Memorial, Police week and a new project.

Lt. Anthony Fish, Athens Police, speaks to a crowd of Athens County officers, media and those who have relatives that serve and protect May 11, 2011, during a memorial preceeding National Police Week.

This week was National Police Week, following National Peace Officers’ Day on May 15. Last week, I covered a memorial in honor of fallen officers in Athens County. It was interesting seeing a more sensitive side of those who serve and protect, which I don’t see very often because of the nature of their job, especially in Athens, Ohio. The keynote speaker, Rev. Dave Cogar, talked about how a little bit of appreciation goes a long way. This sentiment was repeated by Athens Police Lt. Anthony Fish, who encouraged all those in attendance to give a simple thank you to the next person in uniform that you see.

I’ve also decided to try to come up with a project a week. These projects might be picture layouts or stories like this one, something just written (but I’ll probably still have a photo), a photo and a story, a slideshow, some audio, a video or anything else I might be working on. My hopes is that doing this will keep me pushing myself to be even better and inspire others to do work that makes them happy. As Sol Neelan said, “Own what you shoot.”

Read more about the event at The Post

Ode to the photo Gods

I took a short roadtrip out to Snowville Creamery with Sir Zachary Nelson for a portrait of Victoria Taylor, who owns the creamery with her husband.

After wondering around for about five minutes and going to the wrong building, we found the entrance and met Victoria. We quickly found a huge window at the end of a hallway that looked over the fields and decided it was money to shoot the portrait there. As we were setting up the lights, we talked about how it would be sweet if there were cows in the field (there were not) and joked about photoshopping them into the photos. As we finished setting up the flashes, the cows that were outside the building we went to first came walking down the path right outside the window.

I ran down the short hallway, told Victoria that there were cows and we wanted take the photo before they walked too far way. She kindly moved quickly back to the window and we got it done in about 10 minutes. Zach and I then prayed to the Photogods on the way home. Story by Jessie Cadle here.

MudFest

7Fest ends the year’s fests, with a field full of muddy students and recent graduates listening and dancing to the different entertainers while drinking from their cache of kegs, coolers and kiddie pools. Good music, good friends, and cold beers to end the year. Oh, and don’t forget about the mud.

Fest Season begins

The first real fests (I say real because there were already two but nobody went) started Saturday. Here are some pictures from it, and the story in the Post can be read Here. Other pictures by Dustin Lennert, Lisa Bernheim, and Matt Hatcher (Who actually shot the fire. Good work Matt). Cheers

He didn’t get arrested though, everyone was let off with a warning.

Road Trip and a Photo

A week from this past Friday, Post writer Ashley Luthern and I took a road trip to Stockport, Ohio to interview and photograph Wulf Reinicke. Wulf does some awesome woodwork at his old-school workshop next to his house. After we got lost and made a half hour to 45 min drive there into a two hour drive, we finally rolled into the right driveway to be greeted by four excited dogs and Wulf. We spent some time there, learned how to make different things from wood, the different projects that Wulf has done in and around Athens and elsewhere, and then took some pictures (Ashley held a light which was awesome, all writers should learn this skill).

Here are the pictures that turned out awesome, plus a diptych of my favorites and the two that ran in this Article by Ashley Luthern.

Diptych:

Philanthropist Pranksters

Had a snowstorm in Athens on Saturday, which is always fun to shoot. Thank god college students haven’t grown up quite yet. Check out the “story” here and an actual story about power outages that they didn’t put the picture with here, guess it was too much of a stretch. Hopefully we’ll have a multimedia up, but I’m not really sure what’s going on. Enjoy!

In the process of their elaborate prank, these college students cleared a decent area of sidewalk and road of snow… and moved it onto their buddy’s car.