New website: http://adamvogler.com/

New blog: http://adamvogler.com/?page_id=530

Shooting nothing

Emergency vehicles line Owens School Road near where "person of interest" in a Carroll County homicide was taken into custody after a high-speed chase in Independence that ended at Owens School and Flynn roads. Independence officers spotted the Independence man near Missouri 291 and 23rd Street, not far from where he lived, and pursued his vehicle. 1.4.2011 Adam Vogler

Sometimes I get to an assignment and there will be nothing to shoot. Either there's not an interesting visual component to the story, there are technical or lighting issues at the location or your subject is 1/2 mile away with several dozen heavily armed members of the law enforcement community in the way such as in the photo above.

There is a constant in a photojournalist's life that is made glaringly obvious in situations like this. Nobody ****ing cares. Your readers and, more importantly to your continued employment, your editors need a photo or there's going to be a big, empty rectangle in tomorrow's paper and you're going to be working on updating your portfolio and resume.

Sometimes you have to make something out of nothing. My longest lens is  a 70-200 so I'm often faced with being under lensed for the subject I'm shooting and I'm used to having to get creative in my composition to make a frame. That said this was a bit of a challenge.

We'd been listening to some odd traffic on the scanner most of the day. A repeated BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for a suspect in an incident of domestic violence and arson in Independence. This soon changed to a suspect being wanted in connection with a homicide in an adjacent county with the additional information that the he was armed and dangerous and had made comments about not being taken alive.

Late that afternoon we heard a IPD officer call for back-up, he was in pursuit of a vehicle matching the suspect's. While I raced towards the area the pursuit was taking place; a reporter continued to listen to the scanner to provide me with updates and, later, the address where the chase ended. By the time I arrived on the scene everything was over and the subject had already been transported away.  I was left about a 1/2 mile away, with a sun that was rapidly dropping below the horizon.

There was no chance of getting close enough to the scene to get anything and I knew that this was going to be our front-page story and I needed to get art to go along with it, so it was time to get creative trying to frame the scene to lead the eye to the relevant parts and combine any story-telling elements I could find into a frame.

Are any of these going to win an award? No. They aren't even going to get close to being entered. They will never, ever, come near my portfolio. This isn't great photojournalism it isn't even good, but it got the job done. It provided a eye-catching graphic for the front-page. It made my papers readers go 'hey, what's that,' which, quite often, is what my job is all about.

Vogler's Bag O' light

I've had some people ask me how I've gone about strobing high school gyms for basketball and wrestling so I thought I'd show and explain what I've been doing. I'm using two Nikon SB-28 speedlights mounted to impact umbrella stands that I attach to whatever convenient place I can find (usually the railing of the bleachers) using a Manfroto Superclamp. I mount on on each side of the gym and fire them using Pocketwizards. I've found that the higher I'm able to get them the better the results. The speedlights are set to 1/2 power and I'm usually able to get 2-3 stops above the ambient to help prevent motion blur. I always shoot at 1/250, 2.8 and adjust the ISO to achieve the proper exposure using the histogram on the back of my camera. I sit on the right side of the baseline as far back as I can get. I prefer to shoot from the inside, just to the right of the free throw lane. I almost always use my 70-200 but I have been experimenting with shooting some wide angle stuff using the 16-35. The entire set-up fits in my Domke sholder bag or more recently in the  sling bag my Mother gave me for Christmas which contains the bulk of my speedlight lighting kit.

I flagrantly stole the set up from David Hobby here and here.


Here are some examples of some recent work shot using this set up. The Truman and William Chrisman shots were done with the lights significantly lower that the photos of Blue Springs South and Blue Springs which as you can see makes a big difference in the shadows. The gyms that shot Blue springs and South at are also significantly brighter.

There are no snow days in county...

I remember the hopeful, excitement that accompanied the promise of snow when I was growing up in Arkansas. Enough snow to shut down school was a rarity even though it only took an inch or two to shut down the town. The magic I felt at looking out the window to see the blazing white of a blanket of snow over the neighborhood was almost as good as Christmas. A day of freedom, of play, of sending myself flying down the hill I lived on at such a velocity that, frankly,  I am amazed to still be alive or ambulatory.

