As a reader of our print and on-line publication you may have noticed our Auburn Icons series, featuring 10 of Auburn’s most known landmarks. Along with this we have incorporated people who have a relation to the landmarks. I have to say this is one of the best series we have produced. I have photographed probably every icon on more than a few occasions but what makes this group of photos different are the people representing their relationship with the icon. When we all first started to brainstorm about the idea, there was a silence in the meeting room. Even I felt this series was a bit redundant, considering we did something similar to this in our Foothills magazine.

Not only is it somewhat of a challenge to come up with a different strategy to photograph each icon, the people involved have been more than cooperative with our staff. It amazes me the people in the photos who are business owners, out fighting fires, working their day jobs or battling high-profile court cases, find the time to work with us and go along with our ideas. The series wouldn’t be much if when we asked Jim Ferris or Cheryl Maki they decided not to do it for whatever reason. What’s in it for them? Other than to be in the newspaper again, I think this community really wants to see this series and I’ve heard from people who say they look forward to the next day’s edition to see who’s on the front page with which icon.

Some of the photos required a bit more time to set up than others. For the Old Town Firehouse, set to run on Sunday, I had Auburn fire chief John Bailey park a fire engine in the middle of the intersection of Sacramento Street and Maple Street, forcing traffic in Old Town to go around. Whatever it takes. The photo shoot of Gordon Ainsleigh was very interesting as well, as he was seen running with horses and hanging out with Wendell Robie. Don’t ask.

Another fun photo shoot was the Earl Crabbe Gym, which I refer to as Earl “Cave” Gym because of the very poor fluorescent lighting. It’s like shooting in a cave. I thought to bring in a strobe kit to light the subjects, giving the photo a more portraiture style.

The Auburn Chamber building was one icon which worked out better than we all expected. Though the building is historical, it’s not very eye-catching compared to a 700- foot-high spanning Foresthill Bridge. But executive director of the chamber, Bruce Cosgrove, had an 8-foot painting ironically depicting some of the icons in our series. If you look close at the photo you can see the courthouse, the firehouse, Chana statue and the chamber building. I thought the mural would be a great element in the photo, but after seeing the final result it didn’t really depict the chamber as the icon. I decided to get more photos of the building, the old train cars, and the Coolie statue.

After our first story with the skate park we realized there needs to be more than one photo to tell the story of each icon. The aeriel photos I have on file really give some of the icons a unique perspective and make this series worth picking up the paper and reading.