Day 43 (Weds., July 20)

This town ins beautiful. I love living here. But the sad reality is beginning to set in. I only have three and half weeks around here. Time has gone so quick. I cannot believe how quickly it has. I am finally getting comfortable w/ my coworkers and the people of San Angelo. Pretty soon, they are going to be memories and friends who I will have to keep track through emails and phone calls. But my time here is not over and I get a chance to enjoy it.

Tonight was fun. When I first got here, I gave myself a few jobs. The first to find all the nice landmarks to shoot. The thing about shooting landmarks is that you must shoot them when they are worth shooting. Otherwise, they are just landmarks and photos of places you've been. One of these landmarks was the siren statue over at the river walk in downtown. On any other day, it would be a photo of a statue. But I was waiting for that special visual element that would make this a great shot. Tonight the sky was beautiful and I was able to drive down to the river walk just in time to get the photo I had visualized in my mind two months ago when I first got here.

I got there just as the sun was giving its last rays of light for the day in West Texas. I couldn't make it in time to the windmill and I got an ok photo of it. It still looks cool and it gives you that rain urgency feeling. Yet, a nice colorful sky would have added a little more pop to it. That's what I meant when I wrote about waiting for that special visual element to help the photo. Next time, since I got the siren down, I will go directly to the windmill. Who knows? Maybe next time I have chance to shoot something dramatic to make the windmill look nice. It's something to keep an open eye for.

The project that I have been working on finally came to the edit stage. I am now ready to finalize it and get it published before I leave. It's one of those things I set out to do this summer. A good photo story. You'll learn all about it when the project is published. It's a great idea and I had so much fun doing it. That's one of the reasons I worked 12.5 hours on Monday. Time went by so quick because I was so involved w/ my project. Keep posted for that.

I ended the day by hanging out with co-workers, including Joe Rodriguez, at Grahams, where I was amazed to get .25-cent beers. Man, they really want people to come out and have a good time. It's a great special, and I think I drank a lil too much. I let it cool off for the next two hours and went home. Nothing like being a wise drinker. Today, at lunch I went w/ photographers Patrick Dove and Cynthia Esparza along with our photo chief LaKeith Kennedy to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It's cool how I am becoming one of the group. I really feel at home here.

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