09/22/2014-Boston,MA. As her mother Lisa speaks passionately about the hopeful benefits of medicinal marijuana, 5 year old Madison Cole gets a hug from her father, Lonnie. Madison was just one of the several patients, who could benefit from the use of the drug, along with other activists, who presented Governor Deval Patrick’s office with a letter pleading for quicker approval of medicinal marijuana.
I was the first media photographer on the scene of a collision involving two airliners on the taxiway at Logan Airport on July 14, 2011.. I was in South Boston when my car’s police scanner broadcasted the voice of a pilot of a large Delta airliner. His calm voice reported that he believed that his plane had just struck another jet. I sped through the Ted Williams tunnel and up to the roof of the Terminal B parking garage. There it was, in full view, 2 planes, one with a gash through it’s tail. My photos were picked up worldwide after the Boston Herald’s usage. Here are some of the photos. The first photo was just about 8 minutes after the collision and it shows the larger “offending” jet, at left, although in this photo one cannot see the damage to the larger plane’s left wing tip. In the second photo, the larger jet is being moved, so it’s damaged left winglet is now visible with the mangled tail of the smaller jet. An interesting aside to this is that the larger plane’s winglet is still embedded in the tail section of the smaller plane.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino turned toward his old friend Sal Lamattina, and with glassy eyes, smiled as a room was named in his honor at the grand opening of the new East Boston branch of the public library Saturday.
Here, below, is my contribution to a very strong job of covering the storm by the reporters and photographers at the Boston Herald. Lastly, please spread the word regarding cleaning the exhaust pipes of your car before starting the car. The last photo here shows Boston firefighter Steve MacDonald peering into a car where a boy was killed yesterday after being overcome by carbon monoxide fumes.
As the public and several dozen Boston police officers looked on in bright sunshine, a memorial sign honoring slain Boston police detective Roy Sergei was unveiled in the Back Bay today, on the 25th anniversary of his death. Detective Sergei’s wife Maryellen, sister Janet, daughter Michelle, and son Brendan along with Billy Kennedy, the late detective’s patrol partner who was also shot that night, were in attendance as well. Please see my photo below of Billy Kennedy and Sergei’s daughter Michelle Sergei Casiano just after the unveiling today. Please click on the photo for a special video of today’s ceremony.
I spotted this moment during yesterday’s Scott Brown day-after-debate press conference. Eric Fehrnstrom, top adviser to both Brown and Romney, peers out from behind the press corps assembled at the event at Brown’s Boston headquarters.
I was driving east on Storrow when I saw this overturned car in the westbound lanes. A Massachusetts state trooper was rendering aid to the victim, who was laying inside and underneath the rolled vehicle. I parked under the Longfellow bridge and put on a lime green highway vest. News photographers on the highway, in essence, become highway workers so we are told to wear these vests. I crossed Storrow and came to a position at the median strip fence approximately 25 feet from the action. More troopers were arriving and one came over to me and asked what I was doing, etc. I told him that I was a photographer with the Herald and that I would “keep my distance” and not get too close and that I wasn’t going to move forward from my perch standing on the jersey barrier. I noticed the original trooper trying to calm the victim and, at the same time, ascertain what his injuries were. One man who had also stopped to render aid did not approve of my presence and stood in my view between the victim and my camera lens. I had to employ the old bob-and- weave method, all the while hoping that there would be some interaction, maybe a touch, between the two. I kept bobbing and the other by-stander kept weaving, and then it happened. State trooper Kevin Nichols reached out and lightly stroked the man’s leg while saying “hang in there.” It was a nice, subtle moment. I was glad to have captured it. Shortly afterward the Boston fire department took over and extricated the man. All in a day’s work for these officials.
As Occupy Boston took it’s show on the road to a Copley Square event, Boston police, including the top department brass lead by Commissioner Ed Davis, followed. Yesterday’s 1pm rally included an aluminum foil replica of the now infamous kitchen sink that was confiscated by police Thursday night from the Dewey Square encampment. It also included speeches, a band and an unsuspecting newly married couple who meandered out of Trinity Church and into a large Occupy Boston march. The just married couple, Phillip Marshall and Elise Reynolds, did not mind one bit as they are both Occupy Boston supporters. See my photos below. See Herald story here.
I had been out there to greet them, every day for the last month. That’s right, when other media types passed on the chance to photograph Sal DiMasi and his wife Deborah arriving at Moakley court for their usual time of between 8:24 and 8:35am, I was there. Sometimes it was quite awkward, as the only people in front of the court were Sal, Deborah and me. He was always very pleasant, asking how my morning was, and wondering aloud why I was the only photographer here everyday. Today was the day, as he was found guilty on the majority of counts against him. Here are some of my photos from immediately after the verdict, when Sal left court, spoke for a few minutes and then was on his way home. Here is the Herald story.
After hearing of Manny’s retirement yesterday, I thought back to the first time that I photographed him for the Boston Herald. It was his first swing as a Red Sox. It was a home run on April 6, 2001 vs, ironically, Tampa Bay, his last team. The first 2 photos here are of that home run, and the last two are taken in 2004. Best of luck Manny!
