The Rest of Week 2

I was still shadowing photographers last week. On Thursday I didn't have to go into the office in the morning, so I decided to show up to my first assignment early. I was meeting Susan in North Lauderdale to photograph the artist Wyland painting a 1,000 foot wall. I got there at 9:25am, but I was told to get there at 10:00. I was really glad I got there early because he ended up going to an interview at 9:45, and didn't come back until 11:30, so I had 20 minutes to photograph him when no one else was there, which was really great. One of the pictures that I took of him during that time ran on the front page of the Local section in color the next day. Here are the pictures I turned in:

The artist known as Wyland, a conservation-minded artist who is based in California, paints details on a dolphin. "This is the fun part of the painting, is adding all the details," says Wyland. Wyland is painting a sea life mural on the 1,000-foot-long wall on the north side of McNab Road, between Rock Island and Avon Lane. The wall is 10-feet-tall and borders the Fountains neighborhood of single-family homes. Wyland has a goal to paint 100 murals that he calls "whaling walls" within 30 years. This is Wyland's 99th wall.

Twelve-year-old Carly Grimes, from Venice, Fla. paints on the kid's mural. Grimes was selected as one of the Youth Ambassadors For The Planet, and will be going to China with Wyland in July.

Wyland congratulates 8-year-old Malik Sainzil, Ga., for doing a great job painting the kid's mural. Wyland painted along with the kids, and also worked on his mural.

The first picture was the one that made the front of Local, but I liked the last one the best. It ran also, but inside the section in black and white.

On Friday I got to shoot my own assignment, and it was really close to my house which was nice. I went to a camp in Coconut Creek to take a picture showing that camps are still crowded with kids even though the economy is really bad. When I got to the camp I found out that they were having a color wars event, which meant that the kids were going to be separated into different groups. So it was hard to show how crowded it was. But this is what I came back with:


(Left) Eight-year-olds Kendall Carr, from Coconut Creek, and Marley Hall, from Coral Springs, watch as seven-year-old Mason Hall, from Coral Springs, runs a relay race during Sport Star Camp at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek on Friday, June 13, 2008. Working parents are not cutting costs by keeping their kids out of summer camp, despite the faltering economy. Sport Star Camp's enrollment is about the same as it was last year. Attendance at local camps has not dropped in most cases from last year, because working parents still need care for their out-of-school kids.

Then I went with staff photographer Carey Wagner to photograph an 84-year-old guy who is getting in trouble with the city because his 22-inch boat that he drives in the lake in the back of his condo is too loud. I had a lot of fun watching him because he reminded me of my grandpa. Every time his boat would break he would stomp his foot and shake his fist and say, "son of a bitch!" And it cracked me up.

John Madden, 84, tries to fix his 22-inch toy boat. Madden plays with his boat in the lake behind his building, but the association says that it's illegal and reported him to Margate Code Compliance for violating a city code. Code Compliance Officers came out to measure the sound that the boat makes, but they weren't able to get an accurate reading because the boat kept breaking. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., the maximum amount of sound allowed is 60 decibles.