randomness

a few unrelated photos from the last week or so...

Kelly Frakes (left) and Liza Lopez of His Image Salon joke that they should have brought some hair product to spike Roger Stoner's new mohawk. Stoner, an associate dean at MSU, was among three men who volunteered to have their heads shaved in support of a colleague who is battling cancer.

Greene County Sgt. Jason Johnson (left) and Deputy Matt Hough (right) arrest a man Monday on West Sunshine Street. Sheriff Jim Arnott intends to reassign six of the eight civil process servers at the sheriff's office to patrol duty if new positions remain unfunded.

Sharon Manz paints Jane Atterberry's toenails "Smitten with Mittens" red during a pedicure at Ashley Lauren Salon & Spa.

MSU graduation

it's really cold

Sierra Bell and Tyler Bartlett hold onto each other for warmth outside Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University on Monday, December 13, 2010. The high temperature that day was 24 degrees. Bell wore two pairs of pants and said the worst part of the cold weather is having to brave the elements to take early morning finals.


Outside my bedroom window on Sunday.

basketball

I shot two basketball games last week--my third and fourth ever.

Benjamin June

Artist Benjamin June has made a pillow for every or each suicide attack in Iraq since the U.S. invasion on March 20, 2003. His work is on display at Drury's Pool Art Center Gallery through January 28. For more info, check out the News-Leader article.

new backyard

on Thanksgiving, while a "wintery mix" was coming down.

the first week flew by

My first week at the News-Leader was great! I think we're really going to like Springfield. This weekend we're moving, so hopefully soon, things will be a little less crazy and I'll be posting more regularly again. For now, here are a couple of shots I like from a WIC recipient's appointment with a nutritionist last Friday.

a few football features

I've really improved my sports shooting during my St. Joe internship, but features are still my favorite part of shooting football. These are a few of my favorites from the season. If you wanna see some action shots, check out the Friday Night Football gallery. This is my last post from St. Joe! Goodbye Pony Express town.

window painting

Yesterday I photographed some people painting the windows at the Downtown Furniture Emporium building. The business moved to the mall a while back and now plans to return to the original location. At first I had no idea how to make an interesting picture of some guys way up in the air. I could barely even see what they were doing from the ground. Then the owner of the company doing the work offered to let me go up in the lift. Then he mentioned he had keys to the building, and let me go inside. And viola! What I thought was a doomed assignment turned out to be a lot of fun, and I like the pictures I made, too.

Bluffwoods Conservation Area

Jamie came to visit this weekend and we went to Bluffwoods Conservation Area yesterday. I've passed by it several times on the way to Atchison, KS and am glad I finally got to check it out, and on such a gorgeous day for hiking.
I think this shot needs a unicorn leaping through it.

There was a patch of giant turnips...

... and pretty fall colors.


Jamie kept saying, "This is like Arkansas!"

Albany, Mo.

I drove to Albany, Mo. on Tuesday for a story about the town winning the Community of the Year award in the Missouri Community Betterment competition. I had no information until I got there, and soon realized that nearly all of the projects that won them the title were unphotographable--clearing lots of abandoned houses, a recycling program for which the bins are still on order, and improving the wastewater system. So, I photographed the trophy, the Old City Cemetery (cleaning it up was another project) and a volunteer repairing old Community Betterment project reports at the library. When I left the library, I saw this mural and waited for a passerby. It's a simple photo, but I think it captures the small town atmosphere and has a nice sense of place.

a pretty portrait

Mary Collins has been battling breast cancer since July 2009 and will soon undergo a mastectomy. She spends time in the chapel at Heartland Hospital because it's a peaceful and reflective place to be. "I am who I am because of my faith," she said.

Hibiscus

For a story on allergies a few weeks ago I experimented with a "poor man's macro" by holding a 50mm lens backwards to the front of a 70mm lens, which caused the vignetting in the top image. We ran a macro shot of just the pollen, but these are a couple of outtakes that I like. It was tough to get what I wanted in focus, because every slight breeze moved what I was trying to focus on, but I had fun with it.

Halloween is approaching...

