Virtual-Doug

Look Out, Sports Illustrated – Here I Come

Yeah – I keep busy.  I’ve decided that all those photos I take at high school sporting events should not be wasted.

Take a look at www.rgvsportspix.com.  Mom and Dad can wander around and find photos of their star athlete, then order photos.

To add more choices, I’ve asked a couple of photographer friends to work with me.  My only problem will be to watch my ego deflated as they take better photos than me.

Let me know what you think – would you buy a photo from the site if you were Mom and Dad?

Keepin’ Busy

Yeah – keeping busy.  That’s the real reason I haven’t posted lately – I’ve been having too much fun.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Texas had a primary election recently.  In South Texas, local politics get pretty raucous.  One race for a state legislative office was particularly rough – at one polling place, the cops were called because the two candidates were going at it in the parking lot.  During early voting, anyone getting near the voting place was met with whistling and screaming – in Spanish.

(Be sure to click on the photos – you’ll see a larger version that way.)

Around here, we have a phenomenon called “Winter Texans.”  In Florida, they’re called Snowbirds. Escaping the harsh winters of the upper Midwest, these retirees enjoy the warm Rio Grande Valley.  This gentleman is 83, and retired from being a golf pro in Minnesota.  He still walks 18 almost every  day.  I took a lot longer taking the photo than I needed to – I just enjoyed nursing a cup of coffee and chatting with him and his buddies.

With the advent of spring sports, I’m not always shooting inside a “dimnasium” and it’s nice to get a daytime assignment too.  Of course, when I’m assigned to shoot a soccer game, I’m in deep trouble because I know nothing about the sport.  Nothing.  However, I know a good athlete when I see one.

Spring break starts this week for the public school students.  It’s a great time for kids to get in trouble, especially here in deep South Texas where South Padre Island is a mecca for hell-raining college students.  One student at a nearby high school lost a friend in January.  The buddy had just completed Marine Corps basic training, but died in a car wreck while home on leave.  From that sad experience came a school club promoting teen safe driving.

If you are a high school senior, you know your life is about to change – big time.  These three girls have lettered in varsity softball together for four years.  That’s quite an accomplishment. They’re good friends, and it was obvious as I was working with them during the shoot.  They kept insisting I take more photos – then I realized they were having more fun posing for the camera than they would practicing.  They laughed when I pointed that out, let me take one more shot, then went back to sweating in the sun.

Finally, I shot a track meet last Friday, but the start pole vaulter didn’t even make his first effort until the sun was low in the sky – low enough that the stadium lights were turned on.  The photo sums up the day.

Small City Doings, Part III

(You might want to read the postings below first so you understand this one.  Small City Doings, Part I and Small City Doings Part II )

Who doesn’t love a parade?  Its one of those things that kids don’t have to pull Mom and Dad out the door to go see – most folks love a parade.  The parade was to start at 6:30, but folks began to line the route hours before the start.  Popcorn to munch on, and lots of barbecue too.

(Go ahead – click on the photos.  If you do, you’ll see a larger version of the pictures.)

The last rays of the sun were still in the western clouds as the fire trucks, police motorcycles, and other noise making contraptions passed by, followed by the King and Queen and their Royal Court.  The evening was a little chilly (for South Texas – the temperatures were in the high 50s) and I wondered how cold the girls would be by the end of the parade.  I don’t think they cared.

One of the local VFW Posts had this Color Guard made up of old timers like me.  As I was taking the shot, a thought came to me – so I turned around very quickly to look at the crowd.  Sure enough, the crowd came to its feet to render honors to our flag.  That impressed me.

And – a parade has to have bands.  There were four high school bands and at least three junior high school bands.  I guess they had to do a couple of rehearsals to get ready for the parade - football season has been over for two months.  But they were all proud and loud.

Lots of pretty girls.  All the duchesses rode atop convertibles, including the Duchess of Plumbago.  (The Mystery Guest Blogger tells me her gown is the color of the flower.)  They smiled, alternated arms to keep waving, and pretended they weren’t cold.

 

This duchess cracked me up – as I approached her car, I saw the cowboy boot poking out from under her gown.  How “Texas” can you get, eh?

