Day 318/365

     On Thursday I photographed an independent singer/songwriter and actor named Brian Vander Ark. He's pretty popular in the state for being a part of the Michigan-based '90s/'00s band the Verve Pipe. He stopped in Midland to be interviewed for an upcoming show he'll be performing. What I couldn't get over, was how much he looked like a friend of mine, Matt Zador. He literally looked like he could be his 40-something year-old doppelgänger!

Day 317/365

     Wednesday/day 317 one of my assignments was photographing a local sports radio talk show. A new host and show has taken over for the time slot that used to belong to "The Huge Show," which apparently is some popular sports radio show throughout Michigan. From what I've heard, it was basically the Rush Limbaugh of sports radio. For whatever reason though, a huge local debate has started over whether or not the show should've been replaced. There are about an even number of fans who say they won't listen to the new one and are adamantly opposed to the new host, Jared Sandler, versus a fan base that says "The Huge Show" was ridiculous and should be replaced, and are interested in the new programming. Sandler seemed nice enough, and seemed to be taking the whole thing pretty well, so hopefully he can hang in there. 

Day 214/365

     Yesterday/Friday/day 214 one of my assignments was to try and get a few portraits of some local Bay City area firefighters. There's a proposal currently being looked over for the area where the police and fire departments would be combined in an attempt to save money. Police officers would be trained to handle fires, but firefighters wouldn't be trained as officers, resulting in the fire department having to go through lay offs but not the police. Understandably so, this has morale at the fire departments at an all time low. Many of the firefighters we talked to have said that they've been losing employees each year due to cuts and feel like they're being mistreated. 

Day 207/365

     Friday's/day 207's post is from an MLive story on a high school freshman with a rare genetic disorder being elected to be on homecoming court by her classmates. It was definitely a feel-good story, and it was nice to see her community and classmates coming out to support her during her school's homecoming parade.

Day 206/365

     Sorry for the especially long delay this past week; things have been crazy as usual. Thursday/day 206 is a portrait of a Christian store owner who's retiring and closing his store after 34 years in business. He and his wife seemed like really nice people, and it was a tad bittersweet sitting in on their interview about how much they're going to miss running their little shop in Saginaw Township.