Bat Country

Movin on up

2008-05-19T13:10:00.003-05:00

so,

as it implied, you can't stop here, this is Bat Country.

And we've moved on to bigger and better blogs, at least I hope so.

It is now part of my website nickdentamaro.net

the URL is blog.nickdentamaro.net

I've been slacking lately on the updates but I swear i'm back on my A-Game

recently I was proved how big of a moron I can be, when I left my gear, or the papers gear in my car a couple nights ago. And sure enough now its gone and I am camera-less for a while so thats horrible.

Learn from my stupidity please. and don't leave you gear in your car. It's just to easy to swipe.

hokay so

recap.

New Blog, blog.nickdentamaro.net

I love you all

and don't leave gear in the car.

got it?

got it.

-nd

old friend

2008-03-31T23:49:00.002-05:00

Been taking off earlier the last couple days

just got my second wind.

Old Friend

back to the grind

C/S
-nd

Sweet 16

2008-03-30T22:09:00.003-05:00

so MSU was knocked out by memphis in the sweet 16

and there was a couch fire right outside of my apartment

Not the best frame by a long shot but still sort of liked it

Lt. Pete McClain of the East Lansing Fire Department looks onto the ashes of a couch fire on Woodmere street in East Lansing. McClain said that this was already the second fire they had put out so far on Friday night. He figured there would be a bunch more. Later that night i heard of 3 other couch and dumpster fires.

Dance and Baseball

2008-03-27T11:52:00.003-05:00

So I've spent most of my time working on this piece about the emotional connection that dancers of different genres have with their art.

The project consists of three stop motion-esk videos or audio slideshows complied of only still images and audio

Our Faces and Places reporter Laura Leebove wrote the inside front to go with my multi-media piece. It was for sure one of the most daunting tasks I've made for myself at the State News but I'm glad I did it.

The project raised a bit of discussion in the photo room about what is journalism. I don't think this could stand on its own because of the non traditional style of the slideshows but i think combined with the front about it where you get the background of each dancer and a bigger look at who they are it works very well together

but you can be the judge of that.

Next up.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a ball game. To bad the Spartans didn't take advantage of it. They suffered a 10-3 loss to Eastern Michigan. MSU head caoch David Grewe noted after the game how disappointed he was in the effort the players put forth and said it was "a bad day for baseball at MSU."

please comment
curious to your thoughts.

C/s

-nd

Different soundslides

2008-03-18T12:50:00.005-05:00

Spelling Bee

Found this soundslides on APAD from Julia Robinson of the Columbia Daily Tribune.

I thought it was a great example of what we were talking about at the office a couple days ago in terms of taking different looks at doing multimedia story telling

Not your traditional story telling but if you watch it brings you through the event

all the audio seems to be taken from the mics on stage and is all ambient.

Not A-roll audio.

I think it works really well and is a refreshing look at a something so seemingly mundane: A Spelling Bee.

It might have been cool to get audio of the kid telling why he enters spelling bee's she might have though.

working on a package about dance ill post it in a week.

Tennis

2008-03-11T19:44:00.002-05:00

Had a feature assignment the other day found mysefl at the MSU Tennis Center and got this.

-cut

MSU tennis head coach Gene Orlando watches a tennis ball pass by as team members Adam Monich and Scott Rasmussen scrimmage Monday at the MSU tennis center at 3571 E. Mount Hope in Lansing. The team has a meet against No. 8 Michigan on Wednesday. "The pressure is all on them (Michigan)," Orlando said. " And we really need the win." MSU is No. 66 nationally and there record is 11-5.

I liked it

Big men, young women

2008-03-10T20:07:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

I've been really busy

Saturday I shot the 2008 Girls Competitive Cheer Finals at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids for the Free Press and then I shot the First MMA, mixed martial arts, fight of its kind in Lansing, so basically ultimate fighting. It was quite the ends of the spectrum.

Ultimate

Dr. Nekatarios Demetriou, left, and Dr. Jerry Bell, right, tend to Ryan Kestner's head after Allen Grays, background, delivered a fight-ending blow, which drew blood from Kestner's head. This was Kestner's first mixed martial arts fight and he plans to fight again. The MMA fight promoted by Ron DeLeon Premotions was the first MMA fight of its kind in Lansing.

working on a map of my recent trip to the chi

post that later

NPR audio slide show

2008-02-27T00:26:00.005-05:00

Sound Slides

found this tonight.

