Feature Cruisin...

For some reason when school starts back up we go through a lull of stories, which means the last two weeks have resulted in a lot of feature cruising. Friday was one of those days. I've always felt the best and sometimes easiest features to find are those with some sort of a news peg. Before going out I try and check our calender pages and any other places that may have a list of events going on. They don't always prove very fruitful but every once in a while you find something. After that it's just getting in the car and driving around looking for something interesting. Friday I had spent about 30 minutes looking before heading by the Taylor County Expo Center, I had remember seeing some of the truck from the carnival in a few days before but nothing was going on. It was worth a shot to check again. As I drove by there were a few of the rides being put together. After that it was just a matter of making an interesting photo.

If you do it too good the first time, you have to do it again...

Sept. 1 is the opening of dove season. I don't know this because I'm a hunter, but because we do a story on it every year. As I've said in the past, I'm not a hunter. I don't have a problem with it and and if that's what you're interested in I say go for it. I'd just rather do my hunting at the grocery store since I know I'm going to catch what I want and don't have to clean or gut anything.

So, last year I was asked for a portrait for the start of dove season that looked like a "magazine cover shot." And, despite all the mosquitoes that were out there the photos turned out really well. This year I'm thinking it may have turned out a little too well, since I was asked for the same thing again this year. The basic photo was the same, hunter, gun and dog. This time though, I was a little more prepared. I knew what I was looking for and was able to set it up a little earlier, so it wouldn't be pitch black when we got done.

I still think I like last year's shot better, it just worked out a lot better plus the lighting etc was nicer. I just like the image better as a whole. But, I still like what I did this year too and got a lot of compliments on the photo. So, I guess I need to start thinking about how I'm going to shoot next year's dove season photo.

Football Day 3, Games 3&4

There is nothing better than a daytime football game. And, even better than that is a doubleheader. The final two games of the weekend were a day/night doubleheader of football games. Abilene high was playing an 11am game, then two area teams were playing the nightcap at 7:30pm.

The first game, like the night before was pretty much awful as expected. In fact, it was pretty much over right after the opening kickoff, which Abilene returned for a touchdown and the other team never came any closer than that. It did make finding the photo that defined the game a little easier though, since we ended up using that as the main photo of the game.

The one good thing about the game was there was a wide receiver on the other team that was rated by most recruiting services as the number two or three best wide receiver recruit in the country. The problem was the kid didn't have a decent quarterback to throw him the ball.

Despite it being a not so great game matchup-wise, there were still plenty of decent photos to be made, unlike the ACU game a couple nights before when both teams were playing sloppy and couldn't throw a pass. It didn't hurt that I spent most of the game out of position. There were a few nice plays and I wasn't out of position nearly as much as a few nights before. Having daylight and no deadline pushing back at me didn't hurt either.

The second game of the night was actually a decent game and would have been worth the price of admission. Jim Ned played Merkel, both 2A schools are only about 20 minutes away away and brought decent sized crowds.

This game looked like it was going to start out a lot like the Abilene game. Merkel took the opening kickoff back inside the Jim Ned 20 yard line and then scored a couple plays later. However, Jim Ned never rolled over and played dead like the team in the earlier game.

The game was actually really evenly matched and despite some first game sloppiness from fumbles and such it was a really fun game to watch. The problem there was, since it was Saturday, I had an earlier deadline and had to leave at halftime. Which at first I wasn't too disappointed about since it had been a long game. But, since I hadn't seen a decent football game all weekend it would have been nice to be able to stick around a little bit longer. Oh well, I'm sure I'll see plenty good games, there is still 14-16 weeks left!

Football: Day 2, Game 2

Friday night was the first high school game of the year for me to shoot. And, while there was big buzz about the ACU game the night before mostly because it was on national TV, make no mistake, this is West Texas and high school football is still the king. Cooper was playing O.D. Wyatt, a game that on paper looked like it was going to be a blowout. It was.

The score was 49-0 at halftime and all the starters were standing on the sidelines after the first drive of the third quarter. I really hate shooting games that are so one-sided like this. Since one team is so outmatched it really doesn't take a lot to beat them down and the coach of the winning team doesn't want to run up the score to bad and make it look like poor sportsmanship, so you get maybe half a game of good action then it's pretty much just dive plays up the middle.

So, by the fourth quarter I was pretty much just wandering the sidelines next to the team shooting stock/feature shots of coaches, players, fans and cheerleaders for the online slideshows and future stories. The best line of the night came from Ryan Heslep, the starting quarterback who told me, "This sucks, I'm bored. I only got to play the first half and the first drive of the third quarter. I should have thrown a few interceptions just so we could stay out a little longer." It gave me a good laugh and pretty much put the whole game into perspective.

Weathering the First Football Game of the Year...

