More recent

Sorry I've been such a slacker lately but we really haven't had too much down time...here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

Alex was such a character...according to him the blues are "junk" music...when I asked him what kind of music he played he said, "beautiful music".



Daffodil show
we kind of missed out on all of the good pictures this year of the participants getting the flowers ready but next year we will be there.


HILLCATS!!!!! I JUST LOVE THESE GUYS.


O yes another sunrise service...third year in a row.

Random catch up

Hey sorry for waiting so long to post something...but its been a hustle here the last few week.



Controlled burn





Kid on leashes always funny!!

A Wrestler's World

Like the turkey story, I've been trying to do a story about what it takes to be a wrestler, for a couple of years now. I'd heard that wrestlers' lifestyles are unique and really wanted to focus my energy on the life off the mat instead of focusing on the action. I really have to give it up to Liberty for letting me have pretty much full access to their wrestlers and a special thanks to Coach Castro for letting me get in to photograph a weigh in.

Check out the audio slideshow that went along with the story here.

KIMRAFF.COM its finaly here!!!!!!

It's been a long time coming but I finaly got www.kimraff.com up and running. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Recent Random

Someone had called into the paper saying that there was a man who looked strange riding his horse down a busy road carrying an American flag. The reporter and I raced out of the office and tried to find this man but it seemed as though he had disappeared into thin air. The next day I was driving back to the office after an assignment and there he was sure enough riding that horse down the road. The man it turns out is named, Matthew McDaniel, and he and his horse, Hampton, were riding from Oregon to Washington DC to bring awareness in the United States about Akha human rights issues in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China and Vietnam. This is a common occurance in Lynchburg. People seem to always come through town on the way to promoting their various causes in DC. Since I have been here we have had a cross country moped man, monks, various runners and bike riders, and apparently a unicyclist.

Photojournalism 101

Click here to see slideshow

While at photo school in Rochester you would often hear people saying, "I want to be a photojournalist to make a difference in the world and tell people about stories that get them thinking and make a difference in peoples lives." I even said that kind of stuff myself. I'm sure that I have made some difference since I've been in the business but not what I thinking about when I was a bright eyed 20 year old.

I did get to make a real tangible difference in Robert Blanchard's life. He is an Afghanistan Army Vet with a purple heart and a bad case of PTSD. He was also getting royaly screwed by the VA. After the reporter started looking into his files at the VA the VA magically reversed his benifits compensation and admitted that we had a hand in that. The icing on the cake though was that while researching the story we found a sergions generals investigation of the VA that basically said that the VA was really really messed up and that report was given to the roanoke TV station and made huge waves up there. Please check out my slideshow from the story and read Chris' story. It's one of the best I have ever worked on.

Snow AGAIN!!!

Lynchburg got hit with a surprise snowstorm this past weekend. It dumped around a foot in the city. Why is Lynchburg starting to resemble Rochester, NY. Lets hope this is the last of it, although I hear that more is one the way.







husband and wife