SUMMER OF '09 ARCHIVES: Published standalone pictures

I have exactly one article left to post, but I'll hold off on it for now. Today, I'd like to post some of the pictures I took that weren't part of any articles but rather were used to fill space.

The "Everybody loves a carnival" package has an interesting story behind it. On my way to work, I noticed what looked like a mini-carnival. I told Marc about it, and he had me go back out and grab some pictures of it. It was part of a summer camp put on by Benicia's Parks Department, and I got information on it from the coordinator.

The other three pictures came from a day when I wasn't really doing much, so Marc sent me out to shoot as many pictures of First Street as I could, and he'd publish them whenever he needed to fill space. I think the "Views of Benicia" pictures were actually published after I'd left. (By the way, the offer to take pictures and send them to beniciaherald@gmail.com is still valid. We do like having visuals on the front page.)

SUMMER OF '09 ARCHIVES: Tannery undergoes major changes

This was one of three story ideas I pitched when I got the job. I don't remember what the other two were, but Christi suggested I flesh this one out. This was at a time when it felt like the historic Tannery building was really feeling the sting of the recession. A good number of its businesses had moved elsewhere on First Street or just shuttered completely. For a while it was looking like the Tannery would never recover and would be foreclosed upon at any minute. Thankfully, it seems to have bounced back. Char's moved back to its original location, and they've acquired a number of new tenants to keep it operational. However, the Tannery Grill that I kept mentioning in the article never actually opened. To this day, I still don't think that space had been filled.

This was the first semi-investigative piece I'd done, and I'm quite proud of how it turned out.