept on a cement floor at an old high school gym deep in the Appalachians in Pikeville, Kentucky. Known as “the city that moves mountains” for it’s incredible feat of building the Pikeville Cut-Through project, and the economic hub of Eastern Kentucky, Pikeville is deeply tied to it’s coal mining roots. Coal mines are scattered throughout the mountains, and almost everyone you meet either works in a mine or knows someone who does. As you drove farther from the suburban heart of town, you found yourself on winding roads that took you to smaller towns — or “hollers” — nestled up against the rolling hills. I found that most people were pretty private about their lives. And it took a lot of talking to gain their trust and allow me into their lives with my camera. But when I finally found myself inside of people’s homes, I learned that Kentuckians are the type of good folk who look after one another in a way I had never seen before. Of course their is the usual neighborly gossip and spats, but young or old, rich or poor, everyone lives alongside one another, creating a very different sense of community that I had not found anywhere else. Here area few images from my trip. These are all from time that I spent with a family who runs the Grethel Baptist Church, about 20 miles outside of Pikeville. You can check out the rest of the project, which should be up by the end of the week, at www.americandiversityproject.org

-Kristina Barker

By Seth A. McConnell

And after three days the state tennis tournament is finally over and it couldn’t have wrapped up in a grander fashion. The final match was the deciding match on who (Stevens or O’Gorman) would be the team champions and what a match it was. Hands down the best of the entire tournament the only thing that would have made it better would have been if it would’ve been Stevens vs O’Gorman instead of Central (Not knocking Central in the least, those boys played very well and deserved to be playing for the second flight championship. I’m talking for the pure reason of drama)

It was back and forth the entire match so I concentrated on reaction mainly trying to capture both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat knowing full well that I would need one for our sports lead tomorrow. Tennis is a fairly mellow sport with only the occasionally outburst (at least at this level). Stevens did manage to win the match leaving my shots of dejection in the trash bin… or for blog only purposes. If Stevens would have lost these would probably would’ve been in contention for the lead.

This is all the more excitement I was able to capture in the manor of jubilation from winning.

In the top flights where Stevens and O’Gorman faced off Stevens beat them handily making for good dejection shots.

Its interesting to think had Stevens lost key points against Central the sports page may look a heck of a lot different in the morning.

Congratulations to Stevens on their third consecutive team title and to all the individual champions as well.

I put a who slew of images into a slide show which can be viewed here

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

I had to use three exclamation points not because its that exciting but more to try and raise my level of excitement. Its been a tough week here in the photo department as Kristina is in the land of Kentucky at a workshop leaving Ryan and I to our own devices… which may or may not be a good thing. Today has been a particularly rough day with the Region 8A track meet in Custer which just happened to coincide with a bomb threat, Hillary Clinton making a surprise stop in Rapid and the start of the Boys State Tennis Tournament coupled with our day to day assignments its been a wild one.

Anyways back to tennis. I had the fortune of covering the first day of the boys state tennis meet. It was your standard day 1 with the high ranking seeds playing the low ranking seeds. Not a lot of excitement but I got more than my fair share of tennis and thanks to a 400mm lens I got some pretty decent shots out of it.

That was day one (or at least a small portion of day one). I’m covering day two as well and heck maybe even day three! Hopefully the action will be a lot more intense in the morning and I can get some sweet reaction shots instead of just action.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

“Isn’t it great to know that your vote will count for something this year!” With that one simple question Judy Olson-Duhamel kicked off the first big campaign event West River Saturday afternoon as she introduced former President Bill Clinton.

Its debatable whether or not our votes will actually count for anything other than show. (Clinton is weighing her hopes of transcending the role of former first lady into first female president solely on super delegates. Not to mention these are primaries, not the big show. While electing the candidate for the big race does mean something but when it comes down to it, South Dakota doesn’t matter in the big picture because of the electoral college. Our vote in South Dakota will matter if we switched to popular vote, which I don’t think will ever happen. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote, we should and in large numbers and maybe, just maybe we can change the system so no matter what our vote means something.) Regardless its bringing the candidates to South Dakota and Rapid City imparticular which is great for us news hounds. Its even better for us young photogs to possibly pad up that portfolio with a few images of newsmakers.

All three of us were out in full force today with Ryan handling video duty and Kristina and I taking stills, recording audio and even asking attendees a few questions.

I think one of my favorite images I made today was this photo:

Former South Dakota Democratic Party chairwoman Judy Olson-Duhamel pokes her head through a hole in a curtain as she talks with her husband Bill Duhamel prior to introducing former President Bill Clinton Saturday afternoon at Stevens High School.

It was a total chance moment but a fun one none the less. Judy kept popping out from behind the curtain and I just kept missing the moment (basically she thought she was in my way and kept slipping back behind the curtain). When she popped her head through the hole in the curtain I knew I couldn’t pass it up. Its a curious little moment that will definately make you stop and at least read the cutline to find out whats going on.

Two more quick images:

Iconic. I have a few more from the same angle but I really liked this one.

