Ray Whitehouse Photography

I spent time last weekend making pictures at the Northwestern University swimming pool during a varsity swim meet.

I wasn't on assignment so my goal was to shoot pictures that I liked. This is not to say I don’t like the pictures I shoot while on assignment. What I am saying is that I had no directive of what to shoot. There was no need to get the winning swimmer or document the peak action. I just wandered around the pool and looked for interesting occurrences that were usually subtler. Many of them didn’t even occur in the water. I'll use the term "visual wandering" for the aforementioned kind of shooting.

Below are the pictures I like the most:

On an unseasonably warm January night, hundreds of freshman and a few sophomores packed an auditorium in Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School. When they walked in, each found a chair with a sealed envelope addressed to them. The envelopes contained the name of the sorority house they had been selected to join. The letters had been laid out by new member educators, members of sororities who had served as tour guides to introduce the unaffiliated women to all 12 houses in Northwestern's Pan-Hellenic Association.

The new member educators started a count down from 10. The volume rose with every number. When the countdown reached zero, the room's occupants tore open the letters. Many erupted with screams of jubilation and started embracing the women around them. Few were quiet. Clutching their envelopes, the women scurried through the side exit of the auditorium onto the lawn east of the building. Members from each sorority were there to meet their newest additions. More screams and jubilation filled the night air.

Below are pictures from that night:

The sunset yesterday was awesome. Below are two pictures of it.

I visited the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza on Monday and came away with a couple of photos I liked.

I've photographed two Northwestern University basketball games in the last two days. For the majority of both games, I shot about 15 feet above the court parallel to the baseline on the first balcony. 

Evanston, IL -- December 18, 2011 -- Northwestern forward John Shurna receives a pass during a game between the Eastern Illinois Panthers and the Northwestern Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Ray Whitehouse/The Daily Northwestern

Diagram:

I shot in a different location than the standard baseline position because I want to figure out where I can make the best pictures. It's likely that sitting on the baseline is the best place to make pictures because that's where most photographers sit. That said, I wanted to explore different options before I decided to go back to shooting where most other photographers sit.

Below are links to slideshows from each game.

Northwestern 87, Eastern Illinois 72

Northwestern 70, Central Connecticut State 64

In the two games, I haven't come to a definitive conclusion. I've missed shots because of my location but I've also gotten shots I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

I want to start this post by explaining why I haven't blogged in more than a month.

In short, I've spent my time doing things that aren't germane to this blog. That statement brings up a question: What is germane to this blog?  

In an earlier post, I said:

"Instead of giving a recap of what I've done visually since my last post, I want to discuss larger issues in journalism, film, and photography that intersect with my work. In this way, I hope to positively contribute to the discourse in these topics."  

In re-reading my recent posts, I cannot say that I have followed my stated goal of the blog. I have failed to follow my stated goal because my goals for the blog changed. While I would like to discuss larger issues in journalism, film and photography, I also want to showcase my personal work.

My personal work is made up of pictures I shoot that are not for any assignment. Instead, I try to let my curiosity manifest itself visually.

Recently, my chance to do personal work generally only happens on my off-days from work at The Oregonian. Because of my trip to Chicago for two freelance assignments, I've had only five days, including today, to shoot personal work since my last post.  

Today is the day I will share some the personal work I've done since October 4.

Portland, Oregon -- November 6, 2011 -- Blake Hicks, a freelance acrobat who specializes in flat ground BMX biking, rides his bike at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. According to Hicks, who worked with Cirque du Soleil last summer, he sometimes spends nine or ten hours of the day at the park practicing.

As I roamed around Portland during my second week, I tried to make pictures that had multiple layers of information. The two images below were the ones I felt were the most successful.

Portland, Oregon -- October 2, 2011 --  Serge Connan, right, inspects his motorcycle outside his home with his father, Camille, who was visiting from France. Serge's sons Jameson, left, and Tennessee, right, rode their bicycles while their father cleaned his motorcycle.

Portland, Oregon -- September 30, 2011 -- SW Morrison Street between 7th St. and Park Ave.

I had a great first week in Portland. Visually, I saw a lot of things I don't often see. Below are a few examples.

Downtown 5th Street.

Rose Center MAX Station.

60th Street near the MAX station.

Downtown 9th Street.

Cyclists wait while the center section of Hawthorne Bridge rises to let a boat pass.

I spent my first day in Portland unpacking, listening to Ira Glass and exploring downtown with my Camera.

Below are my favorites from the day:

P.S. Due to Medill rules about the journalism residency program, my next blog post will likely appear in mid-December.

I heard about a robbery at a nearby bank on the police scanner this afternoon. This was no ordinary robbery, though.

First off, the robber only stole $20. The officers didn't go into much detail about the logistics of the theft on the radio and it left me curious how one would enter a bank and steal just $20. I still have yet to come up with a plausible explanation.

The second uncommon aspect of the robbery was the venue choice. The thief robbed a bank .3 miles from the Greensboro Police Department. Robbing a bank so close to the GPD would decrease the response time and thus limit the escape time a thief had. Very curious.

Third, the thief was reported to have left on foot. The odds of outrunning the GPD with only a .3-mile head start just seem so small that it wouldn't even make sense to try.

My boss, News and Record Photo Director Rob Brown, sent me out to see if there was anything newsworthy and picture-worthy.

When I arrived at the bank, it vaguely resembled a scene in the movie The Blues Brothers. There were at least five cop cars and 10 officers standing around the bank that had just been robbed of $20.

I spotted a police dog in a nearby field trying to pick up a scent. No luck.

(continued below)

I returned to the bank and walked around the perimeter. There wasn't much going on so I made the decision to drive around the neighborhood and see if any other nearby GPD officers had made any progress in finding the thief. I saw a cop head down Textile Drive and make a right onto Yanceyville Street. I followed.

As I made the right, I was greeted by another set of cop cars parked in a line with flashing lights in the right lane. Then I saw five police officers talking with a man in handcuffs and inspecting his belongings. I was .7 miles away from the crime scene. This must be an arrest in relation to the $20 dollar robbery, I thought. I made some pictures at the scene including this one:

I headed back to the paper after the GPD put the handcuffed man in a police car. Mr. Brown liked the image and wanted to run it in the paper. Unfortunately, within two hours of making this picture, the GPD said the arrest I photographed was unrelated to the robbery.

My inferences about the arrest were incorrect. I was left with more questions than answers. Most pressing among them:

Who was the person I actually photographed?

What crime was the suspect accused of?

And lest we forget: The mystery of the thief who stole $20 from a bank .3 miles away from a police station remains unsolved.