cheers to Amanda!!

this was our foto night out...to bid adieux to Amanda - who ROX! what a fun night -- we will miss her very much!!

mr bosch & his hip stocking cap!

along the way

you know you're in the duldrums of winter in the midwest when a color foto could easily pass for black & white....for some reason the landscape, the same one i've driven through countless times before, just kept jumping out to me today on my way back from an assignment....i finally had to stop and get my butt out of the toasty warmth of my car when i noticed this spot - such a lonely tree - it even looked cool from inside the frame of the car door as i was getting ready to pull away

this week

just a couple outtakes - still life column bound - from assignments this week...the top one i just shot this afternoon and don't know what kind of quote (beyond the obvious) would be good, but i found one kinda cool for the bottom pic...anyway, not anything stellar, but i want to keep up with the posts....also started work on a photo essay the other day, but not sure which pix i like so i'm holding off on throwing any up here just yet....all for now
hasta!

"Life is one long process of getting tired."
-- Samuel Butler

New Mom

hung out for a while this morning with a new mom and her 12-week-old daughter, who is quite cute, as you can see - trying to get a "moment/portrait" of them both for a baby tab, as well as something for the cover....also made some pix for me, like the cropped image, which i really like, but which wouldn't be appropriate for the tab context....anyway, such was my day, and now it's the weekend...woo hoo!!

will it? won't it?

the basketball season resumes following its holiday break...and although a picture like this isn't making it into the paper (what? no ball?), i really like the looks of anticipation on all their faces - one of those shots where it spins around the rim several times, leaving everyone beneath the hoop left simply staring up and awaiting the outcome...just my friday night fun

snow fun

First post of a new year - perhaps not the greatest of images, but it was so much fun hangin out with these kids - they'd named their would-be snowman "Pete" and everytime they managed to unearth another chunk of heavy, packed snow, they'd shout out "here's another chunk for Pete!!" They also said they'd need a lot of glue to put him all together, and while figuring out where he'll go, they should put all that snow in the freezer.....yeah, Mom would LOVE that one I'm sure! Anyway, kind of made me wish my brain still worked that way - thinking you can glue together snow! oh, to be a kid again!

meet Mary

This is Mary....a lady i met yesterday while photographing her church group's weekly food pantry distribution to needy families...i couldn't believe she is going on 87 years old! i got to the parish hall early to shoot them filling the grocery bags (since typically the people getting the bags don't want to be photographed), but they were all done, set out and ready to go...the volunteers, all senior citizens, were sitting around 2 large tables drinking coffee and playing penny (well, also nickel and dime) poker...they offered to deal me in, but i didn't bring in my wallet, so i said i'd just watch - i haven't played poker in so long, i would have LOVED to play with them, but i think they probably would have ended up with all my loose change! minutes before they would open the doors to the large line of people that was spilling around the side of the building, Mary says, "it's about time for the BIG game"....no more penny ante - this time you ponied up with a quarter!
so, toward the end of the distribution time, i'd kind of shot as much of the handing out of bags and found my mind/eye wondering toward making a still life picture (a feature of our paper that is a photo & quote instead of regular caption, and usually more off-beat images)...Mary was standing near the doorway, and there was just something about her against that sparse wall, framed between the old outlet and non-working light switch panel, that grabbed my attention...it was funny, because she kept trying to move out of my way (i guess she thought maybe i wanted to get a picture of, um, the outlet?), but then she kind of ignored me and just happened to glance up, and that was it...maybe not some earth-shatteringly cool picture, but i like it.....so, the quote i put with it is...

"Uncertainty and mystery are the energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity."

-- R.I. Fitzhenry