Day 37 (Thr., July 14)

I had a pretty slow day today. Although I did some fun stuff today, it just seem slow. I was first sent out to shoot a business that does hydrographics. Pretty much what they do at this shop is they put special graphics on things, such as car dashboards and other car parts using water as the main tool. I shot the above photo because I liked it a lot. I like the graphic element of the lines and circles. But the main reasons why I chose this was because of the small red pin at the bottom right corner of the frame. Lately, I have been in this mode to try to find some kind of "red" element in frame. It's some sort of way that I want to pay tribute to Chinese art. In the Chinese culture, the color red means good luck. That's the reason why there's a lot of red in their clothing and decorations. Red is powerful and brings you good luck. In the last couple of days I have thought a lot about the "red element" as I call it. Today I was able to involve that red element into that photo and I think it looks very cool. It's that special spark the way people have in their eyes sometimes.

While driving back to the office, I got a call on the pager with a "major 1050" call. I am not much of an accident chaser, but I was less than a block away when I got the page. So, I looked around and was able to make it in time to shoot the above photo. It's so intense. However, that wasn't the photo that I wanted to get. Today I learned a little more about photography. Lakeith Kennedy, my photo editor, told me that it's never good to tell the editor about the photo that you missed. Arthur Spragg agreed. As I drove up to the scene of the accident there was an emergency technician carrying the baby in the above photo. The lady in the photo was walking right behind with tears in here eyes. I was parking when I saw this. I couldn't get out the car in time to shoot it. It would have been nice. It was a great moment. I told Lakeith about it and he mentioned that editors don't want to hear about the photo opportunity that slipped away. So, I guess I learned something. Not really... I actually felt good saying that I missed the shot. Why, because I was aware enough to see that I missed it. People say that I have a great eye for photography. I am not sure what they mean. But when I saw that scene, I knew it would have made a great photo. So, I guess it's good that I talk about it. Next time I will be prepared. It's all part of the learning process. Ok, enough justifying why I missed the shot. I messed up today. Hopefully next time I won't.

Later this afternoon it started raining. That's big news around here. The Standard-Times makes a huge deal about it. Even if it's pointless rain in the area, the Standard-Times must cover a story about it. It's part of the tradition that goes back to 1910. That's why the logo of the newspaper is a rooster. It's the weather rooster. When the paper was first created it was the San Angelo Standard for the morning edition and the Times for the evening edition. Covering rain was a big important thing for this town, which first started (and to some extent continues to be) with the success of farming. So, covering rain is a tradition that the paper seems to keep alive. I drove around town looking for a good rain photo as I was designated as the rain chaser today. Well, I didn't drive the whole time. I actually spent about 10 minutes under an underpass on the highway as I hid from hail, which in this part of the country can be as big as golfball-size balls. I had an assignment at the golf course, so in driving to the place I shot a few photos. After my assignment, I continued to look for a good rain photo. The photo above is cute. It's four girls playing in the water on Bentwood Drive. The funny thing is not that they put on their bathing suits and headed out to play. The funny thing is that this is in the neighborhood around the country club, where the houses are really nice and people have enough money to spend on country club-type stuff. So, the fact that little kids in the rich neighborhood played the way the poor kids would on the bad neighborhood makes it funny and cute -- ad ironic.

Everyone in the office eats m&m's. There's a jar full of them and you can walk up and get some. I think I finally feel comfortable around here to grab some. I have been reluctant to pick some up because I don't want to act as if I am free to do whatever I want around here. But today I did. It was funny though, because I picked up two m&m's and they turned out to be yellow and green. It reminds me of the time when I shot the photo for the main www.julythephotoguy.com site. It's a long story, but you can read all about my experience and the symbolism of that shot by going to my sportsshooter web page and going to my Mexico trip gallery. I still think that the most symbolic and meaningful photo I have ever shot was that one.

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