Summer Work

So I had another assignment from the World today. The Summer Special Olympics are going on right now in Stillwater, and they're doing a story on the woman who was awarded coach of the year. I got a call yesterday afternoon to shoot it.

I had more difficulty with this assignment than I thought I would. The Special Olympics is a photo-rich environment, right? Not this time. The woman was hard to work with: bustling around taking care of administrative stuff and hardly spending any time at all with the kids. I kept hoping to get a great shot of her hugging someone or giving them some tips, whathaveya, but didn't get it.

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This is probably the best looking photo I got. Sadly, I made a rookie mistake - I didn't get the name of the guy on the right. Shit.

The few I got of her actually DOING SOMETHING weren't very interesting: just another woman playing bocce.

So anyway, it sucked. I found myself in a familiar situation. Whenever I'm dealing with a large event with no real focal point, like this one, I choke. Nothing seems good enough, and I can never find a photo that will be. I try to get the ONE shot that encompasses everything, but that never happens. So I end up shooting a bunch of mediocre crap. I really need to ask a pro what to do in this situation.

Otherwise, things are going good. I'm shooting the cover of OSU's mortarboard calendar on my ex-boss's recommendation. So I'll get to meet with Eddie Sutton, the OSU basketball coach, and take a bunch of photos. It should be fun. I've got some good ideas in mind. I'm also working a little freelance for a new sports magazine called Conference Call. It's a mag dedicated only to the Big XII conference. I've got an assignment for a profile portrait of Donovan and D'Juan Woods, arguably the two best players on the team. Ideas, anyone?