Wigging Out

I'll admit, I was a little shocked when I arrived at an Irish step dancing competition today. I think my initial reaction when I walked into the room was, 'What is wrong with all these people?'

The reason for my reaction sat right on top of every little girls head. Aside from the unusual, armless dancing, each female competitor wore a tightly curled wig on their head. It was so bizarre. However, it soon became my favorite thing about the competition. For the next few hours I obsessed over those wigs. They were fantastic. I ended up really enjoying this assignment. Man, I miss working Saturdays.



There's a few more (non-wig related) photos from the event here if you are interested.

Football Parade

There's only one thing I hate more than a slow-moving parade, I found out yesterday. And that's a really fast moving parade. Seriously, what's the rush?

I'm also not a fan of football booster moms. One conversation went something like this. Can you guess which team her son is on?

HER: Did you get a picture of the varsity team yet? They're right over here on this trailer.
ME: Oh, I haven't yet, no.
HER: Make sure you get the varsity team, that's why we're all here.
ME: I'll get them once the parade starts.
HER: What pictures have you taken already? Those other trailers don't have varsity teams. Did you take their picture, because you really need the varsity team.
ME: I haven't taken a single picture yet!"
HER: Well, make sure you get the varsity team."

It's gonna be a long football season.

Olympic Baseball

So here's a game you can play at home.

Last week I was very burned out on baseball. It was the last full week of the Hooks minor league season, and I was ready for it to all just go away. At the same time I was obsessively looking at Olympic photo blogs. I was astounded, sometimes jealous, yet always inspired. As I drove to yet another game, I thought, why don't you think of this as an Olympic venue? Go in with a fresh eye and shoot it like you've never been there before. The actually game was secondary, and the spectacle of the event became the focus. Here's some stuff I got (pretend they are all Chinese and the Olympic symbol is everywhere, it makes them better).









Yeah, I'm no Sol Neelman or Scott Strazzante (unless you count when he talked about missing the shot while shooting track and field), but it was fun. It definitely made the last few games of the season bearable. Until we meet again, Hooks.

Creative Differences

The best new comedy sweeping the nation premiered over the weekend. "Creative Differences," the short film me, my roommate Israel and our friend Phil made, had its debut at the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project screening on Saturday. Watch it and tell me how great it is!

There were a couple of rules for the films.
1) The film had to be 4-8 minutes in length (not counting credits and titles)
2) The film had to be totally written, filmed and editing within the 7 day time period.
3) A specific prop, a line of dialogue and a certain character had to be included in the film. They were: a tortilla, "You can go to (______) and (_______) for all I care," and a character named Beth, the victim of a recent tragedy.

I thought our movie was great, but unfortunately we were not showered with awards at the screening. Thejudges just didn't get our genius, I suppose. We got a lot of laughs though, and the audience really seemed to like it. That's all that matters. At least that's what I tell myself.

Smoke Break

I was waiting for some smokers to take a break the other day at Whataburger Field. The designated smoking area had some beautiful light streaming onto the concourse, so I decided to shoot from above. It was also part of my sneak attack plan to shoot pictures of smokers without telling them why I was taking their picture. Something about embargoed news and what not. Whatever. I liked the angle, and the light was super fantastic.

Unfortunately no smokers showed. I had to shoot the game as well, so I eventually abandoned my post. I did shoot a few passers by as I waited. This little boy was the only one to notice me on the balcony above. I thought it made a nice photo. If only the kid had a stogie in his other hand.

Football

It's almost that time of year again.

Football returned to the Coastal Bend Monday, with high school teams heading back to the field for the first day of practice.


It was so hot outside today. It was 95, with a heat index of about 237 degrees, I think. I can't imagine having to run and throw and work out in this heat. There's gonna be some warm Friday nights on the football field this year.

Time to put your game face on, I guess.