Thursday night was finally the first football game of the year. After spending the last three weeks shooting everything that had to do with football, except the actual game, it was finally time to take the field and shoot an actual game. I was pretty excited since Shotwell Stadium, had just gotten new lights after the old ones, which were 50 years old, were removed after one of them blew over in high winds during the Spring. It's something that needed to be done years ago, the light was awful!

So as I'm driving to the game the clouds in the sky to the north were looking pretty dark. This happens a lot and the storm will go around the city or just blow over. But, as I was heading to the stadium the winds were really beginning to pick up. In the about 200 yards it was from my car to the gate the storm came in with a helluva fury. Then I noticed a group of students hanging on this tent with everything they had. It was both hilarious and scary at the same time. So here I am in a driving rain and pea-sized hail storm taking photos of a hundred or so idiots trying to keep this tent from flying away. Then I got to thinking who had less sense, them for all hanging on this giant lightning rod or me for putting my life and gear on the line to make a photo?!?

Well after I realized that the tent wasn't going to blow away and I was already soaked to the bone, I figured I needed to find some type of shelter from the rain, mainly to keep my gear from getting totally waterlogged and destroyed. This is the part where getting to know the people working at the stadium comes in. The gates were closed and no one was being allowed in, however, the ticket-taker who works the gate every week who knows me opened up just to let me in, while at the same time telling a group of about 10-15 people no one was being allowed in during the storm! My plan was originally to ride out the storm in the press box, but all the people who were in the stands were now under them and hiding in the walkways and anywhere else they could stay anywhere near semi-dry.

So, getting to the press box wasn't going to happen. But, again I saw one of the guys I knew who worked the stadium and motioned me into a room below the stands. Where, it turns out, the hospitality tent was moved. Not too bad, if I'm going to be stuck in a lightning delay, I might as well be stuck in a room with some good BBQ and cookies to munch on! As I was there I was also able to make a phone call back to the office and let them know I'd be sending weather photos back.

After the storm I went up to the press box to look for a spot to set up. It was a damn mad house in there, the press box leaks like crazy even with the lightest rains, so there were places where it was literally raining inside there. I decided to say screw it and just sit on a wall next to the ramp to the field and transmit. It turned out to be a great idea, as I was downloading one of my cards a rainbow formed right before the teams came back out to warm up. I grabbed a camera and ran down and banged off a few frames of the players stretching while framed by the rainbow. It made for a nice contrast of the rain photo from earlier.

Well, after all the weather and excitement before the game and the fact that the nationally televised game had been delayed for an hour, the actual game kind of sucked! The ACU defense looked really tough, but the offense was horrible, both of them were. I was able to make a few decent frames and the new lights were really nice! But, I was much happier with the stuff I got before the game than I was the stuff I got during the game!

Moon Over Abilene...

As I was coming back from shooting a volleyball game out of town last Tuesday I noticed the moon was real big in the sky and this bright red color. I was just outside of Abilene and about to get off at my exit and figured it could make a really nice picture. As I was driving down the access road I saw one of the buildings at Abilene Christian University between some trees. I pulled off real quick. The building was probably a half mile or more away. Luckily I had my 400mm lens in the trunk. I pulled it out and put the teleconverter on. By this time the moon was dropping down pretty quickly. I was able to bang off about 15-20 frames before it dropped below the horizon. I was pretty happy with the shot, but would have liked to go back the next night to try to reshoot it. Sadly the sky was cloudy the next night and the moon was hidden.

PeeWee football...

Every year as a tie in to our football preview section we have some type of football story on the front page as a tie. This year it was a about youth football. A second youth league had formed after some financial scandals with the second one. So, the start of football season seemed the perfect time to do this story.

The peewee kids are actually kind of fun shoot shoot. Most of them are playing football either for the first or second year so they are still learning. But it is fun to watch them play because no matter how talented they are they always give every ounce of effort they have. Plus they look just plain out of place wearing those pads which are usually nearly as big as they are and they seem to get swallowed up by them.

The day I went out to shoot the story it was hot, as usual, but a storm was rolling in, so the clouds in the sky made things look pretty ominous. This actually turned out really well. The top photo is the one that ran big on the front page. I liked it because you could see how young these kids were but shooting low and wide still gave them that larger than life look and the clouds just added to it. As for the others I tried to just vary things up enough so you could see what was going on.

I had to shoot a team from both of the leagues. The problem with this was both teams were practicing on Wednesday from 6-8pm. And the practices were on opposite ends of town. So, the plan was to shoot one for about an hour and rush to the other park and shoot the other. The first one went well, but they weren't running any plays until the end of practice. So I had to shoot them running drills and warm-ups. The second team was running plays, but when I got there I only had about 30 minutes left. Luckily the practice ran a little over and I was able to get everything I needed.