A little bit of Wednesday

I was a little smarter today, and took and entourage downtown with me unlike yesterday. Allie, Brad and I packed up our cameras and went picture hunting in the freezing cold. Sadly there weren’t many people out due to bad weather, but some guys at a construction site let us inside the fence at risk of getting in trouble, which is pretty rare.

 

 

We shortly fled the scene when the supervisor showed back up unexpectedly. But we were extended an invitation to rejoin on another day provided that we wear hardhats.

 

 

Later in the day, I went with the Man-O-War church of God to take pictures of them caroling at a nursing home next door to their church. Here are a few images from that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who needs to Study?

As usual, instead of studying for my upcoming final, I went to take pictures. For some reason I can sit forever to wait for a photo, but my tolerance level for sitting still to study is in the negatives. Today was the first pretty day we’ve had in a long time, so I figured there’d be a lot of people out downtown enjoying the good weather.

 

 

 

For whatever reason, this business man was meandering around the courthouse plaza text-messaging.

 

 

Meet Nad,  aka Russia, a homeless man I met today in Phoenix Park. He says his friends call him Russia because he came to America from Russia for freedom.

 

Part of me wishes I had hung out in Phoenix Park a little longer than I did, but when they started joking about cutting my camera off my neck and selling it for crack (apparently It’d buy them about 500 dollars worth…) I decided that was my cue to gracefully exit while I was ahead.

A Crash Course in Agriculture

Last night I lay in bed looking at Elliott’s chicken photos, totally sickened; with myself. I got really sick this weekend and didn’t go to Alabama like I had promised myself I would. Instead I slept off a nasty virus and from my bed watched other people do the one thing I wanted to be doing more than anything else. So today, I woke up with nothing but pictures on the brain.

Elliott and I drove around for a good while until he slammed on the brakes next to a goat farm.

On our way back into town, I noticed traffic had come to a dead halt at the corner of Tates Creek and Man- O- War.

Sometimes I feel like we as photojournalists forget to be human. Sometimes I think we think more about what we’re taking instead of what we’re giving. When nothing but a camera body separates me from raw human pain and agony (and screaming cops), I feel an odd mix of things. Adrenaline, sympathy, and often complete disattachment from whats going on around me.

Here the husband of the victim in the car peeps over the car at the other car involved in the accident.

Until the victim was put on a stretcher, he didn’t leave her side, or let go of her hand.

As we pulled away from the scene into the pile of people who’ve forgotten how to drive since its raining, Elliott said, “On to the cattle!” What a weird life we lead, being pulled from one thing to the next, like my overgrown dog Mo when I take him for a walk; only instead of apologizing for the bath of dog saliva, I explain why I’m taking pictures of the people I meet.

Two men let cattle out of the back of their trailer into the stockyard.

 

 

 

 

“Doc” the cow vet leaves his office to come and give some cattle vaccinations.

 

After a while in the stockyards I left. Went home and cleaned off the mud and rain and God knows what else.

But these people, they do this every day; tag cows and check the cows sperm. The people in the crash were tucked in their hospital beds, perhaps holding hands with family as I went out to eat with my own.

Its kind of bizzare, how we are fleetingly touched by random people, everyday. I doubt they will ever again think of me, but I have a little piece of them, a moment they had, a little representation of who they are and what they’ve been through.

 

I firmly believe that the world can be changed through photographs. But I rarely reflect on how every photograph I take changes me.

 

 

working harder.

http://jatnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/hearst-photojournalism-competition-top.html

After round one of Hearst, Elliott and I have found ourselves in the top twenty participants; and UK is ranked 8th out of 47 schools.

Cool; but not cool enough.   With Elliott in 16th and myself in 18th we were a mere 4 and 6 spots away from portfolio reviews. So close.

I’ve worked hard, sure. I’ll admit that much.  But not hard enough.

People tell me I’m to hard on myself; but in all honesty, Im not hard enough.

Two more chances. Why am I still typing? I need to go take pictures.

Get Glad.

I am a morning person. When my alarm sounds in all of its obnoxious glory, I bounce out of bed. I like mornings because they’re full of possibility. You don’t know what the day will bring, and I manipulate hours in my mind, figuring out when I can sneak away to take pictures or do whatever.

When I bounced out of bed yesterday morning, sitting on the floor of Lee Todd’s office was the last thing I thought I’d be doing.

A group of protesters decided to take action yesterday after being refused a meeting with President Todd regarding logging in Robinson Forest. I took your typical protest pictures, but the ones I liked were the photos i took of the secretary. She was so mad that 15 people were sitting in her floor for hours; she tried to be diplomatic and not show her anger but she quickly grew weary with that.

 

She tried to whisper to some official on the phone about what was going on, but keeping something private in a 10 by 15 foot office is slightly challenging.

On a totally different note, I’ve decided that I can never again turn off my police radio scanner. As karma would have it, the moment I do, a large fire lights up the sky two blocks from where I reside.

But what can you do? Live and learn.