A teen at Freeport High School struggled with the odds to gain a high school diploma. A couple weeks before her graduation, I was sent to photograph her at the school possibly working on homework in a classroom setting. With that out the window once I arrived, I had to come up with a setting myself and took her outside to do just that. Once I saw the welcome mat, I knew what I wanted to do. The picture above is the final product and was published at the end of last month.
I got a second helping of spring football this year with two more games during the last week of May. The first set of pictures was the Navarre v. Pensacola Catholic game on May 28. I traveled with Nick to this game, which the Navarre varsity team won 13-6 at the half, and the top picture was published in the print. Pensacola Catholic went on to win the entire game at 32-13.
On the previous night, I traveled solo to cover the Rocky Bayou v. Vernon game in Destin. Vernon kicked Rocky Bayou out of the water by beating them 75-0. Vernon's J.J. Roche led the team to victory and made some amazing plays. The second photo was published.
The first graduation I covered this year was at South Walton High School. I borrowed the Daily News' laptop and traveled over an hour to the school to photograph the ceremony. The students were already ready to go when I arrived even though I was about 45 minutes early, so I worked on shooting print images during the ceremony itself instead of beforehand preparation moments. The top image was my favorite of the bunch and the published image for the next day:
Many of the graduates had problems keeping their hats on their heads. I loved catching those moments:
Signs in the crowd by proud family members are always cool shots:
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