Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

Most people can enjoy or appreciate a spring shower. It takes a bit of a unique personality like that of my own to enjoy strong storms that produce heavy rain, hail, lightning and occasionally tornadoes.

I have what one might call a slight obsession with storms. There is something soothing about them even thought they can often be incredibly violent.

When I know storms are coming, I listen to NOAA weather radio, SKYWARN frequencies and constantly monitor live Doppler radar images from my phone or computer. All of this is in hopes of positioning myself to photograph the storm.

Out of pure interest, I took a weather spotter training course. I figured that this was another tool to have in the belt to ensure my safety and best position myself.

These past two weekends, I have been in St. Louis. Both times, I was greeted with tornado sirens. On the first occasion, I was in St. Louis City. There were too many trees and closely grouped buildings to see the clouds and where the storm was coming from.

The next weekend, I was a little further out in rural St. Louis. As the storm clouds rolled in, I went out.

Storm clouds that later set the greater St. Louis metro area under a tornado warning roll in over Gravois Bluffs. ©2010 Max Gersh

The sky looked ripe to produce a powerful storm. The only problem is that is was almost night time. The sky was so dark, it would be impossible to see the tornado coming. Thinking safety first (which I don’t always do), I retreated to my girlfriends apartment in Fenton where I could watch the skies from a basement window.

As the storm geared up overhead, I put my camera on a tripod and started taking long exposures out of the window in hopes of capturing some nice lightning shots. While lighting photography is always a bit of a luck game, it proved to be more difficult than usual that night.

There were many tremendous bolts. However, many of those were overexposed because of the high volume of cloud lightning that served as a large, soft skylight.

Here are a few of the better images I made. Keep in mind that since I was inside seeking shelter, I didn’t have the luxury of changing angles. Also, the spots on the pictures are rain on the window I was shooting through.

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

It wasn’t until later that I knew how close the tornado was to passing directly overhead. One of my friends who is a storm junkie similar to myself took a screen shot of his radar software as the storm was declared to have a confirmed tornado.

This image shows the relative storm velocity. It essentially measures wind speed and direction relative to the storm itself. This is a key element used in predicting tornadoes.

I was at the “A” marker, approximately.

This radar image shows the relative storm velocity of a storm that produced a confirmed tornado in the St. Louis area.

The pink warning polygons are areas under tornado warning while the green are flash flood warning. Obviously, they can and do overlap.

If you notice the red patch on the radar image just south of the “A” marker, that is an area of the storm with winds moving in a different direction than the storm itself. That is where the tornado was.

I’m hoping to get a tornado photograph by the end of this storm season. It’s too bad that all of the strong storms that I run into have been at night.

I try to practice what I preach. To improve almost any picture, try changing your angle. Generally speaking, interesting images are shot from an angle that we wouldn’t ordinarily view from.

Over the last few days, I have had a few opportunities to try things differently.

The first of those situations was a track and field meet. I find it easier to shoot the field events since I don’t have a super-telephoto lens.

I made my way to the long jump area. The typical photo we are exposed to with long jump is straight on as they land in the sand pit. It usually is very visually appealing. Instead of doing that, I went to the side of the sand pit just past the end of the runway. I got as low as I could, literally having my camera on the ground.

New Castle senior Thatcher Thomas competes in the long jump Thursday afternoon. Thomas jumped 19 feet and 9 inches, securing his victory in the event. (C-T photos Max Gersh)

This is by no means an original idea. It just shows long jump in a way it isn’t ordinarily portrayed.

It also makes you wonder what is going on in the background with the guy in the hoodie! Albeit it was 45 degrees out, give or take.

For my next assignment, I had to photograph mobs of first graders on a farm. Often times, they move so sporadically, it is hard to get a nice composition. When I saw a group standing around the pig display, I worked the scene until they left.

First, I got low to the ground and shot through the bars of the pig pen.

First-grade students from Blue River Valley Elementary School look at a pig display early Friday afternoon on the Trennepohl Farms in Middletown. (C-T photo Max Gersh)

While I was happy with this photo, I wanted to show more of the pen and more of the kids. I took out my fisheye lens - a lens I don’t use too often - and reached over the rail and put the camera very low to the ground. To fire my camera this way, I was holding it upside-down.

