Through our lens: Dan Pelle

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the following has a collective value of 54 thousand. But the real value of capturing fleeting moments is priceless. The most interesting subject for me to photograph is people. What are they doing? What are they feeling? What are they saying? The right captured moment, no matter how loud or quiet, reveals the person.

Section:Gallery

Sun., March 25, 2018

An incredible scene to witness as bedlam erupted at the final buzzer at the coming-out party for Gonzaga University and players Jeremy Eaton, #30 Axel Dench, Richie Frahm , Mike Leasure, and Casey Calvary, as they celebrate their 73-72 win over Florida to advance for the first time to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Elite Eight in March of 1999. GU became the Cinderella of the big dance where nearly 18,000 fans in the sold-out American West Arena cheered for the underdog Zags.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
As a representation of the pride and family culture at Gonzaga, no words were need to spoken, just a heartfelt gesture from GU coach Mark Few as he walks arm-in-arm down the long hallway to a post-game press conference with players Elias Harris and Kelly Olynyk (13), with Mike Hart (30) trailing, after GU, ranked Number 1, lost to Wichita State in their third round NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship game, Thursday, March 23, 2013, at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. My past experience with the Zags’ NCAA games, had me on alert to the possibility of emotion from the team after they leave the court. This time it paid off as no one else was there to capture the moment.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
He ain't heavy, he's my all-star teammate. It was an amazing sight to watch a pair of future Hall-of-Famers (well at least one has made to the Hall) clown around like a couple of kids. Seattle Mariner outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. gives a piggy-back ride to teammate Alex Rodriguez during morning warmup drills at spring training in Peoria, Arizona in March of 1998. Griffey, Rodriguez and the rest of the Mariners were Western Division Champions that year.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
The Spokesman-Review followed the John Rogers High School football team during the 2013 season, from the first day of fall training to the locker room after the final game. Rogers did not have a winning season since 1994. The Pirates struggles continued this year and frustrations boiled over as Jacob Meusy, a senior lineman, need consoling by cheerleader Kasandra Carter after the homecoming game against North Central, Sept. 20, 2013. For a while he refused to get on teh bus. "We go to practice. We work our butts off. We just want to win" said Meusy. Rogers lost 28-21 and fell to 0-3 and finished the year without a win. This picture was shot in very low light outside Albi Stadium and was heartbreaking to watch this young man sobbing in tears as his teammates passed by. Kasandra was the only person to break through his grief, Newspaper readers empathized with Messy and one even offered to give him gift cards to a sporting goods store.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
After an afternoon of shooting Hoopfest 2012, The Spokesman-Review needed just one more action picture to fill out our visual report of the event. Back in our office, I looked out a window from our 4th floor and saw the traffic marking on the ground near a court on Riverside Avenue Waited about five minutes for the team Playing for Guess with Bill Manees, 13, of Coeur d'Alene, right, to battle the First Timers' Guyle Wood, 12, top left, and Erik Torres, 11, of Coulee Dam, Wa., for a long rebound during a youth Hoopfest game, June 30. The colors, action and expressions made this a winner.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Sometimes the best pictures just appear out of nowhere. Looking for first-edition pictures from the Lilac Parade, I visited the motorized floats staging area under I-90 and saw Rachel Crofoot, age 8 of Medical Lake, chasing soap bubbles spewing from the Spokane Lilac Festival Association Float under the freeway at 4th and Jefferson. The floats were on display to the public before the start of the Spokane Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. The extraordinary scene was created from the light sneaking in from the sides of the freeway to light the bubbles creating a wonderland for the girl.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
From the first guitar cord of "A Hard Day's Night" kicking off movie clips of the Beatles in the ’60s projected on 3 giant screens, the Seattle Kingdome crowd was energized, March 29, 1990. Looking back into the faces behind me from my position near the stage, it felt like everyone in the stadium was instantly transformed back into the '60s. When McCartney was performing "Jet" in this picture, the second song of the night, his posture and attitude reminds me of him in his early Beatle days. It was McCartney’s first appearances in North America in 13 years, embracing his Beattles past by including for the first time in any of his tours, a substantial number of Beattle songs in his set list.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
A call from a reader to the office alerted us to the possibility of a feature photograph on the Spokane River. On my way get pictures of a Shadle Park High School athlete, I made my first of 2 stops on the north river bank. With a cold arctic blast descending on Spokane, the Riverfront Park SkyRide, parked just below the raging Spokane Falls, was encased in frozen mist and icicles Monday, Jan. 31, 2011. The lower afternoon light on my second stop after the Shadle shoot made for a much more dramatic scene. The picture ran in many newspapers and websites around the country.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
For their last perforce together, members of the 560th Air Force Band/Air National Guard of the Northwest, including, from left, Senior Master Sgt. Michael Baker, Tech Sgt. David Volland, Major James Phillips, Master Sgt. Jaye Nordling salute the flag during the National Anthem, May 27, 2013 during the 3rd annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake, Wash. I was trying to get around to show their faces, but realized the angle from behind with the clouds and silhouettes was more powerful.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Yes, children, that's a real white beard. Santa Claus (Ed Gowin) from Suncrest, Wash., gets tested by Naomi Getchell, Maria Grube (center back) and Tomia Gardner (right) from the Little Red School House, December 5, 2008 in Spokane's Riverfront Park. Santa and I were wandering the downtown streets while taking a break from holiday pictures at Dream Catcher Photography in the Crescent Court when the children happened upon him on their way to a playground activity.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
Her hands were of great interest to me when I met May Vidmer, 91, after a birthday celebration at the Hillside Inn, July 31, 2013 in Spokane, Wash., where "Aunt May" sang a rendition of Happy Birthday and yodeled for 100 year-old Harvey Schluter. The years of her life experiences and the colorful character seemed to be held in her rings and fingers.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
What started out as a mug shot of the new director of the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane, ended up being a feature story on a boy with a "sporadic birth defect from Helena, Mont. Keeping up with his mother and sister is no problem for Kevin Connolly. Faster on his hands than his legs, his upper body strength allows him to cross the Monroe Street without his artificial legs. Kevin was born without legs and received treatments from Shriners Hospital in Spokane in the spring of 1994. He quit using his prosthetic legs at age 12, and went on to win a silver medal at the X Games extreme sports in the skiing competition and also starred in a reality series entitled "Armed & Ready."

