people: February 2008 Archives

At top, Leah Taylor, 8, donned a hat that said 'awesome' on the side during Clearview Elementary School's Read A Hat Day on Tuesday. Below, Sam Posey, 8, declared that he was, indeed, Sam, with his hat. The Red Lion district school allowed students to wear hats with appropriate messages to celebrate Read Across America Week.

We're always on the lookout for good news here at the YDR, despite newspapers' reputations to the contrary. Bad news is easy to find--just listen to the police scanner. Our living section feature writers do a terrific job finding the good news, as do the sports writers. As an old (and generally true) newspaper adage goes, the good news goes on the sports page-- the bad news on the front page.

So we depend on readers...

Some of my favorite people visited the office Friday. Amy introduced her new son Noah to the staff, and while all the women in the room drooled over her little munchkin, I was taking pictures of her ever-so-bubbly four-year old daughter Sam.
Kids are generally cute, full of energy and terrific for photos. So, please, never, EVER, have them say 'cheese'. They don't even have to look at the camera. Let them play with a favorite toy. They can stand on their heads, do somersaults, jump around, stick their tongue out, pout or laugh. Let them be themselves. Isn't that, after all, what we're trying to catch? Look at your favorite photos, and it's a good bet they aren't the ones of him/her sitting stiffly, staring glassy-eyed at the camera.

I simply showed Sam the chair and we spent the next 10 minutes shooting. It was that easy. Then we started taking pictures of all three for proud papa. But that's a totally different story...

Does this work while taking pictures of your kids?

How can we not smile ourselves when we see laughing, cute kids who remind us of how happy we'd all like to be? Tuesday, Mia and Jake Giglio and their mother, Holly, were looking for viola music at Menchey Music in Springettsbury Township.

As they banged happily on the bongos (I'm guessing they were bongos), I was thinking that the owners might have been nervous, the noise disturbing the other customers. But they didn't say anything. The kids were smiling, laughing and doing what kids do. To their credit, Menchey's let the music go on.

It made my day.