The Shelley Report

Blog Moved

2011-10-02T18:49:00.001-04:00

This blog has been moved to www.shelleycryan.com, to consolidate it with my updated website. Please visit www.shelleycryan.com. Thanks!

R.I.P. Bob Feller

2010-12-15T22:59:00.005-05:00

A while back I had the opportunity to photograph hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller. Today, he passed away. When I met him, he was in his late eighties, and was conducting a pitching workshop for middle schoolers in Westport, CT.

Here's a few images; click on the image if you'd like to use them in your publication:

Bob Feller Hall of Fame Pitcher - Images by Shelley Cryan

Yachts on Long Island Sound

2010-09-19T10:47:00.003-04:00

Labor Day weekend brought the threat of hurricane Earl to Connecticut. Thankfully the hurricane stayed far offshore, but it did kick up some high winds on Long Island Sound on Saturday. As it happens, that was the day of the 76th annual Vineyard Race, a yacht race starting in Stamford, CT.

I shot images for the daily newspaper here, the Stamford Advocate:

Vineyard Yacht Race -- Stamford CT 2010 - Images by Shelley Cryan

Edit, Caption, and Transmit Photos with the iPad

2010-08-16T15:34:00.003-04:00

Would you like to edit your photos on your iPad? While there are several good editing apps, what's different about this one is that it's the only one I know of that lets you ITPC caption and ftp photos, as well. Check out a first look at an updated iPad app that lets you do all that at www.ipadapalooza.com. It's written by a favorite blogger (me...grin).

First Base Collision

2010-07-29T12:14:00.003-04:00

Baseball Highlights - Images by Shelley Cryan

On a recent baseball assignment for the Stamford Advocate, I caught these two players in a collision at first base. The batter had laid down a bunt, bringing both the pitcher and the first baseman in. The second baseman (dark blue) ran over to cover first, took the throw, and tagged the bag for the force. A micro-second, later, the runner collided with him and they both went airborne.

For a minute it looked more like lacrosse than baseball....

Bridgeport Schools

2010-04-07T10:07:00.004-04:00

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been assigned to photograph in two Bridgeport CT public schools. There, I could see the impact an educator can have on students, and how much of the real work of building society happens within schoolhouse walls.

Those who know Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, know Bridgeport's challenges. Those who know Bridgeport public schools know those challenges are met on a very tight budget.

The first school I visited was Hall school. That day, they were being presented with a prestigious award for academic achievement. The principal sets the tone in this building -- one of respect, love of learning, and neighborliness. While she'll be the first to tell you the school's success is a team effort -- and it is -- it's also a testament to the impact of an individual.

Here are the Hall school students and their principal:

A week or so later, the newspaper was invited to Bassick High School, where a science teacher from India was just finishing a three-year teaching assignment. He said it was quite an adjustment -- when he teaches in India, the schools are better equipped and staff lab assistants handle duties he's been asked to do in Bridgeport. But he said he enjoyed his stay immensely, and, judging by the rapport he has with his class, his students will miss him dearly.

The day I visited, he was guiding his class -- mostly juniors and seniors -- in a physics lab involving sound waves. Here he is with his students:

From grade school to high school, these Bridgeport students are reaping the benefits of learning with professionals who love their jobs.

Another wacky video -- product video

2010-03-23T19:34:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while, I take on a wacky project just for the heck of it. OK, in this case it was to build my animation skills. Here ya go, a video to advertise Mexican Avocados:

Kiva Video - Loans that Change Lives

2009-12-22T12:04:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, a friend told me about Kiva, an online service that lets people loan money to budding entrepreneurs around the globe. The small loans they request help them earn their way out of poverty -- for example, someone might ask for money for a sewing machine for a tailoring business, or for a few dollars to purchase some goats for a dairy business.

Kiva was looking for people to make videos to describe the service, so I volunteered. Turns out it was a contest. Turns out I won fourth place. Woo hoo!

Here's the video. If you share it -- facebook, blogs, whatever -- more people will know about this wonderful service. The "share" button on the upper righthand side makes it easy:

Paulina Rubio - ORO perfume gift set

2009-12-18T14:38:00.004-05:00

I recently photographed a new gift set for Oracle Beauty Brands, producers of Paulina Rubio's ORO perfume. Just in time for holiday gift-giving!

Thanksgiving Football -- Greenwich at Staples High School

2009-11-27T09:40:00.006-05:00

An annual tradition -- wake up early, make side dishes, then shoot a football game. Come home, put the turkey in the oven, and send the pictures to a newspaper client. Works for me.

This year's matchup was Greenwich High School vs. Staples High School in Westport, CT.

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller

2009-11-19T08:07:00.004-05:00

Baseball? In November?

I'm not sure why I'm thinking baseball today. Maybe because it's gray and cold, and I'm sending my thoughts to a warm summer day....

Anyway, when I think of baseball I sometimes remember the afternoon I spent taking photos Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller. He was giving a baseball clinic to middle-school-age kids in Westport, CT. I was on a freelance assignment for a local newspaper.

Feller came dressed in his full Cleveland Indians baseball uniform. Feller showed the kids his secret (or not-so-secret, I guess) grip, shared some tips about the mental aspects of being a successful pitcher, and stayed as long as he needed to, to sign autographs.

Here are some images from that day, available for editorial license if you click through to the gallery:

Bob Feller Hall of Fame Pitcher - Images by Shelley Cryan

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T20:01:00.003-05:00

Ghouls and goblins roamed the earth, or at least Norwalk, CT, on Saturday night. I was lucky enough to be working for the Norwalk Hour that day -- truly a fun day to be a photojournalist.

10 09 Halloween - Images by Shelley Cryan

Website Update

2009-10-26T08:43:00.004-04:00

I've just updated my website -- I've added some more recent portraits and nature/travel images. I've also put up a few more commercial images in the "Shelter" gallery. Thanks for taking a look.

Early Autumn in New England

2009-10-06T16:59:00.001-04:00

Autumn arrives at the Aspetuck Land Trust in Easton, CT.

2009 10 04 Aspetuck Land Trust Easton CT - Images by Shelley Cryan

Earthplace Water Testing Detectives

2009-06-16T16:17:00.008-04:00

Sometimes everybody's happy.

Take this recent example from a Stamford Advocate photo assignment.

A local oysterman, Norm Bloom, hates it when the Long Island Sound becomes polluted, because when bacteria levels are too high, his operation is shut down until the water is safe again. Shellfish filter the water, so if the water's toxic, the shellfish are no good. It's in Bloom's best interest for the source of the problem to be located quickly, so he can get back to work. It's also in the best interest of everyone who lives near the Sound to have good water quality so they can swim and fish in it, too.

Enter the good folks at Earthplace. They're watchdogs for water quality -- they test it regularly. Many of the testers are volunteers, including enterprising high school students who do some testing as part of a senior year project. Their lab, though, is in Westport. It's a few miles from the waters they test, so they need to factor in manhours for transporting water samples.

So Bloom was putting up a new shellfish processing building on his property on the edge of the Sound. I don't know who asked who, but in any case Bloom ended up donating lab space in that building to Earthplace, so they could test the waters more easily. He even lets them use dock space for their boat.

Here's a photo I took of Dick Harris, Harbor Watch/ River Watch Director, at the new lab:

The new lab, right on the water, will enable the Earthplace team to work more quickly. As an example of what they can do, they told me that last summer they had been doing their regular testing and noticed a dramatic spike in bacteria levels.

They quickly shifted into detective mode.

What would cause such a spike? There hadn't been significant rain, so they figured it wasn't runoff. Standard seepage wouldn't cause such a big spike. There had to have been a change somewhere in one of the storm drains. Because they test so often and so regularly, they were able to quickly narrow down the general area of the source of the problem.

A check with the city's building department uncovered that some construction was going on in that area. The building department had gotten a recent call from a contractor with a question about the location of sanitary and storm drains. Aha! There must have been a mixup -- the contractor had inadvertently connected a sanitary line to the storm drain. That was it! The repair was done, the levels returned to normal, and the Sound was safe again. The detective work had taken a mere four hours.

Bloom's happy, the Earthplace scientists are happy, the student interns are happy, and the large population who lives near the Sound is happy. And of course, the shellfish are happy. Until they get eaten, I guess.

Gone Fishing

2009-06-13T17:09:00.003-04:00

Nick Cardillo, Darien, casts his line out into Stamford Harbor from the east side of Kosciuszko Park on Friday afternoon, June 12. Cardillo grew up in Stamford and remembers when the park wasn't as inviting. Now he comes to the park frequently, often to fish. "If it's bass I like to eat them... otherwise I throw it back," he says.

Vlad the Wrestler

2009-06-09T19:43:00.007-04:00

I've been lucky to have photographed many performers during my career, but a recent Friday night was a first -- I was assigned to cover professional wrestling.

The men on this circuit are looking to break into the big time, the WWE, and barnstorm local halls to gain a following.

One of the wrestlers is Vlad Joseph, aka Vicious. Wrestling "is really hard to do," says Vicious, who trains extensively. He cultivates a reputation in the ring as a tough guy. "Being disliked isn't enough," he says, "you have to be hated."

He told me he feels destined for wrestling somehow -- he said his mom liked to watch wrestling when she was pregnant with him, and he grew up in a family that enjoys tuning in to WWE.

Preparations backstage are serious:

This night, Vicious was happily wrestling Snyper when Jalil Patel surprised them by jumping into the ring. Patel dispatched Snyper quickly, then turned his attention to Vicious, launching him airborne:

When the dust settled, Patel's surprise entry forced the refs to nullify the match. Later, Vicious signed autographs for some loyal fans.

All in a night's work.

Summer's Here!

2009-06-05T22:53:00.002-04:00

The Memorial Day parade kicks off my favorite season...

Charles Darwin's Galapagos Islands

2009-05-17T18:01:00.003-04:00

In honor of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday this year -- what did we get him? grin -- I'm posting some images I captured in the Galapagos Islands last year.

Darwin visited these islands as a young man, and was inspired by what he saw there to come up with his theory of natural selection, one of the scientific milestones in human history.

Me, I thought it was beautiful.

