lee's house

chillin' at the main street apartment with his family.

holly street

from warmer days in the city.

lima sertoma pancake day

i bought blueberry pancakes and a balloon poodle :)

hoop poop

i do it all wrong. sports makes up at least 40 percent of my shooting time and i still haven't reached the sophistication of the shooters we all justifiably admire.

there's reasonable excuses -- VERY limited equipment being the only one i'm not ashamed to admit. with the recent passing of my 50mm f1.8, i've been using a slow telephoto and my wide angle most of the time. in regards to basketball, i was really fascinated by the novelty of the wide shots and giddily turned in my photos after the first couple of games. now its become painful to look at these shots. they are so grainy and the focus is absent.

tonight's game and these resulting photos represent the last straw for me...i need change, whether it be an internal shift or an equipment upgrade. given the financial situation at the paper though, i shouldn't hold my breath. working on being crafty at these events is whats necessary for survival right now. suggestions are welcome. if i'm lucky, i'll get a vague answer about the lighting equipment available here.

christian neff

Pfc. Christian Neff was killed while serving in Iraq back in September. He lived in the Shawnee area here in Lima and was 19. According to the Department of Defense, he died in Bahgdad from wounds inflicted by an improvised explosive device. These photos from the funeral this fall are old, but I'm just getting around to poking through my take from the event. His family was kind enough to allow the media to attend.

Needless to say, I felt like a vulture despite this invitation. Since he is one of the few local soldiers that have given their lives for the war, the turnout, from the media and community alike, was insane. Since the funeral, Christian's parents have recieved honors from local veterans' groups and service groups on numerous occasions. This was one of the bigger stories of the year.

church concert

the workers.

even industrial-grade jumpsuits can't protect the most rugged of men from this biting cold.

memorial for jerry

jerry rowe was struck by a vehicle one the corner of high and elizabeth street while crossing the street. his father was contacted by the parents of who he believes was the driver, a local kid in his teens, to extend their condolences, but the kid has yet to turn himself in. jerry's friends and family came out and held a memorial for him on the corner where he was killed. it was heart-wrenching.

el barrio bajo la nieve

this four season system in the north is freaking me out. i used to whine about how much i wanted it to be snowy and white and wonderful and yeah, for about three hours on tuesday night when the snow started, i was a giddy idiot. granted, i had just returned from a bar with all kinds of beer fueling this enthusiasm, but it was fluffy and clean and i was all about rolling around in it.

the next morning, it took me twenty minutes to dig my car out from the five inches that had fallen overnight. i also missed the third step coming off my porch because it was camouflaged by fresh snow. i spent the morning feature hunting for work, a soggy, trembling mess. my enunciation gets even worse at 21 degrees.


[bossman thought that ben the dog was a penguin at first]

ps - miniature australian shepherds are lovely little dogs.

trailer park tale

this was one of those "why didn't you say anything earlier, man?!" kind of assignments. they sent matty and i to a trailer park on the eastside of lima that is on the brink of being shut down because of a jerk of a land lord that refuses to tend to the demands the city has placed on him to repair the land's sewage pipe. this is causing the whole lot to shut down and people to move out. for this, the paper asked for a photo of the trailers in by three o'clock.

we walked around and knocked on doors and found a lot of people distraught about the situation, but weary of who we were and any media attention. we used up our time trying to connect with people that were scared. i snapped off maybe 15 framed in the two hours we were there and many of them were of these kids, our guides through the park for a bit.

after getting almost nothing, despite the tiny gang's help, we were getting ready to leave to make deadline and we met gale reed, who was chilling on the stoop of his trailer wearing purple sweats and orange protective eye wear. i talked to him while matty snapped and eventually got a photo that was good enough given our circumstances. we hauled ass back to the paper, but there hasn't been a day that has gone by that i don't think about the park. they have to move out by february. i hope to go back soon.

mean muggin'

mug shot duty is one of the unfortunate realities of earning a pay check photographing for a newspaper. while mindless and time-consuming most of the time, occasionally, the universe hands you a high school wrestler with a black eye with the bravado of a boy who just learned he could grow a goatee.

later at the same assignment, when you're frustrated about the fact that one team member is 20 minutes late and is holding up team photo, the universe gives you a boy with the friendliest orange afro and makes it up to you.

i don't think i'll ever do anything with these photos other than appreciate the faces and make me thankful that i never had to participate in any activity that obligated me to wear translucent white spandex during puberty.