Eagle Scout

This Saturday I was given the honor to take pictures of a family friend who was getting his Eagle Scout. This is a very special moment in a scouts life and I was excited to be a part of it and capture this special moment for this young man and his family.

Here his dad is placing his Eagle Scout patch on.

This is his Scout Master placing his Eagle Scout Scarf on.

It is tradition that the troop salute a scout as he enters the boy scout troop and as he leaves the troop. Here is a shot of his troop and fellow boy scouts saluting the new Eagle Scout.

Jacob, let me congratulate you on this achievement. This is something you should be very proud of cherish forever. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

Jim Arquilla Long Beach Relays

Now that track season is upon us that means meets throughout the week and on Saturdays. Today my son attended the Jim Arquilla Long Beach Relay and participated in the discus and shot put.

He has been slowly increasing his throwing distance and did a great job today. His first event was the discus at 9am, which turned out to be more around 10am as he was in the second flight. He was very consistant and threw his best throws ever today and increased his personal best by 7' from 124' to 131' and taking 3rd place for his varsity team.

Here are a few shots of him in action. I have to say that I truly love watching him throw. He walks into the ring looking out over the horizon. He then hits the toes of his shoes on the ground behind as he picks a focus point in the horizon. After a deep breath he turns away from the field and prepares his throw. He twists his body to the right, as if chambering, and then untwist as he spins and jumps to the edge of the ring and throw. He watches intently as the discus flies and hits the field. He knows immediately if it was a good throw or bad throw and shows it with his expression as he exits the ring.

Next was the shot put, which wasn't scheduled until 2pm. So we left the facilty and had some lunch with my son's girl friend and her mom and dad. After a nice lunch we returned to the college. While we waited for the shot put event to start I wandered around taking other action shots.

Now once the event started I did what I normally do, took pictures, but this time I was really trying to time my shots just right to get the shot put just after the release. I was very pleased with this shot, even though the shot put is slightly cut off along the top. My son increased his personal best from 41' to 43', but did not place. Either way I'm very proud of him and am looking forward to the next meet.
Various discus shots.

Some various shot put shots.

While waiting for my son's second event (shot put) to start, I took a walk to the other end of the track to see what was going on at the pole vault and high jump area. As it turned out both events were just about completed with the last few people jumping.

I was able to capture to jumpers for the boys varsity high jump. This first young man was on his last jump and missed, which dissapointed me. He had very nice technique and jumped in such a way that made a great action shot, as you can see by my one and only capture of him on his last jump.

The second young man made his jump, which gave a me a few more opportunites to get some nice shots of him. This was my favorite out of the few I took.

One of the few pole vaulting shots I was able to get. The sky was a terrible gray overcast that really made it hard for metering. I tried to balance the two so I didn't get too much of a blown out sky and dark athletes.

These last three shots demand to have their story told. This young lady was the last varsity girl to be jumping. She had just cleared 10.5' and was preparing for her personal best of 11'. You could feel the excitement from the coaches and other athletes who gathered to watch, which included her father who was very excited. I overheard that he promised his daughter $100 if she was to make 11'. Well, needless to say she cleared it and after landing on the mat she quickly jumped off and ran to her father, who was already running to her. I kept my camera trained on the young lady as she ran to her dad, but my view was obstructed by all of the people who game to watch, but as she and her dad met I had an unobstructed view of them and took the last two shots as she jumped into her dad's arms. I felt as if I was intruding on a very personal moment between a father and his daughter. I think the last two shots will say that.

Long Beach Middle School Boys Track - Champions

Tonight was the Long Beach Middle School All-City Finals for boys track.

Due to budget cuts Long Beach Unified School District started having their middle school All-Finals on Wednesday and Thursday after school. They started this during the girls track. So on Wednesday after school, 4pm, they had the field events finals, which I missed, and on Thursday they had the track events finals. Now I don't really shoot the action during the All-City Finals as I'm usually spending my time taking pictures of all of the winners. All first place winners get a plaque with their winning picture in it from the city and I take the shot. I also take the team pictures of the two Division winning teams, which is sent to the local paper.

So with that said, let me introduce you to the Long Beach Middle School Division II Champions.

Monroe Middle School.

Here is your Long Beach Middle School Division I Champions.

Stanford Middle School

Track - Paramount Relays

Well my son was back at Paramount this Saturday for relays. I did take a few shots of some of the other schools, but did focus my attention on his school.

Here is my son's look prior to his throw followed by some shots of him throwing the shot put and discus.

Did young lady did a great job vaulting, but as you can see in this shot, she missed this one but that much.

Here are a few various shots from the meet.

While I was shooting the pole vaulters I took this high speed panning shot as she came out of the turn.

Practice Track Meet at Paramount High School

My son, pictured below, had his first practice track meet for the season. This was also his first meet on the varsity squad. The weather went from dark clouds overhead to partially cloudy and then back to the clouds with some rain, which I was ready for. I spent a good amount of money on my gear so when it came to buying rain protection for it I didn't buy cheap. I currently use a rain cover from Aqua Tech that I just love. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it later.

My son was throwing the shot put and discus, but the time he threw the discus it was getting dark and since I'll get more than enough shots of him throwing the discus during the season I wasn't too concerned with getting some shots. I did take some of him throwing the shot put though.

Prior to throwing he will look out above the horizon and pick a spot to focus on and throw to. This helps him focus and concentrate on throwing straight.

One of his team mates right after the release.

These two young ladies are real good friends of my son's and are in their first year with track. Both are best of friends and are doing the long jump and high jump. So of course I had to take some shots of them in action. Her jump took me by surpise while I was walking to my position and a bit too close, but I wanted to post it for her any ways.


Just a couple of runner shots while waiting between throws for my son.