Challenging Times

Had a busy day that started out with shooting photos for the paper. In less than three hours I covered five events: youth soccer, the garden club's annual pumpkin sale, the local harvest festival, the farmer's market, and the cranberry harvest. (Yes, these things constitute "news" in my town!) My challenge, as always, is to try to capture a new angle on the same annual events. Sometimes it's frustrating, but I try to make it a creative challenge for myself.

Someone who is experiencing far bigger challenges than I am is this local cranberry farmer. (Interestingly, I covered this for the paper last year and also explained the cranberry harvest in this blip and this blip -- exactly a year ago.) When I covered the cranberry harvest last year, the harvest was only about 8% of normal. By the looks of it, this year's harvest will be even smaller. My heart goes out to this farmer -- I've seen how labor intensive the harvest is, and it's the same amount of work for large crops and small.

One thing about my "job" that makes the challenges worthwhile is that I inevitably meet new and interesting people and often learn something new while shooting the same ol' events. While I was at the bog, I met a man who had been at the bog the evening before while it was being flooded. He told me that when the bog is flooded, all the little creatures (mice, muskrats, voles, etc) that live in the bog come out of their holes and run to higher ground. He said he noticed a couple of coyotes on the other side of the levees, crouched down and preparing for the inevitable rodent feast. Maybe that'll be my new angle for next year.