Hey, is there a Butz here? Seymour Butz? Hey, everybody, I wanna Seymour Butz!

This story starts with a little background...

My newspapers website has Reader Forums where readers can post their thoughts and comments about whatever is in the paper. It's kind of fun to read. But... nobody uses their real name, everybody had screen names like "Fisherman Steve" or something cheesey like that.

Ok

So the other day, everybody was in the office doing work and my boss, Keith, was reading the forums online. And out of nowhere he shouts "Does anybody know a Richard Cranium?"

I started to laugh thinking he understood the joke... but he didn't.

I had to explain the gimmick to a couple of co-workers, only a few of us understood the Bart Simpson-esque quote

I don't feel like explaining again, so i'll give you a clue. Just read between the lines of the words Richard and Cranium.

As far as photos go... yea, don't have any worth showing off. This week is the deadline week for the business mag that my paper puts out each month. So all I've shot has been last second business assignments which never make good photos.

Planning to go to the LSU game this weekend. And to Morgan City to see a band that Misty likes, and to see the Katrina IMAX movie. Should be a fun filled weekend.

What a long strange trip its been

I really haven't had time to sit and think about this past year. I need to. Today would be a good day to reflect on the last 365 days. I remember my brother Ben telling me this on Sept. 11, 2001... "If you don't write a journal, today would be a good day to start"

While setting up my lights to shoot a volleyball match today I said to myself... "I'm a professional photographer." And for the first time, I actually felt like a professional photographer.

I think Aug. 29, 2005 was a turning point in my career/life. It's the point I started to become a Pro and stopped being a recent graduate. I think it took exactly one year for that transaction to take place.

It's hard to believe all the stuff I've seen, thought, felt... etc since Aug. 29, 2005. The range of emotions is crazy. I know at one point following the storms, I didn't even want to touch a camera. I was so sick of photography. I've seen the Houma Civic Center go from a place where the Circus entertained kids, to a place where people lived for months, then back to the circus again. I could go on an on...

It's one of those aspects of your life where you wish you could go back in time. Maybe do things differently, maybe not. Maybe work harder, maybe not. I don't know.

Poynter Online asked me to write a little piece reflecting my thoughts on the past year. My observations and such while working for a newspaper. So read it if you get some time... I'll copy and paste it below.

Or, if you don't feel like reading and you want to watch a slide show I put together, go here. It's a revisit of a few of my Faces of Katrina people. We caught up with some to see how they're doing a year later. This is just the tip of this project, I plan to follow some of these people around for a while. I don't think this story has an end. This is Everett Webster. Really cool guy.




Here's what I wrote for Poynter... keep in mind that my journalism strengths are in the visual side of things, not the writing side of things.

-------------------

The people of South Louisiana never stop amazing me. With everything they've gone through, the hurricane victims have a more positive outlook on life and the future than anyone I've seen. It seems everybody wants to do their part in helping to prevent another "Katrina" or "Rita" from happening again.

The older generation are attending public forums to voice their thoughts to local and state politicians. While the younger generation, who will talk about Katrina and Rita like the older generation talk about Betsy and Camille are learning as much as they can so they don't have live through another 2005 hurricane season.

Since Hurricane Rita, I've photographed many families who, without hesitation, rebuilt their house. The most common response when asked why they chose to rebuild rather than move to higher ground is, "This is my home." Generations of families have grown up in this area. Many of the families even live on the same street as their parents and grand parents. As tough as it is to rebuild and recover from such a hurricane, the people down here almost see it as part of their life. It comes with the territory of living down the bayou.

Soon after Hurricane Katrina, I met and photographed hundreds of New Orleans evacuees who fled to Houma. I listened their stories about how they survived the storm, how they ended up in Houma and how they were missing family members. I became a friend. I've recently contacted a few of these people to see how they're doing a year later. Some have moved to Houston, Atlanta or somewhere else in America. While some have moved back home to New Orleans and the surrounding area.

What I saw in the time I spent with these people is their ability to adapt to a new way of life. They know things will never be the same, they've accepted that fact. What they're doing now is dealing with what life has thrown at them. It might be living in a small apartment when they used to live in a two story house. Or living in a FEMA trailer parked in their front yard. Or dealing with the insurance companies to get the roof damage fixed. Katrina hit everybody. Some more than others, but everybody is having to learn how to live this new post Katrina lifestyle.

