Putnam Park

I was in Eau Claire briefly this past weekend--it was pretty quiet but still fun.  I hardly recognize the campus or the North End of the city.  Very different.  Last night I ate an exceptional but very simple meal.  Called the "board game," it was a variety of meats and breads, with grapes and apples.  The surprise was the the baked apples.  A surprising but very fitting compliment to the meal.  Oh, the wine was good, too!

Breakfast was more fun.  I ran into a former student/friend with her partner at breakfast and they "made" me join them.  It was great to catch up, and  breakfast was good, too!

I stopped by campus and visited Little Niagara along the mighty Chippewa River.  It is a campus icon, a place where more relationships started and where more secrets were shared than any single set of Snoopy sheets.  Ever.  It was nice to reconnect.

This time it is basketball

I was counting years and I really think that the last time I took any basketball photos was in 2004.  When you take basketball photos the best place is on the floor and as I creaked and groaned while sitting, the baseball coach  came by and said, "hey, I'll come back in a bit and help you up."  Ha ha, but wow.  I used to cover 80-90 basketball games a year and sitting for one quick game made me think of the wear and tear on me caused by those years sitting on the floor dodging basketballs and players.  None-the-less, here are some photos from my effort yesterday.  Click on them to make them bigger.

VB, once again

My break for today was to go to the last home volleyball game.  It was fun, and the home team won. Yea!  I am still pretty rusty, and my "yield" is pretty low.  I worry about that and think that I have totally lost it, but then I remember that you really only need one or two to be considered "successful."

I might have done this to continue my streak of having people actually look at my photos.  I guess if I take pictures of events, with people, I have viewers!  Who knew?  Last time I posted vb photos I had 70 viewers that one day, and the wedding generated 55... I can understand why, but I am a little hurt.  My poetic photographic musings attract about 9 viewers, maybe 11 on a good day.  Or week.  Or more accurately, per month.

Now, I understand the basics of this.  It is not unlike what an editor told me long ago--not one single sunset/flower/pretty leaf EVER bought a newspaper.  People buy papers or look at photos, pretty pictures don't.  I get it.

I have to think about this.  Being a wage slave photographer taking photos on request would be a change, but perhaps I best think about that.  It would still be better than wearing a hair net or working at a grocery store.  Anyone have any assignments where I might make more than minimum wage?

Katie and Justin

I was trying to figure out the quickest way to get these photos to the right people.  What a nice wedding with very nice people.  I am (as I am sure they are) glad that they had a real photographer there but they can have a "snapshot" of the wedding  a little earlier.