Buzz

On Wednesday I got to cover the 32nd annual Riverside County spelling bee, I have covered a lot of bee's in the past few years but never one at this level. I am always amazed at the dedication these kids have, spelling words most of us have never even heard of before.

By the time I got to the bee there were five kids from my area left and after about five rounds they had all missed a word, so I was left waiting to see who the winner would be. After the 15h round all but two were left, and one of them misspelled his word. So it was up to the last contestant to spell her word correctly, and she didn't. So they brought back the other three spellers for another round and yet again they all misspelled their words including the last speller. This continued for two rounds then finally Paul Uzzo an 8th grader at Vista Verde Middle school in Moreno Valley correctly spelled "Metanoia" to win. I was really hoping he would win because he was really expressive, so I knew he would make a really great face when he won, and he did!

Studio Time

Well today I got a break from shooting news and sports to photograph in a studio, I had the privilege of getting to use Butch Owens (a local photographers) home studio. The shoot was with a friend who has never modeled before but she really has the classic pin-up model look. So we decided to try and replicate some of the classic pin-up shots from the past. It was a bit of a challenge to get the shots I wanted do to the fact that she wasn't used to modeling and I am not used to directing, but after a little time we really came away with so good images. Butch also gave me a great help by bringing some old tools to use as props.

(Foot)ball

I just got done shooting the CIF SS division III soccer finals in Downey, and man was it a was great game. the team that won was from Great Oak high, a local high school in my area. The final score was 3-1 and all three of Great Oaks goals were made by one player, Dakota Collins.

It was really nice for me to cover a local team win at that level, over the years I have covered many CIF finals and for the most part the local team never wins. So it was a great change of pace for me to be able to photograph the joy and excitement that winning a title can bring.

The Crossroads

As I was headed home today, I found the skies really amazing and decided to make a photograph. So I took some time and found some cows and made some images but was really unhappy with what I had, they just lacked that "it" quality. So I kept driving and found this memorial on the side of the road just as the sky was unleashing some really amazing clouds. I made a few exposures. I really have no idea who it was for or when it happened but I hope my image is some kind of tribute to who was lost at this site.

My fish

So I got a Canon G10 in December for my vacation, and finally decided to play around with the video mode on it. So I put together a video of me moving my fish from their old tank to their new one. I just wish I had it during the move to video the whole transition, so your going to have to put up with a bunch of still images and a lot of missing scenes, but at least the end has a nice amount of them swimming around. So here is a video of my other passion. That's right when I'm not taking pictures I don't retreat to my "batcave" and work on my next plan to thwart evil doers (even though I wish I did) I work on my reef! I hope you enjoy!

Poor little piggys

With the economy getting worse and people having to worry about if they will be able to pay their mortgage. More and more animals are getting left to their own devices and I got to cover one of these situations on Saturday. It was a real sad scene, the owners of the property had around 15 pot-bellied pigs to start with, but the owners had neglected them very badly. So badly that one of them was dead and decomposing, and the rest were all under fed and one of them had a very bad running noise and a possible infection,

The bank foreclosed on the property about ten days ago and so the water was also shut off so none of the animals could get fresh water. I came by in the morning and shot some photos of the pigs while a concerned neighbor feed them and tried to capture some o the loose ones. I was going to come back and shoot a local pot-bellied rescue group try and capture and transport the rest of them. However the realtor showed up while I was gone and called the sheriff on the neighbor for trespassing and was going to have her arrested (glad I left when I did). After a bit of begging and pleading, the neighbor got the okay from the bank to feed and rescue the pigs.

What happened to pong?

Last Thursday I had an assignment to cover an after school program at a local library. The program was a Rock Band 2 tournament called "Rockfest" there were probably 15 people playing and it was really surprising to me that they all seemed like they were at a funeral. None of them had any real expressions, except for this one little guy, who I guess plays the game all the time and is a 6 year old Rock Band phenome!

The library manager really wanted me to play so I had to give it a shot, and all I can say is playing a real guitar is a lot different and easier than the game version. Can you believe that this cute little toe-headed rug-rat totally kicked my butt! he got a 98% while I managed a meager 49%. I guess I'll just have to stay confident in the fact that I can probably play Stairway to Haven on a real guitar better then him!