Cute Overload

Sometimes I think the "day" shift should be renamed the "cute-kids-in-disgustingly-cute-outfits" shift. Can you tell I'm going through a bit of sports shooting withdrawal? This was from an event at a local charter school. They turned their parking lot into a dance floor, where the kids two-stepped their way across the concrete in little cowboy hats, boots and western outfits. Cute overload! It was so cute I wanted someone to punch me in the face later just to even myself out. I really do like what I shot, even though (once again) I was kind of angry when I arrived at this assignment. Something about being angry at an assignment really makes me shoot better, I think. I'm not sure why. Its therapeutic, I think, like a long run or something. I work out the anger by busting out some photos. Click. Click. Release.






Now this kid knows how to work out some anger. Don't worry kid, the day is almost over. You can take off the outfit soon enough.

Twirlers

Over the weekend I shot a little baton twirling competition, featuring high school and college twirlers from around the state. It was one of those assignments where as soon as I walked in, I wanted to walk back out. Not because it wasn't visually interesting, but because I felt so far out of my element I wouldn't know how to relate to any of these people. They were all super nice, though. After some uncomfortable staring and probably some odd facial expressions, I began to make photos I liked.






And I only got hit with a baton once. Don't worry, it only hit the camera.

Hospital

People always say they hate hospitals. All the sick people. The needles. The death. The truth is I love hospitals. The sterile and orderly environment. The free cable TV. And they have pie.

But mostly, I love hospitals because they take care of people. In my brother's case, they can save a life. When people say they don't like hospitals what they really mean is they hate the memories of seeing their loved ones in pain. They hate the helpless they feel knowing something is out of their control. I can definitely understand that.

Final Edition

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.
A final video from the folks at the Rocky Mountain News. I watched it twice this morning, and I cried at the end both times. So many fantastic visual journalists are now unemployed. Survivors guilt is starting to kick in.

Dress Up

Those private school kids sure like to dress up, and it's not even Halloween. Two different events in two weeks. One was a colonial re-enactment. The other was a fairy tale re-enactment. Or something. The kids seemed to enjoying it.

For the most part.

Celis Watch

Friday I was on "Celis watch," which meant it was my turn to stake out the court room for the trial of the year in Nueces County. It wasn't my first trip over, but it ended up being the last day of the trial. These are a few Celis portraits I liked over the course of the two-week Celis Circus.


There's a lot of back story to this, but in this trial Mauricio Celis was tried and convicted of falsely holding himself out as a lawyer. He faces a range of other charges stemming from some bizarre incidents last year. He's become this infamous figure in Corpus Christi, and the newspaper's daily blog covering his trial got thousands of hits and more than a hundred comments each day.

I don't cover many court cases, but I've done enough to know its nothing like Law and Order or anything you see in the movies, unfortunately. No one was held in contempt. No lawyers screaming "Objection!" No gasps in the courtroom before the judge pounded the gavel yelling "Order in the court!"

As a bonus challenge, Celis was also very aware of the camera. It seemed like every time he heard that click of the shutter he would look my way and then sit up straight or adjust his suit or something. The guy hired a spokesperson for the trial, so I guess it shouldn't have surprise that he was concerned with his image.

Pink in the Rink

Over the weekend the Ice Rays had a breast cancer awareness campaign going on, called "Pink in the Rink." They turned the ice pink and drove a pink limo onto the ice filled with cancer survivors. When I got there the rink looked like a mess. With the ice all scratched up it was kind of hard to see the pink. Right before game time, though, the Zamboni came along and smoothed the ice over, revealing the Pepto Bismal like color under the ice. It was kind of cool.

Although I have to say they may have taken it a step too far with the pink jerseys. Forcing players to wear pink in such a testosterone-driven sport is just asking for trouble.

In other words, you're gonna get your ass kicked.

Ups and Downs

I still hate parades, but they do have the potential to produce some interesting photos. I was pretty happy with this one today, with a little cowboy trying to help decorate his 4-H float.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, especially this week, where I've been bouncing around a five-county area running down photos. I even got to write a little story Tuesday at a wind farm. It was actually super stressful pulling double duty. I didn't know anything about this wind farm, the people involved or all the legal hoopla behind it. Fortunately it had all been covered pretty well by the paper in the past, so all they really needed was a basic story about the grand opening of the place. Stressful, yes, but the good kind of stressful. A job-well-done, you-earned-your-paycheck-today kind of stressful. Good times.

