Once again, driving around looking for life in the freezing cold north country. It was getting late and I started looking around the schools, maybe to catch some kids bundled up on their way home. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find this husband and wife making their way to their crossings. I had a long lens with me that day, and drove up ahead of them and tried to stay incognito as they made their way towards me. His arm linked in hers and the matching vests and signs make for a very sweet moment.

This is another situation where I was driving around looking for summer activities. I ended up in Dexter and went by the park, where I spotted some camp counselors setting up this Slip&Slide, so I figured, how can you go wrong? I watched all the kids go through once, then decided to get low at the end and try to get a lot of splash and a good expression. It’s just a fun summer slice of life.

I spotted a group of kids dragging their sleds to this hill in Dexter, and since it was getting late in the day, I stopped. I’d photographed sledders a couple of times this winter already, so I was looking for a way to make this one a little different. At the bottom of the hill was just hard pavement, and they were crashing onto it with some speed, so I put myself in their path and aimed down in hopes of catching a good expression.

This is one of those pictures I didn’t originally see when I stopped. It was a hot day late in my first summer at the WDT, I intentionally went to the river in hopes of finding somebody swimming or doing something summery. I got as far as Cape Vincent and found these kids diving off the dock next to the ferry. I was shooting them individually doing all kinds of enthusiastic jumps and dives, then the little girl wanted them to jump all together. They lined up and I got down low behind them and fired away. I was pleasantly surprised when I got back to the paper.

I tried, with pretty ‘blah’ results, to shoot this scene the week before, and I’d kept my eye on it, determined to get it right. This time the sun was low and the light was really working. I just crouched beneath the basket and kept shooting until I had a good silhouette of the boys and the ball.

This was a situation where I was somewhat restricted on what I could actually shoot. It was taken at the Jefferson County Children’s Home, during a summer picnic, and students are not usually allowed to be photographed. I headed for the dunk tank having been told there would be no students near it. I shot a few dunks, but this one has the elements of good expression in the dunkee with lots of splash and bubbles, but the second volunteer walking into the frame really balances the whole thing out.

Shooting sports is all about capturing a peak action moment and a great expression helps too. I shot a lot at this game and didn’t actually publish this photo in the paper, but I did post it in a web gallery. The next day I walked into a restaurant for lunch with my friends and the first thing I hear is, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” It was fellow photographer Niko Kallianiotis bellowing at me, and as soon as I realized he wasn’t actually mad at me, I knew what he was talking about. This was the game shot, not what I’d turned in. Lesson learned.

I shot this on my way out of the zoo, during its snowy grand reopening in December of 2006. I saw him playing on the slippery balance beam and new that his bright coat and hat in the falling snow would be colorful if nothing else. It ended up being a very playful, fun winter photo.

This picture is all about juxtaposition of the pastor’s clothing, posture and light with the figures in the glass. It was for a story about this church’s stained glass windows being refurbished. The men doing the work were there to replace the first window they finished, at right, and were taking the next one. The pastor was walking around observing, as I was. I think I saw her standing on the far side of the window from where I was, and just had a couple seconds to get the frame right when she walked under the ladder.

I was assigned the Miss NY pageant in 2006, my first summer at the WDT, and didn't really know what to expect. I took a seat in the front row with the other media and took my cues from them. When the moment of truth finally arrived, it was surprisingly intense, as you can clearly gather from the range of emotion shown on the finalists faces.