middle

after tuesday's insanity, the week got a bit more manageable - still had 3 sports features to arrange and shoot - and trying to get our photo reprint orders out - as i suspected that the large orders were graduation gifts and should really be done asap so they get them in time, and since our reprints are so cheap, people tend to place pretty hefty orders - suddenly every sport shot their kid may be in is being ordered, and if it's night sports or poorly lit gym basketball,, they all need some touch-up before we upload them and send them on their merry way - so, that's a chunk of work right there...

anyway, wednesday, it was back out to the track for what will be my last track meet of the season (thank god!) - didn't get anything too cool, but this high jump pic is okay, and it was of a member of the school that seemed poised to win the meet, so that worked

then i met a woman for the first sports feature - she's been chosen to be the bat girl for the Tigers' annual breast cancer awareness fundraising game in mid-June...not sure i made the portrait i'd hoped to, but it's alright, and thankfully she had a friend who had a pink Tigers jersey, so that helped with the story-telling aspect

next day, it was off to shoot the next 2 sports features, or so i thought....

first one is about a kid who is training to be a soccer ref - his dad has been doing that for years and often workjs with his son, giving him pointers as he refs games - but of course the game they had was the day before in a downriver city, and i already had track and the other portrait set, so no go - would have to be a portrait, which we set up for after-school (only time they'd be available) at a soccer field...so i pull up and clouds are rolling in, looking forboding, and i discover the field is all locked up...well, hmm, what to do, what to do, then rumbles of thunder begin, and by the time the guys arrive, it is starting to pour - so we decide to try and wait it out - this one is running the next day, so i have to get something now...looks to be lightening up, so i suggest we just get out and get it done before the next bank of clouds arrive - they know of a back entrance that will be open - so we hike out there, and i start to set up the lights, and more rumbling begins, and then some drizzles, and i get off a few frames, just barely have time to get the exposure down, let alone compose as i want and adjust the lights, before lightning strikes, and now it starts pouring like some deluge on order from Moses, and the lightning is getting closer, and we're all like, we gotta get outta here now! - cos, standing in an open soccer field with a large metal lightstand nearby during a lightning strike - well, not too safe - so, we high-tail it back to our cars and call it a day - go home, change out of my completely drenched clothing, then head out to the next sports feature

story is about a guy who's a fast-pitch softball guru - has coached several girls from throughout the region to pitching success - the writer told me he coached out of an old warehouse on a road running south of town, but i can get the exact locale from him - "just call his cell, if he doesn't answer, he al;ways calls right back" - well, not for me apparently - after consulting another writer about where this old warehouse might be, i have a pretty good idea of what block i should be on, and since i haven't gotten a call back from the guy, i just head that way - after driving up and down and around the backs of the buildings in that block, i stop to call the guy again - more voice mail, so i call the sports writer - he's out playing basketball, then will have to go to church choir practice, so he won't have time to call me back, per his wife - still no word back from our subject, so i finally just go home...

did a get a call the next morning from the guy - he's got a new cell phone and hasn't quite figured it out, so he just got my messages - get his coaching schedule for that night, as well as the exact location, which it turns out is on a totally different road, in a totally different township, nonetheless!

so, friday, go shoot that, and then later that night go out to an assignment about a christian youth group that is having "cosmic bowling" night....why this is a front page story for the next day, neither i nor the reporter can understand - must be that there is really nothing else going on, and there wasn't anything else pre-planned....she could barely eke out more than an 11-inch story, and shooting kids in a bowling alley with all the lights off so their balls can glow in the dark, well, you can imagine the technical challenge such a scenario presents!

could barely see to focus, so it was pretty frustrating, and even moreso later when they asked for more than one photo to run since the story was so short! oy vey!