New Year, New Attitude

(01/10/09-I had this in my blogger drafts and totally forgot to publish it. Oops!)
I'll admit I wasn't my jolliest this morning when I rolled into work at 8 a.m. after a night of New Year's Eve revelry. Shooting people swimming 60 laps at a pool wasn't on my list of new year's resolutions. Acting like my photos are better than they really are, however, is on my list. So I give you the greatest photo you've ever seen (this year (from me)):

I also got the chance to shoot the first baby of the year. Though I'd happily avoided it every year so far, I got oddly excited this year when I found out I was doing it. I wanted to go all out. You know, make it a spectacle. A Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, People Magazine kind of spectacle. It would amuse me.

Of course it turned out nothing like that. The mother was slightly reluctant to be photographed to begin with, and after I dragged a bag of lighting equipment through the hospital, the soft natural window light ended up feeling far more appropriate. I though this photo, with the mother and her too older daughters around the baby, turned out sweet.

Christmas Concert

The Joe Garza Youth Orchestra had a Christmas Concert last week. I did a little story on the group at the beginning of the summer when they held their very first concert as an orchestra. I thought it was such a great idea: offering free lessons and borrowed instruments to kids who's families may not have the means to be a part of such a thing. They've had the lessons for years at a local recreation center, but this past year they secured a grant and were able to purchase dozens of new instruments. Enough to put together a little orchestra. We almost didn't cover their Christmas show, but I managed to squeeze it in before heading to a basketball assignment.

You Better Watch Out, Santa

Those kindergartners want your soul.

Or, at least your sweet candy goodness. Nothing says Christmas like stringing up an effigy of a global icon and beating it with a stick. Some of those kindergartners really got into it, too. I hope this doesn't push any of them over to the "naughty" list.

Ice Rays

So about halfway through the second period the game was still scoreless and there hadn't been any real fights on the ice. I had some decent enough photos but obviously nothing pivotal to the outcome of the game. Still, I'd already stayed longer than I had planed, and I had a ton of images to edit through before deadline. I figured it would be safe to leave now.

"You know as soon as I leave there's going to be a big fight or a goal or something," I joked with another photographer.
"That's the way it always goes," he said.

I walked away from the rink and out the rear arena door. I got maybe 10 feet away when I heard the fans roar inside. The siren went off and the announcer started screaming about an Ice Rays goal. Son of a...

When I was editing my stuff later, I found it hard to open up a photo I liked that didn't have our newspaper's logo somewhere in the image. That's good marketing for us I suppose, but it was slightly annoying for me.




The paper plastered its name everywhere. You couldn't even look at a players ass have a player skate away from you without seeing our newspaper's logo. Hey, I'm all for whatever keeps out circulation numbers up, I suppose.

Its Over (or, Cheerleaders Hate Me)

My days of shooting high school football have come to an end. At least for this year. Our last local team from Refugio, Texas, was eliminated in the state regional quarterfinals at the Alamodome in San Antonio over the weekend. I decided to tag along and take a couple of snap shots while I was there.


Before the game started, I think I may have creeped out some of the cheerleaders. They were practicing their flips along the sideline as the team was warming up on the field. I thought it would be neat to try and freeze one upside down with the team in the background. I prefocused, set my camera down on the ground and shot a couple of frames. It didn't take long for one the cheerleaders to notice. I'm not sure what she thought, but they abruptly stopped and ran to the other end of the field. I didn't really get what I wanted, but whatever.

The game went alright. Nothing stellar as far as action. Refugio couldn't get anything going in the first half, which I used as an excuse for not really getting a decent photo. The second half went much better for me. Not so much for Refugio.



It was interception and turnover central for Refugio. And it seemed like they couldn't do anything to stop the opposing team's running back.



The coaches were not happy.

But the people who were really unhappy (beside the players and families and such), were the cheerleaders. I'm not sure why, but at every playoff game I've shot, the cheerleaders always seem to burst into tears. I get that it is a sad event to see your school lose, but it always puzzles me how emotionally invested they are.

There two girls were crying behind me, and I really wanted to take their picture. I turned quickly and fired off two frames before the girl on the right gave me this disgusted look and ushered her sobbing friend away. I had actually tried to shoot the girl on the right earlier. Before the game was over she sat down on the bench next to (I assume) her football player boyfriend. He was "overcome with emotion" (football players don't cry) as I stood behind them. I tried to use my mental powers to get her to put her arm around him or make some sort of comforting gesture. She didn't, so the photo didn't really make. At that point I was pretty sure the girl wasn't going to be thrilled to give me her name anyway.

By the end just about everyone was crying. With so many "emotional" players, I felt kind of guilty singling one or two out for a photo. So I avoided the crying player shot. I was very excited, however, to get this shot.

I just love this little water boy! He offered his support to one of the emotional players as the team came off the field. It was something different and unexpected, I thought, so I was super excited I got it.