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!