The Tiny Cheeseburgers were a big hit

Well, over a month of work all came together Friday night during the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina Gallery. It was pretty neat to see everything displayed in one place.

I'd guess that about 30 people showed up, but I'm the worst at guessing the amount of people in an area.

About an hour before the start of the show, I ran to the store and picked up some treats to eat. Including: Cheese cubes, Squeeze Cheese, Tiny Cheeseburgers, crackers, soft batch chocolate chip cookies, a veggie tray and Three Blind Moose red wine. (the label looked really cool).

People started to show up around 6.

After about an hour of hanging out and chatting with everybody, I played the DVD I made. A few people told me after the video that they were fighting back tears. I took that as a good thing.

Here are a few shots taken by Valerie Parkhill (friend of Misty's). I gave her my point and shoot camera for the night and let her document everything. Misty also took some shots and they can be seen here. So thanks to Val and Misty for taking photos of the evening.

Here's a shot of the outside of the Museum. It's also a museum about Terrebonne Parish. They have stuff about everything that goes on in Terrebonne Parish. Alligators, Oil, Shrimping, Crabbing, Oysters, Hurricanes... etc. But they have a section of the building open to Art Galleries. That's where my stuff was.


Left to Right: Chris Forrest, Keith Magill, Me, Miles Forest.

Miles is the Publisher of the Courier and Comet. (My bosses bosses boss) and that's his wife talking with Keith, the Executive Editor of The Courier and Comet. (My bosses boss).

A highlight of the evening is when Miles said to me "Wow Matt, I really liked how they set everything up. The frames look good, they're hung very nicely. The video looked good and the food... The Museum did a good job."

"I did all that Miles. I did everything. They just gave me the space to do it"

Then a few minutes later Keith asked "Hey Matt, who did your writing for the video? Because what you said was very well written."

"I did all that Keith, I just talked into the camera about what I did during the storm."

"Did you have a giant poster behind the camera and you read what was on the poster?"

"Nope, I just talked."

I can do more than just take pictures.


Here's the setup of the Gallery. The table of food was right in the middle. The TV that shows the DVD is in the back and the prints are on the walls. There were 21 prints of the Faces, and 18 prints of other photos from Katrina. (I have 21 prints of other stuff... but I bought Hobby Lobby out of 8x10 frames)


I couldn't have hoped for anything better. It was a great night. Misty's dad took some video, and maybe someday I'll get around to posting that.

The ladies who gave me the opportunity to display my work asked if my video could become a permanent piece in the museum. And they want to help this show travel to other museums in the Region.

It's always been a dream of mine to have my own show where people show up, drink wine, eat cheese and talk about whatever. And that's exactly what happened. Soon after shooting these photos in 2005, I was told "these photos are gallery quality." I guess Susan Kille in New York was right.

Crazy Three Days

Pretty wild three days... even for a photojournalist at a daily newspaper... in South Louisiana.

Quick Rundown.

Tuesday:

• -First Day of School (got to school at 6:30 a.m.)
• -House Fire (claimed the lives of two poodles.)
• -Car Wreck (I had a REALLY interesting journalism ethics situations rise from this... but that will be it's own post in the future.)
• Night Out Against Crime (Neighbors marched through the streets... I soaked an entire shirt with sweat)

Wednesday:

• Went down the Bayou to photograph oak trees cracking tombs in a cemetery
• Fatal Wreck... Truck vs Cop Car (Had another interesting journalism ethics situation come from this)
• Murder in Bayou Blue (Get eaten up by mosquitoes while photographing a trailer where the woman lived and talking with neighbors)

Thursday: (My day off because it was my three year anniversary of my first day at The Courier)

• Huge house fire in Dularge. (I think it's safe to say that it's the largest fire I've seen)

And of course Friday is the opening of my Faces of Katrina Gallery. When I wasn't at the house fire on Thursday, I was at the Museum hanging photos. Big thanks to Misty for helping out with that. She has a better eye for seeing if the frames are in line.

Anyway, here are a couple photos from the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire. I've also put photo galleries on The Couriers website. One from the First Day of School, the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire.

First the Cop Car crash. The passenger in the truck died... wasn't wearing a seat belt. The drivers in both vehicles were wearing seat belts. They both had mild injuries. I'll let you make the connection there.


