Accidental Exposure

66of365
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Yesterday I ran like a crazy woman, from school to school, interviewing and taking photos. At one point I walked into the high school after leaving the elementary, and got a call on my cell. The editor. Asking me to go to the new middle school to shoot some teachers taking a tour. They are going to move into the building around January 15.

Fortunately, I've learned enough about my photography skills to know that I should take several shots at several different exposures when I'm shooting for pay.

This is my HUGE SHADOW on the wall behind a group shot I took at the new middle school. I corrected the angles, exposure and lighting so that I could get a good, printable photo. But I thought the shadow was cool enough that I played around with some color and texture in Photoshop and submitted it for my self-portrait for yesterday. I'm in the mid-60s now with the self-portraits. Some are well-planned, but many are quite accidental.

Wrestling? What Will I Do Next?

WrestlingTrevorJones12.11.07
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

When I started this freelance gig, I was writing food stories for our local newspaper. After a couple of weeks of writing and waiting around for the newspaper photographer to come shoot my food, I bought a little Fuji FinePix F10.

And so the photography thing began.

After a short bit, I was getting requests from the paper to "Run over there and take a photo."
Then it was "Can you write a short bit about that while you are there?"

And so I became an all-around writer/photographer. A lot of school features, then church features, some human interest stories. Then new business introductions. Then they asked me if I'd like to be the reporter/photographer for our school's Cross Country team. I've done that for 2 seasons now.

Last week my editor was telling me that the photographer is going to start taking Wednesdays off for a while. I said "Well, just let me know if I can help pick up the slack with some photography."
"Would you like to shoot the wrestling meet Tuesday night? You should be able to just get in there, take a few shots, and get out."

Sure. Why not?

I was there for almost 2 hours. It was interesting. I had no idea what most of the rules were. But I do know the coach, so he explained a couple of things to me before I started. Just to give me an idea what to look for. This is the best shot I got all night. I wish I had their entire bodies in there, but hey! I tried, right? I doubt I'll do this very much. I get only $10 per photo and they will probably only publish one shot. So $10 for almost 2 hours of my time doesn't really make a lot of sense. But I did enjoy working the camera.

Christmas Preparations Underway

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Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Well, we finally got the tree and outside lights up this weekend. It was a struggle, to be honest. Every year we all kind of galump around, wishing someone else would do it. This year I got Taylor to help me put out the outside lights by promising that whoever did that wouldn't have to be involved in taking them back down. I am short a string of clear lights, and trying to buy another at Target proved fruitless. Clear lights seem to be all the rage these days. At least in our neighborhood. I think we might be almost the only ones that have multi-colored lights outside. I want to put clear ones on the two tall bushes. I also have several strings on the pergola that stay up year round, but they have quite a few bulbs burned out and I think I'm going to just replace the strings. I've been trying to fix them and it's just very complicated.
The tree took essentially 3 days. Not that it's a particularly great tree, but we all just pretty much kept running out of steam.
So. Next is the shopping, which I imagine we'll do online. Mensa Boy's list is completely shot, leaving Nate and me nothing to get for him. This happens all the time. Nate didn't even publish a list this year.
Wow...looking back at this, it seems all pretty dismal. But actually, things are looking pretty nice around here. And restful.

Lancaster Christmas Parade

Tambri at the Lancaster Christmas Parade
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Saturday my friend Tambri had her dance school in the Lancaster Christmas Parade. We had 50 little girls, most of whom rode on a trailer we decorated with posters and Christmas lights. Although I do not have a kid in her classes, or even have girl for that matter (thank goodness!), I always help Tambri with her big productions.

All I can say is, we seriously underestimated Lancaster. This was one cool parade. And they had the downtown well-decorated.

This is my friend Tambri, decked out in her Christmas finery, riding to the parade route. You can see me and my camera peeking over her shoulder. I really enjoy this shot.

Tyvek Notebook

Tyvek Notebook
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

When Mensa Boy goes on a trip to a particularly humid or rainy location, he likes to make himself a Tyvek Reporter's notebook. He meticulously cuts and punches holes into pieces of Tyvek and then puts them on the binder and between the covers of a regular reporter's notebook. I've always wondered why he can't just buy something like that, but he says he's tried to find them and can't. I guess one day someone did tell him they have such an animal at REI. He checked there, and they do carry notebooks like this, but they are not REPORTERS notebooks. Wrong size. Must be the RIGHT SIZE!!

Here he is demonstrating, with sound effects of course, his writing across his latest Tyvek notebook.