All work and no play...

...makes me feel like this cat! Not a lot of activity...well let me correct that, there has been too much activity lately, just not the type of activity that I like. I have been working "night desk" twice a week for the last two weeks now. This means instead of shooting, I work from 4:00 p.m. to midnight getting photos ready for the next day's paper. In other words I am the photo end of the copy desk, and it is the pits. Hence, combine this schedule with Christmas shopping and I have not been doing much photography. These are just a few photos that I managed to squeek out over the last few days.

Saturday Dec. 8th - Griswold - Christmas tree shopping.

Thursay Dec. 13th - Groton - Clean up from Thursday's snow/ice storm. Just great, I get to shoot and have to set out in the cold and snow. I love this business.

Pearl Harbor + 66 years

Friday Dec. 7, 2007

Norwich - This is a shot that I liked from a Pearl Harbor Day ceremony at the Norwich Vet Center this afternoon. There is nothing great about this photo, and due to the location and lighting it is fairly traditional. This gentleman was an anti-aircraft gunner in the European theater late in the war. He was almost re-assigned into the infantry, but was not needed. He is very glad for this. He told me "It is probably why I am still here. The unit I would have gone into got the Hell kicked out of it". I always enjoy and respect working with veterans.

Going silent

Saturday Nov. 24, 2007

Mystic - Not unlike the people in this photo, it maybe a week before I update again. I will be off for a couple of days which is a good thing due to a large shake up at work. I need some time to reflect and hopefully not refract (though there already has been plenty of that) Anyhow, I have some time off, and if so inspired, will post during the week. If not, see you in December.

Thanksgiving leftovers...

Thursday Nov. 22, 2007 - Thanksgiving football

Just some football (I know...again) from the two games I shot yesterday.

Thanksgiving football in shirt sleeves. Last year I had five layers on plus a full rain suit due to temps in the 40s and a monsoon of a rain storm. Two years ago it was in the 20s with a fresh snow on the ground. This year I would have been comfortable in a t-shirt. 65 degrees and sunny. Welcome to New England...mind you I aint complaining!

Saturday Nov. 17, 2007

East Hartford - A little college football action can be good for the soul, especially when the team that you are covering is in control of the game. UConn whooped Syracuse 30-7. The top shot was their first touchdown of the game. Below are some assorted action photos. It is nice when everything works.

And just think, they held this position for five minutes!

Busy week

This past week

New London - Tuesday Nov. 13th - A homeless gentleman smokes a cigarette at sunset on Waterfront Park. This was a desperation feature that turned even more desperate when the gentleman would not give me his name. It had been such a poor day all around that we ended up running a different version of this photo. You can't help but love back lighting some days.

Norwich - Friday Nov. 16th - I was sent to cover an anti-Iraq war protest. I arrived to find 8 protestors. March on Washington this aint, but I still liked the shot.

Noank - Wednesday Nov. 14th - Feature with dramatic clouds. Unlike the top photo, these guys gave me their names.

East Lyme - Friday Nov. 16th - Speaking of dramatic clouds, this is the sky that greeted me after photographing a flu shot clinic tonight. I did not submit this shot, but it did bring a smile to my face. After several B+W photos, I guess I wanted some color.

November catch up...

First week of November

Here are some shots from the last few days that I wanted to post. Above - The Waterford girls soccer team ends their season by going down in the quarter-final match against Berlin. As much as I look for the crying players at a moment like this one, the player in the middle with the 1000 yard stare really got my attention. She is only a sophomore however, and has two more years to go to the states.

East Lyme - Election night - This is the East Lyme first selectman elect getting the news that we won be several thousand votes. His daughter had been hovering while he was getting the numbers over the phone. We ran a different and more news-worthy shot but I liked this one. Just a cute moment.

East Lyme - This was from the follow up story of a really horrible accident that had occurred the day before. Thousands of gallons of fuel oil had been spilled and we were checking on possible contamination to neighboring wells. The mom in this photo did not want to be photographed but did not mind me photographing her daughter...which is good because, I was not interested in photographing the mom anyway. (Link to accident photos...click here)

Westerly, RI - And finally after being brushed by the remnants of hurricane Noel, I was out to get storm photos. Now, after growing up on the north shore of Massachusetts, I know what BIG storm waves look like...and I have not seen one since moving to Southeastern Conn. Mainly this is due to Long Island Sound, so on occasioin I drive over to the RI shore to at least see what is rolling in off of the Atlantic.

Latest video

Tuesday Nov. 6, 2007

New London - Here is my latest work in video. The Roadside Grill is late night food vendor in New London. New London is trying to change city laws to get rid of vendors like this. I could have filmed all night, but when your final product will be under two minutes long, several hours worth of video is a little over-kill. For the whole story click HERE

Go Team!!

Thursday Nov. 1, 2007

Norwich - A little volleyball action tonight. Good photos that were hard fought. Bringing lights is a necessary evil sometimes. Tonight all they wanted to do is argue with me. It must be fun for the other photographers present to watch me change and tweek the lighting every two minutes. One was brighter than the other even though they were on the same setting. More fun was never had by a single person. Despite my occasional frustration with The Day's old light kit, it is ALWAYS worth going through. There is no comparison to studio stobes verses overhead lighting. Stobes are always better.

I took other celebration photos but I liked No.15 in this shot. In a way this photo is all about her reaction. It looks as if she might fly away.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Tuesday Oct. 30th 2007

New London - I guess I took too long getting the lights adjusted. Well until we get a front yard to impale bodies on, Em and I have kept up our annual tradition of making Jack-o-lanterns. We went back to tradtional styles this year. This has always been one of my favorite parts of Halloween.

Mine is on the left, and Em's is on the right.

2006

2005

2004

2002...I am unsure about what happened to 2003...maybe its on film

What time is it??

Yesterday and Today

Friday Oct. 26 - Norwich - It is hard to think about Christmas before Halloween, but they light the Norwich City Hall with so many lights that I believe that you can see it from the Moon. They were hanging light strings on the clock tower Friday.

Saturday Oct. 27 - Salem - Salem's Apple Fest. This was my final assignment today after driving to East Hartford for a half hour of cross country (which some days feels like driving cross country), then onto Groton less than an hour later for a ceremony that thankfully was not over. Then finally onto Salem (another 3/4 of a hour away) for the Apple Fest. Most of the goodies were already sold out and they were getting ready to shut down. So I pulled out the pictorial. This is not all that exciting a photo, but I still like it.

Ledyard - Back to Friday for this one. Ledyard High School had their game ball delivered by Army helicopter during a prep rally. I have always liked air shows so it was fun.

Survivor Portrait

Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007

Niantic - These are photos from my assignment this morning. The story was about 2-year-old Zander Petry. Zander is undergoing treatment for cancer. He recently had one of his kidneys removed. He was having a good day today, and was your average rambunctious two year old. He became curious with my camera. I let him look through it and play with the buttons. Pretty soon it was around his neck and not mine. I also forgot to take it off of the high-speed shutter drive setting. Zander took well over 200 frames before I got my camera back. I would have posted one but they were all of the outer wall of his house. His parents and doctors are hopeful that he will recover, though he has a long road of hospital visits ahead.