Happy to Live Each Day...

This was a really sad story , but cool at the same time. Hawley High School head football coach Brad Schoonmaker has stage 4 Melanoma and a has less than a 10 percent chance of surviving through 5 years. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I went out to shoot practice the team had only won 2 games and was headed into their last game of the season with no chance of making the playoffs. But, when I got there everyone's spirits were high and Schoonmaker was as nice as can be. I'd met him earlier in the year when I was shooting mug shots. He was a genuinely nice guy, but pretty business-like. When I went out there to shoot practice he was a lot more loose, and pretty easy-going. So much so, to go and throw out a few jokes about photoshopping him to look younger. I gotta say, he's the kind of guy you really want to pull for to beat the odds. Staff writer Evan Ren wrote a great story you can read here.

I'm With The Band...

In my 11 years at the Reporter-News the one event I've never shot is the UIL State Marching Band contest. It's always on a Monday, which is my day off. Well, with some crazy staffing issues we've had of late, I ended up getting sent to San Antonio for the event. The state marching band competition is kind of an interesting event because the classifications only go to state every other year. Meaning, in four years of high school a student can only go to state a maximum of twice. One of our local school, Wylie was making it's second straight trip to state

Something else that was different about going to state band as opposed to the sports assignments I'm usually going for is, I was writing the story too. It's really not a big deal, I figured this would be easy enough, just write a color story on what it's like to be there. And after talking to both the band director and one of the students who had gone on Wylie's last trip I knew I had a great story. From talking to them they all told me that last time as the band was walking off the field they knew they had done awful. The echo of the Alamodome had thrown off their steps and beat. This time, however, when they were leaving they felt great about their performance. So, I'm thinking "cool, this story is about the redemption."

So, I go sit up in the press box of the Alamodome and start cranking out my story while I was downloading my photos and waiting for the results of the competition. Well, when the finalists were announced Wylie hadn't made the top 10. That's ok I'm thinking, I can still work this, I mean last time they finished second to last, and this time they were happier with their results. At this point, all I needed to do was plug in a quote from the band director and add what place they were in and I was relaxing and watching football and the World Series from my hotel room the rest of the night! Yeah, if only it could have been that easy!

So, I call the band director, and say, "Hey, sorry you guys didn't make it to the finals, but I just wanted to find out where you finished." Me, thinking that they probably just missed the finals, he tells me they finished 23rd... out of 23 bands. So, after my jaw dropped and I screamed inside of my head, and realized I just wasted almost two hours writing a story that will never make anywhere outside of my computer, the band director went on to give me a couple of nice quotes about how it stings to finish last and that's not something you ever hope for but hey at least we made it to state. Well, that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for but, hey, it's too late now and I have another story to write. Well, about two hours later I had story #2 done and sent. It was tough, not the story, but trying to tow the fine line between calling them losers and sounding like an apologist. Well, I think I did ok with the story, given what I had to work with. And given my normally procrastinating nature, I've learned my lesson from ever trying to get ahead of things again!

Crosstown College Showdown...

After having gone to a college who's football team draws 90,000+ fans a game I still find it ironic that the Friday high school games draw the biggest crowds in town by a long shot. But the fans that go to the games are still loud and passionate about their teams, so it's still fun to watch. This game while it is called a rivalry has been pretty lopsided for the last few years. In fact, McMurry is in the midst of a 22-game losing streak to Hardin-Simmons. But, things have been changing, with a new coaching staff and a high-octane offense McMurry is trying to challenge the old guard of HSU and be king of the city. The problem was no one told Hardin-Simmons. McMurry put up a decent fight, but still extended its losing streak to 23 games, maybe next year.

Crosstown Showdown...

For the last few years the annual Abilene High vs Cooper football game has been losing its luster. AHS had won the last 6 over Cooper going into the game. And for the last two years the game has meant nothing except bragging right with AHS being in 5A and Cooper being in 4A. However, this year with both teams back in the same district and having undefeated district records, that meant the winner of this game would at worst claim a share of the district title.

AHS has been sort of a weird team to watch this year, almost leaving you wondering which team was going to show up. Cooper has shown they have a great offense and a defense that has "issues." The first half showed just kind of that. Cooper's defense made a few stops but Abilene High led the game 28-24 at the half.

The second half was a completely different story. Cooper was pretty stingy with the ball, and didn't want to give it back. And the times AHS did get the ball they either couldn't hold on to it or they couldn't do anything with it. Cooper, on the other hand, scored on each of it's possessions, except the last one, which it just killed the clock. It made it kind of nice, the emotions of getting the monkey off their back after six years of losing made for some really nice images.

Chilis for the Tatas...

The annual Bunco for Breast Cancer event is one of those annual events that just screams for great photos. Now if you've ever played bunco (I haven't but my wife has told me stories) you will know it's really competitive. Women just seem to transform when they play bunco. Luckily, everyone at this event is there more to support breast cancer awareness and help the cause. It's really cool who most of these ladies just go over the top for the event. Often when I cover this event I spend about the first 10-15 minutes walking around the event observing what's going on and what tables look the most outrageous outfits combined with the craziest. On this night I found some women wearing chili peppers on their heads, women with fringe-lined sombreros and women with mustaches. All were having a great time and going nuts when they threw a bunco... it sure made my life easier.

Hanging Out With Strippers...

Every year we cover the cotton harvest, it's one of the bigger crops in this part of West Texas. It's kind of a fun thing to shoot, I like working with farmer they always seem to appreciate getting the coverage and are happy to have us out there. And while once the cotton harvest starts you can drive almost anywhere north or west of Abilene and you're likely to run into cotton strippers, it's a little easier to get some help. So, I've found the best people to call for help are the people that get the cotton, the cotton gins. It's always nice to have a source you've spoken with and it seems every time I've needed help with shooting cotton, calling the gin manager, Rex Ford, at the Stamford Co-Op gin has been able to help. Once again, Rex came through and sent me to a field to find someone stripping cotton.

I spent a couple hours out there. The field was a couple hundred acres and I had no idea how far out they were going out. It took quite a while for the strippers to get back to me. So, while I was waiting I learned all about the terminology of cotton and got photos of them building the cotton modules and covering them. By this time the strippers were back. I got them coming back and then shot the wide shot. After that one of the strippers went to the end of the field and finally returned a few minutes later. When I saw the front it was loaded up with four people in it. The driver passed by me then stopped and got out. He introduced himself, he was the owner of the field. Then he told me his son loves to ride in the stripper "He could do this all day." It turned out to be a pretty nice shot, and add a nice contrast to what I normally get from this assignment.

Tennis in Nice Light...

I had to shoot the Crosstown tennis matchup. One thing I alway like about tennis is the black screen they put on the fences, it does a nice job of helping the player pop out. Now, when they are playing in the late evening as the sun is going down in the fall that only makes things even better! I got a few other shots before the sun got nice and the shot were ok, but as the sun started going down and the light gave a nice rim light on the players and the colors were warmer was when I was able to work things better.