For the Fallen...

Florida's fallen military members were honored during a memorial ceremony at Healing Field in Crestview Saturday morning. About 239 flags were placed throughout the field, one for each soldier killed in the Iraq war, and will remain up for the entire week. I studied the crowd throughout the ceremony to locate family members and friends of those who knew someone who had fallen so I could capture a photo of them by the individual flag that represented the person they knew. Not many people walked over to the flags after the ceremony, so I worked with who was there. After taking a few unexciting photos, I caught this girl leaning against a pole and gazing out onto the street. The look on her face, the position of her legs and feet, and the flags blowing in the background inspired me to capture the moment (top picture).

The girl was with her mom and dad, who came to remember a long-time friend of theirs. The soldier was killed only two weeks after he arrived in Iraq. As she told me the story, I held back tears as she struggled to do the same. My heart really went out to her and I expressed my condolences sincerely. She thanked me for coming out to take pictures and made me feel like my presence was of some importance to her. After I finished taking pictures, my heart was so moved that I retreated back to my car and played a song by Phil Stacey called "Old Glory". I've listened to it a few times today and feel as if this assignment was a bold way to remind me of those who died in the war. I truly respect those who put themselves on the line for our country and commend their boldness, for I know I would not have the strength to do what they do. May God bless these families and friends as they deal with one of the hardest tragedies in life.
Below is a photo of the rows of flags:



Friday night fooseball...well I like the sound of that. Once again I hit the road for a game and after being sidetracked for a bit, I finally made it to South Walton High School for a rivalry game. Walton (in blue) made some amazing plays and really pulled through the game with a 43-7 win. Normally I would submit a photo that shows the dominating team scoring, but I used my best photo instead:





VIDEO:






This photo shows and obvious face mask penalty, but the flag was withdrawn and dismissed after review. Well, I have the proof...but who listens to a photographer? Ha.





Here is a fumble caused by Walton and recovered by them as well:



Touchdown!



Feat of the week for football was a few kids just playing the game behind the endzone. I took this photo between plays so I was unable to get much closer and capture more action, but I liked how this one turned out:



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A New Leaf

Art at the beach. It's not a bad way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon with family and friends. I joined in the atmosphere and photographed the 14th Annual Destin Festival of the Arts at Henderson State Beach Park. Many of the tents had paintings and photographs, but the glass art drew me closer. I scouted the area for awhile and finally settled for the first photo. Another interesting photo opp was at a 3D picture art tent. By looking through polarized lenses, certain sea life would jump out at you and create that 3D visual. I caught this girl gazing through the lenses and snapped the picture for the second print photo:



I always search for funny or unusual moments to capture, and caught these two women asleep on the park chairs. I thought their postures were funny, so I snapped a shot before returning to the assignment:





On Tuesday I photographed a district volleyball game at Rocky Bayou Christian School. RBCS won against Bethlehem and advanced to the next level. The published photo:



I also videotaped my first sports video for the Web site:



Thursday morning I traveled to Choctaw Field in Navarre to photograph the Air Force Special Operations Command's new joint training program. In the first picture, one of the trainers launches the Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Vehicle (BATMAV) as a Navy sailor operates the vehicle by ground control (bottom photo):



The Aircraft is already being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the number of trainees in the program is only increasing. They started with 11, but plan to do more throughtout the first year. (paraphrased from article)



Thursday I once again traveled to Rocky Bayou Christian School to photograph the district volleyball game. RBCS advanced to the next game and beat Central High School. Here is the photo published:



I also did another video of the game:



Already 10 weeks into football, and I still can't get enough. This week I traveled to Niceville High and photographed them against Daphne High School (from Alabama). The game was largely in Niceville's favor as they dominated the scoreboard early in the game. One of the touchdown passes was my picture in print:





My first football video of the season:







Roy Finch (#24) accounted for several touchdowns during the game and was knocked onto the track after scoring on one of them. I caught the footage on video, and Finch rose to his feet as the crowd cheered in relief.