Galapagos Highlights - Images by Shelley Cryan

Use the search box at right to find hundreds more of my Galapagos images available for license.

Paulina Rubio in Concert in NYC

2009-05-16T16:00:00.008-04:00

I got a chance to photograph singer Paulina Rubio in concert in NYC recently. The venue was stellar -- Gotham Hall in midtown NYC is a cavernous room with surprisingly good acoustics, considering all the marble surfaces. She put on an energetic show.

I was working for Oracle Beauty Brands which recently launched a new Paulina Rubio perfume called ORO. Before the show I got to spend some time with Rubio and the dynamic businesspeople behind the ORO brand, and had a super time. It's a friendly group that's working hard to bring a fun new fragrance to market.

Slow Motion Photography

2009-04-19T10:14:00.003-04:00

Here's an eye-popping video showcasing some amazing technology -- images shot at 1000 frames per second. Compare that to a digital SLR's roughly 8 frames per second, or standard video's 24 or 30 frames per second, and you'll see why this looks familiar, but different.

The movie was created by David Coiffier, mostly at a rugby match, and Coiffier identifies the camera as a SprintCam v3

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Senegal Guide Published

2009-04-10T15:49:00.005-04:00

Hot off the presses: Insight Guide to Gambia and Senegal. I'm happy to say it includes a handful of images the publisher licensed from me. Most of those were images I created in Podor, Senegal.

Quite the multi-continent transaction. I'm located in North America, I created the images in Africa, the publisher is in Asia, and the publisher's representative (who contacted me) is in Europe.

Beachside Photoshoot

2009-04-08T18:17:00.007-04:00

It's true for everyone, I'm sure: Just looking at a photo can bring back a wave of memories. One of the more convenient things about being a photographer is that, just by doing my job, I have pretty good documentation for large chunks of my life, so I don't have to work too hard to rattle around my brain for details. The pictures are there for me.

Memories came flooding back, then, as I happened to check on the website of a band I had photographed a couple of years ago. To my delight, they're still using the photos from the two photoshoots we did together.

The band is called Tambours Africains Sans Frontiers. Check 'em out, and hear the sweet stylings of Moise, Tinte, and Akira.

I remember it was maybe 100 degrees, and we hit the beach around noon. Not the ideal time for a photoshoot, but I had to leave to catch a plane in an hour, so it was our only option.

Moise -- the singer -- also teaches music to children, and maybe 30 of them had gathered around. The heat kept everyone else away.

I had made plenty of portraits during an earlier session, so for this one we figured we'd get some shots of the band performing. Essentially, then, the band gave me and these 30 kids a private concert on the beach while I photographed.

For that wonderful hour I forgot that I hadn't packed or showered yet. Time stood still. When I look at the images today I can hear the music.

Monday 2/26 Moise's Drumming Group - Images by Shelley Cryan

Coney Island Images

2009-04-06T01:07:00.006-04:00

This weekend marks the opening of the 2009 season for the fabled Coney Island. Its future is in limbo, what with the differing ideas of developers, municipal leaders, and locals.

But it's still the only place I know where you can attend Sideshow School, ride a roller coaster, and participate in the Mermaid Parade.

I'm hoping to go back soon, but until then, here's a slideshow of some of my Coney Island images from the off-season. Feel free to embed it wherever you'd like.

100-year-old artist and portrait phobia

2009-02-23T18:40:00.005-05:00

Update May 2009: The image at the bottom won in a photo contest and is hangs in a gallery in Fairfield, CT.

The 100-year-old artist I photographed recently was perhaps the most reluctant photo subjects I've come across. Her aide warned me as I walked in the door.

Glenora Richards is famed for her beautiful miniature portraits, complete paintings just a bit larger than a book of matches. She still creates them, without the use of a magnifying glass. Dozens of them -- each one exquisite, some perhaps created 70 or more years ago -- lined her living room walls.

"I look like a rhinoceros!" she yelled after looking at a head-and-shoulders image of herself on my LCD.

Her aide said, "so why don't you smile? You'll look better!"

"You try smiling when you have no teeth!" She had a point.

Another challenge was that I was reluctant to ask her to move from her chair, since she looked pretty comfortable there, and hey, she is 100 years old. Gotta respect that.

Richards is a great conversationalist, and her winning personality, plus my professional pride, had me trying to figure out how to get three different images, given the constraints. I knew the newspaper had planned a lovely feature on her, and figured they'd need three: One for the lede, one for the jump, and one for insurance, in case they were lucky enough to have a bit more space in that day's paper.

After Richards rejected yet another head-and-shoulders image -- a go-to composition -- I started looking around the room and spied a poster on the wall. It was an enlargement of a magazine cover, featuring a seated young woman with her head resting in one hand. Miniature paintings decorated a table in front of her.

"Is that you?" I asked.

"Yes," she looked up.

"Do you like that picture?" I asked. The picture was likely taken nearly 70 years ago.

"Yes, I do," she beamed.

"So let's recreate it, OK?"

She loved that idea, and I asked her aide to help me set it up. The aide directed me to a TV tray in the kitchen, and I set that up in front of the artist's chair. I asked if I could bring over some of her paintings to place on the table, like in the old poster. She agreed, and I used some tissue boxes and salt and pepper shakers to prop them up. I asked her to put her head in one hand, like in the poster, and she did. We got this frame:

The second picture was easy. I asked her to hold one of the miniatures -- a painting of her late husband, when he was in his 40's -- and I snapped a detail shot:

I got the idea for the third and final image while I was taking the detail shot. I noticed I had to position myself carefully so as not to get a reflection on the glass of the miniature. I figured I'd use that type of reflection in the next shot, which took only a moment -- with careful attention to positioning -- to compose:

Happy 100th birthday, Mrs. Richards. I hope I get to photograph you for your 101st.

Soccer star Marcus Tracy

2009-02-04T10:06:00.006-05:00

One of the things I like best about this job is that I get to meet some interesting people, from all professions. Recently I caught up with Marcus Tracy, a soccer phenom who won the Hermann trophy, awarded to the best college soccer player of the year.

He lives in the area, having graduated from Wake Forest, and stays in shape with the help of trainer E.J. Zebro.

Driving over to the gym, I'm expecting grey cinderblock walls, high ceilings, ugly flourescent lighting, ya know, standard gym decor. When I saw the red walls, I knew this was gonna be fun.

Bonuses: the ceilings were low and painted an orangey-yellow, perfect for bouncing a flash and warming up the light. The windows added a cool blue contrast. There were lots of mirrors that, once I positioned myself to stay out of 'em, added some nice depth.

Tracy and Zebro just went about their business, and I had a great time experimenting with angles, light bounces, and composition in this super room.

Rock Concert

2009-01-26T10:39:00.010-05:00

When I walked into the club concert venue, I figured it might be tricky getting images for the newspaper. The band was playing, but the lights were off, as in no light at all.

Sure, there was a faint glow from the streetlights outside coming through a window, but that was only good enough to keep me from tripping over people. Even at a high ISO, no light is no light. I had a flash in my bag, but I hate to use that at a concert. Wrecks the mood and the resulting image only captures that wrecked mood.

So I waited. Surely there must be SOME lights, sometime, right?

Fortunately, there were two strobes set up on the side and slightly behind the band that would go on for a second or two every few minutes. I positioned myself to take best advantage of those lights, adjusted my settings, then waited some more.

Sure enough, the lights blinked again. When you're shooting at 1/100th of a second, a full second of light is really plenty of time to get an image. Two seconds is plenty long enough to wait for some decent emotion, especially when your subject is an energetic rock band.

The images below are of one of the bands, Ice Nine Kills. The image up top is Mercury Sky.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2009-01-21T19:47:00.007-05:00

For Monday morning's assignments, I hopped between neighboring New Canaan and Norwalk, CT for MLK Day celebrations. People in both towns seemed eager to embrace the teachings of Dr. King. It was heartwarming to see how one man has touched so many lives.

New Canaan (1% African-American, median houshold income $142K):

Norwalk (16% African-American, median household income $60K):

Trumbull Band at Obama Inauguration

2009-01-19T16:46:00.006-05:00

The Trumbull High School Band will perform at Tuesday's Obama inauguration. Here they are last month at Trumbull Town Hall, performing for Good Morning America and loading donated coats into a truck:

High School Ballet Dancer

2009-01-14T08:24:00.008-05:00

It's not so surprising that many photographers enjoy photographing dancers, especially a dancer as talented as Raymond Pinto. It's a challenge of trying to capture such grace and beauty in a fraction of a second. Perhaps it can't really be done, but I enjoy trying.

Sunset Runner

2009-01-07T12:39:00.007-05:00

Recently I photographed some high school athletes during pre-season practices. I had finished up all my assignments, thinking how happy I was that I got everything done before dark, and before the predicted rains came.

As night began to fall, I was walking east toward my car with my gear. I turned around and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while. I hurried back to the high school track, pulled out a small flash, and snapped a few frames. The red sky lasted maybe 3 or 4 minutes. As the sun dropped behind the horizon, the sky turned black and the clouds opened up. Everyone scurried for cover, and it was over.

Cascades in Winter

2009-01-02T14:42:00.001-05:00

High School Basketball Portrait

2008-12-30T01:46:00.009-05:00

I took a photo of the Norwalk High School girls varsity basketball team to run full-page on the cover of a local paper's winter ports preview section. The team had posted an impressive record last season, and the sports editor figured they'd be a good team to highlight. Turns out the captains are also good sports, too.

We did the photoshoot moments before their first scrimmage of the season. It worked out great, since the players were all suited up already. I had scouted the location earlier, and had come up with this courtyard in the school. It had three things going for it: I liked the warm lights in the background, it was close to the gym so we'd maximize the short time we had together, and since it was freezing outside, no one else was around. I used a couple battery-powered strobes in umbrellas to light 'em.

We did a couple of traditional poses first. The toughest part was getting them all to be serious, since we all had a hard time not laughing. The photo above gives you an idea. It works OK. We had a couple of minutes before the game started, so we figured we'd try something different. Sometimes the best -- and most fun -- shots come when I know I have a "safe" shot in the camera already.

