Back in the groove

OK, I think I got back into my groove after today's shooting.

I started out the day at the University of Arkansas Horse Festival at the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Arena in Fayetteville. There was a lot going on but I found this frame of a girl learning to lasso and had some fun with it.

Afterwards, I headed down to the southern part of town to the National Guard armory to cover the 142nd Fires Brigade troops returning from a year-long deployment. I hadn't covered a troop return in a couple years, but I found my way around. And fortunately, this was a smaller group than I had covered in the past so I wasn't overwhelmed by the masses.

P.S. - Yes, Andy, you can be my friend too. Your membership card is in the mail.

Another long drive

For those that read this everyday (and I guess that doesn't range farther than my parents), yes, there was no post yesterday. I had a horrible shooting day and didn't want to show the devastation that I reluctantly put my name on.

Today I started out at Sugar Creek [thanks for catching this, Marc, :) ] Elementary in Bentonville as a group called Project WET (water education for teachers) provided a hands-on set of stations allowing local fourth-graders to learn different aspects about water and our water system. There really wasn't a lot of art opportunities here, but I made what I could of it. These kids were passing colored beads down a line to a collective jar demonstrating how rivers/streams collect various pollutants.

Afterwards gave me another long drive. I have now visited Carrollton, Ark. As I'm driving east on U.S. 412, my GPS tells me I still have about 5 miles to Carrollton. I call my boss and let him know that I'm getting a little concerned. I've seen signs for several towns along the way but no signs for Carrollton. Luckily, I saw my first sign shortly after -- the sign that says Carrollton limits.

Anywhoo, the point in going to Carrollton is actually an interesting story. But first, the back story:

On Sept. 11, 1857 (they refer to it as "the first 9-11"), a large wagon train, known as the Fancher-Baker train, left Caravan Springs and headed for California. They camped in Carrollton to intercept the Cherokee Trail. Months later, the wagon train came under siege by the Mormons in southwest Utah at a place called Mountain Meadows. The Mormons murdered 121 men, women and children after assuring their protection. Only 17 small children were spared from the massacre (the Mountain Meadows Massacre). The dead were left exposed to the elements until 18 months later when U.S. Army troops buried the remains in several mass graves. A cross and stones were placed over one such gravesite containing 34 of the victims. The surviving children were brought back to Arkansas and spent their first night at the site of the Old Yell Lodge in Carrollton. On Sept. 25, 1859, the orphaned children were reunited with families.

And now, 150 years later, the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is somewhat admitting to the history and sent representatives to Carrollton from Utah to announce that the Church will seek National Historic Landmark designation for the Church's holdings at the Mountain Meadows site to memorialize the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Pictured are the two guys from the Church.

Just Another Wednesday

I started out the day wild-art hunting. So I went to you-know-where, the Jones Center. I'm beginning to think I need to start going somewhere else. Anywhoo, when I get there, I quickly find out that all of the recreational facilities are closed. Apparently, twice a year (once after Spring Break and the other after kids return to school), the center has "maintenance week" where they simply take care of all necessary maintenance to keep the center running smoothly. So I made a photo of some guys cleaning the walking track.

Afterwards, I had to go get a portrait/interview shots of Steve Clark who may be running for mayor of Fayetteville. Mr. Clark, from what I understand, is the former Ark. Attorney General. However, he was forced to resign after being convicted of using a state-issued credit card to purchase a lavish lifestyle for himself. And now those charges have been expunged and he can run for office again. OK.... Nice guy, though. I enjoyed meeting with him.

And lastly came the worst part of my day. It's assignments like this that I have to do; not want to do. They're some of the most difficult. Adam Wallworth and I had to go to a home in Bentonville that caught fire early Tuesday morning to get shots of friends/family leaving a memorial on the front porch. A horrible blaze unfortunately claimed the lives of five young sisters asleep on the second floor of the home.

Where the hell is Booneville?

If a meat plant explodes and there's no media there to cover it, does it really burn? Yes, Virginia, it does.

Today was going to be real easy day. I only had to find a bar with Razorback fans watching the debacle against the Tar Holes in Raleigh.

