Thanksgiving is a good time of the year. I spend time with family and eating an evolved dinosaur is icing on the cake. Some people like to spend 8+ hours outside in temperatures that don't break 20 to purchase items at a discounted price, but to each his own.
One of today's assignments was holiday travel. Ugh. Should I look for cars on the road or somebody filling up their tank? I headed to the DeKalb Oasis and met a very friendly family from Virginia heading to Mount Morris sitting down for a fast food meal. I talked with them only moments before they allowed me to photograph them. Most of the time I expect people to say no and that's one of my faults, but I know if I saw some goofball who looked like me with a camera asking to take my picture or my family's, then I'd probably say no, but that's just me.
Nothing special here. Just one of ten portraits from our basketball preview section that came out today.
Yesterday I photographed a woman making dinner at her home for her family. The woman has a LINK card which wasn't credited at the beginning of the month when it should have. Feeding her family is a constant struggle. So while watching her cook dinner I noticed a calendar on the wall near the stove with a painting of a man presenting a turkey to his wife for Thanksgiving done by Norman Rockwell and so I came up with this.
The last hip hop album I purchased was a Hieroglyphics album back in 2003. Does purchasing the Gorillaz album count because I liked Del tha Funkee Homosapien? Anyways, I can't say that I am into it anymore, but that doesn't matter. On Tuesday night I had to cover an assignment about a Northern Illinois basketball player who moonlights as a musical artist in the hip hop genre. The bar where the show was at was very dark and of course I didn't bring a flash. Shooting at 2500 isn't something I like to do so I had to think. I kept seeing flashes pop during the show so I decided to poach the light that was available and I came up with this. Word is bond.
Telemarketers are annoying, but we don't get many calls from them anymore at our home. However, in the past week we have received three phone calls from individuals asking us to vote for Candidate X. These calls have been made at the most inopportune times. Either we are trying to eat dinner or my wife is trying to put the baby to bed. It definitely pushes my buttons and I often find myself hanging up on them and asking aloud, "What kind of idiot calls at this time of night!?!" On Thursday evening I worked a later shift and I got to meet some of the folks that work at a campaign office in DeKalb. These volunteers were making calls and asking individuals to vote for Candidate X. My job is definitely weird.
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.
