Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

I had an opportunity to shoot Rockford’s roller derby team last night - The Rockford Rage.

I had previously photographed the team in St. Louis and knew that this sport is no cake walk to shoot. It’s indoors, dark and fast.

This time, I set one light up on a balcony aiming at a stretch of the track. I tried to wait for the skaters to cross the path with my light.

Here are a few frames from the bout. A handful more are posted on my Facebook page.

Rockford Rage roller derby ©2011 Max Gersh

Rockford Rage roller derby ©2011 Max Gersh

Rockford Rage roller derby ©2011 Max Gersh

October was a very hectic month for me. It seemed like every day was packed to the gills with assignments. For some stretches, I was in the office eight or nine days in a row. I can’t really complain because I love my job.

In the middle of the month, I had to do a portrait of the new president of the board at the Booker Washington Center, Robert King. I could tell he was extremely excited to be able to help develop and grow the center. So excited that it was a little difficult to keep him still for a portrait. It took a little patience but I finally got him where I wanted him - right in front of a large mural on the south side of the building.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Booker Washington Community Center board president Robert King stands near a mural on the south side of the facility Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, in Rockford. King says he wants to put a new mural up in its place within the coming year. “I love the past but I want to bring the simplicity back to the center and bring it back to Booker Washington himself,” King said. © 2011

One day, I was sent out with a simple assignment - look for illegal dumping sites. It sounds easy. It seems you can never remember where or when you saw that rusted out refrigerator in the the brush when you need to photograph it!

I was poking around in an area I had heard was problematic when I ventured out of my car and into the nearby woods. I found a slew of chairs and a bunch of random things. Brooms. A drawer with a book in it. A router. Something that looked like a salon hair dryer. A strange collection. If I hadn’t left my car to see what was beyond the treeline, I would have never stumbled upon the hidden trash trove.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Chairs and other garbage sit in the woods between the old Rock River School and Kishwaukee Street Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, in Rockford. © 2011

Since October is breast cancer awareness month, we all photographed cancer related stories for a special cancer themed section. I went to a rehab facility to photograph patients receiving physical therapy.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Physical therapist Alane Curry (left) and physical therapy technician Betty Kendell (right) walk alongside Colleen Mains of Loves Park while she practices using forearm crutches Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, at Orthopedic Rehab Specialists in Rockford. Mains lost her right leg when bone cancer developed on the right side of her pelvis. “It was literally a life over limb decision,” Mains said. © 2011

On the morning of October 19th, I was up and at work by 4:30 a.m. Considering I usually work the night shift, this was an extreme shock to my system. But I was wired with excitement. I was going to be riding around with the police while they executed arrest and search warrants all over town.

Call me morbid, but I was hoping to get some shots of good as-seen-on-TV police action. You know, throwing a running suspect to the pavement. That kind of thing.

But as luck would have it, all of the homes that we stopped at were dead ends. The wanted person was never there. It still made of an exciting morning.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Loves Park Police Officer Mike McCammond (left) and Rockford Police Officer John Johnson talk with a man while executing an arrest warrant at a home in the 500 block of Kilburn Avenue Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, during Operation Clean Sweep in Rockford. © 2011

As the current high school sports season is coming to a close, we’ve been traveling some to photograph the local teams that make it to tournament play. For two days in a row, I had to drive into Chicago to photograph local soccer teams.

The more exciting locale was when I covered Stillman Valley playing at DePaul University. I was shocked to that see a school of that size didn’t have any lights on their soccer field. The game started at 4 p.m. but by the end of the match, I was pushing my camera to its absolute limits.

Stillman Valley didn’t win, but I got a nice shot of a player celebrating after scoring a goal. He jumped in front of the score board, pumping his fist in the air. Of course I’m bothered by the fact that the score keeper hadn’t yet put a “1″ in the guest score box.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Stillman Valley’s Pifa Estrada (22) celebrates after scoring the team’s only goal Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, during the 1A supersectional soccer tournament against Parker at DePaul University’s Wish Field in Chicago. © 2011

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m not wild about covering concerts. However, when I was told I was going to photograph ZZ Top, I did get a little excited. I can’t lie. I’m jealous of their beards.

Normal concert photography procedure is that you photograph two or three songs at the beginning of the show from a designated location - usually either in front of the stage or from the sound board. However, when I arrived at the show, I was told I’d be shooting two songs in the middle of the set. Very strange but nothing I could do about it.

ZZ Top’s set list. Photographers were allowed to shoot the two songs in the marked section. © 2011

The concert kept me out late. I got off work around 11:30 p.m. The very next morning, on what was supposed to be a day off for me, I was called in early because a deer busted through the window and into a downtown store. I was there within five minutes of getting the call.

