shoot this at an easter function today.

the third kids looks angry. not sure why, the easter bunny had just walked in the door and he  was getting all the candy he could eat! maybe he's spoiled??!!

i liked the moment anyways!

enjoy!

muck this!

shot this at a muck fire last week, on a cloudless day.

it's pretty, but doesnt work well as a news photo. do you think?

yep, thats the winning touchdown on the far right!

oh well, win some lose some! (damn it!)

o so ugly, but o so cute! (and contrary to popular belief--not dinner!)

did i mention another friend had a baby! meet clare-ann! she one-week-old and fabulous! and just as beautiful as her mommy!

somewhere in georgia from a bus window at sunrise

oh yeah, remember that girlfriend i told you was pregnant? well she birthed a beautiful baby named gibson a few weeks ago. tiny little thing! but health and hungry!

ok, so i havent posted lately. shoot me! doesnt mean i aint thinkin about cha, just seemed to put you at the bottom of the list of things to do. sorry! but hey, you knew id be back, right?

this i shot from the cat walk above the lakeland center a few days after they set-up the annual ice skating rink.

we didnt use this (cause i didnt turn it in) in the paper because i had a job shadow this day. he was so excited, and a little frightened of the height, to be where most folks dont get to go. i wanted him to see one of his images in print. 

i imagined a blur of people and color on the ice using a slow shutter speed. well, as usual what i preconceived didnt happen. there wasnt enough folks on the ice that day to get it. so i wasnt to upset about it not seeing ink.

but i like it anyways!

soooo, annually they round up all the swans on the three lakes in downtown lakeland. 

they capture them, inoculate them, clip the wings of those that have migrated in (this entails surgery, including the removal of a done) and if there are more then 70 they sell them.

not sure how i feel about that. but, again, i cant wear my heart on my sleeve. i just cover the news!

soooo, as most photojournalists are these days, i am shooting what seems like alot more video then stills.

some assignments lend themselves to video better then others. whether because of audio or motion, but i still need to come up with a shot for the paper. meaning i would normally have to carry a tripod, a camera bag and three cameras; the video camera around my neck, a still body (one with a long lens and one with a wide lens) over each shoulder and the camera bag hanging... somewhere!

so, i took a chance last weekend and shot an assignment strictly on video with the intention of taking a freeze frame grab for print.

i learned a valuable lesson on saturday... always test any software you may update!!! let me repeat, test your software after an update!!!

seems that final cut express 4.0.1 doesnt export the frame grabs the same way as 4.0 did. and after trying to figure it out for several hours with the help of my tech savvy coworkers, we were still stumped! 

so this is what happened;

it squooshed um! and the size was reduced! making it about half the size we usually use for the paper.

i was able to utilize photoshop to unsquish um but i still dont think they looked 100%.

so i'm getting our i.t. guy to uninstall the update and then reinstall the old version! arrrghhh!

scotties are rather cute squished though, dont you think?

so my colleagues are constantly making fun of me.

seems i hold my head to one side and can rarely take a photo that has a straight horizon line.

but sometimes i do it intentionally.

i do it when there is little else to make an image attractive. i feel it gives it a little more 'motion' or 'emotion.'

i usually take their guff and give it back. being the only female on a staff of eight i have learned to defend myself pretty well!

I shot this last week at the fundraiser for the polk theatre.

do you think i could have cropped it tighter? i liked it loose.

let me know what you think.

while i was shooting this for my friends baby shower invitations;

i got this.... meet sidney the furry love of my life! and what a hamm!

so i promised a few folks i would post to this blog thingy a little more frequently (i will, i will!!) but my time has been occupied. i'm giving you a little preview of what me and reporter shoshana walter have been working on for several months now.

starting sunday the ledger is running a three day series about two middle school boys caught in a situation that alot of us found ourselves in as we discovered who we were at that age. (yes, even i had to defend myself against a bullying classmate in junior high-[we called it junior high up north!]-i won by the way!!) 

but times have changed. 

our hair pulling, scratching and clawing didnt include weapons back then.

now it is not unheard of for a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old to carry something to defend themselves against one another.

should they be charged as adults? my opinion--not that of the ledger-- is, no. but i'm just a voting citizen! ;-)

but before i get into that i just want you to read the incredible stories that shoshana has painstakingly cried and toiled over.

the image below is of tarrod. the 15-year-old that is up on adult murder charges-he was 14 when he was charged. this "child" grew up with the most amazing role models. 

did he ever have a chance?

read the stories and you decide. and let me know what you think.

(and please buy the paper-help me keep my job!!!)

me and dolly

let me start by introducing dolly; the beautiful long necked, long legged, spotted lady in my heading photo. 

she is the giraffe that has been at busch gardens since busch gardens has had giraffes.

she's a love!

got right in my face!

do you like her? (how can you not!)

i work for the ledger. a newspaper in central florida. (yeah, where it's hot and you have to drive about an hour to open waters!)

i hope to use my blog as a place where i can post images that we (the ledger) choose not to use for whatever reason and maybe get a little feedback from you, the viewer/ reader. (although i may occasionally throw in an image of my husband/ cats/ dogs/ my pregnant best friend/ or just something i saw on assignment that was completely unrelated!--bare with me!--)

your opinion is important to me and my continued growth as a part of being a servant to you and my community. i'm open to all critiques (including grammer!-i'm the worst). 

i want you to know where i was, in my head, when i clicked the shutter button. why i edited out a specific image. but why i feel it still needs to be seen!

please be kind and constructive. after all, i am just a fragile girl! ;-) 

more on dolly later.....