The Tea Party, 2009

In June of 2009, I was broke as hell. I didn't have a steady job that paid the bills and relied on any little gig I could find to pay the rent. One of those gigs was selling Gadsden flags for five bucks apiece at a Tea Party rally. I didn't know what it was about, but being from the Boston area where you can go see a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party, I figured I'd want to have my camera along just in case a bunch of people dressed as puritans showed up.

I realized quickly that this was no kid's show. The great thing about it, aside from being able to walk away with some cash, was that people were glad to have their picture taken. They wanted to be on the web or in the papers. Not being one to follow the news too closely or understand politics very well, I didn't know what exactly these people were protesting at first. It took at least an hour for it to sink in; these people hated President Obama.

A journalist, photo or otherwise, is best to remain unbiased and try to blend. I didn't really get into any conversations with anyone because I wasn't there for that reason. Now, almost two years later, I am a little shocked at the response the following photos are still generating. I shouldn't be. It's just history.

I voted for Obama, and I have no regrets. Do I agree with everything he's doing? Hell, no. However, I maintain that change was necessary. In a perfect world, utopia would have followed the election of America's first black president. In a perfect world, change would not have been necessary to begin with.

*IMPORTANT** DO NOT COPY AND POST MY IMAGES FOR USE ON YOUR WEBSITE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION**

--DR

The Serendipity Cruise

I used to own a Panasonic Lumix LZ8 point & shoot, which I used as my first digital camera until I could afford a DSLR. After that, I never thought about the Panasonic again until a co-worker asked if he could borrow a camera. I lent him the Panasonic, not really caring if I saw it again.

A few months later, he confessed to me that he had lost the camera and been afraid to tell me. Before I could tell him I didn't care, I saw that he was holding out a box to me...with another camera, one he had bought to replace the Panasonic.

The replacement camera was a Samsung SL50. It didn't look like much, just your standard, consumer-grade point & shoot. It occurred to me to hold it against him that he didn't replace my camera with the same exact one, but then, I wasn't real happy with the old one anyway, remember? So, I didn't really care that I was down a point & shoot camera, but since I had a new one, I figured I may as well play with it.

The SL50 was smaller and thinner than my lost Panasonic. I quickly discovered that it shoots great video (which I never use) and that the image settings were more sophisticated and versatile. Soon, to my surprise, I was actually using it pretty regularly.

When I took a trip back to Massachusetts in August, the SL50 fit nicely in my camera bag. The day after I got to Boston, I ended up going out for a sunset cruise on a friend's boat; it was one of those serendipitous occasions when people who were usually busy with their lives had no plans. I had brought my Rebel 2000, but couldn't find film to load in it, so by default, I used the SL50 to take the following pictures. They have had very little, if any, touch-ups.


*IMPORTANT NOTE*

You may click on any image to engarge for better view, but please do not copy my images to paste on your site for any reason without my permission.

--DR