It's a new year

Here's almost all the last of my photos from The Vindicator. I say almost all b/c I can't find my last few days of assignments on my hard drive and I'm also missing my 4GB card that had all my funeral stuff on it. I know it's all here somewhere, but I'm not the most organized right now after moving. Why is it that my last assignemt at The Chronicle was a funeral and now my last one at The Vindicator was a funeral? Unfortunate trend.

BSU and OU are in overtime right now. I'll update with some descriptions when the game is over. (THAT WAS AN AWESOME GAME. GOTTA LOVE THE COLLEGE OVERTIME FINISHES)

update: Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all got my texts before midnight wishing you well in the year to come. I have to say I was bumming on New Years for most of the evening but then ended up having a hell of a time in the Mi$$ion, Castro, Mission again and then out in Ariel's Bermuda Triangle of a neighborhood up off Van Ness. Lunch at Whole Foods and coffee at Peets the next morning was a perfect way to start off '07. I think I miss Ohio. Who would have put money on me saying that?? Being back in the Bay Area with all these people and cars and buildings everywhere is a little overwhelming after living in Centralia and then Youngstown. Not that Youngstown was rural, but like Washington, you didn't have to go very far for some open space. I miss that. And I miss the snow!!

Spent a good while one afternoon looking for people outside enjoying our first good snow of the season. This little girl was on a corner that was getting some great light but it took her like 10 minutes to come back outside after asking her guardian if it was okay if I took her picture. I was watching this beautiful light go away and she came back out just in time for me to get a few shots.



This is me taking pictures while learning how to drive in the snow. Look Ma, no hands!! It was snowing like this for what seemed like days and days. I think it was only about a day and a half though. I was driving back into the office after a shoot up at YSU when I took these, and when I came back out a few hours later to go home, I couldn't even drive on the freeway because there was so much snow. It took me 25 minutes to go 8 miles home.





Went feature hunting at a tree place. No one was buying trees, so I photographed one of the employees who was shaking the snow off trees that were completely frozen. This must have been ones of those days when it was in the teens and 20s.





A wreath at the tree farm.

I think this was in Vienna. This is the police chief at a trailer park where a man broke into an elderly lady's trailer and stole some pills. It was, as I like to say, HECKUV cold and we were quickly losing light, neither of which bode well for me because I didn't have a jacket and my strobe was in the shop.

Another shot from the trailer park and some awesome 1D noise.

More fun in the snow.

Needed a feature package on a weekend when I was running around solo, so I stopped at a riding barn. These are all shots that didn't run that I liked.











Figures from Nightmare Before Christmas that were made by high school students. This was on display at an art center in downtown. They must have had two dozen classes that are totaly free to all kids. How awesome is that. I would have been there everday if I lived there when I was a kid.

More Xmas crafts from the art center.



Mr. Alcorn and I tooled around town for an afternoon talking with businesses about the new smoking ban that took effect a few weeks ago in Ohio. Most truckers were not happy. This was at a truck stop.

YSU band.

Had to knock on some doors to find people living in a new housing development. This lady was nice enough to let me in.

This assignment was the biggest headache to date. I don't even want to explain. The fact that all I have to show is a group shot up against a wall gives a hint.

Another concert that I went to go shoot and before leaving the office said, "Who's that???" Kenny Rogers, right?

A church that knit a whole bunch of hats and donated them to kids in Africa.

Even found some knitters front and center during the service.

One of the many Santa aka Christmas events going on around the area. This is from the end of the event when kids were taken via patrol car to WalMart to shop for goodies.

I was running out of feature ideas. I know that's not good to say, but when you've worked 11 days in a row, with no stories lending themselves to art, you gotta find something.



I think this is my favorite shot of Jared. I love the look on his face. He's made so many huge strides in the past year as far as school and socializing go, and I think this is reminiscent of the hope his family has for him. And I think this also shows how he still has a tendency to slip back into his old world. The McConnells were such an amazing family and I can't thank them enough for letting me spend so much time with them. If I could have stayed in Ohio for a few more weeks, I think I could have done a lot more with this story. Who knows, maybe I'll be passing through there again soon and can catch back up with Jared.