Day 335/365

     This morning was spent at the cabin, and the dogs were ecstatic when we all woke up to a fresh dusting of snow on the ground. 

Day 334/365

     I'm spending the weekend back in Ohio, and got to spend last night out at my mom's cabin with some friends and family. It was great to get together with people and just have a fun and relaxing night. Kip, of course, came with me. He makes quite the travel buddy.

Day 327/365

     After a rather tumultuous week, Saturday was a day that needed to be a good one for the sake of my mental health. I slept in, visited a friend in her new tattoo shop to get some new work done, went out with some friends from work to drink and laugh, and then got to spend some time with my boys before getting some more much-needed sleep. It was a good day, and I felt myself recharging. Kip needs a bit of work on his innocent face though, no?

Day 315/365

     When I got back to Michigan Monday night/day 315, I unpacked and put everything away, which could not have been done with out the monumental help that was Finch.

Day 314/365

     As I said in day 313's post, I got to spend the past weekend at home in Cleveland. I got to have a much needed lazy day with my family on Sunday/day 314, which meant falling asleep on the living room couch while watching a movie. It wouldn't be complete without the best nap buddy in the world: our family dog Pete. Pete's almost ten years old, which I still find hard to believe. He's the sweetest dog on this face of the planet. Just look at that face!

Day 301/365

     Monday/day 301 was a slow workday, as Mondays too often are. It was at least sunny out, even though there was a bitter chill in the air. After I got home from work I bundled up and took Kip on a nice long walk. As almost always is the case, Finch was waiting in the window for us, (well, most likely me more so than Kip), to get back. It makes me smile each time I see him do it. He runs to the door when I get home from work too! He breaks about 90% of cat stereotypes, which is one of the major reasons I love him so much, I think. He plays fetch, comes when he's called, (most of the time, but dogs blow you off too), and he cuddles. Anyways, when Kip and I got back from our walk Monday I went over to my living room window and went to take a picture of Finch, when Kip noticed he was in the window and decided to say hello!

Day 296/365

     A new lens I had recently ordered happened to arrive today! I'm a camera nerd through and through, as I'm sure is obvious to anyone who knows me or who even glances at this blog from time to time. The lens arriving today is perfect timing though; I've been dying to use it and I think it'll especially come in handy with the new developments in Jessica's story. I couldn't wait until tomorrow to use it though, of course, so my boys got to suffer through being my test subjects yet again. I'm pretty sure they're more than used to it though. I mean, c'mon, look at those poses! They were born to be a photographer's pets.

Day 293/365

Sunday/day 293 was most definitely a lazy day, so much so that Finch and Kip even got along for most of the day.

Day 284/365

     One of my assignments on Friday/day 284 was to get some photos of some of the migratory birds in the Saginaw area. One of our editors noticed a lot of them at a park nearby, so I went out and saw literally hundreds of Canada geese and a few dozen gulls walking around on the ice and in the few open patches of water. It was such a bitter cold day, I wouldn't have wanted to spend it here if I were them. 

Day 283/365

     The morning of Thursday/day 283 was spent in Ohio for an hour or two, before I left a bit early to drive the rest of the way back to Michigan a day late due to the snowstorm that came through. I'm pretty sure my family's cat, (actually my friend and former roommate's that we're taking care of while she's in the navy), was a bit upset with me for taking my cat/her buddy away from her. 

Day 235/365

     Friday/day 235's belated post is a product of me driving around Saginaw and knocking on some more doors for the "dangerous dogs" ordinance story that I shot photos for last week, (I posted one of them for day 225). The story actually launched today on MLive here, and will have other viewpoints/opinions/side stories  throughout the next week or two. The "dangerous dogs" ordinance passed in June 2011 and requires owners of designated breeds, (like pit bulls, rottweilers, German shepherds, etc.), to register their pets at the City Clerk's office for $20, post a "dog on premises" sign on the front of their home, and keep their animals either on a leash or within a 4-foot-high fenced area or kennel. Personally, I follow the mantra, 'there are no bad dog breeds, just bad people who raise them that way,' so I had a great time playing with the different pit bulls and the German shepherd that I took pictures of. The photo for day 235 is of Diamond, a 7 month-old pit bull who has to be one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met. 

Day 225/365

     Yesterday/day 225 was one of the craziest work days I've had in a while. My boss and one of the other photo interns were out for the day, so it was just one other photo intern and myself covering anything that happened between the Saginaw and Bay City coverage areas. We got a lot of nasty weather compliments of Hurricane Sandy, which meant lots of car accidents, (including an overturned semi hauling corn!), so those kept us pretty busy, on top of other assignments that we had already. There were definitely some interesting ones, like a new stroke prevention tool that one of the local hospitals is now operating thanks to one of its doctors being its champion, or the ride-along another reporter and I did with an arson watch group last night. 

