long summer nights= long blog posts

This is my third summer in New England, and with each summer I realize just how precious these long, warm days are. And what I love more than the long warm days are the hot, hazy nights, which just brings me back to my summers as a teenager back home.


We at the Rep-Am but a lot of emphasis on the importance of exercise to morale, teamwork, and personal health.




Now I know what I must look like to the chipmunks that run away as I fly by on the Middlebury Green Way. The guy to the right is Jamison, who witnessed my very first tire blow-out. Not just the tube, I blew out the TIRE. And furthermore we were about five miles from our cars. After two weeks, four tubes, a newly learned proficiency at changing bike tubes, and throwing a near temper-tantrum at the Bike Rack (my safety had been at serious risk), I think the problem is fixed.



The paper put on a "Flag Day Coloring Contest" where kids drew a picture that incorporated an image of the American Flag, and the winners would have their pictures published on July 4, and receive some prizes. The first winner who came in was Hannah, and I was so excited at how festively she was dressed! She was wearing a red and white striped shirt, blue jean shorts, and I didn't notice her nails until I was shooting her holding her picture. So just for fun, I got this photo.

The same day I had an assignment in Wallingford to shoot Dan Mazzaferro, a local who competed in the Olympic trials. I introduced myself to him, and mentioned how I remembered taking his photo when he was a senior at Cheshire. I also noticed this HUGE ring he was wearing, which was an NCAA Championship ring from last year for Auburn University, where he attends now. I said, "Last year? What year are you now?"

Dan: "I'm going to be a junior."

Me: "Seriously?!? So I must have taken your picture YEARS ago!"

Dan: "Yeah, I'm old."

"YOU'RE old??!" I thought to myself. Time FLIES!!!

Anyway, here's a photo of him showing off his skillz.


For graduation season, which ended just a few weeks ago, we held a photo competition for three categories: Best Overall Photo, Best Gallery, and Best Emotion. What was at stake, you ask? Three trophies hand-made by our very own Steven Valenti. I received Best Overall Photo for a photo I shot at the very first graduation I shot:

Rachael Dioses is comforted by her stepfather and mother Dominic and Maria Cavaiuolo of Cheshire after Dioses received the diploma for her brother Timothy Dioses, who died last month, during commencement ceremonies on Thursday at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury.



And if anyone has ever wondered if I ever tear up at sad events? The answer is YES. I almost started bawling at the Crosby graduation when the cousin of a would-be graduate who had drowned the week before was singing a song in his honor. It KILLED me.

TJ won Best Photo Gallery with his coverage of Torrington's graduation.
Jim won Best Emotion with a photo that I will post up here later...

So after I "accepted" my award, I celebrated by going to Señor Panchos in Prospect, sitting the trophy on the seat next to me, and having a photo shoot with it afterwards. (The actual circumstances? I met up with Johnathon Henninger from the Record-Journal to pick up my sunglasses that I had accidentally left with him when we had met up with Chion Wolf from NPR in West Hartford. Though we have no photos from that event, it was certainly memorable because John had successfully finished his very first beer: a PINT of Newcastle Brown Ale. The man is 30 years old.)

rainbow hunting

Today I attended the Small-Paper Summit, put on by the Society for News Design and hosted by the Rep-Am. I learned a lot more than I was honestly expecting, and though it's so easy to be pessimistic about the newspaper industry, many things that speakers Darren Sanefski, Charles Apple, and Bill Ostendorf said were pretty gutsy in that they WERE optimistic. I also received an extremely constructive portfolio review, so keep your eyes open as I should tweak up my website soon. It definitely refreshed my batteries, and just in time for my weekend!

After the conference ended a wicked thunderstorm came through, and afterwards a rainbow popped up behind my house, and then a second, fainter one:



Then I rode around on my NEW BIKE looking for better vantage points but the rainbow soon dissolved.

Ah, my bike. I had been looking for a bike for a while but I'm short, and I have short legs, thus finding a bike that I could comfortably ride was a tinge difficult. It happens. We live in a heightist world.

A few weeks ago my co-worker Jamison, who's a bike FREAK, called to tell me he found a bike that looked like it would fit me.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"Bike Rack, in Waterbury," he said.

"Wait... where??"

"Bike Rack!"

"Well, if you found it on a bike rack, doesn't it BELONG to someone????" I ask in astonishment of Jamison's intention of stealing a private citizen's property.

"THE. BIKE. RACK. It's a STORE!"

Once that was settled, we went over to THE Bike Rack one day and lo and behold, the bike FIT!

So I bought it, and it wasn't until after I bought it (here in Waterbury, CT) that I noticed this sticker:


Oceanfront Bicycles, VA Beach, VA.

Someone could have ridden this SAME bike right past me when I lived in Virginia Beach 20 YEARS AGO. This bike is MEANT for me.

Now, like any good vessel of travel, it needs a name. Any suggestions?

Of Bikes and Men.

