Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Christmas Parade and lights



The Mud Fest

Last Saturday I covered Altavista's football semifinal game at Altavista High School. The weather forcast perdicted snow and freezing rain all night Friday and all day Saturday and that's what it did. Just about everything was canceled in the area except this football game. I knew that Altavista's field would be a mud pit since I was there a couple weeks earlier and it wasn't raining but was still a mud pit. At first I wasn't looking forward to standing in ankle deep mud in the 30s with sleet blowing in my face. Then I started dreaming of the muddy football pictures to be had and lets say my dreams came true. Here are some pictures from the day.









Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Better Late Then Never

I was trying to get this out before I left for vacation but my work/packing schedule did not allow for me to post. I've had the idea for shooting at a turkey farm for thanksgiving for many years. I had been looking and looking for a farm and couldn't find any in our coverage area. Then earlier this year I stumbled up Mountain Run Farms while shooting there for a story about a group of painters that paint outside. While there Ben, the owner of Mountain Run Farms, gave me a bunch of materials about his farm. To my delight I saw that they raised free range turkeys for thanksgiving. Then it got better. They butcher the turkey's on site and were more than happy to have me there for the whole process. Then it got better. They started butchering them a week before thanksgiving which allowed me to finish the story for our sunday lifestyle section and still make my plane to Mass. on monday afternoon.
It's really fun to have an idea for a story and then to see it materialize in the paper. Check out the multimedia here to see more photos and hear Ben talk about the farm.

To view slideshow click here.