A belated update

The best part of my internship has been high school football. The worst part has been shooting at night. I saw this sunset over this podunk town on the east side of the state, reminds me of home in some ways.
Hey Matt go to the library book sale and don't spend much time on it if there is nothing their. Well I spent a while their and I made some a lot of nice photos, but this one tops them all. The is older man was trying to be polite and help this lady pick out books for kids, but she laughed at him as he read this book out loud. Felt bad for the old man.
Ohh man, game saving play right here. CMU loses this game if Bellore doesn't cause this fumble in the endzone. Not a whole lot else to say about this photo other than it ran six columns on the front of sports.
Pretty sure that's a face mask, and it wasn't called. Needless to say this image describes how badly Midland steam rolled over poor Heritage. I was afraid the Heritage players were going to get hurt because Midland was just so much bigger, faster and stronger.
I shot this feature at a Heritage soccer game almost a month ago. Not sure about this photo, but the editors loved it. I just wish it had more.

Man I have ton 0f images to upload and they are even better than these. In all honesty I was kind of bummed about my shooting so far at this internship, but looking at it I defiantly see my progress.

'The Fish Man'

Eric R. Schantz is a local Saginaw artist known for his paintings on dilapidated buildings across the Saginaw area. The reporter and myself followed Schantz across the city as he showed the art he has created in the hope of a better Saginaw.

Sadly the soundslide produced was not what I had in mind, but I think I will stay in contact with Schantz and try to make this a complete story.

Another Exciting Game

I don't know why but I'm drawn to shoot football. Maybe I miss the days of playing, the smell of grass (even though it's all artificial these days), the screaming moms,  the feeling of escapism when you remove your helmet in the blister heat and how can I forget to mention the smell of sweaty shoulder pads. 

I'm not sure what it is, but I find myself drawn to shoot it. Whether it be pee-wee, high school, college... I love to shoot it. I love to be down on the field to see it up close and personal.

The first photo is just cool. The second one is the game losing or winning shot, depending on what way you look at it. Buffalo missed a field goal that would have one the game with no time left. And when I say missed, it went in and came out by the blessed of God.

Hope to Heartbreak...

The 'Hurricane'

I want you to meet Chaz Hurricane Sykes. He is from Saginaw and he is 6. "I want to be a boxer," said Sykes when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. Chaz received this unique middle name from his great grandfather whose boxing call name was Hurricane.

This is the portrait they ran in the paper. It wasn't my favorite of the takes, but rarely does the picture I like actually run. Non the less I love this photo because it to me it encompasses everything I'm missing in my life. I miss being a kid and having dreams. The older I get the more cynical I become. I'm afraid before long I won't have any dreams or ambitions left. The only thing I have in common with Chaz is a messy bedroom.

I guess in some ways I will never grow up.

Trying to keep my own eye the ball

My updates are far and few between since my personal computer decided it had enough. This has forced me to shoot all of my pictures on a 8 GB card. I'm running out of space and need to dump it soon. I also have wedding photos to finish.  The point I'm trying to make is tomorrow is my first day off in what seems a million years and I will hopefully get photographs edited and sorted and this blog updated.

On another note I feel myself growing and learning but I just fear the pace isn't soon enough. I've been searching for a story to work on in Saginaw but finding one is much more difficult than I expected. Saginaw is a weird town. So active, yet extremely dead. Extremely ghetto, and overly po-dunk. A city divided by a river. A good side and a bad side. It is a story DYING to be told.

How do you tell it? I mean it seems simple correct? I guess it all boils down to access and in all honesty the single thing that is holding me back from creating something beautiful. How do you enter into the "Woods" (East side river neighborhood known for being an extremely rough neighborhood) and say hey I'm white, but I want to tell people about you with out getting shot?

White people aren't held highly in the eyes of those on the East side and who can blame them? These are the same people who get away with corporate crimes, but face a fine and a few days in jail. Now contrast that to people living in burnt out homes stealing copper piping so they can eat at night and they face all kinds of charges.

The city is so racially divided it is unreal and I fear neither side cares to hear the others story. I hate the fact I have a dress code. I love dressing up for work, but try wearing dress clothes in area that is overly poverty stricken. I stick out everywhere I go and I hate that. How do you tell someone, "Hey I know what your going through, but I'm dressed like this." To them I'm just another white person using them for my advantage.

More to come I promise.

Nothing Says Labor Day Like Baseball

The only photo I wanted to create and didn't was a kid eating a hotdog with condiments all over his face. Nothing could have said Labor Day and better.