Catch You on the Rebound

Pummelled

Driving on the beach is not without its consequences.

Committed

Bal Tim Jr., 5, of Seattle plays in the sand as his father hunts razor clams at Roosevelt Beach.

Foodball Skaters

Aberdeen High School students organized a Saturday night skate at Harborena in Hoquiam as a fundraiser for Foodball, the annual competitive foodbank benefit. I tried to get a motion shot of these two girls with the skating bobcat (Aberdeen's mascot), and got this shot when I was setting up the lights. Usually I hate the green from the fluorescents, but I like it here!

Pygmy Owl

An adult pygmy owl visited the kids at the Hoquiam Library's pre-school story time.

Local Artist

Aberdeen High School grad Roxi Copland came home from Vancouver, BC to play a show at the D&R Theater in Aberdeen.

Prison Compost

Stafford Creek Correctional Center composts all of its organic waste on site, around 500 tons per year. In this photo, inmate Josh Nygren holds a handful of finished compost during a tour organized by the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce.

Tackle

Photo Illustration

To accompany a piece about bullying.

Affectionate Cat

Animal handler Dave Coleburn gets a rub from one of a pair of 8-month-old mountain lion siblings he brought to the Grays Harbor County Fair. He's got the kittens' parents on his property in Anacortes and has looked after the pair since birth.

Kite Gangster

Andy Sias, the owner of Ocean Shores Kites, brandishes one of the store's rubber band guns.

Wired

The 7th Street Kids got to practice flying around the stage ahead of the upcoming production of "The Wizard of Oz."

Shot From the Hip

Why am I posting this shot? I don't know. It's from the McCleary Bear Festival parade a couple of weeks ago. My D2H must have fired when I was walking through the crowd because I didn't know I had it. I kind of like it though!

"Take me to your leader"

Ironworker Tryouts

Ironworkers Local 86 held tryouts in an effort to get more local apprentices working at the SR 520 Pontoon Project site. Of the 25 people that showed up, only 15 were able to complete each of the four tasks set up by the union. The most grueling test was "packing rebar," in which each of the tryouts teamed up with a union member in hefting a 100-pound bundle of steel back and forth across a vacant lot (about 200 feet). At each end, they had to drop and pick up the bundle multiple times in rapid succession. Within the first hour, this test claimed nine of the 10 dropouts.



The tryouts were taught to tie rebar then instructed to do it over and over again as fast as they could.

Probably the most backbreaking test was tying a rebar grid on the ground. Tryouts were dinged for using their knees to bend over because it was too slow.

Waiting

The driver of a truck that overturned on the Port Industrial Road sits on one of heavy steel tubes he was hauling and waits for help. The truck tipped when its load broke loose.

Dancin, Chillin.

These brothers were visiting their Hoquiam grandparents from Alaska, perusing the classics at the weekend car show. Matt, 2, started dancing to some oldies music that was playing while his brother Nick, 4, hung out on a Volkswagen.

Pirates Invade Westport

Karmic Woodcarver

Chainsaw carver Sean "The Whittler" Brown sits next to a sculpture of the buddha he carved at his lot on State Street in Aberdeen Saturday. Two days ago Brown discovered that two of his pieces, a beaver and a blue heron, had been stolen. He's fairly sure who the culprit is, because a man had been hanging around last week asking about the beaver and told Brown "his mom liked birds," Brown said. Still, the artist has chosen not to involve the authorities, leaving justice instead to a higher power. "I'm just going to let karma take care of it," he added.

Waterpark Fun

Aberdeen has opened the new Finch Waterpark for the summer.

The Cosmo Mill

The crew at Cosmo Specialty Fibers works to re-spool newly-manufactured fiber through the machines after a brief shutdown. The stuff looks like thick paper and can be used in a variety of ways, from synthetic clothing to cigarette filters.

Fastpitch Celebration Shots

Contagious enthusiasm

Wipeouts

Role Playing Carnage

The local police department staged the aftermath of a fake drunk driving accident in the parking lot of Hoquiam High School, complete with a wrecked car, students as victims, emergency responders and ketchup for blood. Besides being great for photos, the event seems to really hit home for a lot of students, which is why PDs across the country continue to put these events on.

Turf Wars, Swallow Style

Tree swallows bicker over real estate at the Bishop Athletic Complex.

Unsafe at Second

He was OK

Booby

Wildlife rehabilitator Angie Messmer watches as the new addition to her menagerie of wild animals, a Brown Booby, stretches its wings in the the back room of the Hoquiam Licensing & Transportation Agency where she works. The bird was picked up from Westport fisherman Jeff Dungey, who said that the large, brown seabird jumped onto his boat while he and his crew were near Willapa Bay checking crab pots. The bird is typically found in more southern climates, like the Hawaiian Islands and the gulf of Mexico, making its appearance off the Washington coast highly unusual. Messmer says that there are a few options for the animal, including soliciting an airline to donate a round trip trip for a handler to return the bird. In the meantime, the booby continues to consume about 2 pounds of fish and squid per day.

Doozy First Step

Wet Spring

A surplus of rainwater at the retention pond in Aberdeen inspired the crew of the Hawaiian Chieftain to chart new territory Thursday.

Signs of Spring

Song Sparrow sings

Picking daffodils at the Satsop Bulb Farm

Birds of Prey

Red-tailed Hawk with handler.

Barn Owl with handler.

Shelter

Arny Scwendeman

Sometimes, for whatever reason, we shoot a story that never runs in the newspaper. This one, about WWII veteran Arny Schwendeman, has been lost in the shuffle. Arny is almost 90 and is one of the few Raymond VFW members keeping the chapter alive, despite the fact that few use its storefront meeting hall downtown.

Schwendeman poses for a photo in front of a wall bearing the military portraits of VFW members.

Schwendeman points out the members of his family that have served in the US military.



Schwendeman walks past a wall with the names of Raymond VFW members. The ones with a shiny pin next to them are no longer living.

Schwendeman stands in the Raymond VFW hall which is having some financial troubles. The VFW has been renting the space to a local yoga instructor.

Schwendeman closes the door on the Raymond VFW hall.