Blog > Articles by: Cliff Jette

HIAWATHA – Forever is a mighty long time but Jan Axtell of Cedar Rapids said seeing trash pile up along the interstate has bothered her for years. “We are really trying to bring businesses into Cedar Rapids and we’ve got litter everywhere,” said Axtell as she and her husband, Del, spent Saturday morning picking up just about anything and everything on the side of I-380 at Boyson Road.  “We could at least drive down the interstate and say, ‘look what we ...

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Here's a couple images from Trekfest in Riverside, which is always a really fun event to cover. Additional photos at gazetteonline.com.-Cliff Actors from the original Star Trek series George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig laugh as a costume contest participant collapses on the ground, portraying one of the innumerable, anonymous red-shirted crew members who often didn't survive the original crew's adventures.  Gary Barclay of Anderson, IN, dressed as Spock, performs for the judges during the Federation category in the costume contest ...

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Sean McCoy was this week's subject for Mystyle. More images and video for the shoot along with Sean's interview are at hooplanow.com. -Cliff

 The prodigious amount of fireflies in my backyard tonight was just to amazing to not set up the tripod and try to get a photo. -Cliff

The tenth installment of MyStyle ran in this week's Hoopla. Lovar Davis Kidd, founder of MOvMNT Dance Company, put his talent to use in the shoot. Visit hooplanow.com to read his interview and watch the video of L.D. discussing his style. -Cliff

A few extra pictures from a regional soccer semifinal between Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Linn-Mar. -Cliff

A few images from the Class 2A finals at the state boy's tennis tournament. -Cliff Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Jeff Damisch hits the ball as he faces Matt Sturgeon of WDM Valley for fifth place during a consolation game during the finals of the Class 2A boy's state tennis tournament at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, May 30, 2009.  Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Eric Allenbach returns the ball as he and Ivan Liao face Austin Wiser and Curtis Newmann of ...

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We decided to take advantage of good weather and a plethora of trees in bloom for this week's MyStyle. An audio slideshow can be found at hooplanow.com. -Cliff

A couple as of yet unpublished sports images from the last few days. -Cliff Cedar Rapids Washington's Charlie Hammond hits the ball as he and doubles partner Cole Rhatigan face Gavin Young and T.J. McCann of Linn-mar during a boy's district tennis match at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Coe's Max Tunning throws to first base for a double play after tagging out A.J. Lewis of Wartburg during the second inning of a game at the IIAC baseball tournament in Cedar ...

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Rugby is not a sport I get to shoot very often, but it always yields interesting pictures. This week's Hoopla has a feature on one of the players from the Cedar Rapids Headhunters and a gallery of photos from a game I shot back in April has been posted at Hoopla's website. -Cliff

We had a amazing location, the Ausadie Building on 1st Ave in SE Cedar Rapids, for this week's installment of MyStyle in the May 7 edition of Hoopla featuring Raechal Sabin. Video and interview can be seen here. -Cliff

......just not very well. If these aren't enough Snuggies and Snuggie-inspired creations then there's always Hoopla's Snuggie Slumber Party. -Cliff Here's how to make your own, as shown in the above images.

Newlyweds Regina and Jan Culbertson toast their wedding with their two-year-old son Connor following a ceremony in the living room of their home in Cedar Rapids on Monday, April 27, 2009. The couple has been together for eleven years and held a formal ceremony for family and friends in August of 2002, but were unable to legal marry until today, the first day a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage went into effect. Photos ...

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Here are the uncropped images from this week's installment of Hoopla's MyStyle series. One of the fun things about this series is taking advantage of interesting locations I find. For this one we took advantage of some nice afternoon light in downtown Marion. Interview and video can be found here. -Cliff

Apparently American white pelicans migrate through Iowa on their way to their summer breeding grounds. Several dozen could be seen at Ellis Park near the Cedar River. -Cliff

GazetteOnline has posted a web gallery of my photos from the fifth and last game of first round USHL playoffs for the RoughRiders. The time constraints of my deadline for the print edition meant I did not get to shoot the end of the game. Thus the shots of the RoughRiders celebrating their goals were transmitted while they were still ahead. -Cliff

Saturday's game offered a lot more opportunities for good images compared with the first playoff game. A gallery of my photos from the second game is now at gazetteonline. -Cliff

A gallery of photos from the 1st game of the first round USHL playoffs between the RoughRiders and the Indiana Ice is now posted at gazetteonline. -Cliff

RoughRiders play in the first game of the USHL playoffs against Indiana tonight at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. I had a few unpublished pictures from last Friday's final regular season home game that I wanted to share. -Cliff Kyle Flanagan of the RoughRiders (left) gets the puck from Indiana's Zach Golembiewski in front of RoughRider goalie Michael Johnson during the second quarter at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Tobias Nilsson-Roos of the RoughRiders struggles with Indiana's Taylor Boldt for control of ...

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Here are some extra photos that didn't make this week's edition of Hoopla. There is also a video of Lindsay Siefken dicussing her style. -Cliff

The Iowa women's game on Sunday marked the end of winter for me and indoor high school track at the UNI-Dome Monday and Tuesday marked the beginning of spring. It seems that my seasons are more defined by the particular sports I am shooting rather than the weather. -Cliff Twila Stokes of Prairie View A&M struggles for the ball with Oklahoma's Jasmine Hartman during the second half of a first round game at 2009 NCAA Women's Championships at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in ...

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Just some leftovers from an In the Kitchen shoot for Hoopla. -Cliff

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the championship round of yesterday's NCAA Div III wrestlling tournament at the US Cellular Center.- Cliff Mark Corsello of Elmhurst (left) wrestles Dan Laurent of UW LaCrosse in the 285 pound match during the 2009 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, March 7, 2009. Delaware Valley's Michael Wilcox throws Phil Moenkedick of CC Moor to the mat in the 184 pound match.   Myanganbayar Batsukh of St. Johns ...

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I chose to do this week's installment of My Style for Hoopla in the studio. While you have complete and total control over the light in the studio, you also lack an environment with which the model can interact. Kari's style is very graphic and seems to have a lot of black and white and grays. As I worked on this shoot I kept thinking how it seemed more appropriate as black and white images instead of color. Publications like ...

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I did some portraits of "Motley Cruel" from the Cedar Rapids Rollergirls for this week's edition of Hoopla. What's great about making images for a publication like Hoopla is that you can experiment more and make images that are more silly or playful than you would do for most sections of  the paper. Andi was a great sport for the shoot and I tried to capture both the toughness of the the athletes who participate but also the theatricality of ...

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