coffee and photos

New Blog

2009-08-21T12:35:00.001-07:00

I'm doing a little reorganizing and the address of my blog is changing. Coffee and Photos at blogspot will still remain around. There's no need to get rid of 2 years of archives. The new blog will be andydelisle.com/journal.

Please update your links.

Thanks for your patience,
andy

Naked Cowboy on New Years Eve

2008-01-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

New Years Eve I went out to Glendale to cover the celebration at Westgate. The highlight of the night for me was the Naked Cowboy.

Fiesta Bowl Parade

2008-01-08T19:33:00.001-07:00

My new apartment is just off the parade route here in Phoenix. So it was no surprise to wake up on a Saturday morning before New Year's to find marching bands marching and giant balloons floating within sight of our front door.

Arielle and I grabbed out cameras and headed out. We ended up on the roof of her office building.

dusting off the F3

2007-12-31T22:03:00.001-07:00

During our move, I came across my Nikon F3. Turned out it still have half a roll of Ilford 100 in it. I quickly finished off this roll and started to get a taste for shooting film again. Turned out I need to get some film and shoot some photos of hte damage in our old apartment. That taken care of I still had a couple rolls left, so in stead of taking my digital camera out with me, I grabbed the extra rolls and the F3.

Arielle and I had some time to kill downtown so we wandered around and did some street shooting. On our way to towards the Chase Field, we found our own no flash corner.

Liz lives downstairs at the old place. She's one of the more awesome people we've met in Phoenix.

I won these sauces at Arielle's boss' ugly christmas sweater party. Yes, my sweater was the ugliest one of all the guys there. I had hit up two different Goodwill stores to find everything I needed for it. Arielle decided spelling hate was more interesting than heat, go figure.

The new apartment is very close to the parade route here. More on the in another post. The evening after the parade, we wandered to grab some dessert. The road was still closed while the city broke down the bleachers from the parade.

Dancing with the Stars

2007-12-31T13:31:00.001-07:00

Friday I got a call from the AZ Republic. They had a last minute assignment for me. Four words I never expected to hear... Dancing with the Stars. I've never seen the tv show much less expected to cover the tour. Turned out it was more like shooting a concert than I expected. I got to shoot the 2nd, 3rd and 4th songs then I was done.

Christmas Day at Aunt Toni's

2007-12-30T23:00:00.001-07:00

After getting home after midnight on Christmas Eve, we went to bed. Christmas day, I got up early and started editing photos from the night before. When Arielle got up she helped me put together a slideshow from the previous night, which the cousins loved.
Overall the day was more relaxed than Christmas Eve, but just as fun.

The Wedding Photo

2007-12-30T19:35:00.001-07:00

Last week Ray posted a preview of our wedding album and let us know we would have it soon. Friday, Arielle and I received the album. It took a little longer than we expected, but it was worth it. Arielle and I were brought to tears several times.

We both wanted to thank everyone who was involved, Ray and Jared for putting it together. Tim, Lisa, Ray and Taylor for all the wonderful photos. Mom and Dad for all the support through the years. Tom for all the help getting things ready for the day. Jill, for opening up her home for our special day. Jill, you're an awesome neat lady, thank you. Mario and Darcy for the amazing food and making it legal. Laura and Vinny for all your help. Alyssa for being such an awesome little girl, who we were honored to have as our flower girl. Jak for your help with the music. Plus all our wonderful friends that that came from near and far to help make our day one of the best days of our lives.

After the wedding Ray and Tim dropped us off at the Sheraton in Downtown Raleigh. Arielle and I didn't get to eat much at the wedding but we enjoyed leftovers and a bottle of wine in the hotel room.

Jen and Merritt picked us up the next day and we hung out at Cup-A-Joe and relaxed.

Thanks again to Ray for confiscating all mine and Arielle's photos. Several of our photos we hadn't seen until we got the album. I actually forgot I took this one while we were hanging out drinking coffee.

Cousins Christmas Eve: part 2

2007-12-29T13:09:00.001-07:00

At around 10 or 11pm the presents came out and the carnage began. It was a great time with a lot of love all around.

