Night Out

Whenever I see a ballet folklorico group around here, I usually avoid them like the plague. Mostly because they're pretty ubiquitous in South Texas, but they also rarely have any sort of news connection with the event I'm covering. That was the case at this year's National Night Out. The event wasn't about them, but that doesn't mean I can't turn it into a photo about me.

Fore

An image I shot earlier this month, from a fire on a golf course. I was headed to another assignment and noticed smoke from the country club area. I turned off the freeway hoping for a shot like this. No flames, but I'll take it. The beer can on the ground and the cigarette in the guy's mouth really amuses me.

Fourth of July

We decided to show our patriotism at the paper with a collage of U.S. flags splashed across the front page. When I hear the word collage, I always think of a bad high school yearbook spread with the awkwardly shaped photos and weird cutouts blobbed together across a page. I'm happy to say it didn't turn out like that at all. The only thing that would have made it better, said my ego, was if they used more of my photos.

Only one of these photos (below) ended up in the paper. I was a bit miffed at first, but when you think about it, I got to spend hours driving around taking pretty pictures of flags. And someone paid me for it. Is this a great country or what?

State Baseball

The last month or so has been a blur. Six day work weeks, 100+ hour time sheets, a set of new tires and thousands and thousands of frames of high school baseball.

And it was fantastic.

Baseball is huge in this part of the state. I don't think we've had a local football team make it to state in decades, but just about every year the Coastal Bend has a team in the state baseball tournament. This year we had three, one in 5A, one in 4A and one in 3A. We also had a private school repeat as state champs in their league.

Leading up to state, we had tons of teams in the hunt during playoffs. With a staff of only three full-time photographers and only a handful of stringers, our resources were stretched thin. What made it all the more challenging was I didn't shoot baseball at all during the regular season. Maybe one game. Suddenly I'm thrown into game after game of high-stakes action. I had to shake off the rust pretty quick.

A highlight was definitely the state baseball tournament. Our chief photographer traveled to Austin to shoot some of the opening games, and I came into town to help shoot the final title games. I shot some assignments on a Thursday in Corpus Christi, then drove to Austin that night so I could be ready to go first thing Friday morning.

When I got into town it was almost 10 p.m. I was checking into my hotel when I got a call from our chief photographer. The Thursday night game was going into extra innings and deadline was quickly approaching. He needed some back up or he'd either miss the end or miss deadline. So I jumped back into my car and made it to the stadium just in time for the 10th and final inning. I didn't even have my media credentials yet, but never underestimate the access you get when you carry a really big lens and walk in like you own the place.

As soon as I got onto the field, I started second guessing myself. Is this the best spot? Should I move? Am I gonna miss the moment? How do I shoot baseball again? By the end of the inning my nerves were shot, but it all worked out when I got the celebratory shot as one of our local teams advanced to the state finals.


I still didn't have press credentials though. I wasn't going to bother fighting to get in the press box when I was on such a tight deadline. So I ran back to my car, fired up the laptop, and sent in my photos from the tailgate of my Honda Element in the parking lot. Good times.

But the joy didn't last long. All three of our local teams fell short of the state title. The reality is that most teams will go home disappointed. That means I got a lot of sad player photos this season.






So baseball season is over, and I've got my weekends and a little bit of stability back. But I know I can't get too comfortable. Football season will be here before I know it.

Military Funeral

I shot my third funeral in as many months last weekend. First was a police officer's funeral, then a Marine funeral and now Army Spc. Ryan Gartner's funeral. At all three of these funerals, the family members agreed to let media come inside for the church service and attend the burial. It's a tough situation to be in, and really a huge responsibility. You feel almost an obligation to the family that let's you in. They are sharing what could be one of the lowest points of their lives, making it my job to tell their story with dignity and respect.



Both the father's (above) and mother's emotions were pretty raw. Their son was scheduled to come home in two weeks, and they were still waiting for answers about the specifics of their sons death. It was an unthinkable situation for both parents.
I had shot several strong images of the mother, all of which just broke my heart. The last image (lower right) was during the gun salute. Her mother was trying to comfort her and she pulled away, almost in anger.

And then she looked right at me.

It was hard to tell what she was thinking as she looked down the barrel of my zoom lens. Who knows if she was even looking at me. It was a brief glare, then "Taps" began to play. It was one of those moments where I felt terrible for being there, like I was somewhere I didn't belong. I paused for a few minutes, found a new spot, and then continued shooting.

I hung around until it was over. All the condolences had been given and only a few family members remained. That's when I saw the mother going back to the coffin to sprinkle a bit of dirt on her son's casket and say goodbye one last time. It would have made another emotional photo. I was getting ready to lift my camera before I stopped myself. Maybe I still felt guilty. Maybe I was just being weak, but I felt like this wasn't a moment for me to capture. I'd captured plenty of photos already that told the story. No, I thought, this moment belonged to her.

