ChadCRG Images blog

Last weekend I did one of the coolest assignments, I was at Remote Area Medical shooting for News magazine out of Austria. Remote Area Medical provides medical, dental and vision care to people without insurance. Doctors and nurses volunteered from 18 states and patients came for treatment from 11 states. It was sad to see people lined up almost 24 hours in advance to receive care. I ended up meeting several really nice families who opened up and shared their experience with me. I made so many photos I was happy with that I can’t post all of them here, but these are a few of my favorites. I hope to have the chance to continue photographing RAM in the future as they do more clinics.

Those crazy kids and their rock n’ roll! Last week I photographed a battle of the bands at a local high school. For some of the students it was their first time on a stage to perform, oh the butterflies. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I got some nice photos.

It’s really baseball season already? It’s still rather chilly outside and I haven’t seen much sun yet how can it be baseball season? I went to my first baseball game of the year last week, a high school here in town. I really ended up liking this photo. Baseball is a really fun sport, most of the time. Baseball is a little odd from my point of view because I need to have action in my photos. That means I can get it in the first inning or go the whole game with nothing, you just never know. I made this shot in the fourth inning and left happy. Now if the weather would just warm up, I’m ready for summer and happy days covering baseball.

I’m not a big fan of funerals or graveside services or anything related. To be fair I don’t know anyone who is! Recently I had to go out and cover a graveside service for the Knoxville News Sentinel. The story is tragic, a man who was killed seven years ago was finally laid to rest. Just a couple of months ago his wife was convicted of murder and the family finally felt they had closure and were able to lay him to rest. They were very nice and we were the only media at the cemetery. I spoke with the family and had permission to do what I needed. For the most part I like to photograph things like this with a long lens, to stay out of the way and to compress the scene. I had been keeping a distance and as they were getting ready to intern the ashes people started gathering around and I moved in a little closer to have a clear view. I ended up making some nice photos that show the loss and impact on the family, even after seven years.

I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. Hockey fighting, what else is there to say really? A good game and a good fight in the middle. I enjoy shooting hockey and wish I could cover more games.

During the Heart of Giving symposium I had the chance to make some nice photos. I saw a comedian who was clever, she had the women laughing it up for almost an hour. I like this shot of her because of the motion in the image. Later in the day I had the opportunity to photograph Dr. Bass. He runs the body farm here in Knoxville and it is always interesting to hear him speak. On this day he showed photos and told the story of his experience in examining the Big Bopper to find out what really happened to him in the plane crash from way back in 1959. This was done on behalf of the family and was very interesting to hear him talk and people are always interesting what he is doing. Here he is talking about exhuming the body while a slideshow plays, I like the expression and framing. I’m not a big fan of dead people but Dr. Bass does make it very interesting to say the least.

Win, lose or draw…when it gets to the playoffs for high school sports and basketball it means a lot to these kids. I always try to convey emotion and feeling in my photographs. I’m not a big fan of sad people but it’s part of life and I like the feeling of this player lying on the court after the game with his hands over his head in disbelief that a last minute effort fell short. You can see how much it meant to him…

Senator Bob Corker spoke at the University of Tennessee recently I was there. Photographing politicians can make some wonderful photos when you get past the front that is often put up. I have noticed that the smaller the venue and less you have to deal with that front. In this case it was a very nice setting at the school of business and he acted very natural. I had very nice access and was able to move around freely and make nice images. I like this one, you can almost feel him speaking.

I did a portrait for Education Week magazine of a professor at the UT. Well, he is a professor of reading and I didn’t want to do a shot in a library so I didn’t have much to work with. We went out to the lobby of the building he works in and I made this. I like the angles, light and feeling it has.

Not long ago I crawled up in an attic to photograph works doing some weatherizing. There has been a big push from the utility companies to tell people about weatherizing and have them get it done on their house. It was a cold day and it’s cold up in the attic but I like the feeling from the work light they had up there.