But amongst all the struggles to adjust, the people of South Louisiana still know how to enjoy life. Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest are just two examples of what people have used to get their mind away from the tough times, and enjoy the fun times that this area of the country is so well known for.

so maybe I haven't noticed much of a change in the past year, but I have noticed a strong determination to get back to a comfortable way of life.

New car, caviar, four star daydream Think I'll buy me a football team

I love this time of year.

If I were back in Kansas I'd say that the leaves are about to change color, the air is a little more crisp, the daily high temperature has gone down and football season has arrived.

Seth mentioned in a recent post that he noticed different changes around the LSU campus that signify the start of football season.

In Manhattan, the poster schedules are hung in every business window, the purple flags line Moro Street, everybody you talk to asks "How do you think we're going to do this year?" There's a buzz in town that I don't feel down here in Houma... Unless.... I'm at a football game.

This last Friday was the annual Football Jamboree (A soap scrimmage for you MHS folks). Each of the parish teams faced off for a short game that meant nothing in terms of district standings, but meant everything in terms of getting the season kicked off on the right foot. (yes, the pun was intended)

And I felt that buzz again. I could care less who won the game, but seeing the teams get pumped up to break through those cheerleader paper sign things got my blood pumping. I think I was more excited than half the players.

Early in the first game, the H.L. Bourgeois running back got around the corner and started to head up field... towards me. My rule of thumb while shooting this type of play in football is that if the players fill the frame of my camera, I should get out of the way before getting knocked down. (and embarrassed)

The RB came right at me, I didn't budge. I almost wanted to take the hit. I kept firing off frames until the play was over. After the RB was pushed out of bounds, I look around and see linemen, linebackers, safeties, and the running back on the ground scattered around my feet. I then see the TV camera guy who had been right next to me back on the track next to the cheerleaders.

Man I love this time of year.

My Body and Soul and my Car are not for Sale

Things are good...

My "Change Oil" light came on yesterday. Which usually means I reset the light and forget about changing my oil for at least a month. But, last time I changed my oil, I think about half of it dripped out onto my driveway... Yes, Misty saw oil on the driveway, found the leak, and stopped it. (Thanks Misty)

So I figured I better act quick since I don't check my dip stick on a regular basis. (slap my wrist for that.)

So here I am, in the Oil Change/Car Wash/Gift Shop/Arcade/snack Bar/waiting room place and It's got free wireless internet. Allowing me to post this blog while waiting for my car. (I usually take a look around the gift shop, then read out-of-date Sports Illustrateds until my car is finished)

AND

I've got a $10 coupon. Knocking a Oil Change and a hell of a car wash down to $22. Not to shabby.

AND

High School Volleyball starts today. Volleyball is one of the hardest sports to shoot. So it's always a challenge.

AND

High School football starts tomorrow. Enough said.

AND

The "Teacher of the Year" banquet is tonight. That's always fun to shoot. Free Limo ride for me at lest.

AND

I started work on another multimedia project. I'm contacting some of my "faces of katrina" people. I spent all day yesterday in New Orleans hanging out with Everett Webster and Floyd Webb. Lots of work ahead, but it's going to be awesome.

SO

Here's a photo of Floyd checking a notice he got on his FEMA trailer. He's a cab driver at the airport. Cool guy. (Everett is a janitor at a bar on Bourbon St.)

Man that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think?

So I like to take self portraits... big whoop, wanna fight about it?

Here's the photo I was too lazy to download last night of me in front of the place where Rob worked in Durham.

And here's another photo I finally got around to editing of me playing cornhole on Saturday. They had red bags and light blue bags. Due to everybody's allegiance with NC State... Nobody wanted to play with the "gay blue bags" I of course didn't care and called them "Mid 80's Kansas City Royals blue bags."

While waiting for my plane from Atlanta to New Orleans, some dude asked me "Heading down there to take some pictures are ya?" So we got to talking and ends up that he moved to Kansas two years ago after living in South Louisiana his entire life. Exact opposite of me. (By the way, Aug 9th made two years down here). Crazy.

OBX...with photos

I'm back from North Carolina. Good trip.

Here's a list of the highlights. If you didn't know, I went to the staff retreat for the Yearbook and Newspaper staff of NC State University. It's a weekend of getting to know eachother and planning for the year. I was there to help out with the photo staff. Each photog spent the weekend shooting self-found stories. I tossed ideas and helped edit their photos.

