Spring "football" is in the Air

I was able to photograph a sping football game on Friday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I always miss football during the off-season, so this game eased my sadness if only for a moment. I photographed the two rivals schools in Fort Walton Beach, one of which is my high school team. Here are a few photos from the gallery I posted on the web (link to the right):

Deanery Gathering

I teamed with a writer during my next Florida Catholic assignment for the West Central Deanery gathering at St. Mary's Church. The event started with a Saturday morning mass on May 16th and led into a day of activites and food afterwards. Hamburgers, hotdogs, and chips were served as hula hoops, jump ropes, and bean bag toss games lined the outside area. Through the sounds of Christian music playing from a unofficial band and kids laughing and shouting in excitement, the sunny day was a success for the church. Here are the three published photos:

Jumping rope and doing the hula (hoop):


Sharing lemonade at lunch:


The priest during the mass:

Up A Level

My last update was at the beginning of the month, so another update is due. During that first week I photographed the Northwest Florida State College graduation. I mostly took gallery shots but secured two images for print:





Immediately after I photographed the new graduates walking down the aisle toward their seats, I rushed over to Niceville High School and photographed the Class 5A regional quarterfinal baseball game. With only a few minutes to take pictures and bugs falling on top of me from the light post, I photographed what I needed and bolted out of there (and jumped a fence) to arrive at the office in time for deadline. Here was the published photo:



On Thursday that week, I photographed Niceville High School athletics again, however, it was football instead of baseball. The team was having a spring practice after school, so I rushed over and took several photographs. Here was the published photo:

Solid Endings, Slow Beginnings

Here I am three weeks later...finally updating my blog. The past few weeks have been slow but still interesting. On Thursday, April 16th, I drove to Topail Hill Preserve State Park just east of Destin and photographed a few angles on the park. The first photo was a feature photo at the beach connected with the park to give the article some spark:



Here two workers are leveling the grounds next to the new "cabins" that are in contruction at the park. There will be an additional 16 to the mix:



On Friday, April 17th I traveled to South Walton County for a District 1-A high school tennis tournament. The Freeport boys tennis team won their first district title in school history:



Saturday I woke up early to photograph a semi-annual beach clean up at Okaloosa Island. The clean up was connected with Earth Day, which was the upcoming Wednesday. Here is the published photo:



After the clean up, I drove to the YMCA to photograph former Alabama running back Glenn Coffee during a Healthy Day Kids Event. He is also a former Fort Walton Beach High School football player, so he returned to his roots to give a speech to the kids about pursuing your dreams with Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Coffee's speech was inspiring and humbling. Glad I heard him:



On Thursday, April 23rd I returned to the tennis courts and photographed the South Walton girls tennis team as they captured their first regional title:

(published on the 24th)


(This one was published on the 27th)


After a forty minute delay and hour-long drive, I reached Laurel Hill this past Thursday to photograph the high school baseball District 1-A tournament. Paxton (red) beat Laurel Hill (blue) for the title:



The highlight of my past three weeks was the few minutes I spent photographing the first spring football practice for Fort Walton Beach High School. I loved standing on the sidelines again. Everything reminded me of the games I photographed at UF, and I anxiously desired for football season to start. Oh well. I guess I'll have to wait.

(published)