The crowd cheers while the band plays a song. I noticed the pink breast cancer ribbons on people's shirts and the player's pink wrappings around their feet, but I never found out the reasons why they chose that week to support breast cancer cure research.



The week was productive and the sports videos were a new leaf on my experience tree. I plan to continue shooting sports videos (esp. on Friday night football games) and work on my shooting/editing skills. Until next time...

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In the spotlight...

Billy Ray Cyrus. Present but without Miley. The crowd didn't seem to mind as they cheered and screamed on the top of their lungs once Billy walked out on stage. He is a long time performer and a veteran to the Mullet Festival stage. As he belted out the high notes, danced with a pretend guitar, and spouted out random sayings from Hannah Montana, I scrunched down at the corner of the stage and snapped picture after picture of him. I always love crowd interaction with performers, so the first photo was the dominant photo in the paper. The second picture also ran with the first:



When I was a kid, I used to play with Barbies like most girls. I thought the dolls were almost non-existant now until Nick and I traveled to the Fort Walton Yacht Club to photograph (and video) a woman's 50th Barbie-themed birthday party. She loves Barbies and chose the theme because the 50th anniversary of Barbie also resided on this year. Many of the women there dressed as different Barbies and several men dressed like Ken.



Nick shot stills so I covered video. I've been wanting to practice video and learn Final Cut Express, so I took this opportunity to do so. Here is the final version of the video:



I wanted to capture some stills since the assignment was interesting, so between takes of video I snapped several images. Her friends got her a bike that she simply adored:





There is nothing like another Friday night football game. I drove to Crestview for the second time this season to photograph them playing Mosley. I arrived at that game with the knowledge that Crestview would win this game easily. What I didn't expect was the final score to be 34-33, with Crestview barely grasping the win.

This "flying" picture reminds me of a side-ways heisman pose (and a little of the tim tebow flying picture):



This photo was published in the paper as a vertical:







Crestview colorguard during halftime:





Another "flying" photo (of the same guy):



This kid was adorable. He didn't want his small, white, plastic football, so instead he went after the real football. He wouldn't let go of it for a bit so his dad had to take it from him and toss it away. Then he gave his son the plastic football again and they walked away. I thought it was funny:



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Michelle Obama visits Eglin

As a photojournalist, I love taking on new, challenging assignments that push me to think outside the box and produce something more creative. I also love when those assignments involve another exciting element to them...like first lady Michelle Obama. Thursday afternoon she arrived to Eglin Air Force Base to speak to military families and show them her support. I was bused onto the base where I waited for over two hours for her appearance. The hangar was hot, but the crowd was patient. The wait was worth it.

The top picture was taken after her speech as she greeted several military families and exchanged comforting words and hugs. This image was published in the paper and submitted to the AP wire where I discovered it on yahoo news later that evening. The next photo was also published in the paper on the inside cover. She was walking the stairs where she would wait for Maj. Gen. Charles R. Davis to introduce her to the crowd (even though she really didn't need an introduction):



Here is a wide shot of the amount of people waiting for her to speak in the hangar. There was another press section directly behind the crowd on the left. There were about 1,100 people there:



The first lady waved to several of the crowd members as she finished her speech. I found the flag in the background as a great backdrop and took advantage it:



Before she gave her speech, I noticed she smiled a few times from the introduction the Major General was giving. After I snapped this photo, I noticed the woman in the background holding a baby was looking at her admiringly:



The crowd smiles, claps, and listens intently as the first lady gives her speech:



Michelle Obama sympathizes with the military and their families as she tells them how much she is in awe by them:



After the exit of the first lady, I saw these two women gushing over the pictures one of them took. So many people were emotional over the few minutes they got to listen to her or look directly into her eyes as she keenly looked back into theirs.



I knew the experience was humbling to me as I walked out of the hangar with a CF card full of pictures of the first lady. I hardly saw that assignment coming and barely had a chance to absorb the atmosphere before I was back to the office editing away. Assignments and opportunities like this remind me of how great it is to be a photographer.

