Youthful Exuberance
Late last week we were working on an advance about a program today at the local water park to encourage kids to stay active and safe throughout the summer. It was late in the afternoon and I was in jeans. I was going to stop by shoot a bit and then head home. That was before I saw Entisar Gebraeil and her sister playing in the shallow end. There’s something contagious about children’s exuberance and utter joy at simple things. I photographed them for quite a while hoping I adaquetly captured what I saw. Read the story about the “Catch the Wave” event.
Just a Feature
New Chapters
I shot a wedding this weekend for the paper. It wasn’t the ceremony, just a few last minute preparations shots for a story we did about June weddings. It was a bit funny since the photos ran on my first anniversary. Weddings represent a lot of things, and the main theme is change.
While my final day hasn’t been set, I’ll be leaving Grand Island. My wife and I are going to be moving to Albuquerque. She’ll begin as a full time therapist at Desert Hills, a residential treatment center, and I … well I’m still looking for something. I have a feeling that I’ll be working on digging up some freelance work and quite possibly shooting a few weddings. The other thing I’ll be doing is preparing to begin taking classes in PHP and SQL programming and other web based systems and languages.
The change will be awesome and we’re both looking forward to all of the possibilities while not getting too terrified of the uncertainties. Grand Island over the past 10+ years has been wonderful to me and allowed me to grow as a person and in my profession. I’ll definitely miss it here.
Hail Mary
There’s an old adage that luck is the combination of preparation and opportunity. That may be true, but there are still intangibles working in a “Hail Mary.” In photography, a “Hail Mary” is when a photographer holds a camera over their head to shoot down on scene. They are shooting blind since they can’t see through the viewfinder. You’ll see this primarily after football games as the photographers in the second, third, fourth and fifth rows of the scrum try to get the all important shot of coaches shaking hands.
It’s an attempt of last resort, like the football variation, and (for me at least) results in a good shot 5 percent of the time or less. It’s a technique not to be relied on. But… When it works, it works.
Like this shot from Grand Island Central Catholic’s graduation on Sunday. I joined the melee in the lobby of the gym as the graduates left the ceremony and began celebrating their accomplishment. These two hugged right in front of me. Then in almost slow motion they both leaned their heads back in joy. I raised the camera over my head and let the motor drive fly.
When it works, it works.
Reactions on the field
Last week I shot the Class B, District 5 soccer tournament in York. A two day event in generally cold and blustery conditions. That didn’t keep the games from being pretty good. Soccer is an interesting sport to shoot because the field is so big and the action takes place all over the place. It’s not like football where you have an idea of where each play is going to go. And it’s not like tennis where the ball is going to the person you’re photographing. So we follow the ball and try to anticipate plays on corner kicks and find the person heading the ball before it gets there. The best part about soccer and tournament play in particular is the reaction to goals. In the first image today Hastings celebrates it’s overtime goal to put them up 2-1 over Central Catholic. That also ended up being the final score. After the end I was able to get a shot of the other side of the field as a Central Catholic player reacts to the celebration in the background.
On the girls field I was able to get another happy shot, this time of Northwest after they scored their only goal of their game against Hastings on a buzzer beater shot. They ended up falling 2-1.
On the girls field I was able to get another happy shot, this time of Northwest after they scored their only goal of their game against Hastings on a buzzer beater shot. They ended up falling 2-1.
