While searching for our daily dose of wild art (a photo of something that is happening in the community that will run without being connected to a story), I ran across a group of kids from Portales’ James Elementary School on an end of the year field trip to Hillcrest Park and Zoo. After asking permission from the kids teachers, I looked at the play structure and decided the only way to get a truly good photo of a child playing at a playground is to play with them. So I headed up the safest looking ladder and found myself towering over the second and third graders. I watched for a minute, realized there was a tunnel that connected the two parts of the play structure and lots of kids were going through it. I sat down at one end of the tunnel and started chatting with some of the kids. Needless to say, I got couple of photos and remembered that I couldn’t spend my whole work day at a park, so I thought about heading down. The easiest way to get down was a slide nearby. So I sat and slid for a split second, was on the ground and got up. Before I could turn and tell the children thank you, a little boy shouted “You’re too big to slide! Aren’t you?” he added as a precaution. Him being eight or nine and me being 24, I didn’t go into it with him. As I returned to my car to drive back to my office, listening to the uninhibited laughter of children at the park, I was jealous. I’ve always believed you are never too big, too grown up, too mature, to have a good, old-fashioned time at the park.

Kids always make great photos so I had several I liked and wanted to have published, but as a rule, we use candid shots. So if a kid is looking right at the camera and smiling like it’s Christmas morning, it’s not really candid, and therefore not for the paper. But it still makes a good photo.

The Philadelphia Eagles visited Clovis for a charity basketball game against Clovis alumni. The evening supplied a plethora of photos, but only two were destined for the paper. Here’s a couple of other photos that weren’t chosen for print.

The game was just that, a game. The Eagles used their size against the Clovis alumni when they were attempting to play a basketball game between the goofing around.

Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb decided to take a break in the middle of a quarter. He sat with some Eagles jersey clad fans and made them laugh.

Clovis’ own Hank Baskett III posed for the fans on the court floor saying “That’s my sexy face” to the fans snapping his photo in the nearby seats. View more photos at MyCapture

If I were in charge of a newspaper, it would be photos galore. Pages and pages of photos. Sadly, that is not the case. From an assignment, Tony, the other photographer here at the CNJ, or Rick, our editor, and I whittle 30 photos down to one, sometimes two. Even though the three of us are photographers, we each see things in a different way and don’t always see eye to eye on which photo is the best from an assignment. But my boss is my boss for a reason, and is usually right (don’t tell him). And there’s always that space concern. So extra photos will go here. Enjoy.

Lili

The girl behind the camera