2-Year-Old Overwhelmed - 12/11/2011 - Photo by Marie D. De Jesús 

Jagger Brunett of Rochester looks tiny and overwhelmed by the immense variety of holidays stocking stuffing items in the Rochester Public Market. I also enjoy the the sea of boxes behind him giving an idea how the Holidays at the Market looked like today. 

Peek-A-Boo - 12/01/11 - Tina Yee

I was heading back to my car when the giant snow man caught my eye.  I thought the sign with the snow man peering down on East Avenue would make a funny photo and of course I had to take it.

Peering at Santa - 11/28/11 - Photo by Tina Yee

I was photographing at the kiosk where you could pose with Santa and it was a blast to watch the whole range of emotions children had.  This little girl was stuck to her mother’s leg out of fear but she was also excited to see him.  Eventually she did high five him.

Cookie stacking - 11/17/11 - Photo by Annette Lein

I was charged with the difficult job of shooting our food writer Karen Miltner’s 12 days of holiday cookies assignment.  Page designer Leah Balconi had the brilliant idea of stacking all the cookies to run large along the full length of the page.  Actually stacking the cookies was quite the entertaining endeavor as Leah sat on the floor and braced the cookies against a white wall and a clear plastic cookbook holder to keep the base of the pile from falling.  The background has been removed from the pile with Photoshop in this photo.  I laid on the floor in a rather contorted position to shoot the precarious pile and at the moment we felt we had the shot, the whole thing collapsed!  The best part, of course, was sampling the cookies when we were done.

Generosity- 11/25/11- Photo by Kris J. Murante

On occasion, some things people do amaze me. Some good, some bad. Today, I had an assignment to shoot the kick-off of kazoo fest, a campaign to raise money for Camp Good Days. After getting a couple photos that I like, typically, if I’m not running to my next assignment, I’ll wait and see if I can make something better out of an everyday job. Today, that turned out to be easy. Mark Lucas, of Greece, walked up to Camp Good Days worker Melissa Cappelliti and drop a $100 bill in her basket. When she went to make change, he said thanks, but no thanks. Thanks, for all you do, and no thanks to the change. When asked, Lucas simply replied, “It’s for the kids and she’s doing all the work”, referring to Cappelluti. Watching Melissa’s expression change, made the photo for me. Even in these troubling times, some people’s hearts are bigger than life.  More people should be like you Mr. Lucas.

Amber Alert Cancelled - 11/22/11 - Photo by Tina Yee

About 1p.m. I heard an amber alert issued over the scanner for two children taken by their mother’s boyfriend.  The abduction occurred around 4 a.m.  Then around 1:40 p.m. I heard they found the kids and I got to the home where they found them as quick as I could.  It’s always great to cover the news of children being recovered.

Story Time with Senator- 11-21-2011- Photo by Jamie Germano

Tyreese Holmes, 4, of Rochester, listens to a story read by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand during her visit to  Wilson Commencement Park. Gillibrand read stories to the universal Pre-Kindergarten class and helped sort food items to be given to some of the 100 families in the Early Learning Center.