yer out!

from a little league umpire school today. how glorious to be standing on a little league field once again - i was channeling my inner 12-year-old ross today remembering back to the days of playing little league. or wait, maybe it was just sitting on the bench watching others play - either way, it was fun to be out there

100

is a long time to live.

and this man has lived that long - portrait of a local person we're featuring.

that's almost three of my lifetimes.

whew, i can barely remember last weekend much less a life that long. but maybe that has less to do with age and more to do with the vodka shots i had with my sister over the weekend.

i'm not jewish

but these people are.

and i got to learn what a seder is - here a local temple held an early sedar with people with special needs.

the unleavened bread they were serving reminded me of a time i was not doing well financially, and i passed by a church that said they were having a free moravian love feast - or something like that - i assumed there would be a lot of food and decided to attend the church, which i had wanted to attend anyway.

believe me, there have been times i had to count every dollar.

to my surprise, the love feast was a single serving of a little wafer of bread. but the people were nice and so were these folks today.

my hard drive died

therefore i haven't had good access to the old world wide internet much lately. i'm hoping to be back in action soon if i can figure how to connect to the net again from home.

here's a shot from today - an outtake from an early evening fire. i guess spring has started but nothing like standing in the snow for a couple of hours - my right big toe got real cold again. i'm not sure what's up with that.

these people are friends

and alcohol makes them even friendlier on wednesday night after rugby practice.

kiss it

shot the announcement of a mayoral candidacy today in hartford. it was, well, like any other announcement ceremony - but i thought this woman kissing her hand made it a little more, well, odd.

backstage

while the world i know is back home in chapel hill watching the heels in the acc, i was backstage at a concert in hartford. man, sometimes i really miss bubs.

so it's back to work from a couple off for the northern short course.

the highlight - seeing the state police actually wearing the uniforms from the movie me, myself and irene. good to meet folks up in this region though and always good to build a better tomorrow.

in other who hoo news, i found out over the weekend the hunting story took an honorable mention in POY science/natural history picture story - made it worth the ticks i found on my back from that project.

let me tell you, there's nothing like driving down the road and feeling a pain in your back, reaching back there and feeling the nub of a tick having lunch - on you.
eeck...

to be or not to be

here's an outtake from today's shoot of a one-woman play performance in a small town in for a small school in a small room in connecticut.

her theme - "patriots of liberty" - included a impersonation of betsy ross and amelia earhart, and some others who i had not heard about, but was impressed with. she did not, however, mention any photographers, to my shock and dismay.

here she imitates earhart's travel across the atlantic (without the plane).

you should have seen her betsy ross impression - it was tick tock - on time.

intimacy in photography

the whole reason i got attracted to photography was looking at pictures of intimate situations, and to this day, it's to what i am always most drawn

i did a photo page this past weekend on special olympics, but my favorite part was going back to the hotel with the competitors afterwards. here they horse around in one of the rooms. it's the little intimate moments of life that i love to show and, more importantly to me, to witness.

even in these uncertain times in photojournalism, i still believe in the power of intimacy in photography and hope to keep getting better at it. i know i have a long way to go, and that's part of the excitement.

cheer up

from the olympics this weekend

glamour shots

so i had to take a picture of this woman and her pet iguana for our neighbor-type section on pets.

for fun, why not make it look like a high school senior pic i thought? so i brought a backdrop and - wahla!

or is it waahlah!


i love this woman's hair - it's not too far from the 80's heyday of big hair. man, that gets me thinking of my 12th grade girlfriend - bonnie batchelor. that girl was all neon and big hair.

our dates consisted of listening to journey, going to taco bell, and me sporting my acid wash-jeans. man i can go on a tangeant. or is it tangent?

what?

it's march - i'm used to warm days, carolina blue skies and driving around with the car window down at this time of year. instead i wake up to this. i don't want to get out of bed

i mean, does that REALLY say 28 below?

btw congrats to matt eich and yoon for more poy wins...

www.yooners.com
www.matteichphoto.com

special olympics

this guy won gold

here he is in his hotel room after competition

the more i spend time with people with disabilities the more i'm learning to feel more comfortable around them - it's interesting becuase my aunt was disabled but she died before i was old enough to get to know her as an adult.

i wish i knew what i know now from my experiences so i could have been more comfortable with susan. when i was younger and felt awkward around her, and i regret that.

i really enjoyed being around these folks today.

poy 2

Here are two more POY awards from good friends of mine in Kashmir

Yasin Dar won first place in magazine spot news
Rafiq Maqbool won a award of excellence in feature

Anyone who had ever seen any work I've done in Kashmir was a direct result of their help. I've learned so much about Yasin and Rafiq, as well as that region through living with them and working alongside.

And not to mention their assistance in my own safety. There was more than once they helped protect me in tense situations.

It bothers me that so many journalists have passed through and have only taken from these guys and the others in the region to advance their own careers and their own work, and yet they haven't done a lot to help them or to recognize what they are doing.

Check their work out at:

www.daryasin.com
www.rafiqmaqbool.com

Sorry for the rant, but I'm so happy for them, and that more and more they are getting their work out there after so long. Both are brothers, and both have treated me as a brother as well.

Congrats guys.

i'm not tan

but this girl is.

and she is heading off to spring break next week along with the other Uconn kids. she's heading to cancun where she's going to, yesh you guessed it, build a better tomorrow.

at the tanning salon everyone kept coming up to me telling me i should try to get a little tan.

i stood out like a white marshmellow in a bowl of hot cocoa.

especially while i talked to the owner - he was so dark it made me a little nervous, after all, it IS winter in new england, aren't we supposed to be pale?

or maybe i'm just lamenting those lazy days of lounging in the sun on hilton head island in 1998. man oh man, even though i'm really glad to be at the courant, some days i would give a lot to get back to the days where i just floated in the salt marshes of the island and laughed a lot with friends.