Stuck, taught by Windows

"Tommy Wesselhoff, 10, presses his face against the window of the school bus as he waves goodbye to his mother and brother, Danny, whom will stay at home for online schooling Tuesday morning. Tommy and Danny Wesselhoff are two of about 100 students who were enrolled in Baltimore County's virtual school instruction program last year, which continues to go unfunded this year."

This weekend I was nowhere near my computer, so I apologize to my weekend readers who sent me comments asking if I was still alive. I am. I am here. And I am back.

While I actually was near my laptop, I was working and busy and didn't have any prewritten posts to load up. So with that, beginning today, I will start to post on some assignments I've been meaning to share, yet they've become lost in my draft bin.

I'll do my best to update with the most relevant to the news, but I'd like to post these older stories sooner, rather than later, so they don't become even more outdated.

Alas, this is one of the outdated.

Sometimes you aren't stumped persay, but trying to make a story interesting and factual is tough, especially when it involves a subject working at a computer.

Nowadays, people have laptops and I can typically make a cool portrait of them outside, out of their office or room, and not worry about it being stale to the eye.

However, this assignment was about a student who was home schooled by a computer and the fact that his little brother, who attends a public school, wanted to also stay home.

I got to the boys house before the Tommy had to leave for the school bus and I had no idea how to make sure readers understood what was going on. And I wasn't about to set up a portrait.

As the morning went on, I hung out with the brothers (and mother) and tried to capture moments of the younger brother wanting to be like his big brother. But to me, what I was capturing wasn't telling of the story.

Although I had the standard shot of the Danny working at the computer, I needed something else.

For some reason I was thinking, if I have this shot of Danny on the computer, maybe they will run two pictures as a contrast if I get the other Tommy going to school.

So I banked on that idea as I continued to shoot.

As the boy’s mother and Danny accompanied the youngest to the bus stop, I knew this may be the time where I could tell the story on how Tommy wanted to stay at home.

As they played with other students, the big yellow bus finally arrived. Hugs and kisses were exchanged and I thought the moment was endearing. But out of the corner of my eye I caught Tommy banging on the window to Danny. Face plastered against the glass.

Danny laughed and waved back, but as the bus pulled away, Tommy's face remained stuck to the back seat window of the bus. He wanted to stay home. He wanted to be with his brother.