Long Night

Above photo by Chion Wolf.

Below photos by me!

Lyman Hall v. Sheehan soccer

More boxing!

You can't win them all.

I shot an American Legion baseball team from East Longmeadow, Mass. for the Springfield Republican last week. These guys made it all the way to the finals to lose to Branford, 2-1. Nonetheless, they were one of the most sportsmanlike teams I've seen in my day.

Live Mural Art!

Matt Lolli, a good friend of mine who also happens to have made a cameo appearance in my portfolio for my portrait of his bike-crazed self in his apartment, and his buddy Adam Wallenta did some live mural art at Eli Cannon's in Middletown the other day.

Dirt Bike Jumps!

motocross

-30-

July 13 will mark the end of my time as a photojournalist at the Republican-American. Though I'm leaving the paper, I am not leaving the state, and with this decision, I will free up more time to work as a freelancer.

This marks the end of one of the most interesting chapters of ANYONE'S life I know, and I will look back on it with lots of "How the HELL did I do that??!?!"s... in a good way, of course. As much as I wanted to delay it, this day had to come, and I thank everyone, (especially my photo brethren Jamison Bazinet, Jim Shannon, Darlene Douty, Steve Raggie, Steve Valenti and yes, even Jonathan Wilcox) from the bottom of my heart who mentored me through these five years.

Terryville softball

Crosby High School Class of 2010

Crosby is probably my most favorite graduation to shoot. The kids are happy, the parents are happy, even the administrators are happy. They don't yell at the kids for standing up and cheering, as I've seen at several other schools.

Young & Old

Pictures from senior mentor program at an elementary school in Seymour. I was delighted to find that "senior" meant senior citizens, and not senior high schoolers.

Two firsts: Boxing, Casino

A local guy had his pro debut at Mohegan Sun the other night. As far as I and anyone else knew, the one fight I was there to shoot was going to be at the beginning of the entire match, which began at 7:30.

It didn't begin until 10 minutes to midnight. I spent almost six entire hours ringside at the first boxing match I had ever been to, in the first casino I had ever been to. It was like a weird Alice in Wonderland kind of dream, with my mentor being the boxing commission doctor next to me who had better one-liners than even Mr. Jamison Bazinet, and was very kind to explain to me how boxing is scored. After the first round of the first fight, I felt somehow morally wrong for watching two met beat the crap out of each other. Fast forward six hours and I was ready for a confessional. I'm really pleased with the shots I came back with though, and I couldn't help but feel really happy for Ron Scott, Jr., the local guy, who won the fight.

I took pictures of other matches too though, so stay tuned for those!

More LAX!

Thriller

LAX! (not the airport)

Little things that make me happy

lilacs

Army Wedding

U. S. Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Kelly and Kathlene Lopez-Martin, both of Waterbury, dance on the Wolcott Green to the gazebo during their wedding ceremony on Sunday. The couple originally scheduled their wedding for June 2011 but changed plans when Kelly was called to active duty in Iraq. Kelly will leave May 2.

Opening Day of Trout Fishing 2010

Long Jump

Gilbert's Casey Ramthun competes in the long jump during Tuesday's track and field meet with Lewis Mills and Wamogo

Baseball season is upon us!

As far as hearing loss goes, heavy machinery has nothing on 10 year old girl screams

American Idol contestant and Middlebury native Katie Stevens makes it to another round. Fans gathered at the Middlebury Firehouse to watch the show.

Linus

Good Friday

As I shot the first procession, I noticed a very familiar looking building on East Main Street.



When I got back to my laptop I looked through old photos of Marie and I recognized the building. It was where Marie grew up.

Early Spring

High School Hockey

Her name is Lola

One thing that I do a LOT while on the job is DRIVE. And when you drive as a newspaper photographer you're looking around for things out of the ordinary. The other day I was driving around Naugatuck looking for pot holes (glamorous, I know) and I noticed a little beagle sniffing its way up the street. I figured someone was with the dog and I found a pot hole, so I pulled over to shoot that, and I drove up the road to see if the dog was alone, and sure enough she ran out in front of my car. So I picked her up, and for the 10 minutes that she kept me company as I went to her vet's office (which was closed), and then to a cop car, we became friends. The next day I checked to see if she made it home and she did. =)

High School Weightlifting

Factories are beautiful

I may have lost some of my hearing on this assignment, but getting to shoot in such a visually overwhelming place was worth it.

High School Wrestling

You never see photos of high school wrestling. All the glory goes to basketball, football, and baseball, and sometimes soccer. This was just the second time I've shot high school wrestling, and it was actually pretty fun to shoot.

Ballet Auditions

I never realized how truly beautiful it was watching ballet until I shot this assignment. I even stayed a little longer than I needed to.

Parents

My friend Roxie the Romanian

This is worse than Err99

My camera is in the hospital. This is why you should always have a spare camera body nearby!

Baby teeth

I would much rather cover something like this rather than stories like this.