Things That Fly

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My first assignment Wednesday wasn’t until later in the day and I didn’t want to just sit in the office. Frankly, I’m still trying to get used to this cold so I headed to the library where it’s warm. A kid’s class about science was just starting so I stayed to photograph. What I didn’t expect was how much fun I had. The kids learned about things that fly, so they made paper helicopters, paper airplanes and the best was catapults! A room full of kids catapulting marshmallows. I think a couple landed on my head, but hey, that’s half the fun – get the photographer messy.

 

oh, what a week….

My first week in Michigan has been a blast from camper fire, new playground, amazingly warm weather and a finale of a protest. I can still hear them yelling “This is what democracy looks like….”

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story on mlive.com

New playground equipment

If you are a kid, what is the best thing that could happen in school – a new playground. For the students of Washington Elementary that is exactly what happened Friday. I couldn’t believe their patience. They lined up around the playground, dancing around to music, and waited for their turn on the brand-new equipment.

Of course, once on there, it looked like ants that crawled up on leftover cake.

Audubon Center

Phoenix Audubon center is getting their gardens ready for migratory birds. So volunteers gathered up their tools to remove invasive plants and dead trees before planting pollinator attracting trees and plants. It’s one of those projects that allows to give back to the community and the environment all at once.

I wanted to photograph their effort, get in there and see their hard work. I tried to get close, and maybe I got little too close when I ended up with a pile of dirt spraying across my lens. So, I like to get a little dirty on the job

Miracle League in Scottsdale

Baseball, overall is not my favorite sport to shot. Playing it seems to be a very different story, especially for the kids in the Miracle League. They were out there on the field, laughing and yelling with excitement. In their wheelchairs or walkers, holding oxygen tanks those kids raced around bases with their baseball buddies. The parents and coaches in the dugouts yelled out encouraging words, with everyone just having a good time doing what any parent does on a Saturday.

I lingered longer than I probably needed to, but I was having such a good time watching them. Next time I’m around Scottsdale I’ll probably go back to see more.

Canyon de Chelly

Four months of work, four trips out to the canyon and several weeks of editing… The Canyon de Chelly project is finally done!

Learning video on location was tough, it was a challenge to change my thinking about moving with the camera. I felt like a techie with several cameras, audio recorder and all those wires hanging around my neck as I was trying to conducting interviews, shoot video and stills all at the same time. But it was well worth it, I am happy with the result.

Special thanks to Kurt Lancaster, my NAU professor, who helped me edit the piece!

Summer’s here!

What do you do in Phoenix when it reaches 100 degrees? Go where there is water…

I was sent to Splash Parkground, it’s a small water park in Tempe Beach Park. Of course I was the most dressed person there, with camera and all. Had to use my 200mm to stay out of water range, hurray for telephoto!

So, how do I get the names?  The kids run around so quickly I lost them within seconds and the parents are sitting on the grass. So I waited, followed some kids around and finally resorted to just asking random parents which are their kids. I must have sounded like a looney, but I got the names!