Some floats were very elaborate, as was this one – lots of flowers and well lit up entered by the nearby city of Hidalgo.  It’s a bit of self-promotion as it depicts the annual Festival of Lights held in Hidalgo during the Christmas holidays – and is good advertising to the many Winter Texans here for the season.

Speaking of Winter Texans, they are an important factor in the economy of Mission, Texas, (and the rest of deep South Texas) and an extremely important part of the Citrus Fiesta.  In fact, the parade had two separate categories just for Winter Texans to compete in – and still another category for “Golf Carts”, which was for floats built on the golf carts owned by almost all Winter Texans.  I just had to get this shot of our Canadian neighbors having a lot of fun, eh?

A lot of the floats had kids on them – what could more fun than watching a parade than being in the parade?  This float was from the Mission Police Department.  On it was a Color Guard made up of the some of the officer’s kids.  This young man took his duties seriously.  He would not drop his salute until I let my camera hang around my neck and return his salute.  His Mom and Dad must be very proud.

And horses – you just gotta have horses in a parade.  There was a group from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church called itself “The Cavalry of Christ.”  This rider saw the camera, and just put on a show for me!

It was a fun night, though this blogger was a tired old man by the time I got home.  In all, I took over 1,000 photos during the day – and that many an hour in front of the computer.  But the newspaper ran an entire section devoted to the Citrus Fiesta, and three pages of nothing but photos.

Yeah – it was fun.

Small City Doings, Part II

(You might want to read the posting below first so you understand this one.  Small City Doings, Part I)

If you’ve never been to a rural county fair, you’ve missed a nostalgic part of Americana.  The Texas Citrus Fiesta comes close to replicating a country fair in what is called the “Fun Fair.”  Tents of vendors selling kitschy souvenirs, cotton candy, lots of barbecue stands, live bands – everything a country fair would have except animal displays and quilting contests.  Of course, it has its own unique flavor of deep South Texas. It’s a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon with the family. 

(As always, be sure to click each one of the photos - you will see the larger sized version that way.)

One of the connections to the past is the Vaquero Cook-off.   (Vaquero is the Spanish word for cowboy – the men on horseback who herd cattle on large ranches.)  As the sign on this tent says, the idea is to keep alive old traditions, such as baking pan de campo (camp bread) by using cast iron skillets buried in the embers of a camp fire.  A jury judges the entries – La Esperanza Ranch won this year.

Of course not all the eateries are nostalgic or even serve “healthy” food.  Chili cheese fries, anyone? Who cares if they are fattening – an afternoon of eating junk food like this is good for the soul. 

Maybe your tastes run more towards something sweet – a funnel cake right out of the fryer with lots of powdered sugar and cinnamon on it should do the trick. 

But then again, maybe you want something in the way of fried spicy potatoes on a stick.   There is a food stand that will serve every desire.  And – because it is a fun day, Mom and Dad don’t care if its good for you or not.

I was drawn to the bandstand.  True enough the country band wasn’t too bad – not bad at all, especially as they mixed in some songs from that L’il Ole Band from Texas, ZZ Top.  They had a bunch of folks line dancing in front of the stage. 

But – as an old rocker at heart – I was drawn to the retro band that came on next.  Yeah – they did some “oldies”, but when they did of the more bluesy  numbers like “Shotgun” (Junior Walker and the All-Stars, 1965) the band rocked.  I noticed more than a few boomers in the crowd who couldn’t resist moving to the beat.  This guy wailed!

And you never know – there is competition out there too.  This little girl got a case of the uncontrollable giggles when she realized she was a shootee as well as a shooter.

And remember, folks – this is Texas.  How could it be said better than this man?

Note:  I had a ball shooting the Fun Fair.  As I was shooting, I got to wondering why I didn’t do this more often – get out and take photos of “the real Texas” as I used to do when I lived in Việt Nam.  I took pride in the fact that I shot pictures of the way people really lived – the “real Việt Nam.”  But towards the end of the afternoon, it dawned on me – to shoot “the real America”, I would have to be inside.  Because most Vietnamese don’t live in air conditioned homes or work in air conditioned businesses or drive air conditioned autos or shop in air conditioned malls, it is possible to shoot the “real Việt Nam” outside.  With the exception of events like this, or in the case of some few people who do live mostly outside,  there are few opportunities to photograph “the real America.”