" Often, when people see someone who looks different or strange, they stare. Maybe they do it out of the corner of their eye, maybe they gawk, and maybe they get nervous and immediately avert their gaze. People stare, trying to figure out how the object came to be that way.

Kevin Connolly has been getting such stares all his life. That's because he was born without legs. "

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19190610

image from NPR and Kevin Connolly

Chicago.

2008-02-26T16:54:00.003-05:00

So in a week ill be in the Chi.

very excited.

it's been a few month's

these are two places im excited to go to, except Mario's will most likely be closed.

This is one of my favorite lunches that my dad and i used to get.

Al's for a number one

Then cross the street to Mario's for an Italian Lemonade

ill post photos from the actual views in a week or so. Just wanted to take advantage of Google maps street view while sitting in my ISS class.

SN Decor

2008-02-26T00:30:00.003-05:00

So at the SNews we have this weekly feature called SN decor.

It is a look at a certain MSU student with a decorating flair's room.

I got assigned this glorious feature this week, which actually turned out to be a good time.

This is Nick Vandermolen

cut-

Creative writing senior Nick Vandermolen demonstrates one of the benefits of having his couches so close together as his friend from down the hall criminal justice senior Nick Jarmo looks on. Vandermolen's top tips for making you're place your own and homey include getting huge posters of you and your friends, having a supply of sombreros, hard hats and other head wear and trashing the place.

the complete list is a follows

1. Big, Crazy posters of you and your friends that make you reminisce about stories from your past

2. Trash the place

3. Push you and your roommates beds together

4. Leave your door unlocked at all times.

5. Keep plenty of sombreros hard hats and other head coverings around at all times.

http://turnyourcomputeroff.blogspot.com/

check out his blog if you're curious about more

Polar Plunge

2008-02-24T20:12:00.002-05:00

Took a break from shooting video to give Georgia a try and just shot stills, which was a nice change of pace.

The Polar Plunge took place at Hawk Island County Park in Lansing and was a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. Two hundred and forty seven participants jumped into the 32-degree water and raised 43,000 dollars for charity.

Aisha Jefferson

2008-02-21T22:31:00.015-05:00

I'm pretty happy with this one.

Here are the photos for the inside front of Friday's paper and the video that accompanied it. Its a story about junior forward Aisha Jefferson who tore her ACL during an exhibition game last November. Since then she has been sidlined and working through rehab while still being a part of the team.

Junior forward Aisha Jefferson listens to directions from assistant strength and conditioning coach Mike Vorkapich in the Duffy Daugherty building. Earlier this year Jefferson injured her knee in an exhibition game, which has sidelined her for the season. “It’s kinda tough doing it by yourself,” Jefferson said. She works out Monday through Friday after classes and then goes to practice to work out on the sidelines and gives encouragement to her teammates.

Junior forward Aisha Jefferson looks on from the sidelines during Wednesday’s practice at Breslin Center. She said the hardest part about attending practice and working out is not being with her teammates.

cut-

“It’s kinda tough doin’ it by yourself,” MSU junior forward Aisha Jefferson said. Jefferson was sidelined earlier this year in an exhibition game and has been going through rehabilitation ever since.
“She’s definitely an emotional leader for our team,” athletic trainer LouAnne Jefferson said. Even though she is injured, Aisha Jefferson still provides emotional support for her team on the sidelines.

peregrine falcon

2008-02-19T23:05:00.002-05:00

this was also a highlight of being in Marquette.

really busy

more videos and some other cool multimedia nonsense to come

Flanagan's

2008-02-09T16:55:00.000-05:00

Flanagan's Marquette Mich.

J-rock ? Hip Hop ?

2008-02-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

Spend way to much time together...

i like it though.

VIDEO!!@#!>@#!

2008-02-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

this week was the editing week from hell

in the last 2 days The State News has posted 5 new multimedia pieces three of which were videos from me.

the other two were a video by Margaret and a Soundlsides by sam.

here are a few samples of my recent contributions

Click To Play

Construction

2008-02-05T15:42:00.000-05:00

Construction on Pennsylvania and Grand River. Kim George and two other guys from Lansing Board of Water and Light are replacing a lead pipe from the water main to a house on the corner with a copper one. They've done about 20 so far and the Board of Water and Light plans on doing 5,000 of them over the next 3 years.

The assignment was to shoot a four photo packages of a daily news event. I'm not sure how i feel about the last one, Jackie really liked it and said it was just a different way to look at construction. I see what she means but i just don't think this one was there. Good idea though.