The police had us out of sight of the deer. I think they were worried about spooking it. When I saw an officer approach the door with an assault rifle, I ran across the street (further away from the store) to get a shot. In my tired state, I stumbled while crossing the street and tore open the knee of my pants, also scrapping up my skin.

My knee after falling while on assignment. © 2011

I got right back up and made it across the street to get a shot before the officer went in and killed the deer.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Rockford police move in to CD Source to kill a deer Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, in Downtown Rockford. The deer crashed through on of the stores front windows earlier in the morning. © 2011

Before we ever touched an SLR in my high school Photo 1 class, my teacher wanted us to understand the basic mechanics and physics of a camera. There was no better way to do that then by building a pinhole camera.

A pinhole camera works on the same principle of a camera obscura. Light comes in through a small hole (no lens) and is inverted and projected on whatever medium is available.

The camera we built was made out of cardboard, glue and tape. The pinhole was punched into a small aluminum plate. I later added wooden rods for support and to hold a tripod mount.

My pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

What really made this camera unique was its sliding film plane that acted like a zoom. If the film plane was right against the front, it was a somewhat wide angle pinhole. When drawn back, it was “zoomed.”

My pinhole camera pulled apart, showing the body, film plane and light back. ©2011 Max Gersh

My pinhole camera pulled apart, showing the body, film plane and light back. ©2011 Max Gersh

I shoot on cut pieces of photo paper. The same stuff you would use in a darkroom to make prints. It records a negative. You can take the negative back to the darkroom and sandwich it with a piece of unexposed paper to make a positive. For the purpose of this post, I just scanned the negative print and inverted the tones in Photoshop.

This shot was a 1.5 hour exposure in my college newsroom from on top of a shelf.

Black and white 4x5 image shot on photo print paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

And here is the positive.

Black and white 4x5 image shot on photo print paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

Here is a seven second exposure outdoors on a sunny day on the quad at my university.

Black and white 4x5 image shot on photo print paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

And the positive.

Black and white 4x5 image shot on photo print paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

I also played around with color darkroom paper a bit, using Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

Color 4x5 image shot on Fuji Crystal Archive paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

Color 4x5 image shot on Fuji Crystal Archive paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

Color 4x5 image shot on Fuji Crystal Archive paper in a pinhole camera. ©2011 Max Gersh

I’m posting this now after recetly seeing a friends pinhole camera that is small and shoots on 35mm film. It uses two film canisters and a matchbox. Really cool stuff. I love that they can be modified in so many ways. They are so basic. I’m thinking about building one for 120 film in the future. But this 4×5 one is so fun!

I appreciate music as much as the next guy. But I prefer to appreciate it through a nice pair of headphones than going to a concert. I’ve always been that way. I enjoy the studio-perfected sound rather than hearing the drunk girl next to me try to sing along.

Maybe that disdain for live music carried over into my professional life because I’m not a big fan of photographing concerts either. To me, it’s just another assignment that I have to wear earplugs to.

Earlier this year, I had to cover a rock concert at the Rockford Speedway simply called “The Concert.” Regional rock groups performed throughout the day.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Pop Evil guitarist Dave Grahs looks out at the crowd while Leigh Kakaty sings Saturday, May 14, 2011, during the The Concert at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park. ©2011

Authorized photographers were allowed to shoot from the photo pit in front of the stage for two songs per band. This rule that many bands/publicists require shooters follow is ridiculous. Why wouldn’t they want shooters to stay and get the best stuff possible? Who cares if the musician is sweaty or otherwise less groomed then at the beginning of the set?

Sorry for the rant. Back to the topic at hand. The Concert.

So, as I was saying, shooters were in the pit. An area that is a few feet wide and separates the crowd from the stage. We were sharing the space with security who had to keep crazy fans from getting to the stage or doing some other stupid thing.

As I was shooting, I’d get hit in the back of the head with an empty plastic beet pitcher from time to time. The fans were launching them at the stage. Then I’d get kicked by crowd surfers being pulled down by security.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Security crews prepare to remove a crowd surfer Saturday, May 14, 2011, during the The Concert at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park. ©2011

Oh yea, and it had been raining all day so everything was mud covered.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Rain-soaked and mud-covered fans cheer on Pop Evil Saturday, May 14, 2011, during the The Concert at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park. ©2011

Needless to say, this experience reminded me of some of the things I hate about concerts.

