The things I see

Part of my job requires me to find human interest photos. We call them "stand-alones" because they must carry a page without an accompanying story. I cruise around town looking for photos that will do the trick on days when the stories that have been chosen to be on a section front don't have strong art (photos) with them.

I have several places in town where I regularly find good images so I check those first. These are parks, and neighborhoods where I have found photos in the past. I also try to remember things that I have seen when I didn't have time to stop and shoot a photo or two. I file this information in the back of my mind and hope that it doesn't fall out after bouncing around back there.

One day this past May I was out cruising around looking for a "stand-alone" photo. I decided to take a swing through one of my favorite parks. I rarely venture into the playground area when I am looking for a photo as every swing, slide, jungle gym and piece of playground equipment has been photographed dozens of times.

This time I was just giving the playground area a purfunctory glance as I drove through the park when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I saw that someone near the swings was throwing a soccer ball. I remember thinking to myself "I gotta see this." I pulled over, climbed out of my truck and then had the thought I get every time I happen across a cool feature photo opportunity, "Please don't stop before I can get my cameras out to shoot the photo.

I hurried over to the swings to find a girl on the swing and her father tossing a soccer ball for her to kick each time she would swing out near him. I started shooting this scene and made several photos while moving around.I shot some photos of her kicking the ball and then this happened. She kicked at the ball and only managed to get the toe of her shoe on the ball before it hit the swing chains above her head. She did all of this with her eyes closed and moving upside-down.

I paused to look at the preview on the back of my camera, saw that I managed to get the moment. I then said a small 'Thank you' to the gods of photo focus and smiled to myself that I was able to come across something so unique and fun. Just dumb luck.

Maybe I should have bought a lottery ticket that day...