Turtle Power

We had a bit of a cold snap recently. Like, below freezing. And while our temperatures were probably still the envy of most of the country, it was big problem for the sea turtles.

Hundred's of turtles, stunned by the drop in water temperatures, started floating in the bays and washing up near a local fishing pier. Most of them weren't dead, they were just stunned by the cold and unable to move or swim. They just needed a place to warm up before they drowned. That's where the turtle experts from the Padre Island National Seashore came in. They collected hundred of turtles from the area and further south. I met them at one of the hatcheries to see what they had collected. It was quite a catch.




It was really cool to see all the turtles, even though they mostly just laid there. It was one of those things the average person doesn't get to see. This job is full of surprises sometimes. They couldn't warm up the turtles too quickly. After about a week or so, the turtles were let go back into the gulf.

Slice of Life

I was shooting a high school JROTC inspection recently, and shot this image of a couple of the JROTC members practicing before the inspection started. I loved the photo, but I quickly started to get the same question: What's up with the guys head sliced off?

I got the question from one of my editors, who thought the photo may be a bit confusing to the average reader. I started to wonder if she was right. Did it tell the story, or did I shoot this just for me? Well, I kind of thought it was both. After talking it out with her and a designer, it ended up the lead photo on the front page. I was excited.



But guess who wasn't excited: Mom. The next day a coworker said she got a call from the photo subject's mother. She said the mom wanted to know if I had a copy of the photo where her son's head wasn't cut off. Unfortunately the answer was no. I shot about four or five frames of the kid, and in all the shots I had cropped out the guys face in camera. The photo wasn't about him, I tried to justify. It was about the action and the drawing of the sword and the pagentry of the event and so on and so forth. In other words, the photo was really about me.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I think I should shoot more for me when I go out on assignments. It's my job to make photos with impact, though I definitely see the mother's point. It's a tricky balance sometimes.

Taking Stock

One of my resolutions this year was to blog more frequently. Not because I feel I have all this wisdom to share, but because I know the more I blog, the more motivated I get to push myself creatively. Plus it's easier then giving up soda or going to the gym.

The livestock show is one of those annual events where I need a little extra creativity. There are two week-long county livestock shows we cover in January. Since January is typically a slow news month, it's not unusual to spend back-to-back days mining the fairgrounds for photos. It wasn't until the second livestock show, though, where I finally felt like I was getting something a little different.

I noticed a pair of kids washing down their lambs with Woolite, which I found so entertaining. I took dozens of photos of then washing their animals down, trying to get the bottle and the people and the animal all in the same shot. It all kind of came together, I think, in the frame above.

I also was a bit obsessed with all the cowboy boots, which came in all kinds of colors and styles. I think what my photography has been lacking recently is attention to those details.
Livestock season is over for another year. Hopefully that will give me enough time to get the lingering smell of barnyard animals out of my car.

Thankful

You know what I'm thankful for? Crying volleyball players.

Crying volleyball girls above the fold on A1, however, makes me giddy. Let me explain.

I don't mean to be heartless. I truly wish things had turned out better for them. This was the King volleyball team's first time to make it to the state tournament, and they did it with a first-year head coach. It was a big deal for the team and the school. The two days leading up to the tournament the girls were front-page news. Many expected them to take the whole thing home, including some of our editors, who planned the front-page package around the girls celebrating in the opening round of the state tournament. But we all know what happens when you make plans.

The team was playing the late game of the day, so the editors decided that win or lose, volleyball would be the dominate package on the front page. The pressure was on. I was shooting a sport I rarely cover, plus live tweeting scores during each time out. Mix that with the regular deadline pressure and the expectations for some good A1 photos. The whole game was a blur. A chaotic, pressure-filled, fantastic blur.

When I shot the top image of the girls crying, arms linked with the scoreboard behind them, I felt like I nailed it. It's a feeling that I don't get very often. My worry, though, was that the photo wouldn't see the light of day. I knew it would run online, but there is some hesitancy at the paper to run pictures of high school athletes crying, especially on the front page. The night editor confirmed my fears when we talked on the phone. She liked the photo, but she just didn't think it would fly. I offered up some alternative photos and hung up the phone, thinking the picture of the girls crying under the scoreboard was done for.

So once I got back into town and finally saw the front page the next afternoon, I was very surprised. Surprised it ran dominant on the front page, yes, but I was more surprised how excited I got. After working in newspapers for nearly a decade, it makes me feel good that I can still get excited about seeing my work in print. I was excited to find out that the night editor fought for my photo. She stood up for good photography, and I am so very thankful I work at a paper that is still willing to do that. Most of all, I was thankful that there are still dedicated and talented people, from editors to designers to photographers, who still have a passion for putting out a good product.

