Stericycle

Last week I shot an assignment for USA Today and the Indianapolis Star at Stericycle, the largest U.S. company handling recalled products based in Indianapolis. They were very protective about not showing specific products so I was limited to a portrait of the vice president of recalls, Mike Rozembajgier. Here is how it ran in the Indy Star today.

7 days 3709 miles

When a meteorologist yells "Lets get out of here, It's time to go NOW," they mean it. I learned this on a recent storm chasing trip to 

the Great Plains, where on one day a bright-green core of baseball-sized hail was headed directly to us threatening to destroy our truck. 

My goal on the trip with my storm chase team the Severe Weather Alert Team (SWAT) was to photograph tornadoes in the Plains. 

Despite not getting a tornado, photographing severe weather is an amazing experience. Getting up close to these powerful 

performances of nature, watching the beautiful storm structure and rotating clouds come at you and visiting parts of the country few 

venture to are some of what makes it great. 

I find it amazing that you can wake up in the morning, the meteorologist looks over the weather models and pinpoints an area 

to target, then you drive to that area (sometimes 5-6 hrs). Then like it was all planned out perfectly, you sit and watch

 the storm clouds build up just off in the distance.

Shooting storms is a challenge, one minute you feel that you have all the time in the world to watch and photograph the storm

creep up, the clouds becoming more and more dramatic the closer it gets. The next minute it is right on top of you and you have 

to move quickly to reposition yourselves to stay out of large hail and damaging winds, while dealing with an often bad road network.

Overall and despite not getting a tornado to shoot, It was a great adventure and I can't wait to get back out next season. 

Birding Indiana Dunes

I spent Friday morning at the Indiana Dunes State Park with local birder Brendan Grube. Grube gets up at 5 a.m. most mornings during bird migration to count the different species and numbers of birds migrating through the park. As the birds travel north they hit Lake Michigan and often turn around and work their way along the shoreline instead of traveling over the lake.

England

I just got back from a short trip to God's Country aka England to take my wife Eileen for the first time. I was born there and most of my family still lives there so it was great to take a little break,  hang out with them, and get a little sight seeing in along the way. I  mostly spend my time documenting other peoples lives and shooting corporate types. Looking through my images from the trip reminds me it's important to also document my own life and the people around me that I really care about.  

England Blog - Images by Chris Bergin

Sr. (Citizen) Prom

I recently photographed a Sr. (Citizen) Prom organized by the students at Franklin University for the Indianapolis Star.  It was great to see the folks dance into the wee hours of the evening.


Sr. Citizen Prom - Images by Chris Bergin

Religion: Jews and Black Christians reunite

Images I shot for a religion piece in the New York Times. An area near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana was once a vibrant area shared by black Christians and white Jews. In the 1960's the area started to decline and the people moved away. A local anthropology professor has found a way to bring the people back together once again... through the church.

Click HERE to view the article by Samuel Freedman


NYTimes_Religion - Images by Chris Bergin

Indiana Basketball

Here are a few images from a story I photographed for the New York Times that ran Sunday March 24. The story focused on the Anderson Indiana basketball team and the former arena the Wigwam. This was the first season in 50 years that Anderson High School did not play in the 9,000-seat Wigwam due to high maintenance costs and falling attendance. Many local residents are angry that the Wigwam has closed and are reluctantly going to the renovated high school gym to watch the games.

Click Here to read the article by Craig Fehrman


Anderson Basketball - Images by Chris Bergin