Final pass

This was my last assignment for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. A Georgia high school football practice. It lasted 30 minutes between severe thunder storms - just long enough for a rainbow to appear over the mountain ridge. Not a bad way to say goodbye.

Got it!

In one of my final days at the paper, I was overwhelmed with assignments and incredibly short on time. I pulled into this softball game 5 minutes after it should have ended. Overall, it may have been the best prep sports assignment I've shot this fall. For the amount of time I had on the field to shoot, I turned out a surprising number of usable images. Woo-hoo!

Today's news

This was an emergency feature on a rainy day. A group of Russian teenagers visiting Chattanooga for the day, down from Cleveland, Tenn. This certainly illustrates the varied uses of the daily newspaper.

Wamp for Governor

Congressman Zach Wamp, representing Chattanooga, is one of Tennessee's next gubernatorial candidates. His Labor Day picnic and rally dissolved into a lightening storm, which sent supporters running in every direction. He's probably hoping it isn't an omen.

Snip

Why is it first haircuts are so painful?

Laboring

This couple was cooking about 30 steaks, but cooking them a day ahead of time. They had big plans for resting all day Monday, and eating with friends and family.

Too early for nonsense

Holding a town hall meeting at 7:30 a.m. on a Wednesday just seems like you're trying to make yourself inaccessible. If you charge people to come on top of that, it just seems like weeding out the opposition. For some reason, health reform has brought some crazy people out into the limelight. This woman kept talking about the Communist Ka-czars (pronounced somewhat like "Ka-Zam"). Her history was a little rusty, but she continued to use the word emphatically.

Critial care counseling

This doctor spends his life in the ICU, treating patients hooked to multiple machines - most with at least two organ systems failing. He is a strong proponent of counseling for families, preparing for end of life decisions that are difficult to discuss when one is faced with them suddenly.

Intensity

This week has been a struggle in the world of feature hunting. This park ranger had a handful of marginally-interested tourists surrounding him in our local Civil War battlefield national park. He was so into the telling of his story, that he didn't so much as blink when I walked up and started firing away.
The first comment in the newsroom was that he appeared as though he were about to wrestle a bear.

Unidentifiable

This situation was a challenge. A school that failed to meet its adequate yearly progress goals let us in to take pictures, but you really don't want to put a child's face next to the headline labelled 'failure.' So, this was my library find, without faces.