Shoo, fly

"Joe Kunkel shuts his eyes tightly as a fly lands on his head at his Center Street home in Springville, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009."

As I continue to dig through my selects from the past two years, I was reminded of this picture today.

Joe Kunkel was the very first story I found when I got to Utah. I was fresh to the area, but was told to find a story anyways.

After driving around for a couple days completely lost and terrified I wouldn't find a story, I ended up getting out of my car to shoot a feature of Kunkel as he watered his plants.

All it took was getting out of the car to realize Kunkel was just a happy old man who loved to tend to his little, yet, large gardens.

We sat and talked and I returned two or three more times. A lot of time we spent was just sitting outside talking. He would snack on tomatoes, with lots of salt, and drink a luke warm Pepsi.

It was the start I needed in Utah.