Charles Apple

I’ve posted a lot lately about The Des Moines Register’s coverage of the ongoing floods in Iowa. So I’ll ping you again lightly with a photo from last Thursday:

Harry Baumert/The Des Moines Register
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The caption:

Brandon Smith, 23, carries his fiance’s cats — Bender, right and Fry — to safety Thursday morning in southwest Cedar Rapids. His neighbor, Tyrone Pierce, 49, follows.

Yeah: I’m a sucker for a cat photo.

Find a gallery containing the very best of all the Register’s flood photos here.

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Every few hours this weekend, I find myself logging onto the Web site of my former paper, The Des Moines Register, to read the latest about the floods affecting eastern and central Iowa.

I’m not seeing much of the Register’s print work. As of 11 a.m., the Register’s Sunday front was still not posted at the Newseum. But man, oh man, the Register is doing a swell job online.

A few examples…

Some of the worst flooding is happening in Iowa City, a couple hours east of Des Moines and the home of the University of Iowa.

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register
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All sorts of folks have turned out to try to protect the university from the rising water. Already, 20 campus buildings have been flooded. Here, local folks have formed a chain to pass along sandbags in hopes of shoring up the Adler journalism building:

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register
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At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, though, the efforts came to an end when a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the area.

The water in Iowa City is expected to crest Tuesday at 33 feet — a full four feet over the previous all-time flood record, 15 years ago. Flood stage is 22 feet.

Ace writers Ken Fuson, John Carlson and Tim Higgins detailed the sandbagging efforts:

One-eighth of the campus already has been flooded or was at risk of being flooded, university officials said Saturday.

…An estimated 2,000 volunteer sandbaggers waged a valiant effort Friday and Saturday to protect the campus, including the Main Library and the Lindquist Center, which houses the university’s computer system.

…U of I Librarian Nancy Baker supervised what she called “a triage operation” at the Main Library as volunteers tried to rescue the most valuable of the half-million volumes in the basement.

“We got what we felt was the most critical (materials) out of the basement,” Baker said. “We couldn’t move everything.”

She echoed [University President Sally Mason]: “Now we just wait.”

The area is extensive — one-eighth of the campus is flooded or at risk, Fuson reports — so Register artist Katie VanDalsem Kunert produced this map of the entire Iowa City area. Click the thumbnail, please:

Find a larger version — and a link to an even larger, PDF version — here.

I asked Katie how she pulled this together. She replied:

We’re getting out maps from Google Earth.

Actually, I did all the research for the map. I checked websites all day and plotted the information as it came in. I did get some info from reporter/editor Bryce Miller. He sent me over the list of IU buildings that were closed.

In the meantime, I just kept adding anything to the map I thought might be relevant for readers. We also did this style of map for Des Moines and I’m now working on one for Cedar Rapids today.

Thanks Charles, for noticing our work! We’re working around the clock here in good ‘ol Des Moines. I’ll get some sleep when it’s over. I hope.

Meanwhile, Register multimedia folks Michael Corey and Travis Graven put together a fabulous video that matches up Google Earth zooming aerials of the Iowa City area that then dissolve into current shots of the flooding. It’s an incredible job of giving a bird’s-eye-view of the stricken city:

The photos were taken by the Register’s Harry Baumert and by Dave Schwartz of the Gannett News Service.

Apparently, the folks in Iowa City are able to retain their sense of humor. These recent U of I graduates had to move their wedding and reception Saturday because of the flooding:

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register
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But — and here’s the big thing — it just keeps on raining.

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register
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Saturday, a levee protecting the north side of Des Moines unexpectedly broke, causing even more damage and evacuations.

Turned out, though, that this wasn’t unexpected at all. The levee had a prominent weak spot. This failure was predicted shortly after the last major flooding in Des Moines, in 1993. The U.S. government had allocated money to design a fix, but not money for the actual replacement.

