Service for Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Geary

Middle School Play Rehearsal

Christmas Shopping

Sent out to photograph "last minute shoppers."

Smoke House Pick-up Feature Hunt

Column Page Layout

Ski Jumping

Behind the Numbers: 6 Steel Rollercoasters

The dark green-colored steel track rises to the tops of a few surrounding trees, both covered by the year's first snow. Below, crews laugh as they work to clear the double figure eight track of Rudy's Rapid Transit.
"A lot of family pride goes in to our park," Christian Gainer said, general manager and third generation working at the park. "Santa's Village has to be a magical place."
For many kids, Gainer said, it is their first time on a roller coaster.
"We have the unique ability to affect a child's life and a child's memories," noting that he has met grandparents who visited as children and return with their grandchildren.
In 1953, his grandfather, Normand Dubois, opened Santa's Village in Jefferson. His grandmother, Cecile Dubois, 91, still drops in to lend a hand.

Jenn Pasquarosa and her son Vinnie, 3, came from Franklin, Ma., and have been enough times, usually in the summer, that Vinnie knows the coaster is his favorite part of the park.
"It's more magical with the snow," Pasquarosa said.
It was the fourth open run of the day for the coaster and the Pasquarosa's first as the two climbed into the fourth car in the twenty car train. Vinnie sat quietly. Emotionless. Gloved hands on the lap bar securing him and his mother to their seat. A small jolt starts the coaster followed by clicking as it climbs to the top of the first drop, the highest point on the 1,181 foot steel track at just over 26 feet tall. The coaster accelerated down as Vinnie's hands go up. He let out a soft yell, a look of wide-eyed excitement on his face. Jenn looked at her son and a smile formed that lasted nearly the entire ride.

Rudy's Rapid Transit is one of 6 sit down steel roller coasters in New Hampshire. According to Roller Coaster Database, New Hampshire has the highest number of sit down steel roller coasters per capita in the U.S. The figure uses the 2009 U.S. Census Bureau's population estimates to calculate that there are 4.53 coasters per every million people. It is second only to New Jersey for most roller coasters total, wood or steel, per capita at 5.28 compared with New Jersey's 5.40 roller coasters per million.

Seeing Red: buck buck buh-gock!

Pittsfield Fire

Folks Be Wrastlin'

Unsolved Crime

A television was dropped on Kaleena Guzman's car Tuesday night, November 30, 2010, as she exited the parking garage located on Storr Street in Concord.

Kansas City Jazz: A Quick Revisit

I've finally begun to sit down and edit work for a new website. It's always a struggle because looking through old work 1) I get bored of my photos 2) I wasn't very organized with photos before 2 years ago, so there's a lot of different versions of the same photo. The goal is to go back and keyword and organize everything shot since 2003. I think it comes down to trying to do too much at once and not getting anything done = my life. But I digress.

Back in school (*sigh) I began hanging out at a little gem in Kansas City on the weekends. A jazz club. It only opened on Friday and Saturday nights after about 1:30 a.m. We'd drive down at night and drive back at sunrise when the place closed down. It was basically a lock in each time. People brought their own beer and they stocked up on some beer each night. The man who ran it, we called him The Don, became a friend as we became familiar faces. I look back now, knowing what I've learned and where I am pushing myself and my photography, and realize what an awesome place this was and how little I scratched the surface. Nevertheless, I wanted to share some photos that dragged me away from editing and archiving this morning.

A few recent pages

Giant Menora Lighting

Snip Snap

Christmas Tree Lighting