On sunday, Mother’s Day, I covered a Corpus Christi Procession at one of the local Catholic churches. I liked this photo, mostly because of how the man’s cross was echoed in the powerlines…

While covering a Congressional candidates forum in Eastland, I suddenly saw something much more interesting out the window…

I’ve been playing with Instagram a lot this past week. I’d never really gotten into the app for “serious” photography, but I’ve come to realize just how fun it is. I also read a great article about respecting the intent of the app- the “insta” part of the name is drawn from “instant.” Instead of uploading heavily edited images from my DSLRs, I use it to grab photos made “in the instant.” When photography is your job (sometimes…), it’s nice to inject a little “useless” fun sometimes.

My one complaint- I want a web interface where I can see all of my photos at once, and interact with the photographers I follow. The social networking aspect is great, but I don’t like being forced to use it on my phone, when I’m in front of my computer for so much of the day.

Anyway, here’s a compilation of some shots from around town…

This is the first installment in a series I’m doing for the Abilene Reporter-News.
From the introduction to the series:

I’ve lived in Abilene for nearly 10 years, and for most of that decade, the empty windows above McKay’s Bakery on Cypress Street have taunted me.
I’m a curious sort of fellow, and not knowing what was hidden behind those old panes was a burr under my proverbial saddle.

You can read the rest of the “why” story here, and more about the first building I covered, the 1929 Gorsuch Building on Cypress Street. More images than I’ve shared here can be found at the Upstairs Downtown gallery.

On Saturday, I went out to Dyess Air Force Base for the annual Big Country Air Fest. This year, the event featured more than 70 aircraft in static and airborne displays, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the base.

The Tora! Tora! Tora! performance by the Commemorative Air Force was a crowd pleaser

An Army Golden Knight parachuter delivers the U.S. Flag to open the show

A Dyess AFB B-1B makes a high-speed pass

A young visitor covers his ears as an F-16 Falcon takes off on full afterburner

A family strolls past a gargantuan C-17 Globemaster cargo plane on display

I covered a gospel music festival on Sunday. I enjoyed these two shots, because of the color in the first, and because, who doesn’t like cute kids being cute…

Friday was a first for me: I got to shoot Opening Day at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. It was my first MLB game, to boot, and I mostly tried to not make an idiot of myself. I was told by the Rangers’ team photographer that, with all the Japanese media present for Yu Darvish, I would likely not get a shooting spot on the field. I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the photo room and see I had been assigned a spot in the 3rd base photo well, in between home plate and the visiting team dugout.

Here’s some shots of the Chicago Whitesox’ Danks (John), Dunn (Adam) and De Aza (Alejandro). My paper is more interested in the Rangers’ side of things, and those shots haven’t run yet, but I’ll post them here once they have.

John Danks delivers to the plate

Adam Dunn, the Big Donkey, goes deep with a solo homer off Colby Lewis

Alejandra De Aza can't pull the trigger on a Colby Lewis pitch

I was sent to Arlington Thursday to cover the unveiling of the new “Rangers Fan” statue outside the Home Plate gate at the Texas Rangers Ballpark (more on that later). I got to the park a little early, and was able to shoot around a little during batting practice…

Here’s one of OF David Murphy taking cuts off manager Ron Washington, while fellow OF Josh Hamilton looks on…

Late last week, the Abilene Fire Department was called out to a structure fire at a building about two blocks from the newsroom. I grabbed my cameras and hoofed it over there, only to find it was some roofers, who caught some dust/leaf debris on fire while working. But, since I’d run all that way, I figured I’d make a picture…