Cousins Christmas Eve: part 1

2007-12-27T11:36:00.001-07:00

Arielle and I spent Christmas Eve with the cousins at Shane and April's house. It was much different than how I spent Christmas last year.
Several bottle of wine were cracked up and a good time was had all around.

Ninja

2007-12-21T20:29:00.001-07:00

Ninja was a stray that wandered into Arielle's life several years back. She's had her share of drama, several surgeries do to what looked like being hit by a car while she was a stray.
Since we moved to Phoenix, Ninja has really adopted me as dad. In the process she's becoming my new lap cat. Most of her lap time happens while I'm at my desk, working at my computer.

She's very demanding and is definitely a pretty pretty princess, but she's my new little girl. Oops will always be my little big girl though.

PUG Christmas Party

2007-12-18T13:52:00.001-07:00

Last week Arielle and I went to the Pictage Users Group Christmas Party, held at Dave and Busters. Melissa Jill was kind enough to do most of the leg work for the party. It was a fun evening and I met a lot of nice people. When socializing died down we headed out to the play some video games. Arielle and I ended up tagging along with Megan Resch and her crew. We pretty much played any game that spit out tickets.

Opening night at Conspire

2007-12-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

Saturday, Arielle and I headed down to Conspire for the grand opening. First we had to grab some dinner so we stopped in at Fate which happened to be a block away.

At Conspire someone was taking portraits of all the opening night attendees for an art project to be displayed later. I think I threw her off by taking photos while she was trying to take mine. I've been on that kick lately. Check out Melissa Jill's blog for the group photo from the PUG christmas party last night. How many cameras do you see?

Soggy Soggy Football

2007-12-06T23:36:00.001-07:00

I love watching a good soggy football game. I also love looking at photos from such a game. I don't enjoy the act of shooting games those games. It's a constant struggle to protect your gear while still trying to use it to get the best photographs you can. In this particular instance, I found that my hiking boots are no longer water proof. Wet feet when it's 50 degrees and raining is not fun.

We had a unusually strong late storm that dropped over an inch of rain on the valley last Friday. Before that rain, we had a little over 4 inches for the year. I was surprised they actually played considering there was over an inch of standing water between the tackles from the 30 yard line on one end to the 10 yard line on the other.

All that said, the end result is worth the discomfort and exhausting working conditions.

Thanksgiving

2007-12-01T07:48:00.001-07:00

For me, Thanksgiving has always been about family. That includes the extended family we choose to surround ourselves with. Mom would always start cooking the turkey before the crack of dawn and we would eat around 12 or 1, whenever was decided on before hand. Friends would show up about half an hour before hand as to not miss out on anything.

Looking back, those gatherings meant a great deal to me. If I wasn't able to get home for Thanksgiving, then I would find a group of close friends or the family of a close friend to share the day with.

Last year was the first time Thanksgiving was anything different for me. I didn't have family in the area and didn't really have any close friends to share the day with. I did have Arielle. Originally we hadn't planned on doing anything special for the day since she had a shift at the radio station and I had to work. We ended up cooking a chicken and making our own little special day. That day was special in it's own way.

It turns out Arielle has a lot of pretty cool cousins out here. The closest relation of any of them is 1st cousin, once removed and they get more distant from there. The first time we met them, if felt like the family that I was used to.

So, this year Thanksgiving was very familiar for me. Even if the faces weren't as familiar. We had dinner at Toni's house with about 20 other cousins. To them everyone's a cousin, so we're just the newest cousins.

Arielle volunteered to bring something, so I was up early making green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. I also roasted 2 jars of coffee, one regular and one decaf. If nothing else we could have good coffee and it's another talking point. Turns out I didn't need the talking point because I had the exact same feeling of family as I had when I first met all the cousins. We were welcomed as family with open arms and big hugs.

Mmmm... freshly roasted coffee

Toni's daughter Taylor was pretty cool. We're going to her 10th birthday party in a week.

Bella's pretty serious about playing.

Taylor had a turkey drawing contest. Looking back, I wish I had entered, but Arielle represented and got an honorable mention in the girls class. Next year, she'll own it.

Numbers

2007-11-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

A while back in A Photo A Day there was a call for a numbers essay. Not so long ago Matt Mallams compiled a bunch of photos from APAD and posted is on his website. Seeing the APAD numbers Essay inspired me when I was out shooting a wedding earlier this month.

