I’m thinking about you today, Mom.
Friends, if ever there was a day to say some healing prayers, today would be a good one. Point them in the direction of New York City.
(None of us are really that religious, but it’s the thoughts that count.)
Mother and daughter.
Last weekend, I went to see one of my favorite families for some headshots (as well as schmoozing). Thank you to the photo gods who sent me a beautifully overcast day and kept the bitter cold away long enough for us to work outside.
Debbie Grossman: stage and musical director.
Rowyn Peel: actress/singer for stage and commercial work.
If you’re looking for great talent in the Maryland / DC / Virginia area, they’re top notch. Let me know if you want to get in touch with either one of them.
(/shameless promotion)
The end is always the beginning.
E Pluribus Unum
(Out of Many, One.)
I’ve never been good at completing projects. But today, I’ve now completed my project365 for the FOURTH time. Four years of photos. Four years of memories. Ups and downs, moves and new jobs, beginnings and ends. Life goes on, and so does this project.
Tomorrow, we start Year Five. May the next year of photos be as challenging as the last. And may the next year of life be as amazing as all the ones past.
Bring it on.
Re-discovering the District.
Or, in other words, getting very lost in semi-familiar places. Photos found along the way.
Bonsoir, monsieur Bonaparte.
Seen at the Smithsonian’s National Art Museum. A lesson in patience and timing.
A new year, a new adventure.
But thankfully, wonderful old friends.
Thanks to Debbie and Alan for a fantastic non-party and reunion with some of my favorite people, some new people, tasty home-brewed beer and of course, music that stirs the soul. Here’s to 2011, a bright star in the sky.
Return.
It’s amazing how fast time flies by, even as the days feel like they’ll never end.
A year and a half ago, I packed up my life (and Scott’s, too) and moved to Columbia, Missouri to embark on a brilliant adventure called grad school. Little did I know how attached I had grown to our comfy apartment and to spending hours on end in the photo lab (and Missourian, for that matter).
Perhaps it wasn’t the structures that felt like home, but the people contained within.
We’ve arrived in Arlington, and I’m quickly realizing how disconnected I feel right now from that camaraderie I was enjoying just weeks earlier. My brain is still in grad school mode, caring more about journalism, photo nerdery and finishing my degree than what most of the people I see around me are caring about. I almost feel like I’m not quite ready for the real world, not quite done incubating.
Good thing my internship at NPR starts on the 10th of January, and the Washington program shortly thereafter. It’s time to learn to fly on my own!
Welcome home.
Picture Story: Of House and Home
This is the audio and picture version of my final project story titled:
Of House and Home: Sheila Durnil’s journey through heartache and hope.
Please pardon the toning on the images at the moment – Final Cut Express decided to ignore the hours of toning I spent earlier to make the photos look perfect. I’ll be revising this file once I figure out how to correct the color.
Picture Story: High School Heeler, revised.
You’re not seeing double. I’m reposting this with a slight re-edit of the images for class. I haven’t looked at this story in a while, and I do think that this edit is a bit stronger. (And who can resist a neon-yellow horse cake? Really!)
Sophomore Tanner Brundage looks for his mother’s car on Sept. 16, 2010 outside of Jefferson City High School in Jefferson City, Mo. This was the last time his mother needed to pick him up at the end of the day, as today was his 16th birthday. Immediately after school, he took and passed his driver’s test.
While typical high school boys are involved with the traditional team sports offered by their school, such as football or baseball, Tanner competes in team roping for Missouri High School Rodeo and cowboy mounted shooting with Show Me Mounted Shooters. He began riding horses almost four years ago, and discovered roping after some of his riding friends started lessons with Mark Jobe, a roping instructor in Jefferson City. Many of the teens who compete in Missouri High School Rodeo grew up in rodeo families, but Tanner’s family has only recently been involved. “We’re kinda the rarity,” his mother Kim said. “We’re not the only ones, but most have been doing this forever.”
After spending the afternoon competing about six inches of mud, Tanner takes a hose to clean off the tack on his 12-year old horse, Cochise. His friend and neighbor Macy Randolph, 13, patiently waits for her turn, as her earlier attempts to gain control of the hose led to Tanner dousing her with water. While high school rodeo is not an organized team sport, many of the teens in the Jefferson City area practice together.
Gary Kueffer, right, holds tight onto the rope around the calf’s horns while Tanner attempts to catch its heels during an open team roping session at a small family rodeo on Saturday, Sept. 11 outside of Vienna, Mo. The open event allows combined teams of varying ages, letting teenagers compete with the more seasoned adults. Tanner prefers to compete as a heeler, which he says is the more challenging position in roping. He said that according to Mark Jobe, Tanner’s instructor, “You need to be a better roper for the heels, and a better horseman for the head.”
In honor of Tanner’s 16th birthday, his mother Kim ordered a cake made out of cupcakes to bring to roping practice on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010. “It’s supposed to be his horse,” she said about the conspicuously bright depiction of Cochise.
Picture Story: Kelly Schultz, revised.
Heeding comments in class and from my instructor, Rita Reed, I’ve re-edited my profile on Kelly Schultz, previously a candidate for the 21st District of the Missouri House of Representatives. I say previously since the project was photographed before the election. Sadly, she didn’t win.
In any case, here’s the revised version, which I am much happier to share on my blog.