Snow

A very nice man, Dennis Petersen, and his two dogs, Wrigley and Lacy, played in the snow in Wilson Park.

The first snow of the season fell today, though it really was not much, and I felt like I needed to get that in the paper somehow. It sounds easier than it really is. Cameras do not pick up light snow well and our press will eat up what little might show up in a photograph. Dark skies make the high shutter speeds needed to catch snow falling nearly impossible. Long lenses are a must — this is my 300mm f/2.8 — to compress the snow so it can be seen. And then you have to put it on a dark background so it can be seen. But this one worked, and I love the tennis racquet trick.

Off and running

Fayetteville officially began its basketball season with a 54-40 win over Little Rock Central.

This was a collision of two very good teams and as a basketball junkie I had a great time covering this game.

Slow day

I was originally supposed to go to Little Rock to shoot the Arkansas and LSU football game, but plans were changed and so I ended up driving around and looking for a feature photo on a really quiet day.

County battle

Prairie Grove and Greenland's girls basketball teams battled in what was billed as an anticipated game for the season, but it ended in a lopsided affair in favor of the Grovers.

Dumb luck

Arkansas' women's basketball team struggled at first to take care of Northwestern before pulling away in the second half.

I wouldn't say that this is an award-winning shot by any stretch of the imagination, but I like it all the same. And that's probably because it's a little different and more difficult to get. And that's rare. After 21 seasons of basketball, that's rare indeed.

I lucked into putting on a really wide lens trying to get something different just before this player nearly landed on us saving a ball in bounds. My friend Sarah Berrett laughed since she has just put on a 300mm as she tried to get something different, too.

FHS band heads east

Fayetteville High School's Marching Bulldog Band left for New York where it will take part in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Though it was bitterly cold, I had a lot of fun today with this. For some reason, I have been doing nothing but sports this week and it was good to take a break and watch so much activity. I would have loved to have gone on this trip when I was a high school student.

They're STILL playing football

West Fork and Heber Springs played in the first round of the playoffs on a terribly chilly night.

Mother of Invention

I wrote this after my latest struggles with a woman I have been pursuing for nearly a year now. I thought we might run it as a column of sorts, but that doesn't seem too likely so I thought I would post it here:

She is seven now, not six, wild and impossibly small. She hides something behind her and, giggling, she wants me to guess what it is. There is a flash of something red, something round, being traded between her hands and hidden from view behind her tiny legs.

She is two halves, divided. One half wants to continue the game, the other wants to relent and show what she has hidden. She dashes around the coffee table, dives beneath my legs and is at once behind and in front of me where I sit. Her mother, admired from our usual places across the room from one another, is tired. Her youngest has been difficult these last few days, demanding, and she and her oldest daughter seem glad to have peace after a weekend together.

I pat a spot next to me on the sofa and she, slim as a pike, climbs up and sits. From behind her back comes an object that for the moment defies definition. She hands it to me and I turn it in my hands. Now no longer behind her back, I still have no guesses for what it is. Glued together lengthwise are two cardboard tubes that once held toilet tissue. These are sandwiched between two squarish pieces of corrugated cardboard, all of it glued and painted red. There is a bottle cap affixed atop the device a bit off center. A dial of sorts, blue and mysterious.

I cannot help but hold it to my face and look back at her through its center. She smiles up at me, pleased, in the single circle of the binoculars’ view.

“I can make you one, too,” she says.

I nod, delighted, still looking through the tubes.

As she leaves I focus across the room at her mother, beautiful, alone in a chair, encircled now in a cardboard frame. Smiling, she watches me as I look at her. I take the binoculars away from my eyes and then bring them back again and I try to imagine that, now magnified, she has drawn closer to me, but still she seems so far away.

Driving home, the night air is cold. The convertible top of my car is down and the heater is on. Stopped at a traffic light I find my binoculars on the seat beside me and raise them to my face. These are more crude, wonderfully ill-fitting and scribbled upon. The cardboard is dry and smooth. A paper clip, unexpected and cold, touches my nose.

I scan the sky over the windshield frame and find the moon, now a yellow sliver hanging over the town sliding imperceptibly away in the night sky. Focused on the moon, traffic, the lights of town, everything else falls away from view. Solitary and distant, the crescent bobs in the dark pool of my view. I turn the dial with my fingers and draw it near.

