Picture Story: Motherhood, Second Time Around

Pictures I submitted as part of a picture story featuring Tammy Kelliehan, a 41-year-old grandmother caring for her five grandchildren. Her daughter had health issues and became overwhelmed after the birth of a second set of twins, giving her 5 children 5 and under, so Tammy took them in.


A brief respite for Tammy as the two sets of twins guzzle their juice. From left: Keyah, Eric, Erykah, Tammy, and Kylah.


Tammy herds the twins away from the front door. They were attempting to go outside and join their "Papaw" as he was mowing the grass.

Project 365 - W29

Week 29. The week of Homecoming.


This is a picture of the stupid tickets I got on Monday. I really resent the lady who gives the tickets. She does the parking meter rotation around Lee Hills Hall *twice* a day and this day, I got 2 tickets. It wouldn't irk me so much, nor cause me to curse her under my breath (and I know it's a *she* because I've seen her), if I had not *paid* the meter. Lately, she has been inconsistent in when she does her loop, so this day, when I went out to pay the meter in the afternoon, saw a ticket on my car and thought that I had missed that second pass. But *no!* It was a ticket from earlier in the day when she came around about an hour after she normally does. And since the meter only allows you 2 hours at a time... So, 2 tickets. And you'd *think* that once you got a ticket for an expired meter, that they couldn't refine you. But no, Columbia regulations say they can do it on the hour after that meter expires.


The Bolls invited us for dinner and I got this picture. Cullen is a big cuddler. Anyone who leans back like this, and Cullen takes it as an invitation for him to come and cuddle. Even though Riley is Paul's favorite (because of the goofy noises he makes), he's decided that he likes Cullen, too.

Picture Story: Blood Donor Dogs

One of the picture stories that I submitted to CPOY was about the dogs who donate blood for patients of MU's Veterinary Hospital. I interviewed Matt Haight, the coordinator for the program.


Blondie the greyhound peers out of her kennel at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine on Nov. 12, 2009. Blondie and her four kennel mates provide blood for transfusions for the College hospital's patients.


Matt Haight, the coordinator for the blood donor dog program at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine, takes some of the greyhounds out for a run and chasing the ball on Dec. 2, 2009. Besides times like this, the dogs are walked twice daily by volunteers.

An Idea for a Photo Essay

I was looking at pictures today and came across this one:


Photo by Uli Seit for the NY Times
which inspired an idea for a photo essay. This is a picture from The New York Times "The Week in Pictures for Nov. 27, 2009." An image of Sarah Gellert, 99, in her apartment. Gellert exhausted her savings paying for 24-hour home care and now receives assistance from the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, an organization supported by the NY Times Neediest Cases Fund.

Looking at this image, I am reminded of the Neediest Cases that the Post-Dispatch used to feature every year around Christmas time. I was also struck by her age, and hence, my idea:

To do a photo essay on local elderly people, people in their 90s.

Project 365 - W28

Week 28. Passport application away!


Took this picture during editing. I really appreciate how Tim walks to the beat of his own drum. He's really witty, too. Here, he is modeling his new rain gear. Well, he was taking it off so I wouldn't get a picture of him modeling the rain gear.

I don't know what it is, but Mondays can be really crazy. That's the day that I work at the Missourian as a Photo Editor from 9 to 4:30. And today was just really stressful. I mean, I don't normally let someone who's touchy get to me, where I am kind of snarky back, but I did today.

Project 365 - W27

Week 27. Over halfway done! And only one picture of the boys.


Okay - if you can't tell what this is, it's geese standing/sitting on the frozen pond/lake by my friend, Shawn's, house. I was driving to bible talk and I saw them. I didn't have time to stop, but they were still there when I was driving back. I didn't get out of my car, because I didn't want to scare them, but I used my zoom lens to get a closer picture.


This Sunday, we are having a special Song and Praise service at church, and we have been working on a new song, "Abba Father." Written by Sherwin Macintosh, it is, of course, tough, because the stuff that he writes is just tricky. I mean, it has this really bizarre, unnatural rhythm at the beginning of it. That just the women sing while the men sing 'oh.' (And the kicker is, when Chia-Wei heard it performed at the Leadership Conference, they sang it differently than how it was written - with Sherwin directing, no less. But CW decided not to try and rewrite the notes so that it sounded like how it was performed. So we get to struggle over it. This picture is taken at practice, as we are trying to learn our parts. I decided on this one, because it struck me as amusing, Phillip lying on the floor, trying to learn how to not move his shoulders when he breathes. It's not the best picture, but it captures the moment.

