One of the benefits of working as a newspaper photographer is getting to meet interesting people. I’m glad I got to meet Orien Rose Laplante, shown above with her dog and at left pretending to play the drums on her three protective helmets.

    Orien Rose needed to wear a helmet because a propeller sliced into her head during a boating accident a little more than one year ago. That was a serious injury. But Orien Rose is doing fine. She jokes with her parents, spins around in circles while watching television and plays outside with her dog.

     A few weeks ago she had brain surgery to implant a piece of plastic in her skull. The surgery went well. The photographs were taken about a week before her operation. The first photograph was taken in natural light with an exposure of 1/500 at f4. For the next photo, I bounced a flash off a wall. The exposure was 1/125 at f4.5.

The June 2 issue of Sports Illustrated featured a photograph of baseball player Josh Hamilton on the cover. I took pictures of Hamilton when he played his first game for the Hudson Valley Renegades in Fishkill on July 4, 2006.

Hamilton, now playing for the Texas Rangers, was the first overall pick in the 1999 draft and received a $4 million signing bonus. But before joining the Renegades, he hadn’t played since July 2002 when his battle with drugs began because of injuries and substance abuse.

The photograph was taken by Lisa Blumenfeld for Getty Images. Hamilton is currently leading the major leagues with 65 RBI and is batting .331 with 16 home runs.

Here are some of the photos I took on July 4, 2006:

Steve and Sheila Faith with their 2 year-old son Eric, after a fire destroyed their house on Celery Avenue in Goshen, NY on Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Steve Faith is a NYC firefighter.  Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON *this is only a test post. will be updating and posting more soon. thanks for looking.  -cg. 

Good sports photographs usually feature action or reaction. A football action photo might be a running back caught in mid-air diving into the end zone for a touchdown. The reaction photo could be the coach jumping into the air with his arms up to celebrate the touchdown.

While I was shooting a golf match recently, I caught a golfer’s action and reaction in a series of three photographs.

The pictures show Kevin Correa of Sulllivan West chipping his ball onto the green and then reacting as his ball rolls past the hole during a match against Liberty at Grossinger Country Club on May 8, 2008.