Flag Waving

<img src="/blog/flagwaving.jpg">

On my way to an assignment at the theater across the street, I saw these kids out waving flags.  Ran over there and made a quick feature for 9/11.

Dressed in red, white and blue, four-year olds Anna Alagood (front), Emily Aeschbach (left, holding a pinwheel) and Avery Carr (right, flag over face) and the rest of Janet Shoah's preschoolers at First United Methodist Church stand outside the chapel waving American flags in honor of the anniversary of September 11. "We started doing it on the first anniversary to teach kids to love America," said Shoah, who said she wants to instill patriotism in all of them so that they're proud of where they're from.  Shoah and her class also send boxes of supplies to the troops in Iraq, write them letters, send them pictures and right now they're making pillow cases with a child's hand print and a bible verse on each one.

Mmmm Cupcakes

Patti Reed has started Patti Kakes, a takeaway window in a Tyrone Gardens strip mall, serving up doses of pink sugary goodness in the form of yummy cupcakes, Amish-made ice cream and more. After a few hours at Chuck E. Cheese with his mom and brother, Jacob Coleman, 4, of St. Petersburg was treated to a strawberry ice cream cone, which he quickly devoured. Reed watches, as Coleman runs around with his toy rocket after ice cream.



The meatloaf cupcake is best served warm. It's a delicious concotion of Reed's homemade meatloaf topped with horseradish mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese and bacon, for $2.95.

Best cupcakes ever folks. Seriously. If you're in St. Pete, GO!

Her store is at 970 58th St. N, St. Petersburg.

Ayiti!

I don't know where to start. Haiti, even on a good day, is an exhaustive assault on the senses. Even on its worst, you know it's not the people of Haiti that are the problem.

I'm trying to find the words to describe being there for a week, covering the aftermath and the relief effort following the earthquake. There is an overwhelming amount of death permeating everything, but little signs of life that that give you a glimmer of hope. I'm still processing all that I saw and experienced, and am having a hard time finding the words for it all. So I'll just show a few pics for now, and hope they speak to the humanity of this tragedy, and why we should all care.

Florida Snow

When car lights lit up an otherwise dark beach, I thought the sand looked strangely like snow with all the tire tracks in it.

Lighting 'Em Up

I had a lot of fun photographing our cross country runners of the year last week. I grabbed my mag lite before leaving the house, and figured I could always try painting with light for a little different look. When Katelyn Greenleaf, the top girl in our county, came into the studio with her parents, I tried explaining what I was doing, as I was popping a strobe and then running around their daughter with a flashlight in the dark for 20 seconds at a time. After a few good tries, I could tell her folks were curious what it looked like so I asked them if they wanted to see what I was doing. This is where digital comes in handy. Once they looked at the back of the camera, they got really excited and were commenting how cool that was and how fun it was.

So I held the flashlight up and asked her dad if he wanted to give it a try. He was really into it, running back over to the camera each time the shutter closed to see how he did. After a few more turns, Katelyn's mom wanted her chance at creativity. I wish I had video of the Greenleafs hard at work. They looked like they were having a blast, and it was really fun for me watching them get excited about the shoot. The picture above is actually the last frame I shot, and it was a result of all of our efforts. I ended up using some of the things that worked really well in her parents' attempts in my final try. I kind-of feel like it should have had a triple byline on it though. :)

When Chase Sutton, our top boy's runner, came into the studio a few hours later, I had a print of Katelyn's picture in there to show him and his mom what I was going for. Chase was familiar with long exposures having tried them for a photography project before, and his mom who really loves taking pictures and has been getting more serious about her photography was intrigued by it. So I used it as a chance to let her have some fun as well, explaining how and why it works, and letting her try her hand at painting with light too. After she saw how my "SHS" came out, she really wanted to write Chase's nickname in the air. It kept coming up as funny little scribbles, but it was always followed by lots of laughter and her asking for one more try.

All-in-all, the pictures that ran were a result of some great collaboration. So my thanks goes out to two top notch runners, who were grateful with their time and their ability to stand still as well as some great parents who made the shoot enjoyable thanks to their efforts. Hope they liked the result.

Just to show you how great they did, below are some of the parents' handywork. You can see how Katelyn's mom's style gave me some great things to shoot for. She did this fun bubbly outline of her that I borrowed from, and she also hit the floor with her flashlight's beam at one point, and I noticed how nice that orange glow was (it gave it a little more depth and it made it look like Katelyn wasn't just floating in thin air). And like I said before Chase's mom was trying to write his nickname, after I showed her my "SHS." It makes me laugh... Can't you see where it says "GOOB?"

Bootcamp Braids

With braids flying, Ramona Brayboy of St. Petersburg does squats, crunches and twists with a weight during Saturday's St. Pete Boot Camp led by Damon Reio at North Shore Park. There are boot camps seven days a week, with the schedule and more information available on their website.

Black Friday

Surrounded by reflections of shoppers and mannequins, Willie Newton of St. Petersburg, center, has his arms full of good deals on clothing for his kids. He and his wife Tawana Newton spent about 45 minutes in line to get to the cash register at Old Navy in the Tyrone Square Mall on Black Friday. "But it's worth it," he said. They started their day at 6 a.m., shopping at Radio Shack and Victoria's Secret before stopping at the Old Navy, on their way to Target.