Amy and Jeremy

2007-11-17T10:14:00.001-07:00

This weekend I assisted Jennifer Bowen on Amy and Jeremy's wedding. The wedding and reception was at Troon North Golf Club. It's a beautiful location. I was totally fascinated with the grass. It was a beautiful and fun day and I had a great time working with Jennifer.

The father of the groom during the pre-ceremony formals

The Guests are seated

Glasses down for post-ceremony formals

The bride and groom take a stroll on the course for some portraits

The first dance

The first dance

Scottsdale Fashion Show

2007-11-11T11:05:00.001-07:00

I had the opportunity to shoot the Neiman Marcus Fall Fashions + Resort Wear show during Scottsdale Fashion Week. I'm not a big fan of fighting for space with paparazzi at the end of the runway, so I tried to spend minimal time doing this. Most of the evening I was looking for something interesting that most people wouldn't normally see if they went to the show. I was also looking to find a different angle or way to see what everyone is seeing and expects.

Friday night Football

2007-11-07T21:03:00.001-07:00

I think only the mothers of the seniors showed up. It was probably the least attended high school game I've ever attended.

I...

2007-11-05T21:56:00.001-07:00

walk on mountains...

...explore danger...

...have seen cruel acts committed by children...

...play peek a boo with ghosts...

...can travel through time and space...

AZ State Fair

2007-10-26T09:17:00.001-07:00

We went to the state fair last weekend. Overall it was a fun experience, we got there just as the light was getting good. I know Arielle had a blast. For me, I think it was more about getting out and shooting than it was about making compelling images.

The Clovis Carnival had the dragon, this one had the Cobra. Later in the evening the Cobra lost a wheel and the riders were forced to disembark with a ladder.
Spiderman - fair security
One end of the chair lift was a huge purple gun.
"Arizona sky is nice and all, it beats NC sky hands dowe. But it's no Clovis Sky.
We saw some wedding photos where the photographer popped the flash and rotated the camera to give the swirling lights effect. I was demonstrating how to do this, if you had a flash, which my camera doesn't."

Weekend Outings

2007-10-23T16:16:00.001-07:00

Arielle on top of Squaw Peak

AZ Republic Assignments

2007-10-21T21:49:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago I started to get some freelance assignments for the Arizona Republic.

Mostly it's prep sports, but I also covered a symphony rehearsal down in Chandler.

Phoenix Art Museum

2007-10-20T11:59:00.001-07:00

Phoenix created in SimCity?

2007-10-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

I finally have the proof I need. The city of Phoenix was indeed created using SimCity.

More Camelback

2007-10-06T00:34:00.001-07:00

Arielle flew in Ray and Tim for my my birthday. That Friday we dropped Tim off for some DDR action then took Ray to Climb Camelback with us.

A couple weeks later, we decided to head up the other side of the mountain. The first 3/4 of the hike are relatively easy then you hit the ridge line. That's were the fun starts.

Clovis News-Journal: Redux

2007-09-21T18:31:00.001-07:00

Since I've had some time on my hands and it's been a little while, I decided to go through the last couple months of photos from the the CNJ. Particularly photos since the wedding. My May stuff was in line with what I thought it was. Now June, that was a different story. I forgot that I was shooting some good stuff back then and I only posted from about half the assignments I shot.

Here are a couple of features I found in my last weeks in New Mexico.

Camelback Mountain: take 3

2007-09-03T11:12:00.001-07:00

This time, we got to the top. It's a strenuous hike, but the top is worth the effort.

Pick-A-Part

2007-09-03T11:10:00.001-07:00

The best for a junkyard, ever.

AZ Roller Derby

2007-08-24T21:41:00.001-07:00

On thing I missed when I left North Carolina was Roller Derby. I looked into heading up to Albuquerque for a Duke City Derby match, when I was in Clovis, but it never seemed to work out. Now in Phoenix, I found the Arizona Roller Derby and headed out for the league championship.

Not quite trash the dress

2007-08-24T20:21:00.001-07:00

Last we Arielle and I did a late night pool photo shoot. Next time it will be during magic light and I'll have an aquarium for underwater shots.