• Being in North Carolina with my brother John... we were about 15 minutes apart but never saw eachother. Crazy
• A "road trip" with the Newspaper Staff of NC State. Felt like old times taking a college road trip with my buddies. Spending way to long deciding what to eat from gas stations, being stupid in the van even though it's way to early in the morning, and messing around with the other van of staff members. (see photo)
• Playing on HUGE sand dunes. Jocky's ridge is a state park on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It's the largest active sand dune east of the Mississippi. Pretty much just large hills of sand where people play... hang gliders, football, there was even a two mile race where the winner finished in 18 minutes. That's VERY slow for a good runner. (Any photo with sand is from Jocky's ridge.
• Going to the memorial of the Wright Brothers and throwing a boomerang... and catching it. (I had to run a little, but it came back to me) (The photos are of me and the yearbook photo editor, Austin Dowd)
• Playing in the Atlantic with waves taller than me. It's my first time losing control of my body because the waves were too powerful... and I've got the scratches and bruises to prove it. (I swam, and didn't take any photos, I have to put down my camera every now and then)
• Teaching people how to eat crabs during a crab boil and some guys house. They "steamed" their crabs and most of the people didn't know how to eat them. Who would have thought that a kid from Kansas would ever have the chance to teach someone how to eat crabs. (again, having fun with out a camera)
  
• Playing Cornhole with the dudes. HA! like how I said that? It's a tailgating type game where you toss bean (corn) bags back and fourth trying to get them in a little hole on a board. Like horse shoes, except with bags and holes instead of horseshoes and poles.
• Eating at a place in Durham where my buddy Rob worked for 4 years as a student at Duke. He suggested I go eat there, and when we had a few extra hours after getting back from the Outer Banks, we went there and had some good seafood. I thought it was funny when Bradley said "You can't order anything that you can get in the Gulf" Not possible. I had the dolphin and some corn. (I have a photo of me in front of this place, but it's still in my camera and I don't feel like working it up right now)
  
• Oh, and of course teaching the future photo journalists and all that important stuff.

This marks my fourth time to the Outer Banks. It's a great place and it's harder to leave each time I go. I suggest a trip out there if you ever can't decide where to go on vacation. So enjoy my photos.

I'm heading to Misty's to see the puppies... they've all opened their eyes.

obx

well... I'm in a university van on my way home from the outer banks of north carolina.

this is also my first post using my phone. so wish me luck.

I've got a bunch of photos to pass along...but I don't have them on this phone but you'll see them soon enough.

ill be back in houma monday afternoon.

ok... typing on this phone makes me sick when I'm in the back of a 15 passenger van.

I think I got something in my teeth, could you get it out for me... That's F****** team work!

This post goes out to the queen of pibb, the master of tardiness, the dictator of... you get the point. Misty saved my arse today by letting me use her (awesome) car.

I was driving around this evening looking for a photograph. I wasn't having any luck and had gotten past the frustration point. Plus, I still had a half hour drive to another assignment. While driving up Park Avenue I hear this THUD under my car. I pull over and sure enough, my back passenger tire is all sorts of flat. (I think I ran over a hammer or something, I never saw what made the noise, but it sure sucked)

So I call Misty, she turns around and comes to help me out. So while I play with Taylor in the back of her car, Misty puts my spare tire on my car. Then, offers me her car to drive to my next assignment. Whatta sport hu? (I even listend to that BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY rock it everywhwere song about 5 times while driving back from Thibodaux)

She even fixed the huge dent I had in my back bumper... it's been there for months.

So everybody give misty a big round of applause for her efforts in Village East today. (Oh, that's misty in the attached photo... she's the one on the right)

Hopefully my next post will be from the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Tis the Season

Nothing says hot, humid, August days like building a gingerbread house while playing Christmas music. (The Elbow macaroni shingles were my idea.)

This is how we spent a part of our Sunday afternoon. I told Misty this is the earliest she's ever been with anything.

The house smelled funny, so we didn't eat it. We're still deciding on how to get rid of it.

Time, is never time at all.

Another pet-peeve of mine...

I go on assignment to photograph this Mexican restaurant. I need to shoot 4-6 different shots of this place. I tell the manager what I'm doing and he says, "I'm sorry, I don't have time. We're to busy. Why don't you come back when nobody is here. Then I'll let you take photos."

I try to explain that taking photos does not take up anybodies time. Everybody can just continue on with what they're doing.

