Meet the Tiger Walk...and John.

Mizzou has a newish tradition (started about 1996) where incoming freshmen walk through the school's historic columns, toward the campus to have some Tiger Stripe ice cream. When students graduate, they walk the other direction through the columns, toward the community, and enjoy a free beer. My last assignment for my staff photo class was to shoot this tradition, which was celebrated by Mizzou's largest freshman class ever. There were so many students that ice cream had to be tossed to the masses (see below). Here are some highlights, plus two photos of my buddy and editor John.

Meet the Faerie Houses

One of the coolest things I shot all summer was for Vox magazine about an artist who makes "faerie houses" - mini, hand-built houses, fully furnished and detailed, for people to buy to house any faeries that may be in the neighborhood. There were even houses for baby faeries. I spent at least an hour shooting these things, fascinated by the detail and ingenuity. These houses are probably cooler than any place I will ever live. Here are a bunch of shots - look closely!

Meet competitive dodgeball

Another one of the cool events I got to photograph for Missouri's Show-Me State Games was dodgeball, which, like kickball, was played by teams with inappropriate names made up of very serious teenagers and young-at-heart adults. I enjoyed the fact that the same rules I played by at recess in elementary school were the rules observed for these games. Here are a few shots that I like:

Meet the Boone County Fair

Here are some shots from the Boone County Fair earlier in the summer. I love midwestern fairs. This one was good, but nothing will beat my beloved Iowa State Fair...

Meet fly fishing

Here are some detail shots from a story on some fly fishers who spend time teaching the technique to veterans through a program at the veteran's hospital. It was a tough situation to work, because everyone was out on a dock and I couldn't photograph some of the patients. But here are some shots I like for no reasons in particular.

Meet the "Walk a hound, lose a pound" program

The "Walk a hound, lose a pound" program is a study on human/animal interaction to see if getting exercise with a dog improves a person's workout both physiologically (blood pressure, weight) and mentally (desire and commitment to working out). The researchers have several demographics they are researching and I hung out with the senior citizen contingent for a morning. Thought I'm not traditionally a "dog person," it was nice to be around the doggies.

Meet Drew

Drew Lemberger makes various kinds of boats, mostly kayaks and canoes, by hand, made to order. I just shot this quick portrait for a preview of the Missouri 340 river race, but the boats he had in his shop that he was working on were such beautiful works of art that I'd like to watch one be built from the start.

Meet a competitive tree climber

Ann Koenig climbs trees in international competitions. For real. I had a great time on this shoot, which was extra nice because I was in a somewhat rotten mood that day. Fortunately, Ann's attitude and excitement about her climbing was infectious and I left the assignment with a smile on my face.

Meet Independence Day

I'm finally back to a blogging mindset, with a ton of photos from the summer to share. Here are a few shots from some assignments, which included a patriotic band, a patriotic orchestra and a very patriotic dentist with a 10-foot replica Statue of Liberty.

Nostalgia Friday: ISGC

For the next week, I will be focusing entirely on the research and writing of my research proposal, the final paper for my qualitative research methods class. Today, I've been looking through Robert D. Putnam's "Bowling Alone," which talks about how Americans are gradually becoming more disconnected from one another and the implications this has. The primary theoretical basis of the book deals with a concept called "social capital." Boiled way down, social capital is what you and a group reap from you being part of a group and the group helps the individual socialize.

This has me thinking about my choir back in Boston, the Inner Strength Gospel Choir at Boston University. Not only because my Masters project was inspired by my time with the choir, but also because the choir is the source of a lot of many people's social capital. Neither the choir nor its members are the same with the other lacking. This becomes even more apparent during "Tour," when the choir goes on the road to Baltimore or Detroit or Oakland to sing and do a service project or two and grow closer to one another.

I only went on one tour in my tenure with the choir, to Baltimore in the Spring of 2007. I roomed with my already good friend Paloma and we both got sick on the day that half the choir decided to fall ill. We spent the day in our room, being crabby, snot-filled messes, but in seeing each other at our worst, we actually grew closer (and always have something to laugh about).

This shot, which has always been my favorite from the trip, is from the day after we were sick (everyone who had been ill (flu, food poisoning) miraculously recovered), early in the morning as Paloma ironed her skirt in preparation for the first of two concerts that day. That Sunday was joy-filled - full of smiles and song - and our evening concert was definitely the best of the tour. We bonded as a choir and as friends; the semester-end concert two months later still sustained the close-knit energy sparked on tour.

Meet Danielle

Danielle is a senior in high school who is an avid dancer and who also has diabetes. Sometimes, she dances to lower her blood sugar, but at times the fatigue brought on by the disease keeps her on the sidelines. Despite this, she still dances on an elite level and is part of a nationally recognized dance team.

Meet the view from the Cherry Street Garage

I came out of an assignment last Saturday evening to a sky full of magnificent clouds and the setting sun. After running back to my apartment to grab an extra lens, I barely made it to the top of the parking garage at 10th and Cherry to try to get some shots. I didn't get the best of the light on camera, but I still got to see it and enjoy it. Turns out I wasn't the only person enjoying the view. On a nearby garage, a couple alternated between watching the clouds float away and slow-dancing. I think this first shot is cute, though it may touch on being a bit stalkerish...but I still like it.




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Meet some contest results

I finally entered the SportsShooter Week's Work Student Contest for the month of May and won second place! Check it out:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/student_portfolio/index_new.html

Meet the Show-Me State Senior Games

I shot a few events of the Show-Me State Senior Games a few weekends ago, including darts (which was set up in a hallway and didn't really work on a set schedule, plus it was tough to get a good shot without putting my eyes in harm's way) and 3-3 basketball. There was only one women's team, so they automatically won gold, but they managed to schedule a few games with some men's teams. There was good camaraderie between the two teams and I like how I caught that in the third photo. The woman was joking that she was holding his jersey to make sure the guy wouldn't cheat, which I found delightfully reminiscent of elementary school.









[ Did someone get caught looking? ]