The Art of Pigeon Racing and The Best of Winter Sports

Like I mentioned in previous posts, the last month or two I have been shooting some pretty cool assignments. I met this pigeon racer and his wife who own over 600 pigeons. A short story that yielded some cool shots. I've been continuing to play with my Profoto lights and apply them to our annual Athletes of the Year section of our paper. Far from perfect but as I continue to grow as a shooter I am starting to really dial down and command my light. It's an ongoing battle to say the least and a hell of a lot of fun.

Boy's Best Friend

This was a pretty cool story I got to do earlier in the month. I spent a week following Anthony and his Labrador retriever Saffron around in an attempt to show their unique relationship. Anthony is a diabetic and was having a lot of trouble monitoring his sugar levels. So his parents in their search for a solution came across this cool program called Dogs4Diabetics. Enter Saffron. She is a trained service dog that can smell when Anthony's blood sugar levels are getting low often times up to 15 minutes before he actually is low all through his breath and sweat. She's trained to jump on him and warn him. This process can happen up to 20 times a day. It's was a pretty cool relationship to watch. Since Anthony's sugar levels can fluctuate at any time, the two are essentially together 24/7. The assistance doesn't come without responsibility. Anthony is the only one in the family who can care for the dog. As a service dog going into places most dogs don't, Anthony must also keep her clean. A task that has developed into taking her into the shower when he goes. As his dad puts it, "Having Saffron by Anthony's side serves as a safety barrier between him and the emergency room." I had a lot of fun shooting this piece and getting to know them.

Remembering March Part Two

Spring is California is incredible. Everything has been so green and the temperature has held steady at around 65 degrees. All this nice weather has really brought people out in the community. It's like someone flipped a switch. Now all of a sudden their have been a constant flow of pretty interesting stories and overall everyone around here has been in a good mood from the nice weather. Always a good thing. It has also been extremely busy around the newspaper. Hence my lack of posting. So here are some photos that I shot from the month of March.

Remembering March Part One

High School Sailing Competition

One thing I have really come to enjoy about covering prep sports on the west coast is the difference of activities offered at these high schools than ones offered back when I was in high school in Illinois. A couple Saturday's ago, I got to cover a high school sailing race called the Keelhauler Regatta. The annual event is hosted by Cal State Maritime and draws numerous high school sailing teams from throughout the area. Definitely not your typical prep sport and not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. -M

Women with Guns

Towards the end of December I went to photograph a woman that was starting a Womens Gun Club at a local shooting range. These photos are the second part of our coverage for that story. You can read the story here. Along with the initial portrait I shot of her, I also did a little photo story of her teaching the other women in the club. I grew up shooting rifles as a Boy Scout but had never actually shot a hand gun before. These ladies were kind enough to let me try one out. I can see why if holds so much interest for people. It was pretty fun to shoot.

The Sporting News of Fairfield

Holy smokes! I have been busy these last couple of weeks. So much so that I haven't had much free time to update on my blog. I continue to cover all of the local sporting events happening around Solano County. The winter seasons are beginning to wind down. Playoffs are upon us. Here are some of the more interesting shots I've made over the last couple of weeks. -M