Taking the [NASCAR] streets

The New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted the Sylvania 300, a NASCAR race part of the Sprint Cup Series, on Sunday afternoon. There are 2-3 races at the track each year beginning in early summer and finishing up in September. The past 4-5 races we have relied of AP images of the race, which frees us up to photograph the fans. This last time, new staff photographer, Andrea Morales, and myself took a 'street photography' approach, wandering around the crowds shooting away. Here are my favorites from this weekend. A page with a few photos was thrown together for Tuesday's paper in which the photos ran black and white.

Night football

I don't post sports to this blog anymore, but it's been a while since shooting football. Even when we shoot sports, it seems like we're bouncing around to so many different sports and different schools. I rarely recognize the players or the fans. It's different from what I had experienced other places, but I'm not complaining. As a community photojournalist, there's a responsibility to covering local high school sports. As a photojournalist, it's something, I, me, myself, personally, don't mind skipping to focus on other things. Not to say, "Been there, done that," but sort of. It's still a lot of fun being out there on Friday nights and I try just as hard on these assignments as any other, it's just not a favorite of mine anymore. So tonight I thought I'd look at the edit a little differently for myself. Trying to break out of thinking so literally and shooting it so typically. It's a start. An exercise. I'm not trying to be profound. Just practicing, experimenting, for nothing more than to gear my thinking differently. There's still the literal, but it's a start.

Feature Hunts

Marek Bennett, of Henniker, collects scrap wood on property once belonging to his grandfather, Stephen Carl Bennett, along Franklin Pierce Highway that was left after the land was maintained. A cartoonist and teacher, Bennett wanted to collect the wood and store it before leaving on a trip to Slovakia next week, where he plans to visit family and teach cartooning as a volunteer throughout communities until late November. He was helped by his step-father and retired forester, Bruce Spencer, from New Salem, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, August 30, 2011.



From left, Sarah Farrelly, 14, and Spencer Haywood, joke while eating lunch with friends, Heidi Breton, 14, Molly Emerson, 14, Julia Makris, 14, and Andrew Grondin, 14, outside Concord High School on Tuesday afternoon, August 30, 2011. The group of friends met as students at Rundlett Middle School and attended orientation day at Concord High School where they will be freshmen.



Kristin Averell, 15, left, and Ana Marsh, 14, check a list of home rooms posted at the entrance of Concord High School during orientation for incoming freshman on Tuesday, August 30, 2011.

Prayer before the fall session at the State House

Karin Hardy for The Wall Street Journal

Karin Hardy stands in front of a headboard that belonged to her grandmother and was in the a guest bedroom in her century-old home on Water Street in Jamaica,Vermont. Half-a-mile downstream from where her home once stood, the pile of debris behind her is all that is left of her home and belongings. Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Irene caused the water level of the Ball Mountain Brook to rise, flooding neighborhoods, destroying bridges and sweeping away homes in Jamaica. Hardy evacuated her home with little more than the clothes on her back. She did not have flood insurance.



Karin Hardy's bed, still with the sheets on, was found nearly a half-mile downstream from where her home use to be on Water Street in Jamaica, Vermont. Hardy moved into her century-old home that backed to the Ball Mountain Brook, six years ago. Heavy and constant rains from Tropical Storm Irene saturated the land and overflowed rivers, knocking down bridges, roads, businesses and homes throughout Vermont. Hardy evacuated her home with little more than the clothes on her back. Her home was carried away by the rising water along with a few of her neighbors. She did not have flood insurance and found what remained of her home as debris piles half-a-mile downstream.



The Route 30 bridge at the end of the village of Jamaica, Vermont, was washed out by the Ball Mountain Brook after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Irene.

Karin Hardy moved into her home six years ago on Water Street in Jamaica, Vermont. Over a century old, her house backed to the Ball Mountain Brook near the convergence with the West River. Heavy and constant rains from Tropical Storm Irene saturated the land and overflowed rivers, knocking down bridges, roads, businesses and homes throughout Vermont. Hardy evacuated her home with little more than the clothes on her back. Her home was carried away by the rising water along with a few of her neighbors. She did not have flood insurance and found what remained of her home as debris piles half-a-mile downstream.

Newt Watches Obama at New England College

Newt Gingrich watched President Obama address the nation on Thursday night introducing a new jobs plan before Congress. Following the televised speech, Gingrich held a 'town hall' style meeting to address and discuss Obama's speech.

Vermont Horse

On my drive to Jamaica, Vermont today I saw this and had to stop.