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Best of - Making a Mess

As a photographer, you simply have to expect to get a little dirty sometimes. It's just part of the job, and also why I don't shop at Jos. A. Bank (that and the money thing). You just never know what you're going to be shooting.

That was the case when I showed up at Barwise Middle School for a pie throwing contetst...

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Barwise teacher Jana Schwarz reacts after narrowly missing a pie to the face Thursday afternono. Schwarz, the 2008 WFISD Teacher of the Year, was the target for a shaving-cream pie in the face from students who scored "Commended" on the TAKS reading and writing tests.

That sort of thing just cracks me up. It wasn't easy though... a crowd of kids made me have to get a little too close to the action and the resulting spray of shaving cream made it's way onto me. Just the hazards of the job I guess. I suppose it could have been worse... it wasn't actually whipped cream, so that was a good thing.

But I love the general reaction of the teacher getting hit, she was egging on the students to do their best, and the longer I was there... the harder it was to get a good shot because the kids perfected their aim and you couldn't really see any part of her face. It was pretty funny.

That was one kind of dirty.... this is a whole other thing here

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Haylee Edwards, 4, laughs as she steps in a thick mud pit at the Friendship Festival in Burkburnett Saturday afternoon.

This darling little girl was having sooooooooooo much fun playing in the mud volleyball pit. That look of joy is exactly the type of photograph that can make any kind of bad day just vanish for me. I wasn't really thrilled with going to Burkburnett for this event. I mean, it was just another outdoor fair to me...

But then I saw the mud pit... and that was all it took.

I attempted to shoot some of the volleyball for a while, but the spray of mud (got it on everything) and lack of decent action kept me from really trying that hard. Sure enough though.. after one of the games, several of the Burk. students started tackling each other in the mud....

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Josh Houston tackles Holly Cannon in the mud volleyball pit at the Friendship Festival in Burkburnett Saturday afternoon.

After a few minutes of that... and then scrambling to get their names correct (kids all look the same covered in brown gooey mud)... I saw this little blond girl starting to walk through the mud. The more she tried... the more she was giggling and having fun. She fell a couple of times, but I was trying to be patient and wait for that perfect smile.

It took a few minutes, but I finally got my shot... and I smile every time I see it.

Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)