Ken Nice removes excess pieces of Cherry Mash centers on the conveyor belt between the machine that forms the centers and the one that coats them in chocolate and chopped peanuts at Chase Candy Company Wednesday. The batch of Mini Mash pieces was being made to fill last-minute orders for Halloween candy. Chase Candy Company has been operating in St. Joseph since 1876.

Skeletons sunbathe in the fountain and watch volunteers prepare for Pumpkinfest at Patee Park on Thursday. The annual festival kicks off Friday, October 8 from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Pumpkin Mountain, a massive display of about 1,000 carved pumpkins, will be lit Friday at 8 p.m.

outtakes from MPW

I spent last week at the Missouri Photo Workshop. I met so many wonderful people, worked my tail off, barely slept, and somehow got through it with a nice picture story. My story was about Macon's police captain, Jeff Brown. He's a single parent to an 11-year-old son, has been a foster parent to 30-40 kids over the last seven years, and tries to take care of everyone in town. Below are a few shots I like that didn't make it into the final edit. For the story, click here: Doing the Right Thing.

Jamie's big fish story

Jamie got to come to the final festivities of the Missouri Photo Workshop in Macon, Mo. I was so happy to see him! He mingled at the exhibit as long as he could stand it and then went fishing at Long Branch Lake. First he caught a three pound, 19.5 inch catfish, and then a four pound, 20 inch small mouth bass. He was ecstatic!

lightning

The lightning in St. Joseph last night was amazing! I shot these from the window of my apartment.

a few recent standalones

Camden Erickson, 11, and Keaton Lieffring, 11, make thier selections from an ice cream truck while J.R. Murphy looks on. With the first day of fall around the corner, the season of serendipitous frozen treats will soon end. Frosty Treats manager J.R. Murphy said that October will be their last month of business until spring.

Larry Leivan paints the facade of the Downtown Library on Monday, with pipes from the Felix Street Streetscape project in the foreground. When they started to repaint, they discovered that the limestone needed to be waterproofed. "Limestone is so porous, you really have to watch it," said Chris Silcott, Director of Operations with the St. Joseph School District, which owns the building. Luckily, they caught it before there was much damage, he said.

Kavanaugh Conner, 2, hands an apple to his mother, Jeanne Conner at Schweizer Orchard on Saturday. Apple season began about a week ago and will continue for at least a month said Cory Schweizer. The Conners plan to make apple sauce and apple butter with the gala, honey crisp, and early jonathan apples they picked. Canning has, "an old fashioned feel to it and it's very community oriented," said Jeanne Conner.

Providence Hill Farm

I had a great time meeting Christy and working on this video! If you want to know more about Providence Hill Farm, check out Sylvia's article.

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Casserole

This casserole was inspired by one I made earlier this week from a recipe I found online. It's nearly identical but calls for eggplant instead of butternut squash and cheddar instead of chevre. Both were great! I got all the ingredients for both casseroles at the Pony Express Farmers Market. I'm addicted to Nanny Cheese!

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Casserole

1 small(ish) butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 cups croutons or course bread crumbs
4 oz goat cheese crumbles (chevre)
fresh sage, chopped (a handful or so)
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Bake butternut squash at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Add everything else, mix and bake for another 20.

I also added some summer squash and zucchini that I needed to use. I think blue cheese would be great in this too.

CCUA farm stand

I had a wonderful couple of days off in Columbia. On Monday, I photographed the farm stand at the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture's production farm. It's pretty cool to see how much they've accomplished since I first started hanging around in March.

Saturday's work

Juan Vidal, left, and Lee Jordan, right, move a truss into place at a Habitat for Humanity house at 11th and Olive streets as part of the Griffon Edge program Saturday. Griffon Edge is a three-day orientation program for freshman and transfer students at Missouri Western State University.

Cub Scout Nate Eller, 7, shows off animal pelts during a tour of the American Mountain Men camp at Camp Geiger’s 100-year birthday party for the Boy Scouts of America on Saturday. The event was open to the public and also featured Pony Express reenactments, opportunities to earn historic merit badges, hatchet throwing and carnival games.