Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Fresh from the wire

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Today's Associated Press photo wire was full of some great photos. Here are three of my favorites: Above, A Tibetan exiled monk holds a rose during a protest outside the Chinese consulate in Katmandu, Nepal, Wednesday. Dozens of Tibetans were detained as they tried to hold a protest outside the Chinese consulate in Nepal's capital to condemn China's recent crackdown in the Himalayan region. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

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Performance artists of Argentine creators of the long running "De La Guarda" lie in a water basin as they pose during a photo-call to present their new show "Fuerzabruta" in Mexico City.(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

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A boy plays soccer at La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Argentina is renowned world wide for its top-notch soccer players and the passion of its fans. No team better expresses the fervor of Argentina's fans than Boca Juniors, one of the teams that has earned the most titles internationally.(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Saturday, April 26, 2008

This week's best from The Gazette

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Living in Colorado we often take for granted the beauty that surrounds us and working at The Gazette I often take for granted the quality of photojournalism my co-workers do on a regular basis. Here are some examples of the work done by The Gazette staff in the last week. Above, Kevin Kreck shot this photo of Master Sgt. Scott Simpson blowing Taps for his son Sgt. Christopher C. Simpson and Staff Sgt. Michael D. Elledge during their memorial Thursday on Fort Carson.

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Carol Lawrence captured this nice feature from Garden of the Gods on Thursday.

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Bryan Oller shot the cattails in Fountain Creek Nature Center on Monday.

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Mark Reis shot this nice portrait of Doherty High School track athlete Carly Allen for an Athlete of the Week feature.

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Kirk Speer shot this picture of Air Academy High School's Hayley Bernstein, right, and Allie McLaughlin after their game against Heritage High School on Friday.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Mop dog

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This photo from Associated Press photographer Frank Augstein has to be the funniest picture I've seen in a long time. Augstein shot a Hungarian Puli sheep dog, Fee, jumping over a hurdle during a preview for a pedigree dog show in Dortmund on Thursday April 24, 2008. The Dog looks more like a mop than an animal. Too Funny.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Visions of Science

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The BBC News website features a really cool slideshow of images in science. Check it out at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_visions_of_science_/html/1.stm
.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Nice catch

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Both Temple Daily Telegram photographer Scott Gaulin and this great blue heron made a nice catch with this photo of the heron harvesting a bass at Temple Lake Park in Temple, Texas, Monday.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

A night with the police

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A couple nights ago Gazette Photographer Kevin Kreck spent the night with Colorado Springs Police Officer Troy Lindvall for a story in Sunday's paper on police response times. Kreck worked with the snowy weather and natural lights from the police car to get some great shots. Here are three pictures and to see more visit http://www.gazette.com/interactives/policeresponse.

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Colorado fires

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Colorado is on fire again and The Gazette photographers have spent the last two days covering one down range at Fort Carson and one at the eastern Colorado town of Ordway. To see The Gazette's slideshow visit http://www.gazette.com/interactives/wildfires2.
Above, A shell of a house and garage is all that remains at this Ordway, Colo., residence Wednesday, April 16, 2008, after a fire swept through the small eastern Colorado town on Tuesday leaving two firefighters dead and at least 20 buildings destroyed. (Gazette photo/Christian Murdock)

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Greg Dickey, right, friends and family stand poised with shovels as a wildfire rages next to the land surrounding the Juniper Valley Ranch restaurant on Tuesday. Dickey is the owner of the Juniper Valley Ranch, a historic family-owned restaurant that has been on Highway 115 since 1951. (Gazette Photo/Jerilee Bennett)

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Katie DeBerge, 12, left, reacts to the smoke in her eyes as she and her mother Cindy DeBerge were reunited after Katie took shelter near a lake when a fire swept through their home in Ordway, Colo. (Gazette Photo/Kirk Speer)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Shooting from the cliffs

