Being constructive

Fayetteville High begins the work this week of preparing for archrival Springdale and shaking off two straight losses. We are examining the undersized offensive and defensive lines by an average of 35 pounds per player during the last two games.

Covering high school athletes when they win is easy. They celebrate along with our community and the photographs and stories can glow with the charm of kids being successful. The way becomes slippery and steep when they are losing and we as journalists still have to try to delve into why.

Professional athletes, by virtue of their enormous paychecks and decisions to pursue sports as a career, are in a position to accept criticism for their performance. And journalists who are tasked to cover them are in a position to supply it. But high school athletes expect and deserve to be written about with kid gloves on. An overwhelming number of them will never play past high school and it is love, not wealth, that has placed them before us, the journalists, to be watched and weighed. Love of the game and those they play it with. When they struggle and fail, we have to remember that.

Memory

Fayetteville firefighter Marty Powers cradles 6-week-old Angelica Schmitt after finding her in an apartment fire that claimed the life of her father Jan. 31, 1995, in Fayetteville. Powers and Schmitt have remained close in the years that followed and are in Washington D.C. this weekend to represent Arkansas at the International Association of Firefighters National Burn Camp. Here is the story.

The day of the fire I pulled into work and could smell the smoke from the fire from the parking lot of the Times office. I walked to the apartment building and learned that a man had lost his life in the fire. As I waited for officials to remove the body with then-Associated Press stringer Tom Ewart, a firefighter rushed out of the building carrying a baby, blackened by the fire. I remember just holding up my camera and getting this one photo before he rushed her to a waiting ambulance.

I had been shooting with my camera set to the low light in the lee of the building so when he ran into the noon sun the frame I got was badly over exposed — maybe three stops — but I was able to rescue it by duplicating it with transparency film.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ

The Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally has grown from humble beginnings in 1999 or so to what is now the third largest rally in the country.

The rally brings an estimated 300,000 visitors to a town with an already swollen population of around 72,000 people so just trying to live, sleep and get around in this town is to do so amongst an incredible number of motorcycles and people.

Dogs get hammered

Fayetteville lost again, 31-3, to Bentonville in the two teams' conference-opener in what was billed as a game between two teams led by sophomore quarterbacks.

Conference season

Fayetteville High opens 7A-West Conference play Friday at Tiger Stadium in nearby Bentonville after the Dogs' opened 2-1 with wins over Little Rock Central and Missouri powerhouse Jefferson City and a loss to former conference rival Russellville.

I like to get to the games a bit early so I can find photos that can be used with the advance story the next week and I really love the sky before the start of last week's game in Russellville. As much as it make football-types roll their eyes, this is really pretty to me.

Accomplice to murder

The attorney for Jesse Westeen, who was accused as accomplice to the murders of a local couple in mid 2007, works out a plea agreement with the Washington County prosecutor and the deputy prosecutor moments before Westeen's trial was to begin.

The county circuit courtroom in which most newsy trials occur features a room — it's a storage closet really — with a view of the courtroom out a tinted window that looks over the heads of the jury. At first I thought that we are invisible to the people in the courtroom but the angry stares of the accused told me quickly that we are not. When there is a big trail of great interest, it is not uncommon to share the room with three television stations and two other newspapers as we all shoot out of a window that is about three feet wide and try to be quiet.

Taking suggestions

Amber Preston helps her son keep his pants on while playing with a kite at Winfest, a music festival that raises money for the town of Winslow.

Photographs that do not accompany stories in newspapers are referred to as stand-alone photos. Stand-alone photos, because of their very nature, need their own headline, known as an overline or rocket. For example, years ago the front wheel assembly on a man's truck fell off, causing a minor accident. My rocket over my photo was "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel."

So here's the challenge: What is a good rocket for a photo of a kid losing his pants, playing with a kite while at a music festival?

I got nothin'.

Another streak broken

The Happy Howlers, a dog-owners' club associated with Happy Hollow Elementary School, held a dog walk to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and, ostensibly, one of its members who has diabetes.

For the first time since 1994 I did not photograph the Razorbacks' home football game, this one with No. 9 Alabama, to allow my fellow Times photographer Anthony Reyes the opportunity. I didn't even listen to it on the radio. Weird.

Humility

Top-ranked and defending state champion Fayetteville High got knocked off by Russellville in a game that saw the Dogs out everything'ed all night.

Planning for the future

The City of Fayetteville has been working with residents on a long-range plan for south Fayetteville on the eve of a large-scale development and expected development in the oft-neglected area.

Big dog

Longtime Fayetteville sign painter Eric Snodgrass is working this week on a mural at the Fayetteville High School football field in honor of the Bulldogs' 2007 football state championship.

It's understandable that Mr. Snodgrass wanted me to come back when it was finished since it would, well, look better. We get this quite a lot as photographers. Time and time again we are invited to come by and see a project after it is completed instead of in progress. The best photos, though, are to be had when work is still being done on a project because in the end, it's more about the person or persons whose work it is than the work itself.

160 years

First Christian Church in Fayetteville is celebrating its 160th anniversary of its founding this weekend.

Taking photographs during a church service is always tricky, even when I am invited to attend and expected to take photos of what happens during the service. Worship is a terribly personal endeavor and I always feel like I am being a nuisance so I usually hang back in the back of the church until I see something that I like. The stained-glass windows in this church building are really beautiful and this photo worked out just about like I wanted it to.

Fish out of water

West Fork and Pea Ridge battled in a defensive struggle under heavy clouds from Hurricane Ike.

For only the second time since 1996, I missed a Fayetteville High football game tonight. They traveled to Jefferson City, Mo., to take on the Jays of Jefferson City High. Since we now own the paper in Jefferson City and can get coverage from them, I stayed in town and shot West Fork instead. In doing so, I avoided a six-hour drive, riding a charter bus home until 4 a.m. and working all day Saturday on bus-seat sleep. Yet, it was still sort of sad to not be there.

Is that weird?

Ramay has a long night

When I left, Ramay Junior High was having a tough time with Bentonville Gold.

Heavy rain clouds were hanging over the field for much of the night and I bundled up my camera and lens in plastic garbage bags to protect them, but thankfully the rain tapered off by kickoff.

Mondays

It's Monday during football season and that means only one thing... Fayetteville High football portraits. I struggle to think of something different to do, but I kinda like this one of receiver Kellen Summers.

A question of style

In covering the Defenders of Freedom ceremony, during which members of the 142nd Fires Brigade of the Army National Guard were honored for their participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I have to admit that the most difficult thing was not the low light, but instead getting the rank of all the soldiers correct in the eyes of Associated Press style. Being in Fayetteville, we don't often deal with members of the military and I don't have all of the style rules for the military down at all. I like the photo I made, though, and I hope I got all the Spc., Staff Sgt. and Command Sgt. Maj. right.

YouthCAN! indeed

YouthCAN! held a celebration for it's one-year anniversary by letting kids make party hats and play games.

I admit I had a strong desire to make a hat, but I am over that now. Somewhat.

Lopsided

Fayetteville ran roughshod over Little Rock Central, 35-0, in the season-opener.

Let the football begin

Crosstown rivals Ramay and Woodland junior highs played in the first game of the year. It will be cold out when this is all over.