1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship

Shout out to Chris Brown of the Concord Rec. Dept., the Concord Fire Dept., and their 95 foot ladder truck for making this happen spontaneously.











The layout took a while. Between looking through my take, computer freezing and crashing a few times, I FINALLY came up with this. Not the best, but something I can live with on deadline. I was fortunate to have a full page. Blank. Nothing but what I decided to throw on there, but I felt it still lacked something. I almost went with just 3 photos and think it may have been stronger if I did. Full page, 3 photos, awesome. Why fill the space just because you can? The front page went with a shot that was 'behind the scenes' ish, so I didn't want to repeat that on this page, but I feel that was an area of content the page was lacking. I felt the lede overall touched on the action, and everyone knows what hockey looks like so why bother showing an action shot. I had some action shots, but maybe only two shots that were unique enough to consider for the page. I didn't feel they rose to the level of the rest of the images, so I left them off. The top image was a last minute addition but a detail I thought worked.

Mount Wash[out]ington

A snap while on my way to interview for a job as a part-time snowboard instructor. I got the gig.

Robert Frost

After remembering that I had a Bronica lying around, I decided to run a roll of test film through it, which I am having developed by the friendly folks at Concord Camera to be picked up tomorrow. If the camera works, I'm going to use it to work on a personal project illustrating some of the writings by Robert Frost. I love New Hampshire, especially the north, and have been thinking of a project to focus on outside of work for myself. That idea came the other day when I was cleaning my desk and came across a story idea list that looked to be made by previous members of the Monitor photo staff. It was pretty cool to see what other photographers were thinking of a few years ago. What the big topics were. One idea towards the bottom of the list and not under any one photographer's names was to illustrate Robert Frost poems. Perfect excuse to relax, slow things down, experiment, and shoot some film.

Franconia, NH at the Frost Farm, where it all began.

Jack Kimball and the NH Republicans

Concord Winter Carnival

Behind the Numbers: 16 Free Dental Procedures

Louise Stott of Alexandria tried to translate instructions into Creole to her five year-old, Emily Michena Sylvain, as Emily received an oral x-ray. Emily's brother, Michael Rolando Sylvain, 9, watched through a crack in the open door, smiling and waiting for his turn. It was the first time Stott’s three foster children saw a dentist since arriving in the country from Haiti a year ago.

On January 7, Stott’s three foster children along with 13 other children from around the Bristol area, received free dental care by the Molar Express, a full-time mobile dental clinic from Whitefield. Through support from the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation, the New Hampshire Dental Society commissioned the clinic to help close barriers to access for dental care in the area.

“There is difficulty finding dentists for children in that area,” said Jim Williamson, executive director at the New Hampshire Dental Society.

The three foster children are covered under Healthy Kids Medicaid, but the nearest dentist they would visit who accepts the Medicaid coverage is in Concord, Stott said.

“It takes better part of half-a-day,” Stott said about meeting an appointment for just one child in Concord.

“We only have one vehicle for three drivers,” she said. Their vehicle has been operating on a spare tire for nearly two months and it needs work on the exhaust before she is comfortable driving it long distances, she said.

According to a January 2010 report by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, only 34% of children enrolled in Medicaid accessed a dentist in Grafton County, despite the number of dentists per residents in the county is among the highest in the state. The state average for enrolled children accessing dental care is 68%. The study does not account for Grafton County residents seeking treatment outside the county.

Prior to visiting the mobile clinic, a hygienist went into area schools to clean students' teeth and identify children with the most immediate need for further dental treatment. Stott said she received a newsletter from the school notifying her that her children would benefit from the program.

“This is great. I wish they’d do this all the time,” Stott said.

First Time, Fun Time!

In an attempt to focus more on my work as a whole and how I portray my "photographer" self to the world, I'm trying to cut back on posting sports to my blog. In the grand scheme of it all, I love shooting sports, but want my work to have more of a focus...rather than a little something here, a little something there. One of the many things I enjoy about working at a daily newspaper, however, is the diversity of stories I get to work on...this includes- sports. And in the past I've posted nearly every story I've worked on, the good, the bad, and the f-ugly. But unless it's super cool, which alpine ski racing is, I probably won't be posting much sports stuff anymore.

From the archive

I've started up the harddrives again in my continual (and sporadic) effort to organize my work and overhaul my website. Looking back at my workflow, I realized I really didn't have one until I got to Midland. It was shoot something, name it something quick and easy, then throw it in a larger folder. Inevitably I've ended up with many folders, photos with similar names taken years apart...such as tree_01 and tree_02, or duplicates of toned photos with varying image sizes. It's a long process which unveils moments where I want to go back to a shoot knowing what I've learned over the past couple of years. At the same time, it brings to light how I once saw, an aesthetic I once strived to achieve. The three photos were from a trip I took to Hungary back in 2007.

368th Engineer Battalion Deployment Ceremony

40 Car Pile-up

Julia Shepherd, 10, of Hooksett, leans out of the passenger window of her father, Tom Shepherd's truck as the two wait in stopped traffic on southbound I-93 Saturday afternoon, Jan. 8, 2011. More than 30 vehicles were involved in the accident which took place in Canterbury just north of exit 18. The two were making their way home after skiing at Loon earlier in the day.

Charitable Delivery

LeighAnn Waycott, 4, lifts a pizza box from a stack with the help of her brother, Stephan, 11, while their mother, Lisa, watches. Checkmate Pizza restarted a charitable endeavor on Friday, Jan. 7, 2011, in which they deliver pizza each Friday to the Friends Emergency Housing Program.

Old English Dance

Judith Ackerson and her husband Ken Ackerson, of Franklin, dance to "Ookpik Waltz" on Sunday night during the New Hampshire English Country Dance Society's monthly gathering at Presidential Oaks in Concord. The society meets every second Sunday of the month and has met for the past 7-8 years at the Presidential Oaks. Judith is one of the founders of the dance group, which began about 20 years ago and is open to the public, with no experience or partner required. A typical meeting size is between 20-24 people, Ackerson said.