cutie

awww!! what a cutie....just goes to show you can even make a picture you like at the pet-o-the-month assignment!

don't know if this works or not, but something about this scene just struck me as funny when i saw it...good thing i decided to go get coffee on my way back into the paper!

fun find

after spending the morning as desk jockey, i found by lunchtime i could stand sitting no longer! i decided to go cruise around and see if i could find a feature for our new weekly community foto page...headed toward my favorite part of town and thought i'd see if anyone was out by the community center - as i turn the corner i see this SWAT team armored vehicle and a city police car parked out front - i figured the place wasn't under attack, obviously, but thought it was worth checking out... a city policeman and sheriff's detective were giving a talk to kids about their work, so, even though that didn't sound terribly visual, i went down anyway to see what they were doing....after their talk, the officers took the kids outside to check out the cars - i was really hoping the sheriff would let them in the back of the SWAT truck, because i knew they'd peer out of the side hole and it could be really cool....but alas, they could only get in the front seat...oh well, it was still fun
such was my day, and now it is done!

soon after i got into the room, this girl was getting i guess a bit distracted and started playing with her ruler and pencils while the officers talked

just liked this moment and the light and color

this little girl was hysterical - she was having so much fun checking out the vehicles and laying down the law to john q. public at large!

while they were checking out the cruiser, one of the kids decided to retune the radio, dancing in the passenger seat as a hip-hop song blared out from the car...needless to say, the officer didn't let that go on too long - it was pretty funny, though!

the personal is political

what i thought was going to be a tour of a new wildlife refuge - brought to you by the eco-minded at one of our several local power plants - turned out to be essentially a glorified press conference, complete with politicians from all levels, including area US Congress Reps....after everyone got their turn at the podium, some of the power reps regaling us with tales of spying osprey roosting upon piles of coal ash and a deer turning up in the factory (maybe he was looking for work - this IS Michigan, after all!!), the event wrapped up, local citizens and politicians taking the opportunity to meet and greet the DC pols....just a frame i liked from the event, and one which, i'm proud to say, is what we are running with the story in today's paper. whatcha think? works? yes? no?

spring break

seemed nothing was panning out, in terms of rounding up a second assignment yesterday, so it was a drive around and hope to find something out there kind of evening....after about an hour of that, i thankfully stumbled upon some kids playing hoops behind a church...they were trying all kinds of crazy new ways of making baskets, like springboarding off the wall up to the net, or trying to put up a shot bouncing the ball off their knees - not your traditional pick-up game - not to mention the fact that they were playing with soccer balls! it's spring break this week, so i figured SOMEbody would have to be out doing SOMEthing! especially since we got a break from the grey skies and snow/rain...it's a short-lived break, though, with more of all THAT in the forecast for today...so much for a spring break - it's more like spring broke!

Myrtle

this is Onlee, whom everyone calls by her middle name - Myrtle...what a great lady! i was amazed to hear she was almost 100 - the way she was motoring down the hallway of her nursing home, grabbing a total of 20 plastic eggs during the home's Easter egg hunt today...she was so hysterical - everytime she found another egg, she'd keep saying "Oh, beautiful, beautiful eggs, thank you, honey, thank you...the Easter bunny is so good to me!" having collected the third highest amount of eggs, she won a basket filled with candy and Easter goodies....waving to the room, she shouted again, "oh, thank you, thank you EVERYbody!" this was one of the most fun assignments ive been out on in a while! i may have to go back and visit with this woman some day...

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?