State Track, Day 1...

I always look forward to shooting the state track meet every Spring. Even though there have been some year the officials seem to have a bigger bug up their ass than others in trying to flex their muscles and show who's boss, the meet is still one of the best run track meets in the country. Not to mention Texas has some of the best track and field talent in the country competing in this meet.

The biggest thing I try to show while shooting this meet, or any track meet is there is more to it than just kids running, throwing and jumping. And having a photo page to display my work as well as an online slideshow is not only a great way to show it, but also shows a need for more than just the standard action photos. Of course, there are plenty of those to show too, but my favorite photos are always the emotional shots, especially those who weren't expected to win their respective races or events.

One thing I have been trying to do for years is the hurdles shot of the runner in the blocks while framed by all the hurdles from the finish line. There are still a few things I don't like about it, but at the same time I liked it enough to publish... I'll try again in a couple years and hopefully shoot it better.

District Track...

Thursday was the District 5-3A track meet at Wylie. The great part about shooting this meet for me is there are no losers. Given that all of our Class 3A schools are in this district no matter who wins, it's either a local or an area kid that is winning the meet. It was good to have this meet back in Abilene again, since it's always fun to cover and the past few years while it's been in the other area towns we haven't covered it, so I was happy to see it back in Abilene.

Last year, for the first time in 16 years the Wylie boys didn't win a district title in track. This year the boys came back and with a vengeance. And speeding ahead of the pack, literally was Wylie sprinter Devan Brown. With the strong winds on Thursday and Brown's smokin fast speed already it was pretty obvious that the 100m dash was going to be a very fast event. Brown didn't disappoint. He literally blew past the field even without a great start he blazed down the track to win the race with a time of 10.29, easily beating a pretty fast field.

For the last 21 years the Wylie girls have brought home a district track title. To put that into perspective, the last time the Wylie girls team didn't win a district championship was at least three years before any of the participants in the meet were even born. Last year the girls were able to squeeze out a win over an incredibly fast Big Spring team. This year though, it wasn't in the cards and Big Spring finally dethroned Wylie, but not without a fight.

There are goods and bads about shooting district track. The access is about as good as it can be. Outside of standing on the track during the race I can pretty much have the run of things and the coaches are happy to have you there, so they're all very helpful. It allowed me to set up a remote almost right next to the track (I id make sure that it was far enough away that if someone fell they weren't landing on my remote, for both the safety of the runner and my camera). Now, the bad parts... usually going into the meets you know who is going to win. There isn't the vast pool of talent you'll find at regionals and there's nothing close to what you'll find at state, so the emotion of winning just isn't really there since you won't see a lot of upsets and the winners are kind of expecting to win. But, it's really just the start of the track season for me and, overall, I was happy with the action I got. Hopefully it'll get better from here and I know the emotion will come over the next few weeks at regionals and state.

First Track Meet of the Year...

It's been almost a year since I've shot track and I've been looking forward to it. I never really get to shoot enough track. Unlike football we only get a few local meets in town anymore, and unlike football where I shoot a couple of games a week for almost four straight months I usually only get to shoot three or four track meets a year. So, I was excited to shoot the Big Country Relays. There was only one problem. When I got there the only events going on were the JV events, except for the pole vault. Well, it was easy enough to decide which event I was going to shoot. By the time most of the varsity events were supposed to start I had to head out, I had other assignments to do and wasn't going to make it back. Oh well, at least I got a shot that I liked and left me wanting for more... hopefully soon.