Clear Lake Falcon Football

Spent the afternoon with the Clear Lake Falcon high school football team in September. Not much more to say about that.

QB/WR Jake: Part III

Five years ago while living in Washington DC, I shot an awful lot of high school sports (shout out to DCSportsFan). Depending on what season it was, I was shooting a game almost daily and had visited many different high school athletic fields and gymnasiums in the DMV. Sometime in October 2009 a parent reached out to me to photograph her son, Jake, who was the starting quarterback of the Maret Frogs. The first game I shot was pretty much played in a monsoon but the second game had better weather and a Maret victory.

Fast forward to October 2014 where I am contacted by the same parent with a similar request. She wants me to photograph Jake again, but this time he's a WR at Kenyon College in Ohio. Pretty cool right? Right?! I traveled to Ohio, where the weather was just a little bit cooler, to photograph Jake play the Allegheny Gators. Fun Fact: Kenyon just ended the season with a 1-9 record...guess who their one win came against? I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Ballegheny Tators. I am the good luck charm.

So here is a very superficial visual view of Jake's senior years of high school and college football, respectively. Big shout out to Jake and his family and smaller shout out to Homage, where I finally made a pilgrimage.

Paul Wall and his wife Crystal for the Houston Chronicle

Paul Wall aka The People's Champ aka The Po' Up Poet has had the internet going nuts for at least 10 years. I photographed the Houston rap legend and his wife a few weeks ago for a story about the couples collective 200-pound weight loss. Check out the article written by Joy Sewing about couple HERE. Hey Paul, can you hook me up with a grill though?

Sous Chef Beatriz Martines of La Fisheria

Beatriz Martines is a sous chef at La Fisheria who recently won an apprenticeship with the Roca brothers at El Celler de Can Roca. While I'm not sure exactly what that means, I think it's a pretty big deal in the culinary world. Maybe it's like getting accepted into the Eddie Adams Workshop for photojournalists. Anyway, I photographed her at an awesome looking restaurant called La Fisheria with lots of beautiful natural light and color (outside of the kitchen, of course). She was great, the bartenders were great and I'm sure the food is great, although I didn't get to try it. Shout out to the lemonade though...you have to try it!

Lejuan Holmes for the Houston Chronicle

About a month ago, I photographed Lejuan Holmes for the Houston Chronicle. Holmes is a double amputee from complications of having Type 1 diabetes. He is also a candidate for a kidney transplant. When it was discovered that he would need a kidney transplant, the doctors said he would need to lose weight before he was eligible to get on the list. Holmes thought he would have a hard time dropping the weight he needed to even get on the list so his doctor suggested that he undergo gastric bypass surgery. So far, so good and Holmes is getting closer to the weight he needs to be to qualify for the transplant list. Check out the story from Alyson Ward, HERE.

 

100 Things Every Houstonian Must Do for Houstonia Magazine

A couple of months ago I was asked to embark on a mini project as part of a huge list of '100 Things Every Houstonian Must Do' for Houstonia Magazine. Sadly, of the list of five things that I was assigned to shoot, I had only completed two. A tumble down the hill at Hermann Park and a visit to an ice house? Check and check with both being completed before my age reached double digits. Thanks Dad! Traders Village? Nope. Texans tailgate? Nope. Western two-step dancing? Hell nope.

The process was incredible. Traders Village has a LOT of crap but it also has pretty much everything you could ever need. I became completely enthralled with the electronics and toy stores that sold every single video game system and action figure that I had growing up. I almost bought a Sega Genesis but that would involve me playing more video games than I already do. My Houston football allegiance does and will always belong to the Houston Oilers but my time roaming around the Blue Lot before a Texans game was a (blue) lot of fun to say the least. Every time I stopped to photograph an interesting looking set up, they fed me. And not just burgers and dogs, either. I'm talking stuffed jalapenos, filet mignon fajitas, bacon wrapped jumbo shrimp...you get the picture. The last stop was a trip to the SSQQ Dance Studio where the two step was one of the many dances being taught to a large crowd sectioned off in 4-5 different spaces. It looked like fun but luckily I didn't get pulled onto the hardwood to break it down.

Anyway, check out the rest of the list and marking things off. If it means you have to come to Houston...so be it! Shout out to Chris for the assignment! 

Lutheran South Academy Football: Homecoming

Back to back posts on Lutheran South Academy Pioneer football...they must be doing something right. This time, they sent the Second Baptist Eagles back to Woodway and Voss with a 54-42 loss and started homecoming off in style. The Pioneers got a monster of a game from senior RB Justin Matthews with 355 yards rushing and 5 TDs. Shout out to the Homecoming Queen who was quite surprised to get a W of her own.

Lutheran South Academy Football

Is this my first football post of the season? Nope, it's my second...but the first with some real Friday night lights action. A couple of weeks ago, I returned to Lutheran South Academy to photograph a bunch of teenagers toss around the old pigskin. The Pioneers rolled the Danbury High School Panthers 57-19 in a game that went by pretty quickly thanks to a running clock after the first half. I'll be back there tonight for the homecoming game so I'll report in the near future with the results of their performance...and mine.

Charles Clark and Grant Cooper for Bayou City Magazine

Clark Cooper Concepts is led by a couple of guys in the restaurant business here in Houston. Charles Clark and Grant Cooper, a chef and entrepreneur respectively, linked up with me at Brasserie 19, one of their restaurants located in River Oaks. I had to navigate around vacuum cleaners and the waitstaff preparing to open the restaurant during scouting and set up, but we made it work. I was well aware that Clark and Cooper had much more important things to do than stand in front of my camera but who knew they were going to actually show me! I kid. I had a blast photographing the pair for the feature. Shout out to Libby Ingrassia over at Bayou City Magazine...let's do it again!