i2eye

from then to now

2011-08-29T20:55:00.009-04:00

so, last i posted, i was gearing up for the annual Miss Monroe County Pageant - this one an even bigger event by virtue of its 50th anniversary stature....which meant, the event was also longer as they brought back 30-some past queens for a special program during the pageant, and there were twice as many contestants this year as last....since i was under the impression that there would be a pre-pageant meet-n-greet with the past queens which was to go with a sidebar, i had been planning to get there early...only, when i checked in at the paper, the reporter had no knowledge of this sidebar nor covering this pre-event event, and i never had a time other than "before the pageant starts"....so, i wasn't sure what to do, but figured i'd go early, just not as early, anyway...turns out that 'before the pageant starts' meant about 4 hours before the start, so i totally missed it, but i still felt i needed to get the past queens special portion of the night; i wasn't sure how things would work out time-wise, so since i was there for the duration, may as well shoot every contestant in every event...so, nearly 4 hours, 13 bikinis, evening gowns, talent and platform questions later, there was a new Miss Monroe....shoot, shoot, shoot, speedy edit, submit, then edit and post all of that for a foto gallery

before the pageant, though, there were a couple other assignments in the a.m. - a rehab crew with habitat for humanity finishing work on a home....

then the annual fire/police picnic in the park for kids...they usually open up a fire hose for the kids to play in, which is where the best pix are, but they didn't do it this year, so i was resigned to kids sitting in a police car or fire truck...a little tough, but finally they let kids in to check out the swat vehicle, which at least gave me this

the next night, i shot a cricket tournament for patch...never even seen this game before, and now that i have i still don't totally understand it, but i did the best i could

later in the week, there was a portrait, then a smoke stack at a closed concrete plant in Dundee being imploded - took all of about 3 seconds

and then, football friday....shot a fundraiser at the Moose Lodge before that...but it wasn't really going yet - 'come back at 7, it'll be really going by then,' the ladies auxiliary women said....only that's kick-off, so i tried to get a moment of them talking with a local soldier - not really worth posting, needless to say, but okay for what it was...

anyhoo....football

saturday, only thing on the agenda was the Rib-off contest in the morning/early afternoon

then back out at night for the tail end of one of the bands and the first few songs of the main act - Grand Funk Railroad....really big crowd, too many very drunk guys - had to get the band and a crowd shot....logistical problem - they went on at 9:30 (assuming they start on time), and the desk wanted pix on the page at 10....so, i have about 10 minutes, 15 tops, to shoot...then high-tail it back, do a super fast edit, tone the page 1 pix, then head home

and another week bites the dust

all things august (and a bit of july)

2011-08-19T19:06:00.021-04:00

oh i am such a bad blogger! now is the time to get going on my desperately needed catch-up!

i feel like i almost don't even know where to start, but i shall endeavor to do my best

so, in an attempt to stay at least a little chronological (best as i can piece together now), i believe my post should begin with a dog rally....

a few groups and other dog lovers have been fighting for the release of a few pit bulls seized from a home that was being used as a huge dog fighting ring last spring...they've been at animal control since and were recently sentenced to be put down (though these young dogs had never actually fought...yet, most likely)...a rally was held before the groups' appeal that the dogs be released to their animal shelter...the case is still ongoing

story for our south county weekly publication about teen summer jobs....the kid we were to photograph works for an insurance company....hmm, doesn't sound terribly visual, and when i talked to him he told me that what he primarily does is file things...so when i got there i asked to see where he works, which is essentially a large walk-in closet filled with filing cabinets...to call it a room would be far too generous! so, don that creativity cap....not anything that's gonna rock the world, but i felt pretty happy with the portrait we made

the following saturday had me down for 2 assignments - a visit at a south county church by a priest who shows relics bearing items tied to Catholic saints, as well as pieces of the cross they believe Christ was crucified upon, and fragments of Mary's veil...it's called "treasures of the church" - everything from bits of clothing to bone, hairs - pretty much anything they ever came into contact with, encased in ornate golden displays....the showcase of the reliquaries was to begin at 6 ish, and my semi-pro football game started back up in Monroe at 7:25 (and, yes, there is actually a story behind that specific time, but i won't bore you with the details, unless of course, you're just that bored or curious!)

so, i get to the church hall and am told to stay away from the display, go sit down, Father doesn't want anyone to look at the items until he has given his talk....which is now being delayed...and then i learn will take over an hour! egad

so, by the time he gets done, the game is about 20 minutes or more into play, and given the 25-30 minute drive back, i should be arriving just in time for the horrendously darkly lit field upon which they play to have lost all natural light! so, i scramble to shoot as people finally begin to make their way through the display of nearly 200 saintly relics, and i keep running into people from Toledo, so i just scramble more, and finally i get this, and i'm out and flying up the pot-hole riddled road that is my quickest cut through back to Telegraph Rd. (hoping i don't blow a tire or break an axle, as many cars have on this road), and then i'm at football

and i get this

and on a funny note, the atmosphere of these 2 events could not possibly have been farther apart.....i go from a very religious, somber, spiritual arena to one that is, well, let's just say a fairly pg-13-R-rated collective...anyone who's been on the sidelines of the Timberwolves games knows of what i speak, and they were playing a fairly contentious Detroit rival team, so those are always amped up even more

the next week was the start of the FAIR!!!! my piece of it kicked off, at least ostensibly with a a new attraction - an alligator show - to start at one, followed by the veteran's parade through the grounds an hour or so later...only, i got to the gator show stage to see the posted show time as 3:15, 6 and 8....and so now i was almost 2 hours early for the start of my "later" assignment...it actually worked to my advantage, because we still had our end-of-week fair foto page to make, and given my new situation and hours and the fact that i picked up a freelance gig on that wednesday, i was going to have to do my share all on thursday, which would be the last day to shoot - no pressure!

so, i used my time to get a jump on the feature foto finds, and had a few in the bag before i met up with the vets

shot their parade, after which i was a big sweaty mess - think our temps were in the high-90's or maybe a hundred by mid-day, humid, and i was just soaked

plus i had in my feature hunting tried to shoot a pig show in the main arena...the pigs kept running straight for me, so by the time i left there for the parade, i had a fair coating of pig snot and slobber mixed in with the sweat (lovely, eh?!)

after the parade, i ducked into an ac'd expo building, found some water, then headed out to the gator show....where i got splashed with some hefty waves of briney water as the head guy tried to capture an alligator

so, needless to say, by the time i left there and got back to the paper, i couldn't have felt or smelled more gross...i checked in, then came straight home, peeled off all my clothes and had a well-needed shower before sitting down to edit and transmit the day's work

the next day, there was freelance story on a 4-H garden club for patch up in Novi

then, back to the fair....thursday night was the tractor pull...went for some more features before that

maybe this says something about the old-time-i-ness of county fairs, but this cracked me up...the new kiddie ride where they whirled around in film canisters...i mean, do these kids even remember what film is?!!!

another night of returning home feeling kinda gross - just all the dust and smoke of the exhaust fumes...luckily, i discovered that i was next to the family of the one (from what i could discern) local guy competing, and caught his mom's reaction (below) as he sped to the record-setting pull of the event thus far

somewhere in the mix of all this, i was home and noticed that one of my sunflowers had finally blossomed, revealing one of my favorite color autumn mix blooms!

the next day, after the ringing in my ears finally abated, i headed back out for the friday large animal auction - i only had to shoot the lambs and the pigs grand champions and reserve champions, but as i was given the wrong start time, the lambs were already finished (WHAT???!!!) aargh - that whole week was one error after another, logistically!

so, i hung out til the pigs got underway...shot the champs, then i headed through the grounds to an arena where an MMA cage fighting event was going on...that was behind schedule, too, so i waited around for it to start, but it did give me the chance to get intro'd to Tommy Hearns, who came to take in the event...that was pretty cool, and the feature of him watching with fellow pro-boxer was the pic they actually used dominant....

then, up and at 'em, as they say, the next day for the small animal auction - geese, chickens, rabbits, ducks - oh my! afterward, i took a short break, then came back to shoot a newly-married couple who were to make a stop at the fair following their ceremony - she grew up doing 4-H and wanted to hit the midway for rides/wedding pix...only we'd heard that we weren't necessarily a welcome invite to this part of their day and wouldn't be their long, and as it had been raining just prior, we weren't totally sure they'd come...oh yeah, and this is slated to be the page one main story....but, the weather had cleared, and so the reporter and i headed toward the midway...i spotted some kids playing in the horse show arena, which had become an absolute mud bowl after the storms! i figured, if the wedding thing fell through, i'd have to have a page one feature alternate, so i diverted for a bit to work that as quick as i could...

the wedding party did arrive, and everything was fine - they and their fotog let me come on the coach with them as they rode the ferris wheel....hung with them a bit more afterward for other pix, then i split off and finished up my day

fair over, it was back to normal, such as it is these days...not much going on early in the week...wednesday went back to Novi for a patch assn about a green science camp for kids on a farm - that was pretty cool...came back to write my copy, edit and caption and transmit all my pix, so that was pretty much the whole day right there

back into the paper the next day, not anything too hefty on the agenda...in fact, i can't quite recall what i d id that day...the next was all office, no shooting, but that weekend was the annual jazz fest/downtown art fair

got there for the second to last act, who was a bluesy/jazz mix...very cool, and definitely got the crowd into the groove! got to meet once again a large group that comes up every year from my hometown Cincinnati - they're so spirited, it's no wonder i shot them again (including the woman below) this year, though i didn't realize it til i went to get their names...so funny, they live in the neighborhood just down the hill from mine...we're neighbors who get to meet up every year in Monroe at the Jazz Fest now!

Kenny G was joining Alexander Zonjic for the headlining act that night....i went early to catch some of the prior act so i had something more to add to a foto gallery and also get a secondary feature if needed...by the time Zonjic took the stage, serious clouds were moving in...the precursor of the radar's big nasty red digital wave that was heading our way according to the weather report i'd seen before leaving for the venue...i just kept looking up while shooting, thinking, 'bring out Kenny now, bring out Kenny now'!!!! and finally, just as the first sprinkles began falling, he appeared, mid-crowd up by the sound-tech tent, covered by an umbrella, and pining away on his sax....i thought he was just heading down to the stage, but he seemed to linger, and i thought maybe given the weather, he might just play a bit up there and then bolt, so i headed up to where he was....and got this

but, he did go downstage, and the crowd was packed super-tight around it by then; i slipped and slogged and parlayed my way through to get him onstage

then shot this feature on my way back out of the pack and toward the paper, which is probably my favorite pic of the night

i later found out that we were actually under a tornado warning when he started playing, and that, although central dispatch had signaled the sirens, they had failed to go off for some reason (TBD) in the city....nice!

next day, back up to Novi for an India Day event for patch...smelled SO good in there - the curry, oh the curry!

i just thought this moment was funny...so much tradition, and all these kids involved in their modern technology simultaneously

then, this week, shot people at an RV campground event - these aren't just RV's, these are multi-million dollar luxury RV's, complete with swarovski-crystal studded door handles.....must be nice, eh?

next day, volunteers filling backpacks with school supplies for future free distribution to students in need - this is another one of those yearly staples

later, a retiring school admin portrait - not worth posting - she was really nice, my portrait was pretty lame

friday, some desk work before going out to shoot a portrait for the football tab - this kid is a much-recruited county stand-out...kicks off the start of football play beginning next week - already! sooner than you think, it'll be cold and rainy and horrific and into the full-on winter hell!

but before that, i have the annual Miss Monroe County pageant on tap for the weekend! giddyup cowgirl!!!!!!!!!!

dancing, digging, mowing, baseball and beauties

2011-07-23T20:41:00.007-04:00

my week started with

heading out to a Salvation Army summer camp for a feature find....kind of happy with what i got

this little brother and sister dancing looked almost iconic somehow...maybe it just reminds me of an old foto i've seen somewhere

later that day, i went to the Timberwolves (semi-pro football local team) for a feature on a player...he missed most of his varsity high school playing time due to injuries, but he's still hoping to go collegiate and then pro

friday morning started with an assignment to cover the work being done on the south county park/cemetery, whose sign for years has said "coming soon," but has lacked the support/money to actually get started until now

cemetery park - kind of a strange combination, but anyway, i went out early-ish to try and beat the worst of the continuing heat

then i hit the fairgrounds on the way back to look for any activity to help fill holes in the fair tab..not much going on besides this guy mowing around the barns and some other guys smoothing out gravel around bathrooms, but it is what it is

saturday, headed out for the fair baseball tournament finals in the morning...they have these crazy rules, one of which being that the champion has to win by one win, so, the undefeated team winds up losing to the once-beaten team (who'd only been beaten by them), which meant that they had to play a second tie-breaker to determine the ultimate champion...2 baseball games, 4 hours, heat advisory....i was a sweaty mess by the time all was said and done...and to complicate things, my battery, which had showed 3 out of 5 bars full at the start, went down to 2 bars at the start of the first game (literally about 10 frames in), and by the end of the first game it was down to one - not right! so, now i'm worried, cos the end-game reaction is critical, i have a page one news assignment that i am going to be late for and have to get, and i'm not sure how many frames i have left on this one bar since it's losing power so fast...and then, i was also told the other day that we have so many pages in sports for sunday that they want a photo page to fill space - great - so, i miss a lot of good action in the second game, cos i'm hesitant to shoot, but in the end it all works out, and i get some good reaction that i like, and then i high-tail it out to get to the news assn...

caught in a pickle - always such a crazy moment

as i walk in, i see this moment happening between Miss MI and a l'il fan, who was enamored of her wrist corsage, and thank god for that, because then it was onto a series of people speaking at the podium, and my battery is about a goner anyway....phew! just made it!

how could i forget????