A very merry un birthday

2008-02-01T00:17:00.000-05:00

barely a good birthday for Izzo 51-41

happy 53rd

come on!

Dang

2008-01-29T20:10:00.000-05:00

'nuff said

Import, export and squeeze OH MY

2008-01-28T09:50:00.000-05:00

Ok so.

I know that alot of you guys have heard me rant about my experiences with video. well, this weekend i used our Canon big dog, XH-A1, for the first time, I had some trouble wiht it not gonna lie but i got the job done. here is the video i first made, and then was instrcuted on some simple color correciton you can do with CS3 via the brilliance of Robert Hendricks. Any way here are the two videos.

...the shit has hit the fan!

2008-01-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

I know that this is my forum for photojournalism, but, yesterday was Warren Zevons birthday so i've been on a little kick lately.

just an excitable boy...

Here are two portraits i shot yesterday of sing/songwriter/composer for Harvest Music and Sound Design in North Lansing

Jules Anna Jones

a little more story telling

Strobe project

2008-01-24T15:36:00.001-05:00

Two images i liked from my JRN410 strobe assignment, subject matter was "not an issue."

Moment

2008-01-17T01:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight there was a vigil for Rylan Cotter, she went to Mason High School and MSU after that. She was a friend to many and a daughter to two. They found her body in South Bend, Indiana on a golf course. Police determined that the cause of death was most likely blunt force trama to the abdomen and the chest but haven't got to much farther than that.

About the vigil
first article

Rylan Cotter's mother Nancy hugs junior international relations major Brian Doyle on Wednesday night at the rock on Farm Lane during a vigil in Rylan Cotter's honor. Doyle knew Cotter from their residence in Case Hall freshman year. Doyle said Cotter's purpose in life was to make the world a more peaceful place. Nick Dentamaro/The State News

so yellow

2008-01-15T14:39:00.000-05:00

because j-Roc wanted it, he's such a cutie and im bored in intro to marketing.

Searching

2008-01-14T00:31:00.000-05:00

I often feel like this.

This was from an assignment on Saturday morning
Spent the day in transit to Notre Dame to shoot hockey. Good times.

Countin Sheep

2007-12-31T01:49:00.000-05:00

Cant Sleep.

Santa brought me a scanner that can scan film also so I've been scanning all my Diana + stuff as well as a bunch of really old family stuff from my dad's side for him. It's very sentimental to me. I know his father meant a lot to him, just like he does to me. I never got a chance to meet him because he past when my father was a teen-ager. I cant imagine what that would be like, but it deffinetly has made him who he is today.

Here's a shot of my Grandpa, and name sake, and my father when he was a little guy.

So for the sake of not sleeping I'd figure I'd count so sheep and give you guys some to count also.

I have few more but these were my favorites. I really love the dreamy like quality of the middle one.

Still cant get my hosting to work so i cant post a gallery of the Champs bowl, but you can see one here

C/S

ND

Champs Sport Bowl

2007-12-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

A shot from the crowd i liked from the Champs Sports Bowl. I'll post a gallery soon but for some reason my hosting isn't working. I've also been up for 36 hours straight so it may just be user error.

I like the faces in the frames a lot not sure about the crop, maybe tighter or just should've reworked it and got tighter.

Holy Words

2007-12-08T15:06:00.000-05:00

So the picture of me in full on surgical scrubs, two mountain smith bags, one with a marantz and the other with my gear is from a story I'm working on a about a horse named holy words and the CANTER program, he used to be a race horse until he suffered a fracture of the sesamoid bone in his right hind leg,. This is a fairly common injury for many race horses but, Holy Words' owner didn't seem to think he was worth the time to fix and get back on the track. The Large animal hospital at MSU helps CANTER by doing these surgeries on the horses and helping to find them a place to go after.

I'm following Holy Words throughout his surgery and recovery. Heres what ran in the paper.

What's the Difference

2007-12-08T13:17:00.001-05:00

A question was sent out over the APAD list serv recently, and the question was "what separates a photojournalist and any other hobbyist with a nice camera?"?

i really enjoyed this response

" just look to the Wizard of Oz for your answer.....

You need:

1. An extra big fat juicy heart.

2. A brain.

3. Courage."

Any thoughts?