Well, at 3:00 p.m., my colleague Dan Hale called me and told me about a meat plant in Booneville that had exploded. "Wow! Really?! Where the hell is Booneville?" I get varied directions from both Dan and our reporter in Fort Smith, Dave Hughes, on how to get there. So just to be safe I punch in Booneville into the GPS and find out that it's 100 miles from our office. Luckily, the directions merged into me getting there. I also got a little help on the phone from my friend Jeremy Ashton who even looked up the AP story online for me and gave me some initial info. Thanks, Jeremy.

I finally get to Booneville (population ~4000) and I of course get stopped by the local law enforcement and told I can't go any further due to evacuations (they evacuated due to ammonia in the air). I identified myself and that still didn't help. I talked to a guy who seemed to have some pull and told him that my reporter was actually stationed down the road closer and asked if there was any way I could get there as well. This guy was really nice. He's the mayor of Booneville I found out. :) He drove me down to the other location.

I wasn't able to get much for art because I was still pretty far away from the scene. But I talked to the Fort Smith FD folks and they let me climb on top of one of their trucks to get a better view. While I was up there, they got up there as well and viewed the scene with some binoculars. So I decided to pull out the wide angle so I could get some kind of human element in the shot.

And the day actually had a great ending (in addition of course to no injuries from the explosion). I was able to find some free wi-fi in, believe it or not, downtown Booneville to send my photos back.

So, what was going to be a real short day turned out to be my only overtime day of the week.

Three things at the same time

Today wasn't a long day. It was just a jam-packed day.

I had three assignments. And three assignments isn't much...unless of course they all three start at the same time. Here was my schedule: 11:00a.m.-UA vs. Tennessee in softball starts; 11:00a.m.-Easter Feed; 12:00p.m.-Trail of Tears tour.

So I went to softball first and shot there until 12:00. Didn't really get anything worth anything out of this game. Afterwards, I drove over to the Easter Feed (which was really only a couple miles down the road). The Easter Feed is in its 15th year. The M & N Augustine Foundation cooks a bunch of food for the needy and serves (obviously free) throughout the lunch time. I was told they served over 4000 today. Pretty impressive and altruistic.

I didn't stay at the Easter Feed very long at all because I had to hurry over to the Fayetteville Public Library (again only a couple miles away) before the walking tour of the Trail of Tears left for their...well, walking tour.

All women's sports all the time

With my co-worker Mike Woods in Raleigh covering some other sport, I stayed in town to cover the better sports. Yeah, just go with it.

I had some softball first -- Arkansas vs. Tennessee. I don't follow softball, but I looked at the team's records before the game and it appeared that Tennessee was the much better team. So when I got this shot at the plate I figured I was done. WRONG. The Lady'Backs hit a grand slam (while I was editing, so I didn't get that shot), so I went back to the car to get my camera gear and got back just in time to get the winning pitcher getting all jolly from her win.

Afterwards, I walked about 100 yards to Barnhill Arena to cover gymnastics against Michigan State. I've never really got anything great from gymnastics; I've always got the same crap (good enough). Tonight was no different.

Rather slow day

Today was fairly slow. Nothing much to write about and only one photo to post.

I had no assignments today, so today was wild art time again. I went somewhere I had not shot yet -- Lake Bentonville. However, I believe the term "lake" is a little abused here. It's not much more than a puddle. But, it provides the area with another fishing hole. And I found this kid there with his nanny.

HOLY WEEK, BATMAN!

I started out early this morning down in West Fork. During yesterday's torrential downpour, a pickup truck got washed into an overflowing creek. The driver got out and went to a neighbor to borrow a John Deere tractor to get his truck out. Well that was the last time the man was seen (as this is being written). And today the swift water rescue team went into the creek to search for the man.

Later I went to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville (seems like I was just there). This assignment was definitely a first for me. As part of Holy Week, the church invited homeless people in to wash their feet. Ummmm, yeah. That's pretty much all I have to say about this shoot.