Didn't work. He wanted me to come back next week when nobody was at the restaurant. "OK," I said. (then I thought... "I'd be glad to give you free advertising of your business looking empty and lifeless.")

I guess I can kind of see his side... maybe he didn't want a photographer walking around and bothering his customers. (Which I wouldn't do). Maybe he thinks he has to follow me around while I shoot. (Which he doesn't)

Needless to say, this is a pretty common excuse. It's the same reason I tell the writers to not schedule the photo assignment at the same time as the interview. When the writer asks "When can I come over and do an interview with you." The subjects think "When am I not doing anything so I can get interviewed?" Therefore, it's the worst time to make a photograph of this subject because they're not doing whatever it is that we're doing a story on... so the best time for an interview is the worst time for a photo.

Ok, I'm done with that little rant.

Now, enjoy this photo from a dog wash this morning.

Do you remember?

Maybe I just remember a lot of stuff. At least I've been told "I can't believe you remember that" more than one time. I remember where I sat in the Lunch Room on my first full day of school, it was on a blue seat next to my best friend Scott V. (I have no clue how to spell his last name). I remember getting fussed at by my swimming instructor one summer during swimming lessons because I kept asking "can we just swim around like normal?" (the answer was NO of course) I remember falling down on the sidewalk at the end of Frontier Lane while walking to school with my brother Ben. He picked me up, took me home and hooked me up with a Band-Aid.

Of course I remember big life events like shooting my first college bowl game, or winning my first wrestling match in high school.

But I sure as heck remember my first time riding a bike with out training wheels. My brother John had a hold of me and my bike at the top of my street. He let me go and I remember peddling, but not knowing how to turn. So I crashed into the gutter at the other end of my street. (We lived on a culdesac). I don't remember being hurt, but I remember being thrilled that I had finally done something that my older brothers could do.

Anyway, those memories popped back to me today while watching Misty help Taylor ride a bike without training wheels. A little push to get her going, then running along side to make sure she didn't drift into the street, or into a car. (should be noted that Taylor did crash into my car once, she wasn't hurt... and Taylor was just fine too.)

So here are some shots of Misty and Taylor this afternoon.

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

I went to the hospital again today for some more blood work. Ended up proving the Doctor's office wrong. They told me I needed to have blood tests every four weeks... Starting five weeks ago. So I asked why I was told to come in for a sixth time and the nurse said "oops, I don't know why we told you to come in this time... sorry."

I felt like I had just proved a teacher wrong in grade school.

Anyway, I was walking to the billing dept. to set up a payment plan and I heard a song coming from a room....

"Hold me closer Tony Daaaaannzzzzaaaaa"

Then, I went into an office to set up my payment plan and watched a lady in training fiddle with the computer for 5 minutes trying to set me up. She couldn't so I had to move one office over so another lady (with a little bit of a mustache) could schedule my monthly payments to the hospital.

After that ordeal, I was leaving the hospital and heard another song...

"Big old jet had a light on. Don't carry me to far away."

I invite anybody to name those two songs, and list any more song lyrics that might get a little confused.

As for the photo attached... I spent the morning with a nice lady named Tranqualina who worked for the Terrebonne Council of Aging delivering meals to the old folks. She said this one man always comes to the van to pick up his meals. Nice guy.

You run, you slide, you hit the bump and take a dive

Well, I overcame my fear of public water parks/pools this weekend. Misty and I went to Blue Bayou Water park in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Little pricey, but we had a lot of fun and most importantly, I swam in public and even talked back to this punk security guard who told me to walk back around in the rain to exit the park.

I don't really know where my fear of public pools came from. I took swimming lessons at the City Park Pool, I attended summer birthday parties at pools, but, around my teen years, I just stopped going to public pools. Maybe it was the time my brother pulled down my trunks, or maybe it was the time I lost my summer pool pass and felt sorry for wasting my mom and dad's money, maybe it was because I swam in lakes and ponds and liked the thought of swimming with fish and squishing mud in my toes. I don't really know.

Other highlights from this weekend include....

