rambling

i like to write....sometimes random little things come to me - observations, mini-stories, poems (that sounds presumptuous, which is why i rarely ever put anything out there), but i kind of like this, so here ya go - 

staring into the mirror, washed face,

my reflection casts back - a staunch, stark pillar of salt;

it wants to take me out for a spin - 

400 horse power, rough ride on the clear lake - 

this pillar of salt,

 sliding, bit by bit, into the fresh water - 

"i will make you an ocean."

a feature & a fuzzy find

this was a short week, as i have had the last couple days off to try and use up some vacation time before that gets really difficult, now that our staff has further dwindled starting this weekend - yes, our internship is now defunct, which is sad in a variety of ways....

anyway, after shooting some folks packing up backpacks with school supplies for kids in need, i went looking for a feature - ended up at the pool with the little splash park area - it's been more consistently hot recently, so i figured it was about that time, and there was NO ONE out in the neighborhood i was driving around in...anyhoo, saw these 2 brothers playing in the spraying - pretty typical splash park feature, but still liked their energy and reaction....

home for the evening, and i was sitting on the porch doing a puzzle when i spotted this furry caterpillar crawling up the wall - i haven't seen one of these in years! when i was little, we used to see the brown and black striped fuzzy ones all the time - i'd always catch one and put it in my bug catcher and feed it - they were kind of like mini pets til i let them go (or they otherwise left, if ya get my drift)....using the nifty camera on this laptop, i decided to make some pictures of it, and then i let it go - so here's our joint 15 minutes of fame put out here for the general public to enjoy

after the spot news

we seem to be doing a lot of stories these days that entail getting portraits of people after they talk to us about their recent tragedy - granted, there have been an unusually high amount of them this summer - from Nevaeh, to hit and runs, to fires galore - earlier this week we went out to talk to 2 men who are both victims of a fire - one, the guy whose apartment burned - seen here with his sister - and the other his neighbor, who is in poor health and is dealing with the after-effects of the smoke and soot damage that got into his adjacent apartment, and the insurance companies as he tries to get his clean-up costs squared away (his portrait was pretty pedestrian, so i'm not gonna post it, but i did like this one of the guy and his sister) - the real impetus for this story was the fact that the city policeman, who was first on the scene and went in and dragged this guy, unconscious, from the burning and smoke-filled apartment, is now in a case filed by MIOSHA for violating safety rules, since he's not technically equipped to go into a burning structure - i guess they wanted him to just stand there and let the guy die while they waited for the fire department to get there - pretty friggin ridiculous....anyway, that was my tuesday work

call me the funky wedding fotog

funny, but it seems that whenever there is someone having a quirky wedding, i get to shoot it - not that i'm complaining, it's just funny how things work out - this past friday, a young couple got married in their old high school theater - that's where they met when they were 15 and 16, fell in love, and so that's where they decided to tie the knot - not totally wacky, but still, a wedding with a twist...i find that i really don't mind shooting weddings, maybe doing it for the paper instead of getting paid by the family and being solely responsible for their lifetime memories lets me take some of the pressure/stress off of myself - maybe i should consider this practice for a possible future, whether i want it or not! 

before the ceremony began, the wedding party gathered in a back room and did what they used to do before performances - "lion face! lemon face!" they shouted as they stretched their facial muscles and voices to the max - it was pretty funny - they weren't at all nervous, just having fun, which seems like the best blessing you could have on your wedding day

"it's a boy! i've got a son" the groom's new mother-in-law jokingly shouts as she congratulates him after the ceremony

and then, the bubbles

fair dyptichs

so, didn't post up some of my features earlier, because they became part of this final project - and a couple, like the swing ride got paired with another fotog's - to see them all, go to monroenews.com and lok under the gallery dedicated to the theme - i think it's called "pairings"

but, here's a sample of my contribution

i think this last one is the only one i fully did that i really like....maybe i'll find some tomorrow and edit this post, because there's a pairing from Bryan and Jenny that I LOVE!

fair play

the fair - this one will probably go down in history as the most comfortable fair week ever shot - our weather has been mild, beautiful, thereby eliminating much of the "walk around til you feel like a drowned rat and are getting slightly delusional from dehydration" that normally marks the experience...for our annual fair-wrap-up foto page running the Sunday of fair week end, we chose the theme of shooting dyptichs - i had some ideas in mind at the start, but man, this was really harder than i thought it would be - i couldn't tell if i'd not thought enough, was completely overthinking/looking or what - i just really kind of struggled with this one - i decided i'd just go out and keep shooting, and maybe things that fit together would all come together in the end, and we could play off each other's pix as well - one half of a dyptich could be from me and one from Jenny or Bryan, if they got something that fit well - it came down to the wire, literally, but in the end, it all came together - some falling just the way of 2 different fotogs having the perfect matches for one another's images - that part was kind of fun - like putting together a puzzle....so, here's some fair pix - finally got my bootie out to shoot the rodeo - didn't shoot much at all of the actual riding, because i was more interested in the behind-the-scenes aspect of the event, but the light was nice, i kind of liked some of the frames i made, and i met this lady beforehand that totally blew my mind - she had just started her 6th round of chemo that very day and was taking her granddaughter to the fair that night with the chemo literally pumping into her at that very moment - "you're a pretty tough lady!" i said, after asking her, completely stunned - "you mean you're getting chemo, right now, walking around the fair????!!!" people's spirits and strength are amazing!

