Sleet

I can hear my DOP saying, "Clouds don't buy newspapers." But how could I ignore it?

Wild art

Some of my favorite quotes from this shoot:
"Any man who makes dresses for a living can't be the one wearing pants in the relationship."
"I'm the only man who can convince women to buy dresses they can't wear."

Mother tongue

This picture is from an assignment, but has not much to do with what I was supposed to be photographing. These are three of the six children belonging to a Guatemalan immigrant. All of the children speak English; they speak Spanish to her; and none of them speak her native dialect from Guatemala.

Sunday options

On a Sunday night in the Bible Belt, the only place to find people is in church, particularly the Sunday before Christmas. The only other option is finding a group of skaters brave enough (or dumb enough) to be out shooting a film in sweatshirts when it's dark, 39 degrees and windy.

From the wings

The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera warms up.

NCAA surprise

I came back to the paper after shooting four assignments to discover an NCAA Division I championship game pass in my mail box. I was supposed to be the runner in case something happened with transmission during half time, but I got to be on the field for a while. No stunning action shots, and I had a hard time editing my work against the four other photographers who were actually supposed to be there shooting. Oh, well. The sidelines suit me just fine.

Feast your eyes upon

This dish sported some wild colors. It's nori wrapped ahi tuna with red beet and celery root puree, shiitake mushrooms in plum sake reduction and a chervil oil garnish. What a mouthful.

Disaster

I was handed an assignment to go find hunters at 7:30 a.m. on this wilderness tract. Does searching for people with guns who aren't expecting you seem like a bad idea to anyone else? It was raining, discouraging anyone who might have come out. The kicker? The place isn't even open on Wednesdays. This nice ranger took me out in the muck so that I could come back with a picture of something despite the many potholes along the way.

Crash landing

Small children. Big expressions.

Ring in the new year

I have never before encountered a situation where I was struggling to make a picture because the subjects were on their cell phones the whole time telling people that someone from the newspaper was taking pictures.
If you're short on time this year, you can create a virtual red kettle and ask people around you to give at www.onlineredkettle.org.

Drought ends with a bang

It rained 12 out of the last 19 days here, effectively ending our drought for the year. But with each storm the city lost several of its older trees. This one's root system shrank during the droughts over the last few years, leaving it top-heavy and susceptible to wind.

Old habit

For some reason a number of people were really impressed with this image. I started out as a performer, and my photography had its start there as well. It was simply returning to that mindset. So what? Let them be impressed.

Easy as pie

Construction always seems to have such great light and such nice leading lines. It's just too bad we shoot so much of it.

A million lights

A million lights cover Rock City at the top of Lookout Mountain, mirroring the million lights that fill the Chatttanooga valley below.

Nice view

UTC Lady Mocs basketball games are so much more fun to photograph than WKU. Maybe people here just don't care as much about basketball. Unlike Western, where you have this little, taped-off square to sit in on the floor, at Mocs games you can go pretty much anywhere. Which keeps me from having to look at the belly-buttons of cheerleaders and dancers every time there's a timeout. Woo-hoo! Something to cheer about!

Flurry

A brave soul out walking her great dane and her rat terrier in a mid-afternoon snow storm on top of Lookout Mountain Monday. The high Wednesday is 55. Did winter just happen here? Did I miss it?