Daily Grind

Yesterday I returned back to work after a pair of excruciatingly boring days off. I hate to say it, but I was pretty relieved to get back to work. Late in the afternoon I shot a softball game at Skyview High. This shot was from when a pair of defenders collided as they converged on an infield fly.


After that I headed back down to Boise to cover a ECHL playoff game between the defending Kelly Cup Champions, The Idaho Steelheads, and their opponents from last years ECHL finals, The Alaska Aces. I wanted to do something a little different so I decided to shoot from the catwalk. Scary stuff, but it was definitely different. Unfortunately I didn't get the shot I was really hoping for but oh well.

Tennis

Just a shot I liked from a recent tennis match between the University of Idaho and Boise State. The player in the picture is Clancey Shields.

Something Strange

Yesterday I had an assignment which required that I follow up on the recent death of a museum proprietor outside the rural Idaho city of Melba. Upon arrival, I was simply amazed by the unique complexity of this particular museum. Unlike most, this particular museum displayed its collection of interesting items outdoors along a walking trail, which wandered through a marshy riparian area for about a mile.

There were many, and I mean MANY, truly bizarre items including, yet not limited to: bronze statues of the American "founding fathers", an "Enchanted Forest" which had dozens of garden gnomes and well over 100 inspirational placards dawning phrases such as "Laugh often", "Love Nature" and "Laughing is Carbonated Love". Strange I know.

Now you are probably asking yourself "and why is this being considered news?" I asked myself the same question and came up with the answer that it's really not. Just an interesting thing to send a reporter and photographer out to do on a slow news Sunday afternoon.

That's a Wrap!

So I haven't been doing a very good job updating my progress over the last week on the boxing story and for that I appologize. I've been tying on multiple 12-hour days in the last week concluding with a marathon day yesterday where I logged over 15 hours. Needless to say, I have been busy.

In case you can't recall, over the past three weeks I have been trying to document the lives of two professional boxers, Edgar and Mario Hernandez Jr. They both fight out of Caldwell, Idaho and on Saturday, April 5th they both fought in their tenth professional bouts, respectively.

Both finished the night on top with Edgar winning by TKO in the first round and Mario (the main event) took his fighter deep into the 8th round and would eventually win by a majority decision.

In retrospect, the past few weeks have taught me a lot. I've met a whole new group of great people and I also met many of my personal goals, which I had established before starting the project. I helped design a full photo page and wrote my own copy to run with the photos, a task which wasn't totally natural for me. It was a great challenge and I am very excited to start over and do it all again.

These are a few of my favorite singles from the story. To see additional photos as well as a copy of the page layout please visit... www.sportsshooter.com/clitchfield




Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Motorcycles

In an attempt to clear my mind I put my project on hold for a day and ran over to the vintage motorcycle show, Sunday afternoon at O'Connor Fieldhouse in Caldwell. I put together a little slideshow, so check it out if you'd like.

http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/080330_Vintage

Boxing Update

In only a matter of a day or two the story that I set out to tell about the Caldwell boxing scene has evolved into something a little different, which I'm convinced is a good thing. Originally, I had hoped to document the lives of the boxers of Caldwell but after a day of stewing, I came to the conclusion that it may be to broad of a topic.

So I decided to begin focusing on two boxers who are related in a somewhat uncommon way and who have both faced plenty of adversity on their road to becoming professional boxers. The project is very much still in its infancy, however, I do have a pair of photos to share. These were both taken within the last week and are both of Edgar, the older of the two boxers I am following.



I guess the goal, as of right now, is to document their lives leading up to a highly publicized bout on Saturday, April 5th. I've hit a few road blocks to date, although things are coming along pretty well.

Check back for more updates down the road.

The Start of Something Big

Last night I started something big. For the past week and a half I have been brainstorming with the intention of coming up with a story idea that I could take on over the next few weeks or months. On Saturday, March 22nd I had a breakthrough and settled on one idea. The exact direction which I am going to take the story is still up in the air, however, I can say that I now have laid the groundwork for something special.

I intend to take an in-depth look at the boxing culture in the small city of Caldwell, Idaho. More specifically I hope to visually document the lives of those who live it. It is a subject that has been done before, however, this particular story offers a variety of unique characteristics which make it somewhat special. As I understand it, boxing has a well documented history in this area complete with a cast of highly talented and passionate individuals surrounded by a variety of controversial issues between the boxers, the trainers, the cutmen, the teams and the community in which they reside.

At this time there isn't much more to say, but I intend to frequently document my progress as time goes by. This is an out take from a recent shoot at one of the clubs I will be following.