2011-07-18T21:19:00.003-04:00

after watering the garden, i went out with camera and lensBABY.....maybe not the greatest, but it has been a while, so here is the latest

new directions

2011-07-17T11:47:00.006-04:00

the theme of the week begins with the final day of a month-long camp for girls who will be entering middle school in the fall....addressing self-esteem, body image, bullying, and all the other lovely issues that kick into gear at that age....wish we'd gotten to this sooner than the very last day when they were really just preparing for a talent show for family....so, i shot them doing that

and then it was off to the college, where the Lt. Gov. and a state rep were coming to tour DTE's massive solar panel project - 2000 panels, the biggest in the state and the first to include an educational component as they partnered with students to build it....

next day, i went out to a dirt bike/4-wheeler motor sports track...we did a story on a kid who who was badly hurt riding last summer - the crash left him paralyzed from the waist down, and friends recently modified a bike so that he would be able to ride again....this was the third time he had ridden, and i have to say, it kind of choked me up to watch him take off and go soaring over the hills on the smaller track...just imagining the freedom he must be feeling, and the guts it took to get back out there and ride again

later that night, i headed up to Novi for 2 events going on simultaneously - an outdoor sculpture exhibit opening and a Beatles tribute band playing in the park

saturday, with little sleep given how late a night it was after editing and submitting the freelance stuff, started with (coffee first and foremost) a fundraising bake sale, part of a feed hungry children in America effort

then out to the fair ball games park for the opening day of the baseball tournament

i felt really wiped out after the heat of the day and lack of sleep...and i felt like i should have gone back and shot more games, but i just didn't have it in me at that point...so, as the saying goes, it is what it is...and now i am on to the next week's adventures, which will include addressing a group of kids at the local community center about starting a neighborhood journalism online site...

2011-07-12T19:48:00.005-04:00

thursday back to the office...nothing much on the agenda, so i feature hunted and found these kids playing in the park.....self-described monkeys, they scaled the jungle gym, rigging up their own zip line across one of the bars...cool kids, and not such a bad feature find, though not something i'd call my best work....but it's always fun to meet innovative and talkative kids!

next day was what was to begin the comedy of errors that depicted my day....after doing officey work in the morning, i got a skype message about a nationally-renowned band rehearsing at a local high school for a later evening show in Ohio....5 semi trailers filled with equipment...should make them pretty easy to spot, right? only, i get to the school to which i am sent, and see nothing of them or their massive entourage....call editor....well, maybe they're at this other school...go there...so i go, and i find them, only now i've got about 15-20 minutes to shoot before they go to lunch...great! so, pix, needless to say, not so great.....but i get them in, set some appt's up for the weekend, including a portrait, for which i soon discover i am short on lighting gear, grr...and then i am out of the paper and getting ready for my next patch.com assn up in Novi - an art exhibit opening.....i get there early, which is fine by me, since i need to write a copy block and would like to talk to the artists, etc, beforehand, but it's all locked up...no one in sight....ok, i'm early....go find a store, grab a pop and come back....then still, no one around, except for an older couple who make their way toward the entry...i follow, but after several minutes, it's pretty obvious that we are the only ones showing, and now it's opening time, so that's even stranger...call the editor, who makes a call and gets back to say that the event has been cancelled....aah well, back to Monroe, after a brief stop through Northville, where the couple i met is from and who encouraged me to follow them back to see what their town is like (more on this later)

saturday then, out to a gubernatorial recall petition drive....the reporter was scheduled to shoot this, but it had sounded like her day was getting crazy and she was stressed, so i offered to do it and grabbed some quotes and color for her story, just in case there weren't many people there signing up when she could come (of course, those 4 graphs all made it into the story with no attribution to me, which they normally do when more than one person contributes...whatever...i feel SO over this whole paper right now!)

then it was out to the family retro games day in the park - retro games being things along the lines of potato sack races, hoola hooping and tether ball....i remember having tether ball in our backyard....my older sister nicely facilitated the falling out (or, rather knocking out) of one of my hanging-on baby teeth during a backyard game of tether ball!

i think i like this one best from the day there

then, it was off to a portrait - triplets who have taken up bowling....pull up to the bowling alley with the question in mind...how come the parking lot is empty on a saturday? to discover that the alley is closed for renovations through the month....thank god for the bowling mural painted out front! and now, my lighting logistics issue is no longer an issue either!

later that night, our local semi-pro football team playing a home game...nothing too stellar from that....just decent daily

and that is all....for now, til the next week....same bat time, same.....well, you know the drill!

the 4th.....flowersBABY style

2011-07-05T11:23:00.002-04:00

dug into my left-over sparklers from last year and tried to get a little july 4th spirit going with the gerberas and the lensBABY....liked this one the best of the bunch i think

it's almost like the flower is the big burst

features a'plenty and a soldier's return

2011-07-03T19:03:00.007-04:00

i can't believe it was just earlier this week that i was up in Novi for patch...it feels like it was weeks ago...this week just seemed especially long...didn't get as much done on my down-time as i'd hoped...think i've hit that wall in trying to put together a portfolio website where i now have all the pieces in place, and i now have to find a template in which to present them, hopefully for free, and then a host to post....that and making a business card design....it's so easy to get caught up in playing around with different ides/formats/venues, only to realize that you're probably wasting good time on something that isn't going to be the right fit in the end....aah well, all part of the learning process i suppose....

so, onto the newspaper work for the remainder of the week....

thursday was a shoot at a woman's home garden that is to be part of a community garden tour next weekend...her garden was amazing! really, like an enchanted garden, but it being shaded, very humid and including ponds, the mosquitoes were INSANE! literally, i think one tried to bite my eye...not just eyelid, but my actual eyeball! and another flew into my ear and started biting....made shooting pretty rough...i'll probably get lyme disease or something now that i have no insurance anymore! oy vey

but, after that, i went a bit north to take a portrait of the county girls athlete of the year...running is her major sport, so we were set to meet at the track, and i had a cool idea i really wanted to try, thought at least i'd have the track lines to work with if that didn't work...but that school has a pretty simple track...as in, dirt...no lines, no nothin' so i scoped out other places, and decided i'd try something with the lines from beneath the bleachers if all else failed...think this works, and the lights looked very natural, so i'm okay with it, but not the 'knock it outta the park' pic i was hoping for....guess i'll save that idea for later

friday, not much on the agenda but a soldier returning from Afghanistan in the evening...and there was a story about a woman who rescued some baby birds whose nests were destroyed in the power washing of a grocery store...after playing phone tag with her for a while, i was able to get that set up before the soldier return....then got a text that his return was pushed back to saturday, so we need a stand-alone now for page one

so, i looked around early in the day....saw lots of kiddie pools and other things out in front yards....unfortunately, they were the only things out there, no people...so, i shot the bird rescue lady

then went out on a big feature hunt....stopped at one of the beach communities on my way back to Monroe, but that was fairly lame, as far as page one goes, at least...

so, i started making the circuit of neighborhoods...still saw lots of pools, play toys, trampolines, but still, no people...hmm...drove past a house i know is always full of kids and people hanging out outside, and they were out there as usual, and as i glance over i notice this guy holding a python, so i pull over to check it out...hung out with them for a while to work it

this one ran as a secondary

but i think i like this best, especially in b/w....just like the feel of it

but, i wasn't sold on this as what anyone would want for 1a, so i kept at it....headed up toward an ice cream stand that's usually busy, and i saw an employee dressed as Lady Liberty out front...thought there might be something there worth working, so i stop....not totally impressed with what i was getting, hoping for one of the kids eating ice cream to interact in some way, but that didn't happen....though, this one did end up running dominant...guess the whole holiday theme thing

then i notice that the Sheriff's helicopter is circling, and it comes to land in the playground/field in the school across the street, so i walk over there...turns out to be a children's 'safety city' program graduation...that seemed promising, so i stuck around and shot some of that

got to play ball with the little boy singing here for a while, then went over as kids headed to check out the helicopter.....not the greatsest, but at least it was a little more generic community/family event that i thought the paper might like, and it was getting toward dusk, so i decided to call my hunt to an end and headed back to submit

saturday, as i had to get some hours in as i only had the soldier return assignment, i went to find a feature earlier...the event i'd read about wasn't happening, so i just started driving through neighborhoods....found some kids playing in a backyard pool

liked this image best, and thankfully i got splashed a lot, because our heat advisory was kicking in by then, and i was feeling pretty darned hot and sweaty!

after that, i went to check out the soldier's neighborhood...they were supposedly decorating with yellow ribbons and flags, but that was all done already, so i went up to dump my card, then came back about 20 minutes before he was supposed to get home, since i didn't want to be late, and also thought there might be something featurey going on at his house that i could work for the package...lots of cars in the driveway, but apparently they were all at the airport, cos no one answered, so i sat and waited, and now the day's heat is really kicking in, and i am feeling gross, and about 40 minutes later they arrive...

it was pretty cool...i'd actually been to their house before when his mom was presented with a blue star flag by members of the American Legion Riders, who also escorted them home from the airport....wish i'd been there for the initial reunion, because the emotion of seeing him (especially since the whole family went) was pretty amped down by the time they got to the house, but i still made some good pix, so it all worked in the end

later, i shot some pix of my flowers....one that i posted before had blossomed into something even more beautiful, and though they aren't the coolest photos, i just liked capturing the flower itself

and the echinacea are beginning to bloom, too!

then a big lightning storm...tried to get something cool of that, but i just wasn't in my storm mojo moment i guess...kinda liked how this burst of lightning almost looks like it is travelling along the power lines, but that's about it....

so, onto the holiday...gonna try to make a cool photo tomorrow...i have sparklers left over from last year.....who knows what i can do with all that?!!!!

happy fourth all!

new things, Novi

2011-06-28T20:46:00.003-04:00

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'

2011-06-27T20:25:00.005-04:00

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!

2011-06-22T20:12:00.005-04:00

as promised earlier, my latest lensBABY flower ventures!

bulls & ballgames

2011-06-22T19:31:00.004-04:00

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

2011-06-16T21:25:00.003-04:00

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

2011-06-09T20:51:00.005-04:00

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

2011-05-25T11:32:00.015-04:00

it's that time again - catch-up

beginning with pix for a story on 2 blind sisters who just bought their own home and were moving in...i have to say, i was a little confused when i got there, because i was expecting there to be thingd to help them get around or labels on things or braille or something on those lines, but there was nothing like that, and they seemed to get around as if they could see - even arranging knick-knacks on dressers and being able to tell that one couldn't be seen too well in a certain spot, but then they'd be clearing out a suitcase, and feeling around to see if there was anything they hadn't unpacked yet...so i was really confused as to the extent of their blindness - either they could see more than i thought, or they were just the most amazing women ever

turns out it was kind of a mix of both - they can see vague shapes and bright color differences, but for all intents and purposes, they're almost totally blind and eventually it will progress to complete darkness..but since they've both been this way since birth, they've just completely adapted and function pretty much like anyone else...pretty mind-blowing

so, lots o sports

particularly track, which is the default sport of choice when everything else gets rained out

speaking of rain, there was the annual AG Day event at the fairgrounds, where kids from all over the county converge to learn about, and get up close with animals

shot this near the end of my time there as the rain descended...made it into a still life with the quote "If you see a friend who needs a smile, give him one of yours."

and here's just some featurey rainy pics as i check out the telephoto lensBABY lens i got a while back and haven't used much yet

and with all the rain, as i went on another feature hunt later, there is the inevitable flooding of the river onto the riverwalk...as my morning assignment had been cancelled, i went to see if i could make anything of that and noticed this huge carp caught by the swollen current against a fence post along the walkway

went to a local auto shop that is collecting donations to take down to Alabama following the tornadoes last month - the owners are very religious, and as i was there to get a portrait of the woman spearheading the project, they gathered in the storefront for a morning prayer before opening

Republican women's luncheon - the guest speaker was the new Secretary of State, who'd never been to Monroe since election...i kind of like these events for some reason

