LEFTeyeSTORIES are the good, the bad, and sometimes funny things that happen during a photo assignment that aren’t part of the published story about the subject or event. They are the backstories of the photos that are about the published story.
Can You Keep a Secret?
Family and friends throw a 60th birthday party for Glen Campbell.
Keep readingMobsters, Terrorists and Shell Games…Oh My!
The Ozarks isn’t known for producing high profile mobsters and terrorists but by way of the Federal Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, we have hosted a number including Robert Stroud (Bird Man of Alcatraz). THE TERRORIST More recently,…
Keep readingA Silent Bond
Can you imagine not speaking to your spouse…the one you live with…for a week? Well, OK…how about a month? Or decades…OR EVER? Through their courtship and through four decades of marriage that produced three children, Teddy and Nora Welch never…
Keep readingMe and the KKK: close encounters of the strange kind
AWKWARD…is really the only way to describe my interaction with the Klan. It was the sort of awkwardness I remember having when, as a kid, I paid to see a lady with a beard at a summer carnival. I stared…
Keep readingChained Smoker
The subjects of my photographs are often taken aback at the fifteen seconds of fame they often come into when the photos and story about them are distributed nationally and in some cases worldwide. Such was the case with “Rick”…
Keep readingWhen “Funny” Throws Its Hat Into The Political Ring
I was rarely the “pool” photographer during political campaign seasons. Those coveted spots are usually assigned to the staff photographers of the major news outlets. They travel with the candidate in the motorcade and are generally granted closer access resulting in…
Keep readingDeath Sentence Commuted: An Epiphany For Me
The Pope had requested clemency for other death row inmates in Missouri and in other states, but without success. So, this is suddenly a national news story and I’m on the road to meet reporters from the Times and the…
Keep readingHey, I’m Alive!…part two
The photo assignment was to drive to a little town in Missouri where a fellow had some pieces of a plane his late father had crashed in 1963. The man was planning to gather more of the plane, rebuild it…
Keep readingMISFIRE!
Unlike fishermen, photographers usually don’t like to talk about “the one that got away”. But, I have decided to swallow my pride and add my story of the one that got away to the LEFTeyeSTORIES files. In the summer of…
Keep readingFishing with “W”
Three weeks before the 2000 election when George W. Bush eked out a very contested victory over Al Gore, the governor made a stop in the Ozarks in support of Roy Blunt who was running for the 7th district house…
Keep reading“Wasteland” in the Ozarks
The 2010 Oscar nominated documentary film, “Wasteland” profiles a few of the estimated 250,000 people in Brazil who make their living reusing and recycling the trash the rest of the population generates. The Ozarks has its own 1976 version of…
Keep readingFrozen Forms
Using a handheld flash and a helper, nighttime skaters are frozen in time capturing ballet like movements.
Keep readingMANHUNT…but without the Hollywood ending
A 1977 Ozarks manhunt ends without the Hollywood ending as emotions take a toll on lawmen.
Keep readingOne Face in a Sea of Camouflage
Little girl looks for a familiar face in a sea of returning soldiers from the first gulf war.
Keep readingAl Gore Stumps from a Block
What do you do when your candidate needs to give a “stump speech” and there’s not the usual platform nor even a plain old “stump” to be had on a shopping center parking lot? Grab a couple of concrete blocks!
Keep readingFacial Expressions and a Carnival Sideshow
Kids are always a sure bet when you are looking for great facial expressions and facial expressions “sell” the photo. The year was 1977 so the rules of engagement when photographing children (even if they are in a public area)…
Keep readingStumped; No Poker Face Here
Assignment: Get front page “art” from a checkers tournament at the senior citizens center. Wow….OK, that’s a pretty typical photo assignment when you are small town newspaper photojournalist in middle America. That’s where a lot of us start and where…
Keep readingTrout Day-Same Song; New Tune
March 1st is the official opening of trout season in Missouri. Every year, the drill is the same. Thousands of fishermen gather at one of Missouri’s four cold water trout parks to stand in or by the river in often…
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