Horse Surgery

2007-12-05T00:42:00.001-05:00

This was my day.

workin on a story about Holy Words, a horse who is part of the CANTER, a program for injured or retired race horse. I got to sit in on his surgery today. A removal of a fractured piece of his sesamoid bone.

more to come.

Julia Jones

2007-11-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

This is Julia.

She lives across the street from my parents house.
She is adorable. Diana shots coming soon, just need to scan them.

Michigan vs Michigan State

2007-11-25T21:08:00.001-05:00

A friend of my fathers wanted to see my stuff from the UM vs. MSU game, I know it's a little old but here it is.

Hockey

2007-11-25T20:13:00.000-05:00

This little girl was at the Wisconsin Michigan State Hockey game on Saturday and wouldn’t leave me alone. Every time I glanced over to my right she was there, so I took her picture, kind of creepy I know but still I think its funny.

2007-11-14T22:31:00.000-05:00

Boo

2007-11-01T19:13:00.001-05:00

This was my favorite from Halloween at the SNews.

long time

2007-10-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

just an almost that i liked from the Indiana game last weekend. Off to Chicago this weekend for the NPPA Short Course. Working on a couple stories, post more later

Petting zoo

2007-10-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

Crystal at the petting zoo at Rowes pumpkin patch. She had never had hot cider and doughnuts. Fixed that, then we carved pumpkins. Kind of early i know but still. Working on a story about these women who make prayer quilts. Football against Indiana tonight. Damn night games.

White Bros. Music repair shop

2007-09-14T13:26:00.000-05:00

This is an image from my time spent at the White Bros. Music repair shop. It was a last minute living city that I had to turn around on deadline and thought that I formatted all these images, only to discover two days after it goes up that someone just took my card and my strongest images were on that card. My own fault, I need to keep better track of my own stuff but I was very upset. This is what I believe to be my strongest image. Mike Mason of the White Bros. Music repair shop flattens out a curve on a cello. "when we have to add wood to damaged instruments we have to make them completely flat." The beginning ambient to the Sound Slides was the noise of him scrapping and chiseling away at the instrument. followed by him sanding and then the final is him tuning and playing it. I feel this would have worked much better than what ran. Oh well something to re-work for the portfolio/site or something.

Fish

2007-09-05T23:46:00.000-05:00

These two ran as a package about Preuss Pets in Old Town. Personally, I'm pretty sure we've clobbered our readers over the head with Old Town since I've started working at the paper, and there's been this big thing about location stories. I'm very fed up with them because they're not about any one in particular and trying to e a reporter to go out into the world and source a story with a real life human being and not an official is nearly impossible.

I met a cool guy named Antonio though out of the shoot. He's from Cuba, got to the US with his two children and his wife in '98 via the visa lottery. He studied vet sciences in Cuba and worked in jungles with animals. Fish were his hobby at home in Cuba. Now he's been working at Preuss Pets for almost 10 years, since her got here, as their resident vet, breeding strands of fish for quality control. The man knows so much about animals.

Anyway, going to be doing a portrait series on tailgaters in the next up coming month so be prepared.

Little kids at protests

2007-08-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

I was covering the Take A Stand rally today at the Capitol building and I noticed this little girl, Aurora, who was brought by her mother to the protest. Her father is in Iraq right now and her mother thinks its BS pretty much. They support him but really want to end the war. I took this frame because I’m not sure how I feel about little kids at rallies like this one. They don’t really know what’s going on and what not. The whole time this girl just wanted to play with her water bottled and then got to release a couple doves at the end.

I dunno just struck me as odd but I kinda like the frame

Folk Festival

2007-08-11T12:53:00.001-05:00

After being chastised for not updating regularly, I decided to post some images from the other day at the great lakes folk festival. That being said, this is Brian Ernst, a musician currently living in Jackson. He is commuting to East Lansing for the folk festival. Recently a home in Stoddard, where Brian is from, was burnt to the ground in a house fire. Brian raised close to two thousand dollars for the family and now is traveling around playing to raise money for various things and himself.

yeah

more later

Lady and the Tiger

2007-08-06T21:30:00.001-05:00

Lady got new ink
took her into the studio because she wanted a shot of her tiger.
New work is coming soon i promise. Since obtaining the editor position here, i dont shoot as much, but come fall and a short staff i think that will be a different story.

Street Music

2007-07-15T17:35:00.000-05:00

Met some very interesting musicians at an art fair in Grand Rapids yesterday. Went out with Metanoia and we got some stuff sold. I need to send Brian and Jeff some of my work to get that out there. Any way these guys are a great group of people who perform in various shows around the Michigan area. I believe they all will be playing in the Burlesque Show in Grand Rapids on the 29th, which I'm trying to work my way in on and maybe make a story of it.