...loved playing with the mirrored columns in the room, though it isn't something i thought the paper would run...more for fun

scene from election night in may...people gathered at the educational office to watch the returns on the issue of the continuing technology millage

portrait for our magazine - a local woman who moved back to monroe after 30-some years in california - she always missed the River Raisin

National Day of Prayer - didn't get anything i felt really excited about...more like decent daily

in preparation of the Relay for Life events, a lot of schools hold mini-relays...at least went to a different school this year

liked this image of the boy leaping over one of the signs along their route

community soccer days....didn't want to shoot it like straight-up action, so i was trying for something different..not sure these work, but i kind of dug the net shot

still making repairs from last year's tornado damage, Dundee football players, parents, coaches and teachers got together to re-sod the football field...all paid for with money they raised from bake sales and the like...pretty cool to see communities step up like this one has

kids day event at the ISD - they always bring in a popular children's performer - a big sing-along, but i liked these 2 moments from the event...hard to go wrong with kids having fun

our 1812 battlefield site was named a national park, and an open house last month was the first since achieving that status

just liked this scenic pic, too, for some reason

jazz fest Thursdays series begins in Monroe, running through the summer...great music to be found at these venues

first of the biggest Relay for Life events, this one in south county

feature hunt...found some kids out sparring and wrestling in their front yard....one of them went home in a kind of crying/hissy fit...i asked the one little boy if it was always so exciting at their house, and he said yeah, but normally they don't make people cry......

had a water boil advisory recently because higher than acceptable ratings of bacteria were found in our water system...to help allay the problem, they opened up sewer lines and flooded it with chlorine to kill the excess bacteria....i swear, my water smelled like a swimming pool when i turned it on the next day!

another feature hunt introduced me to a family of children who'd decided to take advantage of their time off school due to the water quality problems to hold a bake sale and try to raise money for their great-uncle, who is battling colon cancer -- kudos to these kids!

a group of volunteers came out to help fill the planters with flowers throughout the downtown business district...kind of liked that i found this moment of interaction between these two friends as they worked away

our local semi-pro football team had a game in the Glass Bowl in Toledo....one of my beter football frames....i was happy

carnival in Milan....kind of tough to shoot, purely for personal reasons...had gotten the call that morning, as i was standing in the auto shop awaiting word on my car which i'd had to get towed in for repairs, that i was being cut back to part-time....tried my best to make some cool frames, and this is probably the best of the bunch

next day, portrait of a sergeant who helped lead a "boot camp" style workout

then,

michigan history lesson day at a local teacher's historic home...this place was amazing!!! seriously, i want to live here

students came to tour her house, play early 1900's period games, etc

they were all encouraged to dress in period wear for the event, and this poor little girl, in an elaborate dress made from curtains was positively sweltering! luckily, cookies and lemonade cure all that ails you!

later shot a portrait of this couple, both teachers at a local school and both retiring...they were very cute and a joy to photograph

next day was a marathon in many ways...absolutely horrific heat and humidity....shot 4 ball games, one after the other....could not stay hydrated enough to save my life

then after those were done, i went to the really big Relay for Life at the fairgrounds...not my finest for sure, but i did my best

god, i SO wanted to jump in there with them! the older kid's all "don't splash her" and i'm, like, "no, really it's okay, splash away!!!"

and now, i am all caught up, at least as far as work goes....have been doing lensBABY flower pix in my off time......so totally soothes the soul...and that post of pix will be coming shortly!

landscapes

2011-05-03T11:33:00.004-04:00

spent a light day out driving with lensBABY at hand friday...thinking on doing an urban/industrial landscape series of factories and the like in monroe....here's a few from what i found

saturday, started the day out at a school which was getting its courtyard re-landscaped through a comcast community service project...found a couple 'moments' amid the planting and plowing

love it when little girls defy the stereotypes by getting all excited at finding worms!

then it was an earth day event...these 2 girls were completely fascinated by the honeybee display...seriously, they must have stood there for 20 minutes at least just staring at this slab of a hive

and bubbles...not the coolest, just kind of a cute kid pic

that evening there was a fundraising dinner with a civil war theme....these things are tough, because really it's just people eating, and then there's a speaker

at the food line, i just liked this boy's obviously unhappy reaction to his mom adding carrots to his plate

...anyway, i went early and was lucky to find these period-dressed women sipping mint juleps and socializing

so, at least there's that

now, getting ready for another week to begin....i hope it warms up soon, cos i'm not looking forward to a chilly damp day out on the ballfield...oh well, it is what it is, eh?

beauty for beauty's sake

2011-04-27T18:32:00.005-04:00

aah, now onto the things i really love! my lensBABY, and flowers, like the "purple winky" columbine and asiatic lily that i bought on sale on easter just to keep pressing the point that i am REALLY in the mood for spring

after getting in the "not so shoot out" pix from the day and all else and posting a gallery to our website asap, i found myself clicking the lensBABY in place and exploring a whole different landscape...i think i want to live in there!

i know some of these are redundant-ish, but i just find them so uniquely beautiful, albeit sometimes subtley different...hope anyone looking enjoys them too!

hunt & shoot

2011-04-27T17:30:00.005-04:00

picking up roughly where i left off last, my week began with a very bad soccer game (which is why i have nothing worth really taking up any net space...barely got anything worth taking up the newspaper space!), but after the first half of that, i had to head out, cos it was a skate party for students and family of a local school who had vowed to give up technology for the week, opting for more interactive activities instead....hence roller skating night

and night is indeed an apropos term, as when i got there it was pretty much pitch black except for the spotlight casting a small sweet spot of light as it bounced off the disco ball center-rink, and a couple other color light spots at the perimeter...it's "cosmic skate" time, which might be cool for the kids, but for me, not so much.....asa 6400, f2.8, and i still couldn't get above a 30th of a second at my brightest point - egads i think to myself....are they going to do this the whole time? i ask the school woman in charge..."i don't know...they just turned off the lights right before you got here"

yes, well, of course they did....so, here's what i got....kind of had to wait for someone to get into the light and then basically not be whizzing by...would have worked better if there had been more motion swirling around this kid, but i tried and tried and that moment just never came together...i'm sure there was a cooler picture there, but i wasn't getting it, and after an hour, when they announced on the mic that now it was going to get even darker and more "cosmic" i had hit my tipping point...i.e. skate night done

on my way home, i drove past this house with their xmas manger scene in the front windows...just made me do a double-take

next day, nothing on the schedule, and after sitting at the office doing whatever officey kind of work i could for a few hours, i went looking for a feature....ended up at the mall just shooting kids visiting the Easter Bunny, which to 1-year-old kids is just this weird big fuzzy thing that's either a sheer curiosity or absolutely frightening...this kid fell in the former camp

saturday, easter egg hunt in a south county park...i always go into these with the highest of hopes and resolve, but rarely leave feeling satisfied with my efforts, and this year's event didn't manage to break that record, unfortunately

shot a feature of kids on the playground before the hunt started

and then this one was what i picked from the actual egg hunting...if anyone has cracked the code to getting a good egg hunt picture, i'd LOVE to hear it!

after that, went to a funeral for a vet where the story (well, not really a story, cos it's a stand-alone feature foto....which was kind of weird) was that local members of the Patriot Guard - biker vets who stand outside funerals with large flags, then lead the procession to the cemetery, would be attending...got a more standard pic, but i was trying for something more and shot this, which they also ran as a secondary, buut i'm not sure how well it accomplishes what i was trying for - kind of hard to read

anyway....

on to this half of the week posting, came in to a couple assignments yesterday - people shooting on the indoor range of a sport shooting club which will be rebuilt this summer since it is very old and in disrepair...just as i'm getting out of my car i get a text - man holed up in trailer park, shots fired - call the editor on desk - they're not sure what's going on, go ahead and shoot something here and call back....

so, i shoot as they shoot, then tell them i gotta go, cos someone else is apparently shooting, but not for sport...and i make my way to the trailer park, whereupon i am immediately stopped by state police saying, this is as far as you go...only i'm at the entrance, and the incident is in the back of the park....hmmm, no bueno....so i shoot the 2 troopers redirecting people, then i look at her map of the park and see that i may be able to get closer to where it is if i go to a side entry, so off i go, and although there is a police car parked there, no one's in it, so i go around, and bam, i'm right there....of course a few minutes after getting there i see the tv truck from detroit that had gotten stopped at the previous entrance pulling up from the other way...so clearly detroit tv can get access to the scene, but we, the local press, have to find back doors - lame!

anyway, despite all the high security, residents, including toddlers, were roaming freely among the area to watch as the swat team and detectives work the situation...and the guy (who apparently decided to give up instead of getting into a full-on fire fight with his very large cache of weapons - ak-47's included) was in custody, so there wasn't anything really insane going on to shoot, but i got what i could

found out later, he's a not-too stable dooms-dayer sort who believes the world is ending may 21st....

now, personally, if i really thought the world was coming to an end in a mere 3 weeks, i don't think i'd opt to spend them sitting in jail...

but that's just me

this morning, after getting some office stuff done, i headed out to the new location of a veteran's assistance office....shot the people working there interacting more with each other, since no vets were coming in or had appointments, and had just stopped home for a spot of lunch when i got a text....

fire at a multi-unit apartment building....

throw things in fridge, quickly text "on my way" and off i go

flames out, but there were tons of residents out, including a guy who just got home from work to discover his apartment was right next to the one in which the fire started...

and later came upon the woman who discovered the fire as she was coming to provide home-care to the man whose place had caught fire - dropped cigarette into sofa - she got there, saw smoke and kicked in the door and basically hauled this guy out...he likely would have died had she not responded, so her super joked that she was getting a promotion for being a hero

so, 2 spot news events back-to-back....who knows what tomorrow brings!

soup's on, spring's not

2011-04-17T13:31:00.007-04:00

while the spot news mania seems to have abated for the moment, work has still been plenty busy...well, more like spottily slow punctuated by moments of marathon shooting....sort of the nature of the beast

so, to highlight from the past week or so, i guess i begin with the final follow-up to the plane crash, which was to get a picture of the sign that family had placed at the site...strangely we only knew of this because of a wire story that moved about the dispatch calls made that night and it happened to mention the sign....

so, yeah, here's the sign

maybe later that day, or the next (sometimes they all just kind of run together!), there was "soup day" - a fundraiser for the Salvation Army where the public could sample soups from local eateries and vote for their favorites....basically a slew of people crammed into a too small hotel banquet room (which between the soup kettles and body heat, was reaching near sauna temps) eating soup....not the easiest to shoot, but i kind of liked this moment with one of the servers

throw in a round of golf practice

top with the annual "family fun night" event (inflatables? carnival games? balloon making clowns? popcorn?......check, check and check!)

(and whatever other random assignments not worth posting) and you got yourself a work week

then, it's on to the weekend (which is still sort of the work week for me) and what definitely counts as a marathon day Saturday....

beginning with clean-up of fields and ditches at 9 am in Dundee - still have tons of debris from the tornadoes last summer, and they decided to get together and clear it all out, since the township/village/etc wouldn't do anything

then, out to the annual "fur trader day" at a historical site....these events are always kind of tough, because they aren't generally very well-attended, particularly not when it's cold and windy (which parenthetically (should i even say 'parenthetically' if i'm using parentheses? oh well, never mind) it seems to be ALL THE FREAKIN TIME!!!!!), but i liked this moment as i was heading out....just the feel of it, especially as the girl happened to turn and glance back - i think the layout lady officially dubbed this one the "andy griffith picture"

so, that done i now head north for a track invitational.....get 3 or 4 events under my belt, then outta there

cos' the play rehearsal is winding down in about an hour and a half....at least it's inside, thankfully, as the cold, damp and wind has taken permanent home in the depths of me bones after being out in it for almost 5 hours straight!

liked this offstage moment (i swear, i just never tire of shooting this kind of picture), which i turned in as a Still Life feature

then, take a break - warm up for real, go into office, edit edit edit (cos of course everything is running the next day).....tone fotos for the press....bout 10 p- ish go home, drink very large glass of wine (or two), veg out on late night tv, go to bed!!

before ya know it, it's back into work for another week

have a cpr training class on the agenda, which i have to shoot fast since there is a protest by teachers before the school board meets and votes on whether to pink slip the entire staff of Monroe Public Schools (seriously! and they vote yes.....seriously!) cutting it real close with that one, because i could only stay for about 45 minutes at the cpr thing so as not to get back to monroe for the protest and meeting too late, and they spent about 35 minutes watching a video - yikes!

