Base balls and Easter eggs

This week was slow in news for me, so I took on some more sports. On tuesday I traveled to Niceville to cover a NWF State College baseball game. I used the Daily News Nikon and 300 mm lens and caught this action shot:



Wednesday I covered a high school softball game at Fort Walton Beach High. The game was between two teams I covered previously (FWB high and Crestview). I always enjoy the high school softball games because there seems to be more action and photo opps than the college games (at least to me). Both of these were published:





On Thursday I covered a NWF State College softball game in Niceville. The first four innings were pretty uneventful as both teams prevented any runs from the other. By the fifth inning, I was finally able to catch some action:



My last assignment this past week was yesterday at Hurlburt Field. They had an Easter egg hunt on a playground/park located in the front of the base. I took photos at the 1-2 age group because I thought they would go slower than the older kids so I would have more time to catch some images -- but I was wrong. Those kids had their parents to help them, so they were done in under two minutes. I captured a few kids in my photos but was left puzzled by the rate these kids had gone.



So I improvised and took shots of kids searching through their eggs after the hunt was over:



And also took a photo of this little girl with the Easter bunny:



Between these images and a few others, I was able to make a gallery and submit photos to the Daily News military publication. All in all, the week was pretty good. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter! Christ is risen!

www.nwfdailynews.com

Anointing Holy Feet

Mary of Bethany --



My second assignment for the Florida Catholic was a New Testament version of the "Women of the Gospel" show performed by Linda Gray Kelley at St. Sylvester Parish in Gulf Breeze on Mar. 28. She portrayed several biblical women of the New Testamen such as Mary (Mother of Jesus), the Bride of Cana, the adulterous woman, Herodias, the Samaritan woman, the woman with hemorrhage, Martha, Pilate's wife, and Mary of Magdala. She used different wardrobes and props to illustrate that particular character along with light-hearted humor that was tasteful. I enjoyed watching her perform and almost cried when she protrayed Mary (Mother of Jesus) during the resurrection of Jesus.

(Disclaimer: Title of this blog post was taken from the catchline used for my photo in the Florida Catholic Apr. 10-23 issue)

http://www.thefloridacatholic.org/pt/pthp.php

Sliding, jumping, and skating forward

The past couple of weeks have been slow because of the recent storms, but I managed to fit in a few assignments. I went along with Nick to cover a couple of high school sports on Tuesday, March 24 and captured a few good images at the softball game. I caught the Choctaw player catching the ball and then rolling on the ground afterward. I love her expressions. The first and third pictures were published:









On Monday, March 30 (the first sunny day in several days) I was sent to find a feature at a local park. I never know what to expect when I go to parks since it can range from people eating, relaxing, or swinging to people doing group activities with a lot of action. When I pulled up I immediately saw people eating on a bench, a mother gently pushing her child in a swing, and a group of kids playing on the grass. I walked over to them and noticed they were playing ‘Simon Says’. For their age group, I was a little surprised to see them playing that game, which made the circumstance all the more interesting. I took a few shots and one ran in the paper the next day:



The next assignment I went on was a baseball game in Niceville. I went along with Nick on Friday just for practice, but my photo ended up being the picture that ran in the paper the next day:



On Saturday I photographed a roller derby bout at Ferry Park. Ironically, the competition that the local group played was the group that I photographed in Gainesville last July. They were called the Gainesville Roller Rebels, which sounded familiar to me, so I looked up my old photos and noticed they were the same team. The local team, the Beach Brawl Sk8r Dolls, won the bout by nine points. I enjoyed shooting the bout even though the lighting was horrible. I did what I could and let Photoshop do the rest. Here are three of my favorite pictures:







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