See it here: vervephoto.wordpress.com.

When I was director of photography at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va, one of my favorite things to shoot was the Cole Bros. Circus when it came to town. I think it made the rest of the staff happy because nobody wanted to get up at 6 a.m. for the tent raising.

Since that first time in 2005, I always made it a point to visit the circus when it came to town in the spring. I slowly gained the trust of the management and the performers and each year I got better and better access. One of the clowns in particular, Jahirt Bermudez, of Colombia, South America, who performs as Perolito, would always ask “Hey mister, do you remember me?”

When I moved to D.C. last year, I missed them in Harrisonburg, and also when they came through the area here. It was a bit disappointing.

This year I made it a point to catch them when they were near, and so I traveled to Frederick and Gaithersburg Md. to spend some time with them again.

The weather cooperated and I photographed a morning tent raising ad an evening show.

I am not sure what the end result of all this will be, but I really love shooting it.

For more images of my coverage of the Cole Bros. Circus over the years, visit my archive (click here).

People gathered in front of the White House on Monday to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden.

Sunday night President Obama, speaking from the East Room of the White House, told the nation that the United States attacked a compound Sunday in Pakistan’s Abbottabad Valley. During a firefight, the U.S. team killed bin Laden, and took custody of his body in what Obama called “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda.”

I went to the White House Monday morning to see if anything was going on and found a few images. Mostly just tourists and school tours posing with the Washington Post front page.

After having lunch and transmitting the morning take to ZUMA, I went back to see if there was anything else. Glad I did since I was able to get a couple of images that I liked better than the ones I got in the morning.

Before heading home, I decided to try and make a photo across the river in the Rosslyn area of Arlington. There is a news ticker similar to to one in Times Square that I figured would have the news and maybe there would be a photo there. It turned out to be nothing exciting.

Later, in the early evening, I went back to D.C. to see if I could make some photos at the Newseum. They have a display out front that has front pages of newspapers from across the United States. The night shots are much better there than if I had tried it during the day.

Finally, I made one last trip the the White House to see if there was any action. Once again, I was happy I did. I made a couple of nice photos of a guy just standing in front of the fence with an American flag wrapped around him.

Overall it was an interesting day. I just tried to be patient and make some interesting images to reflect a news event without being in Pakistan or at ground zero in New York.

I recently had an assignment for a European magazine to photograph a group of guys learning to feed their families by hunting locally. Jackson Landers, of Charlottesville teaches a class called Deer Hunting for Locavores and I was to tag along on the day when they would learn how to field dress, butcher and cook a deer. In the class, Landers also teaches natural history, ecology, anatomy, ballistics and everything else needed to be an ethical and successful locavore hunter.

Well the weather has horrible. It poured from the time I left to when I arrived back home. Twelve hours of driving and shooting in the rain. But I was still having a better day than the deer.

This was one of the photos that I sent to the magazine. I thought the “city boys” tennis shoes with the dead deer and blood was kind of interesting. I am not identifying the magazine until the story runs out of courtesy. I will probably post more images after the story runs.

Mother Jones has published images from the essay I did on an Old Order Mennonite family I had the honor of getting to know while I was still living in Harrisonburg, Virginia and working at the Daily News-Record.

For more on the essay: Mennonites in Black (Click here).

In 2009 I went to the Shenandoah Valley Speedway to shoot a story for the Daily News-Record about a young local boy that was racing at the track on the weekends. While I was there, this hot pink race car caught my eye. When a blond teenager climbed out of it I thought, “this is a photo story.”

I had planned to do more on her as a racer but I never got the chance. I am thinking it may be time to follow up and see if there is more to shoot.

FROM 2006:

Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Currence was looking forward to her senior year at Broadway High School. But instead of a fun-filled year, Alyssa and her family found themselves in the middle of the unknown when Alyssa was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, on her first day of school.

The farmlands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario are among the most productive in North America. Many of the farmers here are different though, but different by choice. They are the Old Order Mennonites, sometimes called the ‘Plain People,’ they trace their heritage back hundreds of years.

Despite all the advances in clothing, technology, agriculture, housing, and society, their community exists in a time capsule, living like their 19th century forefathers.

Though the population is dwindling, an estimated 17,000 adult Old Order Mennonites to 224,000 in other similar groups, families still pass on the traditions.

James Rhodes and his wife, Mary Ethel, born and raised in the Dayton, Virginia community, not far from the home in which they are now raising 8 of their 9 children as Old Order Mennonites.

Old Order Mennonite is a term for the Mennonite groups who dress plainly and reject modern technologies. They put the disciplined church community, rather than individual religious experience, at the center of their Christian faith.

I just found out that a photo story I did when I was back at the Daily News-Record won second place in the NPPA National Clip Contest. SWEET!

The essay was a collection of photos of items that the local firefighters had recovered from fire scenes. I posted the essay on this site a few months back. (See BURNED)

I first thought about doing the essay a couple of years ago while shooting a fire safety display at the local mall. The Harrisonburg Fire Department was putting their yearly event and they always display items recovered from fires. I could not help but notice how much many of the items looked like modern art. It was weird to see items from tragic circumstances in this way. I thought that photographing them as art may entice people to spend more time looking at them and in turn think more about what happens when people are not careful and safety conscience.

Although it may have been my idea, my wife, Jenny, was kind enough to remind me that she was the one who motivated me to get off my ass and actually shoot the damn thing. As usual she was right.

The other winners from November 2009 can be found on the NPPA website (click here).

On the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, protestors marched from Lafayette Park across from the White House through downtown Washington D.C., Saturday carrying flag-draped cardboard coffins and signs calling for thto end to all wars and to “Indict Bush Now.”

More images from the demonstration including the Arlington Midwest exhibit on the National Mall can be found on my PhotoShelter Archive (Click Here).

Stops on the route included military contractor Halliburton, the Mortgage Bankers Association, The Washington Post offices and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The ANSWER Coalition, sponsors of the protest, claims “Halliburton has become synonymous with war profiteering” and the Washington Post “has been a staunch supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and continues to operate as an apologist for U.S. aggression.”