Nick Hogan (Bollea) Pleads, goes to jail.

It's an international story when Hulk Hogan's 17-year-old son Nick (Bollea) admits that his actions caused the severe injuries to John Graziano. That's what happened May 9 when Nick was scheduled for a hearing in Pinellas County Court. The press knew that there was a plea deal in the case and with Hulk's international fame, it was bound to be covered by many reporters and photographers from Tampa Bay and beyond.

TMZ set up a live video feed from there. The St Pete Times and Tampa Trib reporters were there as well as multiple crews from each of the local TV stations. All of them were doing live reports from there. Radio too.

In all, there must have been 15 reporters, 25 video shooters and live truck operators and only about five still photographers.

Six, if you count me. I was shooting for Getty Images and hoping that my photos would get picked up for publication. They did, but more on that later.

The point is that it was a big, media event, not to mention the impact that it would ultimately affect both families and people that care (or don't care) for them.

It's a bit intimidating knowing that you won't have much time to get your shots. Since the event was a "pool" camera situation, in which one videographer and one still photographer shoot inside the courtroom and share their goods with everyone else who's there.

My shooting would be limited only to the outside of the courthouse. There was no shooting in the hallways. So, the only time I would have for my personal photographs would be them (Hogans) coming in and leaving.

In total, I had about 2.5 minutes, literally to get news images worthy of publication in any media.

The Hogan family arrived about five minutes before the beginning of the start time. They walked in without emotion past the awaiting pack of hungry journalists. A videographer tripped over the cement balls in front of the courthouse while filming their entry. Nick grinned as the guy layed sprawled on his back.

After they went in there was nothing for me to do until the hearing was over. The courthouse has a decent media room and I did want to watch the hearing so I sat and watched the emotion-filled hearing. Nick got sentenced to 8 months.

When it was over, the family, minus Nick who was immediately taken into custody, left the courthouse without saying anything. It gets very crazy during those "walks" when 50 people are asking questions, shooting video and stills, pushing, pulling, looking for their shots and sound bytes. When those masses start moving you never know where you're going to end up. You just kind of get swept up in whichever way the subject of the shot is going. Sometimes, I'm not even sure if I moved my feet, yet I end up 50 feet from where I began.

I ended up being right in front of Brooke and Hulk when they got to their car. They basically walked right into my lens and into their awaiting car. The post -hearing opportunity to shoot them was 30 seconds. It's a much shorter walk leaving the courthouse than walking in.

I think I filed about a dozen photos to Getty Images, half of them while watching the hearing in the media room. Expedience is expected and demanded when working for Getty. It often pays off because they distribute internationally and there are deadlines and web sites to file "breaking news" bulletins around the clock.

They were picked up by E! online, Entertainment Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, ABC News and a few other outlets. One or two of the links are posted on my web site under "about Tim".

US Magazine published one of my photos in their newsstand copies. Often you never know who bought your photos until you get your statements a month or so later.

Professionally, it was a good shoot.

I've got a feeling I'll be shooting the civil hearings and case when it starts.

Thank you for reading. Comments welcome.

Executive Portrait, Photojournalistic Style

I got an email from an old friend and co-worker of mine, Julie Booth last week. She' s working for a PR company in St Petersburg and needed a photograph of a CEO to run alongside an ad they were working on touting his company, Proggex, a project management company. She said they wanted something that would look like a news photograph. I said, "perfect". That's exactly what I do best: Photojournalism.

She showed me an article that had been written about his company earlier this year. There was a photograph of him with that article, but if you can envision EVERY portrait of a CEO you've ever seen before, that was it. He was standing in an office, window partially shaded behind him and a reflective desk in front of him.

It was a fine photograph, but lacked the impact that makes a person LOOK at a photograph as opposed to simply turning the page.

Photographs, at their worst, are simply window dressings for publications. They fill space, they show you what the person looks like, they provide graphic design capabilities.

Photographs, at their best, give you an insight to the person's personality, they evoke a feeling, a mood, an emotion. They make the viewer actually LOOK at the photograph, study it for its nuances and maybe even come back to it after turning several other pages.

They have lasting impact.

That's not an easy thing to do when shooting a CEO. Many of them like their photos done in their offices, behind their big desks, with their awards on the wall behind them.

Jim Stroh was having none of that.

When I drove in to his office complex along US 19 north, I noticed that his building was way back off the road. A long roadway to get there was covered with a canopy of lush, green oak trees. I knew right away that's where I wanted to shoot him. The canopy would provide a nice, colorful backdrop and frame him so that there was no question as to who the subject of the shot was. The other thing I liked, visually speaking, was that the building was made of glass. I knew I'd also use that in the portrait. The shot of Jim looking up at me was made after he told me that there was a courtyard there as well. I found a location which would allow me to shoot down on him, as well as "hide" the umbrella and lights.

