Albuquerque Shooting

RevcoManRevcoMan Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
edited March 26, 2005 in People
Was in Albuquerque, N.M. yesterday for the NCAA Basketball Regional, and happened to be in my hotel room on the 15th floor when this occurred. :eek1

Hope these pics don't offend anyone...

Here's the link to the story in the Albuquerque News:
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19858_3650385,00.html


18228002-M.jpg

In the above picture, you can barely make out the deceased criminal in the parking lot on the lower right. I have close-ups that might not be appropriate for this forum. You can see them in my smugmug account (link below). Another pic...

18227997-M.jpg



http://revcoman.smugmug.com/gallery/452399

Comments

  • blackwaterstudioblackwaterstudio Registered Users Posts: 779 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    THe pictures in the gallery are great. Hate that he shot two officers but it appears they killed him in return. Thats good.
  • coldclimbcoldclimb Registered Users Posts: 1,169 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Wow, very interesting! Thanks for the pics. The one showing the whole scene tells the story rather well. Props to the cops for doing their job well. Hope they both recover completely.
    John Borland
    www.morffed.com
  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Great captures...ive looked at them several times & the more i look at them..the more i lke them.
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Really interesting photojournalism. The shots have a gritty reality that I like a lot. I don't think anybody could exactly be offended by them, compared to say, prime time TV or the local news.

    Suggestion: do something about the color balance. I think the cast is coming from shooting in such low light but also from the street lights. I neutralized on the white of the police car here: http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/18243100-L.jpg and used essentially the same curves to get this:

    18243120-L.jpg

    I did this in LAB (natch) and here are the curves:

    18243095-S.jpg18243096-S.jpg

    What's going on here? I just found some parts of the image that I knew had to be neutral. Then I used the mouse on the LAB curves to find out where they actually where. Finally I moved those points to the origin, effectly neutralizing them. Some other points were then required to keep the green side of the A curve and the blue side of the B curve in place. Because the original cast was so all prevasive, the effect is to desaturate a lot of the image, but I like that. It gives a better nighttime feel, IMHO. If we were actually there, we would not perceive it as yellow, but we also wouldn't perceive it as very except for the colored artificial light. It goes well with the grain, which I also like (tried neat image to remove it, but like it better with the grain, actually).sdf
    If not now, when?
  • RevcoManRevcoMan Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Suggestion: do something about the color balance. I think the cast is coming from shooting in such low light but also from the street lights. I neutralized on the white of the police car here: http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/18243100-L.jpg and used essentially the same curves to get this:
    Thanks for the suggestions, rutt. I played around with these photos quite a bit, and finally settled on this lighting, which was as close to realistic as I could make it... Trust me, with the yellow hue from the street lights, the flashing of the police strobes, and the spotlight from the helicopter, it made for one eery and surreal scene...

    If I could have been more prepared (yeah, right), I could have made these more professional-looking. As it was, I grabbed the 20D, flipped the ISO to 1600, and started clicking away...thumb.gif
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    The color balance of artificial lighting at night seems to be very subjective. I think I must have a very good internal AWB system as I never notice how yellow tungsten (eg) is unless there is something to compare it to. Having a good internal AWB system isn't necessarily a good thing as it means I don't see what the camera sees. But I always seem to want my night shots cool and somewhat unsaturated.

    That's why they make chocholate, vanilla, and strawberry, as they say.
    If not now, when?
  • imaximax Registered Users Posts: 691 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Great pictures, It's great to be at the right place at the right time. The only questions that I have from looking at the pictures on your site is this. Did you see all of this happen? If so did you see the suspect get handcuffed by the police? Were his feet placed in that position? For some reason looking at the picture it looks like the suspect was put in that position and I'm wondering why.


    http://revcoman.smugmug.com/gallery/452399[/QUOTE]
  • blackwaterstudioblackwaterstudio Registered Users Posts: 779 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    imax wrote:
    Great pictures, It's great to be at the right place at the right time. The only questions that I have from looking at the pictures on your site is this. Did you see all of this happen? If so did you see the suspect get handcuffed by the police? Were his feet placed in that position? For some reason looking at the picture it looks like the suspect was put in that position and I'm wondering why.


    http://revcoman.smugmug.com/gallery/452399
    Being a LEO myself once the subject stop what he was doing (shooting, etc) and fell to the ground, they handcuff'd him, part of that is putting the legs together so you can get their arms around behind them easier.
  • RevcoManRevcoMan Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Great pictures, It's great to be at the right place at the right time.
    I was almost at the wrong place at the wrong time...

    The gunman had pulled into my hotel, and under the awning of the circle drive at the front entrance. As I returned from the local bar/restaurant scene on foot, I had to walk past one officer having a verbal confrontation with the suspect while he was still in the car. The policeman with his hand on his holstered sidearm prompted me to hasten my pace and get into the hotel! The other policeman was still seated in a patrol car.

    When I got up to my room, I decided to take a look outside, for the view was quite impressive. Looking down and to the right, I saw the gunman (now deceased) lying as you see him, already cuffed. About 10 feet away, one of the policeman was on the ground as well, but I could detect movement. Apparently, the other officer (who was shot in the jaw), must have returned to his patrol car for medical supplies. He returned and begin giving aid to the downed officer (received 2 GSW's; one to the leg and another to the neck). Within seconds, it seemed like the whole Albuquerque PD descended on the scene (about 30 patrol cars at one count) with ambulances, fire engines, and a helicopter to boot. I messed around with some low ISO shots which turned out to be unsalvageable due to the low shutterspeed required. After I got the ISO bumped up to 1600 and mounted the 70-200, I began taking some acceptable pics... by this time the ambulances had loaded up the 2 injured officers and whisked them away.

    In the 30 seconds it took to take the elevator up to my room, the action had taken place... if I would have been a few steps later, I would have been right in the middle of a bad situation!
  • blackwaterstudioblackwaterstudio Registered Users Posts: 779 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2005
    Most gun battles don't last more then 2-7 seconds. But thats a lifetime when your getting shot at.
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