Words and Light

If you include internships and college experience, I’ve been in this business for only a few years. But I learned early on about the strange cocktail of emotions that floods your brain as you leave what you thought was going to be a less-than-average assignment with better-than-average-assignment pictures.

The first time I experienced this was in Atlanta. It was for a story about unemployment, and the reporter wrote in the assignment that I should just hang out with this unemployed man at his family’s home and see what happened. Expectations were low.

But it was the first time I was a fly-on-the-wall in someone else’s home at an important time in his/her life. It was the first time I spent substantial time with anyone in a “nothing’s really happening” setting. And it was the first time that — as I was driving out of the neighborhood and phoning the reporter that it had actually gone well and I’d made good pictures — I heard someone (the reporter) say, “Wow. Sounds like you made chicken salad out of chicken shit.”

It might seem callous to think of an assignment as “chicken shit.” But as any journalist knows, there are assignments that seem completely awesome on paper, and others that seem just ehh. The key is to have an open mind and make the best pictures you possibly can, no matter the circumstances. Still, when a recent assignment in a Gettysburg-area nursing home seemed very ehh on paper, I was surprised by the pictures I was able to make and humbled by the openness of a man despite his less-than-ideal situation.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Raymond Hernandez, 55, breaks down into tears after talking on Thursday, July 5, 2012, about how he misses his five dogs and several cats that were sent to the ASPCA after he was carjacked in Oct. 2011. Originally of York, Hernandez now lives in a Transitions Healthcare nursing home outside of Gettysburg after he was carjacked and shot in the back, resulting in paralysis from the waist down, in Oct. 2011. Hernandez, who had been waiting to pick up his housemate’s grandson from school, was initially suspected of being involved in a drug crime because he was sitting in his car in daylight. Hernandez has since been cleared of any charges and is also cleared for at-home care, but his York house is too small to accommodate his wheelchair.

A carjacking. Paralysis from the waist down. Drug charges that were later dropped. Transferal to a nursing home far from home. Separation from loved ones. The disposal of beloved pets. Illiteracy.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Back in his room, which he shares with another Transitions Healthcare nursing home resident, Raymond Hernandez, 55, offers bubble gum to his medical power of attorney, Genevieve Ray, on Thursday, July 5, 2012.

Reporter Emily did a fantastic job reporting and writing Raymond Hernandez’s story, which is so complicated and strange that, when I tried to describe it to my boyfriend, he incredulously said it sounded like something out of a movie. Emily and I returned the next week, when Raymond’s housemate and her grandson came to visit.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Gladys Alicea and her grandson Taurean Christie, 6, stand in Raymond Hernandez’s room in the Transitions Healthcare nursing home outside Gettysburg on Saturday, July 14, 2012. Alicea shared a York home with Hernandez, who was waiting to pick up Christie from school when he became the victim of a carjacking in Oct. 2011.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Taurean Christie, 6, sits on the lap of Raymond Hernandez, 55, as they watch TV together in Hernandez’s room in the Transitions Healthcare nursing home outside of Gettysburg on Saturday, July 14, 2012. Hernandez is in a wheelchair due to paralysis from the waist down after he was carjacked while waiting to pick up Christie from school in Oct. 2011.

And this is the photo that ran main on the front page of the Sunday paper:

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. His attention momentarily broken from the television in Raymond Hernandez’s Transitions Healthcare nursing home room, Taurean Christie, 6, shares a moment with Hernandez, 55, who used to live with Christie and his grandmother Gladys Alicea in York. Hernandez had been waiting to pick up Christie from school in Oct. 2011 when he was carjacked and shot in the back.

Be sure to read Emily’s article for much more information about Hernandez’s story.

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Mitt Romney’s bus rolled into town… without Mitt Romney.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, besides a bus without Mitt Romney (hence my #RomneylessRomneybus hashtag).

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Debbie Mascaro of Bucks County holds the door open as her granddaughter Emily Augustine, 3, jumps out after touring a Romney Mobile HQ campaign bus outside of Brown’s Orchards and Farm Market on Wednesday, July 25, 2012. Mascaro and her husband Richard said they annually make the two-hour drive to Brown’s “for peaches.” Asked if they support Romney, Richard Mascaro answered, “Maybe?”

I also didn’t expect my fully-charged camera battery to die, but I still cranked out a video.

Check out Ed’s article for what exactly happens when a Romney-less Romney bus rolls into town!

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My younger brother claims that the Batman theme (“da da da da da da da” or however many “da”s there are) was his first sentence. I refute this because (“da” x [number of “da”s]) + “Batman” does not constitute a sentence.

(Also, my boyfriend says the theme song consists of “na”s. Since I rank higher on the geek index than he does, I think I’m right — but I could be wrong?)

Anyway, so the Batmobile the Tumbler made an appearance in York yesterday — all the way from Michigan…

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Jaycob Abate, 4 of York, poses for a picture in front of a full replica of Batman’s “Tumbler” vehicle from “The Dark Knight” on Thursday, July 19, 2012, at Frank Theatres in York Township.

…and built from scratch by a guy who makes movie props.

© 202 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Bob Dullam of Kalamazoo, Mich., squats inside the cockpit of the Batman “Tumbler” vehicle he built, before exiting the vehicle, outside Frank Theatres on Thursday, July 19, 2012. Dullam, who builds movie props for his living, worked on the Tumbler off-and-on for five years using raw materials worth more than $50,000.

Dullam said the vehicle is capable of hairpin turns, is built to go up to 150 miles per hour (he’s only done 75), can shoot flames 20 feet long and four feet wide and uses surveillance cameras in lieu of rearview mirrors. Oh yeah, and it drives as smoothly as a Lamborghini.

Suffice it to say… quite a few of the adults in the crowd were far more captivated than the young ones were.

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I’ve shot fireworks a few times, and most of them have been memorable. In 2007, my friend Greg and I once royally peeved our friend Kevin by each taking photos of fireworks over Eagle Nest Lake in New Mexico and comparing our individual frames… during the show. Two years later, I had perhaps had a bit to drink and tried to take fireworks photos… without a tripod. Worst fireworks photos, ever.

But, provided you’re sober and have a tripod, taking fireworks photos isn’t difficult at all.

Taking fireworks photos with a human element — that’s a different beast.

But, I did it.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Red Lion hosted its Fourth of July fireworks show around Horn Field and the high school on Tuesday, July 3, 2012.

And here’s another Fourth of July-y picture:

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Chase Hart, 18 months of York, reacts as to sparklers held by his mother Melissa, left, and friend Ashley O’Brien outside Horn Field before Red Lion’s fireworks show on Tuesday, July 3, 2012.

If you want to laugh at the failures that are some of my SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) frames from last night — or if you want some tips about shooting fireworks photos — head on over to our staff photo blog!

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