Now the huge house fire. Nobody was injured. A few firemen were treated for heat, but are just fine. Oh, the heat index at the time of the fire was about 110. Nasty.

I know what you won't be doing Aug. 10....

.... And that's watching the Saints play the Bills in the Superdome.

Why?

Because you're going to be at the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina photo gallery at the Terrebonne Waterlife Museum from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. Duh.

But if football is more your thing, that's cool. The show will be up all month.

It's crunch time for me right now to get everything finished. But it's coming along smoothly. And by smoothly I mean spending any second of free time to work on this gallery. I've only taken breaks for work, eat, sleep and watching Bonds whenever he's up to bat.

The museum is supposed to be mailing out post cards to help spread the word. But I haven't seen anything yet.

I've got 42 images I need to get framed... and right now I'm nine frames short. But the Manager at Hobby Lobby said the frames I need will be re-stocked Friday evening. (I purchased all they had in stock last week.... they were on sale)

And I'm working on a DVD that will be played in the back of the gallery. It's a quick video type thing of me talking about how I covered the storm and all that good stuff.

But the reception should be pretty cool. I get to serve food and drinks. Any suggestions on what to serve at something like this are welcome.

There really isn't much else to report. No cool photos really. So this post will be photo-less.

Hope to see everybody on Aug. 10th.

Steel City, Stamey. Stamey, Steel City

I needed a break.

So this past weekend, I took a trip to Pittsburgh PA to visit Nabil, my friend from college. The plan of the trip was to have a good time and not think about anything that might be close to work. I thought about posting from Pittsburgh, but decided to go do things rather than sit at my computer.

Should be noted that this was my first trip anywhere since college that I didn't take my camera gear with me. I only took along my new, little point and shoot camera. It fit great in my pocket and not once did I get a "Wow, what kind of camera is that?" or "That sure is a big camera..."

Anyway I figured I better get something posted about this trip or I might never get around to posting anything. The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy.

So here we go....

Pittsburgh PA; Home of the first Big Mac. The only town in PA whose name ends in "gh" and the only city with pro sports teams that all share the same colors. (You know you knew that but just never put it together until now uh?)

Here's downtown Pittsburgh. There are two rivers that join to make the Ohio River smack in the middle of this town. I'm not even going to try an name those two rivers... but they make a point that's home to a state park called... you guessed it.. Point Park. And it just so happens that Nabil is getting his masters from Point Park University. So there you go.



And yes, we rode that little thing up to the top of the big hill. The "lifts" were built in 1877 I believe... two years before the Pittsburgh Pirates became a pro team. They were used to transport steel workers back home. They still serve the same purpose, But now they're a little more touristy.

Speaking of the Pirates. Nabs and I took in the Pirates vs Astros series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With Nabil being a student, he hooked us up with "College Cove" tickets for 20 bucks on the first night. And for that 20 bucks we got a ticket to the game, a t-shirt, and a $10 coupon to the concession stand. So basically we got stuck in deep right field, got a new "work out" shirt, and my first hot dog and beer were free. I'll take that any day.

Here's the view from those seats. Yea, that window thing was kind of annoying, but made for a cool pic.



Houston won game one.

Quick funny story... Houston has a pitcher named Roy Oswalt. He's pretty good. And the Houston fans at the game would shout "Go Roy Ols! Go Roy Ols" I felt like I was back home at the K watching Mike Sweeney again.

I decided to splurge a little bit for game two. When I went to the ticket booth I told the dude "two seats as close as you can get." We were in prime foul ball location ... but no luck. (Side Note: It's been a life long dream to catch a major league foul ball.... or home run)

Before the game, the Pirates retired a jersey of some dude who played for them in the 20's. They had a nice little ceremony before the game where Hall of Fame member Bill Mazeroski made an appearance. As you know, Bill hit a home run to win the 1960 world series. I think it's safe to say that he's a baseball legend.

So here's Bill walking onto the field... and this will also show you our view.

Oh, this was also 1980's Pirates Logo bobble head night.


Pirates won an exciting game two... 21 total hits I believe. Home runs by Carlos Lee and Freddie Sanchez.

