The Taylor Cup Softball Game pits the Divinity School students and faculty against the undergraduate Religion Department each spring at Campbell University. This year, for the first time ever, the undergrads won. In truth, their victory was likely the result of a lesson in mercy from their wiser and (typically) older colleagues in the Divinity School.

This morning we headed over to Pullen Park to check on the progress of the renovation work and get some spring pictures of Samuel. The park closed in 2009, and was supposed to reopen this spring with a new enclosure for the carousel, new playground equipment and some updated facilities. The projected completion date has been pushed back to “Late Fall 2011,” according to signs at the park, but there is still a lot of work to get done. The lower half of the park is completely gone. Both playgrounds, gone. Carousel, gone; Train station, gone; Fountain and garden at the main entrance, gone; Sidewalks, gone; Peddle boats, gone; Lake, gone; It’s all gone. Seriously. We hung out at the picnic area at the top of the park and got some great pictures of Samuel, then we headed over to Chavis Park, where renovations have not yet begun, so that Samuel could sit in a swing for the first time. He loved it.

This is a great time of year to get new pictures of the kids, family portraits, engagement photos, or just some fun personal shots to treat yourself to. Book your session today!

I have a more complete gallery of pictures now ready for viewing and ordering here.

Now that Gallery D has been updated to focus a little more on photography, the shortcomings of some of my projects have become a lot more obvious. In particular, my ongoing effort to document life in Benson has been neglected for almost a year. To be honest, it’s a pretty poor effort. To update the project a little bit, and to help me become more disciplined in my photography, I plan to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour several days each week exploring the community and trying new things. Yesterday didn’t work out so well, but I did get to go out this afternoon once Kristen got home. At this time of year, the light seems to be perfect right around 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Our house is just two blocks away from a heavily trafficked rail corridor, and I knew I wanted to get some new shots of trains moving through town. I staked out a good spot with a neat angle that would allow me to get a closeup shot of a train heading through Main Street. I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. I guess my ears were playing tricks on me, because I kept hearing train horns in the distance, but a train never came.

I wandered around downtown a little bit and got some other pictures, then around 6:15, when it was almost too dark for me to hope to get a good shot, I decided to go into the library and browse around. After two and half years in Benson, Kristen and I have still not gotten public library cards. Now I have one! I picked out two books to read for fun, which certainly won’t help with my two critical book reviews and research paper I have due for school in the next few weeks, but I haven’t read a fiction book for fun since I finished Nicholas Nickleby last summer. With the sun hidden beneath the horizon and my new library card tucked in my pocket, I started to head home when, wouldn’t you know it, a train whistle blew. It was the real thing this time — no mistaking it. I hurried back to my spot, checked the light again and got ready. My timing was just a split second off from where I needed to be. I was more than a little nervous standing so close to the tracks in the dark with my back turned toward a speeding freight train. If I watched the train coming, there would be no way I could get the camera up in time. If I waited until the train was in my frame, it would be too late to get the shot. I decided to start shooting when I could see the train’s headlight beaming in front of me. I wanted to get a shot that had the locomotive filling half of the frame, with the buildings on the other side of Main Street still visible as well. In the shot above, you can see the ground illuminated from the train’s light. In the next shot, the locomotive has already filled the frame. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow.

During my two weeks in India, I was able to take two afternoons to myself to walk the city and make photos. A short-term trip doesn’t allow much time for building relationships, learning stories and developing images that tell those stories in ways others can connect to. Throughout the whole trip, whenever I had an opportunity, I would be snapping pictures and grabbing street shots as we were traveling to various sites. These two afternoons allowed me to slow down a little bit, but not much. As I was walking down one alley to get back to a street I had spotted earlier in the day, I came across a group of boys playing soccer. Two bricks in the middle of the street marked their goals, and the ball they used was closer in size to a tennis ball than a regulation soccer ball. I started taking pictures, but after a minute or two, the boy who was clearly the leader of the group picked up the ball and came over to me. I was worried they were going to be upset, or that they would start asking questions I wouldn’t be able to answer adequately through our language barrier. Then he smiled at me, dropped the ball at my feet, and said “play.” He didn’t have to ask twice. I slung my camera onto my back and jumped into the game. My athletic abilities have never been anything to write home about, and this instance was no exception. I tried hard, but my clumsy feet struggled to hang on to the tiny ball. I got a few good shots in, thanks more to the generosity of my opponents than to my own footwork, but I couldn’t ever get past the quick feet of the goal keeper. He managed to block every shot I sent in from a distance and steal the ball from under my feet whenever I got too close, all the while throwing in sharp dance moves worthy of a Michael Jackson or Usher music video. We drew more than a few strange looks from passersby, and upset a handful of drivers making their way through the alley we were obstructing, but none of that really mattered in the midst of our excitement. It was a good game at the end of a good day.

I spent a minute flipping through my pictures from India again, and I picked out a few that didn’t catch my eye the first time around. Enjoy these today, and I’ll add a few more tomorrow. To see the rest of my pictures from India, click here.

As a side note, if you haven’t seen my new website at zoharimages.com (the only available domain name I could come up with after an hour long search; I’m open to suggestions) check it out. If you happen to need someone (or know someone who needs someone) to take wedding photos, engagement pictures, family portraits, make a killer album for your next big party or cover an upcoming event in North Carolina or Virginia, give me a call.

I love working with WWII veterans! It’s a stereotype, I know, but all of the veterans from that era I have had the opportunity to meet during my time at The Record and The Sanford Herald have just been incredible, multi-faceted men who have worked hard to make the most of every opportunity they’ve had. Mr. Denning is no exception. In high school, he picked up an interest in electronics and photography, setting up a full dark room in his parents’ home. He worked as a shipyard electrician before enlisting in the Army and participating in this unique project. After the war, he worked in Military Intelligence at the Pentagon, then moved to Denver to be near his wife who was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. When she was transferred to a hospital in Richmond, he returned to Washington for a short while before leaving the military to work with the North Carolina prison system. He later took a job as an electrical engineer for the Department of Public Instruction and ended up retiring as assistant controller. After that long career of public service, Mr. Denning started his own company and worked another two decades before retiring for good. In the past year, he has published two books, married Jenny (his first wife, Mary, died several years ago) and worked hard to recover full mobility and speech after suffering a stroke. I enjoyed getting to know just a little bit about his fascinating life during the hours we had together.