anyway, got a few pix from the protest that i felt pretty happy with - nothing crazy cool...i think it's the nice light that grabs me more than anything i did, actually

later in the week, technology at work in the classroom - which i guess is cool for them, but it does take away from the visual aspect of science labs - gone are the days of bunsen burners, beakers and the flame color changing experiments.....now it's more like "plug this into that and watch while it computes the data"....hmmm, so turn the wheels of progress i suppose

the next day i go out to a rural township to shoot guys grading gravel roads....only they're not on the road they're supposed to be on, and when i call the supervisor to find out where the workers are, he can only tell me "well, they're out there somewhere!" uhh, yeah....kind of a big county, kind of a lot of gravel roads, dude.....so, drive around for an hour and a half, take a picture of the one re-gravelled road, just in case

decide to give up and go to next assignment....stumble upon the workers on my way back to monroe - take stupid picture since i am now out of time, chuckle to self, continue driving

on a totally different note, i couldn't help but buy a flower the other day (i think i'm trying to will spring to arrive at this point....like, "look ma nature, flowers, pots....what goes well with these 2 things????????")

inevitably, what comes next for me is the lensBABY and some of the funky creative apertures i got a few months ago.....

and i breathe a sigh of creative relief!

more later...thanx for looking

planes, potholes, pinwheels and more

2011-04-03T14:07:00.004-04:00

last week, a lot of school stuff, including shooting recess at an elementary who has switched up their recess/lunch periods as part of a new healthy kids program

thank god for playground stuff like this (and for being small enough to be able to climb into it) - makes for some graphic elements

crazy week in monroe...there's a saying that spot news comes in three's, and i think we've now moved into round 2 of our 3's....first there was a fire, then a kid drowning in the river after wandering from home, a huge DEA raid at a doctor's office, then a plane crash in a park - the plane nose-dived about 50 feet away from the playscape and tennis courts where a local team was getting ready for a match - i didn't go to the crash, but i got the follow-up the next day...very crazy story!

later in the week, a fatal accident that happened overnight and wasn't discovered til the next morning, because the car rolled over into a ditch out of sight after going airborne over 2 sets of train trax - no pix posting from that, cos, really it isn't worth looking at, but just the latest in our spate of tragedies

then there's the other kind of tragedy - the tragic state of our roads and bridges....sometimes it looks like all of this county is just going to disintegrate into a huge swath of concrete rubble!

word to the wise....when coming to monroe, bring extra tires!

but then it's back to the usual - a school assembly preceded by the marching band parading through the halls - the event was to celebrate the school raising the money to buy new lights for the football field - they had to change the times or do away with the friday night home games this year, because their lights were busted and they couldn't afford new ones....so, everyone's supposed to be wearing their school t-shirts (which they didn't), and it's gonna be a big rah rah moment (which it wasn't)

though i liked this frame best, i had to use something else, cos 1) i didn't get her name, and 2) she's not only not wearing her school tee, but she's wearing something from a different school, as was the girl behind her, which would have looked pretty stupid in print...but, as a picture, i kind of like it

next morning, the annual planting of the pinwheel garden to kick off child abuse and neglect month

and last but not least, the annual downtown spring clean-up - this kid looks like he's about to take on the world!

and, that's that....

time to get back in the game

2011-03-17T09:24:00.012-04:00

it has been so so so so long

poor neglected blog
maybe no one noticed but me....and i guess that doesn't matter so much
but pulling out photos to post and then being too lazy, or maybe not interested enough in myself and what i'm doing, or maybe feeling not so happy with the work i have been doing, that i just don't make it to the point of posting leaves a big pool of guilt at my feet
and i haven't splashed through it, or lept over it...i simply stayed still , trying not to look down and see just how deep it's gotten

trying to catch up now would be pretty stupid, so i'm just gonna pick up and move forward and hope that i can give myself a good swift kick if i notice my feet getting wet once again

okay, well, maybe a little catch-up, but only 'cos i kinda like this one - went to a church give-away for area needy...been to a million of these, and they're usually tough to make something decent, like a moment, etc....usually the people picking up don't want to be photographed, and generally they're just coming in, picking up a couple bags or a box, then leaving....and the workers are engaged in this crazy assembly-line whirl of filling said bags and boxes....

this one was even a bit tougher in that it was run like a drive-through - the church people were in the basement filling bags, people would pull in, mark off what they needed, then pull around to the side door where another worker would hand them their items...so i stuck downstairs with the workers, hoping amid their flurry of work there might be some cool interaction/moment....rough going, then this little boy decided he wanted to help out - he stood at the shaving cream section, only people apparently don't use the stuff much, so the bag filler kept passing him by....finally, one of the workers called out "shaving cream" and the boy exploded in celebration at finally getting to participate! phew!

then, onto the usual....sports

students touring the wildlands at the coal plant in search of eagles - thankfully this one was postponed from its original time, when it was about 20 below and i was looking forward to going about as much as i would like forward to having a root canal sans novacaine!

on the drive out, saw tons of deer - i just thought this one was especially cute

then had a silent auction fundraiser, which included appearances by 2 former Lions and football hall o famers - they were both really fun to hang out with actually and they were passing out these bits of life advice that was pretty intense to little kids along with their autographs...just kind of liked this moment

softball clinic for little girls-teens led by a member of the gold medal winning olympics softball team - can't remember her name, but this thing turned out to be huge - people came from literally hundreds of miles away for it

just like the body language of this little girl - i'm sure she's just stretching, but i get a sense of strength, at least symbolically....

which dovetails nicely with a different image of girls - the whole pageant performance thing

also liked this frame from backstage - a group performing traditional Mexican dances waiting to go on - these 2 girls cracking one another up while practicing their onstage smiles

skyscape - when we are on the flight path to Detroit Metro

went to Joe Louis Arena a couple weeks ago for a "student media day" - high school kids interested in journalism got to do press conferences with the Red Wings, which was preceded by watching their morning practice....was gonna try to work something with the reflection in the plexiglass and then i see our reporter walking into the frame - shot this one for him

out of nowhere, a couple of warm days - i mean really warm - not like "ooh, 30 degrees feels so good after single digits for weeks" warm, but actual t-shirt warm! so, went to find a feature - not technically the best, but i kind of like the feel of it

last weekend, speaking of divergent images of girls/women, my day started with a promotional stop by JWOWW from "Jersey Shores" at a local tanning salon

then ended with the home debut of our local roller derby team

that was actually really fun to shoot and watch...now, the morning....mmmm...not so much

this week, last of the winter sports with our boys losing in the state quarterfinals

and yesterday a portrait of a couple whose son has been missing for nearly 15 years

i was pretty happy with how this came out - shot several frames, then i sat down and just started talking to them, which is when i made this frame and things just seemed to come together better - the angle was better for the composition, and they were more reflective as we were talking, so i left feeling like i had made the kind of picture i could feel good about ...and it always baffles me, cos you'd think that this would be tougher than the picture of the swimmer of the year, but i really struggle with those, and with things like the parent portrait, i somehow manage to create an image that i feel captures them/the spirit or feel of their struggle, which i feel tremendously more pressure to do, because it's a very somber reality, and i really want to do it and them proper justice

anyway, that's all for now

if you haven't given up on me and my spotty blogging, thanx for looking....more to come (i sincerely vow!)

more fall

2010-10-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

walk in the woods - beautiful, fall day, full of color - what more can you say?

as i got back to my car, i discovered this baby praying mantis on my car window

a leaf i found - it's so detailed, almost like a mosaic

more autumn outdoorsiness from time off last weekend - walking around at an area orchard

where i also got a pumpkin - one of the few remaining - which i carved with my dandy carving kit

good thing i got a picture of it, because it caved in somehow the next day - boo!

as the wind kicked up, i tried to capture all the blowing leaves with the lensBABY - no easy task! didn't really make anything i like too much - but i kind of like this one

falling for fall

2010-10-15T14:48:00.000-04:00

autumn - my favorite time of year - color, cool, crisp air, exploring flowers and leaves as they make their way into decline

oh yeah, and i brought along the lensBABY for the journey

just a few that i liked from last week

happy fall!

the reality of fantasy...and other things

2010-09-26T17:40:00.000-04:00

i sometimes suspect the titles of my posts are promising a little more than they deliver...not sure why i feel the need to try and be clever or something....almost like when i was a teenager and made my own mixed tapes - i had to give them some cool sounding title that conjures up an evocative image or a feeling that sums up the essence of the whole - i suppose it might just be the part of me that loves reading, writing and art - why not get creative, play with language and form and imagery whenever you can...just for the joy of it, just because you can

maybe also because i felt like, despite feeling kind of frustrated/disillusioned/dis-spirited about work, i made some pictures this week that i was okay with and that had something to them that made me want to keep looking, that gave me a feeling more than just showing something

like, tuesday, before soccer, i had to go feature hunting for a weather picture - it got summery warm earlier this week, but that wasn't the impetus behind this one - it was the accompaniment to an end of summer recap on how the summer weather rated this year

found a couple little boys outside playing football in their neighborhood - hadn't been finding much, but i thought this had kind of the nice mix of warm outdoor activity and the fall sports thing all working together, so i was kind of happy to stumble upon them - not to mention, the clock til soccer time was winding down and i'd found nothing yet

as i hung out more, i made a couple frames that go back to that "feel" i like and that i really need to be making as often as possible - when i go for a while without it, it's almost like getting dehydrated - i feel like i'm so incredibly lacking and wanting, and everytime i shoot and come up short in that regard, it's like going to the well and getting handed a big glass of buttermilk

so, here are the two pix i liked - nothing stellar, not anything i feel completely geeked about, but not buttermilk for me, either

but, there's always the day to day, and you take what you get and do what you can with it...

soldier visits elementary school class that is adopting him and will correspond throughout the year - at least he sat down with all the kids seated around him, as opposed to the usual standing at the front of the classroom scenario

later, went to shoot a meeting between staff of the community college and visiting staff from a school in China - they hope to develop an exchange program and talked about their various programs, followed by a campus tour, which is what we wanted to shoot - their talk went really long, so the tour got cut short, but i tried to find a moment in there somewhere

then it was back to be assistant for a portrait Bryan was doing on some guys who are part of a Star Wars character group - since i was the one holding the key light, we came up with a new nickname for me - "K-boom!"

next day was grandparents day at a school - got there and it was pretty hectic - donuts, cocoa and coffee after morning mass, kids and grandparents everywhere in the gym - tried scoping out a family that was interactive, but everyone was just so all over the place, it was kind of tough, but i came upon this grandpa giving his grandson a goodbye hug, so, whew! that worked

then i was off to do a portrait of 3 people who went on a mission trip to Egypt last summer - they were meeting with the reporter for an interview, and we scheduled me to come after an hour to shoot, and i had a half hour til the one lady had to get back to class to teach...so, i get there and they're still talking - no big deal, i probably don't need a whole half hour for this, but i'm wondering where in the world we will go to do this, cos' they're meeting in an office in the parish hall - i.e., officey-looking room with a large table with a bowl of plastic fruit on it, and i'm looking around as they continue to talk, and then it's like, well, we should probably do this foto, cos' i gotta go in 10 minutes....whaaaaat? 10 minutes? holy crap - and of course, they all look at me and say - where do you want to do this?

well, in an ideal world, we'd be doing this in that garbage dump slum neighborhood in cairo, but as we're in a school office in monroe, michigan, gee, let me look around...

so i go out in the hallway,

and i see a paper jesus surrounded by paper cut-out children taped to the wall and the words "will you follow me"

and so i did,

and in my remaining 5 minutes to set up lights and shoot, here ya go

the weekend started with sports, and then i went off to shoot something called "flyball," which i'd never even heard of before - basically, it's dog team relay races - dogs race down a lane, jumping over small hurdles, grab a tennis ball and race back, trying to beat the other team

so, the challenge here is, they do this inside, and the event is essentially radically back-lit by the large open wall at one end of the building, and inside, where it's significantly darker, these dogs are probably running about 50 mph - no kidding, maybe not exactly that fast, but these dogs were FAST! so, exposure-wise, this is a complete nightmare...

and they're all so geeked up to run like a bat out of hell, that the whole building is an echoing cavern of constant barking....

so i walk in, watch it, and i'm just like what the hell?????!!!

how do i shoot this?!

i fact, i had to stop to text Bryan - "i'm at flyball, all i can say is WTF?!"

how do i shoot this?!

well, not very well, as you can see by the results

but, it is what it is, to re-use that over-used phrase

and there you have it, the yin to my yang of the week's worth of shooting

for the birds

2010-09-19T12:47:00.001-04:00

after shooting cross country in the a.m., i headed over to another of the area metroparks to shoot a feature on the hawkfest - such cool birds - i love when i see them on the side of the road, especially if i'm heading out on any road trip - i feel like it's a good omen - i just have a thing about hawks - it's kind of a long story...

so, i didn't get any great people/moment features out of it

but i really liked being able to shoot these incredible animals so close up and without fencing in the way

this owl was pretty cool - though obviously not a hawk, it is used for hunting and is part of the falconry club of hunters, so it earned its spot...it's native to europe and asia and is the biggest owl in the world - can't tell from this pic, but it is very big - maybe about the size of a smallish medium dog - and it made the perfect "hoo" sound

so, all in all, not such a bad day i s'pose

night before shot the annual pow-mia memorial event - this year it seemed like there was even less visually to work with than in years past - mostly it's a person speaking at a podium anyway, but there just seemed to be things i shot before that weren't there, so it was a little rough, and i didn't get anything too great

my friend Val shot this before, but she did a way cooler job of it than i

shot some detailish pix of old vets hands that i kind of liked (which i guess i forgot to copy for this post), then thought i'd stumbled upon an angle that could make for a pretty cool image..if..only..this...guy...would....turn....around...........

