My Blessings

This is a moment that I will never forget, my six year old son Jonas finding out he’s going to be a big brother.  Out of all the moments I have captured in my life as a photographer, and photojournalist, this moment might be number one.

The Start of Election Season

Flood Coverage

Had an exciting week last week. Went home, and got to work on some breaking news for the paper. It was a typical every five year great flood for the Chicagoland area, but this flood took over the entire Northern Illinois area. In most news cycles this would have been a national story, but the Boston bombing’s, West Texas explosion, and whatever else happen last week, happened so it was just a local story.

Thanks to the storms all of my Press Photography Network jobs got cancelled, so I decided to go out and document some storms for myself. It turned out to be a long day, because the mighty DuPage River could not be contained. Downtown Naperville had some issues, motorist had their usual issues, by thinking they can drive their automobile in massive puddles that turned out to be three feet deep, and everyone who lives along the river were once again shocked that their finished basements were destroyed.
Even though I don’t work for the paper that much anymore, I’ve never let go of my relationships with my old buddies. The weather shots for myself, turned out to be for the paper, and that felt good, and it felt even better to get the front page once again. I know there is a place for me in photojournalism, I just need to find that place that will pay me enough to take care of my family.

Covering Real Life Stuff, “Suicide”

This is a very unpopular and uncomfortable subject, but its life. In my career, my camera has seen some things that the paper will never publish.
I get it; the site of a human limb on the tracks is going to turn a stomach. At the same time, would it really hurt us (the viewer) to take a look once in a while? Whenever I covered incidents of death, the response is low key, and oh well. Sometimes I wonder if the story that is printed in the paper showed more photos like these, would the response to suicide, be “oh well.”
My personal feeling about natural death, it’s just the soul/spirit relieving its self from the pain and moving on. Yet when it comes to suicide, for those of us who grew up with a thick religious back ground suicide is considered a selfish act and a sin. Sometimes I feel, that attitude and feeling towards suicide prevents society from giving these people the help they need.