Practice makes perfect....

Now, I've never claimed to be perfect by any means. I'm pretty damn imperfect, actually. But the Albany High School girls volleyball team is perfect. They are 40-0 on the season so far this year! What's even more amazing is in 40 matches they have only lost a total of FIVE games!! That's pretty damn amazing if you ask me.
So, on Wednesday I went up to shoot the team's practice before this weekend's Class A regional tournament. One of the things I enjoy most about shooting practices is being able to show something different than you would normally see in a game. For some reason officials and coaches don't like you going on the the court and sticking your camera over the net during a game... go figure. But during practice, they don't say a word. Well, the coach did say "Watch out she's going to be hitting it your way" a few times (which was greatly appreciated). But otherwise I was left alone to make pictures.

Local Kids Playing Big Time Football...

Last weekend I went to Lubbock to shoot the Texas Tech football game against Oklahoma State. The main reason I was going was for a story about some Abilene kids who are playing for Tech. But, only one of them gets any significant playing time. Most of them are backups. So, I was there to shoot the game as well, since after all Tech is the number two team in the country.

There are four players from Abilene, wide receiver Lyle Leong, #19, is the only one who gets any regular playing time. Backup quarterback Taylor Potts, wide receiver Landon Hoefer and defensive tackle Britton Barbee are the others that played for the local schools.

However, even though he never played here, quarterback Graham Harrell also has deep roots in Abilene. Both of his parents went to Abilene Christian University and his younger brother just transferred from the University of Tulsa to ACU to play football. So, I was also shooting him.

Since most of these guys don't see regular playing time I was able to get shots of all of the players during warmups to cover myself. The only way I would see many of these guys was if there was a blowout and the backups came in. With Okie State being ranked so high I didn't think this was going to happen, heck I wasn't even sure Tech would win.

Since the game was late, I had to really push myself to get something worth sending at the end of the first half. Well, it sounded good at least, the problem is the I was on the wrong side of the field for the Tech's two big touchdowns... it happens, but I also knew if I kept trying to be on the right side I may never be there, so I figured I'd just stick it out. Normally, when I'm shooting football I tend to camp out in the end zones as much as possible. However, in looking through my stuff, I saw some decent images but nothing real tight that I liked, so I knew I had a nice touchdown catch by Tech receiver Micheal Crabtree, so I figured I could challenge myself to get some tight stuff.

My feeling about shooting higher levels of football after shooting years of high school is it is easier. Both have their pros and cons, the college and pro games are a lot faster but offer more "big" moments, since high school games don't, my feeling is I need to make sure to get EVERY moment. I think that prepares me better, I hold myself to a lot higher standard, I expect to get THE shot from every game, no matter what level I'm shooting. The big difference is usually THE shot in a high school game is the only shot. In college and the pros, if you miss one, you can usually get another. I expect myself to get both of them.

The great thing about digital cameras are I can do some quick editing to find what I'm missing. I knew both that I had a few good shots, but also told me I needed some of the tight stuff, including some more shots of Harrell doing something other than just throwing the ball. Especially this year, Harrell was doing a lot more than just throwing the ball. He was getting under center and diving for first downs instead of just dropping back and passing, like he had been doing the last couple years. Five or ten years ago, you only needed a couple shots for the next day's paper. Now, there is a slideshow with nearly every sporting event I shoot, so now instead of needing one or two great shots I need 20-30. Ahhhh, isn't the internet a wonderful thing?

The Plight of the Homeless...

This is from a story we were doing on the homeless in Abilene. The original story was about the homeless population in town spiking during the winter, but no one could back that up, so it turned into a story about the safety of the homeless. This photo was from an annual tent revival that is held for the less fortunate, a lot of the attendees are homeless. The guy in the photo is, his friend that he is holding is not. Paul was a pretty nice guy and really open about his situation calling it a "dip in his life."

Small town, big expectations...

This year's football season has been completly different from the past. With Abilene High and Cooper now playing in different classifications they couldn't set up their schedules like in the past, so there was a couple of times both teams were out of town, which meant I got to out out of town and shoot games in some of the smaller towns. It's kind of nice to get away from the norm, it allows me to look at things in a different way.

The smaller class games have both their advantages and disadvantages. One of the best parts is with so many area teams, if the writer picks right, it's usually a pretty good game, unlike some of the games I've shot this year, with the starters being pulled after halftime. The bad things of course are awful light (not as big of a problem now with my D3), and finding places to transmit from. Despite these issues it's still nice to get away every now and then. And, with the playoffs coming up, I'll get to do plenty of that over the next few weeks.

This game was between Bangs and Brady for the district 8-2A title. Brady was the clear favorite undefeated coming in to the game, but Bangs was a scrappy defensive team. Both were unbeaten in district. It turned out to be a really good game. The Bangs defense was all it was cracked up to be. No real standout players just a good team and good team speed.

There wasn't a whole lot of offense, something I've grown accustomed to this season. But there were a few big plays on both sides of the ball. And, somehow, I happened to be in the right place for a lot of them. That, coupled with a really cool fog coming in over the field during a timeout in the second quarter made for some really nice photos. It also didn't hurt that Bangs which, had been a traditional power hadn't made the playoffs in a few years and it had been 6 or 7 since they won a district title. The whole team and crowd was going nuts toward the end of the game. That's usually a pretty good indicator that I'm going to get some nice jube shots.

