Anyway, I bought a GoPro from my photo editor last week at a great value for use in my sports coverage and the climbing gym seemed like a great opportunity to give it a test run.  It uses a fisheye lens, which makes it great for video when worn on a headband or chest harness.  I didn’t do any top-rope climbing today, but I did do some bouldering which made for decent enough video.

GoPro Climbing at Urban Rocks Gym in Chattanooga from Doug Strickland on Vimeo.

Using a head-strap mounted GoPro while bouldering at Urban Rocks Climbing Gym in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I wasn’t doing very difficult routes, and this was mostly just to test out the GoPro.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 02, 2012. Marijuana plants sit under a sun lamp in a basement room of a home at 241 Longview Dr. in Rossville, Ga. which was converted into a growing facility. The home was raided by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force Monday where an estimated $250,000 worth of marijuana plants were found.

April has been a hectic month here at the Times Free Press, but I also think it has been the best so far.  It began with a bang when I was sent out to Rossville, Ga. for an (almost) exclusive story after undercover police raided a home where the owners were (allegedly) growing around $250,000 worth of marijuana plants.  The alleged plants are above.

I couldn’t photograph any of the officers because they were all still undercover, but they took me on a tour through the home.  When I walked in the front door, the smell of the plants was overwhelming.  Piles of buds sat on the wood floor and tables in the living room next to a plant where the accused had allegedly been picking them when the police burst in to arrest them.  Three bedrooms on the main floor of the house had been converted into hot rooms with sun lamps hovering over groves of plants.  The original plants, from which cuttings were taken to grow new ones, were in the basement next to a small nursery of tiny marijuana plants.  Another room packed wall to wall with full grown plants was also in the basement.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 05, 2012. U.S. Senator Bob Corker speaks to a crowd from behind a flag-covered podium during a Rotary Club of Chattanooga luncheon at the Chattanooga Convention Center Thursday. Senator Corker spoke at the luncheon about the importance of free enterprise to the U.S. economy.

I’ve also been getting a lot of assignments to photograph politicians lately.  Between the upcoming Republican primary elections for a local congressional seat and regular visits from Governor Bill Haslam and Senator Bob Corker, they all start to look the same so I work very hard to come back to the newsroom with an interesting take on their visits.  I want to move past the smokescreen that is a political appearance and get something with a little more interest.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 04, 2012. Ben Eddy, center, and his sisters Megan, center right, and Samantha reach for a terrier puppy carried by McKamey Animal Center volunteer Caitlin Woodfin while mom Angela watches. The Eddys came to McKamey to adopt a new dog after their old dog passed away four months ago.

April also marked the second of my two Moments at the Times Free Press.  Moment is our weekly photo column, rotated between photographers, with an accompanying online multimedia component.  They are moments in the lives of local Chattanoogans, sometimes important events and other times everyday occurrences that often go unnoticed.  My first moment was a bride-to-be making her first trip to try on wedding dresses with her family, and this time I found a family adopting a puppy from McKamey Animal Center.  Both can be found at the link above, or in my portfolio section here.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 21, 2012. Victoria Justice smiles on stage after a young boy asks her to marry him while taking questions from the audience at the Kidz Expo in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Saturday. Justice, the star of the Nickelodeon television show Victorious, was the special guest at the expo.

My busiest day came on Saturday of last week.  I photographed the first ever Kidz Expo, which was a Times Free Press sponsored event, at the Chattanooga Convention Center.  It was a madhouse, with kids and their parents crowding into the large hall for games, activities booths, and inflatables, but it made from some great photo opportunities as well.  The big moment of the day was a visit from Victoria Justice, star of Nickelodeon’s show Victorious.  Kids and their parents were packed elbow to elbow just to get the chance to glimpse the starlet, and some were lined up for four or five hours to have their photo made with her.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 21, 2012. People hold up cameras above the crowd to photograph Victoria Justice as she arrives at the Kidz Expo in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Saturday.

