Whew!

Wow, okay so after working eight straight days and with a car trunk full of dirty laundry, I thought I’d stop at my local coffee house and do some blogging before I start on my laundering escapades.

The point for the time being will be to publish things that for whatever reason never got to hit the page, either web or print because of space considerations or what have you. Or pictures that played teeny-tiny on the page, or pictures with wild color that for some reason ran two-column inside black and white.

I’m not going to post every single bit of minutiae. Most of the pictures I make are fairly banal. They’re important to the reader or the person in the picture, but most of the time they don’t make the cut for me in terms of style and content. Not to say everything you see on here will be blazing awesome, but just some work I want to share with parents and friends who can’t otherwise see my work.

This guy was getting his teeth whitened at a home and garden show.

These folks were living in an apartment complex close to the medical center to treat his cancer. They’re from a small town in Arkansas and the apartment complex is non-profit and free of charge to those who stay there.

A local chef makes nice with his food.

A little weather art. This is actually outside the Obama headquarters in Houston.

The following images are from a supercross event I photographed at Reliant Stadium.

The start of one of the heats.

This pit crew guy seems to be saying “Dude, hurry the ‘f’ up!”

This is a 58′ jump if I’m not mistaken. Crazy.

High-flyin’ Texas fun.

Waaaaaa!Waaaaaaaaaa! Those are my sound effects for the motorcycles. Pretty sweet, huh?

Note to self: Don’t try to grab onto a moving semi truck cruising down the highway.

I thought this was a decent moment from an assignment that almost felt more like PR than journalism. She and her family are receiving free furniture, courtesy of a non-profit. She seems pretty stoked to me.

Not a great Obama photo, but decent. I had to cover the podium from a deck with a 400mm lens.

Lots of people are pointing to the White House for Obama.

From a business assignment inside an electronics store. 50 Cent in the background seems to be pleading for this guy to stop.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned…

Catching up

Hola,

Long time, no post. A few things have happened since I’ve last made an appearance. I’ve made my new digs in Houston, where I’m a contract photographer for the Houston Chronicle. So far its been a blast. Before I get to the pictures from a few assignments I’ve had so far, I ended up editing a short vignette of a single mother of three, Kizzy Rowe. Rowe is also blind.

I ended up having to leave Dallas before I could finish the story.
I met Kizzie through the Lighthouse for the Blind. Most of the people in the classes at the center have been blind for a short while and are learning to cope with a different and difficult situation.

Kizzy has a cigarette in her living room. It seemed most of the time I was there in the evening, the lights were turned down low or were off.

Kizzy her her son walk back from Christmas shopping. There’s a Target nearby as well as a Big Lots. Both are a decent walk from their apartment. Dallas in general isn’t set up well for the visually impaired compared to other places where I’ve lived. For instance, in the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Rosa,  CA, just about every crosswalk I encountered had audibles to help the visually impaired know when its safe to cross.

Kizzy is very spiritual and often goes to bible study at her cousin’s house in south Dallas.

Kizzy’s youngest daughter stands on the counter to grab a slice of bread. Kizzy has told her not to stand on the counter because of the danger. However, the kids often try and take advantage of their mother’s blindness. Nonetheless, Kizzy can almost always tell when something is amiss.

Kizzy gives her older daughter a hug after a cleaning session before bedtime. Kizzy always tried to keep the house from getting messy, a challenge with three kids.

Kizzy gives instructions to her son regarding cleaning. At 13, he often has his own ideas about how things should be.

Kizzy practices mobility training crossing a very busy street near her home. Like I said earlier, Dallas practically acts as if people with disabilities don’t exist when Kizzy has to cross six lanes of insanely busy traffic relying only on sound and intuition. No bump strips, no audibles, nothing. Good luck, Kizzy.

Kizzy’s youngest daughter wasn’t feeling well, and Kizzy needed a check-up anyway, so I joined them at a clinic that accepted Medicaid. I have to be honest, I’ve never been to a clinic like this for my own personal care. It was roughshod place in a ratty shopping strip, but I guess that’s the kind of care one can expect when you’re poor.

Kizzy applies eyemake up. I thought this was interesting. Kizzy had sight up until a few years ago so she still has the same vanities that we all have.

Kizzy checks up randomly on her kids at school. They never know when she’ll show up and she lives close enough to walk on her own. On this particular day, her youngest daughter had been acting up. Here, she has a talk with her homeroom teacher as Kizzy listens. Kizzy was not pleased.

Kizzy’s older daughter starts to cry as her mother sings a gospel song following Thanksgiving dinner (which was awesome, by the way). Kizzy seems to think its because when she sings, she reminds her daughter of their great-granny who passed away recently.

Kizzy calls her kids in to the apartment. Like I said earlier, I didn’t really get to finish this story. I have to leave it at this. Kind of a cliche ender, but I’m in Houston now. Maybe someday I can catch up with Kizzy and see how she’s doing.