All walks of life

2007-07-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

A little older one. All walks of life walk through the alleys of East Lansing. Could use a little more work. Probably one more person in the frame would be better. someone of a different socioeconomic status. or at least the resemblance of one.

Hey Lady

2007-06-26T15:21:00.000-05:00

Pretty lady at ERC.

Trying to finish up my papers I was graced with the presence of this woman. Caught a frame as she looks on to the rest of the shop.

Two... and in Color?!

2007-06-18T19:01:00.001-05:00

So you guys haven't seen anything new on here in a while. Sorry about that. Well here's work from today. Fun shoot believe me.

Also if you get a chance check out the Multi-media page on Statenews.com. I shot the photos for the Ashton Moore Quartet audio slide show. Heres the pages image.

Urban Classic Interiors

2007-06-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

Dan Adams stands before his store, Urban Classic Interiors. This store was Dan's Dream and he finally opened it. Adams worked as an interior designer for years, mainly with corporate offices. Now he owns Urban Classic Interiors of Old Town Lansing. The store opened around seven months ago and he finances it on his own. He provides the Lansing area with an eclectic array of home furnishings and accessories.

Dancing in the Rain

2007-06-03T22:10:00.001-05:00

Salsa dancing, Salsa, good times in general.

Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge

2007-05-23T17:10:00.001-05:00

A Study came out that apparently hookah is just as bad for you as cigarettes. Doesn't seem to stop the hookah goers at Blue Midnight. Most of them including this gentleman figure that generally you don't smoke hookah as often as you smoke cigarettes. Kinda like the shot. I Wish I could have gotten the depth of field to get that hookah bowl in focus, or out of the frame all together. Other stuff ran for
the paper that I liked as well.

Soy Beans

2007-05-21T15:21:00.000-05:00

You can make anything out of them.

Marty Marsh of Windsor Michigan knows that. After delivering a paper to Robin Ross in Diamondale, her photo ran in today's paper, I drove around to find a cool feature. Came across Marty driving his tractor and tilling his soy bean field. I had to leave to come back East Lansing so i didn't have to much time to talk to him. I got his number and I might do a story on his farm if he has an interesting story. He is a very nice and calm man.

05/17/07 Frag Center

2007-05-18T13:35:00.000-05:00

Walking home from work last night, I passed by the Frag Center and saw a puff of smoke coming from a soldering iron inside. I stopped in and asked the man, who was the owner Scott Reschke, what he was doing. He told me he was fixing the DC power jack for a laptop. He said the design was planned obsolescence. The jack is poorly designed and only has two pins in the back holding it too the circuit board. The jack rocks back and forth until it eventually snaps off. The Frag Center started doing computer repairs a few years ago to help with business, he said.

May 11 2007

2007-05-11T23:06:00.000-05:00

This was the seen from my side mirror as i sat in traffic on I-96 today. Left around 7 to go to St. Clair Shores for the night too see the family. Lucky it only was this way for 10 minutes or so, just long enough to annoy me. Shot The Ingham County fallen officer memorial and the MSU vs. Northwestern baseball game at Kobs Field

More tomorrow.

Lunch

2007-05-10T18:12:00.000-05:00

good sandwiches

Potbelly's

and good company

Shooting baseball at Kobs Field and a memorial service for fallen police officers tomorrow in Mason.

Building

2007-05-10T00:42:00.000-05:00

I Was slacking a little bit but I figured I make up for it. I was driving down Kalamazoo in Lansing and right as I came across the train tracks I spotted this building. I figured I'd stop and take a few photos. It reminded me of shooting old buildings in Detroit. Only a few of the outside because Mr. Police man came by so I figured I'd skadaddle.

I'm going to try and get back in there and shoot some more. Once the paper starts up again ill keep you all updated on everyone's Living City projects at The State News.

I've got some good ideas.

May 07, 2007

2007-05-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

So, I figured I should start a photo blog while my website is in the progress of being built. This is my first attempt at this and it should hopefully be updated daily. All images are property of Nick Dentamaro and I have no problem if you'd like to use a few of them. Just let me know please :).

I found the meter by Impressions 5 in Lansing right before i met a bunch of antique Auto enthusiasts at R.E.Olds auto Museum.