Update:
You can find more of my wedding images and wedding photography blog at:

de L'oeil Photography - Documentary Wedding Photography

Hiking Camelback

2007-08-19T11:38:00.001-07:00

Phoenix is pretty flat. It's not Clovis flat but it's pretty flat. That doesn't mean there isn't terrain around. See, Phoenix is in a valley and surrounded by mountains in every direction. There are several mountains in town. They're not the Appalachian Mountains but they are mountains. Because we have outdoor activities and it doesn't smell like cow poop, Arielle and I have started hiking on the weekends. Last weekend, we headed to Camelback Mountain. It looks as this will become a weekly hike to get in shape before we head out for longer weekend trips.

Phoenix First Friday

2007-08-18T13:09:00.001-07:00

Arielle and I went out for First Friday a couple weeks back. We didn't stop at half of the galleries around and we still had a full evening.

A view from Phoenix

2007-08-18T13:07:00.001-07:00

It's been a slow month. I haven't done much shooting or editing of what I did shoot. This is something from the end of July, shot as I was leaving my apartment.

Heading West, part 2

2007-08-01T11:57:00.001-07:00

It's a little over due, but it's here. The second part of my two part series on moving to Phoenix.

Until this trip, I would have went left, to Albuquerque..

The mountain is a sign we were coming up to Flagstaff. It's at around 7000 feet elevation. Phoenix is around 1000 and 120 miles south.The entire drive is through the steepest mountains we crossed on the trip. One in particular I had my foot to the floor and the truck was barely able to stay at 35 mph.

We got into town about 11:30 and got to the hotel about 12:30 am and were in bed by 1. We were up at 5 and over to the apartment about 6 am. It ended up getting up at 114 the day we moved in. Welcome to Phoenix.

Heading West, part 1.

2007-07-04T08:15:00.001-07:00

Taking a road trip with pets can be an interesting event. Especially when it's a cat. From my experience dogs are easier to travel with.

We headed out from Clovis Friday morning. I had the truck with Oops at my side. Arielle had her 3 in the Toyota. Now Oops has done her share of traveling. I got her as a kitten in Charlotte before I brought her to Raleigh. While in Raleigh she took several trips to Greensboro and lived in 3 different places before we headed out to Clovis. Her biggest problem is being in the carrier. If she's free to roam around on the trip, she calms down. She actually likes watching the outside go by.

Arielle let her 3 roam free most of the trip. She also had enough room for a litter box in the back seat. A littler box in a car on a trip is a good idea with 3 cats roaming, but the minute it gets used, you have to stop and scoop. It just so happened when we stopped it was in gorgeous light an hour outside of Flagstaff.

I used to...

2007-07-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

be on the schedule.

work here.

sleep here.

live here.

Colorado Springs Trip: day 2

2007-06-27T23:07:00.001-07:00

The second day of our trip we slept in late, then headed to Denver for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

There, Arielle decided it would be cool to eat yellow snow.

On the way back, Arielle watches as the world ends.

Colorado Springs Trip: day 1

2007-06-27T06:56:00.001-07:00

We took a break form packing and headed up to Colorado Springs to visit some friends for the weekend. After driving all night Friday, we were pretty wiped on Saturday. So we decided to take it easy and go to the lake for some sun and relaxation.

Where is Andy's Head..

2007-06-16T22:34:00.001-07:00

with new stealth technology.

Clovis News-Journal: The Big Boys Rodeo

2007-06-16T17:22:00.001-07:00

Well almost. Before the rodeo they help the rodeo encounter. It was for non rodeo kids to get a taste of what it's like to do rodeo events. This was followed by the pro rodeo. It was kind of weird shooting this, since it felt exactly the same as it did last year. Pretty much everything, including the jokes from the rodeo clown, was the same. I felt like I did a good job of not getting the same photos as I did last year. It was partly because I see differently than I did last year. It's interesting to shoot the same event in back to back years. It kind of makes you reflect on the past year as a photographer.

