My parents are here to visit me for a few days. Today we went to the White Mountains and became grade A tourists: cameras, maps, driving slow, short hikes on wide trails to see waterfalls, even a full fledged search for a moose. Although the moose hunt was unsuccessful we did have a great train ride to the top of a very foggy Mt. Washington. It's good to be a tourist every now and then.
Tourists
My parents are here to visit me for a few days. Today we went to the White Mountains and became grade A tourists: cameras, maps, driving slow, short hikes on wide trails to see waterfalls, even a full fledged search for a moose. Although the moose hunt was unsuccessful we did have a great train ride to the top of a very foggy Mt. Washington. It's good to be a tourist every now and then.
Goal!
Dartmouth soccer on my own accord after the skate competition. I just wanted to watch the game. 
Dartmouth College students celebrate after a tie-breaking goal by Lucky Mkosana in the 89th minute of the Big Green's game against Hartwick on Saturday.
Dartmouth College students celebrate after a tie-breaking goal by Lucky Mkosana in the 89th minute of the Big Green's game against Hartwick on Saturday.
Skate Competition
REPLAY shooting- A replay is a page of pictures in the Sunday sports section, no story just captions and pictures. I heard about this competition when I was Embasi Skate Shop in Lebanon buying hardware for my longboard. It was all I had to shoot today so I spent a good amount of time here.
The third annual Embasi Skateboard Competition brought out over 40 skaters to the Lebanon Skate Park for a full day of comepetition on flatland as well as pipe. 
Luke Franco broke his board during the semi-finals of the advanced flatland competition, luckily for him a fellow skater let him borrow his board so he could complete the competition.
After completing 31 consecutive kick flips, surpassing the previous high score of 14, Kevin Wilkes fell on his 32nd attempt. His score was not beaten making him the kick flip challenge winner. 
The host and MC of the event, Keith Dillon dumps a box of skating stickers to a frenzied crowd. Wheels, hardware, tools, and t-shirts were also given away by Embasi and Vans.
Skaters gathered in front of the half pipe to grab for free merchandise.
For the big air challenge, skaters attempted their best trick while flying over a Red Bull Cooler.
Burlington
While I was in the shower this morning I decided to make positive use of my day off and go to Burlington. You see, the thing is, I have this love of the band called Phish, they really knock my socks off, in fact, most thoughts I have about photography can be explained with the aid of a strong Phish jam- reacting on the fly to unpredicted elements, separate parts working and cooperating with each other, contact sheets, parallel lines separated across a frame, sporadic moments of complete harmony, etc... I thought going to Burlington, the birthplace of this band, would have an intense emotional impact on me... no. It was a cool city for sure and I will go back for other reasons, but I don't know what I was expecting on this visit, maybe a David Bowie or Antelope jam being blared from public speakers for all in the town to hear???- I'm not sure, I was just expecting more attention and respect to a band that put this town on the map... there was none... I shouldn't be surprised though... I've just had idealistic image of this town in my head for the past 4 years or so and reality is always different from those daydreams. Even Nectars, the bar that served as a platform for the band's growth felt like nothing more than any other bar aside from the single poster on the wall that applauded the band for an album that was a tribute to the bar. I'm excited that Phish plans to tour in 2009, I will get to see a band that is famous for their live shows that I have never seen live. I will get to see if I am love with the idea of their randomness or if I just prefer the comfort of a few jams that really strike me. I wondered around Burlington looking for some sort of familiarity to my feelings and was left with nothing, the most exciting thing I saw in the town was a pink gorilla that I could have seen anywhere; instead I saw it next door to Nectars.
beach
As I went through shots from the summer tonight I spent a great deal of time on shots from my trip to the Ocean City, MD and I realized that I really had a time at the beach during this past summer. I left Rochester on a whim stemmed from loneliness and lack of motivation and headed home, I grabbed my sister's car (above) and went right to the beach to meet my family who had already begun their vacation. It was a perfect trip to say the least, I was greeted with our new kitten , Elli, the weather was splendid, we saw fireworks during a fierce thunderstorm from our balcony on the 4th of July, I shot well, I was in the midst of Randle Patrick McMurphy's overthrow of the monstrous Nurse Ratched, my friends ross and dave came to visit and we got properly intoxicated, I ran into an old friend/roommate from UMBC, and I watched a great Wimbledon final match. It was one of the best Ocean City trips I've had.
full moon
Bennet, my Colombian housemate and I took a sundown walk to the river to chase a shy full moon.
Done
So I'm done my first story. It went well- a very feel good type story so I shot feel good type pictures. The family I spent time with was great, they were so thrilled to be a part of the fair and it was a pleasure to be around them all week and be a part of their excitement. The story really made me wish I could write. I spent some 50 hours with this family, the girls were giving me hugs when I would arrive- we came to know each other pretty well and someone else who would meet them for maybe 30 minutes would write all the words that would go along with my pictures, it just doesn't seem right. Grad school...
