Photo of the Week

-- Sean Hiller

THOUGHTS FROM THE SCENE: This week I was assigned to photograph the

principal of Newport Coast Elementary, Monique VanZeeBroeck, kissing a

reindeer. This could be good, I thought to myself.

When I arrived, I asked “So where’s the reindeer.” To my surprise they

had this mastiff, Maggie, dressed up with antlers. It kind of made the

whole thing more hysterical.

Anyway, it was approaching the time everyone had waited for. The

principal was going to kiss the drooling dog. As I shot a sequence of

photographs of the kiss, I realized that choosing the right one was going

to be difficult. The photograph of the actual kiss wasn’t really

flattering. No one wants to see someone’s nostril being thoroughly licked

when they pick up their paper in the morning.

As I left the school, I asked VanZeeBroeck to forgive me for having to

publish such an embarrassing moment. She’s pretty lucky, the picture that

did run captured the cute side of the event, not the awkwardness of being

slobbered on like a piece of turkey.