Clovis News-Journal: Little Buckaroo Rodeo

2007-06-11T06:21:00.001-07:00

Last week was rodeo week. It was kicked off by the Little Buckaroo Rodeo. Now the Little Buckaroo Rodeo differs from the Junior Rodeo. The Junior Rodeo is like the real Rodeo just with kids 8-18. They do the same events but use steers and calves instead of bulls and broncs.The Little Buckaroo Rodeo is for kids 4-12. The events are more geared towards little kids and are rodeo inspired.

New Mexico Sky: coming back from Rodeo year 2

2007-06-11T06:16:00.001-07:00

I finished shooting the Little Buckaroo Rodeo and headed back to the office. As I was crossing the famous Prince St. overpass I started firing away.

Clovis News-Journal: Features

2007-06-06T10:52:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of features from the past couple weeks. I feel like I'm starting to come out of a creative lull. I'm producing about 1-2 photos I like a week. I consider this to be about average.

The first one is from the carnival that came to town a couple weeks ago. The last one is a biker event last Saturday.

Photo of the Day

2007-06-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

No, it wasn't taken by a Abq Trib photographer. It was taken by Oded Balilty for the Associated Press, but it did run in the Trib.

http://www.abqtrib.com/photos/2007/jun/01/5816/

enjoy.. I did.

Photo of the Day

2007-05-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

I saw this photo when he posted it on APAD a couple days ago. It's running n the Abq Trib today.

http://www.abqtrib.com/photos/2007/may/31/5793

Thanks Steven, you made my day.

Marriage Firsts

2007-05-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

My wife is bad ass.

Inspired by Taylor, she decides it's time to take her first cartwheel as a married woman. Too bad she didn't have her wedding dress on. Cause that would really be bad ass. I guess it was just bad planning on my part.

After that she's like, "I put my hand on this cactus when I did a cartwheel so now I have to eat it."

Then her spidey senses go off and it's time to fly, there's crime to fight.

She ended not getting there in time, since this morning I get a call
saying the police found a dead body and can I go shoot the scene.

Maybe next time she'll get there in time.

that last part about the dead body is true, everything else may or may not be.

Clovis News-Journal: Weekend Feature Hunting

2007-05-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I was sent out to a basketball tournament fundraiser for a feature. When I arrived, I knew what my shot was before I even walked in the building. Sometime the feature gods smile on you. This was one of those days

Clovis News-Journal: Graduation

2007-05-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

I lucked out this year, I only had three graduations in 3 days.

Clovis News-Journal: State Track

2007-05-22T17:46:00.001-07:00

Now of the actually track photos from the trip.

ABQ trip

2007-05-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago I went to Albuquerque for the state track finals. Clovis and Portales had a bunch of kids competing. This is not a post about track. This is a about heading to albuquerque and getting bagels at dawn.
I left Friday morning before first light for my 3 1/2 hour trip. One thing I love about about leaving that early is the amazing morning light on the high plains.

Saturday morning I realized that the hotel I was staying in didn't have a free breakfast. *sigh* Usually that's one of the ways I try to save money on these trips. So I was forced to venture out and forage for food.

I needed up finding a decent bagel place, where I had breakfast Saturday and Sunday. (any bagel place is decent since Clovis doesn't have a bagel place) On the way to the breakfast (both days), I pasted the following scene.

I also dream...

2007-05-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

I can dance

I dream...

2007-05-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

I can fly.

I am graceful.

Design School Fashion Show, part 3

2007-05-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

Now for the fashion show. I probably had more fun before and afterwards shooting than I did during.

Design School Fashion Show, part 2

2007-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

After hanging out in the tent, I headed back inside where I met up with a couple models practicing their routine on the catwalk. I ended up hanging out with them and their designer most of the evening.

Design School Fashion Show, part 1

2007-05-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

I left Arielle at Laura's place then headed over to pick up Ray for the fashion show. We get there are 5. Initially I'm floating around mostly just hanging out in the tent as Sarah is getting her models ready.

Hanging out in Raleigh

2007-05-07T08:19:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more photos from my Raleigh trip. All this was before the Design School Fashion Show.

Carolina Rollergirls

2007-05-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

After staying up all night and flying into town, I decided it would be best if I go to the rerby match. I could have gone back and slept, but why slept when there's derby?

