I covered the Eastmont soccer game with Richland last week. Knowing that Eastmont beat them in the regular season, I camped out at the Richland goal expecting the game to be played at that end for the most part. I was suprised when Richland scored three goals in the first half and I had little to show in the way of pictures - always at the wrong end of the field.

I chose to stay put after half time, concentrating on the Eastmont goalie who had been hit hard by Richland in the first half. But Eastmont came back to score a goal and I was out of position again. I formulated a plan that I would switch ends of the field if Eastmont scored again.

It never came to be and I was blessed as Richland made a play on Eastmont’s goal and I was able to capture a series of photographs.

And with some drastic cropping, more than I’d prefer, here is the published photograph:

I think it tells the story well.

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Very sad morning as the Douglas County Sheriff’s dept. recovered the body of a bridge jumper. They were performing CPR in the rescue boat when I returned back to the newspaper a few minutes ago.

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Interesting night for me on Tuesday. It was one of those nights of precise timing that, except for one on-the-fly change, went according to plan.

Started out with a walking tour of the sites I wanted to photograph when election results would be filing in. First to the Chelan County elections office with a talk with our auditor, Evelyn Arnold, about what she expected to happen that night. I decided to start there with my photography - right after covering the Eastmont soccer game that started at 6 p.m.

After pictures at the elections office, I then planned to head to the old city fire station where firefighters would be listening in for the results of their bond issue to build a new station. And after that, I would go to Courtney Cox’s party and that’s where I walked to next to check out the room they would have the party.

Then I walked to the Republican’s party location where I thought I could get a nice elation or dejection photograph. I really liked how the place looked through the large windows and signs and imagined a photograph from outside the room looking in. Then I walked to the Democrat’s party location for a look-over and really couldn’t picture what it would be like later that night.

I was worried about the soccer game running too long but it ended without going into overtime and I rushed to get to the courthouse before the polls closed.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one in a hurry that night:

Ron Bartram, Wenatchee, runs up the stairs in the Chelan County Courthouse to get to the ballot drop box before it closes Tuesday night. “I’m the number one procrastinator,”  he said.

The scene at the elections office wasn’t too exciting so I headed to the fire station and arrived just before the first round of results came over the radio:

At their old fire station, Wenatchee firefighters listen to a radio report that the bond for a new station and a remodel of the old station is behind in votes Tuesday night.

Then I drove toward Cox’s party but listening to the radio, heard McCain giving his concession speach. So I decided to get to the Republican headquarters next and wait for Cox’s party till later. The scene played out just as I had planned earlier in the afternoon.

Seen from outside the Wenatchee republican headquarters Tuesday night, from left, Graden Neal, Chris Mastin, and Erik Johnson, watch as John McCain conceeds to Barack Obama on television.

Then to Cox’s party where I found Courtney with her dog. She was trying to keep a happy face and I knew with a little patience that something would happen that would tell the story of her behind in a close race. And it happened here:

State Representative candidate Courtney Cox, right, is hugged by a campaign worker, Debbie Egan, at her party in Wenatchee Tuesday night.

Then to the Democratic party. What a celebration with people singing, drinking, eating, and having a tremendously good time. Very easy to shoot other than the crummy lighting conditions. And the timing was perfect as Obama came out to accept the presidency.

Local democrats at a Wenatchee party, cheer Mr. Obama as he makes his way to the podium for his acceptance speech Tuesday night.

Sarah Faubion, 17, a senior at Wenatchee High School and member of the Wenatchee Young Democrats, celebrates at the Wenatchee Democratic party.

Celebrating at the local democratic party during Mr. Obama’s victory speach are from left, Peggy Love, Rock Island, and Kathleen Cullison, Cashmere.

I was struck at how things have changed in the years I’ve been covering elections in Wenatchee. I remember photographing Republican parties where they were huge gatherings with lots of food and drink. And then going to the Democratic parties where they were held in the family room of someone’s house and chips and dip were the highlight of the evening.

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Monday was a photo hunt for me. Nothing too interesting - at least photographically - was coming from the reporters and so I sent myself out to look around. It only took a few minutes and I noticed a sign outside the community center about the indoor playground program starting up. It’s a program by the park’s department where parents bring their children in and let them play while the parents can socialize among themselves too.

Kathryn Stevens photographed it last year so I was reluctant to do it again so soon but I was hoping for something new with the program although just being the first day was probably news enough.

The one angle I didn’t remember from Kathryn’s photographs was from the balcony so that’s where I spent my time. I liked the pattern in the floor so I waited for about 45 minutes for something to happen directly below me.

Here’s what I got:

But I also included a black and white image for a possibility in Tuesday’s paper as I wouldn’t be there for the decision on what to use. I was shooting voting night the next day and had the morning off.

Here is that version:

I understand from Kelly Gillin, who was at the meeting, that other editors, including himself, liked the color better, the blue adding another dimension and has the child stand out better.

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I had two, actually three pretty decent reaction photographs to Eastmont goals in their soccer match against Wenatchee over the weekend.

Here’s the one we used. I like it best because of the contrast between the elation of the goal scorer and the  disappointment of the goalie. Contrasts make better photographs.

I like this photograph because it is a tighter photograph but Wenatchee’s goalie isn’t seen well enough and to be honest, doesn’t show her emotion as well as the earlier photograph.

And then there is this photograph that issolates the scorer with no contrasting team member from Wenatchee.

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Sometimes, not by planning, we get in a rut on what we photograph for the newspaper. The end of last week I had three photographs of children that made it into The Wenatchee World - two on front pages and one on A2.

Today the theme is high school aged people with photographs of a soccer match and of beard fitting at Wenatchee High School.

Maybe you’ll see adults in the future - election results?

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Doing a story for the weekend on the slowdown in house building - specifically on developments whose growth has crawled all the way to a standstill. My focus is on the Ashwood Estates subdivision in East Wenatchee off of 35th Street N.W.. There are two residents living among vacant lots and unfinished spec homes.

The problem photographically is that it is a pretty flat piece of property and trying to show it all is nearly impossible (at least for me). So my focus is on the unfinished houses and the brush growing around them.

At first I didn’t like the fact that there are no people in the photographs but thinking more about it, you get the feeling of desolation better without people.

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I was at Sterling Middle School last night to pick up my son, Aaron, from basketball practice on my dinner break when I spotted Ron Snyder and his two children sledding down the main hill at the school. Pretty typical scene for the location. But not typical because he was cycling down the hill, towing his children in their winter sleds.

I thought I arrived too late as his youngest was crying from a spill she took on a trip down, but she quickly recovered and they made a few more trips down before it got dark.

This is the photo I had intended to use.

But with his children’s facial reactions, I couldn’t pass up this image made from a more ordinary angle.

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The colors struck me hard as I drove by the Rock Island ponds northeast of town but the trees and reflections in themselves weren’t enough to make a photograph worthy of the newspaper. So I looked and waited and sure enough, a bird of some sort came into the scene.

It never made it to the position I had hoped,

somewhere in the lower left of this frame.

But I was able to find a spot where it was floating. But more interestingly, it decided to swim along the shore, giving the line of disturbed water that makes this image more interesting. The trees had more backlighting to them in this image too, making the colors more vibrant.

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Photographer Kathryn Stevens has been doing some really great work for The Wenatchee World.

Take a look at her photo gallery on the Cross Country race at Walla Walla Point Park this week: Click here.

And she worked on a very compelling set of photographs about a cancer victim and her daughter that will be in this weekend’s paper and will be the subject of an audio slide show. Look for the link on our home page Saturday morning. Click here.

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