Here / there

"Tour the Linn County Sheriff's Office before rebuilding starts" is not the most exciting photo assignment. But it's a challenge. Light is scarce (thus the grain), but I can usually count on TV photographers popping some light in there so I don't have to use a flash. Sheriff Gardner milled about this spot just long enough that I was able to get a decent, somewhat sharp, frame. The demolition line you see on the drywall is about 11 ft above ground level.



Tomorrow I head to New York for a very brief visit with good friends. Here's Alyssa in Central Park a couple years ago...

mmm beef

Shot this while working on a story on BBQ dry rubs for the food page. That's about 60 pounds of quality brisket. Yum! (I'll link to the story when it's up.)

I've been blogging over at reFocus (the gazette staff photo blog) with my recent work for the paper, and am figuring out how to transition this blog to outtakes and personal work, and less writing (generally, more pictures, less words). I'll try to post links to reFocus from this blog when there's something new up over there, so I can stop double posting my blogs both there and here. Most recently, I've written about covering Postville one year after the immigration raid.

Sunny Mt Vernon

I went on a little adventure with friends to Mount Vernon last weekend for Chalk the Walk. After brunch and looking at the chalking, we wandered over to the Cornell campus and relaxed by the pond, munch kettle corn and sipping Italian sodas and getting just a little sunburned.

Attn, bargain hunters

I photographed the Coralville city-wide garage sale this weekend for the paper.. Almost left with a $5 rice cooker, but someone beat me to it. Loved this frilly ballerina costume, probably once so cherished, now hanging on a wire on sale for $5. The former owner has a new sibling on the way this week, and her mom was making room for the baby.

from the archive

I'm digging through my archive once again as I build my portfolio for Barnstorm , and came across this photo from last August (which will not be in the portfolio, but I realized I'd never blogged about it..). Nothing spectacular, but keep in mind that the simple turning of this bolt was a big deal for downtown CR, as Alliant worked to restore steam to the businesses downtown that rely on it for temperature regulation. We had to go down below the street, into a truly tiny space -- just big enough for me and the steam mechanic. I think he was surprised that I wanted to follow him down -- but, really, how else am I going to get the photo? And, who's going to argue, when I bring my own hard hat?