The players climbed up on a rock in the courtyard, figuring we'd get a "we're tall and tough" pose, with the added benefit of getting that nice blue sky in the background. While they were getting ready, I snapped this unposed frame for kicks:

But we weren't quite done. We were having such a good time together, that I asked them if they might be willing to jump off the rock. I was a bit nervous, because I sure didn't want anyone hurting themselves. But they insisted they could do it. We talked through how everyone should position themselves. We only had time for two shots.

The first shot we got a hand out of the frame. Below is the second shot -- my favorite and the girls' favorite from the whole session. It's the one that ran full page.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers -- Back at the Arena

2008-12-22T07:43:00.009-05:00

I was back at the Arena at Harbor Yard last night, this time on assignment for the Connecticut Post for professional hockey. Same place as last post, only this time it was on ice. That's Pascal Morency of the Sound Tigers blowing by Lowell's Benoit Mondou.

It got me thinking that I'm on a theme here, since the second-to-last post was about a guy who was helping to put an ice rink into a theater.

Below, Sound Tiger Kurtis McLean gets horizontal for a shot on goal against Lowell goalie Jeff Frazee.

Fairfield University Basketball

2008-12-13T08:29:00.008-05:00

Shot a men's college basketball game at the Arena at Harbor Yard recently -- Fairfield University squeaked by Iona. It was a treat to shoot in a place with good light.

Fairfield #44 Greg Nero reacts after having his shot blocked by #23 Iona Devon Clarke late in the first half. Neo reclaimed the ball and took another shot.

Fairfield #32 Anthony Johnson blocks Iona #21 Alejo Rodriguez.

Fairfield #3 Jonathan Han chases down a loose ball in the second half.

Ice Rink in the Palace Theater in Stamford

2008-12-09T16:21:00.007-05:00

I've been to ice rinks, I've been to theaters. But it's not often I go to an ice rink in a theater, especially a rink that's only there for a day.

This past Sunday, the Palace Theater in Stamford hosted "Sleeping Beauty on Ice," a holiday show. The Sleeping Beauty part is standard, I suppose; it's the "on ice" part that gets tricky in a traditional theater setting. So on Saturday the Stamford Advocate sent me there to photograph how an ice rink gets built inside a grand old theater.

Turns out it's not too tricky, if you know what you're doing. Not many people do, but Lynn Novakofski does. That's him in the photo above, spraying water on crushed ice cubes. The photo below shows his colleague, Ed Armstrong, taking a turn a half hour later.

Technique note: I shot the frame above with a very long shutter speed -- longer than a second, I think -- on a tripod. I wanted the lights from the theater to burn in nicely.

Speaking of lights, while Lynn, Ed, and crew were setting up the rink, Michael Pegler, house electrician for the Stamford Center for the Arts, fine-tuned the lights for the performance. That's Michael at work, below:

Martha Stewart at Stew Leonard's

2008-12-07T19:43:00.009-05:00

Yesterday I was asked by one of my client newspapers to photograph a book signing at Stew Leonard's, a local grocery store. Going to Stew's is as much an event as it is a weekly shopping expedition. For those who don't live near one of their stores, it may be hard to fathom that Stew's is indeed a *venue.*

So it wasn't a shock that Stew's guest would be Martha Stewart. Her new book is called "Martha Stewart's Cooking School."

The press was offered a 10-minute window at the start of the book signing to take photographs. I didn't recognize any of the handful of photographers there, which was a bit of a surprise, since the photojournalist community is pretty small around here. We run into each other from time to time on assignment, and it's a cordial group. Perhaps the event drew media from a bit further away.

In that ten minutes, there was plenty of time to capture a portrait of Martha with her book, as well as images of the first few customers who asked to have their book signed. As an assignment, it was easy. The atmosphere was friendly.

Something unexpected happened while we were making the quick portrait. We were all pointing our cameras at Stewart. Instinctively, I lowered my camera and waited until the other photographers were finished -- a matter of a mere few seconds, really. It's my habit to take turns, rather than blitz a person with shutter clicks.

I figure it's confusing to a person to try to decide which camera to look at. The momentary confusion can show on their face, which mars the image. Besides, if I clicked with all the others, most of my images, like theirs, would show a person looking at someone else's camera. Why take a bunch of images I'll never use and add to the confusion? So I waited my turn.

The unexpected thing was that while I was waiting, I realized that it didn't really matter that I waited. Stewart handled the situation with grace and ease, and gave every photographer a direct gaze, one at a time. In my experience, that's never happened before. It was a small thing, a fleeting thing, but I was impressed. Sure, it helped ensure the photographers got a good image, which helps with publicity. But it was also a courtesy, since the photographers could be on to their next job more quickly and the hundreds of waiting people would wait just a little bit less.

Two clicks from me -- one more than I ended up needing, in case she had blinked (she hadn't) -- and the portrait, seen above, was done.

This isn't the picture that ran in the paper today. The other ones -- the images that included customers -- captured the event better. But I like to give the editors choices.

I then left the book-signing area to look for crowd images. I ran into Terry, the grocery manager, who was restocking a display of the book to accommodate the growing crowd. He said they had ordered a thousand books for the two-hour book signing. "We might not have enough," he said. Here's Terry:

I made a few more crowd images, then headed on to my next assignment.

Cloved Oranges and Holiday Spices

2008-12-04T23:23:00.010-05:00

The aroma of holiday baking is in the air...as it was one September when I was photographing a feature that would appear during the holidays. A wonderful editor named Val created the cloved oranges, seen in my photo below, in her home kitchen. We thought it might look nice to photograph them in front of her fireplace.

Alas, the fireplace was a gas fireplace, and the flames were too low to show up well in the photo. But that's not a problem -- just an opportunity for creativity. I put an orange gel over a speedlight, and directed it toward the fireplace -- instant roaring fire. Selective focus added to the effect.

Val had been doing some baking that day, and the ingredients were on the counter. We arranged them on her cutting board, with the help of a talented stylist named Tim.

The cinnamon sticks inspired Val to create an ornament. I photographed it on a white cutting board, so it would be easier for Tim to remove it from the background when he placed it on a page.

When I left Val's house that day, it sure felt like a late November day. But the warm September air reminded me we had a few months to go.

Senior Wii - update

2008-11-28T22:23:00.009-05:00

Last week, I got a call asking me to photograph seniors playing the video game Wii. Seniors, as in seniors in high school? Nope. Seniors as in senior citizens.

Turns out it's a super way to stay active for the older set.

It's a sweet story how the Wii came to the senior residence hall. The woman on the right, the home's activities director, had gone to a family party with lots of relatives in various parts of the house. She said she was surprised to go into the den to discover her grandmother playing Wii. This is a grandmother who is not particularly mobile.

The grandmother had joined in the game when one of the teen cousins saw her watching him play the game. He simply asked if she'd like to try and she had said yes.

The teens and grandmother enjoyed a wonderful afternoon together, and the activities director decided to bring the Wii to the home where she worked.

The photo technique here is a favorite for showing motion. I wanted the woman's face -- with her intent gaze -- to be perfectly in focus, while her swinging arm to be blurred to depict her quick movements.

I worked in manual mode, for the most control. I set the shutter slow enough to capture the blur. It was likely around 1/30 or 1/15. I then set the aperture to underexpose the background just a bit. Easiest way to do that? Take a guess at the right aperture, shoot a frame, then look at the histogram. Adjust the aperture until you like what you see. I usually do this a bit away from the subject, so they don't get too concerned that I'm taking a lot of frames.

Then, with my shutter and aperture set, I handheld a flash off-camera with my left hand, and shot in TTL mode, so the flash would sort out the right exposure on the woman for me. Gotta love that technology.

So why isn't everything blurry with such a slow aperture?

The natural light in the room is mostly behind the woman, so the light on her face is even less bright than the light in the rest of the room. Since I underexposed the background, she would have been really quite underexposed had I not used flash. This is the same reason sometimes pictures at the beach turn out with a bright sky and people whose faces are too underexposed to see. (So no, it's not crazy to use flash on a sunny day at the beach)

Then the flash helped freeze the action. Since the flash helped to illuminate the woman, and the flash is very fast -- much faster than 1/15 of a second -- it effectively froze her in time and kept most of her from being blurry.

Also very important in this image, the woman's hand was moving much faster than the rest of her body. The flash couldn't stop this blur because there was just enough ambient light on her to create the "ghosting" I was after.

Sounds harder than it is, really. It's an easy one to practice if you have a willing pet, friend, child, or significant other.

License images of senior citizens playing the wii video game for editorial use here.

Our Town: Theater Images

2008-11-23T07:57:00.005-05:00

Last week one of my assignments took me to a rehearsal of Thornton Wilder's classic play, Our Town. The young lady, pictured above, played the Stage Manager.

As it was a rehearsal, all kinds of things were going on apart from the action onstage: The lighting personnel were discussing technique, costumers and prop people were running around carrying things, and the actual stage manager (not the character) was barking directions to all. But amidst all the hubbub, this actress stayed in character and delivered her lines.

It made think about how, when I've covered professional tennis players, they demand complete silence and no movement. I suppose it's true that certainly, this actress doesn't have a ball coming at her at 100 miles an hour. But still, I was impressed how she was able to block out everything and deliver.

Often, I'll be in a theater and, when cameras are allowed, I see people in the audience using flash. I guess the automatic features on their camera suggest it. But even from across the room I know they won't be happy with the resulting image on their LCD. If they're too far away, their flash won't reach the stage, but will just light up the backs of the heads in front of them. If they're closer, the flash washes out everything onstage, and you get "soap opera" flat lighting, making the image a far cry from what the play actually looked like.

The trick is to not use flash at all. Think about it: The lighting designer is an expert who has spent time figuring out the most dramatic way to light a performance. Why should I override that?

So I set my camera on manual, with the widest aperture and the slowest shutter speed I can handhold. That lets me get the most light into my camera. I play with the ISO so I don't burn out any areas. Then I wait.

Wait for what? I wait for the actress to move into an area with decent light and a clean background. That works.

