Danville has its moments

(Students move in front of a billboard decorated for Dr. Martin Luther King Day at Woodrow Wilson Magnet School in Danville. The school has been recognized for its high performance by Governor Tim Kaine for the past two years.)

Since September of 2008, Traci has been working as the only staff photographer for the Danville Register and Bee, a 20,000 circulation daily newspaper in southern Virginia. The chances to be creative every day are a valuable opportunity to try new things as a photographer, so this is what that looks like :)

A student runs through a patch of light inside the gym at Woodrow Wilson Magnet School.

Fans leave the George Washington High School basketball game and head into a foggy night.

Senator Joe Biden addresses a large crowd at the Community Market in Danville during a campaign stop in October.

At the Cruise-In on Main Street, Kaleb Marsh, 7, checks out the engine of a classic Mercury with a bright green paint job on Saturday, October 4. Marsh said he thought all the old cars were good, but was especially interested in the Mercury.

Jayme Barksdale, no. 12 for Gretna High School, shows off his state championship ring while posing for a portrait as co-player of the year.

Harry Meade, no. 14 for George Washington High School, watches the game against William Fleming High School on Friday, Jan. 30.

A conductor helps passengers off the New Orelans-boud 11:15 Amtrak train at the Danville stop.

recent highlights

An unnamed Barred Owl spreads his wings and shows the alternating dark and light patterns underneath during a presentation by the Wildlife Center of Virginia at the Danville Science Center on Thursday, March 5. Quinn Robinson, an environmental educator from the center, also brought an opossum and a kestrel for the presentation.

Primarily, animals, weather and athletes have been most of Traci's subjects lately, such as these:

A bluebird perches on an offshoot of a tree trunk in Dan Daniels Park near the Riverwalk Trail, where several hundred blue bird boxes have been placed to encourage bluebirds to repopulate the area.

Christian Clifton catches his breath as he pulls himself out of the snow after sledding in Ballou Park on Monday, March 2.

A Holstein calf peers at the camera from inside its pen at Vanderhyde Dairy Farm in Chatham, VA.

Female Holstein cows fill rows stretching into the distance inside one of the barns at the Vanderhyde Dairy Farm.

A cow looks through tubes where milk is transported as it rides through a carousel for milking at Vanderhyde Dairy Farm.

Shaquille Ward, a sophomore at Gretna High School, does a herkie jump during practice in the driver's education class room at the high school before a game.

Prior to a game against Dan River High School, Marco Witcher applies chap stick at Gretna High School on Friday, Feb. 6. Witcher and Ward are technically members of the cheerleading squad as mascots, but next year, they will be official members of the squad with uniforms. Gretna is the only school in Pittsylvania county an the surrounding area that has included male cheerleaders on the squad, and both Witcher and Ward intend to continue cheering throughout high school and, they hope, at college.

Kamryn Shelton, 7, comes through a tube on a piece of playground equipment and is seen through revolving Tic-Tac-Toe pieces at Coates Recreational Center on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 26. Many children and families took advantage of the warm weather and took to the parks around town to play.

Red bud blooms are seen on a row of trees on Memorial Drive as spring begins to appear around town.

Members of the Dan River High School basketball team celebrate as they take the court after their semi-final Group A Division 2 game against Madison County High School in Richmond on Thursday, March 12.

and then...


The Dan River High School basketball team shows their disappointment in the locker room following their loss to Radford High School in the championship game on Saturday, March 14.

California dreamin' on such a winter's day

On my second road trip to California, the destination was Santa Barbara: the city of palm tree-lined boulevards, steep cliffs and 72 degree days in the dead of winter. Since I did every mile of driving I took almost no pictures before arriving in California, but really, things don't get interesting until you get to New Mexico, anyway.



A girl looks out on the Pacific Ocean, skim board in hand, on New Year's Day 2008.


The bridge. If you look closely, you can see the Tanner family driving across in a white convertible.


Rays of sunlight break through the clouds at Hoover Dam. A massive bridge is being built across the highest area of the valley the dam is in so that traffic will eventually be able to bypass the national landmark.


Visitors rush around Pier 31 in the rain on the San Francisco bay.


Lingering clouds from a series of major storms dissipate over the only beach in San Francisco, California.


In a garden devoted to the Virgin Mary at a Franciscan monastery near Solvang, California, a cactus is decorated with Christmas lights in celebration of the holiday season.

A man stands at the mouth of a small cave on the San Francisco bay near The Cliff House.

A Natural Church

An afternoon at Tintern Abbey outside of Chepstow, Wales, in turns sunny and forboding but consistently glorious.

Into the West!

We went to Asheville and Cullowhee - lovely mountains and lovely people, with a serving of weirdness.
Tin butterflies in the gallery of Pack Place
A griffin's wing
Make-believe folk dancing?Grove Arcade
At Hannah Flanagan's
Downtown

Poolside fun/embarrassment

A memorial for the Virginia Tech shooting victims on campus at WCU