Photo Story-A Day in the Life of a Pastor

Pastor Bill Seagran prepares his sermon longhand Saturday morning before the Sunday service at the College United Methodist Church in Philomath.

Pastor Bill has been preaching for 30 years, 12 years in Philomath. He says he enjoys it because he likes seeing people draw closer to God, and grow in their faith and become a part of God's mission to the world.

Dozens listen as Seagran delivers his sermon to the congregation on Sunday, Dec. 1. The pastor says that the only thing he doesn't like about preaching is the fact the he misses NFL Football on Sunday mornings.

The church choir delivers a song during the service Sunday morning.

Generally, after the service a coffee hour occurs. Because this particular service occurred on the first Sunday of the month it was time for a potluck after the service. Most people gathered to receive their free and filling lunch.

Photographer of the Week (Eugene Smith)

W. Eugene Smith

            William Eugene Smith was a professional photographer who was born on December 30, 1918 in Wichita, Kansas. He died in Tucson, Arizona on November 18, 1978 (he was 59 years-old). He graduated from Wichita North High School in 1936. He began his career by taking pictures for two local newspapers, The Wichita Eagle (morning circulation) and the Beacon (evening circulation). He moved to New York City and began work for Newsweek and became known for his incessant perfectionism and thorny personality. Smith was fired from Newsweek for refusing to use medium format cameras and joined Life Magazine in 1939 using a 35mm camera. In 1945 he was wounded while photographing battle conditions during World War II. In January 1972, Smith was attacked by Chisso employees near Tokyo, in an attempt to stop him from further publicizing the Minamata disease to the world. Although Smith survived the attack, his sight in one eye deteriorated. During the time Smith was not able to work due to his injuries, his wife of Japanese origin Aileen M. Smith continued the work. Smith and his wife lived in the city of Minamata from 1971 to 1973 and took many photos as part of a photo essay detailing the effects of Minamata disease, which was caused by a Chisso factory discharging heavy metals into water sources around Minamata. The essay is published in 1975 as 'Minamata', 'words and photographs by W.E. Smith and A.M Smith'. One of his most famous works, known as Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, taken in December of 1971 and published a few months after the 1972 attack, drew worldwide attention to the effects of Minamata disease. Complications from his long term consumption of drugs and alcohol led to a massive stroke that he suffered which lead to his death in 1978. He is buried in Crum Elbow Cemetery in Pleasant Valley, New York.

Tomoko Uemura in her bath

Sports Photos

Freshman guard Braden Monnot gets his ankle taped prior to LBCC basketball practice on Wednesday at Activity Center on the Albany campus.

Some of the LBCC basketball players shooting the ball around during practice on Wednesday.

During Wednesday's LBCC basketball practice freshman forward Armando Flentroy dunks a basketball in front of his fellow teammates. Their first home game is on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. against Willamette University.

Jennifer Slusser Portrait

Library aide Jennifer Slusser works on her daily tasks at the desk of the LBCC Library. Slusser is also a student at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany. She works at the on campus library weekday mornings. She has worked there for about 6 months.

Jennifer Slusser

My Neighborhood (Philomath)

Rising in the darkness and the drizzle, The Woodsman. A local bar in Philomath that has been sitting on the west end of town for more than one-third of a century. Only identified by its bright neon lights, it welcomes those coming from the coast into the city of Philomath, population approximately 5,000.

Jordan Kilgore, a 2009 Philomath High School grad, works in the produce area of Ray's Food Place. Ray's Food Place is the local grocery store in Philomath. It's located at the intersection of 19th and Main.

At the Clip Joint, 95-year-old Harry Mack receives his haircut. The Clip Joint, which is at 8th and Main, has been Philomath's main barber shop for more than two decades. It is operated by 77-year-old Mel Young, who is a Navy veteran. He served in the military from 1954-1958. Young also has numerous historical pictures of Philomath in his shop, many of them when Philomath was a small logging town.

ESPN College Gameday in Eugene

The college football pre-game show known as ESPN College Gameday came to Eugene, Oregon last Saturday. Scott Stewart, of Eugene, came straight to the campus of the University of Oregon after he finished delivering newspapers on his paper route.

After the three-hour show, which ends at 9 a.m., fans who purchased VIP tickets got a chance to go on stage and meet Kirk Herbstreit along with the other anchors of the show.

Near the end of the show, Lee Corso dresses in the Oregon Duck mascot in the background. Many people captured photos and videos with their phones. Corso predicted that the Oregon Ducks would defeat the UCLA Bruins last Saturday. The Ducks took down the Bruins, 42-14.

Andrew Brottlund Portrait

Andrew Brottlund

Brottlund is an instructor at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon. He teaches Writing 115. He earned his master's degree in English from the University of Oregon in 2010 with an emphasis in 19th Century Victorian Literature. He likes to collect umbrellas (he has a collection of over 200).

Weight Room

The weight room at LBCC's Albany campus, which is free for everyone, is now open for students to work out. It is open weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

Cordell Hobbs works his muscles doing squats in the weight room Wednesday.

Accounting major Cordell Hobbs, who is dual-enrolled at OSU, gets ready to do a squat during free workout time.

Learning Center

Some students decide to take advantage of the resources in the Learning Center at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany to finish up last minute homework prior to class Friday morning.

Felicia Thompson (Left) and Heather O'Brien are working together on their Writing 90 homework before class Friday morning.

Heather O'Brien is thinking about what next answer might be on her homework.

Photojournalism Blog 1

Monitoring the reference desk is Mark Peterson. Mark Peterson is a part-time Reference and Instruction Librarian at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, he is also a part-time Librarian at the Valley Library at Oregon State University in Corvallis. He has worked at both locations for 4 years, he got his education at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Peterson is retrieving a book for a student on Wednesday.

In the library at LBCC on Wednesday Mark Peterson along with several students are going on with their day.