The Radioactive Squirrels on Leap Day...

The Squirrels played the Brat Stop as the main act this past Saturday (Feb. 23rd) and asked me to come along to shoot pics. This batch posted fresh on flickr.com are my favorite 37 of the night. Normally the pictures I shoot have actual white balance to them - they don't look all warped, colorwise - and freeze the action.

This time I opted to do all sorts of stupid shit with the camera - set the shutter speed as low as 1/10 of a second, turn off the flash, run the shot long after the flash has fired, over-expose like crazy... Wanted to see what I'd come up with. These pictures are what came of it. I didn't expect them, but like them none-the-less. Hope the band and their fans liked them too.

A new first...

Got good news on the Waukegan explosion below - the AP picked them up. That's never happened to me before. On top of that, the photos were picked up by at least 3 web sites.

I think I like this.

Explosion in Waukegan...

As I write this the people on the local radio are urging local commuters not to take Grand Avenue between Lewis and McAree Roads. Why? Because one or more local shops in the 1900 block exploded. A couple of passing cars were cracked up in the explosion.

Pat and I were on our way to a clinic to get her an appointment when we were first rerouted - the clinic is only a block and a half from the explosion. We ignored it at first, the two cars stuck at the intersection looked like they'd just had a fender bender and would be towed off soon. So no big deal, right?

Wrong, and my bad.

There are only a couple of shots in this set. Attempts to change angles was thwarted by a Waukegan cop anxious to arrest people who pissed him off.

My best wishes go to those injured in this accident.

(Please take a minute out of your photo searching to click on one of more of the ads on this page.)

And still to come...

F.Y.I. couple of photo ops coming up -



The Radioactive Squirrels are due to play Brat Stop this Saturday (February 23), starting at 11pm. It's a little late for an old guy like me to start shooting, but I plan on getting a good nap Saturday afternoon so I can stay at least till midnight. That should leave me enough sleep time before a work night.


Next, March 19th marks the 6th anniversary of the start of the War in Iraq. There will be rallies and/or marches across the country. For my part, I'm planning a trip to D.C. to do a digi-catch on this one. I'm planning something of a change of mode for this trip which will end with my first post to nowpublic.com

What's been up lately...

Photographically speaking, things have been really busy here. It all started last week when my mentor called to invite me to the Barack Obama rally three cities north of here. A couple of days later he called to connect me with the Hillary rally two cities north of here. Oddly, I have come to be recognized as part of the local media (even though I am only marginally a part of it) which made getting good positioning for the Hillary shots easy.

To make things even more hectic, my Clinton pictures were found by another member on Flickr where they are hosted. This member is with a Vancouver citizens' journalism site. He liked the Clinton pictures and requested use of them for their photo bank. I of course said yes.

As luck would have it, three stories on the site used my pictures - my favorite being a story about a coming seminar concerning how citizen journalism and professional media need to work together in the coming years.

You can see the stories (and my contributions) here, here and here

However, my favorite picture invite came from TheMishMash.com. They took one of my pictures from some time back and used it with a story called "A Rose by any other Name Would Smell as Sweet?".

I tell you this is enough to make a man think he's doing something right...

Hillary Clinton visits Kenosha, Wisconsin...

While it might all seem moot point for her campaign now, Hillary Clinton visited Kenosha County on her Wisconsin campaign swing last week. She spoke to a full house of about 750 supporters at the Kenosha's Brat Stop.

Clinton lost the state of Wisconsin by 16 points (Obama 58% Clinton 42%). But last night as of 8:30 pm she was behind by approximately 100 votes in Kenosha County. Obviously her charisma works to her benefit. Her big problem in the coming primaries will be finding a way to spread that charisma around to the voters she doesn't speak to first hand.

Barack Obama in Racine Wisconsin...

Barack Obama spoke at Racine's Memorial Hall last night (February 13th). If you want to know more about the specifics visit the Racine Journal Times - the hometown paper - for the details. The Kenosha News has a pretty good article too.

Thanks to a friend I was able to gain entrance at the last moment. The following photographs are the result of the visit. Please share this page with any of your friends who like Obama - always remember to pass the love along. Just forward them the email I sent you!

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Thanks - I really appreciate it.

Picture Uploads from the Feb 08 Sphinx Hafla...

Hello Ladies and Gentleman,

My name is Mike (as in madmanmikey, the guy who sent you the email inviting you here) and I am the man who sat on the floor of the Sphinx shooting an unGodly number of photos of the lot of you at last night's Hafla.

Thanks for your performances. My wife and I enjoyed all of your work. Please know that if I was in your way (or in the way of one of your loved ones) you have my apologies. I hope the following photos justify your annoyance.

Now before you skip to the link I have to ask a favor. To the right you see some ads. Please click on at least one of them. The clicks help me keep the lights on here, so to speak.

Thanks.

Now here is your photo link. Enjoy!!