There have been countless incredible sports moments in the last decade in Southwest Florida. And without Linwood Ferguson, a lot of those would be just memories. Ferguson has shot hundreds of games at Florida Southwestern and FGCU. He moved to Florida for retirement in 2012, and at first, it was just a few games here and there, but he quickly became a staple on gamedays.”He’s been such an important piece to the athletic departments, not only here at FSW, but also with FGCU. Just for what he gives to us and the student-athletes and the exposure for our programs that we’re able to gain,” said FSW sports information director Roy Allen.”It just picked up and found they really liked attention to the sports that don’t get it,” Ferguson said. “The students liked it, the parents liked it. So I kept doing it.”When FSW restarted its athletics program in 2015, Ferguson started shooting for the Buccaneers, as well as the Eagles. He captured all the action, but sometimes he was a part of it too.”It can be exciting,” Ferguson said. “I often am sitting, like, under the basket. You get run over occasionally, but so far I’ve survived that.”Photography has always been a fun hobby for Ferguson. He said that he started in high school and did it off and on over the years, but not once did he turn it into a business.” just as a way to get away from real work,” Ferguson added. “So that’s a reason I didn’t want to take money for it. Then it becomes a job and it doesn’t become fun anymore.”So every single picture he took was as a volunteer. He just enjoyed the experience and liked knowing what he was able to give to the teams.”We don’t have big budgets for photography,” Allen said. “I can’t express what it means for our kids that are overseas and their parents aren’t able to be here at games and not able to take pictures of their kids and to be able to go onto Linwood’s page after the game and pull pictures that he’s taken of their kids that they can hang up in their house or give to their family members and have as memories forever. It’s just something that’s really important and we’re just so blessed to have had him for as long as we did.””My family is all the way across the world,” FSW softball player Sietske Drijvers said. “They’re not able to watch our games live, so being able to send these pictures and show them what we’re doing over here and the passion in the pictures really means a lot to me and my family.”Ferguson’s photos have been used on the athletic departments’ websites, as gifts for senior days, and they are on display all over the arenas. “If you go into our arena right now, you can look up and see a picture of our NBA player, Keon Ellis,” Allen said. “It’s a kind of classic picture that Linwood took after he made a big dunk in a big game that’ll be out there forever. And without Linwood, we wouldn’t have that shot. So it’s huge for us from a display factor as you walk down the halls at both FSW and FGCU. The halls are lined with photos that he’s taken for both of us. From day one of our arena, from day one of our volleyball program, from day one at the City of Palms Park when baseball and softball started back up here. Linwood was there for all of that and everything in between until now, and so he’s captured just some enormous moments for us that otherwise we wouldn’t have to be able to use for generations to come.”But after 12 years in Southwest Florida, his retirement journey is taking him and his family further up the East Coast.”To be honest, going forward, it’s going to be tough for us to replace what Linwood has given us for so many years,” Allen said.And while Ferguson might be leaving the 239, his impact will live on through the halls of arenas and beyond.”I will certainly miss shooting out here,” Ferguson said. “Once I get in and get settled, I have hundreds of boxes to unpack… maybe I’ll find a school up there that wants somebody to come out and photograph their athletes occasionally.”

The Port of Baltimore has had some notable events, including the Ever Forward grounding in 2020, the acquisition of massive cranes that allow larger ships to enter the Port, and—eclipsing the rest—the Key Bridge collapse less than two weeks ago. Bay photographer Mark Hergan has documented the port’s historic events and everyday commerce alike.

When the container ship Ever Forward ran aground just outside the Patapsco River on its way out of port, Hergan was one of the first photographers on site to document the entire process. From the first day of uncertainty to the final ungrounding, Hergan was tracing the event for the public. His unique style highlights the people behind the image. From crews working on tugboats and the Coastguard members who maintain a perimeter, Hergan captures the people who work to resolve the situation. 

“The port is interesting because there is always something different going on—new ships, tugs doing various tasks, and something new every day,” he tells us.

In March, when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being struck by the container ship Dali, Hergan was on the water documenting the tragic event. Each day, his photographs update the public on the progress and portray a story that helps people understand the workings of the port. More importantly, Hergan captures the humanity of the situation.

