Wow, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Let’s see if I can actually backpost everything in a reasonable fashion…
First and foremost, I got a full-time job! I am back with the Vineyard Gazette, the paper I freelanced for last summer, as a staff photographer and high school sports reporter (and general assignments reporter when needed). I’m so excited about the job; I loved working in that newsroom before and it’s very nice to be back. I’ve never lived in the Vineyard year-round, though, which is going to be interesting. It’s so quiet here right now (now that there are 15,000 people here instead of the 100,000+ who come in the summer), but the lack of traffic and the fact that I can always find a parking spot when I need one are definite bonuses. 
Before I moved out here to start the job, I took a longish trip to visit friends in Chicago and Houston, which was great (okay, better than great. okay, there really isn’t a word to describe this trip). Before I left, I decided to rent a fisheye lens to take along with me. I did this for one reason, really, and that was “taking photos at Beer Bike” (one of the Houston events I went to). More on this later. But I’d never used a fisheye before, and wanted to test one out just for fun. I can’t justify the cost of actually buying one and adding it to my arsenal, but the rental cost was more than worth it. This was also the first lens I’d ever tested out, and I can definitely say that the overall renting process was a breeze.
Here are some (fisheye and nonfisheye) photos from the Chicago leg of the trip.
Northwestern University
I still find Lake Michigan (and the Great Lakes in general) to be a very strange concept.
I got so distracted setting up the exposure for this photo that I then forgot about my pasta leftovers from dinner and left them at the El stop. Oh well.
At Midway Airport. Had to literally chase this picture down (my lens was a 20mm; this has been cropped), and then shoot one-handed because I had my suitcase, too. But it was worth it! So cute!