Sunday
Posted on October 5, 2009
My saturday was intense. I’ve been working a lot of long days (mostly because I’m just awfully slow at editing video sometimes) and I spent my morning at swim meet preliminaries where my photos turned out awful. I mean just terrible. I had to leave at 1pm to shoot cardboard boat races in Hollywood, Fla. Very, very cute. I wish wish wish I could post the video because I had two little kids at the beginning that were so sweet but it hasn’t been posted yet. Finally because my swimming take in the morning was so poor I went back for the finals which turned out to be so, so, so much better! The light was nicer, I didn’t feel quite so clueless as what to shoot. These were my favorites from swimming and here is the link to the photo gallery for the paper.
Here are a few from cardboard boat races . . . although having to shoot video at the same time I feel that the photos were really not that good:
A while back I shot video of the Nova Dental Clinic, it’s huge and comprised of hundreds of students. I had fun with it and I’m so happy to see it online, I was almost sure it might not make it since I shot it two weeks prior. So here is the Nova Dental Clinic video and here are a couple of my favorite pics from that:
Dental students have to keep teeth to practice on, this was one kid’s jar . . . pretty cool.
This guy above is who I interviewed, absolute sweetheart and was pointing out the tooth that was being worked on.
I’m a big fan of subway and I love that the dude that made my sandwich wanted to stress how crazy Florida was. He told me about a lady who put a knife in her sandwich and said I want my sandwich free, you’ve left your sandwich knife in my sandwich. Another lady that when he was mopping, ran over to the shop and stopped running, as he put out a safety sign (apparently suing is big out here). That brings me to one assignment, it was to photograph the founder of WhoCanISue.com and here is the story (minus the photo I shot . . . I don’t know why) so here is the pic:
This is probably a four foot iguana kept at the school outside one of the classrooms. The grow out here to be huge because they have no natural predators after the age of one and are considered a menace. They dig holes for their burrows, eat other animals and occasionally bite people. I challenge you to find a state where you are less likely to be bit by a reptile than Florida.
Geekfest!
Posted on October 3, 2009
Awesome quote of my day:
F**k off, I’m gonna call f***ing PETA on your *sses
See below for the full story and video, but first let me tell you about a wonderful thing . . . it’s called geekfest.
You’ll no doubt see my chubby cheeks clearly in the center of that pic surrounded by a multitude of talented, freelancers, students, professional multimedia/visual storytellers. While Melissa Lyttle of APAD fame organized this amazing conference. What struck me as different from the only other photo event I’ve attended (Women in Photojournalism a couple years back) was that many of the photographers were young, they were innovative, creative and while still journalists they straddled fine art and journalism in a way that many long time news photographers don’t seem to do.
All of the speakers were phenomenal. My favorites included Dai Sugano of the Mercury News. His work is visual storytelling, just amazing stuff I recommend you click on his website that I’ve linked to his name. Damon Winters of the New York Times just blows your mind . . . I don’t know if I could ever see like that and Nicole Fruge of the San Antonio Express-News had this attitude, even after years as a freelancer, news photographer that was so infectious and well, happy.
I could go on for ages about geekfest, but I’ve included a couple photos above and a really, really cool video I made when I got home and couldn’t sleep. Watch it below, I promise it’s worth it. The music is Santigold and the game, it’s shuffleboard
Point A – Ft. Lauderdale
Point B – St. Petersburg
Point ? – Frogs
Point C – Ft. Lauderdale
Watch the video for Point Frogs. Watch tomorrow for a new post.
Oh and check out the story I covered today about Iguuuuanas. Specifically the kind that are, well, wild animals. This one bit a little girl, got sent out to photograph the iguana catchers doing their thing, but when they went to the home where the 7-foot beast allegedly lives we were told to f-off. Actually this is my first experience using “bleeping” in a video. Quite fun.
This is the link, but mind you the video will be posted tomorrow most likely.
Sunday
Posted on August 30, 2009
Another week down and it’s been fun. I shot several videos and photos this week and I’ve been able to edit all of them. I’ll try to include links.
Also I discovered something wonderful today called Pollo Tropical. Instead of fries you choose from fried yuca or fried plantains and sides of rice and beans . . . man it is awesome. I can’t believe I can get fast yuca, at home we get this maybe once or twice a year . . . a smart person would open one in Phoenix or Tucson.
