NET

I don't know why, but usually I try hard to avoid the net when shooting tennis. This time I decided to include it, and... it's not too bad.

LEFTIES

This season Hartselle has seven left-handed pitchers, from left, Hayden McCaghren, Chad Girado, Houston Cleveland, Josh Chop, Luke Bole, Trace Austin and Ryan Joy.

FINALLY, MY DOCUMENTARY ONLINE!

It was aired by KCPT (Kansas City PBS) on January 29, 2009. Since then, a lot of people have asked me to put it on Youtube, but I was looking for something a bit different and not so overcrowded. At last, I came across this website, "Openfilm" (thanks to Derek Frey, though he doesn't know it) and after sending the file for approval, they put it up yesterday. They got rid of the letterbox format and, because of the ratio conversion, some of the still pictures have been cropped, but other than that it's OK.
TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY CLICK HERE
Suggestion: Press "pause" and let it upload for some minutes, otherwise it gets jumpy and freezes from time to time.

CLEANING UP

A Cullman County Jail inmate cleans up after a long day of basketball regional finals at Wallace State College in Hanceville, AL.

EX-TEACHER, JANITOR, COWBOY (I)

Besides the daily assignments, I'm also doing a project about Collis Crayton, a former teacher who now works as a janitor at a high school in Decatur. I met Collis while shooting a basketball game at that school. Besides his formal job, he's the president (and a bit of do-it-all) of a quarter horse club.
Maybe I should narrow my story down to either his work as a janitor or as a horse carer-breeder-lover, but for now I'm doing both. I just like the contrast...

I'm posting here a few of my first images. Any ideas/suggestions will be very welcome.

SURPRISE CONCERT

The other day, I had an assignment that wasn't very clear (at least for me). There was supposed to be a youth meeting at a church in Decatur. So I went and then found out that it was actually a concert by Fee. I'm told that these guys actually are one of the hottest Christian Rock bands of the moment. I thought that would be good for an audio slideshow, but I hadn't taken the recorder with me. So, during a break, I went backstage and told the band leader, Steve Fee, my idea. He called the road manager and he gave me a CD and the permission to use their music. A couple of days later, besides the photo package in the newspaper, we put this thing on the website: AUDIO SLIDESHOW: CLICK HERE

I had a great time shooting this, and was thinking all the time, "I'm being paid to do this... how cool is that?"

IT'S BASKETBALL SEASON

Yeah, we're at the peak of the season, and I'm the "basketball photographer." Not because I'm an expert in this sport (which I had shot only once before), but simply because I'm the night shift guy and I get to shoot an average of 6 games a week. But before I post some of my basketball shots (a completelty new experience for me), let's get to the cheerleaders...


Hatton High senior cheerleader Courtney Elkins was selected to perform with the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) in the New Year's parade in London on December 26.
I had to meet this girl at her school's gym. I'd thought the way I wanted to photograph her. But no way: when I got there, there were like thousands of other students in the gym. This is something that happens often to newspaper photographers: we need to change our plans and think fast on our feet. So, "let's look for a different place." Found a hall. A window. 2 flashes, one behind her to provide some rim and another one to the right. Jump! that's it. Got it. And luckily enough, her skirt was covering her underwear so that my paper could publish the picture...