a momentary lapse of color

Even the Krishna Spring fest couldn't keep winter away.

Festival of Color

Experiencing something like I did this evening is why I do what I do. Not only was I able to take part in the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors but I was able to try and capture it's meaning.

An orgy of neon colored powder filled the air moments after a huge bonfire draped with a menacing witch was lit. I felt for a moment that I was in a war zone just hit with canisters of tear gas. I crouched down in the thick fog, weary of getting too close to the gasoline-doused fire while trying to make sense of the forms and figures through my camera.

Once the chalk cleared, I regained my orientation and started to make some sense of the chaos. While unsuccessfully trying to save my camera from exposure I navigated through the mosh pit. Strangers slapped chalk on my face and random streams of dust covered me as I shot away.

Now that I'm all clean, I just want to do it all over again. And I have an insatiable craving for Krishna lunch.

CHECK OUT THE MULTIMEDIA

my out of focus self portrait

taste test

Kids taste tested possible future cafeteria menu items today. Students from a bunch of different schools went on a field trip to taste and rate food ranging from fish sticks to cookies to fried green beans. Vendors brought their best with hopes that picky kids would give them a thumbs up. It was a pretty surreal experience actually. "Here we have the sweet potato fries, frozen fruit, Mexican cheese dip and Southwest pizza," the vendors would say. Some kids were polite and saved their disgusted faces for when they walked over to the garbage can to throw away their less than par plate, others weren't so courteous.

"I'm in heaven," Chandler said to his grandma as he savored a cookie.

Not such a kind reaction to the sweet potato fries.

sadie

Sadie is 20 and has a 2-year-old son, Gabe. She and her ex-boyfriend, Brady, 23, mutually care for him. I spent a short time with them as Sadie passed him off to Brady. From what I saw, it seemed like they are both good parents to him, which seems pretty commendable for such young parents.

protest video

I shot a video of this protest yesterday. Michael Brandy shot the stills. This is the second time I've put one of these together, but I've found it's pretty fun. It's not too great, but practice makes decent. (the shot above is a screen grab-hence the quality)

Let me know what you think. Watch it HERE

human web

Not as elegant as a spider's.

Mike made a video.

good friday-- video?

I experimented with a little bit of video on this one. Still not sure how I feel about video. Sometimes I like it sometimes I don't. I just think I need to get better at it to make it look decent.

--see it here--

happy spring

marbles

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” -Nathaniel Hawthorne

something from nothing

I often find myself trying to pull something out of nothing. Be it a press conference, speaker, a forum, etc. Even though I try to pull out any and all tricks I have, I question whether I should be doing it at all. Some assignments are necessary to cover, and usually those things benefit TV cameras and reporters more than photographers ( unless the paper needs some art to give the story any play). I guess it's part of the job, but I'd like to avoid it as much as possible. So while four TV cameras were pointed at the governor as he spoke about flood preparation at the National Weather Service office, I was distracted by the employees peeking over their cubicles to watch the circus.

green jello

For St. Patty's day, I shot a publicity stunt of sorts from a local radio station. These are usually fun to shoot, but are usually somewhat annoying. The swarm of TV stations that covers these and sets all sorts of things up gets to me. Oh well, it was the green the paper needed for the day...

parade

arches

I took a week off work for Vanessa's spring break. We did some romping around Utah and went to a national park near Moab, a park with tons of ridiculous rock formations--many named after the devil.

Web Site! Finally

I finally got around to finishing my Web site and putting it up online. I wanted to make it somewhat malleable, so I put in a "recent" tab and a homepage, with a photo I can change periodically. It's simple, but I sometimes Web sites have too many bells and whistles that detract from the content. And my web language is confined to simple html and css.

Let me know what you guys think. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

www.timhussin.com

dam trip

I took a small trip to Arizona this week to cover a story on the Glen Canyon Dam. The Dept of the Interior is conducting an experiment where they release a huge amount of water from these giant jet tubes to carry sediment down the Colorado River to build up beaches used for recreation and wildlife habitat. The trip took us through some small towns, reminiscent of the wild west. The first photo is a cop car we passed in one of these small towns called "Orderville." They just park a cop car on the side of the road and put a dummy cop in the car to make people slow down as they drive through town. Pretty hilarious...

*slideshow*

Lights in a sushi restaurant we ate at one night.

This is my close encounter with the wild west. Tumbleweed in the hotel parking lot. I'm still searching. I got close in some places along the way, but now I'm motivated to find that heroic cowboy on a galloping horse vanishing into the mist with a shotgun on his hip.

defeated

I had the opportunity to shoot two state championship games last weekend. The team that I was closest to ended up loosing both times, so I shot the tears. The guys on the first photo are holding up their second place trophy.

mourning

Alyssa Lopez died in a car accident on her way home from a high school basketball game. Her friends created a memorial for her a couple days after.

See the slideshow

cowboys

I shot my first rodeo. It was fun, but I don't think I fit in too well. I'll dress more appropriately next time and maybe they will accept me.