April’s been an interesting month. voiceofsandiego.org reporters sent me out to photograph: a cemetery manager; the creators of a maglev train; a water conservationist; a true crime author; a whole bunch of sprinklers and water fountains; the U.S. Attorney and a local FBI agent; a leading expert on hoaxes; just about every top official in city government; school board meetings; personnel commission hearings; the head of the Union-Tribune’s opinion section; students doing test prep work; a man who thinks he’s got a shot at the Nobel Peace Prize for studying the first moments of the universe; our economic panel; and, a whole bunch of other photos we haven’t even run yet.
A few observations that stand out from April:
- This photo got rave reviews. The woman standing at the podium is Mary Lewis, the city’s chief financial officer. She’s making a presentation to the press about the mayor’s budget proposals. I have to admit, I almost didn’t take this image. Then, once I had the photo, I almost didn’t run it. But people seemed to really dig it. Good to see the readers enjoy some of the artsy shots I’m taking.
- I photographed Todd Gloria on the border of North Park and South Park the other day for this Q&A by Rani Gupta. While we did the portrait, nearly every person that walked past stopped to say hello to Todd. He even got honks and waves from passing cars. Not sure whether this speaks to the fact that Todd Gloria’s really got his name and face out in the district, or that people are actually paying attention to who’s running this city.
- The Pulitzer Prizes came out and I was really impressed by the photos of Obama’s rise taken by New York Times photographer Damon Winter. I posted this on Twitter already, but didn’t share it with you here. I’m always looking for good inspirational photography like this, so if you see any, be sure to send it my way.
My colleagues Will Carless and Kelly Bennett wrote a really compelling piece, released earlier this month, about a Bay Area man who has pulled millions of dollars out of some questionable condo deals in Escondido. It took about 50 phone calls to get this booking photo of the man, Jim McConville, but I’m happy we did. Kudos as well to my new colleague Sarah Johnson for all the work she did on the charts, maps and web presentation.-
— SAM HODGSON