Prep football was basically one of two things I did at first job out of college (the other was feature hunting, which I did every day). It was actually pretty common that I had to shoot two football games on Friday nights. Since we didn’t publish till Saturday afternoon, I didn’t have a real deadline to worry about.

A couple of years later in Columbia, Mo., I continued to shoot a ton of high school football. There were two main teams in town, and at least in the beginning, we (myself and the other Friday night shooter) would generally stick with one team. That was great, actually, because you got to really know the team and could better cover them. I was the main Hickman High School shooter the year they went to (and won) state. That was fun.

Anyway, last night I shot my first high school football game since 2008 — pretty crazy to even type that, considering how big of a role that played in my formative newspaper years.

It was a decent game — kind of an ass-whooping, actually. Flower Mound Marcus (guys in white) handed Grapevine (the other guys) a 56-20 loss at home. And interestingly enough it was almost exclusively a running game, which isn’t the most visual thing. I got kind of lucky on a couple of plays, otherwise it would have been a so-so night of shooting.

Interesting note — Marcus’ Deion Sanders Jr. (#2 jersey) is the son of, you guessed it, Deion Sanders. Kid can definitely play ball. Very, very fast. Not much of a passer, but if he saw a whole in the line, he was gone.

Anyway, here are my ten favorite photos. Hope you enjoy. Looking forward to another Friday night!

- g -

Shot my first Cowboys game of the season yesterday. Well, luckily it was pre-season, because I am RU-STY. And I’ll be busy with the ‘Boys this season (three away, not sure how home games), so any practice is good.

Wasn’t a bad shoot. Actually ended up being a decent game for pre-season play — down to the wire with a winning kick by David Buehler. Backup quarterback Stephen McGee also had himself a decent night.

All in all, fun night, and got me excited for the months to come. Here are my 10 favorite. Somehow I managed to transmit like 37 images … and 10 of the cheerleaders, which is a new thing for us this year (don’t get me started on that).

Anyway, hope you all enjoy.

- gerry -

Back to school. Always a massive staff effort here in Dallas. Several shooters, videographers and reporters are scattered throughout our coverage area working on all different kinds of stories; just about anything you can think of relating to the first day of school, we do.

My beat yesterday was Frisco Independent School District, which opened an area-most six schools to welcome some 3,000 new students. Suburban sprawl is alive and well in north Texas.

In the early morning I hung out at Sonntag Elementary, one of the new schools. I was specifically there to photograph new teacher Kayla McAfee (fourth photo), but I just shot a little of everything. After that, I headed over to another new school — Lone Star HS — for what has become an FISD tradition for new high schools: a massive group picture with all the students and staff. Those are the last two photos. They tried to make almost 600 people form a large lone star on the practice football field. Sorta worked.

One thing new this year for us was the iPhone 4. Our photo staff and some “mobile reporters” have been issued these phones so we can better and more quickly cover breaking news with still pictures and video … and so we can all become horribly addicted to Words With Friends. (kidding … sorta)

Was an interesting challenge. The stills from the phone are actually really nice. Video’s not bad either, but hard to control (shaky camera work). There’s still some bugs to work out, but we proved yesterday that we can make it happen — the picture desk had a good selection of mobile photos and video before a lot of these kids were done digesting breakfast.

The first two photos in the below selection are iPhone images. They have been given some Photoshop loving (crops and minor toning), but otherwise, the files are about what they were out of camera. Also, click here to see a short video I shot with the iPhone at the aforementioned group photo.

Some folks back at the desk thought I edited this with iMovie on the iPhone, which we can do. Nope — Final Cut Pro. But still, I was happy enough to make something out of what I expected to be nothing.

Not bad, Steve Jobs. Not bad. I just wish the phone part worked better, but whatevs.

Thanks for looking …

- gerry -

So earlier this week Michael Ainsworth and I spent three fairly long shifts covering the ins and outs of the Big 12 Media Days conference in Irving. Basically, it’s three days of interviews — print, radio, TV, and everything in between. We took turns shooting stills and video. Michael took the brunt of the video work and shot two days; I only covered Tuesday.

Interesting work, actually. I thought it was going to be pretty boring — and it totally was — so I just tried to keep busy and make any frames I could think of. Access, for the most part, was surprisingly good. As long as I acted like I knew what I was doing, I was able to wander into a lot of rooms I probably wasn’t supposed to be in. Sometimes it’s good to play dumb.

We’re in the process of changing our content management system for videos at the DMN, so unfortunately the video link is down … because I know how excited you were to watch three boring interviews pieced together with some random cutaways. But, some selected stills are below.