First-grade students from Blue River Valley Elementary School look at a pig display early Friday afternoon on the Trennepohl Farms in Middletown. (C-T photo Max Gersh)

My latest assingment was to shoot a baseball game for all alumni of the high school that played baseball. When I arrived, I found out that there would be a home run derby before the game. I went back to my car to get equipment to set up a low angle remote right at home plate. Again, I used my fisheye lens.

Rick Purvis swings during the New Castle baseball alumni home run derby Saturday afternoon. Purvis graduated in 1998 and scored 12 home runs during his career with the Trojans. (C-T photo Max Gersh)

There was only one close call where my camera almost took a hit.

Next time you’re out taking pictures, drop to a knee or stand on a chair. It helps spice up a boring situation every time.

The sports department has kept me busy recently. On top of regular feature stories here and there, the paper is running articles on the players of the year from each sport. I’ve shot so many sports portraits that I tried to coin the phrase “sportrait.” (Don’t forget my underwater portrait of the two swimmers or the group shot of wrestlers.)

Unfortunately, it only takes a quick Google search to see that I was not the first to be so clever.

I’m fortunate that I get to do all of my sportraits as environmental portraits. I have a tremendous amount of leeway in how I shoot it.

There are a few things I look for when doing an environmental portrait.

1. Dynamic lighting
2. Clean or purposely integrated background
3. Something that ties the subject to their sport or profession
4. Probably some other stuff that I notice subconsciously

That being said, sometimes that isn’t so easy to do.

Many of the locations I’ve been shooting at are indoors in a cluttered room. I have a few options. I can either overpower the ambient light with my own lighting or alter my shooting angle to fill the background with a clean area of wall, floor or ceiling. Or in some cases, both techniques used in tandem work best.

In a recent portrait of a swimmer, I stood on a bench and shot at a slight downward angle with my 70-200mm lens to compress the subject, William Kelsik, against the pool in the background.

William Kelsik - Swimmer at New Castle Chrysler High School. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

The free space to the left provided a nice balance of negative space and gave the ambiance of a pool because it is a pool. When it went to print, we used that area to run the beginning of the story.

B1 of The Courier-Times on March 11, 2010. ©2010

On another outing, I was sent to photograph former Tri High coach Don Schwarzkopf.  The school school board had voted to rename the gym after him. Great. I’ll get a shot of him in the gym.

It’s never that easy.

Of course, there were multiple activities on the court. Instead, I went to the upper deck of the seating which was halfway compressed (collapsible bleachers compressed for storage) and left maybe two feet of room to work side to side.

I tried to frame him the best I could with his sectional championship banners in the background.

Former Tri coach Don Schwarzkopf looks out at the high school basketball court with three sectional championship banners hanging in the background. Schwarzkopf won all three of the titles. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

No matter how much I want to be in control of every portrait I shoot in terms of lighting, apparel and location, I can’t always have it my way.

For almost a week, I had a scheduled portrait set up with Shenandoah High School’s star diver, Kate Hillman. I showed up on time with all of my equipment. I went to the school’s office and had them page her.

When she came in and saw me with my gear, she said “Oh my gosh. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it!”

Yes it was. And she had locked her keys and swim apparel in her car. Oh well.

The original idea for the portrait was to have her in her swim gear in the halls of the school. Shenandoah doesn’t have a pool for her to practice in so she drives to a pool nearly half an hour away. We wanted to illustrate a swimmer without a pool.

Instead, I just posed her in the halls of the school as she was.

Shenandoah's Kate Hillman will dive for Indiana University next season. Hillman finished second in the state this season in diving. She also set an Indiana High School record in the sport this season. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

I wanted a backup option for this shoot. Since I couldn’t have any swim gear or a pool, I wanted something that had the schools name on it. We headed to the gym. At center court, the name Shenandoah wraps around in an arc.

An alternative portrait option of Shenandoah's Kate Hillman (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

This image clearly wasn’t as strong of a portrait as the first but I always like to have multiple options to present.

My latest shoot has definitely been my most difficult. A portrait of a gymnast. The problem is that I know very little about gymnastics and I am not sure how to best make an image that represents the sport and the subject.

I spent quite a bit of time with the subject, Ashlan Millikan, to ensure I made satisfactory images.

At first, I had her practice parts of her floor routine while I had my light aimed at her. As she interacted with it, I fired.

