NTO

This was our introductory tour of Nashville, the first time my parents came to visit. They were on the "NTO" (National Tour of Offsprin), and were headed to L.A. to see my sister then on to Indiana, where my brother is in school. The first two images are from Nashville's inexplicable landmark, a scale-replica of The Parthenon. The last is a glass bridge at the Cheekwood Gardens.

Last-minute introduction

For some reason, about once every two months, the student photographers drop off the face of the earth and I end up shooting three or four last minute assignments for the paper in a ridiculously short period of time. This poor economics professor got an email from me 5 minutes before I knocked on her office door to take her picture. She was such a great sport about the whole thing, and it turned out pretty well. I like it better in color, really.

Student government woes

I don't think the candidates suffered quite as much as the student reporters and editors did. On a campus this small, it seems everyone feels like you owe them a favor. There was a lot of criticism aimed at the student journalists for their endorsement and editorials on a very personal level. It's like small-town politics. And, thankfully, now it's over. Big sigh of relief across the newsroom.

And on

The student photogs and I had a shootout on Friday, when the snow started falling around campus. We had an idea list: play, scene, salt (totally missed that one) and cold. I only had half an hour to take pictures and had almost given up on finding that moment that told the temperature, when this crowd of students walked up the steps toward me. Success.

Winter drags on

Believe it or not, we do actually get snow in Nashville. I've been using it as an excuse to get out of the office! The scene with Santa was an Angel Tree Effort by student government that covered a number of kindergarten classrooms in the city. The children ran for Santa, clobbering their teacher in the process. The second group I approached was simply throwing tissue paper around the room. Who needs toys when there's tissue?
A group of students marched from the student center to the administration building to protest having class on Martin Luther King Day rather than being allowed to memorialize it through a day of service.

The silent backlog

This may have been the most awkward question I posed this fall: whether these ladies would let me take their picture as they got ready in the student center bathroom for a performance that evening. See? There are pictures everywhere if you're looking, or peeing.


Found a student photographer out at an event commemorating the Berlin Wall. Given some of the writing, the writing on the wall may have been misleading.

Just another campus life feature from my wanderings.

Leaf blowing becomes a full-time operation at Vanderbilt in the fall, national arboretum that it is. The best part of meeting these two gentlemen? The one on the right has three gold teeth in his grill - one with a heart, one with a star and one with a dollar sign. His name is Harold.

Went with a student photographer to football practice one afternoon and climbed the tower to stay out of his way.

Well, at least they got their directions right, even if the calls were questionable.

This character, dressed as the Vanderbilt Commodore may have been the best find in the homecoming festivities.

Friday night lights, just for fun

All the prep football in Chattanooga was rained out on a Friday night (in November), so I had a chance to run back onto the field when I was there on Saturday visiting. This is the first high school football I had photographed in a year. Didn't turn out too badly, after all.
One of the coaches for the home team did ask me if I was in high school during half-time, though. Yikes.