For the Rubber Match, we decided on left field. Figured we should try as many vantage points as possible in the ball park that ESPN/USA Today calls "the best major league ball park." So we got pretty close to the field out in Left and watched the Astros win 1-0. Highlights from game three include. 1: Me watching every pitch of the game because I was keeping score on the score card.... was my first time doing that. It helps that Nabil has been a sports writer for some time now. 2: A closeup visit from the mascot.


So after three days of expensive beer I think we were pretty baseballed out. But it was very much worth it.

In college, I took a history of baseball class my senior year. By far one of my favorite classes. But our final project was to write a 10-page paper on who I thought was the greatest baseball player of all time. Very cool assignment. Most people in the class picked Ruth or Mays or Mantle... but I picked Roberto Clemente. He was a solid ball player... but a better man off the field.

On the final game of the 1972 season, he hit his 3,000th hit. And during the off season, he was killed while on a plane to deliver supplies to an area hit with an earthquake.

He was a Pittsburgh Pirate and there was a statue of him outside PNC Park. So it was pretty cool to be in the city where he used to play. (The Ball Park he played in has been torn down). We even had to walk across the "Roberto Clemente Bridge" to get to the stadium.

So here's me in my #21 jersey by the statue.


On Monday, Nabil and I took a little drive to the Zoo. Yep, two 26-year-olds chilln' at the Zoo. (he got free passes so why not?)

Their newest (and best) exhibit is a tunnel where their Polar Bear swims over your head as you walk through. We saw the bear, but it wasn't in the tunnel area. So we pretty much just walked through this giant blue tube. But, not all was lost because they have another tunnel where the sea otters swim all around you.


And that pretty much wraps up the major highlights of the trip. Or at least the high lights that I felt like working up photos for.

Other points of interest during the trip include.

-Stupid Airlines. My Ticket says US Airways. So I go to their counter and they can't find my information. Turns out, they're partners with United and that's who I'm flying on. But it doesn't say that anywhere. So on the Return flight I go to United and they don't have my information b/c I'm supposed to be on US Airways. Frustrating.

-Lunch at the place Jerome Bettis owns.... right next to Heinz field.

-A tour of PNC Park. We got to sit in the home dugout. (which is on the third base line btw)

-Fireworks show against the Skyline after game one.

-Waiting in line with Nabil at Barnes and Noble to buy the Harry Potter book... only to walk to Wal-Mart and get it there. I did pull a funny joke there though... there was a group of teenage kids behind us in line, so when Nabil got the book, I opened it up to the last page and said "alright, I'm going to read the last page out loud... ready?" And they all started to scream for me to stop. I thought that was funny.

- Trying to catch home run balls during batting practice of game two.

-An interesting conversation with Nabil's neighbor on Saturday night.

-Ordering food from the kids concession stand at PNC park. Smaller portion sizes, but... a pretzel, nachos and a Mt. Dew for 4 bucks... that's less than a beer.

-Lunch at this local downtown Pittsburgh place that serves it's hamburgers with the french fries between the bread. Yep, it's heart stopping (clogging). It goes like this Bread, meat, cheese, fries, cole slaw, bread. There's also a tomato in there, but not for me.

I'm sure I'm missing something... so Nabil, feel free to add anything I might have left out.

It was a great trip and it got topped off with a surprise birthday cake from Misty on my day off. I came home from getting my oil changed to find Misty in my kitchen with a cake.

Up next, the Grand Isle International Tarpon Fishing Rodeo. Yep, be jealous that I'll be there. It's the summer version of Mardi Gras with out the parades.

Weird feeling that I Leica lot

I had a weird feeling today. I got off work around 7:00 p.m. and had nothing to do. Sure, there were things I could do. But it felt weird to be done with work and be at home with daylight left and no plans.

So I took a jog.

I zig-zagged through my neighborhood for almost 2 miles. (1.9 according to my post-run drive to see exactly how far I ran) My goal is to get into the routine of running enough to warrant buying that Nike/iPod combo where the iPod plays songs according to how you're running. It'll keep track of how far and long you've run. Then you just come back to the computer, sync it up and you can keep a tab of your workouts. Right now, I'm one of those runners who just goes out and jogs every now an then. But if I can get into a routine of running 3-4 days a week, I think it might be worth it to drop some cash on new shoes and an iPod.

So maybe getting my running thoughts out in the open will force me to run more. We'll see.

