carnival

lights, little kids and carnies:

alma hispana

Great lady. I still can't focus.

you probably think i'm crazy

"Oh lord, I guess you're pushing me now..."

I went back to that loosely-defined park to try and get a better photo than the ribbon cutting yesterday and after a two-hour stake out of the nicest bench, I finally encountered fellow human life: Mary Easterling, a school crossing guard whose post is across the street.

She was did two walking laps around the park's path and at the end of her second one, she looked up to the sky and bolted. I thought for a second she was erratically trying to outrun my camera. When I caught up to her following her 25-second mad dash, she told me this:

"I thought I was going to just do two, but the Lord gave me the extra strength and I decided to use it. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a born-again Christian," she said, pausing to catch her breath every few words.

"You know, God, he's quite the gas. I love him and being part of his kingdom."

"You probably think I'm crazy, but you should really try it. It's quite a gas."

"I don't really judge," I told her.

gainesweekend part II

antique trip to micanopy with morgan --
[her post]

adventures with this girl, my little salt shaker, usually means a lot of photos of her. she's a compliant model.

on the way back, we stopped at the paynes prairie --

there was some huge fire over by hawthorne that you could see from the observation deck

gainesweekend part I

decided to take advantage of a free weekend to escape to gainesvilleland ---

my first trip to lake walburg !

lame

a ribbon cutting assignment today left me wanting more.

hermanas

finally went through my new year's photos --

<3>

shadow

had too much fun today: a day full of little kid assignments, cookies and playground murals.

queen of backfocus

in this photographic kingdom, flaws are shires ruled by a monarchy of shooters. overthought metaphors aside, today's assignment made it clear that i'm really good at focusing on the wrong fucking thing. the nikon camera the paper gave me makes it too easy for me to inadvertently change the focus point and shoot 100 frames without noticing.

but it was a good day and i still made it out with something solid.

the stavley family lost their house in a fire. michael stavley was at home with his three kids when it happened. he pulled them out just in time. they had to spend sometime at the hospital for burns and smoke inhalation. they live off kathy stavley's wage from her job at publix. hospital employees heard their story and rallied the community to donate about three truckloads of stuff for their new rental home. the oldest daughter, karen, was the most emotional today when they were presented with all the stuff. she talked about the day they lost everything they owned.

--
random:

mama said knock you out

even though i stand in firm disagreement with all songs centering around mamas and violence, an incident went down yesterday on a seemingly uneventful shopping trip that paints me some kind of hypocrite.

an impressive bruise rests on my mama's cheek as a result of some cranium crashing while sifting through v-neck sweaters. this puts the pain toll at: 23 hours of labor, a broken finger, moderate emotional trauma as a result of hormonal shifting during puberty and now a purple cheek.

horse eyes

a ride along with andrew took me to a horse rescue assignment. destiny, the horse docile enough to practice the routines on, had two different colored eyes.

watching baywatch

lindy dancing

LaFayette.

flock

bad judgement?

missing gainesville

From our last call project at the alligator -- controlled chaos and luck made it one of the things i am proudest to say i worked on.

habitat for humanity

this was during my week at the miami herald. mrs. donna let me ride along with her to this habitat for humanity assignment. dirt lot in overtown to colorful neighborhood in six months. most of the people there wanted to avoid the shiny lenses except for this friendly family. more than anything, they were proud of the fact that they built this house that they now own.

great-grandma was great indeed. she asked me about school and work and talked to me like i was one of her own. i complemented her leopard house gown. she sprained her ankle cleaning her house, so now she uses an old pair of ballet flats to walk around comfortably. she invited me to stay in her leopard-themed guest room sometime.