Vancouver Slide Show

So here's a few of the photos from my trip to the northwest.

I was able to catch up with a friend that I met on my trip to Europe in 1999. It was fun to see Laura again after years of emails and short phone calls. Vancouver is a beautiful city full of color and cordial people. With the U.S. dollar falling apart, it was a bit more expensive than I thought it would be, considering the loonie is equal to the dollar now.

Well, until the next trip....



UPDATE: I fixed the slide show, but they aren't in the right order. Typical, right?

Distant levity

Distant levity, originally uploaded by ©JL.

I'm off in another country enjoying British Columbia. There's more to come, but I'm off to have some fun.

It's rough to be a Buff

S0916CU_FSU503.JPG, originally uploaded by ©JL.

Well I shot the Colorado versus Florida State game on Saturday. I didn't shoot so well in the first half because I was trying too hard to make photos on deadline. So after the half and deadline had passed I just started making some photos. I was able to make a few decent peak action frames for the first time this season. I guess like the players it takes a little practice and reps to get back into the groove.

It didn't seem like the Buffs were ever really in the game, but if they had made one or two plays they might have had a shot at winning. Thing is they didn't falling 16-6, which is much closer than it was. It's a very young team and coming off a 2-10 season it takes a while to learn how to win. Maybe next week.

Feel free to click on over to Buffzone for more photos from the game.

I'll have something different to post in a few days. I'm off to the Northwest for a mini vacation.

Living with mental illness

N0907LOU03A.JPG, originally uploaded by ©JL.

Lou Mullen has been cleaning the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado for over 10 years. The only time he doesn't make it to work is when the bus stops running because of weather.

Lou is a quiet man with a thick beard and long locks to his shoulders. He pauses once in a while to recount what he has done or still needs to do. Talking with slight hesitations, he says he is originally from New York. Wielding a broom he casually walks in and out of every restroom in the building, checking the fullness of trash bins and paper towel dispensers. Between his ventures into the toilets he pushes a small cart with an electric-yellow trash bag hanging empty. He moves straight through the halls of university students as they pass him almost unnoticed. It's as though he is in his own world.

Lou is a member of the Chinook Clubhouse. A program helping people with mental illness learn to manage their lives with the skills they need to work and live in the community. I didn't ask the history of his illness. How do you? I just decided to let him continue his direct focus on his job and be that fly on the wall. But I felt he was more aware of me and what I was doing than most people I photograph.

The following day I was shooting an assignment and Lou was walking up the sidewalk. I said hello and asked if he had seen his photo in the paper.

"I have a copy on me," he replied as though he was proud to have it yet willing to give it to me if I had asked for it.

Officially Fall

N0902CU_JL09.JPG, originally uploaded by ©JL.

It's Labor Day weekend and there's pigs flying. Well sort of, pigskin anyway.

And with that is the Rocky Mountain Showdown. The game between Colorado's largest universities is a culmination of drug-out hype, trash-talking, good fun, bad fun and a little football. The University of Colorado pulled out a victory in overtime to quiet the sea of green and gold, but that didn't stop either side from being absolutely rude at times in the parking lot and inside the stadium.

I have never really understood the obsession of a football rivalry, even though I take part in aspects of the craziness. There are rivalries in high school, junior high, college and even pro sports. Seems that everyone wants to be able to have satisfaction in the sense of self-worth knowing that their team is better than whoever down the way. I'm all about good fun in the competition of "my team is better than yours!" But when people turn to all out physical aggression it gets a little ridiculous. A photographer from another paper was in the parking lot before the game and was basically threatened and then had the luxury of getting yuked on by some underage drunk undergrad. An excellent way to show school spirit. Luckily I was in the lots earlier, before the hard liquor kicked in. The tailgaters were just playing some drinking games and chasing footballs around the blacktop. True fun in the spirit of school and fall.

The game, as it has been the last few years, was a tightly contested match that came down to two plays at the end of the game. Having only shot a few practices, where players move at half speed, I was a little out of the groove for many points in the game. I need practice just like the players do I guess. I'm sure shooting high school football in the darkness of Friday Night Lights will help for those gloriously bright and contrasty Saturday afternoons.

Click here for more pix on BuffZone.com