Here are some more fans from last week’s Dolphins game . . . I am going to do a project on the fans, no doubt, they are what makes games interesting (at least to me).
I also photographed a young volunteer that day who said his experiences were character building. Here he is waiting for someone to need to use a wheelchair.
We also did a couple of interviews with pet owners who adopted Katrina pets. Here is the link and one of the videos . . . it is just a little too long and a little disorganized, but not bad for a photo/video assignment.
Mirimar police are looking for a suspect in a triple homicide in a good neighborhood in the area. There are so many murders here it is ridiculous.
Broward County K-9’s recieved protective vests. Here is the story and below is a photo that they didn’t use on the website:
And in theme with the shoes here is the complete office of polished black boots.
A couple of dancers with Dancing with the Stars gave a workshop. Fun times.
There were 10,000 socks collected for the homeless and bagged up to be given to different local shelters:
And today a father/teacher from Weston (filled with so many Colombians/Venezuelans I was floored) and here his daughter is hugging him when he arrives.
And just for fun I took a screen shot with all my windows visible . . . this is really how I work:
And tomorrow? Work, paperwork, doctor, alligator alley?, and hopefully this guy . . . excited.
Monday/Tuesday
Posted on August 4, 2009
Cross country trips are exhausting. I left Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday at about noon and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 48 hours later. I went from point A to point B on Sunday, referring to the above map. Then I drove from Point B to Point C on Monday/Tuesday. Today I am completely exhausted and on the trip I was a bit bored out of my mind . . . so I kept myself busy I bought an awful book on tape from a Loves Trucker stop in Baton Rouge. While there was a lot of violence, but plot wise it was pretty simple. I also calculated over and over again how much time I had left to get to point A,B,C, whatever. And I counted things . . . That was the most fun, here is my list!
1 – One of each: racoon, possum, and armadillo roadkill (only special because we don’t have them in AZ!)
2 – Number of times I was cut off by Arizona drivers outside of Arizona . . . jerks . . .
3 – Number of times I locked my doors while driving because I thought of those horror movies where the guys hide in the backseat . . .
4 – Number of I called my sister on the road 🙂
5 – The number of grasshoppers I crushed in Texas to get to the motel . . . so . . . gross . . .
6 – Number of Pilot truck stops I stopped at to use the restroom.
7 – Number of times my car made that noise when you run onto the shoulder because I was trying to take video of the trip and got distracted.
8 – Number of times I passed Cracker Barrels . . . . Oh Ashley
9 – Number of pictures of fetuses (plural?) on Prolife billboards in Florida and Mississippi, I only put this because they are the size of my car . . . thought it was weird.
10 – Number of times I heard Pitbulls Calle Ocho song . . . . you know you want me . . . .
I’ll be adding the random clips I took that nearly ran me off the road later . . . for now I want to sleep before my first day of work!!!
Happy Fourth of July
Posted on July 5, 2009
So fellow News21 reporter Evan Wyloge and I headed out to interview some new U.S. citizens and swing by the truly American tradition of protest in the form of a tea party at the Arizona State Capitol. Here are some audio and photographs from today:
It’s those little things that really tell you about people. This girl was all red, white, and blue as she giggled with family and friends as she was getting ready to leave Saturday morning. She is from Guadalajara but has spent the majority of her life in the United States.
One family from Sudan celebrated two fathers receiving their citizenship on July 4th, 2009. Marco Bako, below, was one of those two dads and the little boy was playing while waiting for his father, a friend of Bako’s also from Sudan, outside.
Tolemi was interesting, she was becoming American after spending 26 years in the country.
And lastly there was Maria Torres, wearing her Virgen de Guadalupe bracelet.
And it would never be a true celebration of our country without a protest right?
Below are pics from Phoenix’s tea party . . . This one focused obviously on the bail out and government taxation but went on to stress the fears of socialized medicine, taxes on methane (to explain the fart photo) and all in all makes for some interesting and patriotic photos.
And with great pride the little girl proclaimed, “that sign is mine. I made it.”
What a great way to celebrate the independence of my country.
Deanna Dent 
