shoot, shot, shoot

the other day i found a leaf - not yet turned brown and crunchy, but yellow, with deep red veins...too bad the red&yellow project just ran - this would have been a kind of cool addition, but like any project, it has to come to an end and simply get itself on out there - it still was cool to explore this leaf, me and lensBABY, that is....

back to work the other day - it was one of those days (which i actually like) where the assignments were just boom, boom, boom - one after the other after the other after the other - so much rather have a day like that than a slow day (yes, call me crazy, i actually LIKE to be busy! you know, not so much that i can't give each assignment its appropriate time and attention, but just enough to not be feeling guilty about sitting there in the office feeling like i have to justify my existence...in that vein, this day was, as Goldilocks might say, "just right")....2 of the assignments were pretty quick hits - shot pix of 5 kids at a couple schools wearing a Santa hat and holding up a sign bearing various numbers representing the days left til xmas - our annual "Christmas Countdown Kids" feature - like i said, quick, easy, usually cute...inbetween shooting 2 of those, i went to an elementary where 2 of the kinder classes were going around the neighborhood surrounding their school, hanging thanksgiving cards on the doors of residents' houses - the actual delivery of the cards was kind of a bust - i thought they'd be knocking on doors and handing them over, but it turned out to be more like following around a political candidate stuffing their lit into door handles, but still, it was kind of cool - made a couple pix i liked, like the little girl who collected leaves along the way until she had a bouquet-ful in hand

and this kid who got up close and personal with one of our newspaper boxes - "hello, hello, is anyone there?" he shouted, nearly sticking his whole head into the mouth of the box - if only he understood the cultural/newspaper industry irony behind this moment!

later, it was yet another flu clinic - i guess the newsworthiness of this one was it's the last one for the county this month - the H1N1 vaccine, that is - not nearly as crazy busy as the first, but still, this is the third of these i've shot this month, so how to do it differently - oh, ever the conundrum - last time, i didn't really shoot kids actually getting the vaccine - it was more about the turn-out, the lines, the long wait - so, i just decided to shoot the shot, so to speak - man, these kids (not just the ones i'm posting, but almost all of them) were completely freaking out -this little girl had such a high-pitched, prolonged shriek, i thought i might just be putting in for workman's comp over hearing loss by the time she was done! i mean, the power of 5-year-old lungs is seriously nothing to turn a deaf ear to, so to speak - ha ha

what killed me were the older kids, like 12, who still had to sit on their parent's laps and be semi-restrained to stay still for the shot - really, kids, you gotta be tougher than that or you're just never gonna make it in this world!

..........

today, a goofy assignment in the a.m. - something that should have been no big deal, kids working in the classroom, and it turned out to be a group portrait in front of a computer - just silly...nuff said, we've all been there...

later, i went to a Pow Wow at an elementary - i was looking forward to it, envisioning what cool things would be happening (journalism mistake 101) - i got there, and it was kind of a glorified song pageant for parents with kids in headbands with paper feathers sitting in a giant circle singing songs and then gathering for a picture book reading, and then they all lined up for muffins and popcorn with juice....hmmm, not quite what i had in mind, but i stuck it out, and then they did a little dance, which i didn't get anything too good of - a teacher apparently thought i just wanted to shoot this one kid and started pulling others out of the way (yeah, thanx - i shouldn't be a crab, they mean well), then another story, which is where i made the following photo

...and inbetween, as the kids were eating their "harvest snack," i shot something of the recess going on outside - i don't know what it is about this, i just really kind of liked it

....anyway, that's been the work week since my last post - just trying to keep things current, cos i know y'all are simply on the edge of your respective seats as to what the world of journalism brings me next! could it be, kim goes to a flu clinic? no way!!! kim went to an elementary school?! high school sports???? SHUT UP!!! oh no she didn't!!!!!

oh yes she did!!!!