Hose Lines

Feels a bit awkward to say how much I like this photo when people weren’t able to live in their home as a result of the fire, but I do like this photo. The morning light, the red lines created by the hoses, and the reflections in the water all work well together.

Surrounded by hoses and water, two Grand Island firefighters work to extinguish a fire that started in a double garage at 302 Cherokee in western Grand Island. The home’s garage and breezeway were lost in the fire, while the home itself sustained heavy smoke damage throughout, leaving it temporarily uninhabitable. No one was injured during the fire.

Golden Gloves Boxing

Don’t get to shoot boxing very often, and I wish I was just a hair earlier on the shutter, but still like this photo.

Richard Mendoza (right) punches Argenis Oregan during their heavyweight bout during Golden Gloves boxing at the Heartland Events Center in Grand Island. Mendoza won the three-round fight by decision.

Bottle Rockets

A warm spring day (unusual lately), kids and bottle rockets.

Bottle rockets are flying in the Conestoga Mall parking lot, as Xia Bandt, 4, of Belgrade, (left) and Pack 102’s Jordan Osborne, 11, of Central City, release one of the plastic projectiles during the Pawnee District Scout-O-Rama.

All Star

Had a lot of help from students and coaches throwing balls behind Stacia. Even with taking 40-50 photos with 10 people throwing their balls on cue, it’s amazing how hard it is to catch the balls in the frame. In fact, I ended up adding two balls into the photo with Photoshop to make it work right. The photo then became a “photo-illustration.” After all that, the sports desk cropped the photo, losing the ball on the right. Fortunately, cropping by page editors is the exception rather than the rule at The Independent, which is unusual for a newspaper.

Grand Island Senior High’s Stacia Robertson is the honorary captain of The Independent’s 2009 Girls All-Heartland Super Squad.

Sun Chairs

What does it mean? It means I had some time to kill while waiting for the writer to finish an interview after a “beam signing” ceremony in Hastings.

Curtain Call

Not really, Grand Island Central Catholic student Zach Starostka is just asking the director a question between scenes during a rehearsal. Starostka plays “Harold Hill” in the school’s production of “The Music Man.”

Painful Day

This photo didn’t run in our paper, but did in our parent paper, The Omaha World-Herald. When I first saw the photo, it was shocking. However, the more I look at Riley’s expression, the more it speaks to me of how many are feeling these days.

Palmer’s Riley Santin reacts just after his shoulder is dislocated while wrestling Dylan Heithoff of Pope John during their Class D 189-pound championship match at state wrestling in Omaha. Santin’s shoulder was dislocated again later in the match causing him to lose by injury default.

Old School Washing

This photo didn’t make the paper. Like the light in this photo, and hope his mom doesn’t read the quote.

Cleaning the dishes as his classmates from Immanuel Lutheran in Columbus create a stew during a Pioneer Living class at Stuhr Museum, Blake Becher, 10, sounded almost surprised as he said, “I like washing dishes.”

“Seussical”

Just like the color and lines. Does remind me of Dr. Seuss a bit. Also, I was glad to get a sharp photo at only 250th of a second shutter speed.

To help celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss at Shoemaker Elementary, members of Smitty’s Performing Arts Center’s Extreme Team, including (from right) Alexa Williams and Conner Appel, perform in a dance medley from “Seussical,” the Broadway musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss.

Buffalo Rider

Was shooting this, fascinated by the camel, and the kid in the back started acting like a rodeo rider. Nice!

Callee the camel (left) looks on as Grand Island Northwest junior Hunter Prince rides Sampson the buffalo in the next pen as students examine various animals at a petting zoo put on as part of the school’s FFA Week celebration.

Tim at Work

Was able to spend some time with Tim working on a photo page for a special section in the paper. Tim really is a good guy.

This is my favorite photo of the published photos of Tim. To light this photo, I hid a small strobe to Tim’s left hidden in the machine, and balanced it with the ambient light in the room.

Vietnam veteran Tim Fugett moves bundles of newspapers through a strapping machine in the distribution center of The Grand Island Independent. In only a few years’ time, Fugett has come a long way toward building a new life for himself while being a valued employee at the newspaper.