I'm becoming more and more inspired by portraits I see on strobist, and I decided, what better way to practice portraits than with friends?

My first willing experiment is my friend Matt Lolli, who's obviously really into bikes and making art inspired by cycling, as is illustrated by Ghostship Clothing. We started out just doing portraits of him, and the focus quickly turned into a t-shirt campaign.

I'm pretty excited with how they came out, and I can't wait to shoot more of these as I add items to my rifle case light kit bag.

In the meantime, I'm deep in the bowels of editing HOURS upon HOURS of audio down to less than 5 minutes for Marie Tyrrell's follow-up that we're aiming to finish next month. She's doing well.. she just came back from a dude ranch with her daughter Tracie and granddaughter Mysti. Last month I went with Marie to her cataracts surgery. I was starting to feel a bit queasy as I watched the surgery until one of the women there told me exactly what was happening, which I thought would for sure make me vomit, but I was surprisingly comfortable with the details.

And last week we at the Rep-Am bid farewell to Ben Conery, who was one of the first good friends I made when I moved to Waterbury (which will be THREE years ago next month). He's going to greener pastures, at the Washington Times.

Good luck, Buck.

kitties!

There seems to be a feline theme in some of my photographs lately. If you saw my portfolio, you would have noticed this new one:

One of the reporters said she has never seen so much emotion on a CAT before. Oh, yeah, and the cat had gone back INTO the burning building, and was later rescued:

And sometime last month there was a huge snow storm and no one was out except for this little guy:

IN OTHER NEWS, I received a Publick Occurrences Award for Photojournalism from the New England Newspaper Association last Friday for the story I did on Marie.. who is doing quite well, by the way.

"mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho!"

In recent weeks, I feel like I have been the grim reaper of tractor-trailers. It all started with my boss calling me at 7am one day for this:


The driver behind the wheel of this tractor-trailer carrying compressed hydrogen fell asleep. I wasn't very good in Chemistry class, so I didn't know what the big deal was when people were making dramatic gasps whenever I said "compressed hydrogen," and the reactions were so lively it could well have been the magic word on Pee Wee's Playhouse when everything goes bonkers. Anyway, for those of you like me, compressed hydrogen is what they use to make bombs. Now that I think about it, I wonder where this tractor-trailer was headed. Anyway, the important thing here is no one was hurt, AND riding in the baby plane was pretty cool--I was even on the driver's side!

And wouldn't you know it, the NEXT DAY, in roughly the same area on the same highway, I was called to this:

Apparently the trailer had somehow come OFF the truck. Scary.

NINE DAYS LATER....a storm came through, on my shift of course, (somehow fate just has it so that the Southerner, who has NO experience driving in snow, always shoots the snow storms..) and eventually they closed the west-bound lanes and all lanes on 84 were going east:

After this I was just so fed up with these accidents that I went on vacation, to escape it all ya know? And on my first day back, I was sent to this accident, ALSO on I-84:

Be careful out there, fellow drivers.

Erin go brea!

After weeks and weeks of rehearsing, I, along with my fellow staff photographers, (minus TJ, who was too busy with his OWN Irish dance troupe...) performed an Irish dance recital under the direction of our web guy, Curtis. I personally think we did pretty well considering the costume constraints, which, needless to say, the dudes had a HUGE problem with. After all this though, I really want to host a dance-off with the photog staffs of the other CT papers.



Happy St. Paddy's Day from your friends: Steve, Josie, Bob, Baz, and Jim.

Homeward Bound

It's 622 and I am at Bradley Airport embarking on my journey to Virginia to 1- shoot UConn v.UVA and 2- visit Ma and Pa Thrift. I can't even remember the last time I spent more than 24 consecutive hours in my hometown.

Did you know that in REM's song "It's the end of the world as we know it," Michael Stipe sings "no fear cavalier," a verse thought to be inspired by the Wahoos?! Though I've only been in Charlottesville a handful of times, it will always hold a special place in my heart, especially when I think of the time I went as a junior in high school and convinced some freshman that I was in my second year at Mr. Jefferson's University. I learned fast.

AND did you know that the creator of "Cavemen" first wanted to set the show in Newport News, Virginia but couldn't because there was no way anyone, not even the best magician in the WORLD, could make Los Angeles, where the show is filmed, look like the News.

Anyway, it feels like it's going to be a weird trip already. Considering: a) I got absolutely no sleep last night so things seem weird anyway, b) a red "something is wrong" light switched on on my car's dashboard on my ride to the airport and totally stressed me out to the point where I was very close to sticking gaffer tape over it, c) they moved me from connecting in Cleveland to connecting in Philadelphia which is precisely what I was trying to avoid as I'd only have 1 hour to switch flights in the chaotic mess that is the Philadelphia airport and d) I was randomly selected to have my carry-on bags thoroughly searched! When the TSA guy asked if I had any electronics I had to laugh because every piece of camera gear I'll need on the field is in my carry-on.

Wish me luck!