Mr. Big

This is him, Mr. Big. The real Mr. Big. Our entertainment reporter, Brent Hallenbeck, and I took a drive down to Pomfret, VT on a gorgeous afternoon last week to visit with him before last night's release of the "Sex and the City" movie. The hugely successful magazine magnate was the inspiration behind Candace Bushnell's column in New York years ago. Mr. Big (Ron Galotti in real life) left New York five years ago to retire to the hills and valleys of our beautiful state of Vermont. I really had no idea what to expect as I knocked on the door of his beautifully restored and remodeled country farm house plopped in the middle of 100 acres of rolling farm lands and wooded hills. He didn't answer the door, his wife, Lisa, did. Ron (Mr. Big) was busy down the road building a tree house for his nine-year-old daughter, Abbi. Clad in jeans and a John Deere tee, Ron, who was much smaller in stature than his actor counterpart Chris Noth, strolled up the road with Brent and stopped to talk in front of his new pride and joy: his hay field. "You know you're not dealing with a farmer when they look at this and all they see is a field of weeds," Ron said after I noted that the dandelions had completely taken over is field. The yellow weeds made for a good shot though so we plopped down to snap a few photos.


I was humbled when he told me THE Annie Liebovitz had photographed him upon occasion and that the very ideas I had envisioned (dressing him in one his many Prada suits to stand in the middle of his hay field) had already been done before when huge publications such as Country Living and Vanity Fair had run profiles on his new Vermont lifestyle.

Ron has seen amazing things and met incredible people with dozens of stories to tell (my favorite being that Elton John played a private concert for him and Versace at Versace's home), our one hour interview extended into two hours as we roamed the property and toured the house. Brent and I couldn't quite fathom the amount of power and wealth he has as we stood before him as lowly journalists that are quite confident we won't experience those two elements in our lifetime, but success and fame aside, Ron was a great guy and a truly interesting man to talk to. Plus, he says that the old family Vermonter's that also call Pomfret their home have given took some time to warm up to him. Money's no object in Vermont...can you farm?

pomp and circumstance

It's true. My little brother is a college grad. An alum. A young adult. A young professional. Last weekend we all drove over to Rochester, NY for his graduation from RIT. I, of course, was on documentary duty of the day's activities. We started with a dessert and coffee hour with fellow grads and families followed by the graduation ceremony. I couldn't get over how few women attend the college, but I guess that may be pretty standard at a tech-based school like RIT. The first girl to cross the stage got a huge ovation and I'm pretty sure her family wasn't the only ones cheering. Takes a special kind of lady to spend four years surrounded by grubby college boys with few other girls to gossip with. Back to my brother. Todd, these photos are for you and for your embarrassment. Enjoy.

baseballbaseball

I decided to pick through some of my favorite baseball and softball photos that I've taken over the past couple months. I've neglected my blog lately as life has just taken over with so much going on both at work and at home. Last weekend I was away in Rochester, NY for my little brother's graduation (I'll throw a photo of that up next) and man, now I just need a weekend to sit and relax! But, this coming weekend I'll be riding in the Tour de Cure here in Burlington in support of the American Diabetes Association and in honor of my Grandpa who suffered from the disease. If you feel so inclined to donate to the cause, click this link:

Tour de Cure - Support Me!

Busy busy busy. Enjoy the photos!

The Forgotten

As we approach Memorial Day, I wanted to post this slideshow that I put together last week when visiting the Moving Wall, a half-size Vietnam War Memorial wall, that travels the US to share the very thing that truly touches so many people, but that so many people may never have a chance to visit unless it comes to them.

Click on the link and enjoy the show! Remember the Fallen

missing mom

We put a different spin on Mother's Day over at the Free Press. Staff writer Lauren Ober came up with an incredible idea to tell the story of Mother's Day through the eyes and voices of incarcerated mothers serving time at Dale Correctional Facility in Waterbury, VT. I was assigned to shoot this story and am so glad I was as I really appreciate these mothers allowing us to talk with them and photograph them while they serve time away from their children. Yes, these women are criminals; most of them serving time for various parole violations, drug offenses and other non-violent crimes, but having to leave their children while they're behind bars is a tragedy that few consider when thinking about those serving time. Many of these women have completely lost parental rights to their children or face the facts that these children have been adopted by other families. The children and family unit suffer when a parent is incarcerated and Lauren's story sought to describe just how that dynamic works, or doesn't work. Click the link below to read her story and also the multimedia link to view the audio slideshow I produced for this story - my most favorite to date.