1. Hearing Misty's name on local TV
2. Hearing my name on local TV
3. Hearing both are names on local TV
4. Hearing my brother Ben's name on localTV
5. Misty's dog having 5 puppies
6. Earning over 1000 tickets at the Arcade in about one hour
7. The batting cage
8. The self portraits (see photos)

OK, the TV thing, we knew a couple people doing this Cerebral Palsy telethon thing yesterday. It was on Local TV so we called our friends who were taking calls in the background and had them do stupid stuff while we watched on TV. Every so often, our friends would read off who donated and how much. Of course, they filled out cards for us so they read our name. "Misty McElroy pledged $5." "Matt Stamey pledged $5" "Misty and Matt McElroy Pleged $5" Then I had my brother from Kansas Call in... "Ben Stamey from Kansas pledged $10" Quite the way to spend a lazy Sunday morning.

Spy vs Spy

I think most people would consider my day today to be a "bad day" But for some reason, the few "bad" things that happened to me I've just let slide on by. Maybe because it's Friday and I have a three day weekend to look forward to. Or maybe they just weren't that bad. Who knows. So here's a Pro's and Con's list of my day.

Con's:

1. Tried to copy a bunch of photos onto the server. Got a message saying "the server is full, delete some stuff then try again." OK, no problem. I select a bunch of photos I don't need anymore and deleted them. Come to find out, I accidentally deleted a folder that had about two weeks worth of work in it. Oops. So I call the Tech guys and they say "shouldn't be a problem, I'll go find it for you in our back-ups." Sweet, problem solved. The Tech dude comes back and says... "Uhhh, can't find it. We haven't backed up our server since January. But we're backing it up right now." Yea, great, a lot of good that'll do me. So that sucked. But I actually can't wait to tell my boss about this. Because it sounds like I really screwed up at first, but then it'll be all the Tech guy's fault. Then I'll bust out the fact that because they didn't back-up the servers, they also lost EVERYTHING I shot during the Hurricanes last year.... EVERYTHING. (But I saved everything on my computer during the storm so I still have them.)
2. For the past three days, the AC in my car started to be really poopie. It just blew air, and not cold air. And if you haven't felt a south Louisiana August, I don't suggest you try. It's hell. So I've been sweating my A$$ off every time I drove anywhere. (I've put 150 miles on my car in those three days). So today, Misty's dad took a look at it. He found the problem, and it's fixed. I'm just going to leave it at that. Because the people who do know what the problem was will be giving me more than enough "crap" and I don't think I need any more. But now my AC works and that's all that matters.
3. I just burnt the crap out of my mouth on oven pizza.
4. I got another medical bill from the hospital. Yea, it's a lot.
   

Ok, now some Pro's

1. I've been taking some darn good photos lately. I've got a couple really good projects in the making. And I just feel darn good about my job right now.
2. I played some Skee-Ball with Misty today. Any day with Skee-ball is a good day
3. I tuned on the TV to eat my pizza just in time to see Rodney Dangerfield complete the _______ at the end of the movie Back to School. (10 points if you can fill in the blank)
4. I've got a three day weekend to enjoy
5. I'm listening to Rebirth Bras Band right now.
6. Misty and I are planning to go to Baton Rouge tomorrow.
7. I have my AC back
8. I should have my camera back next week. (had to send it in for some repairs)
9. I hung out with this dude who works in a shrimp packing plant today. Very cool, even though I smelled like shrimp the rest of the day.
   

So there you go. I don't really have any recent photos, so I'll leave you with a photo of my buddy Kelly and his wife Lindsey. We were goofing off by the lake when I was back home a few weeks ago. My friend Cary Conover posted some photos of his from that same week. Kind of fun to look at if you get some time. Here you go...

Have a good weekend.

Negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c all over two a

Just got a message that my brothers dog, Trig (short for trigonometry) took a visit to the KSU vet school the other day. He had some issues with one of his eyes. He's all cool now, but as my dad put it, "his eye lid is sewn shut, he looks like he was in a boxing match....and lost."

I don't know exactly what is wrong with him, except that he's REALLY old.

John got Trig sometime in the early 90's. I don't know exactly when, but I know he was around with my other dog, Barney, for a few years... and Barney Died in 1995. Trig is a pound dog, we don't really know what kind of dog he is, or how old he is. I think he has some Dingo in him. But his signature "WWWOOOOFF" has been waking Stamies up too early for many years. (I know, I said Stamies, I think it's funny)

So this shot is from a few years back. Trig, John, Barrett and I built a fire after spending the afternoon fishing. I haven't seen any photos of the current Trig, and this is all I could find right now.

Everybody... Trig
Trig... Everybody

(Oh, and I know the subject doesn't have much to do with trigonometry, but it's one of the only math terms that I can bust out at any time)