Airbrushing for God, and a brush fire

Erika Bryant airbrushes designs given to her by God. She's like Joan D'Arc for people who use pressure sprayers to paint tee-shirts. And a very cool lady besides. And there was, of course, a brush fire. Which destroyed my sense of smell, I'm pretty sure. It was either that, or the car that caught on fire this morning. Either way, everything smells like smoke for some reason. Firefighters from station 16, mostly. Apparently, they've got a thing against talking to the press, other than to say, "Man, what're you doing walking around through this stuff?" Nice guys, though, all of them. And, as one of my bosses pointed out, it's a tough job.

Jeez ... the one time I wear khakis ...

Why the dirty pants, you ask? Because I was wading through this for an hour:There was a brush fire in Wylam but by the time I got there, it was smoldering and contained. So I went walking around with a couple of the firefighters.

The last time I tried to bake cookies -- and I do mean the *last* time; I'll leave the baking up to others more suited to the task from here on out -- I remember the acrid, but mildly sweet smell. And this is exactly what I was thinking about when I went walking through the soot-covered, torso-high sticks that remained. So now I'm trying to think of somewhere I can buy some chocolate chip cookies.

Nobody was hurt, by the way, so cheers! Here's to cookies. Even the burnt ones. I'll post more photos later.

Surgeon General down on yonder farm

So, discovered something cool about Birmingham on this assignment: there's a farm right next to Highway 280. It's the Jones Valley Urban Farm, where people can get small plots of land to plant gardens, or vegetables, or whatever strikes their green-thumbed fancy. Pretty cool. Also, they do a Seed-to-Plate program with the local YMCA, leading kids through farming to harvesting to cooking the veggies and such that come from the garden.

Never wanted broccoli so much in my life. Don't ask me why.

Oh, and the Surgeon General showed up to give out an award to the Jefferson County Childhood Obesity Taskforce, which is also cool.

Sarah Ellison pulls out old tomato plants at the end of the season on Monday, Sept. 22.

Bree Garrett, left, leads Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson, center, around the Jones Valley Urban Farm on Monday, Sept. 22.

Bree Garrett, in green, and Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson walk past the JVUF hoop house on a tour of the farm on Monday.

Also, it was the first official day of Fall, so here's the the closest thing I got to a seasonal photo from the trip. I just thought the colors might be a little reminiscent of fall ... sure, it's not the kids playing in a pile of leaves, or jack'o'lanterns lined up on a doorstep, but come on, it's early yet ...

Later, y'all.

Quick upload

The capture of an escaped prisoner, a portrait of a financial advisor, hummingbirds, and a parachute team. In that order.

Not my best "pictures" week, but it certainly was interesting. And I'm learning stuff. Need to work more on strobe, obviously.

Question of trust

When a guy wearing a black tee with an alligator on the front and the words "Trust Me" written above the aforementioned reptile takes you snake hunting and leads you -- the photographer with no flash light; my father would be ashamed -- half a mile down a creek, in snake-infested knee-deep waters, should you be nervous?

Or just go with it, joke about not having a machete (again, my father would be ashamed), and leave the writer standing on a rock in the dark somewhere halfway down the creek?

... trick question. I'm never nervous. [Ego, ego, ego ...]

More later.

Another "at last" post

At last I can post a slew of ballet photos, since the Infocus ballerina photo ran on Sunday. They also showed me how to get stuff up and on the Web site, too, so check it out if you'd like. No names with this one as they're all young and what not.

I wanted to put in the 5th photo down for the assignment but I realized that there's somebody in the left side of the frame who shouldn't be there. In the next photo down, I'm a little more hidden but her leg's no longer extended, but I figured what the heck, let's go with it. The dangle of her fingers was almost perfectly in line with my body. Combined with the chair, the only thing you can really see is my bag.

Tomorrow's gigs: hummingbirds invading a lady's yard, some sort of grilling at the zoo (which seems kinda wrong for some reason ...), and then snake hunting. Yes, snake hunting.

Then Friday is going to be all skydiving.

... and some people ask me why I like this job ...

Quick note here ...

Started up another blog for stuff like the map below and other "artistic" things: Arty Endeavors.

Geekdom

On a deviation from my normal kinds of posts, I present clear, solid evidence of how geeky I've gotten in my voluntary exile to Alabama (mostly kidding here): I've taken to map-making in my spare time. Cartography -- just when you thought he couldn't be a bigger geek!

Some issues with the map, but, hey, it's my first ...

And first times are ... uhm ... never mind ...

Neon signs and swearing off stuff

Firstly, signage: the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four little girls were killed in a 1963 bombing, has been in the process of restoration and stabilization. To further reach the goal of restoring the building, the congregation has erected a new neon sign that is a replica of the one that used to be attached to the building. Should've looked up "how to shoot neon signs" on Google or something before I went, but I got something ...

Secondly, the swearing off of Facebook: I'm dropping off Facebook for a week, maybe longer if I like it. Cold turkey, too. Today's been a little rough, and I imagine it won't get any easier, but I just ... well, let's just say some things might get easier without it.

Till later ...

You ... Gee ... Ell ... Why?

These are some uuuugly photos from the Pepper Place Criterium. But, I'll defend myself by saying that a) it wasn't actually an assignment and b) that I did actually get some okay photos, at least some things can run. This was what happened when I tried something a little different. And here's the kicker -- I actually kinda like some of these. Don't ask me to explain, I can't. I just kinda like some of 'em. Like one might love the ugliest runt of the litter or something.

Like I said, uuugly.

Experiments gone wrong, actually. Like Frankenstein. Except he just needed to be loved.

Uhm, I need to go eat now.

BTW

For some reason, posts made from this computer are a little wonky. That all looked fine in the composition tab. Anyway, I'll try to fix it later, but I'll not worry about it now, since it's a minor annoyance. Just wanted to let y'all know I'm not a complete design boob.

CI Therapy, finally

Since this finally ran, I'll go ahead and post a good number of photos from the CI Therapy story. Scroll down a little bit to the last "video" entry -- that's the video I shot of a pair of different CI patients. It's also a decent explanation of the whole thing, though I feel like I left out a lot ... but we won't go into my deficiencies as a video producer just yet.

Anyway, the subject here is the little boy (still withholding names of young 'uns) who started CI therapy with the help of occupational therapist Katherine Goldman of Children's Hospital here in Birmingham. I'll toss in any tidbits I feel are pertinent as captions ...

Also, at the bottom, I'll post how it ran in the paper. Or I'll try to.

A lot of the children's therapy involves puzzles and games.

Something about this kid tells me he's gonna be a big flirt one day. For which he gets my wholehearted approval.
More games.
With mom.

That's just some of them, from two separate sessions. Now, let's see about the actual spread ...

Front page to the left, after the jump on the right. Pretty cool, huh?

So, yep, there you have it. The editors, for one reason or another, decided to hold the story for a good couple weeks or so, so I've been sitting on these photos for a while. ... which gets a little uncomfortable, you know?

Ciao, y'all ...