I’ve thought about writing for a long, long time. Maybe I think too much, but sometimes I just don’t take time to write. There is something here that doesn’t last too long. I need to write more often and not grate you with the play on Todd Rundgren lyrics. 
Since my last blog, Lewiston was hit by a rash of fires.
It was one of the most intense, up close, and visual event I have ever recorded. It brought attention to the blight of abandoned apartments creating tinder. The residents were down right frightened. The conditions of some of these places are horrifying. 
When we stopped at a building where I used to drop off a kid on my son’s football team after practices and some games even, it hit home.
On a night where I was leaving work on time for a change, hoping to catch the last period of the Bruins playoff game, I was literally pulling out of the SJ parking lot when a call came over my scanner dispatching the Auburn fire department about a boat disabled on the Androscoggin River, and they were hanging onto a pylon, just above Great Falls. I actually thought about blowing it off, turning off the scanner, hoping somebody in the newsroom wouldn’t hear it and it would turn out to be nothing….like so many calls. That would be the day! The light turned green and I figured I could get to the trestle by Hall and Knight on the Lewiston side in less than a minute. I walked out onto it, on the side with the rail, about a quarter of the way across, realized I would have to cross over to the other side, without any railing, and certain death if I fell over. They were directly below, and I wasn’t about to lean over the edge….call me chicken….call me afraid of heights, I am all that. Jumping back in my car, racing to the parking lot behind the Esplenade, I grabbed all my gear, except a tripod….too much to lug. I got to the lookout and it wasn’t far enough up river, so I had to bushwack up the side of an overgrown hill, good thing I had long pants on. On the Auburn side of the trestle now, I had a great vantage and quickly shot a few stills and then got out the video gear. It was hard to zoom steady huffing and puffing from the adventure getting there. I found a solid spot to put my video bag down and propped my camera level and aimed at the emergency unfolding. I couldn’t believe how frightened the woman was, and how mad her husband was. Click here to check out how they were rescued.
The fourth of July week was wicked special for me. On Wednesday I was shooting the Portland Sea Dogs game, just setting up my laptop in the press box when I got a call from my oldest son Ryan. He is in the Air Force and just received his wings.
Top of his class, on his way to be a boom operator for a KC 135 air refueling wing based out of Fairchild, Washington. The Civil War renactors on the field fired their guns and the National Anthem was about to begin. Of course, he understood that I had to hang up, it wouldn’t be proper to be talking during while it was being sung. Protocol and all. He is going to make the Air Force proud. He already has his family proud as can be.
The Fourth was the usual fair, shot these photos and fireworks and made a pledge to myself that next time I shoot them, I will not shoot them from the bridge, but far away with a long lens. Multiple reasons. But having a GoPro on the bridge might be a good idea. I had planned on shooting from the top of the parking garage, having Veterans Park in the foreground, but when I got up there, the trees had grown so big, it blocked the view of the people and the stage. Needed something in the foreground…..a photo of fireworks in the sky could be anywhere.
Robert Rich, a Navy veteran and resident of Schooner Estates in Auburn, is reflected in some of the memorial stones at Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston during an impromptu ceremony after Saturday’s parade was cancelled because of the weather forecast. A brief wreath laying ceremony and a few short speeches were given for a few dozen veterans and supporters who were in attendence.
Lacey Moyse, of Sabattus, tosses her son, Riley, 3, into the air as they cool off at Range Pond State Park
Todd Bonn, from Litchfield, hooks into a brown trout on the Little River just above Route 196 where it flows into the Androscoggin River on the Lisbon/Topsham town line. “This is one of my favorite places to fish. I will follow them as they head upstream to spawn.”
Auburn firefighter Matt Brochu carries a snake down the stairs of 56 Field Avenue in Auburn after a fire in the third floor of the apartment building. According to Auburn Fire Chief Frank Roma, they received a call that heating equipment used to keep numerous snakes warm had started a fire. “From the evidence I have seen so far, it would be consistent with the call we received.”
Lewiston police officer Corey Jacques talks about a police vehicle with a young boy that was involved in a car accident at the corner of Highland Spring Road and Montello Street in Lewiston while fire and medical personnel tend to the other occupants of the vehicle. He and another young girl were buckled into child seats in the back seat of the SUV involved, so while they were unhurt, so Jacques and a United Ambulance staffer distracted the children until their father arrived on scene.
The full moon rises behind one of the steeples of the former St. Patrick’s Church in Lewiston. This particular moon is called the pink moon not because it is pink, but according to the Farmers Almanac the name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring.
An aerial view of the devistation caused by an explosion on Gables Drive in Yarmouth.
The photos above are a few of my favorites I have taken since my last blog. In the future, I will blog more often and try not to cram so much into one blog.
The end of the holiday week was a splashing success. My brother and sister in law, Jake and Aunt B Ouellette, invited us to spend Sunday afternoon on their boat at Sebago Lake. What a fabulous day, and when I got home I put to use all the new skills I learned from YouTube tutorials about Adobe Premier video editing software. We have been using Final Cut Pro, but are transitioning to the Adobe, so I needed to practice with some video, so I took my GoPro along and used the footage to practice. Their daughter is the most precious little girl you could ever imagine.
Check us out splish splashing at Sebago.
More to come….soon.
------------EXPOSED IMAGES------------The backstory from Maine Photojournalist Russ Dillingham 