Breanna Lee, 14, of Blue Springs, slides down a hill at McCoy Park on an inner tube Monday afternoon. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Now that I am living considerably farther north and work as  a newspaper photographer my feelings on snow in the forecast can't be aired during normal broadcast hours and the only eager anticipation felt is wondering if I'll remember where my long-johns are before I have to go to work. Snow means weather art, which means driving around and standing in the cold hoping that not every child in town isn't curled up next to their X-Box and that its possible to find someone enjoying their unexpected day off. I tend to shy away from people digging their vehicles out or shoveling their driveway and sidewalk. They tend to have the same feelings on winter wonderlands that I do. So whenever we have a snowfall I'm looking for the kids and the kid-at-hearts having fun.

Bobbi, left, Brandon, Jameson, 7, and Clayton, 8, Hammond walk up a hill at Old Mill Park while sledding Monday morning. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Brielle Frechin, 8, right, and Katia Krysa, 11, sled down a hill at McCoy Park followed by various friends and family members Monday afternoon. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

A solitary childrens' glove lies on the snow in the parking lot at McCoy Park Monday afternoon. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Katelyn Runyon, 8, prepares to snowboard down a hill at McCoy Park Monday afternoon. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Jameson Hammond, 7, walks up a hill at Old Mill Park to take another run while sledding with his parents and brother Monday morning. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

But since life can't be all fun and games I got to spend a delightful hour or so staking out the courthouse to get shots of two guys who aren't exactly in the running for man of the year. Evidently you don't get to have snow days in the county jail so two men facing homicide charges were still appearing in circuit court despite the weather.

David Love escorted from the Jackson County Courthouse annex in Independence after his arraignment. The former Independence pastor pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the shooting death of Randy Stone, a former member of Love’s church.  1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Larry Wilson exits the Jackson County Courthouse annex in Independence after an appearance in Jackson County Circuit court. Larry K. Wilson, 42, has been indicted for first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Jackson County prosecutors say Wilson shot 53-year-old James Matthias in the head with a .357-caliber handgun on Dec. 13. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

Larry Wilson, middle, knocks the snow from his feet before entering the Jackson County Courthouse annex in Independence for an appearance in Jackson County Circuit court. Larry K. Wilson, 42, has been indicted for first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Jackson County prosecutors say Wilson shot 53-year-old James Matthias in the head with a .357-caliber handgun on Dec. 13. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

I don't like shooting perp-walks all that much, there's a lot of waiting often a large number of media crowding around, and rarely the opportunity to make any interesting pictures. That said its an important part of the job. Luckily the snow and the fact the Love appeared in a suit for the first time enabled me to make some different frames than usual. All and all it was a good day.

Dozens of children and adults use a variety of methods to slide down a hill at McCoy Park Monday afternoon. 1.10.2011 Adam Vogler

All the cool kids are doing it...

Haylee Weiss, 7, splashes down on the waterslide at the Emporia Aquatics Center Monday, June 16. (Photo by Adam Vogler/ The Emporia Gazette)

Everyone, their brother, their uncle and their third-cousin twice-removed on their mother's side seems to have a blog these days SOOOOO here's mine.

My name is Adam Vogler and I'm the Photo Editor (really sounds more impressive than it is) at The Examiner in Independence, Mo. a suburb of Kansas City and the hometown of Harry S. Truman. I've been a newspaper photographer for five years if you count the time I spent working for my college paper and freelancing for The Joplin Globe my senior year.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to use this for. The basic idea is to try and garner a little more exposure for my work and myself, that's right this is unabashed, unashamed self-promotion baby. I'm hoping that someone somewhere will eventually read what's here and say to themselves, 'That's someone I want to pay an obscene amount of money to [go some amazing place] and [photograph some amazing thing]'

In all seriousness I plan on using this space to expand a little on the photos I take and publish as part of my day job and to exhibit some of my personal work that rarely sees the light of day. I'll probably talk a bit about my failures as well as my successes and try to give a glimpse of what the life of a photojournalist in the early stages of their career is like.


I'm going to try to post a few times a week so its probably going to be some rough takes, hense the title. A photographer's loose edit is result of the first pass they make through the images they've taken, the rough cut to steal a movie term. Few of the images of a loose edit are ever seen again even by the photographer who took them. This blog is kinda going to be the loose edit of my take on life and the photos I take. Thanks for stopping by.

Snow flies as Miranda Young, 9, sleds down a hill at McCoy park as the sun sets Monday. Bitterly cold temperatures are forecast for much of the week with more snow expected Wednesday. 1.4.2010 Adam Vogler