Oil

The past couple weeks have been pretty crazy covering the BP oil spill in the Gulf. And because I haven't posted anything to this blog since late Dec. I figured it was time to get something up here.

The morning after a full day at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, I photographed some officials arriving in Houma to meet and see what was up with the oil.

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, center, talks with U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao, left, and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu Friday, April 30, 2010. (Looks like a little more than "talks with" though)


On Saturday, Shrimp boats from Terrebonne parish were getting ready to head out and help clean up the oil. I was lucky enough to be able to get on board one of the boats (The Mariah Jade) and cover the crew as they helped save their coastline and careers.

Kim Chauvin kisses her sons, Dusty and David before the head out.


Dusty Chauvin steers the Mariah Jade down the Intracoastal as his brother David works out in the wheel house.

Shrimp Boots.

Funny story behind this photo... We got on the boat around 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I didn't know the route we were taking, I just knew we were going to the spill in the Gulf. Four hours into the day, I thought we were making good progress and must be getting close to the Gulf. (I was inside the cabin) John, the reporter, comes in and says "We're passing through downtown Houma if you want to get a photo." WHAT!?!? Four hours in and were in Houma? We went across the coast before going south. Oops.

After two days of travel, and one day of searching, we finally found some oil. It was in the form of red globs that forms when oil dispersant gets in contact with the oil. But not before making a cool sunset picture... and a photo of a crazy glow in the wake of the boat. The guys said it's from a chemical released by jellyfish and that it's usually green. I'd never seen anything like it.


And here's Todd looking over the water as they finally find oil late Tuesday night. They spent all day searching (because they took orders from BP) and finally found a little oil. You'd think they had just caught the biggest shrimp ever they were so excited.


The next day, the cleanup process began. It was messy. They deployed the orange booms to help corral the oil, then put out white oil-absorbent pad things to soak it up.




On Monday, I flew with Sen. David Vitter and Gov. Bobby Jindal to look at what Grand Island is doing to help stop the oil from coming ashore. 30 percent of the nation's oil come through Port Fourchon, so it's pretty darn important to keep this area protected.


I'm sure I'll be covering a lot more with this oil spill in the coming weeks/months... years? But I just wanted to show what I've been doing the past two weeks.

POY 2009

So I tried to come up with a nifty term to sum up my 2009 like "The year of the _____" But there's been so much go on with me this year that one word wouldn't be enough.

I'll just list some of highlights.

-I met my nephew Alec.
-And on that note, I became an uncle.
-I competed in an Adventure Race (Run, Bike, Canoe, trivia... etc)
-I trained for and ran a half-marathon
-I lost about 45 lbs
-Unless something crazy happens, I'll finish in the top 10 of the Region 8 NPPA monthly clip contest (I'm currently in 4th with three months still to be judged)
-I've had a couple photos published on the front page of espn.com
-I had the lead image on a USA Today Sports page.

And those are pretty much all I can come up with. Feel free to add any you think I might have missed.

I also gathered up a few of my favorite photos from 2009. These aren't necessarily my best pics, just some of my favorite from the past year.

Big Hit

I considered it a "warm up" to the big Monday night showdown in the Dome between the Saints and Patriots. But last night's LSU game against Arkansas turned out to be pretty exciting. The Tigers pulled out an amazing 33-30 win in overtime.

I made a couple images I liked.

The kicker, who made the field goal to send it into overtime and win it in overtime...

A face mask...

A hurdle...

And a big hit...

KSU band

Marching to the stadium before the KU game. Oh, we won 17-10.

Geddy walk

Taking my dog Geddy for a walk today. Had a little suprise a few
blocks into the walk.

Point Cats!

Game three of the volleyball game against A&M.

Dad and I saw two A&M players at the coffee shop this morning. We
thought about putting "can't dig or kill" drugs in their mocha, but
didn't have any to put in there.

Who Dat Flippin

Pierre Flipping into the end zone for a touchdown during Monday Night Football. WHO DAT!

Trifecta Weekend

The first Trifecta of the year. I'm not sure if I'll have another one or not, but this one was pretty darn awesome.

High School Football on Friday. (Terrebonne at Central)
College football on Saturday. (Texas State at Nicholls State)
Pro Football on Sunday. (Giants at Saints)

Oh, and to make this weekend better, check out this other list of victories (or non-victories)

-Got a cool pic of Terrebonne touchdown... and Terrebonne won so we could use that pic in the paper.
-Manhattan High won to remain undefeated
-Kansas State destroyed Texas A&M
-KU lost (haha!)
-Nebraska Lost
-The Saints blew out the Giants
-Chiefs win first game of season
-and my fantasy team won even though Drew Brees was on my bench.

And to top it all off... I had photos on the front page of espn.com, usatoday.com and cbssports.com during the Saints game on Sunday.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the three games I shot this weekend.

This dude prayed, then pointed to the sky after the National Anthem... and add a cool sunset as a nice bonus.


This is the Terrebonne Touchdown I was all excted about because they ended up winning. It ran lead on the sports section on Saturday.


On Saturday, I went to Thibodaux to shoot Nicholls State vs Texas State. Nicholls was supposed to get blown out, but they ended up losing by 6. (and missed two field goals). I shot the first half from the top of the press box. And got lucky when the Nicholls QB high jumped into the end zone. I didn't get much else from this game... just standard football pics. but I kind of liked this one.

And finally, I shot the Saints game. This first picture ended up on the front page espn.com and cbssports.com.

here's the screen grabs...



and I nailed a pretty sweet shot from a touchdown in the first half. Drew Brees to Robert Mecham.

And to stick with the theme of pointing at things... here's Shockey after a big play pointing at Marques Colston for some reason.


And there you go... three days, three levels of football. (Topped off with a KSU win)

15mph

Quite a Hoot

This morning I went to South Terrebonne High at 6:30 a.m. to meet with State Police. They were handing out free music coupons to students who arrived wearing their seat belts... and tickets to those who arrived not wearing their seat belts.

Near the end of the kids arriving, this girl turns the corner into the parking lot and we see a wing sticking out from the front of her car.

She had hit an owl last night and was too scared to take it off the front of her car. The School Resource Officer took it off for her.

Poor Owl.