I saw a substantial number of people reading as they waited in line. Everything from Clinton’s auto-biography to an OCD workbook. Odd mixture but who am I to judge.

We have a slideshow up of combined images that both Kristina and I took, along with some audio she captured. That can be viewed here. Ryan will have a video up later tonight as well. That can be viewed on our main page.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

Campaign season is kicking into high gear in South Dakota… finally!

Former President Bill Clinton will be speaking at Stevens High School tomorrow on behalf of his wife. The Clinton campaign was making signs in Rapid City today in anticipation of the event.

Both the old and young… very young were getting into the act.

Like 2 year old Grace Eiesland.

Expect many, many photos and a video from tomorrows Campaign stop.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

There are parts of this job that will never get easier no matter how many times you cover them.

Funerals are one of those things. I’ve shot three since November and todays memorial service for SrA. Jonathan Yelner was no easier than the first.

I was fortunate enough to work this story from the day it broke (April 30th) until its conclussion this morning. Which isn’t a very odd thing but often we only work parts of stories and honestly it was nice to follow this one all the way through.

April 30th

Aubrey Watts stares out her bedroom windown as she poses for a portrait while holding roses she received from SrA. Jonathan Yelner just hours before finding out he died in action in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

This was actually a pretty difficult image to make, Aubrey was kind enough to allow us to come over and photograph her. I spent nearly an hour with her making images and talking. In the end I think the image came out amazing. It was incredibly over cast and I had to push the camera to its limits to get the image I wanted.

A simple detail of the flowers. We didn’t end up running this image in the paper.

May 1st

SrA Andrew Grato holds back tears as he addresses the media Thursday afternoon about his friend, Sr Airmen Jonathon Yelner, at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Yelner was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan from injuries sustained in a bomb explosion.

This was an incredibly difficult image to make. Grato was placed in a cramped corner flanked by TV, I had to poke between them with my 70-200 and attempt to make an image. While tears would have ultimately made the image stellar his eyes, red and puffy from crying, really do say a lot. We didn’t end up running this in the paper, but it was part of covering a difficult story for me so I’m sharing it with you.

May 8th

Two airmen embrace and comfort each other during a memorial service for SrA Jonathan Yelner Thursday morning at Black Hills Chapel on Ellsworth AFB. Yelner died April 29th as the result of injuries sustained during an explosion in Afghanistan.

We were relegated to the balcony of the Black Hills Chapel at EAFB. The Air Force asked us to not shoot people mourning, its incredibly hard to accurately photograph a funeral or memorial service and not shoot people mourning. Not photographing people mourning is an injustice to the memory of the person who has died. It cheapens the sacrifice this young made for his country. It would make it appear that no one cared and no one was sad that he’s dead and that wasn’t true. I directly disobeyed their order and I’m not sorry. I’m a journalist. I’m ethically responsible to portray the scene as accurately as possible.

Lt. Col. David Stimac looks down as he watches a power point of images of SrA. Jonathan Yelner Thursday morning during a memorial service for SrA. Yelner, who was killed in Afghanistan April 29th, at the Black Hills Chapel at Ellsworth.

An airmen clutches his hands behind his back during the presentation of colors Thursday morning during a memorial service for SrA. Jonathan Yelner at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Hundreds of airmen, friends and family packed the Black Hills Chapel Thursday morning for the memorial service of SrA. Jonathan Yelner, who was killed in Afghanistan on April 29th from injuries received during the explosion of an improvised explosive device.

The next several images don’t have cutlines. They were extras in the take.

I wish I could post a full size version of this image. The little girl has an amazingly huge tear rolling down her check. She’s crying for a different reason but it carries the same emotional impact.

There was a 21 gun salute as well but I was not able to shoot that, once we were in the church there was no leaving until the ceremony was over.

I can only hope this is the last millitary funeral I cover in a long time, but I know it won’t be.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

They say if you don’t like the weather in South Dakota wait a minute and it will change.

Today has been no exception to the rule…

Kristina Barker/Journal staff: Dale O’Day, from Sioux Falls, SD, wipes snow and ice from the mirrors of his semi Friday morning May 2nd, 2008 as he waits for a break in a snow storm that pumelled Western South Dakota dropping record ammounts of snow

Ryan Soderlin/Journal staff: Stephanie Clapham, a paralegal at the Moore & Kandaras law firm in Rapid City, SD, scoops the sidewalk in front of the law firm’s office near the intersection of Quincy Street and West Boulevard on Friday morning, May 2nd, 2008 in Rapid City, SD

By 1 p.m. the sun was out and shinning. Kids were on the hills sledding and the plows were out clearing the snow.

Seth A. McConnell/Journal staff: Yuriy Makar, 19, sends snow flying as he sleds down the hill behind the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, SD Friday afternoon after a snow storm that dropped a record 11 inches of snow on the city passed through the area.

We have an audio slideshow up of the images from the day. You can view that here. Most of the images are by Kristina and Ryan as I got stranded at my house.

The snow is heavy and wet and melting very fast. There are fears of flash flooding… crazy, crazy South Dakota weather!