::trick or treat::

A grocery store near me held a Halloween parade and costume contest. There was a lot of potential here but I was overwhelmed so my images are only ho-hum at best.
Happy Halloween.

::dragonman::

woodcarver's association annual show and sale. this man is in the process of completing a 5 ft. wooden dragon (see here snaking up the frame)

::tan::

::take a photo of him?::

..a mom asked me to take a photo of her kid in the grocery store... the kid was apparently less excited about the photo...

::alternative to the front page::

...the husband of a Woman's Club president at a gathering of many NJ Women's Club members. His football game got cancelled because of the crazy rain we had last weekend, so he got stuck helping out at the gathering and was the only man there...he asked if he could be on the front page of the newspaper. I couldn't promise him that, but I can put him on the blog...

::today it rained::

This was my sheltered view of the field hockey game and the football game I shot today/night.

::trust::

this is Ginger, you might have met her in a previous post. she always leaps in the car without looking back, trusting wholeheartedly that i am going to take her someplace she wants to go, whether it is a trip across the country or a short jaunt to a trailhead for a Sunday hike. i don't take that trust lightly. this morning she leapt into the car to go to the vet where i had to leave her for exrays and surgery. can't help but feel that i've betrayed her trust.

::just the other day::

a couple of days ago i was assigned to photograph a running club. they meet in the evening in the parking lot of a church and run from there. i got to the parking lot a little early and looked for the woman who was listed as my contact with the running club. didn't see her yet.

long story a little less long, there was a wooded trail off to the side of the church parking lot and i thought that perhaps the group met there and ran on the trail. walked to the edge of the parking lot. looked down the trail, around the bend, and into the woods. there was a little altar there (a prayer circle, they call it). the altar was tucked back in the woods and there were two rustic benches facing the altar.

a man was sitting on one of the benches. he was facing the altar. though i was still a good distance away from him, he noticed me almost instantly. he turned around.
"you can come back here and check it out," he said.
"i was actually just looking for someone," i replied.
"come on back," he said.
it looks cool and there might be a picture there, i thought, so i wandered back.

the man, dressed in all black, had backed his car in beside the altar. couldn't see that from the trail head. he introduced himself and shook my hand. told me that he sometimes comes back here to pray.

"are you a member of the church here?" i asked him. he told me that he wasn't...he wanted to join a religious community but found that many of them didn't want outsiders. he was very strict and stiff in his movements and his voice was tense. struck me as if he was playing a role or something.

"i guess it is strange that i drove my car back here," he said and looked at me for conformation.

"i don't know, i've never been back here," i replied.

"i guess most people don't drink beer while they are praying," he said, motioning towards the big fosters oil beer can propped next to him on the bench. "i do magic," he said, "i am a magician. want me to show you a magic trick?"

"actually, i work for the newspaper and i have to go meet people for an assignment," i said.

"it'll only take a minute," he said. so i agreed. god forbid i be rude, right? he walked over to his car and opened the driverside door and the back door behind that. pulled out a handkerchief that was tied around some stuff. put the package on the roof of the car and asked me to come closer...to see the magic trick.

"i'm good right here," i said, feeling silly about the fact that i winced every time he turned his back to me to get something from the car because i was afraid of what he'd turn around with. he pulled out a small jar with a black dice with white dots in it. he unscrewed the top of the jar and pointed it at me me. i winced.

"normal top?," he asked. i nodded.

he pointed the jar at me. i winced.

"normal jar?" i nodded.

"watch the dice," he said, twirling the dice in front of me between his fingers. i pretended to watch the dice, but watched the man instead. "you are actually being hypnotized by the dice." kept asking me to come closer.

"i'm fine," i assured him.

after the dice twirling was finished, he put it in the jar, closed the top, did something to the jar and the dice broke into tons of smaller die, this time white with black dots.

"cool, i gotta go meet these people," i said.

"this is just for children," he said, "if i showed you my real tricks you'd be really scared," he said. i began to walk away. "you seem like a nice girl," he said, "now that i've showed you my magic trick, don't tell the pastor that i am back here." this was the second time he'd said for me not to tell the pastor he was there. the first time, i thought he was kidding. this time, i wasn't sure. i left. i met the running club, shot my assignment, and went back to the office to file. told a fellow photog about the incident and was advised to call the church. i called them. they called the police.

in almost a year of working in this county i'd never been to this church before that day. then i indirectly called the police on a man who might have been harmless. might have been a serial killer. might just have been a normal guy on a crappy day. who knows?

that was thursday. my assignment two days later was to photograph the blessing of the animals ceremony in that same prayer circle. this is a pic from that shoot.

normally, i am very trusting. i think that makes me better at my job. but still, we go into people's homes, into buildings, fields, the woods, whereever, armed with nothing but an assignment, camera equipment, our gut instincts, and a cell phone. just something to think about...

::Dr. Jones::

...drum roll please...


Brandt defended the dissertation yesterday and he is now the fabulous Dr. Jones that he's been working so hard to become.

...the sweetest...

::Ginger::

she got sick this week and when I took her to the vet I was a mess. hadn't slept, had been crying for a while (even through our morning hike). ever the worrier, i was convinced that she had cancer. "you alright?" the vet asked me. what kind of question is that. this was a new vet, so she had no way of knowing that the 14 year old dog on her examining table was the best dog in the world. or that on my many trips to and fro in the US for internships and jobs, i'd always taken the dog, my car, my cameras, and very little else. or that this dog had actually jumped through a window to protect our house in santa fe. or that this dog was the best roommate a girl could ask for. we've got a follow up appointment on monday, maybe upon second meeting the vet will get the picture.

::lucielle II::

liza minelli. she sang, i shot. she took the stage late, i was on deadline. stress.

it'd been a few weeks since i'd been close on deadline. it's good for the nerves...like a cup of espresso.

::ouch::

...he was OK.

::prep football::

Football is a little bit of a challenge for me right now. It takes me a while to warm up with the new sports each season. Football is a lot of chasing the action, while summer sports like baseball are a lot of sitting a waiting for something to happen.