Stamford vs. Munday, Basketball Edition...

I can't say it enough, and this is especially true in basketball. I always get excited when I get assigned to shoot an area game because there is a pretty good chance it's going to be a good game. And this one lived up to the billing. The last time I saw Stamford and Munday playing was in a the state championship games for football, both had won there respective divisions.

This time though, the two teams were in the same district and this game would decide who was the district champions in basketball. Munday was a great collection of athletes and could make some amazing plays just based on their athletic abilities. Stamford had its own collection of really great athletes, but was a better team of basketball players. It made it a really fun game to watch and the game went down to the wire with Stamford pulling off the win. Munday had an awful night at the free throw line going 1-10 while Stamford was nearl perfect hitting 10 of 12 shots and winning the game 68-63.

ACU vs Angelo State...

When I got assigned the basketball game between ACU and Angelo State it was just a regular assignment for sports. Then late the night before as I was getting ready to leave to go home I ended up having to go out to shoot a fatal accident which involved 5 ACU students, one who had died. So, my basketball game included a moment of silence and kind of a surreal atmosphere to shoot. The games, however, were pretty good. The ACU women under their new coach have really come alive and are looking to win the regular season title in their final year of Division II before moving up to the Southland Conference next year.

Officer Kissy Face...

I love it when a potentially dull assignment turns out better than it's supposed to. My assignment was to shoot a graduation ceremony for a pair of new Abilene Police officers that were already certified peace officers with another police department. Basically these guys go through a shortened police academy teaching them about Abilene city codes, local geography and specific policies of the Abilene Police Department. Honestly, the whole thing sounded kind of boring and like nearly every other and it was kind of turning out like that. The cool thing about this was both officers' had kids and they were the ones who pinned their dads' badges on them. Both made for really nice moments, but when the one officer bent down and reached out to give his young daughter a kiss I knew I had the nice moment I was waiting for.

Crosstown Hoops...

The local crosstown basketball games between Abilene High and Cooper pales in comparison to the crosstown football game. In the football games there is usually a district championship on the line, in this game it's lucky if there is even a playoff placement on the line. However, that doesn't mean there are no decent photos to be made. At least the rivalry between schools is still there so there's that. Even though this town isn't exactly known as a basketball Mecca, there is still a rivalry between the north and south side high schools and it doesn't matter what the sport is.

Best of the Best...

When the time came this year to decide who was going to be on our All-Big Country Super Team, I knew this was going to be tough. Our area was just loaded with talent this year, especially on offense. In the past we've had some really good players, but there was always a couple that just rise to the top and had stand out years making the choices pretty simple. This year, however, there was no way around leaving out some really good players just based on how many great players we had. It made for a really fun year to cover. Having four teams win state titles, however, at this point, it became really hard. In the end the votes were tallied and the group we had were some really great players, then I had to get them into the studio for portraits. That was the fun part. I decided to go with colored backgrounds in the teams' corresponding colors.

Soccer Season...

So, I've neglected my blog long enough, it's time to get back into the swing of things and start attempting to find some decent photos again, and try and get back on pace. Here I am nearly a month behind again. I shot the championship match of the West Texas Invitational Soccer Tournament. Cooper was playing Granbury. It is kind of crazy the difference a year makes. Last year Cooper was horrible and only won a handful of games all year. This year they open the season winning all four games in the local tournament and didn't look too bad in the process. They ended up taking Granbury to a penalty kick shootout.Well, at least it made for a few nice photos.