BLACK FRIDAY

I stayed out late to catch the opening of the Tanger Outlet in Deer Park opening all it's store at midnight for Black Friday. These people waited for hours! and some didn't even buy a thing after all that waiting. Hard for me to understand!

Living with Leukemia

Six-year-old Julianna Buttner, of Farmingville, was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was three. She now desperately needs a bone marrow transplant, but of the 13 million people in the national bone marrow registry, none are a match for Julianna.  Produced by Mahala Gaylord

In the spirit of giving

Bruce M. Brenner, a Vietnam veteran, gave his Purple Heart to the family of Keith Bishop, the army green beret from Medford who was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Bishop's family had wanted him to be buried with a Purple Heart, but the Army did not award him one. When Brenner heard about it, he offered to give the family his own. Videojournalist: Mahala Gaylord.

Me and Bo Bice... WHAT!

Here I am with Bo Bice, a man I didn't even know existed until several hours before I found out that there are thousands of 12 year old girls on Long Island, along with their crazy grandmothers, who LOVE this man.. being almost an American Idol and all.  Anyhoo. I got to interview him and record his show at the Tangers Outlet in Deer Park for Newsday. Check it out below

reign of the TWERDS

My Latest Newsday conquests: Wednesday I was sent to cover Miley Cyrus at the Nassau Coliseum. ie: loads of very young girls decked out in Hannah Montana paraphernalia... singing and dancing to a gyrating 16-yr-old Cyrus. Thursday I covered the first screening of Twilight's new movie. ie: again, teen girls, this time, love hungry for 'sexy' vampire and werewolf stars. They refer to themselves by a variety of terms including but not limited to 'twilighters' 'twerds' twi-hards' 'twi-tastics'

    the mother and child reunion, is only a motion away

Falling Stars

I set out early this morning to capture meteors and oh did I have high aspirations. I wanted streaks sweeping across my camera's lens. It was not to be. I failed to snag a single falling star in my frame. I did get to lie on the beach and stare up into the sky for a couple hours though and it was a lovely thing. Sometimes just sitting back and letting the world BE can relax and revive me unlike anything else. I returned home around 5 am and proceeded to edit photos from a previous shoot, instead of going to sleep like a sane human being. Now it is 7:30, the sky is blue outside my window, and I get to photograph my nuns tomorrow. What could be better?

faces on my mind

Sometimes faces make the darn'dst expressions. I love them. I love faces. I could photograph faces for the rest of my life just so I'd have to freedom to stare, stare, stare.

Montauk Point, a fine mist

Newday Video: Vigil for the one year anniversary of Marcelo Lucero's death

Many people gather this Sunday at the site where Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was killed last year in Patchogue to honor his memory. Videojournalist: Mahala Gaylord. Copyright: Newsday

Newsday has been covering this story since last year when Marcelo Lucero was killed. He was murdered by 7 white teenagers. It has hit the community of Patchogue pretty hard and I hope has started to bring about change as to how immigrants are treated here on Long Island. A recent New York Times article quotes a study finding that Long Island is one of the most segregated suburbs.  Simply by visiting different communities through my job, it is easy for me to see the segregation. The study from the New York Times articles states, "74 percent of Long Island's blacks would have to move to be evenly dispersed across the population." I believe it.  I don't know that segregation is the only cause of hate crimes but it has to add to the problem. At least some of the people of Patchogue have come together to start addressing the problem in their community, more foot police have been given patrols and the Latino community is no longer pestered by gangs of racist white teenagers.  But there is still much to be improved upon.

If you want to read more about Marcelo Lucero check this out: A Year Since Lucero Hate Killing

New Paltz

marching band