Day 23 (Thrs., June 30)

Today I took a drive out with Connie Torres to Brady. It seems she and I are becoming the intern duo that gets to go on all the cool assignments in Brady. Remember from Day 5, when I went to cover speedboat racing. So, we headed out to Brady and it was funny how the "Donuts" sign was still up. The sign that was most interesting today was the one at a bank which read 112 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemed hot but I didn't think it was that much. The cool thing about the heat around here is that it's dry heat. I can live with that. It doesn't bother as much as the humid heat from up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I had trouble adjusting there. Here, it just feels like being back in the San Fernando Valley whose mountains keep all the heat closed in and the cool ocean breeze from coming in.

We went to Brady for the Fourth of July Carnival kickoff at Richards Park. If I were to be writing this journal entry on paper, the sheet would probably be all greasy. Well, the keyboard is pretty greasy as I type this in. That's because I finished my day a the carnival by bringing home a plate of funnel cake. Yum! It's pretty good. Although a little cold, but good!

I am happy with the photos I came back with. That's because I was able to think outside of the box today. For the first hour and half, I shot the typical carnival photos with kids having lots of fun playing on the rides and laughing. But I remembered something my editor Lakeith Kennedy told me earlier this week: "kids are easy". I agree, getting photos of kids is a cheap way to shoot an assignment. They are always too cute and the photos of them are always easy to look at. So, once that hit me I decided to take it up to the next level. I wanted to show this was a Fourth of July carnival. Not just any carnival.

I had to have the stars and stripes in the photo or at least the red/white/blue thrown into the mix in order to show this was a patriotic event. So, the first thing I shot was the photo above. It's a little hard to understand but that's a bunch of Nemos from the kids movie. The stuffed Nemos were prizes at a carnival game. I love the sunset light. It was beautiful.

I was still not satisfied as we were getting ready to leave. So, we hung out for about another half hour to see if anything happened. Then I saw this kid wearing boots and playing a darts game (above). The pattern on the booth mixed in well w/ his blue jeans. The boots give this a western feel and it pretty much sums up what I was trying to achieve. I shot that. Looked around for another 10 minutes. Visited with a local police officer. As we talked I kept on looking for that "special" patriotic look. I couldn't find much, so I figured we were done.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, a kid carrying a patriotic blow-up bat (above) came out of nowhere. He was in the shadow but his family was quickly moving toward the pretty sunset light. I was quick in changing from a super-wide-angle 20mm lens to my 300mm to get the perfect photo. I am not sure if the above photo is perfect. I think it need a little more emotion, but it's pretty intense. This is not just a photo of some cute kid holding up an oversized blow-up bat. This photo is the epitome of a patriotic carnival. The kid, 3-year-old Ashton Henderson, wore a slightly dirty set of shorts and thank top. His blondish hair and green eyes popped with the setting sun giving him that special All-American kid look. Then he held a bat with the U.S. colors on it as if some way he was saying "Independence, baby!... mess w/ me and I'll take care of you w/ this here bat." I love the way the light hits him. If you look closely, there's some sort of blueish thing way behind him that give him the glow of a crown, like the one the Statue of Liberty has. Today I was trying to be symbolic and this photo did it for me. What do you think?

Spending seven hours on the road for this assignment seemed to have paid off with that final photo. The patriotic photos all sum up this event. I am proud of myself. I think I did a good job. If not, then that's cool. At least I was able to quit being mainstream and stepped outside of the box for once.

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