A busy weekend

Summer in Grand County means there is something going on every weekend and it means that there are plenty of events for me to photograph for the newspaper.  And in the heart of the summer, there are usually so many events going on that I can't get to everything.

My mantra has become: "I can only be in one place at a time."

Generally I tend to pick the biggest or most significant events, and/or ones that are likely to provide the most visual possibilities.

Things started this past weekend with a swim meet on Friday at the rec center in Fraser.  This was the first meet hosted by the new local swim club at the new rec center.

I shot, what I would call, "the usual stuff," then I started to experiment with a couple shafts of light streaming in through the windows and the abstract forms of the swimmers beneath the water surface as they started their races.  While not exactly what I was looking for, this was my favorite of the experiments, I liked the texture of the water with the colors beneath the surface:

Saturday started off with a stop at the Alpine ArtAffair in Winter Park.  This annual event is one that challenges me each year to come up with something different.  It is very easy to shoot the same thing each year--the standard "easy" shot seems to be the crowd of people wandering past the various vendor's tents.  I was determined to go way beyond that.

I spent a great deal of time attempting to juxtapose shoppers with several interesting pieces of art.  At one tent was a painting of a woman gazing out and I envisioned someone looking at the painting as she was looking at them.  Another artist had some interesting metalwork incorporating some colorful stained glass that would work if I could get people looking at it.  This would be a test of my patience.

As I was standing and watching visitors pass by the painting, I saw this scene unfolding to my left and knew I had what I was looking for:

John Scott, right, discusses his photographs with a potential customer.

I would spend the rest of the afternoon at the Winter Park Jazz Festival at Hideaway Park.  As I walked in the entrance gate, I heard an announcement from the stage that this first day of the festival had sold out and people needed to be sure to make room for everyone.  I was a little surprised by this, because while the festival has always been popular, it had never filled the venue.  But as I got to where I could get a better overall view of the area I saw that indeed there were A LOT of people there.

I made my way through the crowd to the backstage area where things were much calmer and I could relax a little while waiting for the next act to take the stage.  This is another event that I have photographed almost every year since 1989, so again the challenge is to look for some new angle or hope that the performers do something visually interesting.

The first group I photographed was Craig Chaquico, currently a jazz guitarist and the former lead guitarist for Jefferson Starship.  I shot him at his two previous appearances at the Winter Park Jazz Festival when it was held at the ski area.  Both of those times he started his performance in the crowd.  I happened to bump into him backstage and asked him if he would be doing that again and he said he would.  ***Note to self: I love working in a small town!***

Next up was Brian Culbertson a phenomenal musician, who I hadn't heard of before, but quickly became impressed.  He and his band had a great sound and incredible energy.

When I saw this photo, it reminded me of the type of photos that I had seen Florida-based newspaper photographer Chip Litherland make--in fact his blog used to be titled "Red Lights and Red Eyes."  He looks for bold color and makes it the subject of the image.

Gerey Johnson, guitarist for the Brian Culbertson band

Often at this festival the crowd comes and goes depending on who they are interested in hearing, but this year it seemed as though they all stayed afternoon for each act.  The final performer of the afternoon would be Chaka Khan.  She kicked her set off with her 80s hit "I Feel For You" and that was all I needed:

Chaka Khan

goo, goo g'joob

Georgia on my mind

I headed to Georgia last week to attend my son's graduation from Army basic training at Fort Benning and to see him for the first time in more than three months.  It's been tough not seeing him during his time there, but the letters and phone calls helped.  Now I was looking forward to seeing him again and celebrating this huge accomplishment.  I was also curious to see how he had changed physically and mentally.

Somewhere over Arkansas or Mississippi

My excitement for the trip was temporarily interrupted as my flight out of Denver was delayed almost an hour. Fortunately there were only two items on the agenda for the day: fly to Atlanta and drive from there down to Columbus, so one hour wasn't going to make much of a difference in the overall scheme of things.  I would be meeting up with my ex and her father, along with my daughter, in Atlanta and then we would drive to Columbus together.


Walking off the plane I could already tell that is was still quite warm on this Georgia afternoon--it was hot, but not stifling.  One of the things I must have forgotten from my last trip to this area was how the interstate is lined with trees and vegetation, so it's hard to see much of the landscape between Atlanta and Columbus.

My sister and her husband drove up from Florida and met us at the hotel later in the evening.

Thursday morning we drove to Fort Benning for the first of two ceremonies held to mark the end of basic training.  The first ceremony would be the "Turning Blue."  This is where the soldiers are given the blue cords for their uniform that signify that they are now infantrymen.  The second ceremony would be the actual graduation, which would be held Friday morning at the National Infantry Museum.