I headed over to Dorton Arena with Ray, where we met up with Tim for Roller Derby. I'm really glad I decided to pack a New Mexico sunset in my carry on.

Heading Back East Side

2007-05-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Arielle and I headed back to Raleigh for the wedding. We left 3:45am, NM time, to make our 7am, Texas time, flight out of Lubbock. I always like flying around sunset. Sunrise is just as cool for the views.

We got into Raleigh, had Cook Out and I went to the Design School with Ray.

Clovis News-Journal: Now I'm caught up from before the wedding

2007-05-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

The first one is from a rap concert to benefit tornado victims. The second is a native american story teller visiting an elementary school.

There's no connection between them. These two photos get me caught up on posting from before heading back to Raleigh for the wedding.

Clovis News-Journal: Features

2007-05-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Feature hunting is a daily event at the paper. Sometimes I can plan them, most of the time I can't.

Clovis News-Journal: Random Finidings

2007-05-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

The first one is some left over tornado damage. The twisted piece of metal used to look like the non twisted piece of metal to its left.

Clovis has over 100 trains a day come through town. Whenever I need to get a train shot, I end up waiting over an hour for one. Funny how that's happened every time.I did a little exploring around the train tracks while I was waiting.

Dress fitting in Albuquerque

2007-05-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Now that the wedding is over, I'm allowed to post this photo. For the most part we kept the red dress thing a secret. Arielle didn't want me to post this one until after the wedding so we didn't give it away.

Clovis News-Journal: Golden Gloves Boxing

2007-04-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's only about a month old now, I guess I've been kind of busy lately. Now that things are settling down, I can get caught up on here.

Last month, Clovis hosted the NM Golden Gloves State tournament.Given the involvment and support by Clovis' Chuck Haas, I can see why it was held Clovis.

Along with spending 2 1/2 days shooting, I found the time to put together a slideshow form the event.

Clovis Golden Gloves Boxing

Clovis News-Journal: Feature Saturday

2007-04-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to get caught up on posting, here's a feature I shot inn a slow Saturday last month.

Goodbye my lover, Goodbye my friend

2007-04-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

Clovis News-Journal: Back log of Sports

2007-04-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

I shot the NM State Basketball Tournament at the beginning of March. Shooting the tournament completely burned me out on sports. Wehn I get back to Clovis afterwards, it happened to coincide with a long stretch of almost no home games.

Here a a few frames from the past month.

Clovis News-Journal: Tornado Aftermath

2007-03-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I got up at dawn to document the destruction from the previous night's tornado. I was out directly afterwards but couldn't see the extent of the damage until it was light. Here are some photos I made in the aftermath.

Clovis News-Journal: High School Softball

2007-03-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've been in a funk lately. It's not that I don't feel like I'm producing good photos. I think it's more that I'm not pushing my boundaries and I'm producing a lot of the same stuff. I haven't posted anything lately because everything looks the same lately.

Last night, I shot another softball game. Actually I shot a baseball game and a softball game. I find baseball mind numbingly boring. Softball on the other hand, is interesting. I think it has to do with the people playing more than anything else. Baseball players seem much more homogenized. Everyone eats sunflower seeds, they all call the batter or pitcher by their number. If they have a two digit number, for example, it's always two one not twenty-one. I'm not saying that softball players don't do this they just don't seem as cookie cutter.

Primary Colours

2007-03-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to make take more photos that make me happy. This is one of my happy photos.

New Mexico Sky: on going

2007-02-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

I still love the sky.

Anyone for Tennis?

2007-02-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't that be nice

A retreat from the norm

2007-02-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Arielle and I went up to Colorado Springs to visit some friends this past weekend. The weekend ended up involving wedding shopping and playing with Alyssa.

A Free Hour

2007-02-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

I had an hour to kill in Portales after I shot the Eastern baseball game before I headed over to Portales High to shoot basketball.

Escape

2007-02-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I want to fly away from here.

Clovis News-Journal: Softball and Swimming

2007-02-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

It's softball time. I got one frame I liked from the day, not bad for the third time I've ever shot softball.

After the game I went over to the pool to meet up with a swimmer to get a shot for a feature on him. I got there a little early and was very happy I did.

