Regional Volleyball Match 2...

Wylie High School has only fielded a volleyball team for three years. Most of the girls on the team were part of the original team and have all been playing together all of that time. To call this team special might be an understatement. So, them having aspirations to win state may not be expected, but that's just what any of these girls would tell you their goal is for the year. But, in order to win state, they had to get there, and beating Monahans, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year in the regional finals, was what they had to do first.

Wylie jumped out to a quick lead in the first game and never really looked back. They completely dominated the match. One of the things I like about shooting volleyball, especially this deep in the playoffs is the teams both play at a high level and you don't have to suffer through sloppy play. There is also a high level of emotions in the match, not unlike any other match. Only in volleyball do the players celebrate even after losing a point. And, when they win the points they go completely nuts! So, when they win the match and clinch their first trip to the state tournament... well, lets just say it was almost too easy.

Regional Volleyball Match 1...

Going to Lubbock on the first Saturday of the football playoffs is not that out of the ordinary, however, going to shoot volleyball that weekend was. Bronte was playing in the Region I-1A volleyball finals against Wink, the team they had beaten the previous season to make a trip to state. This year's contest turned out a little different, however. Wink came out with revenge on their mind and took advantage of it. Bronte, did play well in game three, but they were just over matched. They ended up losing the match 3-1.

Portrait Time...

This was kind of a late assignment that came up as a last minute replacement for a Sunday story that fell through. The assignment was to shoot Roz Thomas, who after hearing about her life and talking to her, is an incredibly fascinating person. She was active in the civil rights movement, which got a hit put on her by the KKK, as well as was a taxi cab driver, the press secretary for the mayor in Atlanta in the 80's, did Central American mission work and is now a preacher in Texas. Just kinda crazy. So, my job was to a portrait of her. When I'm going to shoot a portrait like this I normally spend a few minutes talking to the person for a couple of reasons. The first being to make them comfortable, if you jump right into it, guns blazing they're not going to be comfortable and your pictures will suck. The other one is just to explore their world, and find a good place to shoot.
So, as we were talking she told me that despite all the different careers she'd already had she still inspired to write the "Great American Novel" and had always wanted her photo taken in her library with all over her books like you see on a book jacket. So I said, "Sure! Let's do it!" I figured this was as good a place as any other and her library was a really cool looking, albeit tiny, room. So, I go and grab my lights, nothing crazy, a two-light set, both on grids 20 degree on her and a 40 degree behind her to light up the room. After taking a few test shot I wanted a little more to the photo and turned down my shutter to add in some ambient. To balance out the light from the other room I ended up shooting a .6 second exposure. I really like the effect that the camera shake gave me, the other room shows up but doesn't distract, plus the books on the other side have a little blur to them too, pushing your eye in on her.

Playoff Opener...

The opening of the playoffs usually start out with a couple of games on Thursday night, then going into full effect on Friday and almost as many games on Saturday. This year was kind of weird in that there was a full slate of games on Thursday and Friday and then only a few fairly insignificant games on Saturday. So, it started out big with Wylie playing Burkburnett. Wylie hadn't had the best season, partly because they had played a hellava tough schedule. So, with the playoffs starting everyone had the same record again, and you lose you're out. Well, they came out acting like they were a lot better than their record showed and took down Burkburnett pretty easily winning 40-23.

Veteran's Day...

Abilene is an incredibly patriotic town. Therefore, Veteran's Day is a big deal. Now here's the problem... Nobody has Veteran's Day activities the day BEFORE Veteran's Day, but in order to get it in that day's newspaper that's pretty much what has to happen. Luckily, the local veteran's cemetery puts flags in front of all the grave sites the night before. So, when I called out there to check they were happy to have us out to shoot the volunteers putting flags at the grave sites. So, when I showed up the volunteers started coming and coming and coming. That would normally be great, but this cemetery just opened last year and there are only 281 grave sites. And with 70+ volunteers putting the flags out, it goes by REALLY quick. I literally had about three minutes to shoot and it was over! Overall I was happy with what I got, but wish I had more time to work the situation. It was nice that some of the airmen who put out the flags stuck around to pay their respects and read the grave stones.

Volleyball...

I'm not a huge volleyball fan, all my pictures seem to look the same throughout the season. I think it has a lot to do with being stuck shooting from the same position quite a bit. It also, doesn't help that a lot of the teams that we cover aren't very good (with a few exceptions). So, when the playoffs start you hope for something a little better. This is from a playoff match between Munday and Newcastle in Albany. The action wasn't great, but I did like the polka dotted socks that Munday was wearing.

Last Week of the Regular Season...

Going into the final week of the season Cooper had beaten its crosstown rival the week before and was only one game away from an undefeated regular season. A win at Midland High would give Cooper only it's fifth undefeated season in school history and it's first outright district title in Class 5A in a while. Well, the problem was Cooper came out and played like they had won the Super Bowl the week earlier and were still dealing for the hangover from it. Sloppy play and bad defense put the Cougars in a hole that they were having a hard time getting out of. The team was only down by a touchdown on the final drive of the game and was moving the ball well. And, with the Cougars' offense it was possible to come back. One final pass in the end zone as time expired was deflected (top photo) as it was thrown into double coverage. Lucky for them, the playoff matchups were already set and the only loss was the outright district crown, they still were able to claim a share.