A team of reporters, including environmental expert Perry Beeman, was all over the story:

The river, which had battered the city’s levee system since early in the week, finally broke through Saturday at a saturated soft spot about 3:30 a.m. The water blew a 100-foot-wide hole in the levee, and authorities immediately issued a mandatory evacuation order as water rolled into the Birdland neighborhood and crews scrambled east to build an emergency dike on Second Avenue ahead of the deluge.

“We got woke up by banging and police lights” shortly after 4:30 a.m., said Ely Villanova, who lives on the south side of Boston Avenue in the nearby Oak Park neighborhood.

Kevin Bauer, owner of Glass Professionals Inc., 700 New York Ave., had two pumps going to keep the water out of his business when police arrived and told him to leave. He refused, and he spent some time in a squad car. No charges were filed.

“We could have stayed on top of it,” he said. “I’m not a happy taxpayer. They treat criminals better than they did me.”

An officer escorted Bauer back to the building later in the day to check on the damage. Bauer waded through 3-foot water and emerged from the building with a box filled with papers and a briefcase.

And naturally, the graphics staff — led by my ex-assistant, Jeff Bash, diagramed what happened to the levee:

I can’t tell you how much pride I’m taking in citing and boldfacing the names of these Register staffers. I spent nearly five years working closely with every one of these folks. Their coverage has been nothing short of asskicking.

Find all of this and more at The Des Moines Register’s Web site.

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So I drive all day Wednesday south, down I-85 to Charlotte, for a brief business trip. I get into town too late to call on friends at The Observer or The Herald, down in Rock Hill. So I decide to take a quick drive through the campus of my alma mater, Winthrop College and then grab a bite for dinner.

While I’m driving back to Charlotte, a huge thunderstorm erupts from nowhere. The folks down this way are starved for rain, so I’m happy for them. I’m not so happy for the poor schlub crawling back up the interstate in a PT Cruiser in what feels like a solid block of water.

I duck into a nearby mall — partially to get out of the weather and partially to get a little exercise. It’s not until I get back to my hotel that I discover the south side of Charlotte suffered quite a bit of wind and hail damage.

The Charlotte Observer, naturally, was all over it:

Charlotte fire Capt. Rob Brisley reported trees were blown down on houses in the 3200 block of Nancy Creek Road and the 4200 block of Oldfield Road. Both those locations are in south Charlotte.

A rainbow forms over downtown Charlotte
Wednesday evening after the storms pass
through. Photo by Todd Sumlin/The Charlotte
Observer.
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Brisley also reported numerous power lines down in south and east Charlotte.

The National Weather Service says a spotter reported thunderstorm winds of 50 to 60 mph in the Matthews area shortly after 6 p.m. In addition, hail of up to 1 inch fell in Matthews, and 20 to 25 lightning strikes were reported. The lightning set some grass fires and damaged trees, spotters told the Weather Service.

That mall I ducked into? Yep. It’s in Pineville, a stone’s throw from Matthews.

Just before I left home Wednesday, I posted about the excellent coverage my former paper, The Des Moines Register, had provided readers following a devastating tornado in their area. Turns out my friends in Des Moines are getting a full-court press from the weather these days. The two rivers that join  downtown, near the minor-league baseball stadium — the Des Moines and the Raccoon — are flooding. Citizens have turned out to fill sandbags. The Court Avenue restaurant district flooded Wednesday, waters receded and then the street flooded again overnight, after a sudden thunderstorm dumped two more inches of rain on the poor city.

And then this terrible, terrible tragedy happens Wednesday night at the boy scout camp in western Iowa.

Eastern Iowa is stricken with floods; western Iowa is in grief following the scout camp incident. Iowa just can’t catch a break this year.

Here are a few fronts from Wednesday. First, The Indianapolis Star is all over the flooding in their part of the region:

The Cedar Rapids Gazette, in east-central Iowa, is preparing for the worst. Fact is, water might not crest for several days yet. The peak may very well top the records set during the famous 1993 floods.

