Sports sports sports.

A short lived schedule change gave me Friday night lights practice, on top of other high school sports...

There's No Crying in Baseball

A high school team huddles in the outfield after losing during the playoffs for state 5A championship.

One game.

High school state basketball playoffs and championships were last week. Surprisingly I only had to shoot one game.

Twins at 17

This was a quick hit for a story on teen pregnancy. The story was slated to run Sunday I went to school on Thursday. Photo department got the assignment Wednesday... more time would have been nice, but c'est la vie of newspapers.

I may try to continue a similar story on my own.

Black and White Basketball

St. Pius High School gym is the brightest I've seen so far. A bit of a yellow cast from the yellow walls but not bad in black and white. With total ambient light... ISO 3200, F2.8, 1/800 sec.

Against High School Recruiting

More high school basketball

Catching up...

Somehow I've fallen behind in the blogging and now it's December. How did that happen? Thanksgiving is in the past and Christmas is a short 23 days away. So here are a few images from two to three weeks ago.

Senior citizen that reminded me of Ginger because of her spunkiness.

Colorful prescription pills that APD was going to burn.

Photo illustration stuff.

Motorcycle toy run where I met the real Santa Claus.

Exchange student from Korea.

Sandia = Watermelon

I'm slowly learning Spanish words I never knew before... this soccer feature was plain cute until I learned that "Watermelon" translates to "Sandia," which just happens to be the name of the school these girls had just beat during a soccer match.

Hip Hop High

Rio Rancho High School has a hip hop club and I was hoping to do something a bit long term on them but the run date could not be changed so I might be doing it for myself if I have time. Good group of kids having a blast dancing.

Bow to the god

High School... once again.

The first day of high school at Volcano Vista where only the freshmen are attending this year. Different teachers had different approaches to the first day of school, as can be seen below. The Biology teacher in the first photo had the kids participating in a name game and laughing the whole time. The PE teacher in the second photo gave the class the drill on how to line up in alphabetical order for roll call then filed the kids back to the classroom to wait for the bell to ring.

Photo Essay - HS Sports Practice

Monday was the first day of high school sports practices and I was lucky enough to be assigned a photo essay on it for one high school. I LOVE doing this type of thing. Who doesn't right? I was challenged to cover 5 practices: football, cross-country, girls soccer, volleyball and boys soccer. It was a mad rush as most of the teams held practice at the same time, but somehow it got done. I'm pretty happy with the results of a 3 hour job for one essay. Below are the photos in color and some outtakes.

They only wanted one photo per sport so these were cut.

First day

This time I was NOT mistaken for a high schooler. But all the same I blended in pretty easily I'll admit it. From what I saw high school hasn't changed much. There were a few students already pushing the dress code to see how much they could get away with. There were the late lost students and then the students who weren't lost but still late to class anyway. Some things don't change. Also it's a challenge to shoot the first day of school and "be sure not to show anyone's face prominently because they don't have their photo releases yet."

New High

The northwest side of Albuquerque is gaining a new high school. Volcano Vista is only accepting a freshmen class this year since about 60% of the campus is still under construction. Thursday night was registration and the first time the students got to visit their brand new school. The halls still smelled of fresh paint and all of the desks hadn't been assembled yet. And yet students really didn't care about that stuff, but instead about their locker location and those of their friends. Their mascot is the Hawks, but out of a newsroom vote we decided it looks more like a raven. I was also almost mistaken as one of the new students, only my camera set me apart and prompted one of the parents to check before assuming.

Go Hawks

Trying to figure out that locker combination

Parents and students were bused in because the school only has 50 parking spots

Already in the principal's office? No, schedule checks

Dude where's my locker?

Settling in ABQ

Well it has been a week in Albuquerque.
The town is quite large, at least for me.
Waking up to see the mountains every morning is spectacular.
And the sunsets aren't bad either.

High school football practice... focusing on the coaches with some nice morning light.