Scene on the Road: November 30, 2008 - December 6, 2008 Archives

Scene in 2008: Day Three Hundred Thirty Four

November 30, 2008: Ben Franklin Bridge

Posted by Tom Gralish on November 30, 2008 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanksgiving

I started this post over the holiday intending it to be Thanksgiving–themed, but then as usual got distracted - although thankfully it wasn't by long lines for big screen TV's.

I am thankful for many things. Like my fifteen year-old son still letting me drag him to the parkway for the Thanksgiving Day Parade,even though his mom and sister now stay home. And since this is a photography blog, I’m thankful he doesn’t seem to mind posing with me for the traditional outstretched arm self-portrait. I’m also thankful things are going well for my seventeen-year-old daughter, who is a high school musician preparing for college auditions.

I could go on, but I’ll stick to the photography aspects. She performed last week as a violin soloist with the Olney Symphony, a community orchestra in Cheltenham. Afterward as she posed for photos with their oldest member, a ninety four year-old violinist, I heard someone say, “it must be sad for him to hear someone so much younger, to be so talented with her whole life ahead of her.”

That comment got me thinking. First, that I hope I’m still able to pursue my craft when I’m ninety-four. But mainly I thought about how I feel when I when I meet young and talented photographers. It’s actually just the opposite of what that music lover supposed. I find myself recharged with optimism and my spirits are lifted. It is just great to see their potential.

I do sometimes worry that there will not be many opportunities for young photographers in newspapers in the future. Of all the jobs in photography, it is hard to imagine any other specialty with as much opportunity to witness life. I wish every one of them could get a chance to see, and capture each day that brings something new. Look at some of what I photographed just during the past week and a half.

Not quite the age difference between the violinists, I photographed Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb on the day he celebrated his 32nd birthday, just a few days after he was benched by coach Andy Reid (but before his Thanksgiving Day game start). A few days earlier I had photographed rookie Flyers defenseman Luca Sbisa who is all of eighteen (and speaks four languages).

The subject of another assignment eclipsing even the ninety four year old. The complete skeleton cast of Hadrosaurus foulkii - a dinosaur first dug up in Haddonfiled in the 1830's - opened on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

I also learned that the fact that it shares a syllable with the town is a coincidence. The Hadrosaurus part means bulky lizard. Before shooting the bones I stopped by to shoot the toy dinosaurs children leave near bronze markers at the site where they were unearthed. The location is now a national historical landmark.

The late autumn weather offered natural backdrops for two portraits I might otherwise have shot indoors.

Local author Matthew M. Quick and his wife Alicia Bessette posed in Knight's Park in Collingswood and local advertising legend George Beach posed in the courtyard behind his Center City offices.

In downtown Camden, reporter Matt Katz came across a semi-organized group of men who have handed photocopied slips of paper with Bible verses to pedestrians for two decades. I know I have walked past them dozens of times over the years just figuring they were looking for a handout. I spent a morning with the guys everyone in the city seems to know, and everyone seems to go out of their way to ask for a verse.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to bring readers, almost as Jim McKay would say (without the "spanning the globe" part) the constant variety of sport. Or in this case, the variety of life. This week I also shot a face lift, a homeless marathon runner, an iced-over pond, fugitives turning themselves in during a Safe Surrender program, a prototype electric car and families motoring to their holiday dinners.

And finally, speaking of being thankful, one year ago, Jordan Burnham, then an 18-year-old high school senior, was lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, fighting for his life after jumping out a ninth-floor window. His story was chronicled by Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez, who revisited him as he spoke last week to middle and high school students in Pottstown. I was there for the photos. Jordan says in one way the tragedy has given his life purpose. He can now help others understand mental illness and avoid what happened to him. "It did change my life in such a positive way," he said, "and I hopefully can help others."