Halloween

I liked today. Football and features. Now I sit in my little house with a bowl of candy that no one has come to claim, editing and toning and happy at least that the day at work was a good one.

The Boxer

Portraits

Just a whole lot of portraits lately. I wouldn't say that portraits are my favorite thing to shoot, but I'm happier shooting than sitting in the office, fiddling around, and sometimes portraits are necessary. There are some people on staff who can rock portraits with no problem, no exceptions. I'm working on the genre. The sun came out after days of gloomy rain, and I had time to talk with everyone and experiment with locations. Stories about healthcare.

Veterans

A full, rainy, cold day of following WWII veterans to DC on a bus to see their monument. It's still raining here, and I'm trying to warm up.

Retirement

There are just certain assignments that I genuinely love, and they're not necessarily the sexiest ones. They're kind of the Jasper assignments. Or, at least the ones that are all about moments. So that makes them Jasper assignments in my mind, since my education in moments started when Dave Pierini first interviewed me about that internship a year and a half ago. So a retirement ceremony in Chesapeake was wonderful. This man retired from Parks and Rec after nearly fifty years. What's next for him, I wonder?

Lemonade

Not quite there feature, and not for the paper, but fun to shoot anyway. A group of observant Jewish kids selling lemonade on the side of the road.

New, Norfolk, and now in color

So, dear reader, it's been a while since I've posted anything. After three lovely months in Dallas and then a month home in Seattle, I've moved most of my belongings (and there aren't many) to a little house on the Lafayette River in Norfolk, Virginia. I'm now a staffer at the Virginian-Pilot. This blows my mind, since the other staffers here are people I've been following for years. I've been trying to get adjusted to the new town, the new light, the new Canon gear (yikes!), shooting in color, and a new life as a former intern, now in a place that will, hopefully, be permanent. It's a fascinating and profoundly lonely experience moving to a new city. I should know this as well as anyone, since I've had plenty of moves in the past three years. I started my graduate program at the University of Missouri just three short years ago, having never shot a digital camera. Now I'm back to driving around town, looking for features and trying to find a foothold for something longer, something that speaks to a place I have yet to become familiar with. I have to remind myself that it's only been a week and a half. Without a story, though, you feel unmoored.