I went to Champaign today to cover NIU vs. the Illini. I didn't get anything I really liked, but I thought this was kind of funny. While running the ball for NIU's second touchdown quarterback Chandler Harnish stuck his tongue out and looked up at the Huskies' cheer section.
It took four high school games, one college game, and one Bears game to finally get my first football shot of the season that I actually like. The game was real ugly and I had my doubts that they'd pull out a win, and I still think the officials blew the call near the end, but Chicago won and I got what I wanted.
Recently I had to photograph a new business in the DeKalb area, Daisy's Sports Bar & Grill. I visited the business in the late afternoon and not much was happening and I was running out of time. I don't usually take assignments literally, but with all three elements, I thought I nailed it.
This August I have taken photographs for stories about the tax break for school supplies, NIU students moving into their dorms, eye exams for children entering kindergarten, first day of school in Kirkland, Malta (above), and Sycamore. Luckily the story on going back to school for home schooled children fell through.
I hadn't been on an airplane since 2004, so it's odd to have been on two different airplanes in three days. The first flight was on an experimental aircraft and the second was on a B-17 (above) where I got to sit in the nose of the plane as it flew over DeKalb county. A flight in the B-17 costs the public $425 for a seat in the mid-section or $600 for a seat in the nose. For $0 as a member of the media, I couldn't pass up this opportunity.
If the temperatures are in the 90s and the humidity is 100% then it must be the beginning of the football season. This also means that we need to photograph practices, set up portrait times, and be prepared for ridiculous deadlines. Oh well, it is still by far my favorite sport to photograph.
Today I was asked to look for "wild art." I'm still not sure what that means. Anyhow, I found these two guys with cowboy hats selling corn from a pickup truck so I stopped. While photographing them, Beck Diefenbach my co-photographer from the Chronicle, was across the street waving to me. Apparently while going to the Sycamore post office he'd seen the two guys with their cowboy hats too and had tried calling me to photograph them without even realizing that I was already there. It's all about the hats.
Today while driving out in the boonies I found a group of workers dusting crops with a helicopter. The pilot, who previously flew for the military, would land on top of a truck as the ground guys would quickly refill the fungicide and fuel about every ten minutes. Only a few days earlier I tried to photograph an airplane dusting crops with little success so this was a nice surprise. I stuck around for an hour or so since the workers gave me access to shoot whatever I wanted. Cameras make for a great ambassador sometimes.
It's pretty miserable outside right now. Very warm and way too humid. I had to find a weather feature today and I decided to head north to Genoa where they have a public pool. Growing up, if a pool had a diving board that was awesome, nowadays if a pool doesn't have a water slide it's just not cool.
Yesterday, Newark, Ill. ended their week long celebration for their 175th anniversary with a parade and many other activities in and around their downtown area. This was my sixth year that I have witnessed the festivities first hand. According to an old wise man who grew up in Newark, but now currently resides in Chicago, this year was by far the largest turnout.