Small City Doings, Part I

Some background - -

Mission, Texas, is a small city of approximately 50,000 people.  It sits right on the border with Mexico.  In its early years, it grew because pioneer agriculturists planted citrus groves.  Though trade with Mexico and nearby maquiladora plants are eclipsing citrus as the main industry, Mission still celebrates the annual Texas Citrus Fiesta as it has for 71 years.  Mission is really an overgrown small town, and the flavor an agricultural, rural culture is evident during the festivities.

A festival requires a Queen (and king, but he’s secondary) and of course, that also requires a Royal Court.  The local high school gym becomes a coronation ballroom for the night as pretty young ladies of all ages became part of the pageantry.  This was not a beauty contest per se and the girls were dressed in elaborate gowns representing various fruits.  There was a Duchess of Watermelon, a Duchess of Ruby Red Grapefruit, and a Duchess of  Papaya – and many more.  Each was introduced with such formalities as saying they from “The House of Gonzalez”, or Smith, of Hughes – or whatever her family name was.  Of course, they didn’t come from the towns of Mission, Edinburg, or McAllen – they came from the “Royal Province” of . . . Each Duchess walked the runway, bowed to the King and Queen, then joined the rest of the Royal Court.  The gowns were so huge the girls had to have help to sit down.  For some reason, Americans are fascinated by royalty, even though our Constitution expressly forbids having hereditary titles.

(As always, be sure to click on each photo - you'll see the full sized image that way.)

There are costume contests too – mostly little kids, but a few adults too.  This little girl was dressed up as if she was at a sock hop in her poodle skirt.  Most times I enjoy watching kids performing in public, but I often sense they are pushed into cavorting before crowds by parents trying to live out their dream through their kids.  But this girl was having a ball. When she saw a camera, she turned on the charm.  She loved walking the runway.  Not so with this tyke – she walked half way down the ramp, and burst into tears.  Mom was right there to help,  but I have my doubts she will want to do this again.

It was a long night for little girls and old photographers.  There were endless awards, but then again, why shouldn’t there be?  A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into the evening, and everybody should have their fifteen minutes of fame.  The long list of kudos certainly kept the announcer busy.

As I looked out over the gym (the same gym where I’ve taken innumerable basketball and volleyball photos), I wondered how much longer events like this will continue.  They come from a day when America was mostly rural -  country fairs, festivals, and church socials were a way for people to get together.  Today, air conditioning and television keep most people inside, and for younger people, at least, a lot of socializing is done over the Internet.  The city of Mission, Texas, is no longer a small town.  In reality, Mission is part of a group of cities that include McAllen, Pharr, and Edinburg – and unless you look for the city limit signs, you won’t know which city you’re in.  It is now a metropolitan area, not rural.  The low attendance at the Royal Court festivities were self-evident.  In fact, I took this photo from a balcony area where I was the only person.

It was a fun night.  In the next few days, I’ll post stories on the Fun Fair and the Parade – both parts of the 2008 Citrus Fiesta.

The Dark Side of Girl's Basketball

Gimme a break - these dainty little high school girls are anything but delicate when playing at the varsity level. I thought it would be fun to explore the "darker" side of high school girl's basketball.

Make no mistake - I do not want one of these athletes mad at me. If they treated me half as roughly as they do each other when going after a rebound, this old man would be in the hospital.

(As always, be sure to click on the photo to see a larger version of it.)

And, when shooting these games, I try to stay out of the way. I like to sit on the floor near the baseline so I can shoot up towards the basket - but I worry that I will get clobbered one of these nights. A referee laughingly told me one night that I was due to get run over. (Actually, my only worry is that one of the players could get hurt running into my lens.) This player was tripped and was out of control when she made this shot - but she missed me.

Yeah - this may look like it was a soft place to hit, but at the velocity the ball handler was moving, this must have felt like she was running into a wall. The post player was big!

I wonder if these two reverted to three-year old behavior and kept screaming "Mine - mine!" at each other. (No - I would have heard it, I think.)

"Ooops - was that my foot you just tripped over? Hee hee."