Editing the MU Football Game

ELISA DAY/Members of the Tiger's Lair file into Memorial Stadium before the game against Colorado on Saturday, October 9, 2010. || I thought this image was pretty cool (which is why I took the picture). I'd never seen it, when the Lair piles into the stadium. And I loved how, as they filled in, they made an upside-down M (for Mizzou).

Good grief! Now that was an experience. One frustrating experience. One stressful experience. But an experience that I'm glad I have had, if for nothing else, to be able to say that I can competently do it.

This past Saturday, I arrived at the Missourian at 2 pm to get our ducks in a row before heading over the Memorial Stadium for the 6 pm game against Colorado. (I didn't want to be there at 2 (rather 3), but Brian and Caitlyn (the sports photo editor) felt like this was a good idea, so that "it wouldn't be stressful." We would be able to catch the shuttle and get there and get settled with plenty of time to spare.) The Colorado game was 'kind of' a big deal because, after this season, Colorado is leaving the Big 12 to go to the Pac 10. I was feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing, because sports photography is not my favorite thing. But it was me and 3 photographers out to cover football.

A Few of My Entries for CPOY

CPOY, or the College Photographer of the Year competition, was founded by Cliff and Vi Edom in 1945. It's one of my favorite things about attending the master's program at MU. More than 600 students from 130 colleges and universities participate in the hopes of getting a nod. But what I really love about it is getting to hear the judges, well-known professionals in the field, discuss the works submitted and the field in general. Last year's judges included Barry Locher, Seth Gitner, Nicole Frugé, Lara Solt and Zach Wise. I walk away from every category's judging with little nuggets to apply to my own craft. And ideas for projects that I'm interested in doing.

The deadline for entries was October 5th at 11:59:59 pm. So, when I was working on my submission, I was one of those people who was trying to upload at the last minute and who overwhelmed the system. It was really frustrating. I kept getting these errors and my images wouldn't load, and then I couldn't submit them, because I advertently didn't get my permission code. So at 12 midnight, I surrendered to the fact that I had nothing entered in CPOY this year. Which was a bummer, because I had some stuff this year that I really liked. But I was at peace with the whole thing. I mean, I could feel frustrated because it always seems to happen where I just need 1 more hour, despite how I plan...

But then today, I checked my e-mail and discovered that I had until 11:59:59 pm on October 6th to submit my images. I wasn't sure if that meant submitting what was on the site or if I could upload more. But I figured that I would try it (the uploading part) and if it was out of bounds, then they just wouldn't allow it. When I was about to finish and submit my stuff, I discovered this message (right) on the home page. So it all was going to go! I didn't get to turn in everything I planned on, but I got to turn in some of what I wanted to. I feel very grateful that I was able to at least submit *something.* Fingers are crossed that I at least get a nod (like make it into the second round of judging). I have a 1:600 chance.

So here's some of the images I chose:

In the General News catergory:


To inaugurate the opening of a new and larger building, members of Columbia Second Chance's board cut a giant yellow ribbon, on April 20, 2010. A no-kill shelter, the new facility is twice the size of the animal rescue's previous location, enabling them to help more "second-hand" pets.

I Must Break You

NBC Photo: Carin Baer
Yes, it's a quote from the series premiere of Chuck, spoken by Dolph Lundgren in his best Dolph Lundgren voice.

Right now I am sitting here snuggling with my dogs, thinking about how God is good. How he works out all things for the best, no matter how crappy or frustrating or worrisome or embarrassing or vindictive or any other adjectives I might use. Those situations where you just want to punch someone really, really hard in the face so that they fly across the room backward, even those situations He works for the good. If nothing else, to teach us something.


It makes me grateful that I am in the world but not of it.

I am also feeling grateful that I can read/speak Russian, even if I'm not fluent. That's how I know the newspaper headline shown briefly said "Medical Catastrophe."


NBC Photo: Trae Patton
I really hope that I get to go to Brussels and then Москва (Moscow) and Санкт-Петербургского (Saint Petersburg) someday. It would be amazing to see Red Square and Эрмитаж (the Hermitage) and the statue of Peter the Great.