and he never did - what are ya gonna do

and, a bit earlier in the week, an outtake from a play rehearsal for rocky horror - this woman was practicing blowing kisses in a backstage mirror

ta-ta

with age comes beauty

2010-09-14T17:32:00.000-04:00

sitting on my porch the other night, i notice the last of the day's light as it hits one of the big drooping sunflower heads, how it catches just at the rim of its hanging, curling petals

i love these sunflowers - they remind me of sad, tired rag doll heads - i don't know, they're just very endearing, kind of like the velveteen rabbit of flowers

so of course, i had to run in and grab my camera and slap on the lensBABY and try to get in something before the light was gone

and of course, as these fall into decline, others continue to bloom or just bloom

and then i noticed the coneflowers - so many of the stems and blooms are dying, drying - the purple on their petals being overtaken with an ashy grey-black, and in their own decline, they are just as beautiful, now simply in a different way

takes me back to the whole wabi sabi principle of finding beauty and grace and value in things as they decay

some things just strike a chord

just things

2010-09-10T08:33:00.000-04:00

kind of a hodge podge of work from the past week and a half-ish...before things get too far away from me

beginning with a bbq rib-off (no pix to post from that) and jam (as in music, not something you put on bread)...the main show was eddie money - now there's a blast from the past, but he drew a big crowd - all different ages, too - and they all knew every word of those songs!
not exactly my 2 tickets to paradise, but it was kind of fun to shoot regardless
not everyday that a mom and her daughter rock out just as hard to the same band

later, a harry potter character contest and other events - though this was the only really "visual" one - before the showing of the first movie in the park...not the greatest, but this little kid dressed as harry was pretty darned cute

then a luncheon for people in area senior living centers who are 90 and over - this lady was a little firecracker - trying to get everyone into the spirit of a sing-a-long

area business buys cow at fair auction, gets it processed, drops the 1000 pounds of newly packaged cow off to area food pantry
we've shot this a couple times before, and usually it's just people wheeling a large cartload of meat into a walk-in freezer, so not expecting great things, but at least there was a bit of a moment with the kid who raised/showed the cow, who came to help with the donation drop-off

at some point in there was a wreck on the highway - call came over about a truck roll-over, driver trapped, possible fatal - get there and it's a big u-haul semi with attached trailer flipped over in the median with boxes of stuff busted open and strewn everywhere - the top of the trailer sheared off when it rolled and everything in there just went everywhere....the driver was fine...i figured he was moving up here from somewhere in florida since all the stuff was wrapped in st. petersburg times newspapers - poor guy, he was helping move family from FL to michigan - drove all that way with no trouble until he was within 20 miles of their house when he lost control of the truck - another example of why talking on the cell phone isn't a good mix with driving (especially a large truck hauling a trailer when you aren't an experienced truck driver) - still, you gotta feel for the guy!

just liked this weird manikin head that was lying in the rubble

random feature pick-up - noticed these geese all lined up along a river dam on my way to an assignment, and they were still there when i finished...nothing special, but something about it that i kind of like

late afternoon storms with strong straight line winds tore through a neighborhood north county, so the next morning was all about clean-up...went to one lady's house that the reporter had spoken to - she was sitting in her kitchen having coffee when a tree split and came through the window at her - amazingly she only had a couple barely visible cuts from the glass, but despite him telling me the tree was still in the kitchen and they hadn't been able to clean anything up - it was all boarded up and spotless when i got there - oh yeah, and she didn't want a photo....so i just went walking up the road and came upon a family out clearing their yard of all the branches (trees were down pretty much everywhere) - their dog thought this was like the greatest thing ever, because he suddenly had all these sticks to play with

this week, nothing too great yet - Congressman Dingell came in for an editorial board meeting, and this was to be our page one art for the following day....not the easiest visual scenario, but i kind of liked this frame - it's a little odd, but this is actually the one they ran, which was kind of cool - i wasn't expcting it since i'd also turned in more "standard" pix of him

anyhoo, tis all for now!
on the plate for today - road work and a civil war era gun shooting competition

follow your sun

2010-08-24T11:17:00.000-04:00

what goes well with sunflowers?????

why, the lensBABY of course.....

had fun exploring them over the weekend

of course i couldn't ignore the gerbera - just loved how this one silky puff from inside a drying stamen caught on this petal

hope you enjoyed it too

out n about

2010-08-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

can't quite recall what i did mid-week, so it couldn't have been visually memorable, but friday was a little better - seemed to have been all about kids and water - first had the YMCA camp kids' annual "river raft race" - i forgot what that actually translates to until i got there - saw the kids all lined up with their painted wooden blocks with a paper sail attached to a peg and their straws - basically they put these little boats in the pool and blow on the sails through a straw, racing from one side of the pool to the other - it definitely has potential, but i never seem to get any great reaction/moment...which was the case again this time round...

after that went to a trailer park - the management has been putting out a big slip n slide every friday in august for the kids to play on - pretty cool - think i liked this slide image best (some of the kids just walked through it jumping up and down - lame! but this girl got pretty into it

the image i really liked best was this one - pretty simple - just the kids lined up waiting their turn - but there's something about it - just has that kind of timeless/americana feel to it for me

weekend started with a free health screening fair for the uninsured - these things are tricky, cos most people really don't want to be identified in these scenarios - and visually, it's them filling out paperwork or talking to a doctor or having their finger pricked...so, a bit of a challenge...

made something semi-momentish of a woman at one of the stations, but it was pretty run-of-the-mill, so i was trying for something better

kind of liked this doctor as she peaked out to summon her next patient

but still, looking for something more...saw this father and his kids, his little boy leaning on him as they waited to see their next doc, so i approached him, introduced myself, asked if i could hang with them and make some pics - he says okay, so i try to get a nice moment between them..and when i go to get their id's he says - oh, i don't want my name in the paper - i'm seriously asking for id's before i shoot - i mean, why let me waste my time trying for something when you've now rendered it completely useless! not that it's any stellar frame, but i think it would have been a little better than what i had....i just don't understand - you're okay with having your faces in the paper but not your name? whatever

then, i headed down for a pre-season volleyball invitational - volleyball, what a challenge to shoot - can't believe it's already here again!

later that night it was off to the miss monroe county pageant - kind of like tuesday night, but with bigger people and more expensive outfits

the girl who won was a big shocker - we had a little bet going back at the office - and none of the girls we thought would be a sure thing won - i think the girl herself was pretty surprised - it really took her a second or two to react

as you can see, she was pretty happy

and once again, the pix i liked best of the night were of the offstage people - the same 2 little girls from tuesday night, ironically enough!

so, that was the rest of the week in my little world..thanx for lookin!

2010-08-18T19:34:00.000-04:00

so, ahem, on to bigger and better (well, i hope at least) things

the fair being over, it's now on to the musical portion of our little summer story in Monroe County....

there is the annual bluegrass festival in Milan

these guys rocked!

like to try for something backstage, too - didn't make quite the "feel" of a photo that i'd hoped, but this is close...

i was a little restricted on how to shoot by the fact that they were pretty much standing right in front of a port-a-potty, and there's all sorts of campers and cars and other distractions around, but i did my best (and thank god they put some pretty heavy duty air freshener in those port-a-potties, cos i was basically crammed right up against it to get this shot!)

next day, went to look for a feature and stopped in at a working art space where i knew a couple women at least would be in there doing something - this woman is doing a reverse glass painting for an upcoming art show at the Labor History Museum - not sure how i feel about this, ethically, since i had to do some photoshop work to bring her out in that reflection without having blown out the painting to get her in there in the original exposure...i like it, but i know her exposure looks weird

on a different feature hunt, i came upon these kids sitting in the window of a building they were helping to gut and rehab - had been driving for a while - Monroe seems like a ghost town for features the last couple weeks for some reason - i'd turned a corner and just happened to see them in my rear view mirror and pulled straight over

then, on to jazz fest - wish i could have spent more time there, but i had an afternoon portrait and then an evening football game, so i could only really stay for one full set

this guy was an NFL player who started and ended his career with the Detroit Lions...now he's a funk and jazz bassist...played a lot of oldies/80's funk - he was cajoled into doing "the bird" for the crowd

who were very into them - lotsa dancin and hootin and hollerin

then football - more timberwolves

(no pix to post as of now)

back into work for the start of a calmer week - not much going on - but this is pageant week, beginnning with the Tiny, Little and Junior Miss Monroe County contests - so that was my night last night....

love to just stick backstage for these things, which i can get away with more in this than i will with the big Miss Monroe County pageant this Saturday

this was my favorite - almost looks like a dyptich, but it's all one frame - the break in the center is the curtain the 2 girls on the left were standing next to

this one, not sure if it works, but i like it - makes me think of a theme, like enter girl, exit woman - may try to make this one into a still life

old

2010-08-18T19:24:00.000-04:00

just to catch up - realized i had all these pix to post from the fair (non-bunny&hortense related, that is), so i'll just get that out of the way right here and now

the end of the fair baseball tournament

concert

demolition derby

always like the spectators best in these scenarios

tractor pull

and the thick black cloud of exhaust that wafted our way after each passing truck.....mmmm....exhaust fumes!!!!

and one from even before that - portrait for a story about a new kind of therapy to adress ADD

her room is blue...don't think it was having quite the intended calming effect, not yet at least, but still, kinda liked how this turned out, though it's very simple

bunny and hortense went to the fair

2010-08-10T19:34:00.000-04:00

they did indeed - they went to the midway and the country music concert, the demolition derby, the animal barns, and they even got the corn dog and lemon shake-up! people here just might think we've lost it! but i had a great time and some good stories came of it too....in short, a good time was had by all, and bunny lost nary a bean in the process!

first, i took them out to the big concert monday night....i got up front and started making some features for the daily - this guy jumped in front of the camera and he's all "hey do you remember who i am?" i recognized him, but couldn't recall his name...i was like, "high school sports?" turns out he was a big sports guy - all region in a couple sports from one of our schools - so he says, "hey, if you need an assistant, i'll help" and i was like, well, hey, i just might need an assistant with bunny and hortense...so i said, "okay, but are you sure, cos you really don't know what you might be signing up for" and he says - no, whatever, i'll do anything.....all rightey then!

so, i shoot what i need for the daily of the event, then i turn around and say, okay, ready to help out? here, you take this and have your sister hold this and just, ya know, forget me and enjoy the show - so here's this big athlete guy and his (very cool i might add) sister, totally getting into it...at one point, his friend offers hortense a drink out of his cup (which i suspect was probably about 10% pepsi, and 90% something a little less soft), while he pretends to make hortense drink and they all started cracking up......very very cool

after that we went to the midway, cos i wanted to put them in the scene of the fair rides now with all the colors and evening lights on - waited for a crowd of people to walk by - i think they may have thought i was a bit of a screwball

bryan and i had talked about meeting to team up on some shots - like them in the animal barns, eating, etc, cos it would help to have 2 people on that - otherwise every foto would look the same - them on the ground or sitting somewhere...so i held off on those the next day

but i did take them to the demolition derby - again, i shot a few heats worth of action for the daily, then i started thinking about how to get them into the event - i could take them behind the pit area, where all the cars are sitting there inbetween heats, but i kind of wanted them more in the scene, without getting into that visual rut of them looking at something - so, before the next heat, as the cars lined up to go into the arena, i asked the guy in the first car lined up if i could take a kind of weird picture on his car - he was like, sure why not, so i whip out bunny & hortense, position them on his car, try to keep them from falling over and make some frames...til i hear the flag guy saying - hey, we gotta start! - so, off they come and i thank him, and he says - maybe they'll be his good luck charms - and off he goes, and i shoot the heat, and holy crap - he WINS! (okay, just that heat, not the whole event of the night - i was kinda hoping he would at that point, but still!) so i caught up with him later as he and his crew were sledge hammering his even more beat up car into shape for the final heat, and he clapped me on the back and said how they really were good lucky after all!

how frickin funny is THAT?!!!!?!

next day, i met up with bryan....we went to the small animal barn and had bunny & hortense meet up with a rabbit FAR bigger than bunny - a flemish giant

we were sitting outside the barn, contemplating our next move when i noticed that there was an older man and his wife inside a vendor's tent that was filled with.....wait for it, wait for it......PUPPETS!

no way! we HAVE to go there!

so we did, and this guy got REALLY into making hortense talk!

