I went to a baseball game, and the Special Olympics broke out.

Actually, before a scheduled baseball game at Creighton, the opening ceremonies for the Nebraska Special Olympicswere held.  Since I was there shooting the game, I took photos of the ceremony.

I like this image of a young man from Central City, Nebraska, who trotted around the baseball field with the torch to light the Olympic flame.  These are really special children who do a tremendous job with the talents they have been given.

Race down a runway at top speed with a 16 foot pole, slam the pole into the ground, contort yourself into an upside down position to go over a pole 15+ feet in the air, and re-contort yourself land on your back on a foam pad. Sound like fun?  Sounds crazy me, and I didn't change my mind after watching hours of the pole vault event at the Nebraska State Track meet last weekend.

Nice story on this kid, who won the event with a leap of 15' 8". He had never pole vaulted before last summer.  Now he is the State champ and has the third largest leap of an high schooler in the country (or so I was told).  It don't hurt the gene pool that his father was an Olympic gymnast, but still.  The kid, Steve Cahoy, says he still has a lot to learn about the sport and the technique of pole vaulting, so it will be fun to watch him next year (he is only a junior).

Here is a photo of the jump prior to this one where he hit the bar with his stomach...

This is on his last attempt at 16", you can see the bar falling with him...

We have some really nice wildlife areas along the Missouri river on both the Iowa and Nebraska sides of the river that attract quite a variety of birds.  While this is not the time of year to capture migrating birds, an early morning trip up the highway can usually result in some decent photo opportunities.

I went to Desoto Bend Wildlife area early this week and saw these two Canada geese floating around grabbing some early morning breakfast.  Something (not me) caused them to fly away and I was fortunate enough to capture the initial takeoff, complete with a water splash.

I will likely head up there again as time permits so I can get some idea where to shoot when migrating season is in full force.  For now, it is a relaxing way to spend a morning.

I was able to take in the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting this weekend as a member of the media, shooting both the meeting on Saturday and a special event on Sunday where Warren Buffett and Bill Gates took on Ariel Hsing in a table tennis match.  Hsing is a member of the US Olympic table tennis team, so even with two balls going at one time, the billionaires failed to score a point!

It was all fun, even when Warren pulled out an oversized paddle and let Bill Gates play a couple points with the larger paddle.  One of my photos of the oversized paddle made Zuma press's Photo of the Day (below).

It is not every day I have an opportunity to photograph the First Lady!

For the past couple years, I have helped a friend photograph an annual charity luncheon. A few weeks ago, it was announced that the First Lady would speak at this year's event.  I thought it might be interesting to describe how the day of the luncheon went for the photographers covering the event.

The luncheon (over 2,500 people) was scheduled to begin at 11:30 with the First Lady to speak at about 12:20.  I had to arrive at 8:15 to leave my equipment in place so it could be screened by the Secret Service.  I arrived back at 10:30, at 10:45 the media was escorted to our positions.  I was situated about 100 feet from the podium, on a metal platform about 10 feet in the air.  We stayed in that position until the event was done - no chairs, no meal.  When the event was finished, at about 1:15, we were again escorted out of the assembly hall.

The only images we could take were from the position on the platform.  No wondering around the tables, no side views, just the view from the platform.  So much for originality ... until after her speech, Michelle Obama decided to step off the stage to shake some hands with the people near the stage.  It was during this walk around time that this image was taken.  The First Lady was walking slowly and just about everyone held up their phones to take pictures, effectively blocking any view we had.  So, as they teach in photo school (so I have been told), if you can't eliminate it from the image, use it in the image.  I ended up capturing a really nice image of people taking photos of the First Lady.  I submitted the image to my wire service, and they selected it as one of their Photos of the Day.  Nice.

I love the pure joy on this boy's face!  He was the bat boy at a college baseball game last weekend. Maybe I am partial to this youngster because of the big glasses, like he is wearing.  Not much beats a boy at a baseball game!

I thought the spring flowering season was over until I stepped out on my porch one morning and smelled the lilacs!

That smell always brings me back to a time when we had a lilac bush outside our house growing up.  At my house now, we planted some bushes around the house, but had some mature lilac bushes in the back yard.

Earlier this week, I thought I might try to capture some lilac images to go along with the other spring flowers.  Lo and behold, the lilacs were filled with butterflies, which only added to my photographing pleasures.

Here are a couple more shots.

Where you find one tutle dove, you usually find a second one. We see that all the time on our bird feeders.  So, when I saw this guy hanging out on our deck post, I knew if I looked around, I would likely find the mate.

Here is the mate, feeding at the feeder.

Most of the spring early flowers are about done for the (very) early spring season.  I saw some tulips at a local mall yesterday and hurried out tonight just before sunset to get a few images.  The tulips will be gone by the middle of the week.  What a spring we have had!

You just have to love Springtime.

Friday night was a gorgeous evening in Omaha.  Mild temperatures, clear skies with a few puffy clouds,and no wind - so after dinner I went to a local park to take spring photos and captured these daffodils.  Maybe too much sun on the flowers, but I might try to capture these with less sun if the opportunity comes around.

I have possibly a few more spring flowers to post over the next couple weeks if the weather holds.