That “Uh Oh” Moment

A great photograph captures a special moment in time. While this photo may not be great, I think it captures a fun moment. It’s that moment where two human beings have that thought in their mind of “oh, this is going to suck”. 

Any photographer who spends a decent amount of time shooting sports will tell you that at some point, you’re going to have to dodge something. A ball, a ref running down the sideline and worst of all, a player. It’s simply a part of the job. And frankly, as long as my equipment comes out ok and I don’t take any injuries, I think it’s actually a fun part of the job. It definitely helps to break up the routine and it’s always nice to look over to the person next to you and see which one of you “chickened out” first by comparing how close the player was on your last frame. So, while covering a basketball game tonight, I experienced this moment. And as I said earlier, the photo is not great. But I like the moment. Hope you do as well. 

 

An Old Favorite

So a week back, or so, I found an old photo of mine that I’ve always liked and decided to make it my Twitter banner. Or whatever the term is. Anyway, I noticed that I’ve never posted it on my blog before. So here I am to rectify that. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present “The Disappointed Jockey”.

Snow Dog

I’ve been land locked by a snow storm so here’s a picture of my dog, well the top of her head anyway. Nothing special. Just felt like throwing something up.

My dog, being a dog.

The Barr-Reeve Lady Vikings

Ever since I graduated from Ball State, I’ve been job searching. It’s not a fun process. Each interview is a glimmer of hope at the future that could be. And every turn down is an added voice to the chorus of “you’re not cut out for this profession”. Lately though, I’ve been afforded the chance of covering a local volleyball team, the Barr-Reeve Vikings, for a paper in my area, the Washington Times-Herald as a freelancer. Besides bringing me out of the depression that is sitting at my computer all day sending out job applications, covering the Vikings was interesting for me in the sense that it was almost like working on a documentary.

The first match I covered had the Vikings going up against their biggest rivals, the Loogootee Lions. I hadn’t seen a gym so packed since I had graduated from college and it really got me back into the spirit of photojournalism. I even took a few Instagram videos of it. The next match was the Vikings sectional match, again facing their long-time rivals. Then it was the regionals, the semi-state and finally the state championship at Ball State (I just can’t get away). I became such a staple at the Vikings’ matches I even had a parody Twitter account made about me by a Barr-Reeve student.

Obviously, I’m not going to post all the pictures I have of all those matches. But, I feel like I would be doing a disservice to the State Champs by not posting pictures of their journey to Muncie. So, the photos are a mix of all the different matches I covered as well as a video I made for the Times-Herald. Hope you enjoy them.

More Football

Besides the fact that the Ball State win over Kent State on Saturday was a super close game, which made for an exciting homecoming, I also found that I ended up liking a lot of my pictures. Call it nostalgia, call it the excitement of getting to go back and relive my college glory and see old friends (I guess that all counts as nostalgia…), or perhaps I just wanted to showcase some more of my work since I’m a little bored at the moment. Here are some more photos from the game. I almost feel a little tacky for making two different posts about the same game but I hope you will forgive me and hopefully the photos are good enough for such a thing. Enjoy.

Introducing the Queen

My last post stated that I have a multimedia project in the works regarding Miss Martin County. However, a family emergency and then some freelance work has kept me from posting on here in quite awhile. But, I do have that multimedia project, although the topic has been changed a bit.  Rather than having it be a behind the scenes look at the Miss Martin County pageant, this video focuses more on the newly crowned queen and her battle to overcome cancer when she was a child. I made this piece, along with a written article, for a local paper, the Washington Times-Herald. You can see the full article at this link.

 

Miss Martin County

So, these are just some preview pictures for an upcoming multimedia thing I’m going to be working on over the next couple of days. I got in behind the scenes of the Miss Martin County Pageant and basically followed the contestants around for most of the day. Luckily enough for me, I guessed correctly and ended up making the queen my main subject for my multimedia piece. I should have that up tomorrow baring any emergencies. That being said, I’m actually in the middle of an emergency right now. My grandfather is in the hospital and his condition is getting worse, so there’s nothing saying that emergency won’t come to fruition. Just warning you ahead of time, my three avid followers. Three seems like a big number…

Anyway, hope you like the photos and check back for the multimedia post.

Fourth of July Weekend

Well, the birthday of America’s independence has come and gone. In my hometown of Shoals, Ind. the Fourth is celebrated with the Catfish Festival. And it’s exactly what it sounds like. A festival of catfish. To understand how small the whole affair is, you really need to be there. A single street of about 40-50 booths and a couple of kiddy rides. The biggest attraction is the fireworks, and band competition and the fact that you might run into someone you know. So, to challenge myself I decided to head out and see if I could get any decent pictures. The only picture in this post that isn’t from the Catfish festival is the fireworks one. I was out of town that day so I had to go shoot another celebration. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

A boy sits on the stoop of the Shoals flower shop during the Catfish festival.

A young boy is held up by his mother.

Girls laugh as they spin their “teacup” before the start of the ride.

A young girl watches her family as she rides the teacups.

A booth assistant waits for her boss to finish putting up prizes.

A booth owner texts on his phone while waiting for customers.

The attendant of a soda fountain booth watches for customers.

Residents of the town of Oden, Ind. take in fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Fun With Fire

I’ve never been one to try out the cliche photos but boredom can make one do crazy things. So, when I found a huge pack of sparklers available for $2 while I was at Wal-Mart, I decided I would have some fun. Again, I need to thank my girlfriend for helping out and being ever so patient with me while I was doing the photos. And thanks to my mom for being my other assistant. I know these aren’t exactly the best sparkler photos but I think it’s an admirable effort that I thought would help me get used long exposure times on my D3, a camera that because of the my lack of work I haven’t really been able to get as used to as I would like. Also, I think this is the first time I’ve ever dealt with sparklers in terms of photography. So, hope you enjoy and hope this gives you a good thing to go into the weekend with.

Beads, Booze and Breasts

Over the weekend I covered something that I’ve kind of been nervous about covering for the last two years. The annual street festival known as Muncie Gras. That my friends, is exactly what it sounds like: Muncie’s version of New Orleans annual pre-Lent party. Granted, Muncie Gras doesn’t base its date on any religious holidays but it follows the same premise. A lot of alcohol plus beads and flashing equals fun for party goers.

I’m actually pretty happy with how these photos turned out, considering I had to shoot basically all the shots with a slowed shutter and flash, something that I’ve never really done. But, I feel like they turned out pretty well, maybe a little over/under exposed on some shots, but for the most part I think it turned out well.

Now, for you younger viewers I will say, one of these photos does involve nudity so there’s your warning on that. Besides that, hope you enjoy that shots.

A woman rides a mechanical bull during Muncie Gras. © Bobby Ellis