Now moving back to photography... I got a new camera the other day. I got a Leica point and shoot. It's small and black and perfect for just carrying around with me when I don't want to lug my work camera with me.

I think it's kind of funny how people always comment to me about how much they'd love to have my camera when they see me on assignments. It's opposite for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my work camera. But there are just sometimes I don't want to look like a photographer. I like to blend in a little bit.

That's why I got this little guy. It can fit in my pockets and the quality is darn close to the quality of my work camera.

So that's fun.

Here's a shot of me from the new Hobby Lobby sore in Houma. And a shot of a wine tasting Misty and I went to a couple weeks ago. I like my wine to have a deep woodsy taste... whatever that means.

Friday the 13th

Alright.. it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm not finished with work yet.

So yea, I'm tired. Here's a time line of my Friday the 13th.

6:30 a.m. - Wake up call from work

7:00 - 8:00 a.m. - At work searching for archived photo for that days paper.

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Outside in the sauna of South Louisiana taking pictures of the Manning Passing Academy. Peyton, Eli and the other Manning guys are in town hosting a camp for high school football players. Pretty cool... but very hot.

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - At home for lunch. But I came home to find that the leftover Hamburger Helper from the night before had been thrown away. I know it wasn't eaten because nobody was at home near the hours you'd might eat Hamburger Helper. Unless they had it for breakfast.

1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - At the office working on my photos from the Manning Passing Academy.

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - Standing under the Twin Spans (bridges in downtown Houma) while local law enforcement drag the bottom of the bayou looking for a man who drowned while trying to swim. It was still hot.

5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Back at the office making sure the sports guys had their photos, the news guys had their photos, the A.P. had their photos, our photo galleries had their photos and Keith had his photos from everything I'd shot so far. (had 8oz RedBull at 6:00 p.m.)

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - In Chauvin attending a surprise party for a guy who's lived 20 years after having a liver transplant. Friday marked exactly 20 years since his surgery.

8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Back at the office finishing up everything before heading to my last assignment.

9: 15 p.m - Had 12oz RedBull

9:30 p.m. - 1:30 a.m. - Rode along with the Terrebonne Parish Narcotics Task Force while they catch bad guys with drugs. We caught one dude with a little bit of crack.

1:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. - After getting dropped off at my car to come home and sleep, I get a call about a shooting on Main Street. There were two people shot outside a downtown Houma night club. One of them killed.

Now - I'm back at the office putting a photo of the shooting online and typing this blog.

And Tomorrow during my day off I'll be back at the Manning Passing Academy (in just a few hours)... then back in the office editing video from the Passing Camp.

And after all that, I'm only showing you one photo... because it's really the only photo I like. It's of the Crackhead getting arrested.

:)

YELLOW HELMET... EXIT PORT SIDE!

I had quite the wild ride last week.

Rob (A Courier reporter) and I went to Morgan City to do a business assignment. We went to a Community College that has a bunch of different marine training classes.

We met with a couple of teachers who were training some students how to escape a helicopter in the case of a crash landing in the water. They had a mock helicopter cabin above a swimming pool. The unit splashes into the water, flips over and the students must correctly exit the helicopter.

It was pretty cool to see... and photograph. I had my camera in a fish tank taking some shots of the folks as they were exiting underwater. After they did it a couple times, they asked me if I wanted to give it a try.

I looked at Rob and he said "You have too Matt. You'd hate yourself later if you didn't do this."

So they hooked me up with goggles and a yellow helmet. (Non-Swimmers get the yellow helmets.)

And then my adventure began.

They hooked me up with a helmet, a jump suit and some goggles... and I hoped in the water.


And I made my way over to the simulator.


I got some instructions from Melissa... the Instructor who had done this over 5,000 times. What I had to do was hold the bottom of the seat with one hand, and hold the outside of the window with the other hand.


Melissa helped me with the seat belt that had to be strapped snug across my waste. I did a couple practice swipes to get the feeling of how to un-hood the belt. I didn't want to be under water upside down and not know how to undo the seat belt. (it was the kind you use in airplanes.)


Rob yelled at me to give him a thumbs up. That was the last thing on my mind, but I did it anyway. I told Melissa that I don't think I've ever been so nervous. And she kept telling me "We'll get you out, don't worry about that. We'll get you out if you have problems."

