Memorial Day 2007

The kids are in the pool, and the bbq will be fired up soon. Another Memorial Day and the start of the summer right? Not for me, nope, this year seemd different somehow. And I think I know how.

Having covered two different town's ceremonies and then having covered other ceremonies earlier in the weekend, I am tired. Not so much physically tired, but mentally.

This Memorial Day here in Woburn is different. I have covered these services for the past 19 years, but this year it is different. You see, we (the collective City of Woburn) had a native son killed in Iraq just a few short months ago. And when George Poole read the role of honour, and got to SFC Keith Callahan's name, it got me. Indeed it did. I put the camera down for a minute and just looked around. Looking at all the faces of the free and the innocent and the young and the old. I just looked around. I looked at my foster Grandfather - Woody Ford, who, now in his late 70's, came to Woburn Center to see and be part of a ceremony that means so much to him. It was so great to see him.

That's Woody right there offering a hand salute as the flag was going by.

But as great as it was to see him, it is hard not tho think about the family of Sgt Callahan, who lost a dad, a father, a son, and a friend, who was doing what he knew best - defending the freedom of the United States of America - yup - of you and me, and him and her and us an d them. All of us. Thank you Sgt Callahan, for giving your life, so that I may still enjoy mine.

I truly think my friend Bud said it most appropriately on his blog:

Seriously folks, you should take a brief moment away from your weekly trip to
Home Despot or Wally World, and reflect on what the day should be about -
remembering our fallen Soldiers.
And that is Soldiers with a capital "S".
I won't grandstand anymore than to say I honor our Veterans, and I hope
you do too.

I must agree with him, in every way possible.

So here are a few other photos from Woburn and Burlington's ceremonies. I hope you enjoy them, and I would, as always, enjoy hearing your thoughts and comments.

One of many of the flag bearers on the Woburn Common this morning.

This man was a POW in Korea for nearly two years.

The Burlington American Legion Rifle Squad fires a volley after Taps.

Woburn Police officer John Lally - ever the proud grandfather - showing off his new (3 weeks) grandson.

Bio Schwag...

If you have ever been to a trade show, or convention that has a bunch of booths or vendors, then you know about the schwag - you know the gimmes that everyone gives out.

Pens, and pads of papers are commonplace, but there is always some really cool stuff that is passed out, and if you are lucky enough to be walking around when the booths are active, you can pick up a few cutesy items.

But there are some serious items too.

At the Bio 2007 Convention that I just attended in Boston, there were 22,000 plus attendees and every state in the country and every country in the world was represented. Think of what they all brought with them - tons (literally!) of items.

But of all the pens, candy, shirts and stuff I got, nothing, and I do mean nothing, compared with the items that our own FBI was giving out. Yup, the US FBI had a booth at the show, and it was manned, I think as a recruiting method more than anything.

So what could the FBI be giving out that piqued my interest?? Well check it out:

Yup, you see it! A POCKET GUIDE TO Weapons of Mass Destruction! Indeed a POCKET guide!

I WILL NEVER LEAVE HOME WITH OUT THIS!

WOW What a Week!

Well it is hard to believe that a month has passed since I last posted, but after this week, I felt I should share.

Many of you know that I am the photographer for the Woburn Daily Times
chain of papers, but I also do a lot of freelance work, and one of my bigger
freelance gigs is for a Cambridge based company - the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

So when they hired me to come into Boston for the three day Bio 2007 Convention I was pretty happy. I know I am weird, I actually enjoy these things! Heck getting paid to be there is a bonus!

So into South Boston I went each of the past three days (side note - I don't envy the people who drive in there daily - that was some of the worst traffic I have ever seen! UGH!) to go see what more than 22,000 conference attendees had to say, and show about the world of Bio Technology.

WOW, was I blown away!

I have gone to or photographed or even was a salesman at many trade shows,
but this had to be the mother of all trade shows. There were booths from every
corner of the world there, I heard so many languages spoken, millions of
business cards were exchanged, and I am sure many deals were brokered.

I spent most of my time in the Massachusetts Pavillion, (shown here in a view from the skybridge) which was the largest of all the state pavillions, occupying about 5% of the total show floor
area. It was my homebase for the three days and was a hot spot of activity. One of the bigger events of the show was Governor Deval Patrick making a big Stem Cell announcement:

This was big doings for Massachusetts and I am happy to have been there to photograph the historic event. A funny thing happened near the end of the governor's speech - an old Asian man climbed up onto the press photo platform, and pushed past me with his little point and shoot camera. After taking a photo or two, he turned to me and said in a thick accent: "Oh so good to see Barack Obama here in Boston." I couldn't help but laugh out loud!

There were a couple of chances for me to observe the rest of the show, and I think, that since I was not there to make a deal, or buy equipment, I looked at this show with a different eye.

Here are a couple of photos that I liked:

This photo is the membership desk area of Bio and it changed colors every 3 or 4 minutes - it was totally cool and could be easily seen from many areas of the show.

This photo shows the new Biogen Idec "Hyposurface" it is a surface that responds to TOUCH and to SOUND. In this photo, the man in the middle had blown into the microphone, and caused a wave effect on the surface. This was also totally cool!

The rest of the photos are really just talking heads and not as cool as those, but overall it was an awesome experience!