Afterwards, I went to Walker Park. I figured that considering my skateboarding photo from last week (posted earlier on this blog) never saw print, then I had carte blanche at playing with some shadows again (and yes at the same location).

Following the fun with the kids and their hoops, I went to shoot a portrait of a painter. This is not posted here as I haven't done my editing yet. I may get it up later. But I doubt it.

Easter Bunny's here!

Today took me to two assignments. Both of which were stand-alones, but both of which were a lot of fun.

Trip #1 took me to old faithful: the Jones Center in Springdale. This week is Spring Break for all schools in the area (including UA). So the Jones Center offers activities for all the kiddies each day this week. Today, amongst other stuff, they had a concert from this band called Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang. The kids there loved this crap. They were dancing and jumping around like they had each just got done shoplifting at their own candy shop.

Next I went to the NWA Mall to get some shots of kiddies telling the Easter Bunny what they wanted for Christm....err....I mean Easter. Found this sister/brother getting squeezed in tightly for a picture with Peter Cottontail.

Dancing Christians and stick ball

I started out early today with a Palm Sunday procession at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville. Luckily, the sun peeked from behind the clouds and gave me some decent light for the event.

Afterwards, it was back to Baum Stadium for some more baseball. Today was just Georgia's day against Arkansas. The Dawgs knocked off the basketball team in SEC championship game in Atlanta and on the diamond they picked up their second straight win over the Hogs with a 13-2 score. Quite embarrassing for Razorbacks all around.

Day full of track and baseball

Well, today was all sports all the time pour moi. I had the second (and final) day of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships throughout the entire day. And in the middle I fit in a little baseball game between the Hogs and Georgia.

Despite how much I LOVE baseball (and anyone who knows me, knows the sarcasm there), this was actually an interesting game to cover. When I got there in the second inning, the Hogs were already on top 4-0 and later increased their lead to 10-1. Most would consider this game in hand. And I would be in this "most" as I started devoting all my shooting to Arkansas doing good things and celebrating, etc. WRONG! Somehow, they managed to totally f*#@ everything and lose 15-11! An impressive 12 unanswered runs from the Dawgs came out of virtually nowhere.

Good thing the Razorbacks won in basketball because the losing continued in track. The only bright spot for Arkansas was a win in the triple jump from Nkosinza Balumbu (yeah, that's a fun name to write in cutlines). Arizona State claimed the national championship in BOTH men's and women's.

All in all, it was a busy day, but a fun day.

Track, track, and more track

Well, I spent pretty much all day today at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville. And I'll be there pretty much all day tomorrow as well. Here's just a few frames I liked that I moved over.

Shadow Skater

For those keeping track, yes, there was no post yesterday. I had the day off and will work Monday instead.

Yeah, I'm only adding one photo to this post. Sorry, but I'm tired and I just don't feel like adding everything I shot from the day. What I shot tonight, I'll be posting later as I'm gonna go back and shoot it again later to do better.

But today's photo is just from some wild art hunting. I hung out with some skaters at the skatepark at Walker Park in Fayetteville. Just thought I'd play with some shadows as it was a great day today with some real nice light.

Easter Eggs, slides and wrecking

Today was quite an eventful day pour moi.

I started out doing a little wild-art hunting. OK, I'll be honest; I didn't do a LOT of hunting. I ended up finding this little girl and her parents playing on the playground at Lake Fayetteville (it's only about 2 miles from home).

Later I was off to my first (and only) assignment on the day - an Easter egg hunt at the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club. Yes, that's right; I said EASTER egg. According to my calendar, Easter is still two weeks away. But I digress. This thing was a mad house! There's what seems to be about 1000 kids there running frantically about in a 20-yard by 20-yard area grabbing as many candy-filled plastic eggs as their little bags/baskets can carry.

Afterwards, I headed back to the office to do all my editing/photo-moving and be finished for the day. WRONG! As soon as I'm about to pack up my laptop and head home, a call comes over the scanner for a two-vehicle accident in Hindsville (which I now know is about a 40-minute drive from our office). I got there after most was cleared up, but I was able to get a couple not-so-horrible frames from the scene.