Category Archives: Fame (Fortune Optional)

Where everybody knows your name

The subtitle of this blog — “The life of a small-town photographer” — encompasses more than just the many photos I post here; being a photographer in a small town can be a rather public vocation, and that means every now and again there are stories that can be told about life between the pictures.

Having managed to avoid doing anything notable while growing up in Chelsea, I’ve long been accustomed to knowing pretty much everybody who knew me.  But since my work has gained prominence in the community, I find myself in the opposite situation: I’m known by more people than I know.  Most of the resulting encounters are fairly pedestrian, but one recent occurrence left me chuckling.

Not long ago, I was hired to photograph a group of local veterans gathering at the depot.  The group turned out to be fairly large, and since the depot’s parking isn’t exactly extensive, I ended up having to park on a nearby street.  As I was walking to the depot, a police car drove past me and stopped at the end of the street.  I began to wonder: had I done something wrong?  Had I parked in the wrong place?  Did my beard exceed the legal limit?

I was certain I had no reason to worry — and it wouldn’t look very good if I tried to avoid him, right? — so I kept walking.  It didn’t take long for my curiosity to be assuaged; when I reached the end of the street, the officer rolled down his window, smiled at me and called out…

“Hey!  What are you shooting today?”

Almost but not quite life-size

Back in early January, Editor Terry, the fearless commander of the Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader, floated the idea of having Sports Editor Don write a feature article on me and my business.  Both my business and I thought that was an excellent idea, so Don sent me a few questions to answer; I sent back my answers and a few of my favorite pictures, and then I waited for my moment in the ink-stained spotlight.  After a few weeks of waiting, I finally got to see the finished product in the Standard this week:

(The photo of me was taken by my good friend Joshua Krieger.)

Don did his best to cast me in a highly positive light early in the article:

Like Eisenstaedt, and many other world-renowned photographers, Strong relies less on the technical and mathematical aspects of photography, and more on the instinctual and intuitive nature of the craft.

“When you don’t have to think about the mechanics of shooting and the basics of photography, you’re free to react in free-flowing situations,” said Strong, who has won first-place sports photography honors the past two years in the Michigan Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

He also surprised me by getting quotes from two of the coaches at the high school:

Chelsea Hall-of-Fame baseball coach and Bulldog Athletic Director Wayne Welton said Strong is truly a professional when it comes to photography.

“He’s very client driven,” he said. “From parents, to athletes, to coaches, he will do anything. Service is what the Strong family has always been about. He’s a joy to work with. Burrill is a friend to the whole athletic department.”

Welton said Strong has captured many lasting moments with his camera while covering his ball club through the years.

“He’s followed us to the Final Four (state semifinals) and throughout the seasons,” he said. “Those (photographic) memories last a lifetime.”

Chelsea football coach Brad Bush said he’s amazed with Strong’s skill as a photographer.

“People don’t realize how talented he is,” he said. “Some of his photos are unreal. Burrill puts so much time into taking photos. He gets a lot of unique shots. He has an uncanny way of capturing the moment.”

The rest of the article follows in that vein; I think Don did a great job on it.

Along with the very thorough article, they decided to include six of my favorite photos: five on the front page and one inside.  These were the fortunate front-page photos, along with the captions I provided:


One of the reasons I love sports is its incredible depth of emotion; I have a number of compelling images following big wins and big losses, but this one still stands out to me.  The Chelsea baseball team had just completed an improbably seventh-inning comeback in a playoff game, and in the resulting bedlam, I caught the look of pure joy on Adam Connell’s face as he celebrated with Dan Augustine.


I’ve been going to the Chelsea demolition derby as long as I can remember, and this was the most spectacular fire I can remember.  I happened to have my camera aimed at these two cars in order to catch their impending collision; obviously, it was more than just another collision.  The most common reaction to this picture: “It looks like something out of a movie!”


Over the last two years, I’ve made two trips to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA; this image features the interior of the university’s Packer Memorial Chapel.  The entire campus is stunning, but this picture remains one of my favorites.


This is a picture of the grave of Amy Schnearle-Pennywitt, an Ann Arbor firefighter who died of injuries she sustained while she was responding to a multi-car pileup on the highway in January 2006.  I was involved in that pileup, and her sacrifice is something I’ll never forget.


