Giggle...

One of the really fun things about being in the magazine business is helping to come up with an informational  package that ends up being an article, a fun combination of photos and text that allows the author (these days it's frequently me) to share a new perspective with the rest of the world.

In 2008 I had the opportunity to write an article for Public Works magazine about the first North America installation of addressable street lighting. In the process, I learned a lot about Quebec City - which I really want to visit now - and got to work with several fellows in the public works department there. By default, I interacted mostly with the one who spoke the most English, of course, but I digress.

The most delightful part of the whole endeavor was coming up with the photography. The magazine hired a local photographer to go out and shoot some photos based on thumbnail sketches by Percy, the PW art guy. Imagine how much fun it was to find the photographer had posted some commentary and a bunch of photos - including Percy's sketch - on his website. Here's the link: http://www.francisvachon.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-cover-shot/. Be aware that the cool graphics are in the links. For example, a link to the sketch is in the first sentence of his fourth paragraph.

N.B. - This is an example of a really nice print article that loses basically all its visual impact in the online version. Oh, well... [Added Sept. 2014] You can see scanned JPEG images of the print version pages here.

I've once again been involved in such an article last week, this time about a terrific program that's training veterans for manufacturing jobs. Although gathering photographs of what's going on there has been a secondary priority for the staff, we wanted to get a powerful cover image to capture the essence of the program in one shot. I asked for a miracle, and with a little long-distance (i.e., email) coaching and inspiration from design director Matt LaFleur, the marketing manager, Amy Catalino, just last Friday shot a handful of great photos. To my delight, they included James Moreno, a Marine who I interviewed for the article, standing in the Workshops for Warriors training facility. Although I don't have access to a cover yet, I'll add it here once we get it nailed down. Meanwhile, we're having fun (again!)

Late February update - Here it is:

Hands

If you ask my wife, she'd probably tell you what I inherited from the Klemens line are my big toes. But the constant reminder I see is that I have my father's hands.

I wish I had a picture of his hands, but I really don't have to. They're right here in front of me.

I remember marveling at the hands of the life-size stone sculptures in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum, and then years later at the brass sculptures in Chicago's Field Museum, too. How would Michelangelo would have rendered the Klemens hands?

In An American Childhood, Annie Dillard wrote a great description of how she, as a young child, was amazed at being able to push the skin on her grandmother's fingers and it would stay there, in a ridge. I'm not quite there, but close.