my first fair assignment - shoot the veterans parade around the fairgrounds before the start of a special veterans program in honor of veteran's day at the fair...was just getting kind of the usual stuff, trying not to run into anyone as i walked backwards through the fairgrounds, and although the reflection thing is a little cliche, i liked how the colors shapes came together as the group made its way through the line of food vendors

after the parade, i swung by the petting zoo for a feature to run sometime about it - these were just some of the animals i liked - the people feeding them were pretty usual stuff....this monkey looked so pensive...i wonder what is going on in his mind...below an alpaca - serious underbite!!! i love goats and alpacas and llamas! and their wool is the warmest in the world!

i stopped at the Star Family Circus show, they're so amazing, though most of the family members were different this year - one still the same was Oscar, who does this crazy walkig the spinning wheel thing, sometimes jumping rope, sometimes blindfolded, always without a net - loved the reaction of the riveted crowd

 

tuesday night was the derby - i swear, one of these days, i'm gonna do this - i know i's all pretty redneck, but there's just something about a demolition derby that appeals to me - it is kind of tough to shoot - everytime i struggle with how to make a cool picture of the action - either due to the blinding dust or just to the fact that they tend to clump up as they ram into one another, and it's hard to show the impact, etc - someday i'll get it right, but here are a few anyway

checkin out the competition before entering the arena

a demolition derby oreo

and then, the fans - funny story, i was scoping out the stands looking for a crowd shot, and this guy came up to tell me that i couldn't stand in the walkway, i had to keep moving....okay....so i moved, then i spotted a spirited family, was framing up to shoot them, and here he is again, mr. tall, looming authoritative guy - i don't want to tell you again, you can't stop here." "but i'm just making a picture for the paper, i..." "you can't stand here, you have to keep moving, if i have to tell you again, you're going to jail" well, that pretty much shut down my common sense neurons from firing - seriously, you're going to arrest me?!? i'm still laughing as i think about that exchange - made a picture anyway, though maybe not as cool a one as i could have made...andi'm sure that guy went home that night feeling REALLY cool and all-powerful! more power to him!

wednesday night, went looking for dyptich features before the rodeo - more of the reflection theme, though this one would have worked better if the corn dogs read better i think

i'm a swing watcher, i'm a swing watcher - - sing it with me now!

 like many of the boxers, MMA fighters, etc, i've met, rodeo ridin cowboys have this big ol' "doing it for christ" thing that i find a little fascinating - i guess if i was getting in an arena with someone bare-fisted out to kick my ass or a bull or bronco who REALLY didn't want me on their back, i might find jesus too!

this is my favorite frame i think....after i got this guy's name earlier (shooting him praying), he came up and asked me if i had 20 bux on me - "i don't give out my name to be used for less than 20 bux," he said.....""too late now, you already told me," i said  (we were both joking, by the way - well, i was, i hope he was - if not, ummm, oh well!)

catchin' up

it's been too long without posting - just getting behind on things...so, to catch back up, last week was the fair, and the week before that all the pre-fair hoopla and promos and stories, along with the rest of the goings-on in the world...since i have a bit of a back-log, i'll keep the commentary short and just get down to some posting.....

first is from a community garden that kids put on at the community center every summer - was hoping for a bit more of a moment at this one, but it just didn't seem to come together, but it's the kind of picture that i like putting out there in the community, because it's a really cool thing they do every year in a much-maligned part of the town

Nevaeh, yes, the demolition derby car dedicated to her memory - the guy's been running the derby for 15 or so years, and this year, he decided to do something to honor her - coincidentally, he also has a granddaughter named Nevaeh, so her story really touched home with him - his friend airbrushed her portrait on back, and the rest was dedicated to the things she loved - like motorcycles and SpongeBob

prefair, a lot of the judging is done - the cookies and candies and craft projects and public speaking, as well as an invention contest, in which 4-H'ers have to construct a finished project reflecting the theme of the fair in under an hour and made from a grab-bag of materials they have never seen - pretty tough, really, requires a lot of quick thinking and creativity - i'm not posting up anything from the event, cos the pix were just okay, but i kind of liked the feel of this girl waiting for the doors to open at the head of the line just before the event

while i was at the grounds for the invention contest, i had to keep an eye out for a pic that went with a story about how less kids were entering this year due to the costs involved/the poor economy - another case of find a picture that shows something that's not there - i think our editors are just out to test our conceptual abilities...anyhoo, i found a family setting up their stall in the lamb barn, but the story this little girl's dad had to tell was perfect - for the first time his kids weren't showing steer, because they expected they wouldn't make back their investment come auction time - pretty lucky find, eh?

while i was there, i spotted these two kids having a rest and a drink in the barns - shot it just for whatever, but it wound up finding a home in our fair-photo-theme-page at the end of the week...nothing ever goes to waste!