When Adam Poulise and I sat down with her for our interview after it was all over, we found her to be a charming and kind girl who truly cared about her fans.  She made the effort to try and get photographs with as many of the kids as she had time for during the photo session, and took nearly an hour of questions from the audience while on stage, ultimately running so far over her scheduled time that she was late for a flight back to L.A. out of Atlanta when she finally left.  If only all stars cared so much.

Looking out the open door of the helicopter over Ringgold, Ga. To get the photo, I wrapped the camera strap around my arm four times before sticking it out away from me.

I never thought I’d get to do anything that would top covering two Great American Balloon Races via ride-along in Danville, but today I got to go up in a helicopter to cover the one year anniversary of the tornadoes that hit our area last April.  I’ve ridden in commercial airplanes before, but never in a helicopter, and certainly never in a helicopter with open doors.  When Robin Rudd asked me if I wanted the assignment, it took everything I had not to jump in the air when I said yes.  ”Remember to take your dramamine!” Robin joked the night before the assignment.

I went up with the Times Free Press’s videographer Patrick Smith.  Our goal was to re-create photos taken by staff photographer Dan Henry last April, immediately after the tornadoes hit, for a “before and after” series.  We each had a handout pamphlet of all of the photographs we needed to re-create.  Since I had never been up in the chopper before or even seen some of the damage, Patrick was going to point out each of the landmarks I needed to photograph.  He was also going to take video of the changes in the year since the tornado hit for an updated video.

Our ride, a Robinson R44 model helicopter lands in a field on the north side of the Tennessee River.

We went to a field on the north side of the Tennessee River, across the street from Greenlife Grocery and close to U.S. 27 and the Olgiati Bridge, to wait for our ride.  Our pilot was Mike, a local freelance helicopter pilot who flies out of the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain, and whom the paper frequently contracts for aerial photography.  Our ride was a Robinson R44 helicopter.  The chopper landed quickly in the field ahead of us, and when Mike powered down the rotors enough that we weren’t being blown away we hopped inside.

Patrick snagged the front seat of the helicopter because the wind causes a lot of camera shake, and the bubble would help shield against the wind.  I strapped myself into the back seat, hooked both of my cameras snugly around my neck, and set my bag in the fourth seat, and we were off.

Mike radios the local air traffic controller for clearance to travel out of the city and over to Ringgold, Ga. safely.

We started out immediately over the city, looping around above U.S. 27 and then following interstate 24 over Missionary Ridge.  As soon as we left the ground I started taking photos for file images at the newspaper.  You never know when a photo of Ross’s Landing or AT&T Park from the air might be needed.  The wind was whipping my camera around like crazy if I stuck it out too far, so I tried to keep my shutter speeds up to compensate a bit and, of course, to keep both of them securely around my neck.

The view from my seat as we traveled over Brainerd on our way to Ringgold, Ga.

We were traveling at about 1500 feet for most of the trip, but I never would’ve guessed from looking down while hanging out of the side of the helicopter taking photos.  On the few occasions where I did look straight down, I never got the same sense of vertigo that I did with the balloon rides.  Maybe it was because I was strapped into a seat, or maybe it was because we were pulling a lot more speed and everything wasn’t so still below me.

When we got to Ringgold, the task of re-creating the photos Dan shot began.  Patrick started pointing out the landmarks to me, but we were in for a few surprises.  Two of the hotels that were damaged by the tornadoes had been bulldozed, as had a Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant and a Shell gas station.  We circled around the area three times as I shot tight photos in 360 degrees of what was left of the buildings, as well as a BP gas station that had been completely rebuilt.

Patrick is serious about his video work.

From there we moved over a ridge to a rural valley area that had been hit even harder by the tornadoes.  Entire houses had been demolished in the initial wave, and huge lines of trees had been taken down by the tornadoes.  Most of the homes had been rebuilt by now, but there were a few notable exceptions.  Concrete driveways leading to empty dirt outlines marked the remains of some homes, and one was still a pile of neglected debris that the owner had simply left.

