long hard week. endings, goodbyes, tears.

and the risk of sounding redundant - and then there's the path not taken. the people not taken. the view from my own wandering road to the next hill over where people find their own happiness, find new loves, new jobs, new fulfillment that i have no part in. i watch their worlds swell with friends, spouses, children, promotions, advanced degrees and feel my world shrinking down to this damned path, whatever it is, where ever it takes me. it gives me joy, but it's not the only joy i want.

i don't only want to capture other people's emotions, tell their stories - i want to feel some of my own, live a life worth telling someone about. right now it's a flux between a straight jacket and flying, between the pang of loneliness and the love of the open road.



as long as i keep busy i'm ok. days off are hell right now. trying to line up any photo story at all and hitting voicemail and comebacktomorrows. ug. soon.

for now more from the dailies -

salvation army church service in des plaines.
maybe these would look better in b&w. haven't tried it yet.








snow features from the night shift.







i have shot a half-dozen annual banquets for various business groups/charities so far. i am so sick of them. they mistake me for papparazzi, do a lot of superfluous handshaking, and mugging for the camera. arg. i don't even know why we cover them. it's not news. it's not interesting. and i'm tired of being on duty for it. i shot the most interesting one last night - nuns who throw a mardigras themed fundraiser. sounds better than it was visually, but at least there were beads and masks.



i shoot another awards banquet tonight. le sigh. i hope it is the last.

wrestling tournament. poor kid was dominated his entire match.


fans of another kid who was equally dominated.




i'm getting bored with trying to perfect the action shot. with our company lighting gear in the shop, shooting in dingy gyms makes it near impossible to clean up backgrounds and get a shot that's tack sharp and worth $.02 when it's printed. and really, once you have a shot of a guy doing a lay-up or a bunch of guys on top of one another, there's not much more to it. jim merithew told me a lot of things :) but one of them was to look for what happens when things go wrong. that's where the photo is. that's where the story of the game is. so i'm trying to get better at the story-telling sports photo. people like scott strazzante, bruce ely, and sol neelman do this very well. here's to having heroes.


the shins - the coolest *cool kid* assignment i've had so far. i could've even stayed the whole show but i had to file by deadline. crap. the first three songs were rad.