Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Where Have I Been?


With a bad ankle, I thought I would take some time to cut out tear sheets and file them away (I am way backed up in that department). I had my husband put a stack of papers on the front porch for me, and when I went out, John John Crabby Crab had pulled out two newspapers. He wondered why they had the same photos on the front pages. I explained to him that I worked for both the daily paper that covers parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, and their sister paper which covers my county. He was fine with that, and he really wanted some of those fresh strawberries. For the story about the 1800's festival go to either newspaper and do a search.

And look Reggie Girl! There is Stedman on the front page. He was just great. He was talking to a group of students about defining themselves. The header actually came from one of his comments. You can read the story by doing a search at either paper, and you can see the other photos I took.

I have received some nice emails from people wanting to know where I have been. First, let me say it has been a long 3 weeks. I have been out of the blogging loop for several days. Yesterday was my day to catch up. But the phone rang and I was off on an assignment. I always leave a little early in case I see a feature along the way. Bagman says a photographers most important piece of equipment are the brakes on their car. I totally agree.

I slammed on my breaks in Marion Station, about 10 minutes up the road, when I saw a photographer taking photos of a girl in a bridal grown at an old abandoned 3 story brick church. That was to be my next post.

After checking to see if I could jump in with my camera, I ran back to the car, grabbed my gear, and twisted my ankle when I stepped in a hole. I did the shoot, made my way 20 minutes up the road, and did my assignment shoeless.

With an aching ankle, and shoeless again, I went to Somers Cove Marina to shoot contestants for our upcoming Freedom Fest (just helping out in this instance - giving back to my community), to be held at the marina on July 4 (check out the Crisfield Events link on the side bar for info, and be looking for info in the Somerset Herald and Daily Times (link also on the side bar - you can get your news their, too). You can also find out who Miss Freedom Fest will be by going to either site next week (the contest is Sunday). You will also be able to see a web extra of photos of the event at the Daily Times site.

I put in a request to be off today. I was going to the beach, but my ankle did not like that idea.

Now comes the really bad news. Dell has been sending a technician to my house to fix my computer problem. It keeps shutting off (not rebooting-it just shuts off). I have new fans, a new mother board, and, as of this morning, a new power supply. Well, it shut down again. And again. And now a system error message is sitting on my screen. Being that the computer is under warranty, I demanded a new computer. They did not take kindly to that, but are sending out a bunch of new parts to be installed sometimes this week. In the meantime, they don't want me to touch the computer.

They were going to have me repair whatever got corrupted with the last shutdown, but they said if the computer shut down again while the disc was trying to make repairs, it could damage the hard drive. I have some things backed up, but there are about 400 photos in various folders on my desktop waiting to be filed or turned into blog posts, that have not been backed up.

Thanks again to everyone who emailed me. I might not be able to catch up with all the news, but I will try to be more prompt with my posts. With all our new shooters, it sure takes a long time to get to everyone, even on a good day. I do like to spend some time seeing what everyone has, and not rush through photos. Everyone puts a lot of time into what they do, and if I am going to visit, I want to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Because I did not reformat one camera last night, I was able to put the photos in the laptop and make at least one post. Until my foot gets a little better, or my computer is up and running, I won't have much for you. But I will have time to visit!

Of course, I caught Crabby reading the papers this morning, and had to shoot him.

____________________________


“Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, like the New York Herald Tribune, history itself is denied a devoted witness.” ~ Richard Kluger (check out his books for some good reading).

Wise words from a wise man. Think about that, folks. And support your local newspapers. Yes. We have the Internet, and we have cable, and we are bombarded 27/7 with news (much of which is not news - just entertainment).

Newspapers have been their for us throughout history. From the writers, to the photojournalist, to the editors, right down to the people in the mail room and the people who deliver your papers to your door or local store, people are working tirelessly, under tight deadlines and oftentimes stressful situations to put that newspaper into your hands. I can't imagine a world without newspapers. How dull things would be.

Next time you read a newspaper -and I hope it is tomorrow - think about all that went into getting that paper out. Newspapers don't magically appear on a daily basis. Really, they don't!

13 comments:

Jill said...

I thought I moved quick! lOL.. take care of that ankle! I hope it feels better.. it was hurt with pure dedication to your passion of work.

Joanne said...

Hope your ankle feels better soon, and good luck with Dell. I've had good luck with their service, they actually sent a tech out to replace a hard drive TWO times on the same computer. But they were prompt and professional. And I agree about losing newspapers. One here, I'm not sure which one, is stopping home delivery. If you want a paper, you have to go out and buy it. Not a good sign.

Chef E said...

You the ankle, me the ankle/foot, glad Crabby is doing alright...I know we love the news papers and support them all! I have a new friend who will be hosting this Friday, Melissa who works for the paper locally as a writer!

RA said...

