Here is another example of the possibilities in wet and nasty weather. This image was made in Salem at the Capital Criterium sponsored by OBRA. The event was set, the riders were ready, and despite 1-2 inches of standing water and driving rain on much of the course, the gun went off and the race was on. I like to experiment in situations like this so I thought I would do a series of panning shots. I remember shooting between 1/8th and 1/15th of a second for my shutter speed. What I love about this image is that you actually get a good sense of the crazy conditions and the competitive action that is going on. You can see the riders fighting for position and trying to maintain balance on wet, nasty roads. Remember that when the weather gets wet, magical things can happen!

What possesses three year olds to put their hands where they shouldn't go? I was three once, and I found out what can happen when you stick a penny in a wall socket. As I recall I woke up sometime  (probably just a few seconds) later and their was an indentation in the wall where my head hit across the hallway, and black streaks coming out of the plug. My head hurt and in my hand was still clutched to that penny. 

This little girl just had to see what was down the hole. Perhaps she dropped her marble or penny or some other precious thing down the sawed-off pipe buried in concrete that used to be a flagpole in the neighbors front yard.  She obviously hadn't been informed that black widow spiders and other nasty creatures could be lurking down in that dark little hole.

In 1983 I was a photo intern at the Price, Utah Sun Advocate newspaper when the emergency scanner went crazy with various emergency response personnel set in motion with the situation. I grabbed my Nikon cameras and jumped in my more-rusty-than-trusty 1972 Toyota Celica and headed in the direction of the excitement.

When I arrived at the scene there were a half-dozen police, fire and ambulance crew huddled around this little girl, trying to figure out how to get her arm unstuck from this pipe in the ground. After several different soaps and gels were tried, it was determined that it would be best to use a jack hammer to chisel out the concrete around the pipe. This photo was taken just as they pulled her arm and the pipe from the ground.  They rushed her to the nearby hospital and  doctors were able to convince her to let go of the pipe a few hours later.

These two events were significant in my life in large and small ways I suppose. As a result of sticking a penny in the wall socket I was always super sensitive and squeamish around electricity. Being the son of an electrical contractor that became a huge obstacle for ever taking over the family business. As far as the little girl was concerned, she turned out to be just fine after quite a lot of excitement, but I got a peak into her experience through the lens of my camera. I realized that Summer that access to events and people and their experiences is what a camera affords me. 

Since I was Three, I have never had the desire to put my hand where it will likely be bit. It's amazing the lessons that come at such a young age and last a lifetime!