as football season begins to wind down...

i tagged along for many an interview this season: of football coaches, players, fans, administrators. there was so much hope and enthusiasm with every interview at the beginning of the season. so much so that i forgot a lot of the teams being talked to would lose a few games, wouldn't make it into the post-season at all, or would be picked off fast in game one of the playoffs.

my coworker and fellow photog josh chuckled one afternoon as i came back from one of the many portrait sessions, about to edit, and nearly gushing about this new fact or that new thing i had learned about whatever football practice i had just come from. he laughed and said he thought it funny how i was so invested in these teams (in his words: "such a girl thing to do"). and it's true... each week was a different team, but each week i guess i kind of adopted them as my own.

now, as round 2 games fast approach, only two teams in my paper's coverage area remain, and i'll have the opportunity to shoot one more game with a team that boasts a perfect 11-0 record going in. i've gotten to know this team's coach and this team's players. they're not my kids, it's not my alma mater, but i feel a certain affinity for them, and behind the mask and behind the lens, this friday i will be quietly rooting for them.

so anyway, football season soon draws to a close. so here, to make up for my lack of posting, are some portraits from the latter half of the season:

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la feria started out kinda shaky, but worked hard and earned a chance in an all-or-nothing game for the playoffs. they fell to rio hondo in game 10, but this young team will be back.

i liked this shot of them where they're all laughing. i purposely held the trigger down on the camera. hearing the super fast click-click-click-clack of the shutter caught them off guard. it's a simple formula: teen boys + bulky cameras issuing automatic trigger sounds reminiscent of video games = surprise and laughter. before they stopped, i composed the shot.


did this on the way out, after i thought i was done. looked down and realized i had to shoot it.


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the lyford bulldogs achieved a perfect 10-0 season for the first time in 40 years. they were led by qb johnny esparza. i asked him if he does anything special to prepare for a game. he told me he kneels at the goal post and says a quick prayer.

playing any sport takes conviction, and that's especially true of playing quarterback. so i like to see when these kids show how they carry similar convictions in other areas of their lives. esparza said his faith is important to him, and i thought it'd be worth photographing it.


even though this portrait is more straight forward, i like it. sometimes it's more interesting to keep it simple.


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harlingen cardinals kicker grant gorman. this kid's just a sophomore, and a soccer player at heart, but he's a consistent kicker. again, a simple portrait, but i like it.


he's a kicker, right? so had to emphasize his feet.


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another group shot of the cards. this time of their defense secondary.

a flurry of football photos...

so it's been a LONG while. time to play catch-up. here are some football portraits, with my favorite one at the end. these have been fun to shoot the past few weeks.

psja north QB noe garcia:




los fresnos kicker robert degollado:




harlingen cardinals defensive line, mingo rincon, nick aviles, tipper ramirez, and ruben castañeda:

rgv sports mag, fall 09 issue

here are some of my photos that came out in the latest issue of rgvsports magazine.

south texas shrimping

lin shih, a taiwainese immigrant, has worked this shrimp farm in arroyo city for 20 years. it is one of the few shrimp farms left in deep south texas due to an influx of low-cost shrimp imported from asia, which has forced almost all the local outfits out of business. shih's farm is not immune to the effects: able to produce a million pounds of shrimp in a good year, with 2009 halfway done, the farm has produced less than a quarter of that. but shih has a sense of pride when he describes the hundreds of acres of pools with their green-hued waters: "look at this!" he says. "it's all natural! it's beautiful!"

summer boot camp

teen boys at a 4 week long military style boot camp.  some of the kids choose to come here.  some want to be marines some day.  most, however, are sent here by exasperated parents "dealing" with their kids' disciplinary problems.

former DA juan angel guerra

Former Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra came to this overpass in Harlingen to look for spent shell casings which might have been used in the fatal shooting of a man by Harlingen Police officers this past January.

Guerra searches through a portfolio for the autopsy report of a homeless man who was shot by Harlingen Police underneath an overpass.

Sitting on the slope of an overpass where a homeless man was fatally shot by Harlingen Police several months ago, Juan Angel Guerra looks over the autopsy report.  He is attempting to prepare a case against the officers involved.

A copy of the autopsy report of a homeless man shot by Harlingen Police notes the cause of death as a shotgun wound to the chest and lists the manner of death as a homicide.

the road starts somewhere

Just a little bit more, motions truck driver Conrando Treviño, as he waits for an earth mover to top off his trailer with a load of asphalt from a long line of train cars parked along the tracks at N. West St. west of Harlingen's down town district.

As one truck is filled with asphalt, in the distance another truck makes its way past empty cars to receive its own 80,000 pound load.  Over 30 trucks from Southern Star Transports have been working since the morning, slowly emptying these train cars of asphalt and carrying the loads to different TXDOT work sites in Pharr and San Benito.

track

photos from track regionals that i never posted...

san benito teammates take shelter by the ticket booth during a rain delay.

the last hurdle to first place.

when second feels like first.  pace's anchor runner closes the distance between last place and second in the home stretch, earning them a spot at state.

more kids

wildart shots that never got used.  but i like 'em.

World War II Veteran's Story

Glen Cleckler is a WW II vet who fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima.  He told me his story as we walked around the original casting of the Iwo Jima Memorial in Harlingen, TX.  (The second casting, a smaller version, is the one most people are familiar with because it sits in Washington, D.C.).  Cleckler played high school football with Harlon Block, who was captured in the famous Joe Rosenthal photograph, helping to plant the American flag atop Mount Suribachi.  Block is immortalized in the statue as the soldier on the far left holding the bottommost part of the flagpole.  

Here, Cleckler looks at the plaque beside Harlon Block's grave, which lies just a couple of dozen feet from the statue.  According to Mr. Cleckler, Harlon convinced his football teammates, including Cleckler, to join the Marines.  It started out as a way to avoid getting in trouble with a school administrator for not being in school one day.  The boys picked up enlistment pamphlets, filled them out, and were accepted before their senior year of high school was even over.

Mr. Cleckler shows a wallet-sized photo of Harlon Block that he carries with him in his wallet.  Behind the photo is one of Cleckler himself, with the Harley Davidson motorcycle he bought upon returning from the war.

Cleckler and Block earned their letter jackets from Weslaco High School playing football.  This photograph was taken just after the friends received their jackets.  Cleckler points to Harlon, second from the left.  He himself is in the center, 4th from the left. 

Before being shipped out to Iwo Jima, the two boys were stationed in Hawaii on leave.  Block gave Cleckler his Marine Corps ring, asking that Cleckler return it to his mother when he returned home.  Cleckler tried to refuse it, telling Block he could give it to his mother when they returned, but Block replied that he didn't think he would make it back.  Just six days after the photo showing Block helping in the flag-raising was taken, he was killed by a Japanese mortar blast. 

Glen Cleckler returned to the Valley and did indeed try to return the ring to Harlon Block's mother, but she refused to accept it.  As a Seventh Day Adventist, she did not believe in violence and said she had encouraged Harlon to not join the Marines, or at least serve as a medic instead of a fighting soldier.  To this day, Glen Cleckler wears the ring of his friend, but it is a responsibility I think he wishes he didn't have to carry.  He said sometimes he comes out to the monument to have conversations with Harlon.  Sometimes he asks him "Hey Block, do you know what you got us into?"