Day 236/365

     Saturday/day 236 I took a much-needed lazy day, where all I did was grocery shopping, and I cooked dinner. Steak and potatoes that fogged up my camera... yum.

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 234/365

     Today was a pretty busy one. I spent a lot of time at the Mill End building demolition site again, (new photos are on MLive here if you're interested), and had a few other little assignments to shoot as well. I'd have to say the most memorable thing I shot today was a sailboat fire in Bay City. A mechanic was winterizing the boats at one of the local marinas, when, supposedly, a bad fuel line caused the dry docked boat to go up in flames. Between the burning of the lacquered and treated materials of the boat, and the mildew/asbestos dust flying from the Mill End building, I'm considering burning my clothes.

Day 233/365

     I realize that it's been ages since I had a video or audio entry, so today I'm putting the 'multimedia' back into my multimedia challenge! I finally got around to shooting some video for work today, and thought that some of the footage would be a great addition to this project. The historic former Mill End building that I photographed a while ago, (to jog your memory, I put some of my favorites on my website here), has been schedule to be torn town for quite awhile, and the demolition started today. I took quite a few photos and shot some video in between. While I think demo. sites can be pretty cool to photograph, I was a little sad to see this building go. I only got to see it at its worst, (it had been abandoned for years and it'd be much too expensive for anyone to save it), but even with the damage it had undergone I still thought it had so much character. I wish I could've seen it in its glory.

If you'd like to see photos from today, or the other video I put together, you can find them under the photo and video tabs on my MLive profile.

Day 232/365

     Today, as I'm sure you all know, is Election Day. I got up early this morning and headed to my first of many polling locations for photos expecting to be doing the same thing, taking almost the same/extremely similar photos for most of the day. Little did I know that around the same time in Bay City, two local politicians got into a fist fight outside of their polling location, (which also happened to be a church). I thought it was too good to be true; politicians actually duking it out instead of hiding behind backhanded and passive-aggressive, (not to mention, ridiculous), ads? No way. Nevertheless, the news gods were shining down on us today and it was indeed true. You can't make that stuff up. 

(For full on hysterics, check out the article about what happened on MLive here. One of them called the other a 400-pound Twinkie. Seriously. Now you know you want to check it out!)

Day 231/365

     Yesterday/day 231 was filled with election preparations pretty much everywhere, but especially where I work. The only early voting that's an option in Michigan is via absentee ballot, so the different polling locations really have to prepare for a mass of people coming out on Election Day. I think it goes without saying that most, if not all, of us, whether in the media industry or not, are extremely ready to end the election fatigue and move on. With that being said, all of you better vote!

Day 230/365

     Sunday/day 230's belated post is nothing special, just a quick photo taken to represent what my weekend mainly consisted of: driving. I drove to Ohio super late Friday night, (Saturday morning really), for a last minute freelance job, only to turn around Sunday afternoon and drive back up to Michigan in order to be at work Monday morning. It was definitely worth it; it was a great assignment and I got to see a few people I missed the last time I was in town, even if I still haven't caught up on sleep.

Day 229/365

     Yesterday/day 229 I had an impromptu freelance assignment in Ohio that I had to drive back for after football Friday night. I was hired by the SEIU, (Service Employees International Union), for the day to photograph their members and volunteers making one last canvassing push for President Obama this weekend. I got paired up with a really interesting group of people; they were a lot of fun to work with. I also met some more "interesting" people at the residents the volunteers were knocking on, (interesting is in quotations since I'm using that term extremely broadly). All in all it was a unique experience.

Day 228/365

     Friday night/day 228 was a football night. An extremely bitter cold football night. I'm starting to think I may not miss covering football all that much once the season's over either...

Day 227/365

     Thursday/day 227 was yet another volleyball game for me to cover. That made three games in one five-day work week that I had to shoot. It was a finals game so I'm hoping upon hope that the end is nigh.