Well, I guess it's winter.

After two winters in Cedar Rapids, I know what to expect well enough that I planned on not being able to drive yesterday. Sure enough, my license plate was barely visible, and my alley was more than a foot deep in fresh powder, so I didn't even try. My neighborhood is always full of features though, so I bundled up and started walking, photographing what few people were up and out at 8 a.m. Quinn was my favorite of the day, a 2-year old whose dad wishes "he were as much help as he thinks he is."


This is not my car. It is, however, about what mine looked like.

Leonard

Leonard has been designing and building the Czech Heritage float for the Christmas parade for 25 years. The float was pretty much complete by the time I met up with him to photograph it. Leonard lost his house and all his float-building supplies in the flood, but that hasn't stopped him from building the floats in the two years since the flood.

Simon

I met Simon while working on a story on a roadside live nativity that I mentioned earlier. He's quite friendly, and leaned in to the camera after nuzzling Abby, who helped Dennis Oliver set up the nativity.

The trees

I guess it's really winter now that we've had snow and the city tree is installed and ready for the Fire and Ice festival. I'm torn between excessive holiday spirit (cocoa, cookies and Christmas music!) and wanting our lovely mild fall back.

Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation employees Glenn Shulz of Cedar Rapids (from left), Harlin Andresen of Cedar Rapids, Mark Jacobs of Marion and John Salzbrenner of Marion pull support cables as the official Cedar Rapids Christmas tree is installed near the Tree of Five Seasons on Monday, Nov. 30, 2009. The usual May's Island location was determined to be potentially too unstable for the 22-foot pine. The tree will be lit on Saturday, December 5 at 5:00 p.m. preceding the Holiday DeLight Parade.

It's almost too easy..

.. to quickly scan the line and pick out a few kids that I know will give good reactions from their H1N1 vaccination. Timmy and his siblings gave me several chances to get the best reaction.


Gazetteonline has a handy page with all the flu coverage, including a transcript of yesterday's live chat with Linn County Public Health Director Curtis Dickson.

Reserves

I spent some time with the Massey family last week while they used Skype to talk to their dad, Staff Sgt. Joseph Massey, an Army Reservist currently stationed in Afghanistan with the 649th Regional Support Group. Samuel (sitting on his mom Kristen's lap) plays with airplanes via video chat, but there's a bit of lag time and a lot of frozen video. Read the story about deployed reservists and their families here.

Bessie's garage

Bessie Dugena owns Bozenka's, a shop in Czech Village that was flooded in 2008 and has yet to reopen. While working on a story on her (and her departure for California to live with her daughter), we walked over to her old house, which also flooded that June. I couldn't help but be distracted by the ivy-covered garage.. (I seem to be perpetually leaning to the left just a bit.. but, you know the rules: outtakes are always shown full-frame.)

Bellevue Farm

I stopped by a farm in Williamsburg this afternoon for a story on a live nativity (photos to follow this weekend) and this gorgeous guy caught my eye (and kissed my camera).

volleyball day 3

Getting to the arena early has its perks: an hour to climb around on the catwalks, re-aiming lights (and learning how to use speedcycling!), pregame photos, and time left to blog. Above, two courts going at one during the semifinals, from one of my preferred shooting locations. Our gallery from Friday is over on iowaprepsports.com.

volleyball day 2

After two days (and eight games), the sound of volleyballs bouncing is sort of soothing. And soothing is not what I need when I'm shooting four games a day. Without further comment, a few favorites from yesterday.. (big ol' gallery here.)

so.. much.. volleyball

I'm on day two of a four-day stint at the state volleyball tournament. With four games a day (our intern Crystal LoGiudice is shooting the other four), getting variety is.. challenging. This is from my final game of the night, Marion vs Pella, after Marion won in a tough 3 games. See our huge gallery here, or click thru to (11/12's) page 1B in the Gazette's eEdition.

Two approaches to a rainy game..

The same night as the cross country race below, I covered a high school football game. Only the most serious fans (parents, and a handful of students) braved the driving rain and wind. The tent is especially smart, but the wind presented a challenge.

Race / rain

Rain can be.. problematic. My makeshift grocery sack / rain cover didn't do much good. And it's really unfortunate to discover that new gloves are not waterproof.



Once I started editing, I realized I've photographed Kyle before. Now that I'm going on two years at the Gazette, it's amazing how much smaller the community seems, and all the familiar faces I see.

Ped Mall walkalong

I spent some time with a few Iowa City police officers who provide extra police presence for downtown/Ped Mall bars on weekends.. it was a slow-ish start to the night. Dark shoots like this remind me just how much I NEED one of these. (As previously discussed, I avoid flash. The Ped Mall's light can be kind of moody and cool, actually - why ruin it?) Here's the Gazette's story.

Mayoral election watch

I photographed Brian Fagan's watch party for the mayoral election tonight, at Dublin City Pub (a rather dark place, which means I actually had to bust out the flash for once). It's hard covering events like this, when you want to be respectful (he was down in the polls the whole night) but also want to get the shot. This was sort of an in-between moment, which is what I like about it. No handshake, no smile for the camera. Here's the Gazette's story on the race.

I love fall..

.. but it's always too short. Before I know it, the lovely yellow tree in my front yard will be bare.

footballin'

I've been shooting football like crazy lately. Three games and a practice last week!

A little high school ball.. (video and slideshow here)


...and a little Iowa football, with a healthy dose of pre-game feature hunting. 1. Those turkey legs always smell so good, but I am not that ambitious. 2. Alumni band marched before the game. Our game slideshow is on gazetteonline.



I've found myself getting increasingly wrapped up in Iowa football this season, probably because they (and thus we, the journalists) have a good chance of getting to a decent bowl. It's not even winter yet and already I look forward to thawing out for a few days. Maybe in Pasadena. Not that I'm getting my hopes up or anything.

old light / new light

Vapor lights are the bane of the photographer's existence, especially those of us who avoid using flash when we can. But I thought the contrast here was interesting -- the orange light was in an older part of the Genencor plant, and the bright light in the background is the new multimillion dollar expansion.

The big game

All week I've been hearing, "It's Iowa/Iowa State!" and I kind of go, "Ehhh." Not being a native, and not being an alum from either school, the rivalry doesn't mean a lot to me - which is not to say I wasn't excited to shoot it, just that I didn't have the same intensity of my coworkers. I wasn't too thrilled with any of my action from the game (I'm hoping I've worked out the rustiness of my first two games now), but I dug a few of the features from before the game..

Jerry Ratliff was deployed to Iraq last week, so his friends made a life-size cutout of him so the team wouldn't be disheartened by his absence.


In the spirit of fairness, I did also shoot an Iowa tent being put up. I just happen to like this one better.


I saw all sorts of kids and puppies dressed in Iowa gear. But this is Iowa and Iowa State in the same wagon! I had better frames of the ISU kid, but the Iowa kid kept glaring at the camera. Don't know why, I was wearing black, just like him..


This would have been so much cooler from a lower angle. But once they started coming out, I worried they wouldn't see me, and I would end up trampled...


...like last week's close call. (Photo by Rodney White, DM Register) If you happen to watch any future Iowa games, look out for my white bandana..