Veteran's Day

2008-11-17T19:53:00.006-05:00

Last week's Veteran's Day celebrations reminded me of one of my favorite encounters while on assignment. It was a year ago, at a Veteran's Day celebration at a local elementary school (see above photo), when I met Jane J., pictured here:

Jane was in the first class of WAVEs, enlisting in the Navy during World War II. She moved to Washington, D.C. and worked decoding Japanese messages for three years.

I got to thinking about how different life was for women back then, and how interesting Jane must be to have made such a bold move, for the times. So I tried to chat her up, to get a peek into her way of thinking.

Me: So, Jane, you worked decoding Japanese messages during the war. You must be good at speaking Japanese.

Jane (dead serious, sounding exasperated): Uh, I don't know any Japanese. It was in code. That was the point, sweetie.

Me (embarassed, trying to recover): In code, like numbers?

Jane nods yes.

Me (trying to make up for my gaffe): So you must be good at math, then.

Jane (more exasperated): Uh, no. It was just 0 through 9, honey.

Then she smirked, realizing she had gotten me twice in a row. She went on to tell me about moving into the barracks in D.C.. Since the women were new to the Navy, so were the women's barracks. On the day they opened, they had a bit of a celebration, with a surprise visitor.

Jane: So everyone was unpacking, and I was standing outside the barracks with a few friends. Eleanor Roosevelt pulls up in this Jeep.

Me: Eleanor Roosevelt?

Jane: Lovely person. Not handsome by a long stretch.

Me: What did you do?

Jane: Well, it was near lunchtime, so Eleanor asked if she could join us. I said sure.

Me: So your WAVE class had lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt? Must have been a few hundred people. Did you sit near her?

Jane (exasperated): Honey, it was just me, a few friends, and Mrs. Roosevelt. I said the others were still unpacking.

Me: Oh, right. (three strikes. sheesh)

Jane (smirking, enjoying that she got me again): You know, she lived an interesting life, Mrs. Roosevelt. You should really read a biography of her.

Me (trying to get back in Jane's good graces): Good idea. Do you have one you recommend?

Jane (exasperated): The bookstore's full of them! Get your own!

(grin)

Eco-Friendly and Beautiful, Too

2008-11-16T01:12:00.011-05:00

I shot this image back in September. I figured it'd run between Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I played up the fall color palette. Pleasant surprise to see the image on the cover. See the whole magazine here.

The items pictured are all eco-friendly, in a store chock-full of other beautiful items that are made from recycled materials. When I was assigned to do a photoshoot at Practically Green, in Ridgefield, CT, I figured it'd be a burlap-and-brown-bag fest. Not at all. The friendly staff there proves that what's good for the earth can be good on the eyes, too.

Technique note: Shooting with windows in the background can be tricky on a bright sunny day. The only way to tame the light -- and avoid blown-out windowpanes -- is to use flash to control the light on the subject. That lets you control the light coming through the window with your shutter speed. I used the technique here because I wanted to make sure the green color outside would read well in the image.

Old School Football

2008-11-11T05:25:00.007-05:00

Artificial turf fields seem to be practical. The maintenance is easier, so they say, and the field can be used day in and day out, without worries that the grass will give out.

But they do have an unreal quality to them, a too-pristine quality, especially in the rain. As a photographer, I miss the days of muddy, sloppy plays in the rain (easy for me to say, when I'm on the sidelines). So I was happy when one of the few remaining local teams with a grass field played through a steady rain on Saturday.

The guy above dove through heavy traffic at the end zone, and made it in a single leap. Something about the frame reminded me of a simpler time.

See the full take from the game, as well as some of my other sports photos here.

Happy Halloween - Bag O Tricks

2008-10-30T20:28:00.006-04:00

If you've ever wondered what it's like to traverse through fields of thousands -- truly, thousands -- of jack-o-lanterns, I can tell you it's pretty creepy. The one above was one of the more benign designs I photographed earlier this week at Van Cortland Manor, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

The eerie effect in this photo was all done in-camera: a long shutter (a second and a half, I think) combined with a flash pop and a camera twist. It's a technique I like to have in my back pocket.

New England Farm in Autumn

2008-10-28T22:06:00.005-04:00

When autumn rolls around here in New England, it's no secret that the colors explode. Southern Connecticut is about a week shy of peak season, and yesterday we were graced with a gorgeous 60+ degree sunny day.

Amie Hall asked me to photograph a seminar she was hosting. Amie runs From Your Inside Out, a consulting firm specializing in helping people learn how to prepare healthy meals. The setting was the spectacular Sport Hill Farm in Easton, Connecticut, shown above.

I love this job.

The Circus Comes to Bridgeport

2008-10-21T22:28:00.003-04:00

Who knew such big fat animals could walk so fast? This was an athletic event, keeping up with these elephants.

Cancer Heroes

2008-10-13T21:33:00.007-04:00

Last week, I photographed a fashion show to benefit breast cancer survivors. It was nearly a year to the day that someone close to me had survived cancer surgery. As I watched the survivors revel in their beauty, I imagined my own loved one among the courageous women.

I know, I'm not supposed to get personally invested while on assignment for a newspaper, but this one did hit home. While there, I kept my experiences to myself, of course, but I was extra motivated to work hard to capture the sheer joy exuding from the survivors.

These weren't professional models; they were survivors who had been helped by this organization and wanted to help raise funds to help other survivors. In the image above, I'm not sure if I'm drawn in more by the smile of the woman modeling, or by the admiration on the faces in the audience. I sure like this kind of assignment.

Football Slideshow

2008-10-06T17:53:00.005-04:00

Now that it's football season, it brings to mind this slideshow I did of a state championship game last season.

Boxer Tarvis Simms

2008-10-02T13:31:00.009-04:00

It's got to be tough to make a living as a boxer. They pummel each other with great force, over and over again. It was hard to watch. But my close-up perspective shed a surprising light on the sport. More than once in the match, when one boxer hit another with a particularly swift jab or well-placed cross, the other would recover from the blow, then give an almost imperceptible nod to his opponent, as if to say, "good shot." Maybe it was my imagination.

For the photographers out there, the shot above was taken with a 17-55mm lens -- the short focal length gives you an idea of how close I was. You need to be close to be able to shoot around the ring ropes.

This top-of-the-card matchup started past the paper's deadline, but I stayed to the end anyway and the story and pictures ended up getting good play in the following edition.

Reflections on Magazine Work

2008-09-30T10:19:00.009-04:00

I always enjoy the challenge of photographing shiny objects. You've got all the usual challenges of setting up the lighting so it looks interesting, and with shiny objects there are always the reflections to think about. It's especially tricky when shooting on location, as I do often.

The bottles above are just a bit taller than my thumb, so they're tiny. Look carefully at the reflections (ignore the watermark) and see if you can figure out how I lit them.

Hello Monday - Iguana

2008-09-29T14:24:00.007-04:00

Welcome to Monday. I hope your day is at least as good as this guy's. He (or she, who knows?) is a land iguana, Conolophus subcristatus, that I photographed on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador earlier this year.

That's a lot of kayaks

2008-09-26T11:19:00.007-04:00

Some 300 or so kayakers decided to paddle from Norwalk, Connecticut across Long Island Sound recently. They figured it would take a few hours. It did. They raised money for local charities, and had some fun in the process.

The event is called Kayak for a Cause. Like all good causes, this one had its genesis in a bar bet. Someone dared a couple of buddies to paddle from Connecticut to Long Island, across the Sound, for fifty bucks. They did it, but never got their money. It stuck in their craw enough that they kept thinking about it, and decided to repeat the stunt the following year with a few more friends as witnesses/participants. They collected a few pledges -- less risky than a bet, I guess -- and gave the money away. Every year more people join them, and now it's quite an official thing, complete with pre-trip training and post-trip mega-party. So that's how they inadvertently started this charity. I'm not sure if they still hang out with the person who welched on the bet.

Night for Day Photo

2008-09-19T08:48:00.008-04:00

Walking up to the soccer field, I figured this was gonna be a tricky portrait. I was supposed to make a frame of the team captains, who were busy onfield running drills. So I knew this would be a quick one. The sun was shining bright overhead, so I looked around for some shade nearby where I could bring these guys, but no dice. I knew there was no way they'd have time to walk the five minutes to the nearest shady area.

Lucky for me, though, some storm clouds hovered in one edge of the sky. I asked the guys to stand on the edge of the field, with some trees and the storm clouds behind them. I closed down the aperture and raised the shutter to its highest sync speed to darken the frame. Popped a few frames and adjusted the settings until those clouds looked nice and ominous. Of course, that made the guys silhouetted against the sky, so I held a single flash in my left hand to pop some light onto them.

The image ended up running full page as a sports section cover.

Field Hockey in the Rain

2008-09-17T22:44:00.005-04:00

Yup, even if it's pouring, they'll still play field hockey. For an assignment from last week.

Football Captain Portrait

2008-09-12T11:08:00.007-04:00

Last week a newspaper hired me to take a portrait of the captains and coaches of the town's two public school football teams. They're often billed as crosstown rivals, yet during the photo shoot, they sure seemed like good friends.

The sports editor had thought about an on-the-field portrait, but our scheduled time slot was near high noon, when the light wasn't conducive to a direct-sun photo. Of course there are ways of making that work -- and making it work well -- but that would take more time and money than we had for this job. I suggested the above setting, under the bleachers, and the editor agreed.

I asked the strong athletes to help me move the tires into place -- why the tires were there I have no idea -- and we got it done. I think I used three speedlights on this: Two on camera left in front, and one clamped to the underside of the bleachers behind, to give a little separation light. It ran as a vertical on the cover of the fall sports preview section -- for the blog I've cropped off the top where the mast ran.

Underwater Portrait

2008-09-11T08:58:00.008-04:00

When I got the assignment to shoot images of a few high school swim teams, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted something different than the usual "half head above water in the middle of a swim stroke" images that usually run. Instead, I figured I'd do an underwater portrait of the team captains. I thought it'd be an interesting challenge. I had no idea how fun it would be, too.

For safety's sake, I'd use battery-powered strobes to light the portrait. Turns out that the water acts as a super diffuser, so I got some nice soft light without using any modifiers on the speedlights. I got the lights all set up and tested exposure before I called the athletes out of practice.

