Pool Side

Earlier this month I went over to a local pool/beach that may have to shut its doors due to rising maintenance costs and a drop in attendance.
It is a community pool that is a bit off the beaten path and has been in town forever so the local crowd has a huge connection to it. As usual, the decision of whether to close it is left up to the suits who have probably never been to the pool, but I felt nothing but love from the people there who just kept on saying it would be a tragedy to lose.

These first two are the two that ran in the paper:

Two extras I liked...

Slow News Day?

I always get nervous when I come into the office and there is nothing on the schedule for the day. One of two things almost always happen...

1. "Well Brian's not doing anything today, have him go grab a quick picture of (insert building, field, empty street, etc. here).
2. "So we have this story, but nothing is happening right now and nobody will talk to us. Go knock on doors. Oh... and we need it for tomorrow."

Thankfully this doesn't happen often, but when it does it is usually never a happy experience for anyone involved.
Today was an exception.
It started off as a #2 from above- a reporter and I headed out west to see if we could get anyone to talk to us about a shooting from over the weekend. After getting some good interviews (all of whom denied photos... surprise!) we came upon a man who directed us to the scene of the shootout and said there may still be crime scene tape up. SCORE! I thought trying not to get to excited.
We pulled up- low and behold there was the tape.
"Sweet! I have my cover," I thought. Soon after we got there two ambulances pulled up and start meandering the scene with us. They stopped and pointed at a spot on the road next to my feet and said that is where the man was shot and killed. Creepy.


We both returned to the office happy and a bit stunned at what we had just seen. Not a minute after I had turned in those photos, a call came across the scanner for an accident with gunshots heard.
Coming from the last scene with police tape wrapped in corn stalks, I tried to make a photo that would show the same tape in a more urban environment.

What a day.

Beach Towel

Mother to us All

Last week an icon in Aurora passed away. Civil Rights leader Marie Wilkinson was 101 when she died, leaving behind a life that is an inspiration to everyone that follows her.
She was an amazing woman that moved to Aurora from New Orleans in her twenties and began making her mark on the city right away.
I won't go into to much detail here because our writer, Andre Salles did an amazing job covering the funeral and his story will do much more justice than anything I could ever write, check it out HERE.
With this being such a big story in our area, Jonathan Miano from the Naperville Sun (and fellow WKU'er) volunteered to lend a hand and helped cover the funeral with me. (HUGE thank you Jonathan.)
It is always a relief to have another shooter there, and I think the benefit can be seen in the final products.

A few stills from the day:

The big debate of the day came over the cover image. Here are two mock ups of the cover but before I explain and tell what ran, I want to see what you guys think... Which one do you like?

America

It is a general rule of mine to try and make it to every assignment about 15 minutes before the time it says on my assignment sheet.

Reason 1: Reporters fill out the sheets.
Reason 2: I have a knack for finding traffic, construction, cows crossing the road, asteroids falling to the earth, etc. on my way to assignments.
Reason 3: Read above and then think spot news.

In this perticular case I was on my way to meet a soldier who was on his way back from serving overseas when I ran across this family who was waiting for the escort with this soldier in it to pass by.
I pulled over and made some frames as trucks and cars whizzed by honking and waving in support.
It was a nice little moment of America.

Elotes

Passin' Time

As I wait for a video to export, I thought I'd share an oldie of how some other people kill their time.

Rockin'

Quality Time

Sorry for the delay in posts, I spent a long weekend at the lake with the family... the whooooole family. We are over thirty people strong, so getting everyone together involves either presents or a large body of water. We got super lucky with the weather and it was hot, sunny and sticky almost all weekend. How that happened is a mystery. Just ask Little Gary, aka Moose, he doesn't know either...
We had one night that threatened to raise the water level but after a small shower to cool everything down it was back to high heat and humidity.
The added bonus of the trip was getting to see my family from Bowling Green whom I haven't seen since leaving school.


The festivities wrapped up with a birthday celebration for Grandma who turned the ripe young age of 70.

So as the dust settles and the bumps and bruises from crashes on the water (and stairs...Scott) fade I know it will be a weekend I never forget and with any luck we won't wait for snow on the ground to see everyone again.

Crumblin' Wall

Parking lot in Geneva, Ill.

Aurora happenings

A few scenes from around town over that past few weeks. Orphans, you might say, that just wouldn't play nice with other photos.

Fox Valley Evicitions

Say what you will about the economy, here in Kane County foreclosures and evictions are on the rise. I have been following Deputy Siedelman for about a month now and according to his schedule of 2-3 foreclosure evictions a day things are not slowing down.
These photos are from one of the evictions we went on with Deputy Seidelman that was probably the hardest to witness.

This was the scene when I walked up...


The family had lived in the house for 13 years, but a year ago the father lost his job as a drywaller and hasn't been able to pay ever since.


The whole family; mother, father, and 3 sons from high school age to infant, had to leave their house that morning with all their possessions in their front yard.
When asked if they had anywhere to go or anyway to move their belongings into storage the Dad pulled some change out of his pocket and said, "This is all I have."
To the family I can only wish the best, but this whole story served to make me realize how easily this can happen to anybody relatively quickly and easily.

Diana Film Fun

A few from the last roll ran through the Mini-Diana camera.

Wild Ride

I have had the opportunity over the past week or so to hang out with Bill Orr. In his early years he was roadie for bands like Metallica, Nirvana and a few more local bands trying to make it big. His life changed when he was hit by a car causing him to loose the use of his legs.
25 years later with the help of Stem Cell research, he hopes to walk again.
Check out the video and a few stills afterward.

Wild Ride from Brian Powers on Vimeo.

83 years young

and counting....


Happy Birthday Nana! Love you!

Wader

On my way back from an engagement session up North and I saw this guy wandering the shallows of Lake Michigan.
Sadly, it may have been the best thing I shot that day.

In Case your looking for some...

...it's that'a way.

Watered Down

We've had some pretty ugly weather here the past few days in the Fox Valley. After a few early morning assignments I got word from a deputy that we have been following that there was some pretty severe flooding on Aurora's east side. He didn't know if it was something we would be interested in, but with all the rain I figured I'd be out looking for rain features anyway so I went over to check it out.

The "flooding" was a small lake that had formed in the middle of the street and was flowing into peoples living rooms and basements. The man above had waist deep water in his basement which was a nice welcome to the neighborhood since he had just moved in on Sunday.
The people were great to me as I asked to photograph as they tried to clean up and pump out the water that had invaded their home.
The story ended up A1, so a big thanks goes out to Deputy Siedleman for clueing me in on the flood. Check out the story and more photos HERE.