Working as a full-time community #newspaper #photographer in a small #northtexas town it always meant go-time. It was the end of wandering around in the triple digit Texas heat looking for #wildart features. For the next nine months, there would be plenty to photograph since we were covering eight schools, that means #fridaynightlights #highschoolfootball, Plus a myriad of other sports and activities all school related.

The lead-off event to this era was, 1st day of school, my favorite of the bunch. Kids running and laughing, some crying, moms crying, Teachers and faculty herding and me, right in the middle looking for that one face. As a community journalist, this is where you start developing your relationships and getting to know all the kids, I have had them tell me, “hey, you shot me on my first day 12 years ago’ I just smile and keep shooting.

The day before school begins, I would go around to the schools I was going to visit the next morning to make sure I was still vetted and good to go.The schools always had different start dates in #wisecounty so I generally managed to get them all shooting three a day. All of this was for the A section, now the B section, sports, and two-a-day football was a whole different blog…

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1st day of school, back to school, back to school photography, Boyd school, decatur school, documentary photographer, photojournalist, Wise County messenger