"Lets see who can do a face plant first."

The Sports Shooter

Its fall – and that means high school sports.  I do a little freelance photography for the Progress-Times, our local weekly newspaper, and most of the work is of high school sports.  Doing this kind of freelance shooting won’t pay many bills, but its fun and keeps me out of the bars.

In Texas, it is against the law to play high school football at any other time than Friday night.  (That’s why both the book and the movie are titled “Friday Night Lights.”)  Okay – that’s not totally true –local school districts that have more than one high school may have more than one school using the football stadium, but Thursday night games are rare.

Friday nights usually finds me at a football game.  There are four schools in the newspaper’s readership area, so I have some variety and work at three different stadiums.

(As always, be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

My Vietnamese friends may be saying “That’s not football – what are they playing?”  This is American football – what you call football is called soccer in America.  To the best of my knowledge, American football is only played in Canada and a few schools in Mexico.  There was a league in Europe, but it folded.

What makes this so much fun is that I am right down on the field where the game is played – and I get in free because I am a member of “the press.”  Even the coaches don’t mess with me – they want their team’s pictures in the paper.  (I do try to stay out of the way, though – its their game, not mine.)  The downside is that its hot down there on the field – and this old man sweats almost as much as the hard working players sweat.  (Thanx for the pix, Mike.)

Access to the playing field offers the chance to get some good shots.  The lights in high school stadiums are located at the sides of the field – none on the ends – which means that any shot taken inside the end zone is going to be in shadow.  Still – the only way I could have gotten this shot was to be just outside the end zone.  By the way  -you tell me whether this was an incomplete pass or pass interference.

As you can see on my mug shot above, I use a fairly long lens – it was the New Toy  mentioned back in June.  Of course, it obviously lets me get closer to the action, but the best benefit of a long telephoto lens is that the background is blurred and the subject stands out from the rest of the photo.  When I do my part, the camera and the lens do theirs – and the editor buys another photo.

The girls are not left out.  Fall is also the time for volleyball.  As I have mentioned before, I enjoy watching girl’s sports more than the boys – the girls seem to be having a lot more fun than the boys, and I seldom see them showboat like the boys.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t some very skilled athletes – some are awesome.  This young lady could jump out of the gym.

However, skilled as she is, I have my doubts this hard-hitter will want this photo shown to her prom date.  Through out the game, she had a “Michael Jordan” look as she usually stuck her tongue out just before she hit the ball.

There is no college football around here – and that’s okay with me.  I’d rather watch the kids play anyway.  Fall is a great time for a high school sports shooter.

Crew

I admit it.

Any sport that requires me to get up before the sun is not a sport I could get into.  It would rob me of my beauty sleep.

But I couldn’t pass up the chance to see a sport most Americans don’t see or participate in – the sport of rowing, or crew as it is often known.  My son coached the a boat named “Cre8 Havoc” to the Women’s Masters National Championship (shown practicing in July 2006)  and recently accepted the job as head coach of the high school boys program for a major club in Orlando.  (Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger version.)

The kids were there before dawn.  After a warm-up run of a few miles, they set out the gear and launched their boats.  These boats are not cheap – the club was taking delivery of a new one while I was there.  It cost a mere $24,000.

There were two boats working out that morning, each with high school aged boys whose parents pay for them to be in the program – a program that has been known to produce champion rowers who get college scholarships.  This is neither an easy sport nor an inexpensive one.  I was intrigued to watch how competitive the boys were, even against members of their own team. They wanted to be faster than the other boat.

Coaching is a head game.  Most sports are as much about an athlete’s mental powers as about physical ability.  To see if the rowers could keep their minds sharp even when the body screamed in pain, the coach finished with a top speed session – and constantly stayed on them about keeping technique.  There’s also a mentality of being tough.  Yeah – a baseball player might go on the disabled list with a hang nail, but these guys are more like hockey players.  This young man had fallen during the warm-up run and gotten some pretty good scrapes.  That wasn’t going to stop him from bustin’ his buns on the lake.

Of course, the work isn’t over once the boat is off the lake.  It has to be washed first.  It was interesting to note how careful they were to be sure no soap got into the lake.  Their environmental concern was good to see.  Once things were put away, the team still had to endure a skull session with the coach as they discussed technique.  You can see how enthralled the kid in the middle of the picture is with all the talk.