After a few more circles around this area, we decided it was time to head back to Chattanooga.  As with our initial pass through the city, I made sure to shoot everything I thought might be important to have aerial images of, including the historic and unused Engel Stadium, which is now being renovated by a film company to shoot the movie “42″ about Jackie Robinson.  As we landed in the same field near the river, Mike warned us to exit ahead of the helicopter.  ”300 people a year lose a limb to a tail rotor, so don’t go behind the chopper!” he said as we thanked him and climbed out of the helicopter.  I shakily walked forward, trying to get the blood pumping through my legs again.  I love this job.

Stay tuned to my Facebook page or Twitter feed for an online gallery of the aerials of Ringgold later this week from the Times Free Press web site.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 20, 2012. Aerial view of Coolidge Park and the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Friday.

Jake Daniels, whispering insidiously on our way to the walls because he knows what's in store for us...

Jake Daniels, a staff photographer at the Times Free Press, decided to take Ashlee Culverhouse, the other photo intern, and I hiking to the Walls of Jericho on Monteagle Mountain on the Tennessee, Alabama border today.  I’ve never been a big hiker, and unfortunately since graduating from college I’ve become horribly out of shape.  I rock climb about three days each week, but that is apparently not enough to keep me in shape for a hike like this.  8 miles and 1,000 feet of elevation change over about five hours makes for two tired photo interns.

The day started with an hour drive to Monteagle Mountain, about twenty miles south of Sewanee: The University of the South.  Once we arrived, we had a steep descent down the side of the mountain for about three miles.  I did my best not to think about the return trip on our way down…

Jake tries to coax Ashlee's jack-russel terrier Aphid across a bridge made from a fallen tree trunk while she not so quietly freaks out in the background.

We ran across several small caves on the way down, and one even had a rope leading into it that had been tied off onto a nearby tree.  We decided there must be cavers down below, and Jake remarked on the terrible knot they had tied around the tree before we moved on.  We came to what could only loosely be called a bridge crossing a stream.  It had been made from a fallen tree trunk that someone must’ve decided would make a great bridge.  They shaved off the top to make it smooth and added a rickety railing that necessitated leaning off of the left side of the trunk as you crossed, because the positioning made it impossible to put your center of gravity over the middle of the log.  Jake coaxed Aphid, Ashlee’s jack-russel terrier, across with more than a little pressure and we continued on.

I sat on a hammock made from vines that someone set up by a camp site.

When we got to the campsites we found a cool hammock that someone had constructed out of vines.  It didn’t look very sturdy, but I took a seat and apart from being a little wet it held up pretty well.  It’s not the sort of thing I’d want to lay down on though…

Jake climbs up a rock face at the back of the walls.

When we finally got to the walls, it was a pretty cool place.  It was basically a wide rock canyon that had been carved out by a millennia of water flow.  We climbed around a bit and explored the niches and crevices of the area before starting the long trek back.  After many, many, (many) breaks on our trip back up the hill, we finally made it much to mine and Ashlee’s relief.  After briefly cursing Jake, we headed back to Chattanooga for dinner and some much deserved margaritas.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 20, 2012. Chattanooga Lookouts designated hitter Brian Cavazos-Galvez warms up in center field before the Lookouts' final game of their series against the Birmingham Barons in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Thursday. The Lookouts won 9-2.

I’ve got a 300mm lens on a tripod slung over one shoulder and a 400 in a case at my feet, and that can only mean one thing: it’s baseball season.  Okay, baseball season actually started a few weeks ago, but I don’t get to pick my assignments at the Times Free Press so it’s not like I get to shoot baseball every day.

America’s past-time is a tough sport to photograph, but I’m lucky enough to have played as a kid so I know where to prefocus for possible upcoming plays.  Plays at the bases, especially when a player is sliding, usually make for the best action shots.  Players fielding the ball have to be pretty dramatic to make a good impression since you’ve only got one player.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - March 24, 2012. Baylor pitcher McLain Bachus pitches the ball during their home game against Montgomery Bell Academy Saturday.

