Language

Sometimes people move through life in a unique communication of gesture and posture. I could write 1,000 words about Mimi, but it would not speak as much to her personality as this image. She sat down and looked out the window, completely unaware of herself.

24 hours in sports

I've never considered myself a sports shooter, but I think I surprised myself and the DOP in the last 24 hours. I have had only one encounter with golf before, and I had all day to shoot it, not 45 minutes. This was not what the paper ran, but I thought it was a pretty true depiction of a teenager missing a shot. One of the leaders that round, he had to fire off a second ball since he was unsure his was still in play.






The first three football images are from a game I shot immediately after golf. High school football has outrageously bad lighting in this town, so you really get about 20 minutes to shoot the "play of the game." This is incredibly stressful to me. That moment of nice light there in the stands went out two minutes before the National Anthem.
This is the first time I've had a headline tailored to match my photo: "Trojans trip Lions," describing a huge and unexpected ralley by the former in the second half. The coach had been pretty aghast with them through the first two quarters, as you can tell.


This was a game I was not assigned to shoot. I just happened to be there to photograph some mumbo-jumbo about gas prices and busing teams around. The poor quarterback kept having to reach for what was repeatedly a bad snap.

The next victims

This is just a few. There are hundreds. Hand-painted gourds housing martins strung over a corn field about to drop this seasons crop. I hope to have this again - in screaming light, full of birds in flight and a farmer harvesting the fruits of his labors.

A lighter moment

This dear man took a reporter and me all around the Civil War battlegrounds of Chickamauga, Ga., in preparation for a reenactment. He turned for a moment to show us the expanse that would host the battle and seemed ready to take off.

War zone

The light in August has been surprising this year. This scene on Market Street reminded me of the demolition we see in war zones in faraway places. Something much more about the light than the characters.

Cardboarding

My sister claims this is a national trend, but I'd never seen it until I moved here. It's the thing to do around town. These kids were all brothers and cousins out for a picnic with their grandmother on the waterfront.

Faces in the window

I was pretty bummed out the owner was at a funeral when I walked past this shop north of Chattanooga last week. Lunch hour cleared the streets, which was unfortunate. But these ladies will certainly be there next time.

Family outing

Twenty-first birthdays are actually better with family in-tow, it seems. My friend Hannah had her coming-of-age ritual at the bar where her mother, uncle and their friends hang out on a Saturday night. It was an unusual beginning, but one that allows for cake and presents between shots.
Any suggestions for better strobing of bars with black ceilings? This was as good as I got it that night.

Alaskan sunburn

Not quite a Sam Abell.
I've discovered that I stop taking pictures when I go on vacation, which is odd. I think F-J and I shot a hundred frames between us on our trip. We kept the house from burning, watched the baby try to shove mushrooms in her mouth, played cards and went on a sea kayaking trip. Relaxing.

Color change

The light mirrored October in the South today. Strange for August. Contrast and color screaming in every direction. This may be my best use of the two so far.

Perspective

Finding a gap in the crowd was a bit of a challenge tonight during an acceptance speech by one of our local candidates for sheriff.

Stretch

This assignment was a lot of fun, but difficult to maneuver. With a wall full of mirrors on one side, try shooting around yourself, a reporter and two women breastfeeding (which the paper won't publish).

No experience necessary

This has been one of my saddest assignments this summer. Parents brought these children to audition for a play, and many of them could not read. One parent apologized to the director and said her daughter was just learning to read. When I asked the girl her age at the end of the rather painful-to-watch audition, she told me she was eight. Eight. And she wasn't alone.

Frenetic

The first day of football practice with pads in Chattanooga had me running between three schools in four hours to fill the football tab. I think I was sweating more than they were by the end of it.

Chimping.

Feature hunts are a daily thing now, and some acts are more desperate than others. This was taken at the zoo half an hour before it closed and our deadline rolled past.

Giddyup for God

Cowboy Church, Rock Spring, Ga.
Things I never learned at vacation Bible school.