Sad day here in NWA

Well today sent shock waves through the photog folks here in NWA. A photog friend of mine got laid off from The Morning News yesterday. Out of respect, I won't mention names, but just know I'm thinking about ya, bud. And I know things will work out for you.

So onto my day. I started off with a back-to-school block party hosted by the Sam Walton College of Business on the UA campus. I never really know how to shoot these as there's so much going on and it's difficult for me to capture it in one photo. But I really liked the emotion of the girl on this ledge by a fountain at the party.

After that I went to Razorback stadium to get a shot of the end zones being painted. I waited there for over an hour for the guys to get at least a few letters done so I had something to shoot. I decided to go with a low-angle because the high-angle vertical had been done SO many times in the past.

And finally, I was back at UA football practice. Of course I shot MUCH more than what I'm posting, but out of the "love" I have for head coach Bobby Petrino and his "media policies," I thought this shot was apropos. We have a 20-minute time limit to shoot practices. And on top of that, we all received an email last week telling us what we can and cannot shoot during that allotted time (i.e., we cannot shoot the following: players rehabilitating injuries, players who suffer injuries during practice, medical areas, extra conditioning drills following practice, fights or altercations and other special circumstances requested by coaches or UA media relations).

Bye-bye, fair...I hardly knew ya

So the first time I get to make it out to the fair after shooting setup stuff before it began, was today -- the day after it ended.

I went out to the fairgrounds in hopes of finding people taking away some cows or hogs or something. And then I found this 9-year-old pulling her caged Black Australorp rooster out of the poultry barn.

Little bit of this, little bit of that

I started off the day around 7 a.m. at Lake Atalanta for a 5K run. Now, why these people feel the urge to run for fun, I have a difficult time understanding. And why they feel the need to start so frickin' early, I'll NEVER understand.

This 5K gave me a first. When I got to Lake Atalanta for the run, I asked someone where the start/finish line was because I was having trouble finding it. And the response was, "The start line is right down that path there. And the finish line is back up at the intersection of Walnut Street and 2nd Street in Rogers." Well, holy crap. So I've got to get a shot of the runners shortly after the start and I HAVE to have shots of the male and female winners. So I put myself into position to get the shot posted here and ran to my car to drive to the finish line to shoot the winners. Luckily, it worked out with time to spare.

But there was no time to waste, because the race didn't start until 8 a.m. and I had to be at Beaver Lake at 9 a.m. for another assignment. Secchi Day involves groups going out on boats and dropping this "Secchi disk" into the water until it's just not visible and reading the depth. So Adam Wallworth (reporter) and I went out on a boat with a group to do just that. I just gotta say; I love my job; there are days like this when I realize I'm getting PAID to go out on a boat.

After we got back to shore, I saw these two kids fishing so I decided to make a quick wild art shot of them to hold for the next day.

Then it was off to the 24th annual Frisco Festival (back in downtown Rogers). I literally parked in the same spot I was in when I drove to the finish line for the 5K. Despite the threat of rain -- it rained hard for all of like 10 minutes -- I was able to pull off a quick cliche shot of kids on a ride.

Run chickens! Run!

So today had an interesting turn of events.

As I'm riding around UA campus in search of some wild, I hear a call over the scanner for a Tyson Foods truck overturned on Sixth Street. So I quickly got on Sixth Street and headed west (probably only about two miles from campus).

Of course it's an interesting sight when I get there along with Tony Reyes from the NWA Times. And of course, we both shot the truck on its side with chickens running about on the street while Fayetteville PD directs traffic around the accident which covered both west-bound lanes and one east-bound lane.

Finally, Tyson workers (the same ones that had just loaded these birds onto this truck) show up to round up those bounding for their escape. And this is the frame I made from the situation.

Giving a photo its life

While at a Springdale school this morning for another story, I saw this photo of a kid not really wanting to leave dad for his first day of kindergarten and the principal trying to convince him otherwise.

So considering this frame will probably never see newsprint (as it doesn't really have anything to do with the story), I figured I'd give it life here on my blog.

Only one on the day

Only have one photo to post from my first day back from the weekend. And even though it's only one, I'm trying to get myself back on the regular-posting schedule.

So this frame is simply from a carnival (the Frisco Festival) being setup today in Rogers. On a side note, this is the first I've ever heard of "pickles on a stick."

BTW, it helps posting before I get home to turn on the Olympics. Because after that, I'm fairly useless (more useless than normal).

I blame Michael Phelps

Okay, I swear I'm gonna do better next week on my updates. I've just been locked into watching the Olympics and I've completely neglected posting when I get home from work.

So here's a few frames from the past few days. I drove nearly 300 miles on Wednesday to get around to three of our high schools' football practices -- Charleston, Paris and Booneville. So needless to say, I got to see a lot of NWA that I had not seen before. I even got to see more than I should have as I got lost on my way to Charleston HS where the portrait shown is from.

The rest of the frames posted are just from various assignments and wild-art hunting through the other three days. Enjoy! And I vow to do better on my posting. :)

Finishing off the week

Well I started off my "Friday" with an early morning football practice for the Hogs. As rain gave a serious threat to the scrimmage and fans file in prepared for the precipitation, it actually held off. Unfortunately, however, photogs were only allowed to shoot the first 20 minutes -- all of which were before the actual scrimmage.

Then I went to get some shots of the rides being taken down from the Tontitown Grape Festival. These guys were pretty fun to hang out with.

And finally I had to do another food shoot. And this lady, owner of Fred's Hickory Inn in Bentonville, was one of the most fun portraits I've ever had the opportunity to shoot. She was extremely animated and I really loved the expressions she was giving me for the shoot.

Catching up a bit

So I didn't get around to posting anything for the last three days of work.

So here's a quick sampling of Wednesday through Friday.

Cooling off

Had to find a piece of wild art today.

So with temperatures getting into the triple digits, I decided to find some folks having fun cooling off. I knew that people jump off the cliff into the White River down at Riverside Park in West Fork. And I had yet to witness this. So off to West Fork I headed.

FYI, I used the first one of the three posted here.

Holy crap! It's frickin' Mary Lou Retton!

So my first assignment today was a press conference with the iconic Mary Lou Retton. And at 40 years old, she's still looking great. I even broke down and got my pic taken with her.

After the fun with the Olympic gold-medalist, I had a first. I've actually never shot food before. For some reason, it's never come up in my shooting. And I had to shoot a steak dinner at Herman's Ribhouse.

And lastly, I had to shoot some of the Ark. Women's Golf Assoc. tournament at a course in Fayetteville.