     I think the assignment I was most interested in though was the one about dogs, ( go figure). Apparently the city of Saginaw passed an ordinance last summer called the 'dangerous dog ordinance.' Anyone with dogs that have had past aggressive or violent behavior that's on file had to pay a fee to get a 'dog on premises' sign to hang on the front of their home. That part I understood. The part I wasn't so sure of was any dog owner with a certain dog breed, typically those with the 'aggressive breed' stigma, (pit bulls, German shepherds, dobermans, rottweilers, etc.), also had to get these signs, regardless of whether or not their dogs have ever had any problems. A reporter and I went knocking on the doors of some of the houses with the signs posted, and ended up talking to a really nice lady who had two pit bulls, (along with another dog and four cats). Her dogs were sweethearts, and were extremely photogenic!

Day 195/365

     Sunday/Day 195 mainly consisted of recuperating from Saturday night's festivities. My bed was my best friend for most of the day, and the same seemed to go for Kip and Finch too.

Day 192/365

     One of my assignments today was covering the current renovations that an arts and sciences museum in the area is undergoing. The Alan B. Dow Museum of Science and Art up here in Midland has a pretty interesting taxidermy display. I've never really been particularly interested in those kinds of displays before, but they way these animals were posed was pretty interesting, I'll admit. For whatever reason I took a liking to this photo of one of the stuffed cougars taking down a deer. Fierce-looking cat, isn't it?

Day 187/365 + MORE THAN HALF-WAY DONE WITH THE 365 CHALLENGE!

     I can't believe I missed the actual half-way post of the 365 challenge, (the half-way point would've been either day 182 or 183), but nevertheless, now I'm more than half-way through! I know I've been pretty lax on posting every day as of late, but that's something I'm looking to improve. And while I may not have posted my entries every single day on schedule, I did take either a new photo, video clip, or audio recording every. single. day. (That's the most important part, anyways, I think). 

     I honestly think that starting this challenge was one of the best things I could've done for my photography since graduating, (now a little over a year ago - yikes!). It got me out of my slump, back into pushing my own boundaries and going outside of my comfort zone, and it gave my portfolio a much-needed replenishing. I think this project also played a major part in me getting my internship, and without that, I'd most likely still be toughing it out at that godforsaken portrait studio, (insert cringe/wince/shudder/all of the above here). It hasn't always been easy; I can be one of the most laziest human beings on the planet when I want to be, but this project got me up and out many a time when I wouldn't have done anything productive otherwise. If you've either followed my blog from the start or checked in from time to time, or are just seeing it for the first time now, thank you for the support. 

     Anyways, in honor of being half-way there, you get a double dose of vintage baseball and cute kids feeding cows. Enjoy!

* As always, click the image if you'd like to view it larger!

Day 160/365

     It's a pet post for day 160! I did absolutely nothing today, and it was wonderful. After being at an outdoor festival in the hot Saginaw weather all day yesterday, I drove back to Ohio since I need to be here to get plates for my car tomorrow. Needless to say, I had absolutely no energy when I got in last night, so today was a much-needed lazy day. Apparently Finch got the memo. 

Day 153/365

     Sunday's belated post is one I took from my mom's car as we were driving out to her cabin in northeast Ohio. You can see great blue herons almost any time you drive out there, and this past weekend was no different. I wasn't quite ready when I took this first shot, but I like it anyways. 

Day 135/365

     My belated post for Wednesday/day one-hundred and thirty-five comes courtesy of my cat. He's quite the little photogenic helper. Needless to say, (if you didn't figure already), Wednesday was a pretty uneventful day. We didn't mind though. 

Day 122/365

     I ended up having today off since I'll be working at least seventy hours between tomorrow and next Friday. I decided to check out the Children's Zoo that's here in Saginaw. It's not bad; it has some interesting exhibits, like kangaroos that you can literally get within one foot of, and the whole place is small enough that even when the animals are laying low for the day you can still see them pretty well. They also have peacocks and peafowls that are free to walk wherever they want; I crossed paths with quite a few while I was there. Peacocks have always been my favorite animals so I got a kick out of walking right along side them today. I ended up taking this photo because I though it was cute. I'm not sure how cute a guy would find it to walk in on one of these in the bathroom though; that'd be quite the surprise! 

     I have the typical pretty peacock picture up on my Flickr page, and a picture of the Macaws also if you're interested. 

Day 71/365

     I stayed out at my mom's cabin last night after the cookout we had yesterday for Memorial Day weekend. As I was driving back this morning, I decided to go down a different route home and ended up pulling over to take a picture of these cows. Happy Memorial Day!