As we drove onto the base for the first time and made our way to Sand Hill, the area where the basic training companies are located, I was trying to soak it all in--this is where my son had spent the past 14 weeks.  We saw several units out on marches, while others were preparing to head out for other training exercises.  I couldn't help, but imagine all of the experiences he had been through going from raw recruit at the beginning of April to an infantryman.

The 1-19th barracks

Arriving at the barracks area for the 1-19th, I was surprised how much it looked more like a college campus than army barracks.  These were not the barracks of Gomer Pyle or "Stripes."  Or at least, not that we could see.  We could only see the outside, we weren't allowed inside.

The battalion commander held a meeting with all of the families prior to the ceremony.  He highlighted the training these young men had received during the past 14 weeks and welcomed us into the Army family.

Kanell Field

As we headed out to the "field" where the Turning Blue ceremony would be held, I kept imagining Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and John Candy and the rest of their platoon would be "boom, shacka-lacka-ing" their way onto the field at any moment.  Thank goodness for the covered bleachers and the jugs of cold water, because it was starting to get really hot.

The ceremony began with the four platoons of Bravo Company marching onto the field.  Then the game began for all of the families of finding your son out of the 200 soldiers, when they are all dressed alike.  Fortunately they came in order of platoons, so Erik was in the last platoon and he had said he should be in the second row.  As they marched in front of our stand I was able to pick him out and was immediately impressed with how he looked in that uniform.

I really felt for these young men.  They were wearing their class A uniforms, which are made from wool, and as they stood at attention in this incredible heat, you could see the sweat rolling down their faces.  But this training had obviously instilled a lot of discipline in them, because, even with sweat dripping from their noses, they never flinched.

Erik receives his blue cords from his grandfather

The highlight of the ceremony would be having the blue infantry cords put on their uniform.  At this point all of the families were invited down to the formation.  Erik asked his grandfather to do the honors.  It was so good to see him and be able to talk to him face to face again.

To finish up the ceremony, they all recited the Soldier's Creed and sang the Army Song.  Afterwards we were able to take Erik, and the majority of his gear, with us for the rest of the day.  First things first, he wanted to change out of the uniform and go to lunch.  He was glad to be out of the uniform and have the chance to eat something than the same old Army chow.  Later he took a break in the air conditioning of our hotel room before spending some time in the pool.  We had an early dinner, so we could get him back to his barracks before 8:00.

We were up early on Friday for the graduation ceremony and were greeted with overcast skies, which helped keep the temperatures down...a little.  Even with a little more humidity, the lack of sun made it quite comfortable.  The parade field at the NIM is only a year old and provides the perfect setting for the ceremony.  The bleachers are covered and have a great sound system.  It was mentioned that the field has dirt from various fields of battle from around the world to honor the infantrymen who came before these new soldiers.  An Army band played several songs prior to the start of the ceremony to keep the crowd entertained while waiting for things to get going.

At the beginning of the ceremony there was a demonstration showing the weapons and equipment of the modern infantry soldier.  They also showed how fire teams worked--one of the fundamental ways today's infantry operates.




Then the platoons marched onto the field--they looked much more comfortable today in their ACUs.  The bleachers provided a wonderful overall view of the entire company and the ceremony.

Bravo Co., 1-19th Infantry graduation ceremony

4th Platoon, B Co., 1-19th

There were several awards handed out, the battalion commander addressed the families and the soldiers, and he thanked the drill sergeants.

It was then time for the platoons to pass in review for the battalion commander, after that they again recited the Soldier's Creed and sang the Army Song, after which they were dismissed.  It was an impressive and very moving ceremony.  The families definitely wanted to hang around more than the soldiers--after 14 weeks they were ready to get out of there.

We were able to take the time to tour the NIM and it was well worth it.  The displays gave you a history of the Infantry and what all is involved in basic training.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend such an important step in my son's life.

Congratulations to all of the men of Bravo Company, 1-19th!  You are American soldiers!

Rock steady!  Hooah!

goo, goo g'joob

New look

Whoa, more than three months since my last post!  That's not good.  No excuses, other than after returning from the Winter Olympics I went straight back to work at the newspaper and coaching soccer at the high school, which kept me busy into May.

I have also been playing around with new looks for my blog and as of today you see what I have settled on...for now.  I'm going to give a few weeks and see what I think of it then.

Here we are in the middle of summer already.  Where has the time gone?

I haven't really done anything that I had hoped to do, so I guess I had better get cracking before I go back to coaching in a little more than a month.

I was able to go back to my high school reunion over the Fourth of July weekend.  It was a very quick trip, but well worth it to see and catch up with so many friends from the class of 1980.

Later this week I will be traveling to Georgia to pick up my son, Erik, as he graduates from basic training at Fort Benning.  I can't wait to see him!  Here he is about a month ago:

In between all of this I am still working for the newspaper.  I'm hoping this new look for my blog will motivate me to start posting on a more frequent and regular basis about what I am up to.

goo, goo g'joob