Visitors view antique cars on display during the Grandview Park 100th Anniversary celebration Sunday, July 27, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal) Click here for more photos

I shot a few different angles at the car show and had a hard time picking which one I liked best. The story was about the 100th anniversary of Grandview park, so I liked the bandshell reflected in the mirror. One of the shots showed the reflection better, but this one showed a little more atmosphere from the celebration. Check out the other shots in the photo gallery and tell me if you think I made the right choice. Feedback is always welcome.

Madison Gunderson, 6, Hubbard, hangs on tight during the Mutton Bustin’ at the Dakota-Thurston County Fair Friday, July 25, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal) Click here for more photos.

Cute kids riding sheep. It’s hard to not get a good photo. Taken with a Canon 40D and 100-400mm lens.

Cherokee’s Mark Johnson makes a diving catch against Davenport Assumption during Iowa class 2A state baseball action in Des Moines Saturday, July, 26, 2008. Cherokee fell, 4-2. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal) Click here for a photo gallery from the game.

The nice thing about shooting at Principal Park in Des Moines is all the different camera angles that are possible when shooting baseball. The Iowa High School Athletic Association has a rule that there needs to be a designated photo spot of photographers are going to shoot from inside the fence during a baseball game. That spot has to be clearly marked and is considered a dead-ball zone. That rule isn’t always enforced, but for most regular season games we are rather limited to where we can shoot from.

They still have that rule at the state baseball tournament, and the are two photo wells for us to shoot from, one on the first base side on one by third base. But Principal Park has so many locations in the stands and walkways that provide great camera angles that it makes it much easier to cover the games.

Tomorrow I have to say goodbye to Norma Azpeitia, the Journal’s reporter who is in charge of Hispanos Unidos, the free Hispanic newspaper.

I’ll admit that I have never read any of Norma’s stories. (I only know three phrases in Spanish, and two of them will get my face slapped.) But whenever I am out in the Hispanic community I constantly hear people singing praises about Norma and her stories, so I know she’s been doing a wonderful job.

Norma is a hard worker, a great friend, and she’s been a joy to work with. But now it’s time for her to head to greener pastures working in public relations and recruiting at Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon. We will miss you, Norma, but we wish you good luck at your new job.

Tim arranged for a photographer from one of our sister papers to cover the Cherokee baseball game at the state tournament today, so I ended up going to Winnebago for their annual Pow Wow. Click here for a photo gallery.

Dancers participate in the grand entry duting the Winnebago Powwow in Winnebago, Nebraska, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Aspen LaPointe, 9, Winnebago, sports a traditional head dress during the Winnebago Powwow in Winnebago, Nebraska, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

When I woke up this morning one of my neighbors had already moved the tree limb (it was covering both our cars,) but I was left with part of the limb that punched a hole into my car between the hood and windshield. Already spoke to my insurance agent, sounds like they are having a busy day. But at least I should be in a rental car in a couple of hours.

It looks like I may be driving a rental car when I go to Des Moines for the state baseball tournament. It’s still raining and there is a down power line in front of my place, so I didn’t poke around too much to see how bad it is, but I will be getting a new wind shield and there is some body damage. “Hello, State Farm…….”

I will be off for a couple of days, then I will be heading to Des Moines for the final two rounds of the Iowa State baseball tournament starting Thursday. Cherokee has already won their first round game and plays Solon in the 2A semi-finals on Thursday. Sioux City North has their 4A opening round game against Marshalltown on Wednesday and Gehlen Catholic opens against Iowa Mennonite Monday in 1A. Good luck to all of our area teams.

KPTH’s Jackie makes Miranda Bok smile during the RiverCade smile contest at Dairy Queen on Floyd Blvd Sunday, July 13, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

The other day a gal came up to me I told me that I did a great job on those photos. I thanked her even though I had no idea which photos she was talking about. Then she asked if I was the one who combined the photos or if someone else did that.

Combine the photos? I thought she probably meant who did the page layout and I told her that the copy editors do that. She told me “It was so neat the way the one photo was put on top of the other.” Huh? OK, she had me stumped, so I finally asked her which photos she was talking about.”The smile contest. The photos of the little girl with Jackie.”

I explained that it was not two photos combined, but that was the way the photo was shot. It was taken with a 70-200mm lens, and the longer lens compressed the image and the shallow depth of field put the focus on the girl.

Nowadays most people have heard of PhotoShop and realize how easy it is to manipulate images, and it scares me that some people automatically assume that my images have been manipulated. Most news photographers, including myself and my coworkers, follow pretty strict ethical guidelines when it comes working with our images. We will crop our photos, color correct them, lighten or darken them as needed so they will reproduce better in the paper. But we will not do anything that alters the content of the image. (There are exceptions for photo illustrations, but they will always be clearly marked as illustrations.)

I know there are a few bad apples out there in our industry who will alter their photos, but most of us strive to produce good photos that are truthful and accurate.

It happens to all of us at one time or another… a stray hair might be sticking up, a piece of food stuck in the teeth or maybe a booger hanging from the nose. Sometimes when I’m shooting a portrait, people will ask if their hair looks OK or if their tie is straight. But I’ve never really figured out the most polite way to tell someone that they have a booger hanging from their nose.

The other day I was photographing someone and they had one hanging down bigger than life. I tried to be polite, pointed to my nose and said “Uh, you may want to wipe,” but they didn’t get the hint.  I repeated myself and they did wipe it away as they looked a bit embarrassed.

I know if I was the one being photographed, I would much rather have one person point out that embarrassing fact than have the photo wind up in the paper for thousands to see. I guess the easiest thing to do is be blunt and tell the person “You have a booger hanging from your nose.” But if you know how I could be direct, yet more polite, I am open to suggestions.