new things, Novi

travelled to Novi this morning for my first freelance gig for patch.com, an aol-based online community journalism site that is fanning out to cover news/sports/features, etc, in cities and towns across the country...this event was an arts in the park hands-on event for children, which garnered over 400 participants! lots to shoot, thankfully, as they were looking for a 15-30 image gallery...i submitted 20 pix, and i hope it does well for the launch of their new site...here are a couple that i like from the event (note, all images are copywrighted for patch)

good day and good shoot, and Fuerst Park was one of the most beautiful community parks I have been to - i can see why it is so well used by its community!

visits &i do's, runnin' n dunkin'

my week at work started with an assignment to cover the newly-crowned Miss Michigan, a county resident, on a visit at a local senior home - they were dedicating a new picnic pavilion, and this was her first in-county appearance since earning the crown, hence the newsworthiness...

liked this off-sides moment of a new resident getting ready for a balloon release to celebrate the event...wish i'd had more time to work his face...he had such a great one! and such a sweet old man, too

then, off to a wedding in the chapel at the hospital....this couple had planned a ceremony, but the bride got confined to bed-rest for the duration of her pregnancy, so they couldn't leave the hospital and had to get married there...the staff pulled togther to create an on-site ceremony, which took place friday...pretty fun

something about this detail of the IV link to her arm and the bouquet that kept drawing me in

saturday started with a fundraising run event at Bedford Community Stadium....a "Pi" Run - 3.14 miles, followed by a kids' 1K...all to raise money for the schools' running teams....had a couple frames i liked

then later out to Adrian for the "border clash" basketball games between our county's and an adjoining's boys and girls all-star teams...just my favorite action pix from the night....

had to cut the boys game short so i could keep my hours in check for the week, figuring in the drive back, downloading, editing, uploading and making foto galleries...so annoying to have to micro-manage my time this way now, but i guess it is what it is

latest flora explora!

as promised earlier, my latest lensBABY flower ventures!

bulls & ballgames

my week in photo for the paper finished with a bull riding event at a campground up in Milan...turns out the opening night of the weekend event was the youth riding expo....wish the light had been a little better, but i was banking on getting some pre-show features and then some measure of action to run with the story....not quite the knock-out pix i was hoping for, but i think i like them

saturday was a day-long marathon in Battle Creek - had three teams in the state finals - 2 softball, 1 baseball....my initial prediction was that, given past stats, they'd all go that far and then all lose (i guess that didn't actually happen last year, which is one of the few years it feels like i haven't covered the finals, but that was my personal stats to this point)....anyway, got to the paper a bit before 7 am to gather my gear, then we were on our way for the first game - Summerfield softball playing at 10....they seemed to be well in-command and on their way to winning, until the 6th inning, when suddenly they were close, then tied going at the bottom of the 7th - so, onto the extra inning, and they held off a score at the top, then the pitcher batted in a winning run at the bottom of the inning...crazy excitement! the pitcher was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion....hard to get a good pick in the throng, but this is what we ran

and this one, i think i like best, but i didn't turn it in, cos 1) i wasn't positive about my id for the girl on the left, and 2) the distortion on her arm seemed really distracting, so while the pic we ran didn't have the kind of immersive moment feel that i liked in this one, for those reasons, i thought it may have been the better editorial decision

so, my prediction being broken, i made a new prediction (based on the "how cool would that be!" scale) - everyone's gonna win!!!!! when i saw the Milan girls getting off the bus for their game, i let them know that Summerfield won and it would just be pretty darned cool if everyone from Monroe County won titles today...but, ya know, no pressure...

so, on the couple hours downtime inbetween, i edited, sent a pic back for the web update, got my game shots edited and started to make a file for the gallery upload...by that time, it was about Milan game start, so then it was back to the softball fields

watching the warm-ups, it looked like they might have a tough fight on their hands...these girls looked tight, and they were 3-time state champs, as i later learned, so they had a lot to hang onto for their own record.....(game ended up starting late, which was gonna make things super tight for me because baseball would then be starting at the same time)....was a tough one because they were so evenly matched, and I was struggling to get decent action...by the 5th, Milan was down 2-1, then i got a call from the baseball game reporter...our team just got into their 5th inning and they were up 4-2, so i shot something in the dugout and then had to bail so i didn't totally miss the baseball game...cos i'd need action and reaction from them, and the rule seems to be that, even if you have great sad pix, they won't run or run big if there are even mediocre happy pix...so i just felt like i had to go

and i went...got there with 2 outs at the top of the 5th (our team lost the coin toss, so they batted first), so not much from that, then onto the 6th, shot the pitcher safe shot, got a grounder play (not too impressive looking though), then got a call from the writer at softball - Milan had scored and seemed to be rallying if i wanted to come back....but now i have very little from baseball, and the other team has just scored, bringing the lead to one, and there are runners on base, so it's now really close, and so i opted to just stay put - not screw up everyone by virtue of trying to get everyone - tough call, because if Milan upset and won softball i'd be missing amazing reaction, especially if Bedford baseball wound up losing it, but, then again the flipside of that could be true, and i would miss both...so, like i said, i opted to stay put...turns out Milan lost and so did Bedford, so i worked the reaction from their game best i could, and then we were on our way back to Monroe....edited, captioned and made foto galleries on the drive back....got all that in, and so after about 15-16 hours, that was the day!

rainy days and thursdays

so, i have been primarily ensconced in the world of unemployment filing, getting any outstanding doc appts needed before insurance runs out in a few weeks, emailing like a mad-woman (sic) and going through images to put together a website asap, etc, as i deal with my current part-time staff situation in hand and try not to freak out and just submit my app to wal-mart cashier position right now.....but, i have been plodding along, dealing with the emergent issues, forms and deadlines, trying not to get down, etc etc etc

and meanwhile, as i continue my work here, part-time though it may now be, i have been trying to basically kick-butt the best i can...never let 'em grind you down....that is my mantra..the "'em" being life, employers, pretty much anyone and anything that comes your way!

i went to a party this afternoon at a local gallery, who has accepted some of my jewelry and to whom i will be bringing in paintings soon, and i brought along my camera just in case....cos one of the things i have been reading from freelance blogs is that, you need to make a pic everyday that is about you following your foto vision, just to keep yourself in the mode, and so here is a quirky frame i made from that event

when i got home, it started pouring, and i grabbed the lensbaby telephoto and headed out to explore the weather....so, this is what i made....

and that's my photo experience for the week thus far (before that was top baseball player pix in the studio, which i'm not posting, though there was one kid that was pretty fun)....but tomorrow is a rodeo, which should be cool...looking forward to it! so, more posts to come!!

endings and new beginnings - one and the same

this week thus far, shot another portrait for the retiring educators package....these 2 principals (and long-time friends) were very cool

then it was off to a 6th grade graduation ceremony at a nearby elementary school - the keynote speaker was Miss Monroe County, who went to that elementary school back in the day

today, portrait of a centennarian, which i'm not posting, cos it's just decent daily, then after, last day of school at one of the elementary's - they do a parade kind of line-up as the buses file past for the last day

also liked the pic of this kid waving goodbye to one of the first buses before the big event