Clovis News-Journal:More Mascot

2007-02-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've been shooting her all school year, so why stop now.

Clovis News-Journal: Baseball Practice

2007-02-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yep.. It's that time again. Since I shot this practice, I shot one baseball and 2 softball games and I'm already sick of shooting it.

To recap:

Football -- I never got sick of shooting it.
Volleyball -- I wgot all volleyballed out during the state tournament.
Basketball -- I got sick of it after a month.
Baseball -- One practice and 2 innings of a game and I'm already sick of it.

Clovis News-Journal: Wild Art Wednesday

2007-02-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just a feature from the other day.

Clovis News-Journal: The New Fire Truck

2007-02-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Clovis Fire Department bought a new truck recently. I had the pleasure of going out with them while they showed off some of the capabilities, like the 100 foot ladder.

Yes, I was up 100 feet in a basket attached to a fire truck. Sometimes I absolutely love my job. Especially since it had just snowed that morning. That made my photos a little more dynamic. I was having so much fun, I didn't notice the 30 degree weather or the wind.

Clovis News-Journal: Lazy Saturday

2007-02-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

The day pretty much consisted of feature hunting. I checked my usual spots and nothing, then did two laps around town. Still nothing. I next decided to head downtown and wait for something to happen. Before I even parked my car, I see these three kids on skateboards. So I chase them down and hang out with them for the next hour.

Clovis News-Journal: Friday Night Lights basketball ed.

2007-01-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

Friday night lights... Usually this means football. Given football is over except for the superbowl then the XFL after that. What?

You mean the XFL is dead?

When did that happen and why didn't anyone tell me?

shesh...

Anyways, here is my new version of Friday night lights.

What started out to be another Friday night basketball game turned really fun, very fast. This was the first time I was at a high school game where they turned out the lights and used a spot light, Chicago Bulls style, for the starter introductions.It made my evening.

quote of the day

2007-01-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

"The point is to take your photography to the edge of failure and then take one step over, and see what happens. Then take a step back and live there."

gerik parmele - apad

Storm of the Century 2k7, part 2

2007-01-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

After the snow started to melt, the ice came, along with the icicles.

New Mexico Sky: My Old Friend

2007-01-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

An old friend dropped by this afternoon. He always cheers me up when I take his picture.

Storm of the Century 2k7, part 1

2007-01-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

Last Friday it started snowing. It snowed all day Saturday. Saturday night the wind started. The nice thing about that was it blew the snow off our satellite dish.

Clovis News-Journal: Another Weather Feature

2007-01-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Over the course of 24 hours we got around a foot of snow. The thing about the job is I don't get snow days. First I had to dig out so I could take Arielle to work then drive around and find some features. It wasn't hard to find them. The hard part was finding a place to stop and not get stuck in the snow.

Clovis News-Journal: A week's work

2007-01-23T00:25:00.000-07:00

We had a week off from the snow and ice before another snow storm hit friday night. These are a couple photos from that week.

Clovis News-Journal: Weather features

2007-01-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we got hit with 3 days of ice. You know what that means.....

weather features!!!

Looks like more snow and ice for this weekend. I thought I lived in the desert....

Clovis News-Journal: Portrait Outtake

2007-01-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

I shot a portrait of a new pastor for the religion section. He was a pretty funny guy. So the first thing he does when I tell him to head over to the awesome stained glass window is to assume the "frisk me" position.

Clovis News-Journal: EPAC tournament

2007-01-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

I cover the annual EPAC basketball tournament the first week I was back. This is the tournament where all the small schools form around the area compete. Overall the basketball was pretty aweful, but there were a lot of good feature opportunities.

This is the mascot from the Grady High team.

Clovis News-Journal: Features from the New Year

2007-01-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

These two photos actually ran in the paper. Both I had time to find an interesting situation and wait for something to happen or things to line up just right.

I felt very refreshed after my vacation. Time to start making awesome photos while getting paid for it again.

Airport Fun

2007-01-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

Over the course of 4 days around Christmas, I think I spent one of those in an airport.

Clovis News-Journal: Pro Football

2006-12-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a first and a last. It was the first time I shot an NFL game, but it was the last time I shot football until next season.