And the Register, of course — an old hand at prize-winning visual coverage of floods, blew it out on their Wednesday front, plus inserted an eight-page section:

Isn’t that photo wonderful? That’s the Register’s Justin Hayworth, shooting in downtown Waterloo, Iowa. Tag the thumbnail for a larger peek:

Here’s today’s Cedar Rapids front. Stunning photos of stunning events:

This is today’s Sioux City, Iowa, Journal:

You’re probably thinking the same thing I was: Terrible choice for a lead photo. The backs of people?

But those are mothers of boy scouts. They identified themselves at the gate and now they’re rushing on foot, down a dirt road, to check on their boys.

The tornado hit that camp around 6:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday. Papers probably struggled with enormous deadline issues trying to find a way to cover the story. The folks at the Omaha World-Herald led with a mom who had retrieved her injured son:

Follow the Register’s online coverage here.  Cedar Rapids Gazette flood coverage is here.  Find the Omaha World-Herald’s coverage here. Sioux City’s coverage is here.

Hey, you guys in the Midwest: Take care, willya?

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Last weekend at the Small-Paper Summit in Waterbury, Conn., design guru Bill Ostendorf talked about top-of-A1 promos and how so many papers screw up these no-brainers.

I think the Pilot got it right today with this above-the-nameplate photo which referred to a story and photo package inside:

Is that an arresting image, or what?

This being a huge Navy town — the home of the Atlantic Fleet and its air wings — we’re constantly shooting homecomings and deployments. Lots of spouses and kids, lots of hugs and tears. I don’t know how our folks do it, but nearly every time, they come up with something different.

And man, was this different. That was Rich-Joseph Facun behind the viewfinder.

It’s also turned out to be somewhat controversial. Public response to the photo at the Pilot’s web site has been an interesting experience today.

Old Doll wrote Wednesday (the shot was posted long before we put together Thursday’s paper):

That is an awesome photograph!

SandInMyShoes added kudos:

I agree, the photo of the shoes with the ship and sailors in the background is an awesome shot! Good job Mr. Facun!

As did Cjgrad

That pic has GOT to get an award that is very 1930’s ish bravo to the photographer

But Litlebit was a little bit annoyed with the Pilot:

With the picture only of the pink shoes, one’s mind tends to think there is a trench coat with nothing underneath that goes along them. So please if you can next time show a flag or showing a child excited to see mom or dad coming home!

Marks57720 asked:

What is the photographer implying here?

Skoops88 supplied an answer:

It says that a wife is waiting for a husband… This isn’t about what you want to see, it’s about the sailors. Get over it, if you like looking at flags go buy yourself one.

And Paulb84662 noted:

The pink shoes were great but she should have taken the time to remove the price tag. lol

I don’t know. I thought the price tag was a charming touch. A closer view:

Here’s the largest photo I can muster from the PDF. Click for a bigger view:

The Pilot’s caption for the photo:

Candice Knilans waits for her husband, Petty Officer 3rd Class John Knilans, to leave the carrier Harry S. Truman after its seven-month deployment. (Rich-Joseph Facun | The Virginian-Pilot)

Friday’s Pilot contained two contrasting letters to the editor about this photo, both from readers in Virginia Beach. This is from Jacquelyn B. McDaniel:

Kudos to Pilot photographer Rich-Joseph Facun for a photo of extreme poignance and brilliant composition.

Remember the nurse and the sailor in Times Square at the end of World War II? This photo ranks right up there with it, doesn’t it?

The other was from JulieAnn Singleton-Smith:

Your photo of the cheap, hot pink high-heeled shoes was a poor one. Yet, it was very convenient. As a high school journalism teacher, I was able to use it as an example of what not to do when choosing a front page photo. The photo conveys a message that military wives are cheap and trashy.

As a military wife who has a career and a series of degrees, I find your photo extremely offensive.

