The current Readers Photo Challenge assignment is called “A Day in the Life Of.” For this challenge participants could pick any subject then wanted but with one caveat: The photos had to be shot on a specific day: Saturday, October 6. Some people got up early, a few others stayed up late and a couple shot through the day.
I expected most of the photos to be of Stockton and San Joaquin County, which the bulk of them were, but there a few were from out of state and there were even some from Mexico, which gave a bit of an international flavor to the assignment.
Twenty-one readers sent in 159 photos. Here a some of the top examples.
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Teresa Mahnken of Morada got up early for her “day in the life of” photo. She used a Nikon D7200 DSLR camera to photograph the start of the Second Annual Morada Fire K Fun Run at Davis Elementary School at about 8:45 a.m. in Morada. One gets a sense of enthusiasm of the participants. The low angle of the sun creates nice light and long shadows.
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Anthony Mignone of Stockton took his photo at about midday. He used a Canon EOS Rebel T7i DSLR camera to photograph his 6-year-old son Landon as he played on the playground equipment at Victory Park in Stockton. Mignone captures the playful energy of children at play.
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In the afternoon Lillian McDonell of Stockton took a trip with her husband Dave and son Scott for a car show. At about 2:30 p.m. she used an Apple iPhone 6s to photograph them reflected in the reflection of a shiny hubcap while they were checking out the other cars the show.
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Anne McCaughey of Stockton spent the late afternoon at a porch party at the home of Mikal Hoover in Stockton. Light streaming in through some blinds on the porch lights up a puff of smoke as Hoover smokes a pipe during the event.
McCaughey also got another shot from the party she was at. The late afternoon light hit an empty glass cup on a table and the cup’s cut design refracted the light and created a design of light onto the table.
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Joseph Hey of Stockton took his photo during sunset at Lake Tahoe. At about 6:30 p.m., he used his Samsung G7 smartphone to captured giant clouds being painted with warm light as they hovered over the lake.
Hey got another shot later in the night of a tree next to a 2-story building. A security light from the building shone on the tree, lighting up its bare branches. Set against the dark of the night with some of the branches disappearing into the void, the scene is creepy ready for Halloween.
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Carrie Walker has organized a photo walk in different locations over the past few years. This time the walk, set in downtown Stockton, coincided with the “day in the life of” challenge. Walker used a Nikon Coolpix P100 EFV point-and-shoot camera to photograph walk participant Ed Lindquist of Galt near St. Mary’s Church in downtown Stockton.
Carrie Walker also photographed the historic California Building in downtown Stockton. Shooting with an Apple iPad, she got close to the base of the building and shot upwards. The extreme angle added to the 134-ft height off the building creates an interesting distortion and a 3-point perspective.
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Steven Rapaport of Stockton was on a trip to Washington D.C. on Oct. 6. And took an early photo walk around the city and sent in several photos. With his Canon EOS 5D mk IV DSLR camera he caught the Capital Rowing Club navigating the muddy waters of Anacostia River as they passed under the John Phillips Sousa Bridge.
Later in the day Rapaport shot artist Robert Jackson creating a painting on wood at the Eastern Market street fair in Washington, D.C. I was a classic example of an environmental portrait of an artisan at his craft.
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Carolyn Silva of Jackson used a Nikon D7500 DSLR camera to photograph Carla Halford of Jackson, CA. working on her butterfly stroke during her Saturday morning swimming class at New York Fitness in Jackson.
Later Silva photographed Jeremy Monson of Elk Grove, left, Chris Garbarini of Ione, Donna Jackson of Lathrop, Yolanda Bennett of Ione and Lizzie Garbarini of Ione dressed in a Halloween costumes looking like a cross between the casts of Sweeney Todd and the Walking Dead at the Ione Business & Community Association Harvest Faire in Ione.
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Sydney Spurgeon of Stockton, a frequent contributor to the challenge, is now attending the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. She used a Nikon D500 DSLR camera to photograph a single leaf sitting on a stump at the Lee Metcalf Wildlife refuge near Stevensville, Montana. The leaf’s bright yellow color stands out against the neutral grey of the wood.
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Tameka Hopkins of Stockton used a Nikon D4300 DSLR camera to capture the joy on her 23-year-old daughter Imani’s face as she went for a “swim” in the marshmallow pit at Candytopia in San Francisco.
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Joan Erreca of Stockton used an Apple iPhone 7 Plus to catch a quiet moment of her 2-year-old granddaughter Marian Erreca at the Letson Farms Community Playground in Bessemer, Alabama.
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Erv Rifenburg of Lodi used a Nikon D7100 DSLR camera to photograph his 4-year-old grandson Luke Rifenburg and his yellow lab Penny at his ranchette near Lockeford.
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It’s easy to concentrate on the big things like sunsets and tall buildings for your photo subjects but Dave Skinner of Stockton didn’t forget about the little things. Skinner used a Nikon D7000 DSLR camera to photograph a variegated meadowhawk dragonfly perched on a dried tule reed at the Cosumnes River Preserve near Thornton.
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Holly Stone of Stockton used an Apple iPhone 7 to photograph her 3-year-old grandson Jeff Stone having fun on a ride at the Manteca Pumpkin Fair.
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Linda Wells-Hott of Stockton used a Canon PowerShot S5 IS EVF digital point-and-shoot camera to photograph Belinda Doleman of Oxnard, who went with Wells-Hott on vacation, enjoying one of the many pools at the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun. The photos shows Doleman smiling and obviously having a great time while relaxing in the pool.
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Janet Baniewich of Stockton used a Nikon D3300 DSLR camera to photograph some curbside weeds near her home. The weeds, long since dead, are dried and withered. Their light tone stands out against the darkness of the curb’s shadow.
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All of the photos are in an online gallery at recordnet.com. Stay tuned for a new assignment on Oct. 23.
Carrie Walker of Stockton used an Apple iPad to photograph her brother Bill Walker’s hands as he carved some Halloween pumpkins. Her photo shows that a detail shot can be as telling as an overall one.
The last run
The Record’s TKS web press ran for its last time on the night of October 20.
To print color pictures, an additive 4-color process (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) where each color ink is laid down atop of the next, is used. The old Goss wasn’t really designed for this. Lining up each color (known as registration in newspaper parlance), was difficult to do accurately.
The newer TKS press was an offset press. It used plates that were smooth to the touch. It employed the concept of water and oil not mixing. Oil-based inks would adhere to the image areas of the plate and water to stick to the non-image areas. The system could handle more detail with greater accuracy than the old Goss press ever could.
There were some birthing pains with the first couple of runs of the TKS press but once the pressmen got the hang of it, it’s been relatively smooth sailing ever since.
Kenoly got to press the button to start the last run. It was then I realized that the newspaper as such only existed as photons on a screen or ones and zeros in a computer until the moment that the press started. Then it became a physical thing than you can hold in your hands. A newspaper, created by journalists and crafted by people running the press.
The pressmen occasionally grabbed a finished paper from a conveyor that came off of the press. The inspected the pages look to see it there was too much ink here or too little there. From the control room they pressed buttons on a panel to fine tune the press’s run.