Melissa shouts some commands to the operator of the Chopper. She announced that I was a "yellow helmet" which means that I'm a rookie. She also yelled "Exit Port Side Window!" Which is the left side window when you're sitting normal. But it seems like you're right side when you're upside down. The Cab drops into the water and starts to roll over at the same time.


And away we go! This thing is supposed to simulate exactly what you'll feel in a helicopter crash. They've had people practice in this thing, then actually be in a crash and came back to say that it felt exactly the same.


Deep Breath


And under the water we go. It happened fast... the rush of the water and the flipping upside down took me out of reality for a while. I had no idea which way I was facing. After a few seconds, I made eye contact with Melissa and was able to figure out which way was up and out. She tapped me on the knee letting me know that the rolling had stopped and that I needed to start my escape.


After the tap on the knee, I un-hooked my seat belt, scooted off my seat a little bit, ducked down and popped out the port side window. There was a diver at the bottom of the pool to guide me to the "shore"


AIR! It only lasted a few seconds, but felt like forever. It was such a rush. When I got to the side of the pool, I just wanted to yell and give high fives to everybody. But I held back because I figured everybody in the room had done it many times before.


After I came down from my Chopper Crash High, Melissa said that my roll was "a little more violent than normal" So I guess that's cool. They usually have a full cabin but when it's just one student, the chopper tents to have a mind of it's own.

So there you go, They've invited me back later this summer to take part in all the activities they teach students. Firefighting, Boat Capt. Training and a bunch of other cool stuff I can't think of right now.

I felt like I was on Fear Factor. If anybody gets a chance, I'd suggest doing this. It'll give you a natural high for at least two days.

Nobody Nose

Had a pretty busy day today. It started by going to the Sheriffs office to take a photo of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries having a lottery to decide who can catch alligators this season. I guess only a few people can hunt gators so they draw ping-pong balls out of a bucket to see who gets to hunt.

I got there a little late and they were done picking out the ping-pong balls. So, one of the guys there says "No problem, we'll just act like we're pulling ping-pong balls out of this bucket." It just happened to be the same guy who's running for Sheriff. So I played along, took the staged photo of him smiling at me while reaching into a bucket, then quickly threw the images away.

After that, it was down the bayou to find anything to do with commercial fishing. I hit up a shrimp packing plant in Dulac. The nice secretary served me a piece of German Chocolate Cake while waiting for "bossman" to come back from the doctors office. Once he got back, he gave me a tour of their facility. It smelled REALLY bad in there.

While there, I got a call about a trailer fire. Turned out not to be much, but one of my firemen buddies was there so I had a nice chat with him. It smelled like burnt stuff out there.

From there, I went to a Budweiser distributing warehouse and took some shots of a dude loading cases of beer onto a forklift. It smelled like a Sunday morning Frat house in there.

From there, I went to a Pro/Am golf tournament. There's a minor league type golf tournament in Houma this week. The dude who won it two years ago has been making some noise on the PGA tour this year.

I hooked up with a foursome and followed them for the back nine. After the 3rd hole I smelled like a mix of shrimp, fire, beer and sweat. It was nasty hot outside today.

When I got back to the office and started to comb through all my photos from today, I thought this photo kind of fit well. And it's kind of funny too.

Geekfest PDX 2007

I spent this past weekend in Portland Ore. attending Geekfest. An annual gathering of photographers from around the country. (Two from Houma... Misty and me)

It's a weekend without editors, no right or wrong, no holes to fill, no rules... except to make some images and have a good time. And that's exactly what I needed. I feel like my Art has been slipping away and my photography has turned into shooting only what the paper wants. And I hate that feeling. I need to get back into shooting matt stamey photos and not just Houma Courier photos. If that makes sense. And this weekend was a good escape for me. It gave me the chance to shoot for me, and only me.

Anyway, enough of the boring talk, lets look at some pictures.

1: Hung out at this fountain for a while in downtown Portland, that dude sitting there was pretty cool.


2: When you gotta go, you gotta go I guess. These were some Police horses we saw.


3: A fleet of Navy ships were in Downtown Portland. (there is a river the divides the city) Not quite sure why, but there were about 6-7 huge gray Navy ships parked along the bank. So here's a Sailor sitting on the deck just hanging out I guess.