He wanted to be back on the water.

The Return

As Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”  Thanx to those of you who inquired via email if I was okay.  I merely took a few days and flew to Orlando to be with our son and his family.  Grandpa had a blast.

You see, I got to spend glorious evenings with Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. Noses buried in their laptops, they occasionally spoke to one another, but the subject matter was usually about work.  My son has two jobs – teaching high school social studies and coaching boys rowing.  My daughter-in-law also has two jobs – administering the school district’s math programs and tending to my son.  (The latter is the more difficult job.)

(Be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Ah, but it’s the grandkids I went to see.  After all, my son and daughter-in-law are adults.  They’re too much like me.  Kids, on the other hand, are  - - well - - kids!

The sixteen year old is driving.  While Mom and Dad clucked and worried, I felt perfectly comfortable as she drove the family minivan around town.  She’s a level-headed girl and I have no doubt she will get the hang of driving.  Within a few months, she too will be able to text message, tune her iPod, talk with a friend in the passenger seat, and drive - - all at the same time.

The only male in the younger generation is the creative one – a bit edgy (though that may due to his recent ascendancy to being a wild and crazy teenager) but also a bit drifty in a nice sort of way.  This shot captures his personality rather well.  He was disappointed recently when he failed to make the school soccer team – he was one of the last ones cut from a very good program.

At the youngest end of the spectrum is the sweetheart in the middle – and who can compete against photos of pretty girls and a cute dog?  Mom’s heart is following the last of her brood as she becomes a young woman.  Personally, I’m not worried about her growing up as much as I am about the trail of broken hearts she will leave behind in school.

No broken hearts for the oldest.  She is a college student this year – another new adventure in life.  She’s also found a young man.  After meeting him, I think she has good taste.  He’s hardworking, respectful, and has worked hard at his education.  Even better, he will provide that extra special push she might need to study hard.  If Grandpa has only one fear, its that being a Great Grandpa can’t be too far away.

No thanx – I’m too young to be a Great Grandfather.  I just hope my son and his family remember me as a great Grandpa.

Budding Photojournalist

In a few previous postings, I have mentioned the freelance photography I do for the local weekly newspaper, the most recent being in July when I had one of my photos on the front page.    During the spring, I shot a lot of high school sports such as soccer, baseball, and softball, but of course, there aren’t any high school sports in the summer.  The editor has been trying me out on other assignments.  I hesitate to say “hard news” because that is not the forte of a weekly newspaper, but nonetheless, they are assignments that cover life in our town.  The challenge is to shoot something more than a “grip and grin” pose for life in a small city.

For instance, it was a bit of a challenge to cover high school registration.  The gymnasium was filled with tables and long lines, just as there used to be when I went to high school.  But, we weren’t fingerprinted back then, nor did we have ID cards made – much less ID cards with our pictures on them.  As I watched the assembly line method of producing them, I met the teacher who coaches the swim team I shot last month. 

(As always, be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Later that same day was “National Night Out Against Crime.”  The city of Mission, Texas, celebrated with a large gathering in the downtown park.  I think every dignitary running for office with a thirty mile radius came to address the crowd.  The event was hosted by a local television news anchor and was made  complete by the presence of McGruff the Crime Dog.   But I also liked the “Pee Wee Honor Guard.  These are kids of the officers and employees of the Mission Police Department.  Cute, eh?  That’s the Chief of Police with the microphone.

And sports is starting up again.  I’ll be trying out the new toy, my 120-300 mm f 2.8 zoom soon, but in the meantime, volleyball has started, so I shot the tryouts.  This calls for a super fast lens because volleyball is played inside a “dim-nasium.”  In this case, I used my 50 mm f 1.4 to capture this shot of one of the athletes slamming a wicked spike.  I was happy I wasn’t in the way of that ball!  The new school year was exemplified by this young lady – a freshman at her new school – who was happy she could now wear a new “Rattler” t-shirt with pride.

Go Rattlers – and Eagles – and Patriots – and Coyotes.  (Hey – I gotta give all four high schools I cover equal representation, eh?)