Martha’s Vineyard

Bridge Building (and Breaking)

Posted by Ivy

I’m a little behind on blog posts from my assignments the past couple of weeks…

My first assignment as a staffer (hooray!) was a linguini bridge contest at the high school. The kids built bridges using a pound (or less) of linguini, and weights were stacked on top of the creations to see how much they could hold.

The winning bridge held 1500 pounds. I’m not even kidding. It was unreal.

(that’s my cousin on the left. she’s my inside source for all things high school.)


The winner! Didn’t even crack under the strain of 1500 pounds.

[I don’t usually post black and white photos here, but I started using Lightroom this past month for all of my editing and for the first few assignments found it easier to convert batches to b&w right away (since the paper publishes in black and white only). I’m trying to break myself of that, though; I like color!]

Aly and Elisha’s Wedding!

Posted by Ivy

I photographed my first wedding ever last month- a nerve-wracking yet excellent experience if there ever was one, compounded by the fact that the reception took place in a large barn. At night. My poor 430EX flash cried (I eventually gave up on it in favor of slow shutter speeds, which I tend to like better anyway. Nobody tell Rita).

But besides the barn shenanigans, the wedding itself was fantastic—you know it’s going to be good when there are not one but THREE drum kits set up at the bandstand—and I feel so lucky that I was able to shoot it.

I shot well over 600 photos, which I edited down to about 250 that ended up being toned and uploaded to Flickr. It’s hard to choose selects from those, but these are some (well, okay, many) of the ones I liked best.

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Blinding Me With Science!

Posted by Ivy

I went to the West Tisbury School last month to photograph Karl Nelson’s eighth grade science class, which had earned top scores on the MCAS (Massachusett standardized test), and was ranked as one of the highest performers in the state. The class was doing a lab to demonstrate the effects of energy consumption (test tubes and fire were involved).

I had a bear of a time color correcting these—fluorescent light combined with bright sun streaming in as backlight through all of the windows. Ugh.

Gone Fishing

Posted by Ivy

There’s a month-long fishing derby going on on the Vineyard right now. I don’t usually shoot the fishing assignments, but the regular photographer was off-Island this weekend, so I got to go photograph the spinoff Kids Derby this morning.

I wish I’d been in a Kids Derby when I was younger….although I probably wouldn’t have cared much for the 6 a.m. start time.

Cheyenne Tilton of Edgartown eyeballs the size of her freshly caught scup. Tilton judged the scup to be too small and opted to throw it back rather than bring it to weigh-in. Entrants in the derby were allowed only one catch for weigh-in.

Tony Giambattisti, left, of Oak Bluffs helps daughter Indigo put fresh bait on her line before she casts off. This is the first year Indigo has entered the derby.

Parents and children line the Steamship Authority Wharf in Oak Bluffs during the Kids Derby. The Derby began at 6 a.m. and ended before ferry service from Oak Bluffs began for the morning.

Anthony Bernard waits as judges measure the size of his freshly caught seabass. Bernard caught his fish just as the derby was ending, but managed to get a weigh-in nonetheless.

Tyla Ben David enters the winner’s circle to receive her prize. Ben David won first prize in the 8 and under division of the Kids Derby.

Rememberance

Posted by Ivy

Some photos from the Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts “Remember 9/11” ceremony last Saturday morning. The moral of this assignment is “Ivy needs a lens hood for her 20mm. Pronto.”

But, as is often the case, my favorite image came from right after the ceremony. The little girl, Savannah, ran right over to her uncle Jeremy, who is captain of the Chilmark Fire Department. So cute! So cute I’ll ignore the fact that it’s a little soft and post it anyway!

XC Invitational + Soccer

Posted by Ivy

In addition to my regular photo and semi-regular photoreporting duties, I’m now the official High School Sports Reporter. At least until the end of the month, after which…I really don’t know what’s happening. I’ll keep you posted!

This weekend there was an invitational cross country meet and a girls’ soccer game. I haven’t shot cross country (or, “How many different ways can you shoot people running?”) since, well, high school, and soccer has never been my thing, so I was happy to have the chance to get more chances to shoot the sports.

I’m also a fan of working the high school beat because my cousin is a sophomore at the school and knows EVERYBODY (plus, she was on the cross country team last year). Not hard to do when you’ve grown up with everybody on this tiny island, but man, does it make figuring out names that much easier. Thanks, Texe!

Teammates cheer on Michael Osborn as he wins the JV race.

Kassidy Bettencourt outpaces her opponent to the finish line.

Thorpe Karabees nears the end of the JV race. (P.S. What is the finger thing he’s doing? Is that a runner thing?)

Emily Cimeno and Shelby Ferry congratulate Sam Oslyn on his medal.

Max Miner crosses the finish line in the boys varsity race.

I like this one the best, since it also sums up the game (in which the Vineyard defense was pushed to the brink by the North Plymoth power offense) nicely.

Hell Week

Posted by Ivy

I don’t know how high schoolers do it.

Last fall I did a project for Picture Story about the Hickman High band, which practices four times a week at 6:30 in the morning. So I had to get up at unseemly hours just to get myself up to the school (this was before I had a car, so I had to walk). But I was only doing that for a week, not a whole football season. I don’t think I have that kind of motivation.

Of course, then, I was assigned to do a story about Hell Week at MVRHS- which is when the athletes do their preseason training. The field hockey team starts practice–yes, starts–at 5:45 in the morning. They don’t stop until past 8:15. The soccer teams are a little more sane; they start at 6:30. But still!

I admit I gave up completely on the 5:45 thing (reason #2353 why I don’t play field hockey). That was when I headed out the door to go up to the practice. (Besides, the light’s terrible at 5:45…right? right?).

This was taken WITH the lens hood on. Yep.