one woman's loss

this is Wendy, whose portrait i made today after listening to the story of losing her son...they found him dead in the bathroom this past december, a bag around his head and a can of computer dust-off cleaner at his side....i cannot even imagine how horrific that must have been...and portraits like these are never easy to make...i know this one has some problems, but there is something about it that just keeps growing on me the longer i look at it...i hope she likes it and feels it does her story justice...she said she's trying to reach out to area schools, hoping to alert more children to the dangers of inhalant abuse....she said she's tried to get several papers to listen to her story to no avail, which blows me away, because this is exactly (in my opinion) what newspapers are SUPPOSED to do - inform their community about the issues which are there....so, hopefully we've helped do just that today, and like she said of going through the emotional pain of speaking out about her son, if you educate just one person enough to save their life, it's worth it...this is when i love this job

& now for something completely different....

these are my goofy girlie slippers....for some untold reason i have named them - der Flip und der Flop...i washed them the other night, a ring of pink now remaining in my tub...over a day later, they were still very wet, so i set them next to my toasty heater....looking at them, it just struck me that it looks as if they're waiting for something to happen, or for some grand insight to be revealed....is my radiator some kind of unknown guru? i don't know, but it sure puts out a whole lotta steamy heat, and that's all i really care about

how it looks & how it feels

i opened the door to peer outside last night, and this is what i saw - the snow-turned sleet-turned snow was driving hard, and blasts of wind made it seem to move 10 times faster! bracing myself in the doorway to handhold for a third of a second to try and show the motion and magnitude was a bit tricky, but guess that's why god invented the motor drive...

okay, so now i get really dorky with the camera - or maybe the cold just affected my brain! in a way, this is what the world looked like at times, as the driving snow whipped around in the periodic strong gusts of wind....gotta love michigan, eh?

grafix & near misses

just about missed this one - i saw these girls while shooting a play this afternoon, and my exposure was way off!! but, i was able to save it, at least well enough, which makes me very happy, cos' the moment was gone in about 5 seconds! whew!

so, here's one i found after peeking around a corner during an assignment photographing rehabilitation at the UT Med Center yesterday.

Keep Fighting

my last 2 assignments seem to carry the theme of never giving up. last night's hoops - a close game for the district semis between 2 huge rivals....this girl plays so hard, she's literally one of those kids who will just give it everything they've got and then some...she took some incredibly hard falls - the kind that make you say ouch out loud just watching it...by the end of the game (which her team won), she was visibly so hurting that she couldn't even celebrate the victory with her teammates.
today, i made a portrait of a local woman battling cancer at her room in a county run home for the homeless...this is her 4th or 5th battle with the disease, this time bone cancer, having already survived breast cancer, cervical cancer, and others.
in their own ways, these people have something in them that just continues battling, which is a good lesson...they're my inspiration for the week.

sheila

heather

there are watchers & then there are doers...

Wii has a senior moment, or is it the other way around?
senior center volunteer John reacts after Pat turns up with a strike on her first roll down the virtual lanes while hosting a Wii demonstration yesterday afternoon...the seniors were a little hesitant to try it at first - most of them declined his offer to play; good ol' pincohle was more the order of the day - but hearing the laughter emanating from the room enticed a few more to give the game a go! what i was afraid might be a cool assignment going south turned out to be a hoot, and this is my favorite frame from the event...

Wii - it's not just for kids!

and later that day....

i happened to glance over at the stands while awaiting the start of basketball last night...i saw this little boy and started cursing that i didn't have my longer lens handy, as the National Anthem was about to begin in mere seconds, and i knew the moment would be lost....darted over and got just close enough to eke a frame out anyway - whew!

Love & Loss

this local couple have been married for 16 years....they were very sweet together...it's the 3rd marriage for both of them - "the third time's the charm," Harold joked, as he and Loraine recounted their story, including many many moments of going out of their way to express their love for one another - like having a small airplane circle their trailer home several times wishing Harold a Happy Birthday!

a frame i grabbed as i was getting ready to leave the scene of a small truck rollover off the interstate last week...wish i could have worked it a little better, but i still like it...and found a good quote for it as a "still life."

left behind

got some cool pix from girls' hoops last night, despite the fact that it was an absolute rout of a game! This was just an outtake, but for some reason i kept coming back to it - i don't know, just makes me want to look, something about the mood of it that i like....one more for the still life bank!