Favorite Photos So Far...

Galleries of all of the favorite photographs by the Photographers/ Interns at the Valley News have been posted this week to the website. I'll include mine here, but I'd encourage you to look at everyone else's work too- there's some good stuff from both staff and interns!

Dartmouth vs Hartford Womens Basketball

The North Country Community Theatre rehearses for an upcoming show in the Library of Hartford High School.

My sister and I photographed each other in the back field behind our house in Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving Night.

Visitors

My mom and my Aunt Becky came to visit my little house in Tunbridge- we took a walk to the top of the property.

Two Standalones from this Afternoon

Elder Mike Charchenko winds a string of clear twinkle lights onto one of the trees lining the driveway of the Joeseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in South Royalton while his wife, Sister Jane Charchenko, operates the lift. The Charchenkos, who are LDS missionaries from Arizona, said the decorating, which has taken about a month, ending tomorrow evening, is in preparation for their Living Nativity display this weekend.




Susan Spain of Tunbridge hugs her horse "Raz" in the middle of a ride on the afternoon of November 21st. Spain and Raz compete in endurance races together though a bout with Colon Cancer kept her out of the saddle for a while. Now that she is in remission, Spain says she hopes to ride in her next endurance race in April.

Earlier last week I photographed Richard and Donald DuBreul of R and D paving for my "All Through The Night" Column, which focuses on people who work strange night time hours at interesting jobs. R and D paving workers woke up around 2:30 am to get to work at 4 to pave sections of NH Route 12a in West Lebanon.

Sally Page and her dog Ella

Election Time

Was last week.

Bassettes, Year II of Hunting

I went hunting again with the Bassette family this year, this time with Elizabeth, who was able to shoot a pretty good sized buck. It was her first deer in 4 or 5 years.

This picture was taken after dragging the deer three miles through the woods.

Enfield La Salette Lights

For my October photo page, I followed Brother Claude and Rick Smith, who are responsible for the massive Christmas Lights Display at the La Salette Shrine in Enfield, NH. For a solid month, the pair tests lights, hang decorations, and wire up the whole display.

Roller Derby, Part I

Working on a photo page on the Upper Valley Vixens, an up and coming Roller Derby team in Enfield, NH.

They had their first scrimmage on Saturday.

First Day

First day of basketball practice at Stevens High School in Claremont, NH.

Cross Country, part II

Vermont State Cross Country Championships

... more to come

Snowy Soccer

A couple photos with windows

The Night Shift

I'm working on a new photo column for the paper, which originally was going to be an E-Front, or a picture page featuring people who work late at night/ early in the morning. I had my first shoot this morning, in Claremont.

While I normally don't mind getting up early in the morning, this was a little new for me, as I had to wake up at 3 and leave my house at 3:30 to get to Claremont by 4:30. Todd, who gets to work at 4 or 5 every morning to make doughnuts, is no stranger to early mornings, but we both were rather quiet as he methodically cut and fried doughnuts. It was peaceful, to be some of the only people awake in the town at that point.

I'll share some more photographs from this column as soon as I can.

Hartford Rest Area Construction

Cardigan Mountain 8th graders shovel mulch at Williams Field in Canaan, NH during a community service day.

a few of the Bassettes in black and white

I have the privilege of being able to continue to photograph Beast, Buddy, Icky, Lizzie, and Kitty or otherwise known as the Bassette children, and will get to photograph them again during hunting season this year. I'm no longer photographing this project for the newspaper, but for the simple purpose to see where the story will lead. I honestly have no plans for the story as of yet, but am excited to see what I will end up doing with it.

For now, it is really become a forum for me to try new things in my photography. In a way, the project has become a collaboration between the subjects and photographer. Not only do I show them the work in progress often, but I also am able to hear their viewpoint about what it was first like to have me come in and photograph their life, what they thought how how they were made comfortable with my presence.

I think the subject of how involved ones subjects become in ones work is not discussed nearly as much as it should, as usually the question is how much one should become involved in their subject's lives. If I am working on a long-term story, I will sometimes show an edit of my work to my subjects. Now, this can get tricky, but what I will do is explain to them that the edit they give will not be my final edit, but their edit is rather helping me understand their story more. They will often point out important things in photos that I would have not chosen in the first place. In this way, I am taking myself out of the story more, and letting my subjects really tell the story.

I know some of you who read this may think otherwise, or agree, and I'd like to hear what you have to think about this idea.

Even though I didn't get to go and photograph Occupy Wall Street, I did get to photograph a small part of the movement in my own town. "Occupy Tunbridge" brought out about 50 people, mostly citizens of Tunbridge, a little town in Central Vermont. While there were some signs and chants, the majority of the event was a public forum, where people stood on the steps of the town hall and spoke their mind about local and national current events.

A Few Protest Photos from the Bloomberg/ The Washington Post Presidential Debate at Dartmouth College

Here's a rarity- a vertical image!

Into the Woods

Mount Lebanon Elementary second graders take to the "Forest of Life"to identify bugs and other woodland creatures.

Fitting that my 350th post would be of a 250th anniversary celebration of Norwich. I took this a couple of weeks ago, back when I was still freelancing, and just found it on my computer again.

I've been trying to improve my portrait lighting skills, and while this portrait may not be incredible, it is certainly something new for me. Thanks to my friend Michael Conti, I was able to steal a basic lighting video from him in trade for a block of VT cheddar cheese. Though the skills in the video are things I have learned before, it was great to get a visual refresher.

Americana

Shot this in Claremont this evening.

Hartford vs Springfield Boys Soccer

Its been about 10 months since I photographed my last soccer game- I really missed it!

Norwich, VT kids are hardy- though the Bike/Walk to school day was cancelled there because of bad weather, many kids and their parents still biked to school in the pouring rain.

For my first photo story for the Valley News this time around, I though I'd photograph a subject I know well- horses. I though the idea of following a farrier around for a day would be fun, so I photographed Audrey Tacy, who shoes horses in the Plainfield, NH area. It was a good time, and I was happy with the results.

Found this today while looking for standalones, a class of 3rd/4th graders looking for bugs in front of their school. These are my favorite kind of things to find, lots of movement, constantly changing elements, and people who are too interested in what they are doing to pay attention to me.

A New Start

Started working at the Valley News! I'll be updating more frequently as I'll be shooting daily. Here's one from last Friday:


Principal Jurg Jenzer of Windsor's State Street Elementary School stands on the roof of the main entrance of the school dressed as a Tellytubby. This was the result of a challenge issued by Jenzer for his students to collectively read more than 8,000 pages over the summer, which the students beat by reading 56,236 pages. "If we give the students an assignment to read, they'll find any way to get out of it, but if we give them a challenge, they'll show us that they can do it," said Principal Jenzer. The students were allowed to vote for which costume the principal would wear for the morning, which also introduced voting to the students.

Another Post From Alaska

Still continuing to sort through my archive of images from this summer.

Yellowstone

There and Back Again

a couple photos from our trip to and from Alaska