So, the last couple minutes of the game, the long lens came off and the wide angle came out. That's another thing I like a lot about high school games. You can pretty much just go hang out in the bench area shooting features without being thrown out. And towards the end of the game the players were so excited about the win they totally ignored me allowing to make nice photos without worrying about them trying to mug for the camera.

Something else I noticed about Bangs was their coaches were a lot different from the typical coaching staffs I see on Friday nights. The Bangs coaching staff was really animated! Now, plenty of coaches get pissed off at a bad call and will rips the referees, and jump around plenty when things are going bad. But these guys, they were jumping around high fiving kids after big plays and genuinely having a good time. They almost look like kids out there themselves. It was really cool to see. There are way too many people out there who let the stress of their jobs get to them and they miss out on having fun. It happens to me every once in a while, but when I'm out shooting games like this I realize how lucky I am to have such a cool job.

The old school DJ...

Marshall Flippo isn't a whole lot different from the DJ that spins music in clubs today. He was pretty much a forerunner to it. He spins his own records, now the music he uses is completely different, but he gets the crowd going and excited.

The reason Flippo was in town was for the 50th anniversary of the local square dance hall, one which he helped to build. Flippo was a really interesting guy to talk to, he learned to call square dancing in a chicken coup with all of his friends so they would have something to do on the weekends. They learned a few calls each so they could take turns dancing while one of the others called. After a while they outgrew their chicken coup and they ended up all building the Wagon wheel square dance hall.

After looking at the architecture of the hall there are a lot of interesting things you notice. Most of the beams for the roof are made from telephone posts because Flippo's wife at the time worked for the phone company and donated the poles to help in the construction. Also, the wagon wheel name comes from all the light fixtures being mad of old wagon wheels. Flippo told me that he and his wife spent what seemed to be endless weekends going to garage and yard sales looking for old wagon wheels to be used.

This was another one of those assignments I was too sure about going in. It was for a Sunday Life story which is always a 3-5 photo package and takes up the whole page front. Now, the only time I had ever square danced was in the 6th grade when it was forced upon is for a few weeks at a time in the winter, and I had no interest in it. So I thought it was going to be some corny guy up there sounding like those crappy records we had to suffer through. Well, it turns out Flippo is considered one of the best callers in the world, people were there from all over the state. People came from as far away as Amarillo and San Antonio just to dance with him calling. And when he got up the floor filled up so quick, it was a wonder how anyone had room to dance. It was pretty cool listening to him call, he sounded more like a rapper freestyling a country song with dance moves... pretty surreal.

You better be ready, history can happen at any moment...

So, Friday's game was a little different than the night before, I was able to get to the game early and not show up for the second quarter, which was good or I may have missed something big. When I'm covering a game between a local team and an out of area team, my thoughts are always on being ready for the key play for the team I cover, who's fans are the ones who pay my check. Now, this doesn't always mean I'm looking to show them in a good light... if they lose it's my job to tell that story. However, if they win... which Abilene High has been doing all season, I need to show that too. So, when AHS got back up near their goal line early in the game I could either set up down the field or be ready for a safety. My thought was a safety this early in the game probably won't mean much, but a big run or pass can. So I was about 60 yards off the ball. Good thing I was. The next play was a 98-yard pass down the sideline. I found out at halftime this was the longest play ever in school history. The previous night I was waiting for something that never happened, tonight it did. Like I said before, ya win some, ya lose some... It's better to win.

Showing up late, early deadline, sweating it out till the end...

I'm an extremely superstitious person, I think it is the old baseball player in me. Anyone who knows me, knows I've never been on time for anything in my life. However, when I shoot football it's different, I'm early, like at least an hour early. I guess it's my way of appeasing the photo gods or something. Plus it's nice, considering the frenzy behind high school football in Texas it allows me to relax and clear my head, look for features before the game etc. On Thursday though, I had an assignment that needed to be shot before the game and it was running late. The worst part is it was kind of a stretch and difficult, one of those you need to make something out of nothing assignments.

Well, by the time I got something usable and sent my photos while I was driving to the game (driving and editing photos is not recommended), it was the end of the first quarter. Time was flying by and neither team was doing much, mostly running the ball for short gains. The second quarter was nothing more than a few mediocre shots. The only good thing about this is halftime came quick, and the game was on pace to be over by 10pm. Which was good considering Thursday deadlines were earlier than normal football deadlines on Fridays.

By the middle of the third quarter I had a few decent defensive shots. The end of the game was setting up to be pretty good. Cooper got the ball with a couple minutes left and was looking to make a long drive down the field. Now, my job as a journalist is not to care who wins. I'm pretty stoic on the sidelines, I think it's extremely unprofessional to cheer during a game I'm covering. But on the inside I always have an opinion of who I want to win. Which is always dependent on what is in my camera. If I have a great shot that would tell the story of a win or a loss that's usually the way I'm leaning for the outcome of the game. In this case it hadn't happened yet, but I knew there would be a great celebration should Cooper make it to the endzone. I positioned myself down the sideline, in preparation for a winning touchdown. The problem was on the second play there was a fumble. This pretty much ended the game Cooper had no timeouts, all the other team had to do was sit on the ball. Oh well, ya win some ya lose some. I'm still pretty sure it was the photo gods pissed off at me for showing up late.