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.