Clovis News-Journal Day 14: The Rodeo part 1

Tonight was the first real day of the rodeo. I got to see first had things like steer roping, bronco riding, bull riding, goat ropin' and to top off the night (I mean the weirdest thing I saw) wild cow milking.

I probably should explain. Wild cow milking starts off like steer roping but with a dairy cow. One guy on a horse chases down the cow and tries to throw a rope around it's neck. Obviously, the cow isn't happy with this, so it tries to get away. Which is just like steer roping. Here's where the strange part happens. When the cow is roped, two other guys run out to try to hold the cow in place long enough for the horse rider to jump off and try to milk the cow. Now this is a 2000 lbs side of dairy beef and these are 3 200 lbs ish cowboys. I'll let you do the math. Odd and funny.

I'll start with another reason to be afraid of clowns.

Clovis News-Journal Day 12: Feature Hunt

So yes it's a rain feature. Given the fact that Clovis and all of New Mexico gets about a quarter of the annual rain that NC gets, this is news and feature worthy. I'm not entering it in an contests so you don't have to worry about that.
This was the most fun I've had feature hunting to date. I was hanging out with this family under a shelter a the park when the kids ran out to play in the rain. I took off after them. It was great, I was right there with them laughing and playing in the rain. I felt like I was channeling Chris. Cause that's something he would do.

New Mexico sky, crazy assignment hour

Today I had 4 assignments in 2 1/2 hours. I didn't get anything I liked but the clouds were clearing affter it had rained for a couple hours. This was from may car, like usual, trying to find a radio station outside of town for my second assignment in that time.

Clovis News-Journal Day 11: The Air Show

A long day with only one assignment. Cannon Air Force Base has it's annual air show today. Mostly it was pretty boring. The Thunderbirds did perform which was very cool. It's definitely worth fighting the masses to see them. Luckily, I didn't have to fight the masses, since I'm media. I got picked up and dropped off at the visitor's center for the base, which is right near the entrance. This meant I didn't have to ride the bus with everything else. I can't complain about that.
This finishes up week 2. I think I must have gotten about 52 hours this week. The overtime will be nice I'm still boggled that this is my job. wow! I can only think of one thing that would make things better.

New Mexico sky, sports feature hunting

After lunch I went out feature hunting for the sports page. It had been mostly cloudy all day and things broke earlier. Here's some of that famous New Mexico sky while I was out feature hunting.

Clovis News-Journal Day 10

I knew today was going to be a slow photo day so I thought I would have time to hang out with skaters. It would be perfect since I want to do a story on them. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. I was stuck in the office helping out edit the video I took when I when up on the B-25. I finially got out of the office at 4 to shoot at the community pool.

Clovis News-Journal Day 9

Today was another laid back day, I only had two assignments. The first was the murder trial that I had been covering. During a recess the judge actually came up to me and introduced himself. I guess he recognized that I wasn't the old photographer form the paper. He was polite and wanted to make sure I wasn't taking photos of the jury. I left during closing arguments and went to Cannon Air Force base to get some PR photos for a story we're doing on the Thunderbirds. (the tight formation flying squadron) They're flying at the air show on Saturday so it was a preview for that. I left there and got a call from the writter covering the trial. She said the jury had reached a verdict. I rushed over to the court house and got in just as the defense attorney got back.

Clovis News-Journal Day 8

Today was one of those days where it's good to be in the media. I got to fly in a World War II B-25 bomber. After take off I was able to move around and check out all areas of the plane. It was tough to get into several with all my gear. I didn't let that stop me though.

Clovis News-Journal Day 6 & 7: a double issue

Mostly it's been feature hunting. I did take a break from that to cover a murder trial.

New Mexico sky, continued

Last night I went to Melrose, NM (about 25 miles west of Clovis) to shoot my last graduation of the day/week/year. (hopefully)
It had been cloudy all day and was finially clearing. This made for an incredible sunset. It was even better when I was heading back to Clovis. Except for the fact that I was having to shoot in the mirror and try not to wreck the car, it was awesome. Wow, Everyday the sky has been completely beautiful and completely different.

Clovis News-Journal Day 5

This morning my first assignment was at 10am. It was Clovis High graduation. They ended up doing a page on it. I was happy with the photos but the designer wasn't very creative with the layout. I think I started to get across some of my ideas to a couple of the designers. They seem to be reasonable folks who I can work with. I actually sat down with one about how to layout a 2 picture package. Given what I submitted it made for an uninteresting page. Give what I had seen I reedited one photo to change the shape so it would work better on the page. I don't feel like I'm bending to their wills but we're working together to create something better. That makes me feel good. I also had my first spot news. I was driving back from my last graduation of the day (I shot 2) and I see a fire truck laying a hose. So I investigate and notice smoke coming from a building a couple blocks away. I stop a block away and head over to start taking pictures. I talk to the fire guys a little then call into the office to let them know I'm on it.
Not a bad first week, I'm off sunday so I can relax and try to finish up some projects around the apartment.

more New Mexico sky

I got back to the office after my last assignment, looked to the west and bam! I don't think I'll get tired of this sky for a while.

Clovis News-Journal Day 4

Today was kind of a relaxing day. I came in late and was able to take a full hour for lunch. Mostly because I'm hourly and had to cut time so I didn't get overtime. First I went over to the city zoo to shoot peacocks then it was softball features before I was off to another graduation. I have 2 more on Saturday. After that I should be graduationed out. I also think that does it for them.
I can't complain that most of my assignments seem to come between 5 and 8 in the afternoon/evening.

New Mexico sky part 1 of 82,324,234

The first one if from Tuesday, after I go off work. The last three are from heading back to the office after I busy day. Just to let you know it didn't rain here. I can't say the same for western Texas.

Clovis Day 3

Wow.. busy busy busy. I was out shooting al day and finally finshed about 6. So I went to get coffee and edit photos. It got up to 95 today, but it's a dry heat. You know kind of like an oven.

Clovis Day 2

Today started out slow and ended with a bang. I ended up shooting different things. It began with feature hunting the 2 quick assignement. I finished the day with a little league game warm-ups in bangin' light. One of the quick assignments was at a National Guard armory. They let me wander around and take photos. So I had to get one of me and the tank.

Clovis Day 1

Yesterday was my first day at the Clovis New Journal. I went in about 11:30 to get my working space cleaned up and to get familiar with the system. My first assignment was to go feature hunting. I found the dude fishing at the lake across from the Taco Box (the coolest fast food place in Clovis, it's even got wireless internet)
Then I was off to Texico, New Mexico to cover graduation. Texico is about 6 miles east of Clovis, almost on the NM, TX state line.
It looks like I only have one assignment today so I see more feature hunting in my future. Given the way this week is shaping up, I'll have a lot of time to work on projects. I've already talked to the managing editor and we're going to do a page on my trip out this sunday.