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Finding beauty in a sea of confusion is a challenge we face as photographers. Focusing my attention just a single dancer and using a slow shutter speed to exaggerate her movements, yielded an enticing photograph. Leona Dick, 9, of Spokane, Wash., performed a Fancy Shawl Dance as part of the Spokane Tribe's 5th Annual Heritage Day Celebration, Nov. 6, 2013, at the Spokane Fair & Expo Center. The girl is a member of the Strong Heart Dance Group.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
I alway thought this photograph had the look of a 1930’s era vintage picture. Buddy White waited outside Judge Linda Tompkins’ courtroom at the Spokane County Courthouse with 2 month-old Eliam, Nov. 16, 2012. White, his wife Tammie and other family members adopted the child in Tompkins' courtroom on National Adoption Day.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
As news photographers, was try and keep an ear to the scanners for police and fire calls. Often when we arrive on scene the action if over, but patience paid off as I stayed around long enough to see Spokane Ladder 2 firefighters Jared Contabile, left, and Jon Stevens emerge covered in insulation after tearing out a ceiling of a burning house at the corner of 46th Avenue and Stone Street, Nov. 28, 2012 in Spokane. The fire started garage area and quickly spread to the attic. A neighboring home was threatened, but firefighters were able to stop the blaze from causing much damage to the second home. A dog and a snake were inside the burning home, but were rescued.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
A year-long project shooting pictures at Mount St. Michael lead to thousands of pictures of their daily life. But it was this scene of students erasing the chalk board after completing an assignment, on Sept. 17, 1986, captured the feel and simplicity of the lives of the people who follow the Pre-Vatican II practices of the Catholic Church.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Doesn't everyone take their camel for a walk in the park? Spokane resident, local businessman and exotic farm owner John Schreiner, 60, strolls through Manito Park with his dog, Gunther, 10 months, and his four-year-old Bactrian camel, Calypso. Schreiner brought Calypso to the park, Wednesday, May 9, 2012, to give a professional acquaintance a ride on the 1,600 pound camel. Making the unusual look normal tickles my funny bone.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Not a dog-bites-man story, but rather a raccoon-squeezes-man tale. Getting in touch with John McLachlan, head zoo keeper at Walk in the Wild, was Rowdy, a 6-month-old raccoon that has been at the Spokane zoo since the animal was 3 weeks old. "I'm like a mother, father, playmate...the whole family to Rowdy," McLachlan said on Feb. 6, 1986.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
As the old saying goes, everyone deserves a place in the paper, or something like that. Bailey Tansy, 18, of Spokane, Wa., awaits her turn in the arena to show her miniature horse, Voltron, during the mare and foal showing, September 11, 2009, on the first day of the Spokane County Interstate Fair. Voltron and his mother, Zanadoo won grand champion. They were the only entries.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
The next great picture is just around the corner. I had just shot photos of kids building a snowman and thought it was a pretty good shot until I drove just around the block and saw this scene. Miles McQuesten, 5, gazed upon his work of art, Jack the Evil Snowman, Jan. 23, 2015, at his home on west 16th Avenue in Spokane. The boy and his father, Rick, built the snowman that Friday morning with the legs constructed from branches and newspapers. The idea the evil snowman came from the internet. A newspaper co-worker said the picture reminded his of Calvin and Hobbs carton.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
What started out as spectacular 4th of July celebration, turned into a near riot as police arrested a group of 17 protesters in Riverfront Park, in 2007. The protesters, with their hands bound behind their backs, yelled and cried out to police officers after their arrest near the clock tower in the park with families and young children looking on. I felt like I was in the midst of the 1960s unrests with the police marching toward to crowd protesting police brutality.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo