Spot News

Haven't shot any spot news in a while. Some guy flipped his BMW into Little Sugar Creek in Bentonville today. He was unresponsive and without a pulse when he was pulled from the car after being under water for 10 minutes. I showed up a few minutes late and missed the heroics, unfortunately my competition didn't. But I did get this shot of the firefighter who saved the man's life climbing back into the water to attach chains to the car so it could be righted. It's frustrating when you think you're getting to a spot news event in a timely fashion and find out you've missed the moment. When I say he saved the man's life I mean they did restore his heartbeat, but at press time it's not known if he lived through the ordeal. Either way, the firefighter is still the hero today.

Arkansas Vs. Kansas Baseball

Arkansas won a 2-1 pitching duel with Kansas today. Not a whole lot of action, but I still managed to walk away with some images I was happy with. Here are a few from the game.





For more photos check out the slideshow at TMN's Razorback Central website.

Starbucks Shuts Down

Well, not totally shut down. Starbucks did close all of its stores nationwide for three hours on Tuesday so employees could be trained in the extremely difficult art of making coffee, again. I'm no big business man, but wouldn't shutting down the largest coffee chain in the world for three hours affect the bottom line of a company that has already posted record losses? "All right everybody. I'm going to show you how to make a low-fat mocha Frappachino, again....so pay attention this time. We're losing money damnit!"

RBI Girl

For those of you that just don't appreciate the RBI Girls, Shuperman, this post is for you.

Hog Baseball

Arkansas came from behind to win their second game of the season 5-4 against Wright State on Saturday. Juco transfer Aaron Murphree, 6-foot-5, 235-pounds, lifted the Hogs over the Raiders with a 2-run shot in the sixth inning. On his next at bat WSU's pitcher threw a bad, blatently intentional, pitch that hit Murphree in the head. We almost had a fight at the mound. The Raiders' catcher positioned himself between Murphree and his pitcher. It was a tense moment and had Murphree wanted to go after the pitcher, that catcher would've been flattened in a heartbeat. Aaron is a big, no huge, guy.


Murphree makes contact with the ball. Not the homer shot, but my first ball-on-bat shot of the season.


Murphree watches his shot sail over the opposite field wall in the sixth inning.


A little love at the plate.


Shaun Seibert returned for the Hogs after missing most of last year's season due to Tommy Johns (elbow) surgery.


WSU did get four runs on five hits. They didn't just give the game away.


Spent a good part of the game trying to get a tight, clean feature shot of this kid. Wasn't close enough to get the tight shot when I snapped this one. But he stood up and mugged for a friend's cell phone camera. Nice. As luck would have it though he left his seat and didn't return once I turned my attention back to the game. No name, no picture in the paper. Ah well. It can still go in an online gallery from the game.

My Name Is?

Get used to seeing a lot of this guy from now on...even though nobody seems to know what his name is. He, or it, is the mascot for the Arkansas Naturals, Springdale's new minor league baseball team. The people in the Naturals' marketing office call him "Squatchy" unofficially, because he looks like a Sasquatch. Seems they can't name his that because of a conflict with one of the names of the mascots for the summer Olympics in Bejiing. They kicked around calling him "Woody" but for obvious reasons they shot that one down. "Squatchy," that's what we'll call him for the time being, is huge. At least 7 feet tall. He looks like Chewbacca with a baseball uniform on — of course there ain't no way in hell Lucas is gonna let them use that name, even though "Chewbaccy" has a nice ring to it. Anyway, he should have an official name by the time of the Naturals' inaugural season-opener on April 10.

Off Track

Arkansas' Track team got beat at their own game Saturday at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks' DMR team took third place behind Texas' team, which set an American and collegiate record in the race.


On a side note. Shooting indoor track is a pain in the ass. I'll admit track is hands down my weakest sport to shoot. Throw the competition indoors and it's really difficult. The available light is terrible so you have to use strobes, which adds to the difficulty when you're dealing with the recycling times. Yeah, I know (Z-Man) Wah!

Happy Valentines Day!

Followed a Barbershop Quartet around yesterday as they delivered singing Valentines. Not that I'm a huge fan of barbershop or anything. It falls somewhere between hip-hop and traditional Mexican polka on the "music I hate/can't stand" list. But these gentlemen were certainly fun to hang out with for the day. Better than a day on the ole "news cruise," as Shuperman likes to call it.