I also did some test shots before I called the athletes over, and got a good idea of the area of coverage I'd have with my wide angle lens. I showed the test shots to the swimmers, so they knew where they'd need to be. Just out of the frame above, the lane line comes to a "T," so they knew as long as they stayed just behind that "T" painted on the ground, they'd be good to go. It's a bit of a bummer that the one girl's fingers found their way out of the frame above, but I still like the frame.

I gave the swimmers some pretty specific instructions: I wanted their feet off the ground and knees bent. I figured floating feet would be a definite visual cue that the athletes were indeed underwater, in case the image ran in B&W and/or was cropped tightly. I also reminded them to smile, look toward the camera at the same time, and not exhale, since the bubbles might block their faces.

What I didn't say -- and didn't think of at all -- was that they needed to exhale completely before they went under. One of the swimmers would get in position, then start floating upwards, still holding her "pose," while valiantly trying to will herself to sink. Once her teammate reminded her that air makes you float -- after a lot of giggling -- things worked out fine.

Anyway, I ended up doing several underwater portraits for different teams, and the images reproduced well in print. I'm hoping I get to expand on the technique in future assignments.

Blues du Fleuve 2008 Video

2008-09-08T08:57:00.006-04:00

Here's a video posted on Youtube by someone identified as mbengubachir.

If it's the gentleman I remember when I attended the festival earlier this year, he was simply everywhere that weekend. He must have had a tough time deciding what to drop onto the cutting room floor. The video does a great job bringing back the sights and sounds of a wonderful festival in Podor, Senegal, in West Africa.

Check out my blog entries under the "Africa" label to see some stills from the same weekend in Senegal. In many cases, you can see the videographer and I were side-by-side.

To license any of my still images from the Blues du Fleuve festival for editorial use, please click on the "Archive" sidebar on the right to connect with my stock agency, or email me directly.

Blues in the Sky

2008-09-08T08:38:00.008-04:00

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.... well, a plane. And don't worry, it's doing that squiggly move on purpose, at the Jones Beach Air Show this past May, on Long Island in New York. This photo breaks a lot of traditional rules: blown highlights, lens flare, and probably a few more. But that's what makes it work, I think. That and a little help from not breaking the rule of thirds.

Shot in RAW, used a custom white balance nudged just a tad toward the tungsten end of the scale, as the sky really was quite blue that day. I wouldn't do this adjustment if the image were destined for a newspaper, but for an artsy Monday morning blog post, 's'okay.

Chevy Hood Ornament

2008-09-06T00:07:00.007-04:00

The antique car show at Bear Mountain, in New York state, is one of my Uncle Ralph's favorites. Elevated high above the banks of the Hudson River, the setting alone is worth the trip. But the best part for me was walking the rows and rows of meticulously maintained vehicles with a true expert. Uncle Ralph knows his cars. I could listen to him describe -- in his Bronx accent -- kit cars, hydraulic suspension, and gear shift mechanisms for hours.

Crowds, cars and visitors made it difficult to find a clean background for photos of the cars. I fell back to a favorite technique. I shot with a very wide aperture -- in this case 2.8 -- to blur out the busy background. This also, natch, accentuated the hood ornament of this antique Chevrolet. I love the curves.

License this image of the antique Chevrolet hood ornament here.

Goodbye Summer

2008-09-03T08:50:00.007-04:00

To license this image of the jetty in Fairfield, Connecticut, click here.

Lens Appeal

2008-08-24T09:55:00.005-04:00

My new favorite lens is a 20mm prime. I throw it on a small (relatively) D300, and I'm good to go.

It's lightweight, tiny, and best of all, it makes me get up close and personal. In the picture above, I could feel the breeze as this cute little guy went by, that's how close I was.

It makes me pay attention to the foreground and the background in ways that a zoom somehow doesn't.

It lets me blend in with the other camera-toters, so people tend to act more naturally then they do when I'm aiming a big fat zoom at them.

Even though it's tiny, it's still a 2.8, so I can work in natural light, even as dusk approaches.

So right now it's my favorite lens. Until tomorrow, when I'll need something different for football.

Back to School

2008-08-21T09:15:00.009-04:00

Now that school's about to reopen, I'm thinking about Amy Marshall. I met Amy this past June, when I was assigned to photograph her at the elementary school where she's the principal. More accurately: I was assigned to photograph her while she was ON the elementary school where she's the principal.

Amy had promised her K-6 students that if they read a total of 8,000 books in a four-month period, she'd sit on the roof of their three-story urban brick building for the day. That works out to a daunting 15 books per student.

They did.

Then she had to figure out how to get up there. So she called the fire department, who brought a truck with a ladder and a bucket.

Amy wisely made sure her students were far from the truck. A safety choice, to be sure, but she also worried that, should she fall out, she didn't want them to have a good view of her hurtling through the air and going "splat" on the pavement. It struck me that even though she thought that could happen, she was still going ahead with it. After all, she had promised them, she said. This is one dedicated principal. I liked her immediately.

Amy's courage inspired me. I quickly realized that there was only one way to depict Amy's adventure, to show the readers what Amy was risking. I asked the kind firemen if they'd take me up in the bucket, too. They said yes.

It became clear that, under the care of the firefighters, Amy had nothing to worry about. These professionals were calm, adept, and determined to have everything go smoothly. Amy was in good hands, as was I.

So they hoisted me up and planted me on the roof so I could photograph Amy as she was being hoisted up. Amy then handed the firefighters a lawn chair and a book bag and climbed in the bucket after them. After all, she said, she had work to do up there.

While we had been on the roof together briefly, I asked Amy how she had thought of this particular bet with her students. She said she needed to do something more spectacular than the previous year to motivate her students. What did she do last year, I asked? "I kissed a pig on the lips," she replied. It wasn't a good time to ask what she'll do next year. Whatever it is, I hope I get to be there again.

America's Best

2008-08-10T22:43:00.007-04:00

It's hard to describe the deep respect I have for Danny Molina, right, and Juan Rojas. These two young men graduated from high school together just a few weeks ago, and plan to train as Marines. I was assigned by the newspaper to take some photos of them at a celebratory picnic, the day before they headed for training camp.

A former drill instructor attended as well, and he filled me in on the type of rigorous training these men will endure. It was awe-inspiring.

I took quite a few candid shots, and then decided to do a portrait.

In the first frame I made, Danny and Juan each wore a serious expression. But I wanted to show the warmth of these men. These two have been friends for a long time, and had spent the afternoon playing pick-up games of basketball and football with their buddies. After a few moments, they relaxed and gifted me, and the paper's readers, with their smiles.

Sure it was a simple portrait that took less than a minute start to finish. Yet it entailed lots of small decisions. Where do they stand? Not in direct sunlight, that's for sure. What's behind them? Nothing too distracting. What f-stop? Wide enough to blur out the details of the leaves, so the reader's eye is drawn to the faces. How are they positioned? In a way to highlight both their strength and their friendship. What's the camera position? Slightly lower than the men's eye level, to add to the feeling of strength (that one was easy, given that I'm so short).

For the portrait to work, these decisions need to be made quickly and transparently. Otherwise, that glazed look can set in, ruining the spontaneous emotions I like to see in a frame.

Every assignment is the most important assignment. That's what I think. Given the rigors these men would endure in service for the country, this one was even more so.

Chinese Opera

2008-07-28T07:46:00.006-04:00

As a photojournalist, I get to cover all kinds of events. Recently I was asked to get some pictures from a Chinese Opera in town. My editor said he'd really like some performance images, but that cameras were forbidden in the theater. He said I ought to go early and get some backstage images.

So I did.

I've never been to a Chinese Opera before, and had a great time goofing around with the performers backstage. I met performers, makeup artists, and wardrobe specialists, who were all more than happy to have me hang around and take pictures.

At one point, I hadn't noticed as one of the performers headed down a long hallway backstage by himself. I was busy photographing a performer having her makeup done, when I heard a loud, sharp yell. I jumped! When I turned toward the source of the scream, the performer down the hall looked at me in surprise, then doubled over in laughter. I then realized he was just warming up his voice, and the yell was part of his usual pre-show routine. He got a kick out of my reaction. As soon as my heart restarted, I laughed, too.

You see above an image from the performance, despite the earlier ban on cameras. Turns out, as I suspected, they didn't mind pictures. They just found the flash distracting, natch. So when I promised to go flashless, with a smile, I got the green light.

Suited me just fine, really. Why would I want to blot out the artistry of a professional theater light person with my flash? I just cranked up the ISO, opened the aperture up to 2.8, made sure VR was on, and got plenty of good frames.

The key to getting clear, low-light images is to make sure to set the ISO high enough. I once made the mistake of thinking it'd be best to use a lower ISO. You know, because the lower the ISO, the lower the digital noise, right? I figured I could always boost the exposure in Photoshop later, and get a good image. Wrong. Turns out, an underexposed image shot in low light looks like mud when you try that boost-the-exposure trick. The mud is especially mucky in the darker areas of the frame. I had outsmarted myself right out of some clean images. So for this job I used the correct stratosphere-level ISO and they came out nice and clear, no surprise.

Want to license the above and similar images from the Chinese Opera for editorial use? Click here.

Meet the students in Africa

2008-07-20T09:39:00.003-04:00

Here's a short (three-minute) multimedia piece about the people in Africa that are working hard to improve their community school.

Clinic in Guinaw Rail

2008-06-27T17:20:00.004-04:00

This midwife drives a long way every day to come deliver babies and take care of expectant mothers at the clinic in Guinaw Rail, in Senegal. She's here, in the delivery room, pointing out photos of the babies she's helped bring into this world. She gave up a lucrative job elsewhere because, she said, she wanted to help others who otherwise might not get much help. She asked if we could send her some needed supplies, so we're working on it.

Schoolchildren in Senegal

2008-06-15T08:19:00.006-04:00

It was the singing that truly opened my heart. As I climbed up the stairs of the old school, I could hear the children before I could see them. Their teacher was leading a class lesson, singing phrases for the children to repeat. By the time I reached the top step and peered into the now-filled rooftop classroom, I was smiling.