Flash forward to earlier this month. The big end-of-summer On The Waterfront music festival kicked off in downtown Rockford. I was the one covering it for three out of four days.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR RED lead singer Michael Barnes gestures to the crowd while Randy Armstrong plays the bass Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, during the Rock Allegiance Tour concert at Davis Park in downtown Rockford. The concert kicks off the four-day On The Waterfront festival weekend. ©2011

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR P.O.D. vocalist Sonny Sandoval sings Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, during the Rock Allegiance Tour concert at Davis Park in downtown Rockford. The concert kicks off the four-day On The Waterfront festival weekend. ©2011

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR A guitarist performs with Puddle of Mudd Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, during the Rock Allegiance Tour concert at Davis Park in downtown Rockford. The concert kicks off the four-day On The Waterfront festival weekend. ©2011

In the days following the opening night kick-off concert, the stages were full of mostly local and regional performers, saving the main headliner for the night.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Sean Gomez plays the bass while performing with The Poets Dance on the Oasis Stage Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

There were four or five stages and only one had a pit for photographers. That meant that fans swarmed right up to the front at the others. I packed a 300mm lens since I couldn’t get close physically.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Here Come the Mummies perform on the Left Bank Stage in Davis Park Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

One night, the main event was country singer Josh Turner. The lighting was nice but he would get so close to the mic when he was singing that it cast a large shadow on his face. I waited till he pulled away from the mic to make most of my images of him.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Josh Turner plays guitar on the Davis Park Great Lawn Stage Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR A fiddle player performing with Josh Turner takes a solo while performing on the Davis Park Great Lawn Stage Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

The big concert for the weekend was also the last - Stone Temple Pilots. The lighting was absolutely crazy. There were huge panels of strobing lights with all sorts of colors filling in the fog from the smoke machines.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland sings on the Great Lawn Stage in Davis Park Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

I still had the 300mm lens with me so I decided to go for a closeup of STP front man Scott Weiland.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland sings on the Great Lawn Stage in Davis Park Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011, during On the Waterfront in downtown Rockford. ©2011

Someone should let him know he has a finger print on his sunglasses lens.

More of my shots from the On The Waterfront festival can be seen on the Rockford Register Star’s website here.

To wrap up this post, let me say that I see a lot of photographers who get excited to shoot the concert because they can say they photographed someone famous rather than to make a decent image. Like I said earlier, I see a concert like any other assignment. I look for the light and composition. More people should try that out. I’m not great at it when it comes to concerts but my coworker, Scott Morgan, does a great job. Check out his concert work.

As I’ve said many times before, some assignments in the life of a photojournalist can be really boring. REALLY boring. But the worst of the worst are worth it for the best.

I walked into work one August morning and checked my assignment bin. I did a double take when I read that I was going to a local high school to watch different police organizations do active shooter training. First, I didn’t really know what this meant. Second, police running around an empty high school with guns!? How could this not be a fun assignment?

I got to the school about 20 minutes early because I didn’t want to miss a second of this shoot. I was glad that I did because it gave me an opportunity to talk with one of the chiefs that was running the show. He explained more specifically what this training was for.

In essence, it’s all for worst case scenario. Think Columbine. An “active shooter,” or a bad guy with a gun that is using it, in a crowded environment like a school, business place or mall. This training was to teach law enforcement how to respond.

They learned different tactics for moving through hallways as teams and individually.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Jason Hergenroeder (left) of the U.S. Marshals Service and Ryan Fulton of the Cherry Valley Police Department practice going down a hallway with a team Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

They trained with different tools including a shield.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Adrienne Horn of the Rock Valley College Police Department takes cover behind a shield Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

Then they started scenarios. The “responding officers” had to follow the sounds of gun shots. They didn’t know what they would run into. One of the chiefs fired starter pistols to draw the attention of the officers. I was glad I had my ear plugs in because those rounds are very loud inside a school building.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Chief of Police for the Rock Valley College Police Department Joe Drought loads starter pistols Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

The other cheif that was there followed behind the teams to ensure safety as they moved through the halls. There were dummy pistols, grenades and other dangerous objects on the ground along the way. The only immediate danger would be tripping on one of them.  But they certainly elevate your heart rate as you think about the real possibilities.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Cherry Valley Police Chief Todd Houde (back right) watches as Clint Wagner (from left) of the Rockford Police Department, Jason Hergenroeder of the U.S. Marshals Service (rear center), Robert Lewis of the Roscoe Police Department and Ryan Fulton of the Cherry Valley Police Department make their way down a hall Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Officers cover a hallway Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

There were a few civilian volunteers to play hostages and sometimes the bad guy. However, when they wanted a multiple shooter scenario, some of the officers played the roll of the bad guy.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Geoff Guzinski of the Dekalb Police Department plays the roll of a criminal while officers make their way up a flight of stairs Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011

This was a seriously fun thing to cover. That being said, I hope I never have to see these guys use these techniques in the real world. But it does instill a certain level of confidence knowing that we have officers trained and ready, just in case.

MAX GERSH | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR Ryan Fulton (from left) of the Cherry Valley Police Department, Ashley Calhoun of the Rockford Police Department, and Adrienne Horn of the Rock Valley College Police Department clear a hallway Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, during rapid deployment to an active shooter training at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. ©2011