Jim was an amicable man, a former photographer who knew what I was looking for and more than happy to oblige me. Those things can make all the difference when photographing a person...a willingness to let me take control for a while. Him being a former photographer made it a little intimidating, but also gave us common ground to form a bond.

All of these photos were shot with a white, shoot-through umbrella triggered by pocket wizards camera left, exposure f 5.6, 1/250th of a second on a D200 Nikon.

Ron Krasuski, Male Model

Ron Krasuski is one nice guy. I first met him when I was still working in TV news here in Tampa Bay. He was a fill-in weatherguesser and we hit it off right away. We had a mutual friend: Julie Bologna, now a weatherguesser and author in Dallas. I had worked with her in Altoona, PA. Ron met her somewhere else in TV news. It may have been Pittsburgh.

Regardless.

Ron, like me, no longer had TV work. I went back to shooting still photos. Ron is looking for/and auditioning for, modeling, commercial and other TV roles.

These are a few of my favorite shots.

The headshot is natural light, with a flat, silver reflector under his chin.

The fish net throw is natural light, just as the sun hit the horizon.

He's getting calls, auditions and has two modeling agencies wanting to sign him in St Pete. There seems to be more agencies and work for models and actors here than many people realize. If you're thinking about trying it, do so.

I'll be here to shoot your headshots and comp cards.

Ron has three different comp cards from this series of shoots.

That fact pleases me most.

The client/friend loves his photographs.

UPDATE: May 13, 2008: Ron has landed his first national modeling gig. Ron appeared for two days on HSN modeling for Suzanne Sommers' workout machine. I got to watch my friend working out on the machine shirtless while Suzanne and host Lynn Murphy "ogled" him and commented on his body. He did very well...looked quite natural and had a good time from what I could see. If you need a male model, please let me know. I'll gladly put you in touch with him, although after that successful gig, his day rate may have gone WAY up.

Bruce Springsteen

.

I got to shoot Bruce Springteen. It's a photographer's dream to shoot one of your heros/icons, but it's a lot of pressure too because you may only get one shot at it, so to speak. Actually, I don't remember how many frames I took, but it was over 350, I'm sure.

It was the first concert for the band since the death of their keyboardist Danny Federici.

The show began with a video tribute to him. with a dark stage except for a spotlight shinging where he used to sit.

It was moving and emotional.

We were told before the concert that the tribute would start the show, but we weren't allowed to photograph it. Of course, all of the still photographers obeyed the rule laid out by Springsteen's managers. No one, especially me, would wish to be kicked out for any reason.

During a concert shoot like this, you're typically only allowed to shoot the first three songs. It doesn't sound like much, but if you figure the first three songs mean about 15 minutes of shooting, a professional photographer working for a newspaper or magazine or photo agency can get what they need for publication. I ended up posting about 25 photos to Getty Images for distribution. These are a few of my favorites.

What were the first three songs? I cannot tell you. When I'm shooting like that, it's like being in a zone where you're so focused on focusing, lighting and other technical issues. It's impossible to actually enjoy the concert, even though I was loving being there. The crowd was insanely drawn to Springteen and he and his bandmates to them.

I actually snuck a camera into a concert of his in Tacoma, Washington about 20 years ago and came away with some decent photographs, but I've come a long way with my photography since then. These photos are so much better. Back then I was seated behind the stage, but Bruce is a great showman and had turned around to face the people in the cheap seats behind the stage.

He did the same thing this night too.

Shooting a concert poses some technical challenges. A photographer from Backstreets magazine who has photographed "about 40" of Bruce's concerts gave me some tips before the show. He was right on. Many photographers that you meet and mix with at events are very generous with their knowledge. There is a lot of competition to see who gets the best shot, but there's also a friendly acknowledgement of respect for one another when you meet in the field like this. Chris Zuppa of the St Petersburg Times and I chatted for a long time before the show. He's a great photographer and an even nicer guy and expressed interest in shooting for the www.heartgallerykids.org.

If you're not familiar with it, professional photographers volunteer to shoot portraits of children who are traditionally hard-to-adopt. It's a heartwarming program and successful too. More on that later.

These were shot at 1250 ISO, f2.8 at about 1/125 of a second with my Nikon D200. I was afraid of the possibility of lots of noise from the high ISO, but I think they came out pretty well. What do you think? The lens was a Nikon 300 f2.8. There were probably 7 still photographers there. We stood on a platform beside the sound board.

This is my favorite shot.

Thank you for looking!!

Tim