August. Trip to Ukraine. Adventures with a Point and Shoot.

July I was helping running a camp and since last year I broke my camera while camping I did not bring it for a ride this summer.

In August I went on a trip to Ukraine to celebrate 100 years of PLAST, a Ukrainian Scouting Organization I belong to. Because I was worried about theft, I borrowed my dad's point and shoot. Now that I have been to Ukraine, I feel comfortable enough to bring my DSLR next time.

It was interesting using the point and shoot. The zoom blew. After zooming in a bit, things would just have poor quality, but I managed deal with what I had and just had fun with it.

I got to see the the western parts of Ukraine. Kyiv, Ivan- Frankivsk, Kaniv, Carpathian Mountains, and Lviv. The Carpathian Mountains reminded me of Hunter, NY. Just beautiful scenery.

While there I met up with family. What an awesome experience. I was the first of my family to go back to the village and see family. I got to see the property where my grandfather was born. All the family welcomed me with open arms. It got overwhelming sometimes because all they wanted to do was hang out with me and my trip to Ukraine was to do other things as well, but I love them.

Over all, I loved my first trip. It will not be my last. I can't wait to go back.

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June at The Saginaw News, The Final Month.

The last month in Saginaw was great. I had a lot of fun. Between meeting great people at the Bavarian Festival in Frankenmuth, a great trip to high school state championship baseball, and over photographing a press conference. The organizers were awesome at the Bavarian Festival. If I ever change careers and want a 9-5 job, I am looking at Frankenmuth. What a great community. Friendly people and very accepting. I traveled a lot of miles between high school regional in soccer, baseball, and softball. It was fun to see Michigan on the road which I do not see very often. I am usually traveling in southeastern region.

Here are some images I shot from the Bavarian Festival, Jazz on Jefferson, high school baseball state championships, and a press conference about a drive by shooting where a little girl was hit.

May at The Saginaw News

May was good. Found out today that the photo of the man throwing the toy to the dog during a Dog Dock competition won first place in Feature photo for May 2012 Region 4. That was cool to see. I am more proud of the photos I shot that did not win. It is funny how other people like the other photos you take. I got to use the other language I know during this particular month in Saginaw. Ukrainian. You can tell from the photo where the flags are. It was from a Quidam practice with is a Cirque Du Soliel traveling show. That is where I spoke with one of the performers. All those years of going to school 6 days a weeks to learn the language finally paid off... kind of.

Here are some of the photos I took for that month. Culinary Arts program for high school, high school baseball, Cinco de Mayo, Dog Festival, inspirational sports story, Habitat for Humanity, police award ceremonies, and soccer.

April at The Saginaw News

April was a fun month. Got to shoot some hockey which is increasing becoming my favorite sport to shoot. I shot lacrosse for the first time and it is still a learning process but I hope to shoot more of it. Its super fun to watch. I hope where ever I end up, they have lacrosse. Got to meet Magic Johnson again. I think the funniest thing from the month of April is during a disaster simulation of a 100 car crash, the volunteer victims were fed pizza 5 minutes into the drill.

Here are some photos from Saginaw Spirit hockey, fishing festival, the disaster simulation, lacrosse, soccer, and opening ceremonies of a little league.

Note. You can click the images into a gallery view and they will appear bigger.

March Madness in Saginaw

There are a couple months of the year where sports consumes your month and of course March is one of the biggest ones with basketball games across the state and wrestling championships. March tends to and exciting month for me to shoot. Emotions are high when playing for the championship. Besides the sports was some spot news. Some big, some small, but spot news is spot news.

Here are some images from spot news, basketball play offs, a feature, and a parade.

Note. You can click the images into a gallery view and they will appear bigger.

February at The Saginaw News

February was a lot better for me. I think I came out with some pretty cool images, especially in the last few weeks. Some were from unfortunate circumstances, but it is part of the job. I had a good month shooting sports. Getting better at the sports action. I thank my stint in Ann Arbor for that, but it is a huge change of pace from College to High School sports again. I got a bit spoiled.

This month was also POY for the Michigan Press Photographers Association. Unfortunately I came out with nothing, but I did here some of my entries did hold up for a while. My alma mater, CMU, came out with a total of 15 awards. Sweeping CPOY for the 3rd year in a row. Proud of the Chips over there. CMU's photo program is quickly making a name for itself in the past few years.

Here are some images from a homicide scene, portrait, basketball, wrestling, professional tennis, Saginaw Spirit Hockey and flowers from Valentine's Day.