We’re lucky to have a minor league baseball team here in Chattanooga, the Lookouts.  While it’s not quite the big leagues, it’s closer than I’ve ever been before.  The atmosphere reminds me of the Mocs games at McKenzie arena.  The stadium is big, the sound is full, and the fans are charged.  The players (mostly) know how to play too, but that doesn’t necessarily work to my advantage.  If they’re hitting well, it means more plays at the bases, but conversely if they’re pitching well it means less action overall.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 20, 2012. Chattanooga Lookouts center fielder Anthony Jackson steals second base ahead of a throw to Barons second baseman Erik Morrison during the Lookouts' final game of their series against the Birmingham Barons in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Thursday. The Lookouts won 9-2.

High school baseball and softball is more small scale, but I can get close to the players at lower angles than with the Lookouts.  I can also go pretty much anywhere around the field, which helps add some variety to the photos.  The Lookouts games are usually so crowded that while I can shoot from the stands, it makes moving from spot to spot very difficult.  I feel like I’m free to be much more creative on the smaller scale, though there’s still the ever-present pressure to deliver “the shot.”

I really can’t wait to see what comes from the rest of the spring season.  I feel like every time I go to a game I come back with something more interesting.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - April 12, 2012. Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, straightens his tie in a restroom on the second floor of the Chattanooga Convention Center on Thursday before speaking at Bryan College's Opportunity Program dinner. Reagan was the keynote speaker at the dinner, which raises funds for scholarships for academically qualified students from low-income families.

(Or how I learned to stop worrying and take chances)

Sometimes as photojournalists we have to take chances to make great photographs.  True storytelling images don’t just leap out at us (well, not often, anyway) and getting down to the heart of a story takes hard work, courage, and a little bit of luck.

Michael Reagan is the son of former president Ronald Reagan, and the man is every bit the smooth politician his father was (even though he has never held public office).  A former radio host turned Republican strategist and speaker, he is an incredibly visible and public figure.  Charming and disarming, he could talk even the staunchest liberal into liking him as a person.

So it was the day I was assigned to cover his keynote speech at Bryan College’s Opportunity Program dinner at the Chattanooga Convention Center.  The whole event was a delightfully typical P.R. stage.  I was ushered up to the second floor balcony where Mr. Reagan was signing books and having his picture taken with some of larger donors to Bryan’s event.  The college’s P.R. manager lead me to him where he cordially introduced himself as “Michael,” and I proceeded to get the usual photos of handshakes and book signings.  Times Free Press reporter Adam Poulisse (who is also an intern) spent about fifteen minutes chatting with Mr. Reagan for his story before turning him over to WRCB’s anchor for a video interview.  I stuck around, despite having plenty of the typical public speaker images, hoping for something a little bit more interesting.  After the last interview, Mr. Reagan shook a few more hands, signed a few more books, and the donors were ushered from the balcony.  It was just me, the P.R. manager, the TV cameraman, and the star.

He said he needed to use the restroom before the dinner and his speech and stepped into the small men’s restroom nearby.  I waited about thirty seconds before remarking to the P.R. rep, “Do you think he would mind if I stepped in and took a photo of him at the mirror?”

“You’d have to ask him that!” he laughed.  I looked at the cameraman, shrugged, and walked into the restroom alone just as Michael was exiting the single stall in the tiny room.  Un-phased, he said “You don’t want a picture of me in here do you?” and I replied “Would you mind if I got one of you cleaning up at the sink?” hoping to photograph him washing his hands.  ”You don’t think I look that bad do you?” he joked as he washed up, dried his hands, and…adjusted his tie.  It lasted a fraction of a second because, really, he looked straight-laced as he could be, but checking your tie in the bathroom mirror is just what men in suits do, and I had it.

It was a candid and private photograph of a man who has spent nearly his entire life in the public spotlight preparing to return to that world.  From there, he went on to shake more hands, eat dinner with a table of guests, and give his speech at a podium, but none of that was any different from all the other photos taken of him.  My photo of Michael at the mirror ran on the front of the metro section the next day in place of the usual handshake photos.  If I had second guessed myself or worried about his reaction to me walking into the bathroom behind him carrying two cameras, I would have missed a great opportunity.  As it was, I am lucky that Michael is such a charming and easygoing figure.  Not everyone would’ve reacted so well.

