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.

The Beginning of the Good Ole 8am/7pm Split...

I'm doing this a little backwards, the Bronte game was actually the second game and this was the first, forgive me for posting slightly out of order... So, after their thrilling last-second win, Eula was playing for a state championship on Saturday. Early, very early in the morning. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am so NOT an early riser, so shooting a game that starts at 8:30am is not my idea of fun. And, to add to that, with the start of the South by Southwest Music Festival starting, there were no rooms (well, none affordable, there was a room at the Hilton downtown for $350/ night, would love to hear about that when I turned in my expense report!), so we had to stay 30 minutes south in San Marcos. It didn't help that after getting dinner and finishing the slideshow from the Bronte game the night before I didn't get to bed until about 2:30am. So, after a nice four hour nap it was off to the game.

The team they were playing looked really good and had a really great game against their semi-final opponent. So, I didn't have really high hopes for Eula taking state. However, one of the colleagues reminded me of the Tenaha team (maybe not the same players) they were playing had lost to Roscoe two years earlier. That Tenaha team had gotten most of its points from turnovers and in transition, not from set plays and really tight defense, which is what gave Eula so much trouble in the game against Evadale two days earlier.

Well, that's exactly what happened. Eula did a good job of taking care of the ball, shot a lot better, looking like a lot of the early game jitters weren't there like what might have been a couple day earlier. Then, of course, Kainon Irons, their big man who played such a huge role all year had yet another great game. Along with the other starters shooting well, and hitting some big threes every time Tenaha tried to start making a run. It was fun to watch, I've always said my official position as a journalist is I won't openly pull for and will NEVER cheer on the sideline/baseline during a game as it's not professional, however, it's always easier to cover the winning team than the losing team.

Last Second Thriller...

After the girls championship week I was back in Austin for some early-morning basketball with Eula playing in the state semifinals against Evadale. At first, it was looking like Eula was going to pull away with things rather easily. The Pirates big play post, Kainon Irons, was taking the game over and no one could stop him through the first quarter. Then Evadale's big men started to contain him and things started getting tougher. But halftime Eula was down and it wasn't looking like there were going to be able to hang. The third quarter was much of the same and it was looking bad for Eula. The only thing going right was Irons getting his points, but he was getting smothered by defenders.

Then things started to click for Eula and they were able to start getting some turnovers. Irons had kept them close enough to make it a game and the guards were starting to make plays. Along with Evadale's two big men getting in foul trouble, which opened Irons up a little more. Eula took a lead late in the game, only to have Evadale tie it up with less than three seconds left. Eula calls timeout to set up a play. They got the ball down the court quick and into the hands of their best outside shoot, Jacob Archa, who got an open look and nailed the three as the clock expired. It was a pretty great play especially since Archa had only one field goal for the day and was 1-7 on threes before that. It was a great clutch shot, however, and made for some great photos. I was able to get both the sports front photo and a local front photo to go with fan story we were running. Games like this are what make this time of year so much fun.

Yet another brush fire...

We had a few more brush fires last week. The only one I shot was on Tuesday. Area-wise this fire was pretty small, only about 200 acres. However, there were quite a few homes in the path of the fire, and a couple were destroyed. I shot this photo as I was walking down a road following a local volunteer fire department fighting the fires. I liked it because of the surreal look it had from the smoke rising up between the burned trees. It was also one of the last shots I took before everyone had to leave because the forest service was going to make an air drop on that location.