Grand Island Northwest junior Amy Knapp collects her thoughts after missing a shot out of the first hole bunker at Riverside Golf Club during the Class A state tournament, Tuesday Oct. 14 in Grand Island.

Thought this photo told the story well. At first, I was shooting through the wire, and then I pulled back to frame the people between the fence and the barbed wire.

JBS Swift & Co. workers protest a compromise reached to accommodate prayer for about 500 Somolian meatpacking plant workers in Grand Island, Neb., on Wednesday, September 17, 2008, at about 3:30 p.m. The objection — a change in the break schedule that leaves B shift workers shorted of hours Monday through Friday and forces them to work Saturday to get at least 40 hours in.

The situation at Swift has been resolved since this photo was taken.

On Sept. 13 I was able to visit Ashton for their Polish festival. I’ve covered it in years past, and our focus was on the food.  This time Harold Reutter and I traveled to the Mount Carmel Catholic  Church and Cemetery in what used to be Paplin, Neb.  I decided to try and show the head stones and visitors and saw this arrangement of crosses that would make a nice composition, if I could only wait long enough for someone to walk through it.  After five minutes or so, I had my picture.

Last legislative season, the Nebraska Unicameral moved the location of the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island begining in 2010.  I was sent to get some pictures of the fair as we talked to vendors and visitors to gauge their reaction to the decision.  There was some anger, but most everyone said they’d try it for a year or two to see how it went.  Greg was disappointed on the turnout that day at his booth selling toys.  He travels throughout the summer from fair to fair, and said if he was sent to Grand Island he’d go.

Sometimes what I see through the viewfinder doesn’t agree with the story I’m trying to illustrate.  I was sent to cover a dewatering well being dug, and saw this frame.  I like this image quite a bit, especially in black and white, because of its grittyness.  While it won’t be seen in print, it does get the chance to peer from the shadows here.