May 27, 1998

If it seems forever since I wrote a journal entry, it is because it HAS been forever. Oh, I kept meaning to sit down and write and even wrote the openings in my head but somehow the actual physical writing had been put off and put off.

I am not one of those writers that can generate words on command - they command me rather than the other way around. And too, it seems as if the work has been simply boring, boring, boring, or maybe I am just feeling as if *I* am boringboringboring.

And lately it seems as if it is coming too easy. The pictures. Like shooting monkeys in a barrel. Yet when I look at them I think BORING! Nothing is going on. Nothing is happening. No accidents, no nuts chasing me out of a fire scene - and the shooter that loves to drive around looking for wild art is...you guessed it...bored.

So, to accompany this journal I am submitting some plain ol' ordinary pics - mostly sports and kids.

I love to shoot sports but have had some real problems capturing anything exciting.

Baseball has been especially tough. It seems that I am usually in position and focused on third base when something exciting happens at first. And if I am waiting for the steal at second, somebody is stealing home and the **^&$$%)()*&_)(&*% digital camera is SO slow to follow focus or speed focus or focus at all I miss everything! And the battery life on the thing is so bloody short that I am usually out of power after 3-4 innings on AF. So, I get the "gimmes" shots first (like pitchers pitching), just in case nothing else pans out.

I do love pitchers - those contorted body positions - those facial grimaces. At one game I was struck by the silhouette of the pitcher against the afternoon sky and figured that if nothing else I could do a high contrast shot of him - if the sport's department would run it. Luckily for me our sports editor is willing to try images that are artily different if I am short on action shots. So my silhouette pitcher picture ran.

The pole vault is another shot that for me kinda works. Not super duper, but ok.

The pic of the little boy was a stand alone that I shot while the reporter and I were on another story. While she was doing her interviews I followed the kid around for about 10 minutes, letting him get used to me and the camera. After a couple of minutes he forgot I was there and just played. When I looked at the images there were a bunch of pretty good ones. I wanted to run a package and call it ten minutes in the life of a boy - but the editor didn't like the idea so I had to settle for just the one shot.

Photographing the little girl with the stiches on her cheek was difficult. I wanted to cry at her stoicness and her courage in letting me photograph the damage a dog had done to her face. I explained to her how the picture would look to make sure she knew to what she was agreeing. She was adamant in saying yes because she and her family wanted the dogs destroyed. I chose to go big with the image so as to show people the reality of what had been done to her.

The tuba player was at a family barbeque/picnic thing for the local history museum. And the girl climbing the inflatable mountain was for an annual fun day at the middle school. All the art ran page one. Folks love seeing their kids in the paper, but frankly, I am tired of kids. The CHP shot I do like more than the rest. There was an annual inspection and I wanted to do something than the traditional line of cops and guns. The officers were checking their guns for cleanliness when I caught this one shot. I know my job is to photograph ordinary events in hopefully an extraordinary way, but some days, weeks, months - that is MUCH easier said than done. There is art out there, but I can't see it. So many days I feel blind. Lara Hartley