Ashlan Millikan poses parts of her floor routine in the path of my light. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

I knew an image like this was usable but I was not satisfied. I wanted something more dynamic. We headed over to the beam.

She began to practice parts of her routine. When I saw something that I thought might work, I had her do it a few times to insure I had a sharp image.

New Castle's Ashlan Millikan practices a move on the beam Wednesday afternoon. Millikan will be competing in the all-around competition in the state tournament this weekend. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

This ended up being the lead art for the sports page.

I wanted to have a backup image so I took a photograph that was more portrait-esque. That image ended up running as secondary art.

Ashlan Millikan poses for a portrait on the beam in New Castle's gymnastics room. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

Like I said, I’ve been busy.

Most of these images were lit with my DIY Beauty Dish. The light was set up on a stand and fired by Pocket Wizard.

Let’s just say I was bored the other night. I decided to shoot a self portrait.

The idea was to capture an image of myself off the ground glass in my Hasselblad 500 C/M. I had done something similar when I was testing the Hasselblad.

Looking down at the ground glass of a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at a stream in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

So, I began to setup.

I sat the Hasselblad on the table and aimed it at my recliner. It was important to have both the focus of the Hasselblad and the capturing camera, my Canon 1D Mark II, sharp. To pre-focus the Hasselblad, I laid a newspaper over the headrest on the recliner. The contrasty text made for a great focus chart.

Next was to position my 1D Mark II.

I knew I would need a unique positioning so I took out my Magic Arm, a multi-jointed camera mount. I carefully positioned it directly over the focusing screen of the Hasselblad.

I was shooting with the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L lens. This gave me a bit of versatility once I had the Magic Arm locked down.

I wanted the image to be spot lit. I put my Canon 550ex Speedlight on a stand and attached the Gary Fong PowerSnoot. To fire it, I used my Pocket Wizards.

I took a few test shots to fine tune the exposure.

The portrait itself looked okay but I wanted to see more of the Hasselblad. I took out a red LED flashlight and sat it on top of an old cheapo zoom lens to angle it at the lens of the Hasselblad.

Here is what the setup looked like.

The setup for the self-portrait. ©2010 Max Gersh

The flash is to the left and about eight feet up.

I was worried about the Magic Arm tipping over so I placed a somewhat heavy box on the back of its tripod base as a counter-weight.

When all was said and done, the portrait turned out kind of cool.

A self-portrait of Max Gersh seen through the ground glass of a Hasselblad 500 C/M. ©2010 Max Gersh

It was completely overkill and unnecessary.

But like I said, I was bored.

My week started off innocent enough. It was the first day that it really felt like Spring outside. I went to Baker Park to make a warm weather feature.

I hadn’t been there for 20 minutes when some kids showed with toy guns - or so I thought.

Kids show up at Baker Park in New Castle, IN with airsoft weapons. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

No. They weren’t real guns. But they were airsoft guns and probably didn’t belong on a playground.

Kids load their airsoft guns on the playground in Baker Park. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

A kid takes aim and fires his airsoft pistol in the Baker Park playground. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

Some parents called 911 and reported these kids. While the kids weren’t shooting at anyone, I think parents were concerned with ricochet.

A New Castle police officer gives a group of kids a warning after concerned parents called 911 to report the use of airsoft guns in the Baker Park playground. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

That was Monday.

Wednesday brought something much more exciting, journalisticly speaking.

I was headed back into New Castle after spending the morning grabbing some shots in Knightstown (which is in the southern part of Henry County). My phone rang. It was my news editor letting me know that an armed robbery had just taken place (but of course it was in the northern part of the county).

I arrived in time to watch officers from Henry and Randolph counties along with Indiana State Troopers  search the bright orange truck that was used as a getaway vehicle and the surrounding property.

Officers from Henry and Randolph counties and state troopers stand in front of the house where two men were arrested Wednesday after a robbery. The truck in the background was allegedly the getaway vehicle. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

After deciding jurisdiction, both of the suspects were transferred into the custody of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department.

John Michael Evans places his hands on his head as Henry County Sheriff's deputies and Indiana State Troopers transfer him into the custody of the Randolph County Sheriff's Department. Evans was caught at his residence after allegedly committing armed robbery in Losantville. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

The weapon wasn’t recovered until the next day.