State Volleyball...

Wylie High School's first trip to the state tournament was nearly a disaster. Coming out of the gate it was looking like Wylie may get embarrassed. In the first game they were down 15-1 to start. Then in the second game they played a little better but were still getting stomped by a Wimberly team that had two huge players up front. Both player over six feet tall, while Wylie's tallest player was 5'10, and their two best hitters being only 5'9. The height differential made it tough enough, but then an obvious case of nerves wasn't helping their cause any.

By game three Wylie was looking like the team they had been all year but one would wonder if it was too little too late. They did win the third game, so at least they weren't getting skunked and they were playing better, so for me that meant better pictures. In game four they were playing really well too. And really starting to show some nice emotion, heck it was even looking like they may even come back, which would have made for an awesome story, getting blown out in the first two games then coming back to win in five games. However, that just wasn't going to happen. A little hiccup in the fifth game and all the sudden they got in another hole, and since game five only goes to 15 points it was a hole they just weren't gonna dig out of.

The nice thing about going to state is it is played in a really big arena and it allows me to get up nice and high to shoot. And since the match went five games I was able to move around quite a bit and shoot from plenty of different angles. It resulted in shooting a ridiculous amount of photos, but also made for a pretty nice slideshow for a web. Volleyball is usually one of those sports I dread shooting, but as good as this team was they were a lot of fun to shoot. All in all, despite not coming back with the miracle victory, it still made for a pretty fun event to shoot.

Playoffs Week 2...

Well, the odd run through the playoffs continues this week, with a Thursday night game, Merkel vs. Wall. A rematch of a game from earlier in the year which Merkel jumped out to a quick lead and then got reeled in. And well, it turned out to be Deja Vu all over again. Merkel came out, jumped up quick with a 14-0 lead and them forgot how to hold on to the football and ended up losing 21-14 in a game they almost came back and tied it at the end of the game, but couldn't complete a touchdown pass as the clock expired. It was a pretty fun game to watch and shoot.

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.