Back to school

I ran around in circles this morning - three schools before 9 a.m. The first one is the first charter school in the county, which the woman hugging and watching founded. They got their certificate of occupancy for the building at 3 p.m. the day before, and the bus was carrying students that had boarded the worng one earlier that morning.

Old man

This baby has already outlived the last known case of his rare lung disease. It was such a gift to be able to photograph him with his mother. Since every day is uncertain, having documentation of this moment was incredibly important to the family.

Recognition

This seemed to be the face every graduate makes from the floor to the proud parents waving in the stands.

Overcommitted

It has been the word of the day. I was supposed to be three places at the same time today. Then this fire started at a plastics company. You could see and smell it from about 2 miles away. It was 95 degrees and hotter inside that building, so the firefighters alternated being close to the blaze. I shot these still photographs plus a video, then kissed my sports assignments goodbye. It's a hard pill to swallow - working so hard but sacrificing quality to do it. Not that these turned out terribly, but you couldn't pay me to post the football I shot today.

I promise

The next five photos will not be "cute" kid pictures. I couldn't resist this one, though. He was working so hard to make that fingerprint.

Imagination

I breezed through the Imagination Station on a 95-degree day and found only one family out to play. I did however, find an interesting vantage point while she was trying to find her brother.

East enders

On the whole, the photo staff seem inclined to come back with feature photos of poor minority children. This has more to do with location than anything, since most areas surrounding the paper are not so affluent. We also tend to hunt on the way to and from the building. The homeless hang out closer but aren't so keen on having their photos made. I diverged from the pattern this week and headed east to find the well-off white children - playing in the country club pool and playing hide and seek.