Down South.

As we walked to our assignment, both the reporter and I were lamenting about the tough times for newspeople. Financially it’s been tighter and when money seems to stretch thinner, you have your doubts about how you can survive with your current circumstances and still be passionate about what you do.  And then somehow the stars align and somebody upstairs laughs and puts you back into place.

The assignment we walked into was about a lady named Hannah that reminded me of one that I met last year. Living in some pretty dire circumstances in her place she called home. No running water, bathroom. How is this even possible in this country??? Yet, the people who found her said she was happy and all smiles. The one thing that struck me the most was when Beth (who has taken Hannah to live with her) said that what Hannah really needed was just time. Time invested into her life. Beth said she didn’t have much money but what she did and could do is to give Hannah some of her time.

Santa stood on that back platform from 6:30a.m. to 3p.m. waving to people
watching the train go by in between stops and yelling, “Santa sees you!!” Amazing man.

Stacked, 15 tons, ready to go.

Elkhorn City, Kentucky

Wynonna Judd. Nice lady.

View from inside the train pulling into a stop.

Some favorites. Still editing through. It was exhausting at the end but it was such an amazing experience! It was great to be a part of something where people smiled all day long. I wanted to start giving out free hugs and skip hand in hand with strangers, it was that good. A nice break from hard news, when there are times people misjudge your reasons to photograph a story.  It was nice to be on the same page for this one..

Time for some r+r. After all the editing.. More soon!