Thursday, July 30, 2009

Not gonna ruin the rest of my life

This couple flipped their camper on the Turnpike Monday.

It's not uncommon to meet people when I'm out on assignment who really touch me or inspire me. But it's not what I expected when I was sent to photograph an accident on the Turnpike. This couple had flipped their camper on the first day of a six-week vacation they'd planned. Here's the photo and caption that published in the local section:


They were lovely people, very willing to chat with me and tell me about the 1961 restored vintage camper as towers turned it on its side and strapped it to the back of a flatbed truck. "It's a lot of fun-- or it was," Isabel told me.

As I was leaving the scene of the accident I thanked them for their time, and said I was sorry the accident ruined their vacation. "It's not gonna ruin the rest of my life, though," Alan said, and hugged his wife. I snapped a quick photo as they shared this impossibly sweet moment in a ditch on the side of I-76 as cars sped by in the summer heat. They said they were lucky the truck that was towing the camper didn't flip, as well. "With an attitude like that," I told them, "Nothing's gonna ruin the rest of your life."

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Weekend War

Reenactments, that is. My ears are still ringing from the 6" cannons they fired. Cute kid, though, right?


A living history presenter participates in battle reenactments in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the French attack on Fort Ligonier's Redoubt that fort on July 19, 2009.
(Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)



Mackenzie Gorman, 3, from Columbus, Ohio, peeks out from soldier's living quarters at Fort Ligonier during battle reenactments in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the French attack on Fort Ligonier's Redoubt that fort on July 19, 2009.
(Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)

Weekend Fun

Weekends in Westmoreland county are for festivals. One of my assignments read, "Kids doing fun and/or violent activities at Youth Field Day" (there were firearm demonstrations). Another, "Festival-goers doing something fun."



Mary Person, 10, from Latrobe, examines a black rat snake as siblings Jesse (12) and Amber (16) Simms, both from Derry, look on at Youth Field Day in Mammoth Park, in Mt. Pleasant, Pa., on July 18, 2009. The free event, sponsored by Westmoreland County law enforcement officers, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the county's Department of Parks and Recreation, invited kids ages 9-15 to shoot firearms, play with snakes and snapping turtles, and watch civil war re-enactors, with the goal of sparking interest in the outdoors.
(Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)




Historic reenactor Ron Hobbs, from Jeannette, holds his daughter, Eirene Hobbs, age 9 months, during the reenactment of a session a Colonial court at Historic Hanna's Town on July 18, 2009. Court sessions recreated actual 18th century cases heard at Hanna?s Town, the site of the first English courts west of the Allegheny Mountains.
(Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

BFF

This accompanied an article in the Living section, When kids make friends, they build a social network. No, I don't know who writes the headlines.

When I read the assignment I thought I might have to set up some kind of a staged portrait, but when I showed up to photograph a typical play date, the girls were writing BFF and making hand prints with sidewalk chalk. Their idea. Brilliant.


Best friends Jessica Kintigh (left), 10, and Lauren King, 11, and play outside King's house in Greensburg.
Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Local Hero, age 15

Ian Swank, a 15-year-old Junior Firefighter, heard a call about a fire on a bridge on his street in the scanner he keeps on in his garage. He grabbed a fire extinguisher from his home, asked his mom for a ride to the bridge, and extinguished the fire before emergency vehicles arrived on the scene.

I wanted to keep the portrait simple, but still show the damage and some of his personality. The natural light on the bridge worked well; Ian certainly looks heroic. My editor said he was glad I didn't "cheese it up".

More from Amy Crawford: South Huntingdon teen credited with saving Bells Mills Bridge from fire



Ian Swank, a 15-year-old junior fireman with the Turkeytown Volunteer Fire Department, stands on the damaged Bells Mills Covered Bridge in South Huntingdon, where he extinguished a fire on Monday afternoon.
Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Troublemakers, or Things Are Sometimes What They Seem

I like this picture because these boys looked so delightfully mischievous in an 11-year-old boy sort of way, and talking to them proved it. It ran big on the cover of the local section yesterday. I was glad the editors kept the part about the boys plotting to tie up their brothers in the caption.



Joel Ewing (left) and Drake Hudson inspect rope they made at the Twin Lakes Heritage Arts Festival on July 5, 2009, outside of Greensburg, Pa. The 11-year-olds, both from Bethel Park, Pa., said they plan to use the rope to help each other tie up their brothers.
(Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)