Check out the slideshow here

Toilet Paper Gun

One leaf blower + Two rolls of toilet paper + One toilet bowl plunger = Hours of endless fun. Wonder what the cops would do if you jumped out of your car at an intersection and started blasting people with one of these babies? Hell, throw on a clown suit for good measure. That would be awesome! If only I knew about this during my teepeeing days back in junior high school.

Hawgs Illustrated: Vol. 17, Issue 3

Haven't had anything good to post to the blog as of late so here's the lastest cover of Hawgs. Wow! I'm actually looking forward to shooting baseball. Not February baseball though. Nothing worse than freezing your ass off at an early season baseball game. I like baseball, just not early-season college baseball when it's freezing and late summer Legion ball when it's 99-degrees outside. I guess you could call me a fair weather baseball shooter..and that's fine with me.

Snow Day (Take Two)

Woke up this morning and guess what? The snow was still there. Guess what that means? More snow features, Yay! Both of these were shot in Bella Vista at the Tanyard Creek Walking Trail.


Tomorrow is Groundhog's Day (which is my birthday by the way) so I expect to wake up in the morning and not see my shadow, thus guaranteeing no more snow until next year. That's how it works right? I just hope the day doesn't repeat itself over and over like the movie, cause I'd hate to have to go to work over and over and over and over again. I do like my job, but that would really suck.

Snow Day

The term "Snow Day" just doesn't have the same ring to it when you grow up and choose to make your living as a photojournalist. In short if means getting out and driving in less-than-desireable or just downright dangerous conditions to get a photo of kids playing in snow, adults shoveling snow or another person's life made miserable because of the snow. I personally did two 360's down Chelsea Drive after only getting about a mile from my house this morning. No I didn't wreck my Jeep and yes I did slow down. I shot the gem above of a boy and his big sis making snow angels in their front yard at the end of my day after heading out for one last feature hunt in Bentonville. Gotta admit the shot kinda made it all worth the while in the end. I just hope we're done with snow days for the season.


This photo was of a father and son meeting halfway between their homes in Bella Vista this morning when the snow was at its peak. The son was bored and decided to walk to his parent's house to hang out. Yeah, he WALKED instead of risking wrecking his pickup. Smart guy.

Hogs Win Big

Arkansas put a 78-58 beat down on SEC rival Mississippi State last night at Bud Walton Arena. I really didn't think the Hogs had it in em. Boy was I wrong. I picked a good night to try a remote camera at the back of the basket. The photo of Weems dunking above off an assist from Patrick Beverley ran five columns on the front of sports today. It was a huge photo and a huge win for the Razorbacks.


Patrick Beverley fights for a loose ball. Pat has really come on strong for the Hogs lately with assists in double figures in four of his last five games.


Gary Ervin got to stick it to his former school and teammates. Ervin just about got into a brawl at last year's game against the Bulldogs at Bud Walton. None of that happened last night.


Guess who was proud of his Razorbacks last night? Pelphrey actual had some moments where he beamed with pride in his players. Has this team has turned the corner? We'll see.

That's My Boy!

Had to stake out the Benton County Courthouse today for a generic shot of a prisoner chain gang being lead out of the building for A1 news. I needed to get the Bentonville square in the background of the photo for it to work with the story and wanted to not reveal the prisoner's identities. After freezing my ass off in 32-degree weather with wind gusts above 30-mph for more than 40 minutes the group finally came out (a guard told me 40 minutes prior that the group would be out in 20 minutes, so i had to wait at the top of the courthouse steps out in the open for the shot i wanted). Just as it all frames up and there is a good line of prisoners headed down the steps the last winner in line turns to me and keeps saying "Hi Mom" repeatedly. Then follows it up with "Hey, when's this going to be in the paper?" Like he can't wait for his mom to see it the next day. "Oh my God! Junior's on the front page of the paper honey. Put down the red phosphorus and the Draino and come look at this!" Again this is one of those "Can't Win/God Must Hate Me" scenarios. When you want to get the prisoners face they react like a vampire hiding from the sun. When you don't want to get their face they all of a sudden become proud of their situation.


In the end this is the shot I went with. So much for not showing their identities, but I like the photo better than what I was going for intially anyway. And Junior's mom still gets to see her boy on A1.

Recent Work: More Portraits

Michael Ackerson, Ph.D., project engineer for Process Dynamics Inc. of Fayetteville.
(yeah the gels are kinda cliche, but my client wanted something colorful.)


Springdale attorney Michele "Micky" Harrington.


Robert Ginsburg, owner of Uncle Sam's Safari Outfitters in Fayetteville.