after that, it was time for fair food - bryan had the great idea that we could just impale a corn dog into the ground for them to be appearing to eat......we did get a couple stares while shooting this one...i felt like i just wanted to carry around a sign - it'll all make sense after you see sunday's paper....really, we're not completely insane! but, ya know, who cares...it was fun...i think this may be my favorite shot- i just love the color - bryan says the derby is his favorite

so, that is that...wish i had the pdf to post up of the page - maybe i can add that in later, but all in all, it worked out, and i wrote a little story to go along as text.....and we did get a nice note from one woman saying how much she enjoyed it and suggesting that we do a children's book of the pair in famous monroe sites.....ha ha, funny she should mention that, i say, because..........

bunny & hortense make their debut

2010-08-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

well, i've either stumbled upon something really cool or i have completely lost my mind!

for this year's fair foto page, bryan and i came up with the idea of taking some object - a stuffed animal maybe? - and photographing it at different spots in the fair...immediately i got so excited - my two old stuffed animals - one a bean filled bunny, the other a lamb hand-puppet - i have taken them everywhere through the years, and i've always wanted to make a kid's kind of picture book of their adventures, and they would be just PERFECT!!!!!

but Bunny is pretty much threadbare - her beans falling through several small holes - i barely move her anymore....so, if this was gonna work, the first thing i had to do was Bunny cpr...several hours later, i came up with fabric tape to patch her holes and a hand-sewn pleated apron to hide her see-through body....

now, Bunny and Hortense are ready for the fair!

so today i took them out to the big parade through town which kicks off the week-long fair....

i was pretty sure that people were going to think i was a complete nut for setting up these 2 old stuffed toys on the street and photographing them...i was all ready with some kind of explanation...but no one even gave me a look (that i noticed)

or maybe people here are just really polite...

i just found myself giggling as i shot Bunny and Hortense watching the parade (which had its own logistical issues - cos Hortense being a puppet, i had to find some means of making him upright - an empty paper towel roll did the trick - and Bunny just wanted to flop over, but Hortense's big arm helped her stay upright)...

so here is their first day in the spotlight...i think they did pretty well

BABY, look at you now

2010-07-21T15:36:00.000-04:00

i sometimes wonder when or if it will get old - when i will run out of seeing new things, finding new images, not becoming completely repetitious - when will either i or it get stale?

to my utter gratitude, it hasn't happened yet - the lensBABY continues to enthrall me...i'll be sitting on the porch or poking around the garden and something will stand out - some portion of a flower, some angle or nature of light, an insect, a water droplet - i'll think, ooh, i should get out the lensBABY and shoot this...

then, ya know, an hour later i have gotten completely lost, and whatever drew me in was merely a gateway to a whole new exploratory journey...
and i keep seeing new things, or new things keep deciding to let me see them - whichever way your zen pendulum swings

and for that, i am eternally grateful

on fire n coolin off

2010-07-12T17:55:00.000-04:00

the week (a short one, mind you) began with a couple assignments, both of which could be undone by the weather, thursday evening - first was a recreational softball team - the oldest in the league for a forthcoming sunday piece about the decline of people participating in the adult rec leagues - the weather called for storms, which did eventually come, but i was able to get in a half hour's worth of shooting before they called it, which was okay, because i had another assignment to get to anyway - area fire departments participating in a propane fire training....i got to the place where they said the event would be held, but no one was there - perhaps they called it off because of the lightning? but no, turned out they just had the classroom portion of the training somewhere else and just hadn't gotten there yet....even though the lightning had tapered off, it was still raining pretty good, so by the end of it all, i was a pretty drowned rat, but it was actually kind of cool - they started out small - just a little propane grill - then worked their way up to a 40-gallon tank, which i learned is called a "pig" - and which, when on fire, sends flames shooting about 80 feet in the air - "wait til you see this," the fire chief of one dept. told me, "this is gonna be really cool!!" luckily for me, they did this one a few times, so all the guys could get the experience, and i could work on getting better and better angles - the rain actully worked to my advantage, because it gave me a really nice reflective surface in the parking lot pavement, which added to the visual aspect

noticed these guys composing themselves after their turn at battling and shutting off the propane - just liked how their body language mimicked one another

next day was to go to a pool for a story about how people beat the heat....the only problem being that after the previous day's rain, it wasn't quite that hot anymore, and then to make matters more challenging, it poured early that afternoon, so i waited til it cleared to head down, and there was really only 2 moms and their kids there, but i stayed a while and worked it, and i think it will be okay for telling the story....maybe having things less hectic actually made it a little easier

saturday, had "family game day the library" as a stand-alone feature to run whenever - a really beautiful day, and i was a bit skeptical about how many people would actually go sit in the library to play wii on a day like this - guess my thinking was right, cos i got there and there was no one playing, and the librarian seemed pretty skeptical herself as to the turn-out - i took it as a sign that she handed me a pamphlet of events and said, here are some things coming up that people might actually show up to - hmmm, so, instead of sitting there for an hour or so waiting to see if anyone showed (and really, fotos of people playing video games, not too visual even on a good day), i decided to go back to the town i passed thru on the way here and shoot their farmer's market - it goes on every saturday, which at least makes it newsworthy in an informative sense, and they have seminars on herbs and cooking, and gardening, etc, so it just seemed a bit more substantive to highlight as well - so off i went, but it was getting toward the tail-end of the market, so traffic was light, and at least i found these two cousins whose family runs a farm and who decided they wanted to run this stand to make some money, which they have been dutifully putting in the bank as savings - pretty smart kids

not the greatest, but i think better than the alternative at least

took a break, then went in later to shoot the "minor league" regional football team playing their first home game - got a foto of the defense i kind of like, partly cos we rarely shoot defense, but i liked this frame....

then a went looking for a feature - tried to follow these two little girls playing beneath the bleachers, but that wasn't coming together, so i started working something of this little boy and his father in the stands - i did shoot a more standard, easy-read frame, but i think i like this one, or maybe i just like it in the "wish this would work" sense....but regardless, this is the one i'm posting, so you'll just have to take my word for it i s'pose!

after that, back to the office - edit, submit, tone tone tone, then go home!

what have i been up to? well.......

2010-07-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

been a while again since i posted - my bad...clearly, i am not the most disciplined blogger, but i'm sure no one's really waiting on the edge of their seat every week to see what pearls i drop out into the blogosphere either - plenty o fish in that sea!

anyway, had a long weekend since my last post, got to go home and go to a first annual family reunion at a cousin's house - really fun and very cool to not have to miss out on it because of work...unfortunately, i caught a pretty bad bug while there, which kicked in in earnest on my drive back up to michigan - not a pleasant journey, to say the least...

back to work the next day, and since bryan had been solo for several days and had a pretty busy time, i really didn't feel like i could call in sick, so i just worked...which i guess was somewhat of a good distraction

like this one of comcast donating a couple thousand meals to a food pantry - the funny part was that there were 2 women in the group whose sole job in the drop-off process was to hold up a big comcast sign - they kept trying to position them so they would be in the background of my fotos - silly

but after 3 assignments, i was pretty shot, and by the next morning it was worse - got sent home and spent the next couple days lying in bed or on the couch just being a big sick slug for the most part

next day, back to it - a new walking/biking trail through town that connects up to the state park was being officially dedicated and the new trail sign unveiled..

i must say, i've sort of learned to take the hoopla over new things here with a bit of a grain of salt - okay, maybe a mound - but this sign was actually really cool - particularly given the fact that it was designed and completely built by 4 local guys who did the bulk of the work in one of their garages!

saturday was a long day - had day-long events on the new trail, a robotics competition running at the same time and a softball all star game that evening, then the night desk work....

went to the trail first to hit the "family time on the trail activities" - which turned out to be golf cart tours along the trail and kayaking, but it was overcast with predictions of possible rain, so that kept a lot of people away..i wasn't getting much of anything, and they wanted to run a package from this thing, so i left to go shoot robotics, which was, ya know, robotics

then back to the trail for the next set of events - a pet walk on the trail etc, and people generally just walking and biking - the weather had cleared, so more people were out, but it was still a bit tough visually - caught this moment of some of the pet walkers on the trail...nothing great, but at least it was somewhat of a moment...

got some other general pix, too, but nothing worth posting really...then softball, then the desk, then home...don't think i was quite back up to speed for a marathon day like that, cos by that night i was running a fever again, felt like crud, and spent the next day back on the couch - uggh

monday i was solo, had 3 assignments scheduled for the afternoon and night - a couple portraits and the all star baseball game...but i got a call early that morning that another tornado had come through in the north part of the county and there was some damage and i need to get up there to get something in for that day's paper...so, throw on some clothes, brush the teeth and run up there - found the damage and hung out with one of the homeowners - alot of the people weren't home or had already piled up much of the downed trees etc, since the tornado came through early sunday afternoon and this was now monday morning, and i'm sure many of them had to go to work, but at least there was this guy - he had more than 20 trees ripped up - some had been thrown into their deck, others just uprooted and dragged through his yard

pretty crazy - mother nature is one mean old broad when she wants to be!

i don't think he knew quite where to start in the clean-up - he just stood there looking around and saying "what a mess!"

so then there was the first portrait - a retiring school superintendent - kinda liked the way this turned out

then i met a few kids who are on a pee wee football team that had been playing their games on a field behind the fire station, but were informed that they can't anymore because of some crazy zoning issues

and then baseball that evening, which i forgot to bring home, so nada to post from that, though i did get an action frame i liked

so, another longish day all in all - think i was just trying not to keep getting run down and get sick again for the better part of this week

so the next day was another retiring superintendent portrait - not as cool as the first though, and then later a speech for people working in the state's prisoner re-entry initiative program and the public - she was going to be talking with parolees enrolled in the program first, but we couldn't shoot that, so it was pretty much her at the podium, and then afterward at least some people came up to talk with her, shake hands, etc - nothing terribly cool, but better than the talking head shots - interesting woman, though - made the speech time go a little faster

next day there was nothing on the agenda, so i went looking for a feature and checked out one of the many summer time vacation bible school camp type events..i actually kind of liked this feature - kids playing with one of those parachute things in front of the church

later, i was able to set up a portrait for the girls athlete of the year

next day was light in the afternoon, but i had a couple other sports portraits that evening - nothing too memorable

friday, had a couple feature ideas to go check out - the first was about 2 fireworks businesses located right across from each other having a rivalry over attracting customers - they were having food and music outside the shops and somebody had called to say they were packed....well, by the time i got there, not so much, and it turns out that the guy who called is related to one of the food vendors, which has been in the paper in their own right for having a licensing controversy with the city, so really, our being called out there had a little agenda behind it as i came to discover, and the only people who were taking in the "party" were the family and friends - the other business was dead, so i tried to make something, then went off to the next thing, which was a regatta at a boat club - sounded cool, and it was a gorgeous night, but i came to discover that regatta only means doing something with your boats for sailboat folk - for power boaters, it means a party - i.e., hanging out on the docks and getting ripped...but, i liked a couple of the pix i made there, so i guess it's all good in the end....

after that, it was night desk and then home.....counting down the time til my long weekend!

but first, there was saturday, which actually was pretty cool - get a feature of the holiday weekend activities at the state park beach, then get something from another beach in south county - which has been closed for a couple weeks due to dangerous e coli levels in the water - the story being of course, how this would impact their holiday events and attendance....

went to the state park first and spent a couple hours or so hanging out on the beach - sat down to contemplate what i had, took off my shoes and socks to feel the sand for myself, and as i'm sitting there, looking at my feet in the sand with the lake in the background on what was another extremely gorgeous day, i thought - man, this is my job! really, just when things get to you, you have to sit back and take stock of what doing this work can entail, and really, hanging out on the beach just ain't too shabby

made a couple more feature shots of some other kids playing in the surf, then it was south to the next beach

i was kind of visualizing what i might make down there to tell this story - cos, really, how can you make a picture that says less people are here than normal, or if they are there and swimming, how can i make it look different from the other features i just shot...

i though they might have signs posted up on the beach advising people against contact with the water, but there only one, on an 8x11 sheet of paper posted up on a construction workhorse off to the side of the beach entrance; which i suppose could be considered eye-level, if it was eye-level for your average chihuahua, and what was written on it couldn't have been less vague - i think all it said was to avoid full body contact and don't go in if you have an open sore - no real reason why, just, ya know, avoid that...

of course people are in the water, and a few that i and the reporter talked to didn't even realize there was an advisory, but i don't think they were too concerned

so, we went with a sign foto and a generic beach shot showing people in the water...the one i liked was this kid who was running in and out of the water...but, i think, given how he's looking back and running away pretty much seemed a little too editorial on my part - i mean, given the context of the story, he pretty much looks like he could be fleeing in terror from the bacteria- ridden waters....i think it's kind of funny, but, like i said, a little too much of an editorial image for this story

after that, it was toning on the desk, then home, for 4 whole glorious days!