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This weekend I was in Billings, Mont., speaking at a photo expo and after I was done Saturday afternoon I went to the Rims above the city for a walk with friends when I came across some rock climbers repelling the 40-foot cliffs. I had to shoot them. The cliffs were perfect for shooting because you could shoot from the top and then climb down these steps carved into the sandstone to shoot from below. After a couple minutes they offered me a chance to repel the cliffs. I couldn't refuse. Talk about a fun evening of repelling and shooting.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Talk about a celebration

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Associated Press photographer Bill Kostroun captured a great moment from the New Jersey Devils/New York Rangers game of the Devils players celebrating with teammate John Madden (11) after he scored in overtime to give the Devils a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers in Game 3 of a first-round playoff NHL hockey playoff series Sunday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Charges dismissed against Iraqi photographer

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Posters of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein are seen during a protest in front the U.S. embassy in Madrid Tuesday on the 5th anniversary of Spanish television cameraman Jose Couso, who was killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

BAGHDAD (AP) -- An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him released nearly two years after he was detained by the U.S. military.

Hussein, 36, remained in custody at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad's airport.

A decision by a four-judge panel said Hussein's case falls under a new amnesty law. It ordered Iraqi courts to "cease legal proceedings" and ruled that Hussein should be "immediately" released unless other accusations are pending.

The ruling is dated Monday but AP's lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. It was unclear, however, whether Hussein would still face further obstacles to release.

U.S. military authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed. The U.N. mandate is due to expire at the end of this year.

Also, the amnesty committee's ruling on Hussein may not cover a separate allegation that has been raised in connection with the case.

AP President Tom Curley hailed the committee's decision and demanded that the U.S. military "finally do the right thing" and free Hussein.

Under Iraq's 2-month-old amnesty law, a grant of amnesty effectively closes a case and does not assume guilt of the accused.

Hussein has been held by the U.S. military since being detained by Marines on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad. Throughout his incarceration, he has maintained he is innocent and was only doing the work
of a professional news photographer in a war zone.

The amnesty committee's decision covers various allegations by the U.S. military against Hussein, including claims he was in possession of bomb-making material, conspired with insurgents to take photographs synchronized with an explosion and offered to secure a forged ID for a terrorist evading capture by the military.

The committee may still be reviewing a separate allegation that Hussein had contacts with the kidnappers of an Italian citizen, Salvatore Santoro, whose body was photographed by Hussein in December 2004 with two masked insurgents standing over Santoro with guns.

Hussein was one of three journalists who were stopped at gunpoint by insurgents and taken by them to see the propped-up body. None of the journalists witnessed his death, said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. The AP wrote a story about the incident at the time.

The AP said a review of Hussein's work and contacts also found no evidence of any activities beyond the normal role of a news photographer. Hussein was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005, and his detention has drawn protests from rights groups and press freedom advocates such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"The Amnesty Committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years. Bilal Hussein must be freed immediately," said Curley, the AP's president.

Monday, April 7, 2008

2008 Pulitzer Prize winners

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Reuters photographer Adrees Latif won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography with this photo taken Sept. 27,2007, of a Japanese video journalist, Kenji Nagai, falling to the ground after being fatally shot by a soldier during a demonstration in Myanmar.

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Concord Monitor photographer Preston Gannaway won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his photo of Carolynne St. Pierre, who was stricken with terminal liver cancer, surrounded by loved ones in her home.

Friday, April 4, 2008

"I Have a Dream" dies 40 years ago today

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Forty years ago today Rev. Martin Lurther King, Jr., was killed in Memphis, Tenn. Here are some pictures from today and the 1960s of the civil rights leader. Above, Martin Luther King III, left, his wife Arndrea, and his sister, Rev. Bernice King, pray at the tomb of their father, civil-rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther Jr., Friday in Atlanta on the 40th anniversary of King's assassination. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington, D.C. in this file photo of Aug. 28, 1963.(AP Photo/File)

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., third from left, marches in a line of men with arms linked during the March on Washington for civil rights on Aug. 28, 1963. (AP Photo)

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Aug. 28, 1963. (AP Photo)