What I've been up to until now
Purveyor of designer jeans
From a business assignment I shot today. This guy was really cool to work with and I love a success story.
Holi Festival of Colors
10,000 gathered to help celebrate the Holi Festival of Colors at Oyster Creek Park in Sugar Land, TX.
Hoops
I covered the Texas State Basketball championships in Austin. Here are a few highlights:
Random array
From politics to food, the last couple of weeks have been busy. Here are a few of my favorites.
Lech Walesa, right, is a patient at Methodist Hospital, where he's being evaluated for a possible heart transplant. Witold J. Lukaszewski, PhD, center, a political science professor at Sam Houston State University, translates for Walesa.
Speaking of walks down memory lane...
Talk about getting out of one's comfort zone, I had to shoot some food last Thursday. I had some time though and tried to make some nice pictures of a couple of dishes from cajun-type cookbook.
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Whew!
Wow, okay so after working eight straight days and with a car trunk full of dirty laundry, I thought I'd stop at my local coffee house and do some blogging before I start on my laundering escapades. The point for the time being will be to publish things that for whatever reason never got to hit the page, either web or print because of space considerations or what have you. Or pictures that played teeny-tiny on the page, or pictures with wild color that for some reason ran two-column inside black and white.
I'm not going to post every single bit of minutiae. Most of the pictures I make are fairly banal. They're important to the reader or the person in the picture, but most of the time they don't make the cut for me in terms of style and content. Not to say everything you see on here will be blazing awesome, but just some work I want to share with parents and friends who can't otherwise see my work.
That's it for now. Stay tuned...
Catching up
Hola, Long time, no post. A few things have happened since I've last made an appearance. I've made my new digs in Houston, where I'm a contract photographer for the Houston Chronicle. So far its been a blast. Before I get to the pictures from a few assignments I've had so far, I ended up editing a short vignette of a single mother of three, Kizzy Rowe. Rowe is also blind.
I ended up having to leave Dallas before I could finish the story. I met Kizzie through the Lighthouse for the Blind. Most of the people in the classes at the center have been blind for a short while and are learning to cope with a different and difficult situation.
A visit to the clinic
Kizzy's youngest stayed home with a fever yesterday so we visited a south Dallas clinic this afternoon.
Wednesday errands
Did some errands with Kizzy today. More to come.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving tonight at Kizzy's. Pretty mellow. Great food. Kizzy's caretaker and friend of 15 years ("We used to party together. - Kizzy) helped her sort some bills in the early evening. We mostly chilled and watched the Cowboys game. Interesting talent show by the kids at the end of the evening, with the middle child crying as Kizzy sang a gospel song. I can't decide between the two I've posted. If you have an opinion about either one, let me know. Most everything else were point pictures and not very interesting to look at. I plan to go with her on some appointments next week. Happy Thanksgiving.
Seeing the Blind
The above title is tentative, but I needed something to put there, no? So I'm working on a story about a woman named Kizzy. She is 28, a single mother of three, and blind. I'm shadowing her for as long as I'm able. Here are some shots from what I feel is my first real shooting day. We went to a bible study at her cousin's house and later hung out at her house. More to come...
Fall internship update
Sorry I've been away for so long. Its been a somewhat hectic last two months. Nonetheless, here are some fresh pictures.
Sick as a dog
I decided to investigate a veterinarian for the pets of homeless and low-income owners. I had been wanting to do this all summer. I finally went on my second-to-last day at my internship. I can't decide which of these two I'd like to try and get published in Northwest Magazine in a portrait section they have.
Starr fell ill two days ago. It was lucky for Starr as the clinic is only open the second and fourth Saturday of the month between 3 pm and 5 pm. Otherwise, the Talley's would not have been able to treat Starr because of the cost.
Starr helps Miriama with her anxiety, depression and agoraphobia (fear of going outside). "She helps me to feel safe and secure because I know if anyone tried to hurt me, she would be right there for me," she said.
Without the services of the clinic, Miriama said, "Starr would have died and who knows where that would have left me. I might have been dead, too," she said. "I thank God for these people."
Steven Talley kisses his wife
Saving Second Base
On my last day at my internship, one of my assignments was to cover the participants at the finish line of a 60-mile trek to raise money for breast cancer research.
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Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is a major celebration of music, art and film in Seattle that is held every Labor Day weekend. The following are a few of my favorites.
Carnivore Specialist Rocky Spencer
Two weeks ago, I was hiking through the dense underbrush of Snoqualmie Tree Farm in East King County with Rocky Spencer, who worked as a carnivore specialist for Washington Fish and Wildlife. Rocky struck me as someone who relished every moment of his job. Last Saturday while watching the evening news, I discovered to my shock and disbelief that Rocky had been killed by accidentally walking into the blades of a helicopter.
While I mourn his loss and the loss for his family, I do see how, personally, it is life-affirming. Rocky died doing what he loved. I can't think of any other way to live my life.
From an editor's note from the beginning of the story:
Rocky Spencer had one of the most unusual job titles in all of state government: carnivore specialist. Spencer and his main co-worker, a dog named Mishka, searched the forests of East King County for evidence of cougars that roam in and around the suburbs there. He and Brian Kertson, a University of Washington doctoral student, had been conducting the most in-depth study ever on the cougars that live alongside the state’s largest concentration of humans.
Spencer, 55, was killed Saturday while working on a project to relocate bighorn sheep from the Yakima River canyon.
He accidentally walked into the rotating blades of a helicopter that was sitting on a slope.
He had worked around helicopters for years – “ thousand times,” Kertson said Sunday. “And the pilot he was flying with, they’ve been doing that together for years. They’re well-known as the best at doing that.”
At the time of his death, The Seattle Times was finishing a story about Spencer and his cougar study. His family felt the story should be published as a fitting tribute to a man who was dedicated to educating people about animals. Rocky Spencer grew up in Longview, where he graduated from R.A. Long High School. He earned a degree in wildlife management at Western Washington University and in 1978 began working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"Rocky told me several times that he had the best job in the world," said his brother, Scott Spencer, of Castle Rock, Cowlitz County. "It wasn't a job. It was a lifestyle that became a career."
Mr. Spencer also is survived by his stepmother, Adrienne Spencer, and two stepbrothers, Duke and Jeff Spencer.
Evergreen State Fair
I spent some time at a fair yesterday. I had two purposes while there. The first was to make pictures for a story slated to run soon about the legalization of owning pygmy goats in the city limits of Seattle. At the fair was a barn full of pygmy goats and the people who love them. The second assignment there was to make an LO (lines only) photo, also known as wild art. I made deadline, around five o'clock, and then went back after work for better light.
Triathlon
I photographed the Danskin triathlon yesterday. It rained the whole time, but the ladies persevered. The contestants were almost all amateur, most of whom had never been in a triathlon. For them, it was about proving something to themselves.
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Busted