school, sports etc

2010-06-14T11:14:00.000-04:00

back after a nice break...which is a little surprising since we had a tornado rip through sunday morning, and when i saw monday's paper, i was really shocked that i didn't get pulled in to help cover it - bryan rocked it, though - big kudos to him - i felt more than a wee bit guilty that he was running around with the reporter doing all that work and i was just sitting here...but, i was really happy to have a longer weekend to kind of recoup from the past couple weeks....

anyway, back to it, and with school about to be out and the holiday stuff and custer week over, things are getting a little more back to normal

wednesday morning, out to a school to shoot a teacher who is retiring - we profile a few retirees every year, and this guy was very cool - an elementary school music teacher....got there just before the school was having an assembly to honor he and a few of the other staff who are retiring - the event was, well, like most assemblies, not easy to make visually interesting, but there were some nice moments after of kids hugging him and waving goodbye - you could tell he was pretty much beloved by all - some older kids actually came back to the school to see him and tell him how much he impacted their lives - very cool....

after that, we had about 40 minutes before his last class started...so we just talked as he got the room ready, then the first grade class arrived - such a cute age to shoot, and he was a real joy to watch - i can see why all these kids love him - he would have been perfect for audio, too - just an animated, kind of kooky, fun guy, and really good with kids...

i felt pretty happy with what i shot, and liked this one moment at the end of class when this little girl hung back to tell him how much she loves his class, and telling him that at the end, she thought she wanted to cry a little....awww

and one for next week's feature foto page
later, there was a portrait of a woman who found a job despite the repeal of a federal young worker subsidy for businesses - which will now make finding a job for younger people more difficult - well, that's the crux of the story anyway....

nothing terribly cool....

thursday, just had a graduation - the kids of the town hit especially hard by the tornado had to cancel their ceremony, which was originally to be that sunday night, but as the town was ripped apart and the school damaged along with it, they postponed and took up an offer from EMU to use their convocation center - which was very cool of EMU, but as for the actual ceremony, it kind of hampered the visual side it seemed - less than 100 kids in this big facility - it just looked kind of like they were dwarfed, and they were so separate from their families and friends, and they have the speakers projected on the jumbo trons -

i don't know, it was a little impersonal feeling, and hard to get any moments, and of course there was toledo and detroit press there, cos we know how they love a good tragedy in monroe - not blaming the people themselves, they're just going to where they're assigned, like me, and in all honesty, we wouldn't have covered their graduation had it not been for the fact that they had had to reschedule due to the devastating storm, so, we're all painted with the same brush to some extent i suppose...

anyway, tried to get better stuff afterwards - but it was a little chaotic once they emerged onto the concourse to greet their families, particularly with all these other media there all vying for the same moments....

friday - the morning was a little slow - in the afternoon, i had to cover a town hall style meet and greet by one of our gubernatorial (love that word! hate typing it, though - too much thought involved) candidates - so, the usual him speaking, framed by the heads of the audience, the audience listening, hoping to get something better, more interactive after the speaking and q&a, but, he's not a real animated guy, and he seemed to be on a pretty tight schedule, and he had to be pulled aside and interviewed briefly by our reporter, so that didn't yield much....and after that, i went down to make a portrait of miss monroe, who was leaving next morning to head to the miss michigan pageant...she was pretty much done preparing to leave, so it was just a portrait, and i kept it pretty simple...

what i kind of liked later is this totally blown-out frame - the first shot, obviously before i ratcheted down the speedlight!

saturday i just had sports - i say "just" - but it was really an all-day affair - had a softball and baseball team in the regionals - baseball started at 10, softball at noon, and they were playing at a college in a town about an hour away...but, i came to understand friday night that those times were just the semi-finals, so i asked the sports reporter when the finals would be - but baseball was supposed to lose, so either way, had to go in the morning so we could get some game action of them - which means, stay for the softball semi-finals, all of which will be negated when they make it into the finals, because they won't want action from the semi's when they could get finals action....so, just have a big old long sports day!

and it was nearly 90 degrees with 100 % humidity, so, be prepared to be a drained rat by the time it's all done!

so, i get to this town, and i start to look for a sign for the college, but apparently they're not very into posting signs, so i stop to ask someone directions, and this guy tells me just turn around and head back down this road you're on, and he gives me a couple landmarks and the college is on the left - sweet, how easy i think - and it would have been, had the road he thought we were on been the actual road i was on....so, long story short, after driving in circles and getting directions three more times for about 40 minutes, i finally find the college..now, where are the sports fields....get more directions, find the fields, and now it's about an hour into the baseball game by the time i find a parking spot in some neighborhood, cos the parking lot is full, but that's okay, cos it's baseball, and i should have plenty of time, and if they lose i only really need one or two action shots anyway....

so, i get to the field, and after an hour they're only in the top of the second inning! holy cow! that game lasted nearly 3 hours! and, they won, which meant they'd play again in half an hour, so now everything i just shot of that game is kind of a wash, and i have to get over to the softball field and shoot there - get there ion the 4th inning, and the action is pretty abyssmal, and it's the semi's so when they win (which it was 2 local teams, so either way, we were shooting the finals for sure), they're not super-reactive, but now, they have a half hour break before starting the finals....

so, back over to baseball, whose game is about an hour in at this point, and when i get there, it's about the 4th inning, and again, against all predictions, they're winning! so, cool i'm thinking, at this rate, i can probably shoot the end of this game, cos they're gonna be pretty happy if they win the trophy and advance to state tourney, especially since nobody thought they'd get this far, and then i can make it over in time to get some action in the final couple innings from softball and their reaction....

but, once we get to the bottom of the fifth, the whole thing just starts dragging - both teams are hitting, and the opposing team changes pitchers, then in the bottom of the sixth, our team changes pitchers, then they change again in the seventh, so it's just crawling, and i'm looking at the time, and now it's probably getting close to the end of the softball game, and i am seriously running out of time to get any game action - so, now i'm in that conundrum - do i leave, now, when they're about to win and i will miss all the reaction, and if softball is losing for some reason, then i'm not going to get any good reaction there, or at least not pix they'll want to run - basically, do i stay with the sure thing, or potentially screw up both in the attempts to do it all....so, i stay, and just as the game is about to wind up, i see people walking out of the stands over at the softball field - well, crap, now i not only have no game action, i may miss any reaction, too, so as soon as baseball wins, i shoot some reaction as fast as i can

and then i high-tail it over to softball - all i can get is them posing for the parents with their trophy - pretty lame, but at least it's something.....and after that, hike back to my car (and yes, i was quite the sweaty, heat-drained, just spent 5 hours shooting continuous sports, mess!), drive the hour back to monroe, edit, caption, submit, go home for a couple hours, then come back in to process the fotos for sunday's paper....long day!

back to my baby, lensBABY, that is

2010-06-11T10:22:00.000-04:00

been remiss about posting up this season's series of lensBABY flower photos...something about just getting outside with your camera and playing and exploring that makes me feel so reinvigorated, or something - sort of like i just nourished my senses for the day...

anyway, this is one of my new favorite flowers - columbine

especially with the lensBABY, it almost looks like some kind of sea anemone - so interesting and graceful - when i look at it, i feel like i'm under water

custer, NOT custard!

2010-06-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

on to the next craze - Custer, as in Gen. George, as in Battle of Little Big Horn - yeah, THAT Custer...he grew up in Monroe, led the Michigan militia, helped win the Civil War with key battles in Gettysburg, fought in 1812, and yes, then there's that whole Native American aspect of his career - love him or hate him, he's an icon here in Monroe, and this week marked the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Custer Statue that stands in town, as well as the beginning of the annual Custer Week celebration...

i name the title of this post as such, because it used to crack us up when we'd get an intern fresh in to town, and they'd be like, "so i have to go to the "Custard" Statue - where's that?" and we'd have to tactfully explain that it's Custer, not Custard, as in a general, not a dessert...ha ha

anyway, it being such a milestone event, our paper has joined in the Custer craze, and was bound and determined to cover the bejeesus out of this one! what of the events should we focus on to cover, asked an editor - well, everything was the directive....so, thursday was to kick it off with a Custer Expo - a conference of the Little Big Horn Associates was in town for the anniversary event, and they were to have an expo of vendors and historians, collectors, etc, set up from morning to night - but, when i went there, 3 times mind you, the place was all locked up with nary a soul in sight...hmm, hope this doesn't set a tone for how this whole thing is going to play out, because we have extra pages and very high turn-out expectations for our coverage of the official friday start of events....

needless to say, thursday was a light day.....friday, i got in early to swing by and see if they were doing anything (supposed to be open again from 8 am to 9 pm), but still nothing, so i just headed down to the square, where a civil war-era brass band was to play, relatives of custer and of the original statue committee were to be on hand, re-enactors of Libbie (his wife, who was played by another Monroe icon - Kaye Lani Ray Rafko - who won the Miss America pageant in 1980-something) and Pres. Taft, who attended the original statue dedication, were to be there mingling in character through the crowd, a 1909 Model Z Oldsmobile (the car in which Taft arrived back in the day) would be on display, a canon will be on display, too, a group photo of the assembled (like the one they did at the original event) would be taken for publication in a national magazine, and local businesses would be decked out in period costume and other Custer/patriotic regalia....and we need photos of all of that

funny, even as Libbie, she still had the pageant wave going on!

well, it all went pretty much as planned - bryan and i had to double up on the morning events, because the brass band was running that day - so he focused on that, and i was to get the rest...which was totally do-able....

except the group photo happened before the event was slated to start, and the businesses aspect, well, let's just say i didn't see much in the way of Custer decor and was told by one business that they were going to hang a Pepsi banner in the window, because it's the only thing they had that's red, white and blue....okay, so you see where all THAT'S headed! bryan did find a Custer poster in a window, so i guess we vaguely got that one covered, but still, nowhere near what we were led to expect to find

not sure why i like this, or if it even works, but i just do!

anyway, after that, i headed out of town a bit to the old Custer farmhouse - bought by George and his brother Nevin and their wives - George only lived there shortly, if at all, because he wanted to be out west, blazing the trail and battling it out at places like Little Big Horn (some may argue he should have stayed in Monroe, but so goes history) - the conference attendees were on a bus tour of local Custer sites, and the farmhouse was naturally a big stop, so i was on tour bus duty...

the tour was pretty much confined to looking at the historical marker in the front yard and the front of the house, because the current owner really wasn't into the idea of people roaming around, so, it wasn't so cool for visuals, but it is what it is, as the saying goes

liked the button on this guy's cap - Custer for President - hmmm, not sure certain members of the Indian nations with whom he dealt would agree, but an interesting detail that speaks to the event, nonetheless

later that afternoon, the official rededication of the statue would take place - the mayor will speak, a member of the historical society will speak, and they will unveil a "secret" new addition to downtown Monroe...

so, again bryan and i double up, cos they want video, and we've gotten access to a building across the street so we can shoot the crowd from that angle...so, i go to the building, which was kind of lame, especially since the assembled crowd wasn't nearly as big as i think was anticipated - i mean, back in 1910 they had nearly 30,000 people in attendance - we'd be lucky if the count was over 300 - so, i shot a bit from up there, then went down to street level to shoot some more....

and such was the end of the Custer events for the day (for me at least - poor bryan had to cover the banquet that evening - i.e. Custer relative speaking at podium as people ate dinner - not a visual dream, to say the least)

saturday, it was a Civil War military encampment demo at the park near the statue, then district finals softball and baseball in the afternoon...went out to the park, and hmm, no one's there, and we have been given no contact info, so i figure, maybe they're starting late, go home, get coffee, check the paper for any other info, and go back - still nothing - not even anyone out there pitching a tent in preparation to get started - weird, so i head out to another historical site where they're holding an 1812 Militia Muster - i figured someone out there may have some info on what's up with the other re-enactors - but they have no idea - and since i'm there, and we were going to have a freelancer cover this event for us sunday, i may as well just shoot something while there and save us the cost...

had planned to go back to the park again, but i got a call from the weekend reporter -wtf - no one's here, what are we gonna do? so i tell him where i am, and if there's still no one there, i'm guessing they just blew it off (lame!), and maybe we should do this for sunday 1A, but that will leave them without this as planned for monday - so, he calls the editor, and they have something they can throw in for monday, so just cover this for sunday instead...so i keep shooting

and then i gotta scoot, cos i have to get to a town in the next county for my sports....

i arrive, and it turns out the sports guys got the times wrong, and the softball finals are over, and the baseball semi-finals are just finishing up....and i'm not sure if our team is winning or not, cos if they lose, then i have NO pictures! so i shoot the pitcher quickly, then ask around and find out they're winning, so they'll play the finals - phew! except now i have an hour to wait....so i wait....

and luckily the predicted storms, which looked to be threatening the horizon don't move in while the game is on, and then it's back to the paper to edit and get it in, then home to put in my galleries from the day's pics, and then i am off again, for 3 whole glorious days!

end

2010-06-06T19:20:00.000-04:00

by saturday, i am seriously counting down to this week being over over OVER!!!! but i have 3 days to go....

