Pumped Up

This past week has been interesting. I've wanted to break into studio portraits for awhile but never had the chance to do so. I talked to the staffers at the Daily and Nick informed me of an upcoming opportunity. Since I had brushed up on my studio knowledge with Nick a few weeks prior, I jumped on this opportunity with a surge of confidence. The girl was weightlifter of the year, so I started to contemplate ideas a couple days in advance and came up with the idea to make her hold a weight up with only her finger as if it was "effortless" to do. The final published photo is above. I received great feedback on the picture and can't wait to take a shot at studio portraits again.



Friday I photographed my first baseball game of the year. I used the paper's 300 as well as my camera with the 200. The photo above was a runner trying to return to first base when the second baseman retrieved the ball and chased after him. The runner was tagged out and the inning ended. Baker pulled off the win by beating Freeport 7-6. Ironically I intended to get more familiar with the 300 while out there, but my best shots came from my 200. The first base was too close for the 300, so I had to switch back and forth. I'm sure in the future I will gain more exposure with the 300 and grab some great shots. I just hope next time a baseball doesn't hit me in the leg. Yeah, that hurt.



Tuesday I photographed a softball game at Crestview. This was my first softball game of the season where there was plenty of real action. I caught a few catches and a dramatic slide into home plate (below). Crestview was winning against FWB when I was there, but FWB pulled off an 8-3 win by the end of the game.



After her home run, she hugs a teammate:





Elliot Point Elementary School lost its art classes like many schools around the nation, but they decided to do something about it. The Parent Education Team formed an art committee to provide the students with an art classes every other week. The fifth graders that attended the class were instructed to sketch and color flowers that filled up the page:



The art volunteer helped the students understand the kind of drawing that artist Georgia O'Keefe did so that they could draw their flowers to the fullest:



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Rough Waters

The last couple weeks have been slow but interesting. Last Saturday was a long, 11-hour work day with the paper that was completely unexpected. It started with a morning assignment at Duke Field with Air Force reservists that exercised their skills in a training session. Some of the exercises they did were searching & handcuffing, tending to the wounded, and fire-on-fire field training - like in the picture above. I enjoyed the wide open field, the cool fall-feeling breeze & warm sunlight, and the reservists with their impressive skills.



When I arrived back at the office Saturday afternoon, Nick told me about a plane that crashed in the Gulf near Topsail Hill State Park. So, I abandoned working on my pictures and rode with him to see what we could capture. The plane was already submerged when we arrived, but I caught the coastguard out in the water trying to rescue the two pilots that went under.



This picture of the park ranger was published in the paper. We had to walk over a mile on the beach just to reach this point and take pictures. I also captured the helicopter that circled the area. Sadly, the two pilots died.



Friday night I had a chance to tag along with a reporter as he ventured into a local club with state lawmen who were doing an inspection of the place for violations. The Nipa Hut could lose their liquor license because the lawmen determined they were violating state laws concerning alcohol sales. I took this picture of a few officers searching the premises, and it was published the next day:



A touched a bit a softball again this year and covered a game out in Freeport for the first time. The Baker girls won 7-2:



On February 27, I drove to Paxton and photographed the regional finals where they played Arlington Country and lost, 81-53:



A few days before, I traveled to Camp Timpoochee to photograph women sewing quilts together for wounded troops as part of the Quilts of Valor project. Most of the women there were older, but I found someone's daughter quilting and thought it was interesting.



That's all for now. Visit the Web site for galleries and more.
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