Seattle Times Pictures of the Year 2019
When the Seattle Times does its Pictures of the Year event, it's a must-see for us, and this year’s event a couple weeks ago was no exception. This year's presenters were Steve Ringman, Ramon Dompor, and Dean Rutz.
Each year we try to make sure to arrive early enough for the event, and it’s a good thing we did. The line grew quickly and when the doors opened a half-hour before the event, people poured in. We got our customary seats about a half dozen rows back, behind the reserved seats.
After Angie Gottschalk, the Times’ Photo Editor, introduced the event and showed a video of the Pictures of the Year for 2019, she introduced Steve Ringman.
Steve Ringman
We had heard Steve Ringman present a few years ago, and like last time, he was working on an environmental project, the Hostile Waters series about the southern resident orca whales and how they're not doing as well as the northern resident ones. One of the big issues covered was the noise generated by all the shipping traffic, making it harder for the whales to use echolocation for hunting. He ended up using a drone to get several photos, including one of a container ship they weren't able to get near.
Ramon Dompor
Working with Ringman, Ramon Dompor shot video for the Hostile Water series. He said he had a really hard time getting a lot of usable footage since their boat was anything but steady. The first day ended up being the best, and he got a shot of a couple orcas swimming under their boat.
Dean Rutz
As with Ringman, we had seen Dean Rutz a while ago. He mostly does sports photography, and he covered the ear's events, including both professional and college. He went to Japan with the Mariners to open their season (and had to guess what was going on since he was one of only two American photographers there) and was able to cover the last games for both Ichiro and Felix Hernandez. He also described hustling up and down the sidelines to keep up with the action at Seahawks games.