start with a portrait of a guy who is making a documentary film centered around the story of his brother, Rico Hoye, Jr. - a local championship boxer who made a name for himself in the sport after serving 8 years (i believe) in prison for manslaughter...as we set the appointment up, he said he'd like his film crew to be in there, too - i asked how many people we're talking about and he said 4 - i said, i know they're important to the film and will probably be in the story, but maybe we should keep it to him, since lots of people make it pretty tough to make a really nice portrait that doesn't turn into a group shot - he said he understood, but i guess not, cos when i got there, 2 other guys were with him, and then a third showed up, and he really wanted all of them in there....they were all really cool, and honestly, at that point, i'm not gonna tell them to just go home, so i did what i could - not really happy with the way this turned out - but i think my energy to (tactfully) argue the point was pretty much spent....so, you get what you get

took a break, since i was working the production desk again that night, and i still had to find features to fill next tuesday's photo page, so, i went out feature hunting early evening....came across these two photos....

the ice cream stand - pretty lame, i know, but i had to go with something i knew would produce something

then went on the drive through neighborhoods, and found this family out playing - not totally excited about it, but i think i made a couple pictures that at least approach the "feel" of the pictures that i get proudest about...it was funny, because i'd stopped to shoot the dad taking his kid out for a bike ride - holding on to the seat as his kid learned to ride, and i thought it was his daughter, cos it was a little girl bike, and with the helmet on, i just assumed it was his daughter, but it was his son on his daughter's old bike...meanwhile the daughter was running around like little annie oakley shooting at everything in sight, including the "bad tree"

the mom joked about the gender reversal at work in their family, and i think i really kind of like this image of her daughter taking aim in the sky

sunday morning, i still needed at least one more feature, so i went back out on the hunt - spied kids playing way off in the back yard, on a tire swing no less! holy cow - i NEVER see anyone actually using their tire swings! - so i spun around, parked and walked into the yard - was met first by the family's dogs, pit bulls to be exact, and i ask a couple kids if their dogs are friendly - oh yeah, yeah, they're fine - okey dokey, then, well, on i go, with the dogs in tow behind me....and i shoot away as they play on the tire swings

and at one point, the mom of the house gets in on the play, and she gets on after winding the rope round and round tight, so that by the time the kids let go, she is spinning in ever-faster circles, which gets the dogs super-worked up, and as i am shooting, they decide to circle round me, barking away - and let me just say, knowing these aren't the most predictable of the species, having pit bulls standing at your feet growling and barking at you is a little disconcerting, but i try to not show fear, cos we all know where that can lead, and i shoot my pix, and then i head out....

later that evening, i head out to the annual "Tribute to the Fallen" - usually honors area veterans who stand up and recount their personal stories, and then they have a video showing all the photos of the vets throughout the county who have died in service from WWII to present - this year, all the honorees were dead already, so it was just the emcee reading from a sheet of paper, and then the vidfeo (which you're not allowed to shoot during) - so, it was more of a challenge than normal - and i resorted to shooting the guy playing (or standing with trumpet as a recording played) TAPS at the program end

then back in to the paper for production work - since monday is a holiday, the paper is built the night before, so another desk night

monday, memorial day - assignment to shoot the big downtown parade - an hour before the start, the big storms forecasted begin to arrive, but they should pass by the start....so, i head out to the starting point, looking to find a pre-parade feature amid the thunderstorm...but there's no one there...so i go to the paper to see if there's any updates - delayed? cancelled? but there's nothing on our website, and the reporter on that day has no cell phone, and he's not home, nor is the guy in charge of the parade, so i have no idea if i should just go feature hunting for page one, or stick around or what, so i drive back down to the parade start site, and still no one, but i see a city truck with "street closed" signs on back, so i ask them, and it turns out the parade has been cancelled, and then i get a hold of the wife of the parade marshall, and she tells me they're all at the VFW, which is where i go and make some features

and on the way, i shoot some kids riding a bike home - they'd come downtown for the parade and were heading home after learning it was cancelled....

so, that was the week's finale, and i was really really ready for 2 days off!

middle

2010-06-06T18:42:00.000-04:00

after tuesday's insanity, the week got a bit more manageable - still had 3 sports features to arrange and shoot - and trying to get our photo reprint orders out - as i suspected that the large orders were graduation gifts and should really be done asap so they get them in time, and since our reprints are so cheap, people tend to place pretty hefty orders - suddenly every sport shot their kid may be in is being ordered, and if it's night sports or poorly lit gym basketball,, they all need some touch-up before we upload them and send them on their merry way - so, that's a chunk of work right there...

anyway, wednesday, it was back out to the track for what will be my last track meet of the season (thank god!) - didn't get anything too cool, but this high jump pic is okay, and it was of a member of the school that seemed poised to win the meet, so that worked

then i met a woman for the first sports feature - she's been chosen to be the bat girl for the Tigers' annual breast cancer awareness fundraising game in mid-June...not sure i made the portrait i'd hoped to, but it's alright, and thankfully she had a friend who had a pink Tigers jersey, so that helped with the story-telling aspect

next day, it was off to shoot the next 2 sports features, or so i thought....

first one is about a kid who is training to be a soccer ref - his dad has been doing that for years and often workjs with his son, giving him pointers as he refs games - but of course the game they had was the day before in a downriver city, and i already had track and the other portrait set, so no go - would have to be a portrait, which we set up for after-school (only time they'd be available) at a soccer field...so i pull up and clouds are rolling in, looking forboding, and i discover the field is all locked up...well, hmm, what to do, what to do, then rumbles of thunder begin, and by the time the guys arrive, it is starting to pour - so we decide to try and wait it out - this one is running the next day, so i have to get something now...looks to be lightening up, so i suggest we just get out and get it done before the next bank of clouds arrive - they know of a back entrance that will be open - so we hike out there, and i start to set up the lights, and more rumbling begins, and then some drizzles, and i get off a few frames, just barely have time to get the exposure down, let alone compose as i want and adjust the lights, before lightning strikes, and now it starts pouring like some deluge on order from Moses, and the lightning is getting closer, and we're all like, we gotta get outta here now! - cos, standing in an open soccer field with a large metal lightstand nearby during a lightning strike - well, not too safe - so, we high-tail it back to our cars and call it a day - go home, change out of my completely drenched clothing, then head out to the next sports feature

story is about a guy who's a fast-pitch softball guru - has coached several girls from throughout the region to pitching success - the writer told me he coached out of an old warehouse on a road running south of town, but i can get the exact locale from him - "just call his cell, if he doesn't answer, he al;ways calls right back" - well, not for me apparently - after consulting another writer about where this old warehouse might be, i have a pretty good idea of what block i should be on, and since i haven't gotten a call back from the guy, i just head that way - after driving up and down and around the backs of the buildings in that block, i stop to call the guy again - more voice mail, so i call the sports writer - he's out playing basketball, then will have to go to church choir practice, so he won't have time to call me back, per his wife - still no word back from our subject, so i finally just go home...

did a get a call the next morning from the guy - he's got a new cell phone and hasn't quite figured it out, so he just got my messages - get his coaching schedule for that night, as well as the exact location, which it turns out is on a totally different road, in a totally different township, nonetheless!

so, friday, go shoot that, and then later that night go out to an assignment about a christian youth group that is having "cosmic bowling" night....why this is a front page story for the next day, neither i nor the reporter can understand - must be that there is really nothing else going on, and there wasn't anything else pre-planned....she could barely eke out more than an 11-inch story, and shooting kids in a bowling alley with all the lights off so their balls can glow in the dark, well, you can imagine the technical challenge such a scenario presents!

could barely see to focus, so it was pretty frustrating, and even moreso later when they asked for more than one photo to run since the story was so short! oy vey!

beginning

2010-05-27T19:50:00.000-04:00

this is the first post from what i suspect will feel like a marathon-long week by the time it's over..and i will be SO ready to have a couple days off!

was supposed to be off monday - we hired a freelancer to shoot the sport event, but when i got in the office friday evening, i saw 2 news assignments for monday in the basket - one the reporter could definitely do, but the other, which was locals taking part in a state-wide rally to support michigan schools and most likely dominant page one, i felt like we couldn't have them shoot - and it was the same time as the freelancer's game, and all the editors are gone and not returning email, so i really felt like i had no choice but to shoot it - only a few hours, but still, knowing i was looking at a long week as the sole fotog, any pre-rest/personal stuff i could get done was pretty precious...but, whatcha gonna do...

so, inbetween getting the laundry done and cleaning, and gardening, i went out to shoot the rally...

tuesday morning went in to figure out where my early assignment was - it just said St. Joseph's - but there are 4 St. Joseph's scattered throughout the county, and like i said, i wasn't getting any response on email or skype as to which one i'd be heading toward, so i went in early to figure that out - soon as i got in, had to download, edit and put in the system the monday assignment that the reporter shot, then i dashed down to the school to shoot kids shooting off their hand-made rockets...this was kind of cool - just liked the reactions of the kids watching mostly

the actual shooting off was tough to shoot in a cool way

and there were some side things that i liked just as extras (probably like these the best)

especially the one of this girl...she just seemed like one of those kids that's definitely her own personality....pretty quirky, bit of a loner, maybe gonna be pegged as sort of a geeky kid, but the sort that is gonna be either super smart and/or really uniquely cool when she gets older...went to get her i.d. and age, and she totally fulfilled my initial impression when she kept telling me she was not just 11, but 11 and three quarters....seriously kid, i'm thinking, you're gonna get SO made fun of if you keep that up! but this is probably my favorite foto from that event....not sure it totally works, the fence is distracting a bit, maybe i just want it to work, because i like the mood of it, or of what i saw and reacted to, even if i didn't quite technically capture that in the most effective way

after that, stopped back in to the paper to check in, get this edited and turned in, so i didn't have all my assignments to do later - had an after school assignment, and an evening track meet (yes, one of the 2 remaining!) to shoot later...

so, get that done, help download something one of the editors shot, get a gallery made of it for the web, then home to take a break before the later stuff...was home maybe a couple hours, when i got a call about a head-on wreck...high-tailed it out to that - an suv rear-ended a garbage truck that was stopped on the road - he never even slowed down apparently, so i suspect there may have been some other medical issue going on, bu they're still investigating all that...

anyway, i roll up, the whole top and sides of the car have been cut off to extricate the driver - the sole occupant of the vehicle - and i see the rescue firemen and emt's surrounding him on a stretcher next to the car....the first sheriff tells me to make sure i don't show the victim in any fotos, so i work my way around the other side where the other sheriff yells at me and says this isn't the time to be taking pictures - "it's not very tactful" - so, i just shoot the totally messed up car, and then they wheel him over to the ambulance, and i just kind of wait to see if they're going to Life Flight him out on the waiting helicopter, so i can get that image...

and i'm watching, and i see that they're doing chest compressions, and then they must have used paddles, because suddenly i see his body leap up from the gurney and he practically flies off the side (he is a pretty large guy, too, at least 300 if not 400 pounds), so everyone hustles to strap him down, then just constant cpr, and i'm standing there on the road, and i see his arm, and it is hanging just totally limp like a rag doll off the side, and it is covered in small round bruises, and i don't know why, and then they stop the compressions, and they're listening to his belly and wrists with stethoscopes, and then they start to unhook the monitor, and i think, jesus, i'm standing here watching someone die in the road right in front of me, and i'm pretty sure he's just died, but then they take him to the helicopter - okay, he's just stable i guess - but the emt's on the way back are talking, and all i catch is "he ain't gonna make it" and then they go and get water and start to clean up...and i'm around back of the car waiting to shoot it as the helicopter takes off in the background, and i notice his license plate and the letters are BYE...

and i just want to ask one of the firemen or emt's or cops if they noticed it too and is it kind of creeping them out like it is me....but i don't, and the helicopter takes off

and i make my fotos, stick around for a bit more and then head back into town for my assignment

which is a group of kids planting flowers at a neighborhood little park - just speaks so completely to how crazy this job is...i mean, going literally from life and death to something so fluffy, featurey...and i normally deal with the accident stuff pretty well, but there have been ones that have really upset me, and this was one of them - i just normally don't see the victim and don't see someone's life essentially end right in front of me...and just thinking that it's all happening amid strangers and imagining what his friends and family will be feeling later...he did pass away, by the way, as i learned the next morning...i would be surprised if it didn't happen mid-flight to the hospital

after the gardening kids, it was off to the track meet...maybe these things are really good distractions, or delays, for dealing with some of the tragedy you see - all i had to focus on was getting action and something different from what i've shot before...it was a good distraction

after all that, back in to edit and submit and then home...i stopped by the store first, and i pulled up into the drive at home...the days' events were running through my head....i turned off the car and just burst into tears...just a combination of the long day, stress, and what i'd seen...i guess i'd be worried if i DIDN'T have a little break-down at the end of all that