Eddie Sutton steps down

OSU's basketball coach Eddie Sutton put an end to his season Monday after his Friday night car accident. I've been doing a lot of photo stuff for the Tulsa World on this, and it's been going great.

On Friday night at about 9:30 I get a call from Sean Hill, a friend of mine who's now working at the World. Apparently Sutton had been in a car wreck, and they needed a shot of his Durango. After tracking down the wrecker service that moved the car, I drive out to see what I can find. Figuring I would have to shoot through a fence, I wasn't expecting any good shots to come out of the assignment. Luckily, just as I arrived a tow truck was delivering another car and I was able to get inside the lot. The shot was exclusive, with no other paper in the state getting the photo, and it went out over the AP. Made the cover of both the The Tulsa World and The Daily Oklahoman, the two biggest papers in the state.



Yesterday afternoon I got another call from the World. They needed a shot of the other car - another SUV in a wrecker's lot. After doing some detective work I find out it's in a different lot than Sutton's car. So after talking with the wrecker service's manager as well as the owner of the car, I get access.



This was a tough shooting situation. The lot was packed with so many cars it was hard to maneuver. There was only one angle to get a shot of the damages, and even worse, it forced me to shoot directly into the sun. So I polarize the sky to get a little detail and use an off-camera flash to get light on the truck, which is completely in the shadows. Lens flare was also a serious problem.

Overall, though, I like the way the shots came out. Time will tell what else comes out of this story.