Gauge your subjects and take chances, photographers.  It almost always pays off in the end.

Scottie Mayfield smiles while wearing his signature bowtie as he greets guests on the porch of of Myra and Joel Riley's home in Athens, Tn. during a fundraiser Tuesday evening. Mayfield, who is challenging Rep. Chuck Fleischmann for congress after this year's redistricting, spoke about his qualifications and government overspending during his speech at the fundraiser.

Another month has passed during my internship at the Times Free Press.  Terrifyingly, that means I only have three left here.   It was a busy March, too.  Three days in, the area was hit by yet another round of devastating tornados.  The worst of the damage was covered by Angela Lewis and Ashlee Culverhouse, but I was on my way to a political event in Athens, TN and took a detour through Cleveland to find some of the tornado damage there.

The house I found had a mobile home trailer in their front yard that had been blown from nearly 150 feet away.  It narrowly missed blowing through their home, and was stopped only by a snapped tree in their front yard.  Fifteen feet to the left or right and it would have blow into another home.  Luckily, the trailer was uninhabited.

I also got to shoot the girls’ state basketball championships in Nashville, where the local GPS took home the title for the second year in a row.  There’s nothing quite like a state championship game, and the emotion is palpable.

By far the coolest moment of the month was getting to photograph open heart surgery at Memorial Hospital.  I had been sent to cover a press conference where they were announcing spending on additional facilities.  Dave Flessner, our business editor, talked with the PR officer for Memorial and the PR guy and I (with a little luck running into the surgical director on her way out the door) worked our way into their new surgical facilities.  After outfitting ourselves in surgical scrubs, masks, and hair nets, a nurse led us into the cardiac surgery room where doctors were just getting ready to hook the patient up to a bypass machine.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think to snap a picture of myself decked out in scrubs, but that’s life.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - March 03, 2012. GPS's Chadarryl Clay, center, holds up two fingers while celebrating with her teammates after winning the TSSAA girls basketball division II-AA state championship game at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tn. GPS's win against Ensworth marks their second state championship title in a row.

This probably won’t happen very often with shoots during my internship with the Times Free Press, but this assignment was so much fun that I had to share it in its own post. I got to shoot the state TSSAA division II-AA girls basketball final in Nashville on Saturday where Chattanooga’s own Girls Preparatory School was competing for the state title for the second year in a row.  As usual, all photos are the property of the Chattanooga Times Free-Press and cannot be used without permission.

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - February 28, 2012. Donna Green cries during a meeting in the gymnasium of East Hamilton High School held to discuss the re-zoning of Hamilton County school districts. Green's children were zoned for East Hamilton, but her fifth grader is being rezoned for Ooltewah while her seventh grader will remain grandfathered in to East Hamilton.

February has come and gone (let’s face it, even February 29th knows it’s not a real day) and so passes another month of my internship at the Times Free Press.  It has certainly been an exciting one.  I got to photograph Governor Bill Haslam touring the new Amazon distribution facility that opened in town.  I got to go beneath the streets of Chattanooga.  I even got threatened by another lovely North Georgia resident for photographing his “private property” (which happened to be on fire) from a public street.  Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good month!

The days where I’m extremely busy have been the best.  I love the challenge of racing from one assignment to another and still delivering good storytelling photographs from each.  While sometimes it is nice, and necessary, to take your time on a story, full days go by the fastest and seem the most exciting.

I’m getting more and more chances to refine my portrait photography.  I’m really excited about this, because I feel like portraits and light have been my biggest challenges as a photographer.  I also really love doing environmental portraits, so any chance I get to hone that skill is great.

You can see some of my favorite images from February below (save the ones in my earlier post).  All images are the copyright of the Times Free Press and cannot be reproduced without permission.