Cheers!

- gerry -

So here at the DMN, we’re in the middle of a huge migration of multimedia data from an old service we used for our site to a new and much improved one. Suffice to say, as I’ve been told by a lot of people, it’s gonna make things a whole, whole lot better for finding and viewing video and such on our site.

To help with the transition, we’ve all been asked to look through the video archive and decide which pieces, if any, we’d like to migrate over to the new system. For the folks who’ve been shooting video here for years, or are current or former members of the permanent video team, this is a big task — poring over video after video to see what’s up to snuff.

For me, it was pretty easy. I’ve only shot and/or produced about a dozen pieces in my time here. As I was only trained on Final Cut Pro and our video workflow back in late 2008, most of what I’ve done here has been in the last year and-a-half.

Video is one of the things that brought me to the DMN. The staff aggressively pursued the medium well ahead of a lot of other papers in the country, and the work produced here is at a really high bar for newspaper videography. It’s an honor to be a small part of that mix.

So anyway, on the eve of yet another work anniversary for me here in Dallas (three years as of tomorrow), I offer you a handful of my favorite videos. I put titles and blurbs where I could so you knew what they heck was going on. They’re roughly in chronological order. The first piece was the first piece I produced after FCP training (fall 2008). Last couple are from this year. Also, I’d suggest holding on for another minute to let all the videos load fully.

Thanks for your time,

- gerry -

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
DFW chaplains serve travelers
For more than 30 years, the DFW International Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy has served employees and travelers of varying faiths at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Athletes compete at Prestonwood Polo and Country Club
Vaughn Miller, founder of Prestonwood Polo and Country Club in Oak Point, Texas, discusses the sport of polo and its appeal to participants and spectators alike.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Greenville company designs miniature, toy robots
Tony Norman, CEO of Greenville-based Innovation First International, discusses the company’s line of Hexbug robotic toys and the fun work environment.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
African lions move into new Wylie habitat
In-Sync Exotics, a wildlife rescue and education center in Wylie, moved four African lions into a new “Surround Sound” enclosure on Friday. The felines, three of which are rare white lions, arrived at In-Sync last year after being rescued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Students go about their typical day at Booker T. Washington
Amir Razavi, a senior at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, discusses what makes the Dallas magnet school unique.

Now that my clients have all their stuff and are happy, thought I’d share some work from a recent wedding in LA.

Ashley and Randy, friends of friends who are now just friends, plain and simple, gave me the opportunity to shoot their wedding at the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens. Funny enough, I’ve shot there before. Great venue — fun to work.

I had a great time and made some decent images. Here’s a quick selection of photos from their big day. I’ll have more on my site as soon as I’m done with the redesign and ready for re-launch … any day now, I swear!

Anyway, hope you enjoy. Cheers!

- gerry -

Lots of updates coming — mostly, a ginourmous website update. Till then, something I found while looking through photos from the Vancouver Olympics earlier this year. I spent, way, way too much time shooting hockey.

More TK!

Had a fun assignment yesterday to photograph this small benefit concert thing that was all mariachi groups and ballet folklórico troupes from Dallas Independent School District. Basically Cinco de Mayo wild art for us.

Couldn’t stay long — only an hour — due to tight Metro deadlines, but I still enjoyed myself. Might have even found a small, fun little story, too.

Anyway, here’s a quick three from the event. And for the record, where I come from, mariachis are breakfast tacos.

Cheers,

- gerry -

One of my assignments yesterday was to shoot the final matches of the VEX Robotics World Championship here in Dallas. Pretty cool event that I shot last year. Basically, students (middle to high school) from all over the world show up to compete with these little robots they made themselves. The teams are pitted against one another in timed challenges where a certain number of tasks need to be done (pick up a ball, place ball in basket, etc.).

Lots of dorks, lots of energy, lots of fun. Had an even better this year than I did last. Anyway, here’s a quick selection of images. Oh, if you’re wondering what’s going on in the first photo, that kid — a member of the Wetumpka High School Indians — was praying for his teammates’ success. Cute and funny. That image ran inside Metro with photo below it as secondary. Thanks to Brad Loper for finding me some nice room inside the section.

Cheers, and thanks for looking,

- gerry -

Looks like I backslid into not posting. Lot going on — work, play, baby on the way. Big changes are coming to my little family, and I’d like to get back to doing what I do best on here — sharing silly photos, stories and everything in between.

So, let’s call this a fresh start. That’s what Tony would want, wet and discarded or not.

Cheers,

- gerry -