The young teacher, dressed in a white robe, nodded a greeting my way, and I settled into the back of the classroom. When the song was finished, he introduced me and my friends to the class. They then broke into song again, singing "welcome, welcome" in perfect English. When they got to the part where they sang "Welcome, Shelley" I knew the smile would stay in my heart forever, permanently emplanted there, to be recalled whenever I needed it.

Here are more pictures of the children and teacher at Guinaw Rails School.

Helping on Two Continents

2008-06-13T15:35:00.002-04:00

One of the biggest fundraisers of the Ludlowe Corps has been a silent auction, where we collect items from our community and sell them to the highest bidder. The money goes to fund projects for schools in Senegal. When the Connecticut middle school students visited the school at Guinaw Rail, they described this auction to the administrators and teachers, and explained that's how the Ludlowe Corps obtained much of the funding for their new school building.

I arrived at the school maybe a week and a half after that conversation. One of the teachers sat down with us while we were having a snack, and mentioned that she had something that might help at our next fundraiser. Would we like to see it, she asked?

The teacher then brought out a whole bagful of beaded animals that she and her class had made (see photo above). You better believe these will be very popular at the auction next year.

It touched me to think that people who have so little would do this. It solidified the idea that we are indeed partners with the people of Guinaw Rail, helping each other to help each other.

New School in Guinaw Rail

2008-06-12T10:35:00.004-04:00

The new school our group is helping to build is nearly complete. Like many buildings in Senegal, it's made of cement block. It's two stories high, and will accommodate the older children in the school. In the above picture, Waranka Association Director Masse stands with School Director Diouma in the ground floor of the new school.

See more images of the new school under construction here.

In the Neighborhood

2008-06-10T09:11:00.005-04:00

The neighborhood in Guinaw Rails is a friendly one. It's also a study in recycling. Everywhere you look, people are using materials in unique ways. Old truck tires are buried halfway in the sand to mark the entrance of a store. Clotheslines are strung up with all kinds of different ropes and wires. People in Guinaw Rails make do with what they have.

Markedly, though, in the midst of this area with sand for roads, an occasional horse cart for transport, and goats roaming freely, the schoolchildren wear freshly-washed dresses and button-down shirts. Not everyone has shoes.

See more images of the neighborhood of Guinaw Rails here.

Rooftop Classroom

2008-06-07T10:23:00.005-04:00

The older students attend class in this upstairs classroom. It's not really a room, just some desks enclosed by hanging wooden slats on the roof of the building. I'm not sure how they're able to manage in the rainy season -- I don't think the plastic sheeting in the back can protect them fully. During the dry season, when we visited, it gets pretty hot up there. On the left, outside of the image, is just the open roof. Halfway to the edge of the roof is a set of stairs leading to the classroom and school library inside.

As we walked around the classroom, I couldn't wait for the students to return from lunch, so I could meet them.

School Library in Guinaw Rail

2008-06-07T09:47:00.005-04:00

The school library is next to the classroom for younger kids. The books are all in French, naturally. I think the shelves are from the crate we had sent, but I'm not sure. In any case, they could use more shelving.

I also thought that it would be great to send them French translations of Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown books. Anyone who can get their hands on such books, and knows a good shipping company, let me know!

Check out the mosquito net hanging in the middle of the room, and also the floppy drive bay on the computer.

Classroom for Younger Kids

2008-06-07T09:33:00.006-04:00

As we continued on our tour of the existing grade school in Guinaw Rail, Senegal, we saw the classroom for the youngest children. The tiny desks accomodated three or four students. Even without the students there, I could see why they needed more space.

Tour of School

2008-06-07T06:44:00.001-04:00

When we arrived Tuesday at the grade school in Guinaw Rail, Senegal it was lunchtime. The students were home for their customary mid-day break. Masse, the association director, and Diouma, the school director, gave us a tour while the school was empty.

From the outside, the school looks like a telecenter. That's because the first room on the right is indeed a place where anyone can pay to use the internet. It's a way for the school to raise some funds (see Diouma in the telecenter above, appropriately taking a call on his cell phone).

Leadership in Guinaw Rail

2008-06-06T12:06:00.011-04:00

Shortly after we arrived at the school in a poor area of Dakar, Senegal, we met the school director, Diouma (on the right) as well as Masse (on the left). Masse is the director of the Waranka Association, which exists to help improve living conditions in the community (this area of Dakar is called Guinaw Rail). The Waranka Association oversees the school, as well as many other civic projects and services.

To understand how our group-- the Ludlowe Corps -- can best help the community of Guinaw Rail, I first needed to understand this wonderful Waranka Association. Masse told me the Association got its name from a hard-working, civic-minded woman who had done much to help the people of Guinaw Rail. Waranka Ba's photo hangs above the two men in the image above. She had fought to improve living conditions in this area that seemed to have been overlooked. She helped bring electricity, running water, and sanitation to the community. When she died in 2003, the community wanted to continue her work, and formalized it by creating an association named for her.

These days, Masse oversees this group, which focuses on education, health, and the environment. With constant threats of flooding, malaria, diabetes, illiteracy, and other troubles, it's a big job.

Masse inspires me. He works all day -- he is a professional librarian with a college degree from Dakar -- then spends much of his free time after work in the school, the clinic, or working on other civic matters. I would have liked to have met his wife and four children. I asked him how he is able to get so much done, and he just smiled graciously. He seems driven by a need to do what it takes to help his community.

I felt honored that this group would accept our Ludlowe Corps as a partner. Sure, we had all put forth efforts to raise funds for the school, but it pales in comparison to the work Masse, Diouma, and the others we met that day do every day.

Here is the website for the Waranka Association, including pictures from the Ludlowe Corps' visit in early April 2008.

Community Spirit in Dakar

2008-06-04T20:29:00.010-04:00

I had been looking forward to Tuesday all week. We headed out to visit a grade school that I'd first heard about last year. This grade school is in a part of Dakar called Guinaw Rail, which is where our friend Abdou (shown above, in front of the school) grew up. Our friend Massamba had lived there as a young man. It's a low-lying area that floods during the rainy season every year; people live there because the conditions make homes affordable to those who have very little. But it's a hard life.
Last year our group of middle-school students, parents and teachers -- the Ludlowe Corps-- filled a crate with school supplies and furniture. We had it shipped to Dakar and gave it to the people of Guinaw Rail as a gift. I knew then that the good people of Guinaw Rail were working hard to make a better life for the community's children. I knew then that they placed great value in education, and sacrificed much to provide it. I knew then that they didn't have a lot to work with. What I didn't know, until I got there on Tuesday, was the great kindness, patience, and wisdom of the community leaders there.

Dakar Hotel

2008-06-02T21:50:00.005-04:00

After that 12-hour ride from Podor to Dakar, nothing felt bettter than crashing at our hotel in Dakar. The good night's rest rejuvenated us for a big day on Tuesday. Before we started out for the day, though, we took a few moments to relax on the roof of the hotel.

Here, and above, are a few images of the neighborhood.

St. Louis to Dakar

2008-05-30T07:46:00.011-04:00

Monday's trip to Dakar from Podor took 12 hours, door-to-door, and we had to amuse ourselves along the trip. The leg from St. Louis-to-Dakar seemed particularly long.

John wasn't feeling that great, but did manage at some point to regale us with his imitation of Jimmy Stewart.

First one to identify the movie wins bragging rights.

The brooms in the photo above were the first ones we had seen all week that actually had handles. The excitement over that discovery gives you a sense of the overall level of excitement inside the van that day. Here are a few more pictures of the trip scenery.

Fishing Boat in the Water in St. Louis

2008-05-29T06:43:00.007-04:00

On our way through St. Louis, Senegal, Massamba suggested we stop by and see the Roger Ludlowe Middle School boat we had seen the previous week (see blog entry here.). By an odd twist of fate, this was the boat that had been painted in honor of my kids' American middle school.

We didn't think we had much chance of seeing it -- it was the middle of the day, and it would likely be out working the coast for fish. But as we drove up along the river, there it was. It was great to see it in the water -- it had made its maiden voyage the day after we visited it.

See more images of the SS RLMS in the water here.

On the Road back to Dakar

2008-05-28T07:49:00.008-04:00

When the Baaba Maal concert finished around 6:30 a.m. Monday morning, we hit the road. To get back to Dakar from Podor, Senegal, we needed to retrace our route through St. Louis.

During a quick stop in St. Louis, Massamba directed us to a beautiful beach where we could stretch our legs. It was the kind of place that makes you think about the phrase, "it's not the destination, it's the journey."

See more images of the Podor-St. Louis leg here.

Baaba Maal in Concert

2008-05-27T06:25:00.007-04:00

Sunday night showcased the best music of the Blues du Fleuve Festival, including, of course, the festival's host, Baaba Maal. His set kicked off in the wee hours of the morning -- around 5 a.m., if I remember correctly. The crowd had grown ever larger during the night, as people anticipated his set.

Baaba Maal did not disappoint. He brought his full band -- with tama drums, hodu, guitar, keyboards, backup singers, etc. -- as well as his regular two dancers. Special guests included a young local boy, who sang with an amazing degree of stage presence. That child owned the stage during his song. The energy level reached a zenith as Maal called onstage more and more perfomers, including our buddies Tony and John.

See more images of Sunday's Baaba Maal 2008 Blues du Fleuve concert in Podor, Senegal here.
License the above image for editorial use here.

The show wrapped around 6:30 a.m., just before daybreak.

Watch out for Horses...

2008-05-25T19:24:00.008-04:00

Ya gotta understand that my friend Jean loves horses. She knows 'em, she rides 'em, she loves 'em. So when she and I continued down the parade route in downtown Podor, Senegal together and found horseback riders, she was thrilled.

I'm not talking a few people, or even a few dozen. I'm talking, literally, hundreds of people on horseback, lining both sides of the narrow street. The horses were all stopped, flank to flank, and facing toward the center of the street, making it easy to see the beautiful traditional costumes the riders wore. We stopped at one horse, then the next, admiring the horse and talking with the rider, who invariably wanted their picture taken. I was happy to oblige.