Lauren's Story

Multimedia Slideshow

plan B

Lately we've been running into a lot of privacy issues involving students at local schools. We're invited to events they're hosting but after we've shot the program, a teacher or principal notifies us that they will need to review the photos to make sure we haven't photographed students on the "do not publish" list. This is a growing problem and a major catch-22. We're invited to these events but are limited in what we can do. The school administrations are basically asking that we submit our work and let them edit it which is something we're not willing to do. I had two such instances last week and was really getting frustrated with the lack of organization and cooperation in these school systems.

So, it was time to switch gears. The photo below shows a teacher, or student, working on a building project. I initially shot this photo the way I did for dramatic effect and to spice up the fairly ordinary event I was attending. Again, after shooting for an hour with this group of students, the teacher told me I couldn't publish any photos of the kids not wearing their safety glasses. Big help. Not a SINGLE kid was wearing their OSHA-approved safety glasses and left me in a major bind. Instead of getting completely frustrated again, I remembered that I had shot this picture and sent it in for publish. Thank god.

parisienne parking garage

I'm so siked right now. Today I had two pretty ordinary assignments, one of which was logistically flawed, so I was headed back to the newsroom with some photos I wasn't particulary jazzed about which is never a good way to come back in. However - I parked my car in the Bank/Cherry St. parking garage downtown like I usually do and much to my surprise and excitement I stumbled upon an accordion player pumping the squeezebox inside the stairwell of the garage. Awesome. I immediately threw down my gear and got ready to shoot - and being ever so prepared, I had my mic on hand to collect audio as well. The musician, Timothy Lang, was siked to see me as well as I guess he was on the outs with his band for forgetting to pull in some press for their last show. I should hope today's endeavor made up for it. He played so beautifully and with such emotion. There was such a lonely, downtrodden vibe going on inside that stairwell with the rusted stairs, dim hazy lighting and gritty acoustics. I asked Timothy "Why play inside? Inside the stairwell no less?" (since so many of the musicians in Burlington strike out on Church St., the outdoor marketplace, to play their tunes) he replied that the acoustics made him feel like he was playing in a church or small concert hall. The sound radiated through all five floors and the echo created the perfect sense of vibrato. What a great moment to witness and for once I had all my gear in tow!

This was the perfect way to end my shift today. I quickly threw together my favorite shots and a track of the accordion players' audio for yes, another audio slideshow. Click the link below to see it:

www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/050708accordion/index.html

feel the thunder

Sunday was a fantastic race car hoedown at Thunder Road Speed Bowl in Barre, VT. I've been wanting to go here ever since we moved back up here last summer. Thunder Road is a difficult one to describe but I'll try. Take the very essence of everything that is Vermont, and not Chittenden County Burlington, VT, I'm talking about the small-town Vermont, with intense pride, gasoline-charged afternoons, paper plates piled high with powdered sugar dusted fried dough, greasy Carthardts, locally-owned body shops, platinum perm jobs, the complete and total neglect of the letter T in most words and Rs that are harder than the SATs, checkered flags and exhaust fumes and you've got the makings of a truly, truly insanely old school Vermont past-time. Thunder Road rocks and I met some incredible characters at this one. Everyone was geared up and ready to run the Speed Bowl for Sunday's opening day ceremony and were all so friendly and just genuinely excited. It was certainly a taste of another world - a magical, magical place. I'll be back in a big way.

For some awesome audio of Thunder Road craziness and more photos click here:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/050408thunderroad/index.html

pretty ladies

Last weekend one of my favorite Free Press reporters, Lauren, and I went over to The Arbors in Shelburne to photograph a girl, Danielle, who comes in on her day off every other Saturday to set up shop in the facility's salon for a day of all out beauty. This girl is really cool and really gives the residents some very special extra care. I should've prefaced this by explaining that The Arbors is a facility that cares for the memory-impaired suffering from dementia and alzheimers. So, the ladies really appreciate the work she does and how beautiful she makes them look afterwards.

Lauren and I collected some great moments from two of the residents, Blanche and Rosetta. Rosetta was a little firecracker! Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky she had the sweetest little southern drawl and a real quick wit to her. Her memory slipped from time to time as we spoke with her, but her humor stuck by her side and kept all of us laughing. What a sweetheart.

This assignment really "tugged at my heart strings" as I couldn't help but think of my own grandfather who suffers from Alzheimers. Some of the silent moments and vague glances just broke my heart as I watched these women struggle within themselves to form a response to our questions. Nobody deserves the torture that Alzheimers inflicts, it is such a terribly sad disease for anyone to deal with.

Of course, I collected audio as well on this project and put together an audio slideshow for you to enjoy. Click the link below to get a taste of how fabulous these ladies are.

www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/042608arbors/index.html