Hergan uses his 18-foot Scout center console as his photography vessel. He says, “It’s the perfect boat for me because it has a low freeboard that allows me to get low to the water for the perfect shot.” Kept on Bear Creek, Hergan has easy access to the Port of Baltimore and all its inner workings.

Hergan is an avid sailor and currently owns a Tripp 33 named Zombie which he races on Tuesday nights with the Baltimore City Yacht Association. One of the more interesting fleets he participates in and documents is the Log Canoe Fleet on the Eastern Shore. He regularly sails on Mystery, a 1932 log canoe out of the Chester River, and has published a book of his photography showcasing the beauty and uniqueness of this historic fleet.

When Hergan began his photography career, he liked shooting traditional Chesapeake Deadrise workboats. This led him to name his business Deadrise Marine Photography

Hergan publishes many of his photos in boating magazines up and down the Chesapeake, including Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Last year, he spent 111 days on the Bay as part of Spinsheet‘s Century Club and says he hopes to surpass that goal this year.

Hergan’s photography of the Bay serves as a valuable historical reference. His documentation of the Port of Baltimore and the hard-working men and women who keep it running smoothly are vital news sources that will tell stories for generations. His photos engage his viewership with the human side of an industrial port and remind us of the beauty of every aspect of the Chesapeake Bay.

You can follow Hergan’s work on social media at Deadrise Marine Photography or on his website at deadrisemarinephoto.com.

For nearly three decades at the Wichita Eagle, Fernando Salazar shot photos that captured the day’s news. Five years after leaving the paper, Salazar has a new focus: using his camera to express himself. Torin Andersen has more for this month’s ArtWorks.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“I wasn’t working anymore,” Salazaar says. “It was…just take the camera. Makes me look harder, makes me pay attention. Be here now.”

“A lot of times I’d be driving, and, well, I think there was something there, drive around the block, get out of the car, look around, check the angles. But usually, it’s just quick inspiration when it hits me. It’s like, I just see something and you always have your phone with ya, so that, now there’s no excuse.”

Salazar now enjoys being more present with his camera. Photographing for the paper was his job for 25 years at the Wichita Eagle.

“I used to see the stuff before when I worked for the paper, but I didn’t stop because it wasn’t like it could have been used at the paper,” he says. “You know, we always had to have a person in the picture, doing something. Now it could just be a landscape. Now it could just be a beautiful sunset.“

While working at the paper Salazar didn’t have to look far for work inspiration.

“As far as photojournalism goes, I don’t think anybody beats Wichita’s Eugene Smith, and I find it weird that I ended up here, not living too far from where his house is here on North River Boulevard.“

Now Salazar is broadening his inspirational outlook.

“Maybe I’m just watching a lot of other photographers work these days, which I didn’t do a lot when I worked at the paper. Seemed like I didn’t have the time for it. But now I have the time for it.”

Photography is often seen as a moment and not a mood. Salazar feels differently now.

“Shoot what you feel. Not what you see. Exactly.”

“I started liking abstract photography,” Salazar says. “I just shot that like coming out of my driveway.”

Salazar shows me an image on his camera. A jumbled mess of dingy and glistening brown flash across the screen. On closer inspection, a pile of wet and rotting leaves are revealed.

“Just the patterns of the leaves. You know, I think it could be cool, right?”

Salazar feels a lot of his images are realized through editing after the camera captures the raw image.

“You go back to it a couple of days later, or months later, you’ll probably edit that picture completely different.”

Salazar defends his editing technique by expressing that world famous landscape photographer, Ansel Adams, already has an image in mind before snapping his shutter.

“So he sees the image already done before – before he even takes the picture. So he knows what he wants to get out of it.”

And like Adams, Salazar keeps returning to his preferred natural location.

“That one river that I love that I love going to that Nims Street Bridge over there,” he says. “And the sunsets I captured from that, you know, with the little island there, in the sunsets I’ve captured from that little bridge, have just been amazing. Like pick my favorite spots around here.”

NEWBERRY, Fla. (WCJB) – A photographer from Newberry has been sentenced for possession of child porn of children between 6 and 10 years old.

Patrick Michael Perkins, 35, was found guilty on 38 counts. He was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

In January of last year, we reported on Perkin’s arrest after a months-long investigation.

Alachua county sheriff’s deputies say child porn pictures and videos were stored on Google accounts linked to him.

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