I recently photographed Bridgeport animal control officer Jimmy Gonzalez for an upcoming story on pit bulls. Called to the scene of an eviction, Gonzalez removed a mother dog and these three newborn pups. Gonzalez thinks the breed is misunderstood, and that smaller breeds can be far more aggressive, and more difficult to deal with from his point of view.
Archive for March, 2012
A Dog Catcher with a Big Heart!
Fanatics
In one of repeated efforts to disarm their opponents, cheering Viking fans run up and down the basketball court in front of the bleachers containing the Norwich Free Academy fans as Westhill hosted the team in a state basketball game. The efforts worked, the Vikings won the game.
Solar Array
I’ve been driving by this array of concrete and steel pillars for a while now, wondering about their purpose. I thought perhaps it was a piece of modern sculpture, built high atop a rocky outcropping next to the Discovery Museum on Park Avenue in Bridgeport. Today I photographed electricians installing an array of solar panels on the structures. When I caught the sun flashing from behind the panel I knew I had my shot.
A Liver of Love
Brad Shwidock hugs his daughter Samara at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, New York on September 13, 2011. Keelin Daly/Stamford Advocate
This past Sunday, a story about the Shwidock family finally ran in the newspaper after a year of work following the family. I have always been interested in organ donation, so when I found that I had time to work on a long-term project I knew it was a subject I wanted to tackle. With the help of Donate Life CT I met Brad Shwidock, a PSC patient in need of a liver. The first photos I took of him were in April, 2011, the last just a week ago. Over that time his family went through a great ordeal, as Brad’s wife, Carol, gave her husband a piece of her liver.
As a friend of mine noticed, while the story documents struggle, hopes, setbacks and success, I had my own throughout the process. In Sept., 2011 I managed to severely shatter my ankle in a skydiving accident, leaving me out of work for three months. It was only a week before the Shwidocks’ surgeries, and I would have cut off my own leg to be there. Luckily, calmer minds prevailed at the newspaper and the hospital, where a photographer balancing on one leg with a thigh-high cast was not going to be allowed in the surgery room. I am fortunate to have a wonderful co-worker, Keelin Daly, who filled in for me and worked on the project while I was having surgery myself. Her photos truly capture the emotion displayed before the surgery, and her photos inside the operating room give the viewer an intense look at the extensive and invasive procedure.
In the end the story shows a resilient family with a positive outlook and a bright future. It was wonderful to work with the Shwidocks and we wish them all the best and continued health.
You can read the story and view the slideshow here.
The Shwidock family gathers after Zoe, far right, graduated from Stamford High School on Thursday, June 23, 2011. Clockwise from bottom left are Brad, Samara, Carol and Zoe. Lindsay Niegelberg/Stamford Advocate
Maple mania
On the advice of his friend Colin Perry, Pierce MaGuire indulges in “Maple Mania,” which is maple syrup drizzled over a maple donut already covered in maple glaze. The result triples the magic of maple. The two were on hand demonstrating colonial methods of boiling sap down to syrup at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center’s Maple Sugar Festival Weekend.