Holding on and pulling through

Monday, October 12th, was a federal holiday in observance of Columbus Day, so what better way for those military fathers to spend their day than at lunch with their kids. Schools were still in session, so the fathers were free to bring a lunch for their kids or sit beside them as they ate the cafeteria lunch and shared stories about their days at school. One girl wanted her dad to sit with her at her usual spot in the lunch room while another boy hugged his dad happily after they finished their lunches. Even with all the excitement in the room, the sudden entrance of former American Idol contestant Phil Stacey with his family was another thing to brag about. He ate lunch with his daughters then sang to the crowd "Old Glory", which was a song he wrote for his new album. The kids were eating up his performances as he awed a few girls in the crowd. All-in-all it was a great assignment and I loved meeting Phil Stacey again. The first and second pictures were published and the third was placed with the story online.





I woke up Wednesday morning to dark clouds and light rain but ultimately made my way to the Fort Walton Beach Yacht Club to photograph a sailing competition. I was escorted in a small motor boat into the middle of the bay where we circled the boats to capture interesting angles. With all the rain clouds, I loved the first image because of the cloud formation:



For the print edition, I chose this photo because of the coloring and the directions of the boats. The boats were tacking into position around the buoys so they could finish the race:



This image was included in the photo gallery but I wanted to post it here because of the shape the positions of the boats create:



Friday night football arrived again and I was off to DeFuniak Springs to photograph Walton and Navarre. Navarre pulled off the win, 49-27, but not without a struggle. I left at half time to meet my deadline and the game was 21-21. This photo was published since Navarre won:



This photo was particulary interesting to me when I returned back to the newsroom and stumbled across it. As I zoomed in, I noticed the football was in focus:





I included this picture because of the odd angle of the player. I later noticed the football was right by his helmet:





This photo was a touchdown pass:



This was the first night of a cold front in our area. I saw several people bundled up in blankets in the stands:



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Butterflies, Bulldogs, and Blackouts

Butterflies! I know butterflies have been photographed to death, but I still have fun experimenting with the cliche because that will ultimately help prepare me for the more creative angles that I'm working toward. Nick and I traveled to Navarre to photograph the Monarch Madness Festival at a butterfly museum. There I took these three pictures (and a few of a buttefly that landed on Nick's shoulder) and then returned home.





Friday I traveled to Freeport High School for the first time to photograph the football game versus South Walton. Freeport, home of the bulldogs who ironically wear orange and blue, beat South Walton 43-21. This photo was published:



Each time I photograph football I try to grab some catching shots or interceptions. The one I caught this week was in the endzone and unfortunately for the receiving team, was incomplete:



(Edit: This photo was published on Oct. 13)






This photo was used as a flag for the Saturday sports page:





With one of the photographers still gone on vacation time, I was sent to photograph a volleyball game in Crestview. Last time I intended to photograph volleyball my camera died on me, so since my camera was still in the process of being repaired, I used the paper's Nikon instead. Crestview played Niceville in a blackout and Niceville won. Here are the two shots that were published:





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Football, Festivals, and Finances

Friday night rolled around again and I traveled to Navarre to capture their game against Crestview. Last time I photographed Navarre, they were severely beaten by Pensacola Catholic, and with Crestview's track record, I assumed the same result would follow. Crestview did in fact beat Navarre, 21-13, during a very special night for Navarre High School. The 4th photo is Navarre's Homecoming Queen being crowned during half time. Too bad for Navarre that the football game didn't work out on their Homecoming night. The first image was published in the paper:











The next day, Angel and I covered the 31st Annual Destin Seafood Festival at Harborwalk Village. There were several options for seafood from different booths that lined the village. I wanted to catch a moment with someone eating seafood in order to capture the theme of the event (second photo). I also love to catch a moment of a child at these events. Kids bring more life to festivities then the happiest adults could ever bring to it. So, when I saw this little girl munching on a pink Sno Cone, I had to jump at the opportunity. The first two were published:







I saved this photo for last since it was the least interesting of the bunch. On Thursday, Oct 1, I drove to Freeport to photograph the Jobplus bus outside the public library. Here I found a few people already inside searching for jobs and editing resumes:



Till next time!
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