I took senior portraits for a Chelsea student who is a member of  the Chelsea House Orchestra; she wanted pictures with her violin, and along with some of the more normal shots, I decided to try something a little bit offbeat.  This image was the result.

And this photo had the inside all to itself:


Sports photography often is the pursuit of the right place and the right time; you never really know when everything is going to come together, but when it does, it’s so much fun … and sometimes a little crazy.  In this case, the athlete jumped to block a kick, and when the ball got past her, she spun around in midair to keep an eye on the ball; at that moment, the right place and the right time came together to produce an unlikely image of a soccer player running through the air.

Programming note

A few weeks ago, I came in contact with Linda Meloche, the host of Around Town With Linda, a show on Chelsea’s local cable channel.  For her show, Linda interviews interesting people in and around Chelsea; however, since it seems she couldn’t find an interesting person in or around Chelsea for this slot, she asked me to appear on her show.  We taped the interview a couple weeks ago, and the finished product should start airing today.

For those of you who don’t remember my previous post about my public speaking abilities … well, here’s a refresher:

Just keep that in mind as you watch the interview.  But I know they did their best to edit it to make me sound good, so maybe they cut out the duhhhs and bwahs.  Guh bah dhay gwah!  Coo coo ca choo.

Also, I think I need to expand on two of my answers that I am assuming will be in the final cut:

  • We were talking about my sports photography, and then we started talking about my work for the newspaper; that was an easy transition because my sports work frequently appears in the paper.  As I recall, Linda asked me if my work for the paper is paid work; though I now think she was asking about all my newspaper work, I was still thinking sports, so I told her that my newspaper work is unpaid.  This is only half true.  I provide my sports photos to the newspaper for no charge (which is why, if you read the photo credit, you’ll find that it says “Photos courtesy of Burrill Strong”) and make money only when someone makes a purchase from me; however, the other work I do for the paper is actually paid freelance work (which is why, if you read the photo credit, you’ll find that it says “Photos by Burrill Strong”).
  • Linda asked me if the advent of affordable digital cameras is a problem for professionals like me; in response, I talked about how there is now a bit more of a misconception that it’s Not That Hard for Anyone to Take Great Photos (a misconception that’s most unhelpfully advanced by camera manufacturers’ advertisements), but that when people get into more difficult situations like ice arenas or football games under the lights, they find out their consumer kit equipment isn’t really up to the task.  This is true, but it’s only half the answer I should have given.  Equipment matters, but there is a more important element to photography: the photographer.  Modern cameras can get the settings right more often, but if people don’t have the basic knowledge required to use cameras’ capabilities, they’re going to hit a wall a lot sooner (“Why is my picture blurry?”  “Well, your shutter speed was half a second.”  “My what?”).  And on the more nebulous creative side, if people don’t have the eye to see and compose a good photograph, all the nice cameras in the world won’t produce compelling photographs.  So, in summary: yes, it’s easier to take pictures, but no, it’s still not easy to be a photographer.

If you watch the interview and have questions about anything else I said, feel free to post them here.

Always read the fine print

A year or two ago, I took a few pictures of my pastor Clark Cothern so he would have something to submit with the articles he writes for various publications. Eventually I forgot about those pictures, but then a few months ago, he let me know that one of the pictures would be accompanying an article in Discipleship Journal. I never did get my own copy of the issue, but my sister is a subscriber, so she scanned the article for me; sure enough, right there on the second page of the article is my photo.

And just so all you skeptical readers out there believe that it’s actually mine:

Burrill Strong Photography: Now With More Award-Winningness!

Last week, when I took my football pictures to the Chelsea Standard, Sports Editor Don didn’t greet me in the normal manner; instead of a typical greeting, he stuck out his hand and said, “Congratulations!” Since I was completely mystified as to what I had done to merit such a greeting — Was it because I made it up the stairs and through the door without tripping? Was it because I had trimmed my goatee? — he filled me in on the details.

A few months ago, Sports Editor Don entered a few of my sports shots into the Michigan Press Association‘s annual Better Newspaper Contest. (Member newspapers submit work to be judged by members of the Wisconsin Press Association, awards are given, people feel happy, obla dee, obla dah, life goes on.) Prior to entering my work, he showed me the shots he had selected, so I was aware of the contest at that time, but I managed to forget all about it. But then the MPA released the contest results last week, and … well, I’ll probably be better at remembering it in the future.