Those Visa Sports Commercials! Continued

The answer to the Thorpedo:


And a vault I will remember forever.

Those Visa Sports Commercials!

I have to say, I'm a big softy. I cry at commercials. I cry when I see athletes achieve their goals. I cried when Russell won the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance (and boy! do I love watching him crump).

But this blog post is dedicated to those memorable Visa Olympics commercials.


This was a moment that I cried at (well, both moments). I cried with Dan in 1988 when he fell and sat there dispondent because he had broken his promise to his sister, who had died from leukemia just a few hours before. And I cried when he won a gold on his very last race (before he retired) 6 years later. A man who had tried in 3 Olympics to win a race finally achieved it on his very last try.

A nice article about Dan's efforts and accomplishment.

Next up: Bob Beamon.

I thought it was so cool to hear his story. He was one Olympic athlete that I wasn't completely familiar with.

The Fosbury Flop!

Beware Toasted Skin Syndrome!!!

Picture courtesy of the Telegraph (UK)
Saw the press release for this article on "Toasted Skin Syndrome" today and had to comment on it.

Apparently "a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months." And a Virginia law student spent 6-hours a day with it propped in her lap.

Here are my thoughts:
1) Why did Swiss researchers waste time studying this?
2) Why call it a syndrome when it's happened to 10(TEN) people in the last 6(SIX) years?
3) Why did the Telegraph (UK) or the Huffington Post bother relaying this? (Although it is nice to know that "A medical report several years ago found that men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to infertility."

And finally:

4) Who is stupid enough to let their laptop toast their skin in the first place?!! That heat makes me uncomfortable so I put something in between me and it. That's just common sense.

Project 365 - W26

Week 26. Fingers crossed about Brussels!


Monday. It was 'busy,' meaning I found things to do in the Photo Bubble. Even though the reporters were working on things, we had no photo requests for the day, actually for the entire week. And what's really annoying - a reporter from the sports desk, who knew she had 3 volleyball games to cover that week earlier than Monday morning, just waited until the last minute to put her requests in. And they were crappy requests, too! No information whatsoever. She didn't even bother to tell us the sport, let alone where on the high school it would held. I sometimes wonder if it's just this semester or if reporters are always this pathetic. Okay, I'm being severe. It comes from my frustration -- because if you can't follow simple directions, how can you accurately investigate a story?

What I found to do was look through community calendars and make FYI photo requests. Which actually turned out to be very helpful this week (according to Brian) because it gave us stuff to do and take pictures of. So, come Monday morning, I will search the week's calendars for events. I think one of the reasons why Brian likes it is because he likes being able to 'get one up on' the print desk by telling them things they don't know (but should).

And this picture? What does this picture have to do with anything? Well, right at the end of my shift, there was an announcement over the police scanner (yes, we have a police scanner, which alerts us to happening news...) about a woman being pried out of a car. At the intersection of Rogers and Fifth Street (an intersection I drive through at least twice a day). So Tim rushed right over there (before the reporter went out to the scene, too ;) I took this picture with my iPhone as I was driving by the accident. This guy was one of many watching all the action.

Saturday Night in the Photo Bubble

John Reynolds, from New York, kisses his girlfriend, Kristina Wenzel, a Doctorate student at MU while watching Dan Tyminski play at Locust and 7th Street at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. Reynolds jokingly said that he came all the way from New York just for the barbecue. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

The above picture is one of my favorites from the entire evening. Such a great moment. Good job, Andrew!!!

So, today was the second day of the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival, which meant a whole mess of photos to edit for Saturday night. And since today was also the end of MPW, that meant that Erica was working all by herself. So I volunteered to come in and help her Saturday evening with the slide shows for the event.


Rex Scott, 34, grills chicken at the Jamaican Jerk Hut during the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. Scott said that he has been cooking jerk chicken at the festival ever since it started 2007. The Jamaican Jerk Hut cooks about 500 pounds of meat which takes around three hours to grill. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

Arriving a little after 7 pm, I didn't really get very busy until around 7:45. That's when the photographers started coming back in from being out shooting. As we talked, we figured out that a slide show from Friday hadn't been created/posted, so I put it on my to-do list and got to work.