Swans Released to Pond

Photos by Julie Koehn/The Gazette

Aiming for a Cure

After months of sickness, at seven years old, Ben Ries was diagnosed with medullublastoma. A brain tumor.

For five and a half years he battled radiation, chemo, and surgeries until the cancer took his life at twelve years old.

But the boy described with a smile on his face at all times, hasn't been forgotten.

Aiming for a Cure Hunt began in 2004. Hunters from all over gather at the Highland Hideaway Hunt Club near Riverside to sport clays and hunt pheasants. This year was no different. Over the weekend of March 20-21, 2010, 84 hunters and 20 celebrities gathered for the event where hunters pay to hunt and companies provide generous donations with 100% of the proceeds going toward the families of children cancer patients at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

The benefit was a way for Steve and Jodie Ries to give back to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital for the treatment of their son, Ben. The money raised is used for family costs that are not covered by insurance - including anything from funerals, to gas expenses for trips to the hospital. What's left over goes toward cancer research.

Proceeding the seventh annual fundraiser, $720,000 had been raised. This year's goal was to reach the one million dollar mark.

But Steve Ries insists it's not about the money. "It's about the lives," he said.

Three children have gone through the same cancer his son struggled to beat and have walked away okay. That, to Steve, is what it's all about. And as long as there is children's cancer, Steve said the benefit will continue to grow each year.

Through tears, Steve recalled Ben at the first two Aiming for a Cure Hunts. "He was truly the celebrity," he said. "And still is today."

Photos by Julie Koehn/The Gazette

Recent Shoots...

Photos by Julie Koehn/The Gazette

Lots going on...

There are times as a photographer when you get sent to cover an event and there is so much going on that you aren't sure where to start.  While I was down in Houston, several of the photographers told me that when you are put in those situations - it's important to stop, take a deep breath, look around and then focus.  Once you've got the shot for whatever you've settled on - then find the next picture.  

When I walked into Cultural Diversity Day at the University of Iowa, I was surrounded by activities, performances, and a whole lot of people.  I worked my way from one side of the room to the next and then went upstairs and did the same.

As I was moving around I had to remind myself to get wide, medium and tight shots.  There's no point in shooting from the same distance all the time...get up close to the subjects and capture those moments.  

Here's what I turned in and more: 

Compositions

Oh the possibilities when composing a photograph.  The first person who taught me what exactly a composition was - is Ben Roberts.  Instead of just flailing the camera around aimlessly take a step back and consider what you're looking at through the lens.  Eventually pieces come together and a composition can be formed.  And layering, he always told me, is what the great photos have.  Michael Paulsen from the Houston Chronicle told me that you know you have a successful photograph when your eye ventures through each element of a photograph - and goes from one to the next until it gets back to the first. 

 Take it look at some of the compositions I've been playing with in the last couple of weeks. 

Photos by Julie Koehn/The Gazette

Through the lens...

There are so many things in life that I never would have had the chance to experience, if I didn't come with a camera dangled at my hip. There are people who I never would have met and places that I never would have been.

Sometimes I think about why I am a photojournalist. The term doesn't define me as a person - but is listed as a quality under my personality.

With each click of the shutter, I capture a moment and place in time. What time takes a way, a photograph will preserve forever. It provides evidence for the future of the past in which we lived. And tells the truth because it cannot lie.

But beyond keeping the past documented, it's the people I meet along the way. Informing them of the truth about what's going on and taking their direction as they lead me from one place to the next. And in any direction I turn, I see life through a lens.

Expressions and Compositions over Action

There are ways to photograph athletes performing their sports without necessarily getting the peak action.  Sometimes it's more fun to explore various competitions and wait for an expression to come across their face that shows him or her as a person. 

Here are a few shots of Nicholas Loughlin, a 157-pound wrestler from Cornell College who is ranked No. 7.  As a sophomore he balances wrestling with his academics and hopes of becoming a doctor. 

Photos by Julie Koehn/The Gazette