For the contest, newspapers are divided into eight groups: Daily Classes A-D and Weekly Classes A-D. The daily/weekly split is pretty obvious; the classes function a lot like school district classes: A is the biggest circulation, and D is the smallest. The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader newspapers are small-circulation weekly papers, so my work was judged in the “Sports Picture” category in the weekly class D group. And believe it or not, they liked me. They really liked me.


Those comments are in reference to this picture:

But it didn’t end there. Later in the same category:


Those comments are in reference to this picture:

If you want to see those results in context, you can view the full results; page 16 is the one you want.

It’s amusing to me that my award-winning work came from two of the four or five Dexter basketball games I covered for the Dexter Leader simply because the regular shooter wasn’t available and Sports Editor Don needed someone to cover the games. But hey, I’ll take it.

Also, later in the results, the Chelsea Standard — the usual destination for my pictures — won an award of its own in the “Sports Coverage” category, and it is somewhat relevant to my work.

So remember: when you utilize the services of Burrill Strong Photography, you’re not just hiring a photographer; you’re hiring an award-winning photographer.

Burrill Strong Photography: Now With More Press Boxiness!

After the 2005 football season, Chelsea renovated its football stadium; among many other things, this renovation included a new press box. As high school press boxes go, it was functionally excellent. But as it turns out, it wasn’t yet finished.

Prior to this season, the finishing touches were put on the press box; these finishing touches included things like carpeting and individual lights at the desks, as well as a microwave and a small refrigerator. But it seems it still wasn’t finished; in addition to all those practical features, Chelsea’s athletic director had one aesthetic finishing touch in mind. So, early in the football season, he contacted me to ask about acquiring a particular photograph for the wall of the press box. And as of last week, that photograph has been printed and framed.

So now, when you walk into the main room of the Chelsea football press box, you will see this:

Some of you may recognize the photograph as the current background image of the football page of my business website; a few of you may even remember it from its brief appearance on my business card. Though it no longer appears on my business card, it still is one of my favorite pictures, and I am pleased to have it adorning the wall of the press box.

Lying down on the job

Last Friday, I photographed Chelsea’s football game at Adrian, which is why the previous post was full of pictures from that game. What I didn’t know was that as I photographed the team’s entrance onto the field, there was someone photographing me. Well, not me specifically, but I did manage to relax my way into the frame.

I’m there at the bottom of the picture, lying on the ground and yet hard at work at the same time. And while it may look like I’m about to get aerated by roughly 60 pairs of cleats, don’t worry; I was not in any danger. Trust me, I learned my lesson last year after I nearly got trampled one week and then actually got kicked in the head by a cheerleader a week or two later. Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

Anyway, that photo and article link appeared on the front page of Michigan Elite Football‘s website. It should be on the main page for another day or so; after that, I’ll be just another guy lying on the football field. But don’t worry; I saved a screen shot for posterity. (Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t accompany the full article, so posterity is out of luck with that link. Also, there’s no bigger version available, so keep squinting.)

Oh, and here’s one of the shots I got as I lounged on the grass:

All your Hoosier States are belong to us

Burrill Strong Photography has slipped the surly bonds of Washtenaw County; yea, the fame of the impudent upstart photography firm has spread even to the utmost ends of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Seriously.

Today I received a phone call from the Sports Information Director at Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne. Chad Nielsen, a newly-graduated Chelsea baseball player, recently signed to play baseball at IPFW, and the SID was looking for a photo of Nielsen for the requisite publicity surrounding the signing. He called the Chelsea Standard, and the paper pointed him in my direction; I pointed him to my site, and he selected a picture of Nielsen pitching in the state quarterfinals. Not long after I sent him the picture, he added the news release to the IPFW sports site.

So, just for now, my picture graces the front page of the IPFW sports site:

And yes, as that screenshot shows, IPFW has a great mascot and logo. IUPUI may have the cooler acronym, but as mascots go, Mastodons are far cooler than Jaguars. Also, mastodons are much better to have in a traffic jam.

(For posterity: a screenshot of the article, including my [credited] picture in all its glory. Because you never know how long content will last on the internet.)