But then all of a sudden, all the horses started to move toward the center of the street -- where we were. I guess the parade had started up again, and the riders wanted to continue. For a brief moment, it struck me that there were hundreds of horses heading toward Jean and I, and we were in the way. I grabbed her arm in fear and said something inane, and she just laughed and realized she'd have something to tease me about for a long time.

See more photos of the horses at the West African cultural parade here.

License (for editorial use) photos from the West Afican cultural parade here.

West African Culture Parade

2008-05-24T08:11:00.009-04:00

I mentioned yesterday that lots of people stopped by our rental house during the day. Podor's a small and friendly town, and the festival seemed to attract outgoing, friendly people. One woman who dropped in was a Fulbright scholar teaching in Dakar, and she and her husband tipped us off to a parade that was planned for later in the day.

We headed into town, figuring we'd find the parade, and it worked. Hundreds of people were gathered along each side of the main drag. As we walked along the parade route, looking for an opening in the crowd, I kept wondering if people would be comfortable with me taking pictures. Many had asked me not to take pictures in the market the day before, and I thought that might happen again. I had brought a tiny lens -- 20mm -- to not only capture a wide angle, but to keep my camera small and less intimidating.

The event was hard to resist for a photographer -- hundreds of people were dressed in traditional clothing, celebrating their culture. Bright flowing scarves, headdresses, and robes adorned participants. All of a sudden, I saw a familiar face in the midst of the parade. It was an older gentleman who I'd met and chatted with in the market the day before, and when he recognized me, he flashed a big smile and motioned for me to come to him. I squeezed through the crowd, he gave me a big hug, and from then on, I was accepted, and welcome to take photos.

See more photos of the West African cultural parade here.

License (for editorial use) the above photo and others from the West Afican cultural parade here.

Tama Drums on Sunday Morning

2008-05-23T10:34:00.008-04:00

Musicians from around Africa had come for the Blues du Fleuve Festival, and quite a few stopped by our rented house over the weekend. The big draw, I'm sure, were the musicians staying with us: Tony on balafon, John and his electric guitar, and of course world-famous Massamba on tama drums. That's Massamba's cousin in the picture above playing a tama drum.
Visitors included musicians from Burkina Faso, the Congo, and other countries; they'd stop by, chat, have some tea, and jam a bit. It was a very relaxed, low-key atmosphere.
See more images of the Podor, Senegal foyer jam and chat sessions here.

Sunday Morning Music

2008-05-22T08:09:00.008-04:00

Throughout the weekend, quite a few visitors popped in to the house where we were staying to say hello. Some were in Podor for the Blues du Fleuve festival, others lived there. Among the latter was a musician named Benjamin who had joined in an impromptu jam session in our living room. If I remember right, it was Benjamin who had brought the akonting, similar to an enormous three-stringed banjo.

Turns out Benjamin is not only the caretaker for our house, but he's also the music director for the local Catholic church. He invited us to stop in for services on Sunday morning. After a late night Saturday night, Robin and I were the only ones who made it there. As a product of 12 years of Catholic school, I'd feel obligated to say yes, you'd figure. But truth is, if I had been lucky enough to be invited to a mosque or a synagogue I'd have been happy to go, too.

Because Senegal is 99% Muslim, Catholic churches are fairly rare there. This one has about 40 regular parishoners. After services, Benjamin showed Robin and I the community center they were building (see photo above).

More pictures of the Catholic church in Senegal are here.

The a.m. burro

2008-05-21T09:01:00.005-04:00

You think an alarm clock is jarring after a late night out? How about hearing a half-dozen "HEE-HAWS" resonating around your cement block room? I don't know the difference between donkeys, burros, mules, or whatever. But I do know that these two guys lived in our front yard and woke us up early every morning. I just had to laugh. It was a pretty funny way to start the day.

Baaba Maal Greets His Fans

2008-05-20T11:19:00.009-04:00

Baaba Maal didn't play a set during Saturday night's Blues du Fleuve festival, but he did come out to greet his fans.

See more images of Saturday night's Blues du Fleuve concert here, including images of buddies John, Tony, and Massamba playing a set.

Start the Music

2008-05-20T11:17:00.004-04:00

Darkness had enveloped the stadium well before the music began. It was a good thing, since the temperature cooled down, too. I divided my time between sitting in a plastic lawn chair in the VIP section (I’m not sure I merited such treatment) and hugging the stage with my camera in hand.
Katie and I were intrigued by the inflatable video screen (above).

Saturday Blues du Fleuve

2008-05-17T08:14:00.006-04:00

Saturday night we headed out to the first night of music at Baaba Maal's Blues du Fleuve concert. The stage, in the middle of a large soccer stadium in Senegal, was raised and well lit. We settled into some seats maybe 400 yards from the stage, but I wanted to get closer to photograph. I hadn't brought my longest lenses, figuring I'd let my legs do the zoom work.

I had a pass allowing good access, but I know from experience that's not always a lock. In this case, the security guy pictured above started looking at me kind of in the way he's looking in the picture. I was near a few other photographers, but it was me he started to approach. I thought he was coming over to ask me to go back to my seat. Instead, he asked if I'd take his picture. No problem, I replied in French, and smiled.

Lessons from Senegal

2008-05-14T08:04:00.017-04:00

Senegal's history goes back a long way. I figured if I took the time to listen, watch, and absorb, I could learn something. That had happened on my trip to Senegal last year, and it played a large part in my decision to return.

One example of this came my way during the weekend in Podor. On Friday night, during the opening ceremonies, I wrenched my back. One minute I was happily photographing the festivities, the next moment I was in terrible pain. No jokes about age catching up to me -- I'm not that old yet. My friends helped me to a chair and I took some pain killers.

Saturday morning found me a bit better -- thanks to the help of caring friends -- but I was still in considerable pain. I applied and/or ingested whatever medicines I could find in my suitcase, and was able to hobble around town and photograph.

So after we visited Max's family, Massamba took me to a healer he knew. We walked through her front yard (see photo above), passing several goats before I gingerly eased myself up her single cement front step. The front door, actually a piece of fabric hung over an opening, lead into a small square room with a couch, a plastic lawn chair, and a rug. The cement block walls were decorated with decades-old awards and grade-school diplomas.

After a few moments, the healer arrived. Her slim five-foot frame seemed smaller, since advanced age caused her to walk hunched over. She leaned heavily on a dark wooden walking stick, taller than she, and dragged one foot behind. Max was there to interpret, but there was no mistaking the international sign for "have a seat in the lawn chair." I did, and she sat on the floor. After Max relayed to her my issue, she began applying some kind of ointment to the affected area, poking her fingers through the slats of the back of the lawn chair.

After ten minutes she was done, and I slowly got up. Much to my surprise, I felt MUCH better! I was truly shocked. I thanked her profusely, of course, and gladly paid her for her services. At the healer's insistence, I promised to return for a second treatment later that day. I walked out the door and down her front step with no trouble, and a big smile.

It is true that Senegal does have a lot to offer. The profound wisdom, embedded in a culture over centuries, runs deep. I was lucky enough to benefit from it that day.

At Max's House

2008-05-13T07:44:00.009-04:00

It's fun to wander around the small African village of Podor, but mid-day, it's also pretty hot. So when we stopped by Max's family home, she was kind enough to offer us guava juice with ice. Quite a treat on a hot day.

A friend of Massamba's, Max is a woman we picked up on the way to St. Louis. Massamba had hired her to cook for our little group in Podor. She splits her time between Dakar and Podor, so it worked out for her to get a ride back to Podor and have a job for the weekend. Her family welcomed us into their home this day, and we enjoyed meeting everyone.

Click here for more images of Podor, Senegal as well as images of Max's family.

Speaking of Max, she cooked some wonderful meals. Most involved either fish or beef, surrounded by rice or potatoes and some vegetables. Meals are served on a big tray -- kind of like a pizza pan -- and everyone sits on the floor around the tray and digs in. Nobody has their own plate; everyone just eats off the pizza tray. The customary way to eat is to pick up the food with your right hand, although those of us a bit less adventurous used spoons.

Senegal River, Podor

2008-05-12T07:42:00.009-04:00

Saturday was another hot day in Podor -- likely more than 100 degrees F during the day. We came across these boys cooling off in the Senegal River. The river forms the border with Mauritania.

See more image of these boys playing in the Senegal River here.

Market in Podor, Senegal

2008-05-11T07:21:00.006-04:00

On Saturday we thought we'd explore downtown Podor and we dropped into an outdoor covered food market. Dozens of vendors were selling meat, fish, vegetables and spices. Most of the older people asked me to not take their photo, and I always respected their wishes. I appreciated those who did allow me to make photos.

It sure helped to be able to speak French. Who knew high school could be so useful? Senegal is a land with many languages -- Wolof, Pulaar, Serrer, to name a few -- but most people also speak French. The country is a former French colony, and the language stuck. It's not unusual in Senegal to run into someone who may speak three or four languages.

Here are a few more images of the food market in Podor, Senegal.

Blues du Fleuve Opening Night

2008-05-10T05:36:00.007-04:00

Friday night, after dark, revelers were out in full force to celebrate the kick off of the third annual Blues du Fleuve festival in Podor, Senegal. Thousands packed an outdoor venue, and many more hovered just outside the gate, hoping to listen in on the proceedings.

I felt decidedly underdressed as I was surrounded by people outfitted in gorgeous flowing robes and beautiful head scarves. A succession of speakers -- French, Wolof, and I'd guess Pulaar -- extolled the generosity and talent of the festival's host, Baaba Maal. The man himself sat in a place of honor, flanked by Senegalese, Mauritanian, and other west African dignitaries, on benches facing the stage.

A wide aisle traversed the distance between the stage and the VIP seating, and down this aisle paraded various groups representing different aspects of west African culture. These included fishing, agriculture, and representatives of various tribes in the area in colorful garb.

For much of the ceremony, I hovered down near the VIP seating to take photos. I crouched down to make sure I wasn't blocking anyone's view. That was certainly the polite thing to do, and it did afford me a good vantage point, as I could take pictures just inches from the paraders headed towards the VIPs.