The must-have photo

Franco Broyles signed to play baseball with Arkansas today and his whole family showed up to be there.

Former University of Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles, for whom Franco is named, was there as well, making a photo with him and Franco the must-have, even if Coach Broyles accidentally stares right into my camera. Even with Coach mugging me, I had to run this.

Back inside a gymnasium

Fayetteville's four junior high basketball teams begin play tomorrow and we went to practices to supply images for the four game and season advances we are doing.

The Woodland Junior High girls, and their coach, Marilyn Bauer, were having a long day struggling with fundamentals.

Deconstruction

Workers at the Walton Arts Center disassemble an installation that projected high-definition video images of dancers moving, frame by frame, in slow motion on three screens on the side of the center. The 10-minute video captured just five seconds of dance and were really beautiful.

Shaking off the rust

The Arkansas women's basketball team opened up regular-season play with Louisiana-Monroe today and we got to see Julie Inman, a freshman phenom from Carlisle. But I am still trying to find my basketball shooting skills and am still in football mode, somewhat.

One of Inman's terribly nice relatives came to take photographs and sat beside me during the game. I really liked her and hope that she comes back.

Dogs lose in the first round

Fayetteville lost in the first round of the state tournament, 35-21, to Little Rock Catholic in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. They had over 100 yards of penalties but also some costly turnovers.

It's basketball season, sort of. I get switched to the smaller schools and will no doubt be in West Fork next week.

On to the Rock

Fayetteville travels to Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium tonight to take on Little Rock Catholic in the first round of the state tournament.

Working in War Memorial Stadium should be relatively easy compared to the usual affair that has me seeking out wireless Internet, ethernet or a humming phone line to send photos back to the paper since there should be all of those in a comfy press box. Of course, it's supposed to be about 33 degrees by the end of the game....

Avedon

Fayetteville junior receiver Josh Hale made 26 catches for 273 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season for the Dogs and is preparing this week for Little Rock Catholic, the Bulldogs' first-round opponent in the state tournament.

I have always loved the work of Richard Avedon and I thought I would have some fun with his style today. Who else has a job that allows that sort of fun? Richard Avedon did, I guess.

Habit-forming

Liberty Baptist Church in Dutch Mills, a very small community in western Washington County, celebrated its 125th anniversary Sunday with a service, meal and a group photograph outside the church.

In what is becoming a tradition after covering so many church anniversaries, I took the photo of the group for the church with the youth pastor's camera so he could be in the photo. I think this has to be at least the fifth time I have done this over the years and it's sort of neat. For a moment I feel as though I am a part of the group instead of outside it as I do normally.

Down to the wire

The Fayetteville High School Marching Bulldog Band is still $50,000 short in its fundraising goal to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They spent Saturday morning removing the stadium seats that they installed in Razorback Stadium this football season to raise money, and will continue to raise funds until they leave in a few weeks.

FHS rolls

Fayetteville hammered first-year program Heritage, 63-34, and in doing so qualified for the playoffs as the final seed from the 7A-West.

Tonight was really cold and with the win, I have to go to either Little Rock or Bryant for the first round of the playoffs where it promises to be even colder.

Pretty light

Fayetteville High hosts first-year program Heritage today in its final game of the regular season.

The players have a period of quiet before the games weekly and with the sun going down and everyone really concentrating on the game ahead, I really love this photo. Better yet, I haven't see this photo yet and after 16 seasons of FHS football that counts for something.

Intensity

Arkansas coach John Pelphrey motions for a 10-second violation as his Razorbacks host Campbellsville Univeristy, a powerhouse from NAIA in Kentucky.

I am amazed at this time of the year how rusty we become at shooting particular sports during the off-season. I really struggled through this game, but I'll get better.

Polenta

Tontitown held its seventh annual Tontitown Reunion and Old-Fashioned Polenta Smear Sunday, an event that serves as a homecoming of sorts for the town's residents and an opportunity for the town's historical museum to collect copies of historical photographs.

The center of the event is polenta, a traditional Italian meal made from corn meal. I tried it a few years ago and have to think that it's probably an acquired taste.

Wrong place, wrong time

Arkansas beat Tulsa, 30-23, in what turned out to be an exciting game. The play of the game, a kickoff return for a touchdown that set the final score, was an elusive one for most, as it is normally, including yours truly.