Tuscaloosa, Alabama

This photo served a dual purpose for two of the weekend assignments for the paper. In addition to shooting the Christmas Afloat riverboat parade for tomorrow’s paper, I was also asked to photograph anything related to cold weather for a separate story about the low temperatures expected over the next few days. When I overheard this aunt scolding her nephew for not keeping his hood on, I thought it had potential so I turned around and was delighted to see her fastening his hood as he rolled his eyes at her.

Porf taught me how to balance light like this, and Porf gave me the Manfrotto tripod with the mini ball head that made my parade pictures so much easier tonight. There was a time when you couldn’t make me use a tripod — I hated the squeaky plastic video tripod I had purchased at Kmart and refused to even drag it out of the trunk, despite the fact that it only weighed one pound compared to the Manfrotto’s hefty seven pounds. Now I drag that Manfrotto everywhere and use it almost every day. I love every scratch on it, love the weight of it across my shoulder, love the feel of it beneath my hands. Most of all, I love the stability that it gives me — in more ways than one.

Music of the day: Christmas (Please Come Home) by U2