I’m still trying to figure out how Rich got this shot. I can just see the conversation at dockside:

Excuse me, m’am. I’m going to slide my camera down around your ankles and take some pictures. Don’t let me bother you…

If I tried that, I’d find myself on the national sex offender’s registry. Rich comes away with what will surely be an all-time classic.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Rich-Joseph Facun has shot for the Arizona Daily Star, The Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill., The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the Copley chain in Plainfield, Ill. Rich is a graduate of Ohio University.

Rich shot this homecoming photo in December:

This is a five-year-old kid waiting for his father — a Navy pilot — to land at Oceana Naval Air Station. Just incredible. Read more about this photo here.

Find more of Rich’s work at his personal portfolio site.

Read the story that goes with the pink shoes photo — and see a gallery of more pictures — here.

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Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays for famed news design consultant Ron Reason.

“I’d walk a mile for a camel,” Ron says.
Photo from Ron’s Facebook profile.
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Ron has owned his own consultancy firm — Ron Reason News Design — for 11 years. Before that, he was a design consultant for The Dallas Morning News for two years and Director of the Visual Journalism Program at The Poynter Institute for 4-and-a-half years.

A 1985 graduate of Indiana University, Ron spent 10 years as a copy editor, news editor, page designer and, finally, design director at The St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

Among Ron’s clients over the years: Crain’s Chicago Business, Advertising Age, The Dallas Morning News, The Orlando Sentinel, The Boston Herald, The Harvard Crimson, The San Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Syracuse, N.Y. Post-Standard, The Standard of Nairobi, Kenya, Crain’s Manchester (U.K.) Business, the Portland, Maine, Press-Herald… and a bunch more. Find a more complete list — as well as a few sample pages — here.

Find Ron’s company web site here. In fact, Ron maintains links to all sorts of helpful articles and handouts. Bookmark it and check it out when you get time.

Ron also writes a blog about contemporary art and photography and a truly wonderful tavel blog. He recently returned home to Chicago from an extended business trop to Africa.

Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. From Ron’s Flickr Feed,
which he invites folks to visit and enjoy.
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Ron shares a birthday with USA Today’s Keith Simmons, Angie Muhs of the Portland Press-Herald, former Orlando Sentinel designer and Peace Corps volunteer Sara Reeves, actors Jerry “Leave it to Beaver” Mathers, Dana Carvey, Wayne Brady and Justin “I’m a Mac” Long, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts and Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, “the Marquis de Sade.”

Plus, today is National Rocky Road Day. Seriously.

Best wishes, Ron, for a happy birthday!

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Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to John Garcia, special sections editor of The Ventura County Star.
A ‘JohnGar’ self-portrait.
From his Flickr feed.
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Yeah, I had to look it up: The Ventura County Star is in Camarillo Calif., just northwest of L.A.

John has been at the Star more than ten years. He was Assistant Business Editor for nearly six years before becoming a designer and copy editor in 2004. After two-and-a-half years of that, John became Special Sections Editor in June 2006.

John is a 1989 graduate of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif., maybe five or six miles east of Camarillo.

John caught my attention a couple of years ago at SND/Orlando when he went around to damn near everyone in the room, taking photos of himself with various folks. Never mind that a lot of the photos are cut off or crooked. It’s a lot of fun to scroll through them at Flickr.

How many of these people can you name, off the top of your head?

All photos by John Garcia.
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At SND/Boston last year, he took a bunch of photos during the casino night afterparty. Here’s a warning: There may be some good blackmail material there, folks!

He’s been kind enough to allow me to use some of his material here in the blog. Thanks, John!

In addition to photography, John also enjoys collecting Disney pins. Of which there seems to be an endless supply:

A few samples of John’s work:

Find John’s NewsPageDesigner gallery here.

John shares a birthday with politicians Henry Kissinger and Hubert Humphrey, musician André Lauren Benjamin of Outkast, comedian Adam Carolla, actors Joseph Fiennes, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price and writer Harlan Ellison.

Plus, today is the Body Painting Arts Festival. Seriously.

Best wishes, John, for a happy birthday!

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