Dear Patty, I hope your ankle gets better soon. It is really nice to read more about your work at the newspapers. I love that you are so dedicated. I believe it will give the outcome more soul, and that's a very important factor. News can stir the direction of people's mind. Having computer problems can be so frustrating. I hope it will get fixed soon, and all of your wonderful photos can be saved. Take good care, and have a great day :)

Anonymous said...

Patty,

I hope your ankle heals quickly, and I am glad to know all is mostly well with you!

Computer problems are the worst. I'd push for a new computer. Of course, with all the stuff they have replaced, you might already have a new one - it would have been easier just to give you a whole new one!

Missed you!

aurbie said...

Jill: You sure have that right. I hurt my ankle and kept on going. Only for my newspaper would I do that. The news has to get out, no matter what. If people who worked for newspapers stayed home when they were sick or had a little headache, or a bad night, or laid out to go to a birthday party (even their own) the news would never get out. It takes a lot of people to make a newspaper, and everyone has to work together.

Joanne: No. That is not a good sign. Newspapers have written history for us. Journalists have kept us honest. Yes, newspapers have web sites now, but there is nothing like the feel of holding a newspaper in your hands. It is like Kindle. Cool to have, but for comfort, you want to hold that book in your hands, and turn those pages.

Rosidah: Thanks, thanks, and thanks!

aurbie said...

Jen: Thanks. My ankle is doing better, but I feel like I need to be shooting.

On the computer, there are so many things that could be making it shut off like that. I am worried if they don't find the problem soon my hard drive is going to be fried. I will give them one more chance. I have been a Dell customer for ten years, and have had no problems. I guess I am getting all my problems at one time.

Kathy in CA said...

Take care of yourself! Hope you're on the mend soon. I also hope that your computer problems get resolved soon!

bARE-eYED sUN said...

wow! Patty, i hate you :-)

you are as good a writer as you are a photographer (who knew?)

this was a good post, it covered a lot of territory so we'll limit ourselves to two comments:

1) well wishes for speedy recovery on your ankle. translation: slow down, girl, let it heal.

2) Dell sux.

3)(oops! sed too) ya made really good points about the newspaper business.

we've been thinking about the potential demise of printed matter in general, newspapers in particular - - - and o'course we gotz an O-pinion(s) but lets skip that for now.

while reading your post, we remembered something our daughter, J-Kat said recently.

back-track: J-Kat has been reassigned, in a couple'a weeks she relocates from New York to Dubuque, Iowa. by necessity her commuting habits will change.

for the first time in her life, a car will be an asset rather than a liabilty!

her comment was this: "i'm gonna lose my reading time, when am i gonna read?"

apparently, with the convergence of time-squeeze, info-overload, and urban sprawl folk have designated commute-time as read-time.

so, if more people are depending on their cars (for x,y reasons) to get to work, when will they have time to read the Newspaper?

just a thought. urban sprawl ALSO contributes to the impending death of the printing press!

hey, take care of yerself, luv, 'kay?

..
.ero

aurbie said...

bARE eYED sUN: Thanks. I would not consider this something I would put anywhere else but on a blog. We all know that time limits our ability to edit when we are blogging, so we get free passes when we make mistakes. We do have some great writers, though, and you can tell they write with such ease. Everything just flows like a clam river that knows where it's been and where it's going.

I can write a decent feature story, but it takes me two weeks, and it has to be something I am interested in. I have to put it away for a day or two, bring it out, beat myself up for making such silly mistakes, and repeat again and again, until I find it good enough to be passed on to a copy editor.

I would love to "write" more, but I don't have time to work on a story for two weeks!

Urban sprawl? Could be some of it. It could be that people just don't value the printed word like they used to. It is sad, because we are trading in good investigative journalism for hyped up one- minute, stories on CNN and other cable news shows, as well as opinionated political blogs.

People are leaning to the left or right, no longer listening to both sides of the stories (which you get in newspapers), but to one side. And having one point of view, I think, can be dangerous.

Newspaper keep us honest. For a buck/fifty a day, less than the price of a good cup of coffee, we can be informed, entertained, and amused.

Missy Trent said...

Hi, Patty!
Thanks for the lovely message! You are so sweet!
Oh my...I read your Dell entry. I feel for you. I went round & round with Dell with my brand new laptop...new in October, that is. They were not willing to replace it, but FINALLY they offered to ship me a box so that I could ship the laptop to them for repairs. So far...it has worked well since they replaced the motherboard, however, I never was satisfied completely. They should stand behind these NEW computers, especially when we pay for warranties and services...I still get error messages daily. This started AFTER the motherboard was replaced. I'm still making payments on this laptop. VERY FRUSTRATING so I do understand and wish you the best of luck with this! Great photos, as always! Enjoy the remainder of the week! I'm doing okay! Thank you!
Your Maryland friend, Missy

RedLan said...

Sad to hear what happened to your ankle, your computer. I hope you are getting okay now and the puter back to normal operation too.

Stay cool.

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

Sorry about your ankle. Take care and hope you are better soon.