Recent Stuff

Death Stare

Here are a few from two of the better assignments I've shot lately. The first few are from elementary school kids riding a train between Springdale and Rogers in the spirit of The Polar Express, and the last ones are from a project on local downtowns.

Fire Training

I shot fire training for local fire departments today at a donated house in Rogers. Atypical, in that the reporter and I got to go inside with them.

End of The Week

Springdale Har-Ber v. Russelleville, UA v. MSU, and the MSU mascot, whose real name is Tonka, and who don't need no stinkin' kleenex.

Clouser Minnow

One thing I like about moving down here, bass flies are much easier (and cheaper) to tie than trout flies. If you’ve ever spent an evening tying #22 midge emergers (as I’m REAL sure the few people who read this stuff have), you know what I mean. It’s tedious, and for those of us with poor fine motor skills it requires superhuman, microscopic dexterity. Bass flies, on the other hand are big, easier to see, and in many cases more simple. Also, trout flies, especially dry flies, are EXPENSIVE. To make good dry flies larger than a #12, you need high quality, genetic hackle. There is now way around it. A decent hackle cape is at least $60, and you need many colors. Bass flies, on the other hand, require only the cheapest materials.

Below is a Clouser Minnow, developed by Bob Clouser, a famous guy (in the circles I travel in) in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River. This one is on a #6 Daiichi 1750 hook, white and green fake hair, Krystal Flash, and eyes made out of a ceiling fan chain. The most notable thing is the eyes set on the top of the hook shank, which causes the fly to swim upside-down to cut down on snags.

Eugene Richards Rip-off

Be of good cheer: We'll yet live to piss on the graves of our enemies.

-EA

Mmm...Cat

Pippi

I wish I could do this.

Kid + Pumpkin

Seriously, how cute is this?

Dog

This one felt the hat SERIOUSLY detracted from the bloodthirsty image he had worked so hard to cultivate.

Beaver Lake

That's a little better.

Kings River

The Ozarks are known for their trophy smallmouth bass. This is not one of them.

Ballet

Ahhh, kids.

Rainy

It rained today.

Owen Jay Curtright

My friends from my first year of college, Becky and Daniel, finally had their (first) kid! Here's a picture they sent me.

Stuff

I went home this weekend, so the first two pictures are my dogs, Doofus the Westie and Todd the Beagle. Doofus is destroying a nerf football (you can almost hear it scream). Todd is bravely defending the homeland against chipmunks. Evidently, this involves sitting around in the sun and waiting for a chipmunk to randomly run into his mouth. I also spent last night tying. I'm always looking for bass patterns that don't take 45 minutes of spinning deer hair to tie. This is kind of a souped up bugger. Chartruese everything, on a Daiichi 1750 #6 hook, a 1/4 ounce conehead, and rubber legs every 1/3 of the hook shank, and .010 lead underbelly. Threw in some chartruese Krystal Flash on the tail. I think the #6 hook is too small (still thinking in trout terms), but we'll try them this weekend.

Daily Stuff

A couple from today's work. Kids putting on a skit about recycling, and preparations for the county fair.

LPGA 2

Today was the last day at the 2007 LPGA NW Arkansas Championship. A disappointing day. There was a lot of rain throughout the weekend, and it ended up that the whole thing got cancelled. But here’s the thing. Everyone got through 18 holes by about 9:30 this morning. There needs to be 36 holes played in order to the event to be counted. However, the officials called it this morning, citing a strong possibility of rain in the afternoon. But, low and behold, it is now about 7:45 pm, and the whole day has been just beautiful. Just enough clouds to provide shade, a slight breeze…in fact, I was depressed when I had to go inside to file photos. I think there are some conspiracy theories floating around, though. Stacy Lewis was an amateur playing in the tournament (she plays for UA, in the Razorback hat below), and was leading when the event was called, and I think some are saying it was because the LPGA officials didn’t want an amateur winning the event.

These photos are from the last couple of days.