I've pretty happy with the results, but I've realized a few areas I need to improve on. I still get very caught up with trying to get the killer action shot. Maybe I was a more worried about it this game, since it was my first pro game. Either way, I need to be more aware of things other than action.

Clovis News-Journal: 3A State Playoffs

2006-12-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I shot the the New Mexico 3A State Championship football game. The game started at 2 with a high theoretically getting up to 40 degrees. I got to the field about noon. Shortly afterwards the Portales football team showed up. I spent most of the time before the game hanging out with the team. They're a bunch of nice kids.

By the end of the game, my hands were so cold, I had a hard time pushing the focus button on my camera.

I'm going to miss shooting high school football. One more game in Dallas in a couple weeks then football is really done until next fall.

Clovis News-Journal: Hotel Clovis

2006-12-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Hotel Clovis has been closed since around 1984. When it was built in the 30s, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Now it is boarded up and city isn't quite sure what to do with the building.
Last Friday, I got a chance to go inside.

Photos of the weekend

2006-12-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

I have two photos of the day, but I saw then on separate days, so they are photos of the weekend. One for each day.

The first is on sportsshooter, yes sportsshooter. It's Al Bello's third place sports action clip contest winner.

The second comes from where else but the Albuquerque Tribune's own Mark Holm.

Clovis News-Journal: Friday Night Lights, the end

2006-11-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Clovis lost in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. It was disappointing in several ways. I've been shooting these kids all season and I really wanted them to go on. Watching the seniors walk off the field knowing that this was probably the last time they would play organized football. It was much more meaningful than last football season when I had not been following just one team.

I was also disappointed that it could have been the last high school football game I shot this season. It made me realize just how much I enjoy shooting football, especially high school.

Apparently the second photo has caused a lot of flak. The paper got several calls complaining that we ran this photo. I think most comments were something like, "this was a huge loss and don't see the emotion of the loss." One person said, "Normally I really like his photos, but if he's just going to give up," or something to that extent.

I really feel these people don't get it. I think they would be happy with a shot of a crying kid on the sidelines.. In a small community like this , what does running a photo like that really gain? My answer is nothing. The photo we ran, in my opinion was the best defeat shot I had. It would have had the score in it, if the scorekeeper wouldn't have erased it off the scoreboard within 5 seconds of the clock hitting zero. Kind of funny since a couple years ago when they won the state title, they kept the score on until spring.

The photo I submitted and we ran tells the greater story. It not just about this loss. It's about these seniors who some have huge family traditions with Wildcat football. Number 26, his brother played, his dad played. Now he will never play football as a Clovis Wildcat again. To me that's the story, not a kid crying on the sidelines.

For me, I'm lucky, I will shoot high school football again. It turns out Portales won and is going to the state finals on Saturday. So that will be my last game of the season. I wish the kids that make up the Clovis Wildcat football team could be so lucky.

Clovis News-Journal: an old one

2006-11-28T23:18:00.000-07:00

This is something I liked from earlier this month. I thought it was going to be a pretty lame assignment but I tried to have fun with it once I was there.

Clovis News-Journal: Saturday Afternoon Magic Lights, 1A state football finals

2006-11-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

I've been paying the price for having such gorgeous light for high school football.. Since I shot this I felt like I haven't produced many good photos. I've felt a general lack of creativity. I need to cuddle up to my Magnum Stories book tonight to try find some.

Today I found out that Portales is going to the 3A state finals and they're in Portales this Saturday at 1. Not awesome super magic light like this game, but I'm excited anyways. I know for a fact it will be my last chance to shoot high school football until August. I still have the Philly/Dallas game on Christmas, so o I have no room to complain, which I'm not. I'm just sad high school football is almost over.

Clovis News-Journal: Friday Night Lights: Part 3, redux

2006-11-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Within the past week this photo ran in both the Albuquerque Journal and it's on the Tribune website. So my guess it ran there too. The funny thing is, it never made my selects when I edited photos from this game.

The original post Clovis News-Journal: Day 80, Friday Night Lights: Part 3

Looking back, yeah, it's one of the better football photos I've taken this season. If it's good enough for the Tribune then it's good enough for this blog, even if it is a sports action photo.