Reflected

Reedsburg's Veterans Memorial, a photo by meagan.porter on Flickr.

Maybe I'm getting a little sentimental in my old age, but I'll admit to tearing up a bit last Monday at the dedication of the new Veterans Memorial in Reedsburg.

It really seems like not so long ago that Jeff and I went to the groundbreaking. It was one of only a handful of events we've ever covered together, and I was only an intern at the time. The speakers then focused on a grand vision for that tiny corner of Nishan Park, and I had a hard time picturing it. As they stood there with their ceremonial shovels, posing for photos, the completion seemed so far off in the future, still a someday, still a dream. Three years later on July 4, the Memorial was finished.

I've visited my future in-laws in Washington D.C. a few times now and have hit up most of the touristy monument stops in the area. But I have never been moved the way I was last Monday, viewing the Reedsburg Memorial in its finished state for the first time. The glossy black granite panels display scenes from the US's past and current conflicts and fittingly, they also reflect the viewer. I went back early on Tuesday morning to get some shots of just the Memorial, including the photo above that I put on the front page later that day. Sitting on the warm cement in the exact center of the site, the environment was calm, quiet, meditative, the Memorial and flagpoles looming above me, stretching into the sky.

I grew up in Reedsburg, and I constantly marvel at how working for the Indy gives me a totally different perspective on my humble hometown. In the last three years, we've covered every fundraising effort for this Memorial, every Vet Fest, every raffle, every donation, and the Packer Tailgate that came to town last year just to name a few (of many) off the top of my head. Had I been just a citizen, I might have been too wrapped up in my own life to notice what was going on in that corner of Nishan Park, and how the citizens of Reedsburg were tirelessly working to make that dream a reality.

I've had very few profound moments in life, where everything seems to move slowly, where time stops, as though the world is in a vacuum and centers on that one moment. The last time was the June 2008 flood, walking away from Pineview Elementary, clutching my flood clean-up kit. This time the experience was positive. On Monday, a few hundred people came together to welcome this Memorial into the community, listening to speakers, exploring the grounds, celebrating the hard work and dedication of so many people. On Tuesday, I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with the Memorial, taking it in, observing and photographing and experiencing the stillness of the place. It was a privilege to cover this story over the past three years and to see the Memorial come to fruition.

More photos on my Flickr.

Baraboo River Busts Out

Baraboo River Busts Out, a photo by meagan.porter on Flickr. Published in the Reedsburg Independent, March 31, 2011. Taken off South Webb Avenue in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, March 2011.

This photo was taken last week Thursday, when the Baraboo River in Reedsburg was much higher and people were starting to get antsy. The June 2008 floods are still fresh in everyone's minds and while I didn't see anyone filling up sandbags yet, I know several people were keeping a nervous eye on the rising river levels. In the photo at the right, the water had seeped over the banks of the river and into some marshy low-spots, typical of spring flooding. I wouldn't worry until it gets across the road to the city's substation.

With a few dry days, the water levels have since gone down, much to everyone's relief. The TV news was making it sound like we had another catastrophe on our hands, with all the snow we got over the winter and the rain now, and everything melting. Maybe in a couple of years everyone will be used to it and resume ignoring them again.

I was looking for a way to take an interesting high water photo when I happened to catch this scene out of the corner of my eye. I'm not a fan of photos of trees poking out of flood water; it's very difficult to make something like that interesting. My editor took a nice one of trees poking out of water that had frozen over, but the one I liked more wouldn't have reproduced well and we didn't have room in this week's paper anyway. My photo above made it in though.

Anyway, there was a high water scene I liked better but as I don't yet trust myself with night shots, I just didn't go for it, scared of the disappointment. I got home late after a school board meeting last night and the streetlights from Main Street and Lakeside Foods were reflecting off the water surrounding the trees and marsh in my parents' backyard, not something you normally see. It was a nice, eerie, golden-toned photo, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to reproduce what I saw, so I chickened out.

The scene above was something I saw a couple days later, driving down South Webb. I stopped anyway even though I knew we weren't going to have any room for the photo in the paper. There's no good spot to park on that street, so I left my car on the access road that goes around the city shop, in front of a sign that said something like "No Access" or "No Trespassing" or "Not a Through Road," something like that. The road was washed out a few feet in front of my car, so I didn't think anyone would mind. I hiked back to this spot and stood on the guard rail that goes across the bridge to get this shot. It was a little perilous but I was fine. It's due to situations like that, though, that I've started to consider keeping a ladder in my car. I'm only five feet tall, and I've been in several situations the last few weeks where that was just too short and I needed another foot or two to get the angle I wanted. Maybe if I can find a small one... anyway, the guard rail sufficed in this situation.

I like the photo above because I managed to get the "Baraboo River" sign (right), the "Got Cheese?" sign (yellow, behind the Baraboo River sign), and the Reedsburg water tower (center, slightly left) all in one shot. You might have to enlarge the photo to see the water tower but I thought it was neat they all kind of lined up like that.

We had to lighten the photo quite a bit for the paper (printed on yellowish paper instead of white), but the photo above is the original before it was edited for print.

Looking Down on You

Ever get this look from your cat?

Fiona has become very protective of the slim and fleeting ray of early spring sunlight streaming in from our skylight in the mid-morning. She follows it around the room, perching wherever it may land. In this particular photo, she had (obviously) grown tired of my excitement over the dramatic lighting on her white fur and pink ears and was giving me that classic "if you know what's good for you" cat look.

She's been without that ray of sunlight since last fall. I don't blame her one bit.

Tabytha

Em's cat posing for a portrait.

Emily's apartment is pretty dark after sunset with only a few lamps to light it, making it very difficult to take crisp photos of her two dark colored cats. However, they look fantastic in natural light. Tabby's eye just pop and Mason, her black longhaired cat, looks so regal.

But they and the long, dark Midwest winters have inspired me to learn lighting this winter. I have no idea where to start but I want to be able to take pet photos regardless of the environmental lighting, without having to wait for a sunny day.  :)