But perhaps I got too close, as all of a sudden I felt a gush of something warm and wet drip down my head, right arm, and onto my camera. Puzzled, I stood up, only to feel someone remove the bandana from my neck and use it to wipe off my arm. I made eye contact with the Goood Samaritan who explained that one of the women paraders had been carrying a vat of goat milk, and had accidentally stumbled and lost her grip on the container. Relieved that that's all it was, I started to laugh and thanked the kind gentleman, who turned out to be a bodyguard for Baaba Maal.

And the camera still worked.

To see images of the opening ceremony of Baaba Maal's Blues du Fleuve festival in Podor, Senegal, click here.

Welcome to Podor

2008-05-09T07:48:00.006-04:00

We woke up early in St. Louis, Senegal, and headed straight to Podor, home of Baaba Maal's Blues de Fleuve festival. It's about a 3 or 4 hour ride due east on a nicely flat paved road, hugging the coast of Mauritania. Along the route the landscape is fairly bare and dusty, dotted with baobab trees that were just starting to get their leaves. The wide-open road was a welcome relief from the congestion of Dakar and St. Louis.

Along the way we passed town after town. They all looked fairly similar: Collections of mostly unpainted small cinderblock buildings, goats, and people near the road selling bananas, peanuts, and other provisions. But when we got to Podor, we knew it was Podor. From the road, Podor is larger and more developed than the other towns, located just east of the big cell phone tower. The big tip off, though, is that in Podor, everywhere we looked, we saw Baaba Maal's name, mostly in large handwritten letters. Later in the weekend, I even saw horses painted with his name on them.

Baaba Maal grew up here. He was born into a family of fishermen, so the story goes, and was blessed with an unusually clear singing voice. In a land rich in tradition, it is difficult to turn your back on your family metier. Even more difficult is getting accepted into a profession you weren't born into. In Baaba Maal's case, becoming a singer meant joining the class of griots. He worked long and hard to become accepted, studying in Dakar and in Europe.

His big breakthrough had come, though, when an influential griot, Mansour Seck, took him under his wing. As a young man, Maal toured west Africa with Seck, absorbing rich musical traditions and learning how to perform. The rest is history, as Podor's favorite son has become an international singing powerhouse. All around the globe, people now flock to his concerts, buy his CDs, and enjoy his distinctive musical stylings on the soundtracks to blockbuster movies.

To understand Maal, you need to know Podor. Conversely, to understand this area of Africa, Maal is a good ambassador. Our small group of American and Senegalese friends had finally made it to his hometown, to revel in the festival that Maal would host.

See images of our group in our lodgings in Podor, Senegal here.

Fishing Boats in St. Louis, Senegal

2008-05-07T05:49:00.014-04:00

Thursday evening, we had about an hour of daylight left in St. Louis. Massamba, who grew up in St. Louis, suggested we swing by the waterfront and check out the fishing boats. He had taken visiting students there the week before; they were from a public school in my town in America, and I had helped them a bit to prepare for their visit.

As we crossed a small bridge spanning the water, I squinted as I thought I saw something familiar. But it couldn't be what I thought I had seen. We turned left after the bridge and drove along the bumpy road that parallels the water, passing shacks, goats, fishermen, boats, and barefoot children. The long wooden boats were lined up on shore, and as we approached the spot where Massamba had taken the students, I had to blink. Twice. The fisherman had emblazoned the name of the American school on their boat!

We were soon surrounded by about a hundred people welcoming us, and talking -- in French and Wolof -- about how they were so happy to have met the student group. They were apparently the first "tourists" to ever visit them, and by all accounts were ideal ambassadors. The fishermen and their families were happy to know that I was part of that same group. As I took many pictures, the scene turned into an impromptu festival.

So today, off the west coast of Africa, a 40-50 foot wooden boat skims the Atlantic in search of fish, emblazoned with the words " Roger Ludlowe Middle School USA " in letters probably 2 feet high.

You can see more -- a lot more -- images of the St. Louis, Senegal fishermen and their boat here

Women's Collective in St. Louis, Senegal

2008-05-07T04:23:00.010-04:00

On Thursday afternoon we rolled into St. Louis. It's on an island just off the coast, sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Senegal River. That helps make the temperature a bit cooler than in Dakar.

It's a beautiful town, and the first place we stopped -- after settling into our hotel -- was at a shop run by a women's collective. The women there had made colorful dresses and handbags that they sold at the shop, but the organization runs deeper than that. It's managed by a Senegalese woman who was educated in the U.S., and the collective offers classes for women in entrepreneurship, computer use, and money management.

Here are some photos of the shop and its contents.

The shop is located in what I'd call a St. Louis version of a strip mall: About six or eight shops in a row, located in a dirt courtyard off the main road. Goats were involved.

Riding to St. Louis, Senegal

2008-05-06T07:07:00.008-04:00

On Thursday morning, we drove north in our rented van to Senegal's second largest city, St. Louis. The trip took about 4 or 5 hours, and we only had to stop once to recover a part of the van that had fallen off along the way. Fortunately, a gentleman was riding near the back door of the van just in case that happened, and he was able to hop out and retrieve the errant door handle. His other job was to keep vendors from jumping in the back of the van during traffic jams.

Vendors? As we drove through different towns along the route, invariably traffic would slow to a crawl and out would come people selling all sorts of goods: peanuts, bananas, bags of water, cell phone cards, etc. Mostly they were young men, but sometimes there'd be a woman or child, too. In that case, all I could see from my window would be the tops of their heads and their hands held high with the goods, poking them in our open van windows. If the van started to move with traffic, they'd just run alongside. That's how we got snacks along the way. Very convenient, I must say. I never did work up the courage to buy a bag of water, although it did make me think of the water balloons we used to chuck out our dorm rooms on slow study nights...

Other times we'd get stopped by the police, who must have wondered what a van full of toubabs (white people) and local residents -- plus one Guatemalan three-year-old -- was doing. M. and the bus driver always handled the stern questions with an aura of calm, and after a few moments, we'd be given the go-ahead to continue on our way. I think it helped when M. told him his name -- he's a world-famous Senegalese drummer -- and that we were headed for a popular music festival, where he was scheduled to perform with the headliner.

At one such police stop, a particularly gruff-looking officer went through the usual line of questioning, in, of course, Wolof with a few French words. M. answered the questions, and, as seemed to be the custom, the officer then walked around the van and gave all of us passengers the once-over. I would have tried to affect a look of calm and innocence, but it occurred to me I didn't know what that actually looked like. He was standing right outside my open window, staring into the van, both eyebrows kind of knitted together in a rather menacing (to me, anyway) way. Then he spoke to us, in a low, serious voice, in perfect English, "You know, it's my birthday."

We sat, stunned, for a few moments. There was nothing else to do but spontaneously launch into a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday." When we came to the part where you're supposed to say the person's name, there was only the slightest hesitation before we settled on "....happy birthday Mr. Policeman, happy birthday to you." He lifted one corner of his lips to a barely perceptible grin, turned on his heels, and walked back to his post alongside the road, and we drove off.

Spice Market in Dakar

2008-05-05T07:28:00.008-04:00

Wednesday afternoon: We left Goree Island, then headed to a neighborhood market in Dakar. I was still dragging from having just arrived that morning, but the energy of the market perked me up quickly.

The streets were teeming with shoppers. This was no tourist destination -- the shoppers moved from shop to shop with purpose, selecting items presumably for that night's dinner.

We ducked into a small opening in a wall off the main street. It opened up into a beautiful indoor market selling cooking ingredients -- vegetables as well as bags of spices. It was dark inside as we squeezed our way past exotic-looking goods displayed on perhaps two dozen tables and held in burlap sacks on the ground. The only light was from a few overhead flourescent fixtures, glowing green, plus a few openings in the fabric ceiling that let in the bright sunlight in spots. I recognized monkey bread -- from the fruit of the baobab tree -- as well as a blue powder used for food coloring. Vendors measured out powders and spices using coffee cans, then poured the goods into plastic bags and tied them tightly at the top.

We came outside again, dodging cars, shoppers, and motorbikes, long enough to find our way to another hole in the wall. This shop belonged to Tony's friend, and was stacked floor to ceiling with beautiful patterned cloths. The cloths -- mudcloths -- were made of heavy material, and came in varying sizes to be used as floor coverings, table cloths, item wrappings, or wall decorations. Browns, reds, and yellows filled my eyes as the shopkeeper unfolded one after another so we could see them. I knew better than to buy something in my sleep-deprived state, so I just enjoyed watching others make their selections.

I wanted to stay in that shop for a long time. Although the shopkeeper was busy displaying his wares, inside the shop it was much more quiet than the hustle and bustle outside.

We did eventually leave, then later enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Massamba's house. Was it chebujen? Perhaps. I can't remember. All I remember is that it was wonderful to be among Massamba's family again, sitting on the floor of his beautiful living room, enjoying his wife's spectacular cooking.

See more images of the spice market in Dakar here

License the above image of bags of spices in a Dakar market here

Goree Island

2008-05-03T16:20:00.008-04:00

I arrived in Dakar early Wednesday morning, greeted by two good friends. There aren't too many people I know who would pick me up at the airport at 5 a.m., and I sure appreciated it. After a quick rest, I met the rest of our group, and we headed to Goree Island.

Goree Island is a place off the coast of Dakar where people were kept before being forced on ships, destined for a life of slavery. It's a heartbreaking place. The unspoken question resonates: How could people do this to each other?

But there's also a frisson of hope running through the streets and buildings. As we walked through the hallowed halls of the slave house, the sheer effort it has taken to keep this place intact hit me. So many people work here to make sure the world never forgets. So many people visit here to make sure they don't forget themselves. It's a sign of hope.

See more images from Goree Island here.

On this first day for me, a theme emerged that would continue throughout the trip: meeting familiar friendly people. This day, it was on the ferry to Goree Island. My buddy Mary had told me of a vendor she had met the week before on the ferry, who had identified herself as "Cindy Crawford." Mary counseled her to use her real name with visitors, which was Adan. So when I was onboard, and a woman approached me and asked if I would visit her shop on the island. I asked her name, and she said "Adan." I asked her if she used to be called Cindy Crawford, and a knowing smile crept across her face.