At work

I found a couple feature photos this week of people working. Nothing dramatic, just a little bit of line to follow.

The hours

Many hours in this building trying to make photo after photo to fill the space led to a couple sucesses. The woman above was painting during a contemporary worship service on Sunday morning. The man below sits behind a bar in the same room the Friday before. This church in downtown Chattanooga hosts a youth outreach mission on the weekends, letting local bands perform and creating a safe space for the under-18 crowd (they only serve water and sodas). But two shootings only a month apart took place in the parking lots behind the building. The mayor is preparing to shut down the church, so we spent a lot of time there over the course of a week to see what was really happening within its walls.

Guns, guns everywhere

The state of Tennessee passed a law earlier this year making it legal to carry firearms into state and local parks. The only way around it was if local cities decided to opt-out of the law. East Ridge, which is adjacent to Chattanooga just north of the Georgia line, debated the gun law and decided to allow weapons in their parks, one of which also houses a huge regional convention center. The most interesting testimony I heard was that of individuals who had used their guns in those parks to protect their wives and their sons on several occasions. No one seemed to notice that these concerned citizens were admitting to illegally carrying their weapons into the parks. I guess we don't really need the new law - everyone's breaking the old law anyway.

Season opener

Let the football begin! I love being close in practices and running out of the line of fire at the last second. I don't have quite so much luck once I'm restricted to the sidelines. I've shot some high school practices, but the football camp with the 7-year-olds was a lot more fun.

Strangest photo of the week

We spent hours at this local church-turned-weekend-hangout waiting for the corwds to arrive, which never happened. But the church members were waitng, too - one with his giant 4-month-old dog. He had trained the pup from a very young age to tolerate being cradled. Strange. I think the dog held the same opinion.

Community

One of the local urban, organic farms has spent the last few years building up community gardens in the arera. This woman was part of a church group that has been expanding their garden since they planted the first seeds in the spring. Blueberries are going in this fall. The best thing about it? The group says it has brought together people who thought they had nothing in common until they were pulling weeds side-by-side.

Street performer

This local artist has done a number of murals around town, and I just happened upon him as he created a new work over a previous creation. Who knew spray paint could achieve such detail?