Nov. 20, 2009: Stargazers take turns looking at stars through a telescope during Friday's Star Party at White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, hosted by the Friends of the Morris Public Library, in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. Josalee Thrift Republican-American
I shot pictures of one of my favorite musicians at a living room show in Burlington the other night, which was hosted by a girl I had actually photographed for the paper about two years ago. You can see a light I set up right next to him. I set up another light about five feet to my left, and I put a tube around it (made of cereal boxes covered with gaffer tape) to give it a spotlight effect. Afterwards I had a wonderful conversation with Rocky and his wife April.
In recent weeks, with only one or two night photographers working at a daily newspaper that covers almost 50 towns, I'm regularly shooting two sports games a night, plus other news assignments. It's crazy. Anyway, I just was able to catch my breath and thought I'd share this:
New Milford's goalie Jack Holub punches the ball away from the goal as his teammate Zane Swanson jumps for the ball along with Pomperaug's #14 Connor Kennedy, #12 Matt Ruston and #19 Kyle Molnar during Monday's game at Pomperaug. New Milford won, 2-0.
This coming up weekend is my four day weekend (a perk that comes with rotating schedules). I'm really looking forward to it since MAE the band is coming through and I'll be seeing them in NYC, and then I have a zombie party I'm going to as well, which should all make for great photos.
Every day of working opens my world just a little more.
The other day I got a photo assignment to shoot some portraits of artist Chuck Connelly, the subject of an Emmy winning HBO documentary called "The Art of Failure," released last year.
I thought, "Holy jeez what am I walking in to?!??!"
Then I thought, "Okay, whatever, I'll just pretend I didn't see it and I'll treat him like everyone else."
I had about 30 minutes at the art gallery in Litchfield before Chuck arrived with his assistant, Mark.
Now, I know I'm supposed to be an unbiased journalist, but come on, I'm also an artist, (in the most primitive sense of the word, I think) and his work was absolutely amazing, and in that short span of time I developed such a nervous excitement to meet the artist who's hands were responsible for all the stunning work that surrounded me.
And guess what?
We got along just fine.
The last shot, a painting of Chuck's studio, is my favorite piece from the exhibit. It reminded me of my favorite children's book when I was a kid, "Hey, Al."
Go to New Arts Gallery in Litchfield between now and Nov. 22 if you want to take a look for yourself.
Happy September! The first photo is proof that I can make even the meanest looking high school football player smile. The second is from the first football game I shot this season. (Actually, it's the second game I shot. The first game lasted only 10 minutes until the electricity went out and it was canceled.)
The third shot was the first time I've ever seen a high school soccer game get really close to fisticuffs. And wouldn't you know the next day I shot a game where the SAME THING happened. The shot with the goalie is actually the play that angered the two players in the background into pushing each other and earning themselves a yellow card.
The last shot I just had come across when I was driving between assignments. I was driving down Route 8 when suddenly the light traffic that was on the road slowed down and I noticed a line of cars were pulled over on the side of the road, but I didn't see any police lights. The people who had pulled over were standing on the side of the road looking at something in between the two lanes, and when I drove by them I saw that it was some sort of feline. It turned out to be a bobcat, something I had never seen before. What I didn't mention in the caption is that the guy who dragged the bobcat out of the road also said he was an avid hunter and usually has a gun in the car with him, and he said he wished he did that day to put the poor animal out of its misery. I don't think I could have stayed for that. In fact, I left before any state troopers came by partly because I had to go to my next assignment and partly because I didn't want to be there to see it happen. Well, I probably wouldn't have been there anyway because the troopers would have yelled at me like they do so well.
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