Hangin' with the Veep

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being in the with national pool of media that followed Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Fort Myers. I've never been in the pool for a visit of the VP or President before, so it was pretty cool. I got to ride in one of the press vans that is a part of the official motorcade. We got a police escort through town - that's right, no red-light stops for us.

I was in a van with a reporter from the LA Times and a photographer from the NY Times. pretty cool. And I saved the NY Times photog's day by lending him my card reader after he lost his so he could transmit photos back to his editor.

We stopped at Mel's Diner on our way to where Joe Biden was set to speak. At Mel's, we were quickly escorted in a side entrance and in position when he came into the restaurant. He spoke to several groups of people, even sitting down with a couple of tables to chat. He was really down-to-earth even with the many secret service agents and photographers and reporters following him through the restaurant. The people that chose to go to Mel's Diner yesterday likely had a breakfast they will never forget.

Then we quickly got back into the vans and headed to the Wa-Ke Hatchee Park Recreation Center near Fort Myers Beach for his speech. Again, we made it in record time, since we didn't have to stop for any stoplights. Here's shot by our other photographer Sarah Coward of me down front taking some video footage.

And a few of my pics.....

Here's my video from the event. It's a little shaky, since I didn't have my tripod during his speech.



Check out the photo gallery if you want to check out all the shots from the event.

Everblades win the Kelly Cup title!

As you probably know, my trip to Vegas two weeks ago was to photograph the Everblades, our local minor league hockey team, in the Kelly Cup Finals.

Games one and two were out in Vegas, and they won one of the games. Games three, four and five were back at home, so I covered those games too.

They won last Friday night and then again on Tuesday. Here's the link to last Friday's photo gallery. And here's the link to the photo gallery from Tuesday.

So as it came down to game five, the News-Press decided to do a special section to distribute on Wednesday night at the Arena if they won. I came in early to put in extra photos from the series. Here's the final product. I never got one in print, but here are the PDF files....

Luckily the won on Wednesday night, and I avoided another trip to Vegas. They won in overtime and with help from Sarah Coward, the paper turned out pretty well on Thursday morning. Here's my gallery from the win Wednesday. Here's the sports front.....

and here's the photo page....

Today, there was another special section. I gotta say, it was fun covering these guys. The guy in the picture above hugging the coach lost five of his teeth in the first game and I never even know he got hit because he kept playing. He must have spit his teeth on the ice and kept going. That's tough, y'all. It feels good to see a team win a championship and to feel like I captured a few of their happiest moments.  Sometimes I love my job.

Duggars in Naples

I've been selected to be on the "election team" at work since all the Republican presidential candidates are visiting Florida this week. Yesterday I photographed Mitt Romney out in Lehigh Acres. And today I photographed Rick Santorum in Naples.

So imagine my surprise when Jim Bob Duggar (the dad in TLC's 19 Kids and Counting) pops out of the bus that has "Rick Santorum for President" written on it. Well the Duggars are big Rick Santorum fans, so they had their own bus decorated to show their support. Jim Bob and some of the family have been at stops in Iowa, South Carolina and now Florida. Here's Jim Bob assuring us that Santorum was not on the bus and that he'd be arriving soon....

I was weirdly a little star struck, so I didn't talk to them. But I was excited when I saw them at the event. Political events usually stress me out due to the big crowds and hoards of other media. I'm used to being places with maybe one or two other photographers, so when 35 other still and video photogs show up, it gets pretty tight when you're trying to get your shots. Plus, they're usually men, so I'm almost always the shortest photographer in the room. I always pray for something to stand on to get above the crowd so I don't get trampled.

Here's gallery one, gallery two and gallery three from the event.
I didn't want to paparazzi the Duggars so I only took a few pics of them.

I never know what my job will bring. It keeps me on my toes.