Nikon D1H f4.5 ISO4oo 14mm strobe
Adam Gates and his wife Kim shop for Halloween costumes Friday afternoon at Morris Costumes on Monroe Road. Both plan to attend a private party at their condo association on Halloween. DUANE COCHRAN – dcochran@charlotteobserver.com

Canon 20D 1/40 f5.6 ISO400 53mm
Cooper Dowling (3) helps her father Jeff find the perfect pumpkin Tuesday afternoon at University City United Methodist Church in Charlotte. The pumpkins are being sold to raise money for the church’s youth ministry under the direction of Burt Giles.
DUANE COCHRAN – dcochran@charlotteobserver.com

Nikon D1H f10 92mm
Paul DiMuzio finishes his act during Saturday afternoon during the Novello festival at ImaginOn in Charlotte.
DUANE COCHRAN – dcochran@charlotteobserver.com

Nikon D1H f6.7 165mm
Amelie Wickham (3) paints pumpkins Saturday afternoon during the Oyster Roast Fundraiser at Historic Rosedale on North Tryon Street.
DUANE COCHRAN – dcochran@charlotteobserver.com

Canon 20D 1/125 f13 ISO400 135mm Strobe
Victoria Rich (9) of Richmond County takes on the Tilt-A-Whirl Tuesday evening at the Agricultural Fair in Hamlet, NC.

Canon 20D 1/400 f22 ISO400 18mm
Sixteen year old Caroline Smith acts out her scene of a Richmond Raider pummeling a Pinecrest Patriot Friday afternoon during the homecoming parade in downtown Rockingham, NC.

Canon 20D 1/60 f5.6 ISO 800 24mm Strobe
This is a “letter to the editor” from the Daily Journal newspaper. I shot the above group shot at the request of the editor.

Editorials
Treat them like ladies
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 12:57 AM EDT

Editor,

Who took the picture of the ladies of the Homecoming Court? These are young ladies! Potential queens; they are beautiful and proud and deserve to be treated as such. They should have been posed standing straight, tall, regal and proud as a queen might. Instead many were posed as if they were being photographed in their baby doll jammies! These ladies have had their hair done, nails, toe nails, makeup; they put on their lovely gowns and they deserve to have a nice picture done of them and for them. Many of the ladies will cut that picture out of the paper, put it in their scrapbooks and one day show it to their own children. Your photographer cheapened their picture by sexualizing it and a pock on him or her. Some pictures of the cheerleaders were with the same pose and others I’ve noticed lately. I don’t see any of the football players posed with their little hands on their knees with their little bottoms stuck out! It’s unseemly.

Treat them like ladies!

Barbara Leviner Jackson
Hamlet

Canon 20D 1/100 f8 ISO 400 18mm Strobe
This image is of firefighter Gandy cleaning the Chief’s car. I shot this after spending a few hours with the Rockingham Fire Dept. I wanted to shoot him through the glass with my strobe. I knew the strobe would reflect back at me if directed at the glass. I positioned the strobe to my left and opened the car door so that the light would hit his face without obstruction.

Canon 20D 1/30 f5 ISO 800 43mm Strobe
I shot this image of Rockingham Fire Department engineer Gus Bellamy during a sprinkler drill he conducted for the part time crew. I wanted his face lit, to show his expression while the water gushed onto him. I held the strobe with my left hand out about 2 feet from the camera so that shadows from the water would not obstruct his face.