Warm weekend

Sunday was no cooler as the temperature jumped up to 95-degrees at one point. This had me sweating profusely as I lugged around my camera backpack during Dunnellon's Boomtown Days and during a park dedication on Sunday.
Late Night Football--


Apparently the football game on Saturday night didn't get done until around 11:45 p.m. so they ran the article today not yesterday.
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Boomtown Days--



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Festival of the Horse

Yesterday I photographed Festival of the Horse at the Ocala Horse Park. It was slightly unorganized but fun because I got to watch a mini game of polo for the first time. Oh and it was hot and humid, not a good day to wear long pants. But here are the photos that ran today as a stand-alone photo package.

This is a Gypsy Vanner horse, a relatively new breed that was only brought to the US in 1996.

The polo action was hard to shoot but I got one nice photo, but we chose this one instead for the humor factor.

This was the first time I got to shoot Cross Country jumping and it was interesting as I stood next to three other photographers on the side of the water jump and we waited for each horse and rider to come by.

The 7:30pm football game I covered started two hours late and will run tomorrow.

Easter Sunday

Yes journalists have to work on holidays and this Easter it was my turn.
I began with a 6:45 a.m. sunrise service in McIntosh, Fla. where the sun rose right over a lake down the hill from the service, it was gorgous but because there were a line of trees between the sunrise and the people my idea of an overall shot of the sun behind the group didn't quite work as I had hoped but I think I got a few shots that worked.


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Taxes on Easter Sunday --
If you didn't file your taxes by today April 17, 2006 you're late!

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Suspect of attempted murder --

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Story 1 places 3rd in NPPA student quarterly clip contest

This was a story I did on a young woman with Down syndrome who turned 21. The idea behind it was to show how as she officially became a grown-up she was still very much a child. I had a good time completeing this story as Vicki, my subject, grew attached to me, much like a young child would to an older sibling. It was hard to not interact with her as she tried to tell me things, but her mother was very understanding and would explain to her that I couldn't play. I did once the story was over however. I played tag and shot hoops with her. She was better at basketball, I was better at tag. :)
Enjoy!
LINK TO STORY (click on the red slippers to see all the images)
Also my good friend Danny Ghitis won first place in the picture story contest... his new photo blog is http://dannyghitis.blogspot.com.

POW service at The Villages

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This was quite an experience. It was apparently ex-POW day and Veterans of The Villages gathered to honor them. Amoung the veterans were about 10 ex-Pows who were each given the opportunity to tell their story. Some kept it brief, seemingly still uncomfortable talking about their experiences and others openned up as we listened to their entire military career. It was interesting to hear each ex-POW's story of how he was captured in either WWII or the Korean War. Another man didn't want to tell any depressing stories so he told of how he and his fellow men discovered cases of whiskey and liberated them.
This was one of those situations were I wasn't sure how far to stay back and how close to get at times because of the serious nature of the ceremony. There was another young female photographer there probably only one year older than me and once I saw her running all over during the ceremony I felt I could move around a bit more too. The only thing that bothered me was how she ran in front of the flagpole as they were doing the parade of flags. She was a bit obvious and I decided to stay still. Perhaps she got a better shot, but I felt I was more respectful. Where do you draw the line? I feel I must respect the ceremony and all those being honored as I do my job to cover an event and yet I wonder if others even consider this as they flitter around to get the best shot. Hopefully this won't hinder my photographs as I cover events but I feel it has already twice. What to do? Any thoughts?

Regatta

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Cloud Chasers

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