For my next story I want to do something with some more guts, something that allows me to shoot a bit darker and rough. I have had a pretty sad look on the things around me recently so I want to cover something that allows me to be more true to my own thoughts, I will do better work that way.
7 years ago today.
7 years ago today I was in this room, my 10th grade biology classroom at Linganore High School, sitting right where that stool on the left is. I was working on a DNA lab when Mr. Sunkel came in and told my teacher, Ms. Boring, about everything. We weren't able to hear any details until we got out into the hallway after the bell rang because this room didn't have a TV at the time and our teacher wanted us to finish, nobody had realized the severity of what had happened yet. The principal sent out a memo saying all TV's must be off- no watching the news- so when I got to my next class we were only able to watch for a few moments. I remember clearly seeing my favorite teacher in the vice principal's face explaining how important it is for us to be watching this, "its history, they need to see it," he said, but the those in charge couldn't be convinced. I was worried about my Dad; he works at a military base in Baltimore, I still didn't know for sure what was going on. I was hearing many different things, many of which turned out to not be true. Thankfully, my band teacher pulled me aside to tell me my dad was alright, my sister had gotten a hold of him and he was on his way to pick us up and take us home. Many f-16s flew over on our way home; they tear through the sky like scissors through paper, it was incredibly loud. My mom hugged me with tears in her eyes as we got home- It felt so right to be home; the 5 of us sat together for the rest of the day and into the night, watching the news.
Walking Q-tips
I went to meet the family that I''ll be doing a story on today, the Pease family from Tunbridge, VT. The family has been involved with the Tunbridge World Fair for over 50 years and will be entering again this year. Four of the family's six children will be entering animals including cows, sheep, rabbits, and ducks.
Today I just went to meet them and talk to them but I ended up shooting a little bit, I also helped catch a sheep after she jumped off the stand where her wool was being scrubbed. I've been told that the best way to describe the atmosphere of The World's Fair is to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I was pretty excited to hear that.
Prudence Pease of Tunbridge, VT scrubs her 2-year-old sheep, Tiger Lily, in preparation for the Tunbridge World Fair, which begins on Thursday. "Ivory soap works best for this, by the time I'm done with her she will be a walking q-tip," said Prudence. Oh! and "guess what I learned on NPR today?" :)
Tour de Taste
2nd annual Tour de Taste- bike enthusiasts started at Lake Morey, VT and rode to different locations in the area for free tasty samples from local farmers. (more complete caption, with names, is long and boring. all I care about is how things look! right?)
Soft box day
Rainy day Vermont. On my way to a press release-- dead body found on the side of the road yesterday on the north bound side of the rt.91- pictured above. I'm staying at the chief photographers house tonight, watching her dogs- Shiloh and Ash.
Officially me.
I drove a beetle today, a 1971 bright orange Super Beetle to be exact. It was for sale in Woodstock, VT and I'm looking to buy one so my interest in it was authentic. My father has always had a air-cooled VW as long as I can remember, they have always been a part of my life but for some reason, since I turned 16 there has not been a running one available. At home now, and since I turned 16, there are two bugs that don't run and a dune buggy project that is nearly complete so I have never had the chance to drive one- well today I officially became a Porter boy, I drove an air-cooled beetle. The steering was heavy, it had no power, the gears were grindy, the brakes were nearly non-existent, and it topped out at about 60 mph- needless to say I absolutely loved driving it and I can't wait to get one of my own.
4 hours of driving around VT
Thank God for gas compensation and NPR.
Labor day
Erin, a reporter here at The Valley News, was writing this story today about a 10 year old girl that paints watercolors and sells them to raise money for her friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The family's house was in Springfield, NH on Lake Kolelemook. I showed up and was greeted by their dog, Hunter. In the garage, the father was rebuilding the clutch on his Harley- their son, Phil and their oldest daughter Bethany were using a fishing net attached to a couple 2x4s to get the cat out of a tall pine tree, and Merry, the girl I was sent to photograph was working on one of her paintings. We went down to the lake for the interview and I shot a couple frames here and there but mainly I just wanted to talk to this girl Merry. She was so smart and quick-witted, one of the cutest kids I've met. About twenty minutes after getting there, Phil came running around the corner with a cat trapped inside a fishing net, having a hell of a fit- one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Anyways, point is, this family was great, they reminded me a lot of my own family. I would have loved to stay at this house all day to just hang out with these people and pretend that I was home. I do miss home, not too much, but enough to raise thoughts like these. When I miss things I always miss small things, like being greeted by Tucker, or seeing my dad work on his car, even other things like the smell of the detergent that an ex-girlfriend's mom used- scent can be tricky- I'm in line at the grocery store, I catch a heavy whiff of the person in front of me and suddenly I'm blasted back, watching family guy in her living room. It's not that my mind is tied up with missing things, it's not. I'm doing very well up here, but I'm a sucker to comfort and familiarity so in a foreign place little reminders like the family I met today and the smell of Tide or whatever brand it happens to be can carry much more weight than they normally would.
Anyways, this is a photo (b)log so here is my favorite from the day, not the one that will be published, but my favorite.
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