Baby Declan

I absolutely love stories like this one. Declan had his first birthday this past Saturday, and at first glance he looks like your normal one year old. You could never tell that he has been through more surgeries already than you will your entire life. Declan was born 24 weeks premature, weighing in at 1.1 pounds. Hold your hand out and look at it, he was about that size. It was a very emotional birthday party, most of his family never thought he would live to see it.

I love this photo, it really takes that famous saying literally, "a picture says a thousand words." His arms outstretched, Declan seems as if he knows he has conquered adversity and nothing can stop him....all in his first year:



Here he is with mom:



Here's dad entertaining his son:



His eyes lit up everytime I pointed the camera his way:



Opening presents:

Harlem Globetrotters

Last week the Harlem Globetrotters stopped in Cedar City and put on a show. What a fun event to cover. I set up the backboard camera for this game and ended up with a very unique shot, one that I'll never get from a normal basketball game. All in all, I came out with some fun shots.

Pre-game in the tunnel:



Soaring to the hoop for a dunk:



Then pulling up on the rim for the crowd, giving my backboard cam a shoe full:



A few other fun shots:

Working the Red Carpet

While I was in Las Vegas for Miss America, I decided to hit the red carpet at the world premier of Rambo. Here's a few of the celebs that made an appearance.

Rambo himself giving me the staredown, I guess he thought I was paparazzi:

UFC's Tito Ortiz with Jenna Jameson:



American Pie's Jason Biggs:



Guy from White Castle:



Cleveland Brown and former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn:

Miss America in Las Vegas

Man, what a tough assignment. Spending a weekend in Las Vegas with all the Miss America contestants....sometimes I just can't handle this job! The main reason we covered Miss America was because of Miss Utah Jill Stevens. She started out as Miss Southern Utah University, right here in Cedar City, before becoming Miss Utah. What a great story. Not only is she an amazing person, but she is also an American soldier and served her country in Afghanistan. So I decided to follow her around with a camera for a few months leading up to the Miss America pageant. She ended up in the top 16 after being named "America's Choice," but unfortunately her night would end there. Instead of posting all the photos, here's the final multimedia piece for the story:

Michael Vick's Fighting Pit Bulls

Okay, I know what you're all thinking, "I've seen this already!" I know, I know, but I had to get it up on the blog! For those of you who haven't seen these yet, this was a story I worked on for The New York Times (it never gets old saying that) on the rehabilitation of Michael Vick's fighting pit bulls at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. I'm still getting several nice emails from people all over the nation about the photos; I'd like to thank everyone for all the kind comments, and I'm still trying to reply to each and every one of your emails. Be sure to check out the multimedia piece I did for this story, which you can find here, at nytimes.com.

Here's the layout, including a shot on the front page:



This photo got the most attention by far, it really shows the connection these dogs have with their caregivers:


Here's a caregiver taking a nap with Georgia:



Here's Lucas, Vick's champion dog:



Lucas was also one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet. Here he is licking the face of Jeff, one of the caregivers:



Lucas, once again looking for attention:



Meryl, peeking out of his igloo:



Handsome Dan, with a caregiver: