The Pacific Northwest Yo-yo Championship

Charles Haycock

Daniel Dietz

2nd place 1A

Joseph Harris

Michael Kurti

Hugh Higinbotham

Paul Dang

Nate Dewitt

Bryan Figueroa- four time regional champion

Honest Emotion in Chinatown

For this assignment I went to the annual Vancouver Chinatown Spring Festival. This is the year of the Rabbit, which in the Chinese zodiac means a good time to approach things calmly and without force. Expecting mothers can look forward to keen, wise, fragile, tranquil, serene, considerate, fashionable, and kind offspring. Happy New Year!

dragon dancer makes friends

Environmental Portrait

 Rita Smith,78, looks out from her porch facing Birchwood Elementary. These giant hearts replaced Styrofoam snowmen and will surely become glittery shamrocks by March, as they have for the last 18 years. "Everyone expects it now," Smith says. "I guess I do it for the kids," she added as she reluctantly posed for another shot, "The things I do for students."

Breaking the Ice

For this assignment I shot six different people with six different answers to the same question; "Can you tell me about a time when you felt happy?"

Brett Gifford, 22, "Sitting on a beach in Barcelona with a beer."

Salomon Schneyer, 90, "At my age, just being alive."

Joyce Nicolsen, 52, "I came out and it wasn't raining. That was pretty good."

Kiki Denower, 21, "My first poem."

Disposable Image

The frontline of the march- my final image.

 This assignment was as challenging as it was engaging. We were to find a news story and capture it with a disposable camera. I chose the annual rally and march in Seattle to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Workshops and a rally were held at Garfield High School and then we marched downtown to the federal building, with a stop at the jail. Thousands came out to support Dr. King with their own dreams of peace in Palestine, immigration reform, jobs not jails and an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

  It was a challenge to think in terms of straight content and take technology away from the approach. Spotty sun, a moving and expansive subject as well as police kept me scrambling for vantage points and made me approach this project in a way I had never experienced as a photographer.

Girls from the Central District catch up with their parents as we head downtown.

Olivette Foster, 51, picks out a sign from the pile outside Garfield High School, before hitting the streets.  Foster is   Program Directer for People of Color Against AIDS Network. The group is at the rally every year educating the community about awareness, prevention and support.

 "We are here to remind ourselves and each other what Dr. King taught," Makana Greenwell, 26.

The crowd gathers in front of Garfield High School.