4: Across the River from our Hotel was a carnival, so we spent some time eating cotton candy and even rode that ship ride that swings back and fourth. Misty loves that ride... I'll be just fine if I never ride one again. But here are a couple kids who just got inflatable toys.


5: On Saturday, Misty and rented a car and drove to Multnomah Falls (Mul-no-mah). It's a huge water fall about 30 miles east of Portland. It has trails all over the place for people to walk/hike. Some of the trails are paved while others are just skinny paths in the middle of the woods. So we took one of those skinny paths. We hiked for a little over two hours. I don't know how far. It was beautiful. There was a light rain falling and the higher you got, the foggier it got. The trails pretty much follow the Columbia River. So every now and then you could look through the trees and see a boat fishing for Salmon or Trout or Halibut or whatever else the fish for.

Here are some shots from that afternoon. We got soaked. The rain wasn't very strong, but when you're out in it for almost three hours, it really adds up. Misty got a poncho at the gift shop and we ripped it in half and taped them to our cameras. I think our cameras were the only things dry when we got back to the car.




6: After the waterfalls, we decided to drive to the coast. According to the map, it only looked like about an hour and half drive. Pretty easy. Nope... I forgot we were in the mountains. We took this windy two-lane road in the rain. It wasn't fun. On the way back, I had to pull over on the side of the road to keep from throwing up. I closed my eyes for a while and became less dizzy.

Speaking of getting pulled over, while we were driving from the coast back to Tillamook to find a place to eat, a Tillamook County Sheriff Officer stopped me for what he thought was drunk driving. It wasn't drunk driving, just bad driving. I assured him that I had nothing to drink and after looking at my drivers licence he let us go. But only after we asked him for a place to eat.

We made it back to Portland just fine.

Anyway, the coast was fun... cold and rainy, but fun. We ate at a local diner place that turned out to be a hotel chain all through the western United States. But I had a chunk of Halibut so I figured it was pretty local.



A couple quick tid-bits about Oregon... Did you know it's illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon? Yep, we stopped at a gas station in Tillamook, went inside to get a snack and the dude asked how much I wanted, went outside and pumped it for me.

Also, did you know there is no sales tax in Oregon? Yep, we did some shopping and eating while we were there... and when the price tag says 32 dollars, that's exactly how much it'll be. Or when the bag of sore throat drops says $3.95, that's exactly how much it'll cost. Pretty cool I thought.

If anybody is debating on where to go on their next trip, I suggest Portland and the surrounding area. It's beautiful up there, and the weather was great. We wore jackets most of the time... and it's June. I loved it.

The worst part of the trip (aside from the drive to the coast) was arriving in New Orleans at Midnight to 80 degree weather and humidity that'll make you sweat in less than a minute.

Matt Stamey/Staff

I figured I'd post a little something before heading out to Portland this weekend. Misty and I are attending Geekfest, a workshop hosted by Aphotoaday.org. It's pretty much a gathering of photographers... and we'll shoot some stuff, talk about it, shoot some more, talk about it, eat, shoot, sleep, talk, shoot... until Sunday. Should be a good time.

A couple of things going on about me...

I got another Staff infection. Not cool. I've got three "flare-ups" on me right now. The doctor hooked me up with some drugs (antibiotics I assume) and I should be good in a day or two. These things are similar to that thing on my hand a while back. Only at a different location. They hurt.

The Courier is designing another "wrap" page using my photos that won awards this past year. A "wrap" is a single page thing that wraps a bunch of insert advertisements in Sunday papers. They did one of these things for me last year, and want to do another one this year. This page also has a picture of me. Only Dee Dee (my boss) wanted a new, more current photo to use. So this evening I took some self portraits in the studio. And this is what I ended up with.

BTW: I didn't use any photoshop to make this image. I think it's pretty cool. I don't know if it'll fly with higher-ups, but at least now I have current self portrait. (as if I don't take enough already)

While I'm at it... here are a few images I've made recently.


This kid is 7... he's a state champ bike racer in his age group. This is the type of photo I make when the subject has already done what we're writing a story on, and the subject isn't doing anything at the time of the assignment.


A kid shoots a 20-gage shotgun. The Junior Shooting team down here was practicing for the state contest.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux celebrated their 30th birthday with a REALLY LONG mass Tuesday night. The main guy stood outside the front door of the church greeting people after the mass.