I'll be honest, some days at work are not so good. Some days I wonder what I'm still doing in this field plagued with uncertainty. Some days I wonder if my work means anything. Not so on this day. So thank you, King volleyball girls, for giving me this great photo. On this day, I was know I was right where I should be.

Are you ready for some football?

The answer is no, I'm not ready. Almost passing out from my climb up the bleachers to the press box made it clear I did not have a very productive off season. That's why I was super surprised I nailed this image early in my first high school football assignment of the year.

Bam! I'm ashamed to admit I was doing some hard core chimping in the end zone when I saw this in the back of my camera. Unfortunately that was the highlight of the evening. The first night of football you're really just trying to get something in focus and shake off the sports-shooting rust. Hopefully I will only get better as the season moves on.

A part of me, though, is really excited about the start of the season. One of my favorite things to do at football games is to find side features. There's something so iconic about high school football games. It's such a ritual and an event almost everyone can relate to. Friday I didn't have a whole lot of time to search for those quiet moments I love. Hopefully I can snag some sweet Friday night photos in the coming weeks.

Movie Magic

It's been a long, hot and mostly uninspired summer. But there were a couple of creative bright spot over the last few months. One of those was the annual Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project.

The project is pretty straight forward: write, shoot and edit a short film (8 minutes or less, minus credits) in only seven days. There are also three required elements each film has to include. This year the required elements were a prop (a black ribbon), a line of dialogue ("The problem with _______ is that he/she thinks too much") and a character (Sam, a male who recently found something).

This is the third year my friends and I have participated. The three of us wrote the script, I shot the movie while they "acted," and then I pieced the whole thing together in a semi-coherent order. This year was my first year as the team leader, which really just meant I payed the entry fee (still waiting on your share, Phil and Israel). I did get a pretty sweet swag bag, though. It almost made winning absolutely no awards over the weekend bearable. Almost.

We shot the film back in July, but we weren't allowed to post it anywhere until after the screening and awards ceremony this past weekend. Since that's all over, I'm now free to plaster our film everywhere. There's definitely bits of each of us in our main character, Kevin. The three of us each wrote different portions of the story, and it became clear we were all in very similar places in our lives: Slightly unsure, questioning our life decisions and wondering if the things that are so important to other people our age (marriage, family, careers) will ever be important to us.

Anyway, enough words. I hope you enjoy our film.

Ra Ra Ah Ah Ahhh!

OK, so I knew this was coming a few days ahead of time. I played it cool. I didn't make a fuss. And when I saw the photo request on the photo budget, I casually volunteered to shoot it...but inside I was bursting with anticipation!

Lady Gaga is not coming to town, but a local radio station was having a contest to send the best Gaga look alike performer to her show in Dallas. Two concert tickets, airfare and a hotel stay were up for grabs, attracting a gaggle of Gagas and hundreds of onlookers to the local mall. And I couldn't have been more excited to be there!

Now, I wouldn't say I'm a big Lady Gaga fan (especially compared to these people). I only recently bought the album after kind of ignoring her music for a while. Some of it is just so damn catchy. After seeing a couple of her interviews I realized she actually has some talent and wasn't there to bring the world of pop music to new lows. No, that's Justin Bieber's job (Oh! Bieber burn!).

Anyway, the Gaga look alikes had a minute and half to either dance to a Lady Gaga song or sing. Most chose to dance, and "Bad Romance" was the song of choice. What, no love for "Paparazzi"? Not that I didn't get to hear the song. I had at least three different Gagas sing parts of it to me as I was shooting. I wasn't sure what to think about that.

This Gaga was probably my favorite. Not only was the look straight out of the "Telephone" video, but the passionate impersonator was a 13-year-old boy! Most of the Gagas were dressed and ready when they arrived, but this kid had some changing to do. I saw the boy and his mother walking by with a soda-can wig in one hand and a black leather jacket in the other. I chased them down into a clothing store next to the stage and followed them into a dressing room. I'm not even sure they knew who I was at first, but they were so nice and welcoming. There was also something kind of loving and sweet about the mom helping her son get ready for the contest. "I don't know how I feel about helping my son get dressed in drag," she joked at one point, but then quickly worked her magic to pin the hair in place, finish up the makeup and comment about how cute the shoe were. They are both my new heroes!

The winner was quite impressive on stage. He (yes, he) had the moves from the video down, and he finished off his performance with an homage to Miss Gaga's blood spattered performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. And the crowd went wild.



I had hoped for a little more Gaga/mall shopper interaction. It would have been so wonderfully awkward. For the most part, the Gagas were kept together and away from the crowds. Although I did enjoy watching people ride up the escalators and get an eye full of Gaga when they got to the top. Fantastic.


You can see more photos from the event over at caller.com, plus a little video put together by Caller-Times videographer Michelle Christensen.