It’s been a fun experience so far, and I’ve worked on a couple of interesting stories, a number of which will be appearing in the new Bay Area section of the Times in the coming weeks. However, the published images comprise only a small fraction of the photos I made for the various assignments, and I’m already finding that some of my favorite images don’t make it into the paper or the website. I spent a few years working as a newspaper photojournalist and I know that there are a lot of factors that go into deciding what makes the publication and what doesn’t. So I’ve decided to use this space to self- publish photos that I really liked, but that didn’t make the cut, for whatever reason.

I’d like to commend The Bay Citizen for their contract, which gives freelancers and contractors a shared copyright, thus allowing me to publish these photos, and re-license them. This used to be the standard, but things have changed in the last decade or so with “work for hire” contracts that basically take away all rights from the photographers that work hard to create this content.

Beginning today, I’ll be posting a series of outtakes from various assignments in the coming weeks. The first one is from a story about how public financing is helping to grow online charter schools.

Compare this one with what the New York Times ran. The Bay Citizen ran both photos. I completely agree with the decision to lead with the photo that ran in the Times, especially with the layout in the print version. But I think that this one is probably the more compelling, story telling image.

May 2010

Lillian Leal comforts her son David Leal, 3, at the scene of a deadly fire Sunday morning, which claimed the life of David’s cousin Joshua Rivas, 2. Michael Leal, 8, inspects the remains of a bicycle. The Leals, who live next door to the Rivas family, came to inspect the damage and to salvage what was possible. Lillian Leal said Joshua was in the bedroom when the fire broke out while the two families were barbequeing outside. Tice District firefighters believe the cause was faulty wiring.

Chauntavia Thomas, 11, prays during an Ecumenical Service the Sunday before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day, at Friendship Baptist Church. The service featured a choir as well as a number of speakers, who addressed the congregation on Dr. King’s legacy.

Aaron Fletcher waves the flag of his native Grenada during a celebration for the 30th anniversary of independence at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg, Florida. Grenada gained its sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1974.

Tempers flare during a hotly contested game of chess between Gregory Parks, 12, and his mentor Vishal Yajnik, during an after school program at the Village Learning Place, a community library in Baltimore, Maryland. Yajnik and Parks are a part of the America Reads, and meet three days a week to do homework and play chess. The Village Learning Place is struggling to keep programs such as America Reads, amid a $75,000 budget cut by the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore.

Nicolas Plancher buries his head in his hands while reading an English textbook during his ESOL class at Fort Myers High School. Plancher came to the United States from his native Haiti in 2000. He speaks some English, but is more comfortable in Haitian Creole. A senior, Plancher enjoys math and aspires to become an engineer, but needs to strengthen his English skills on order to go to college.