What? No Saint Patrick's Day assignment?

A year ago today I was being paid to stand around inside an Irish bar being chatted up by semi-drunk (understatement) patrons wanting to have me take pictures of them wearing green glasses.

For this year's incarnation of St. Patty's, I spent the day photographing the News-Post's giant new sign being installed, a portrait at the courthouse, a German bakery contestant and the proprietor of a store which sells items, most of which I could not show in the photograph.

That last assignment, scheduled to print Tuesday, was certainly a difficult one, because all the items in the store could be found offensive to some of our readers and thus could not be visible. To get around this obstacle, I had to shoot this guy's portrait from across the store with a long lens and a wide open aperture, which allowed me to put everything but my subject out of focus.

While none of my assignments today took me anywhere near pints of the green brew, I was however, challenged to make eye catching images that will hopefully help draw a few more people through an interesting read.