Last Spirit Game

A few frames from the last Spirit game I'll shoot in Saginaw. Maybe even the last assignment. Chris Osgood was there, the team rallied from a two goal deficit, and scoring was plentiful. At least they know how to send a guy out with style.

Wrestling

Santa visits children spending Christmas in the hospital

High Sticking

It's a good thing the official's back was turned. Kid is a Matt Cooke in the making.

"This can't happen. It's Christmas."

Two sisters and their (combined) nine children were inside their house on S. Porter in Saginaw when they heard a loud noise from the back room and the house started filling with smoke.

I was getting ready for a high school basketball game when I saw a bunch of fire trucks race down my street. I could smell the smoke when I got outside and saw the trucks and bystanders gathered right down the street.

The kids were wrapped in blankets given to them by the neighbors, and the mothers were bawling. They didn't have anywhere else to go.

Every so often with this job I'm reminded to be thankful for what I have and not take things for granted.  I also wish I could do more for people sometimes. I hoped being there and publishing the pictures was a start, and led to people chipping in anything to help. I have no idea where they went after or how they are doing right now, but I'd like to find out.

Draymond Green

Got to shoot an NBA game for the first time last week. Though, it was a bit different in that I was covering just one player instead of the game or a certain team.

Saginaw native and Golden State Warrior's rookie Draymond Green (23) made his first trip back to Michigan since being drafted in the second round out of Michigan State University. He's become a pretty regular part of the line up, but will only play for a few minutes at a time. Luckily, even though I know next to nothing about the league/sport, the arena announcer would kindly let me (and everyone else) know when he was coming in.

I shot a little bit of the game when I could, but most of my time was spent on Green. Enjoy.

Boxing

The paper sent me to cover Olympic Gold medalist Claressa Shields, who came up to Bay City from Flint sign autographs and attend an annual Fight Night. 

Since the event took forever to get started, and I got there an hour early anyway, I shot features of the first fighters getting ready. They were 10 and 11-year-old kids about to fight in front of people for the first time.

Search

Early morning on Friday, Nov. 23 a 67-year-old man diagnosed with early onset dementia wandered away from his home in Saginaw Township. When he still hadn't been located by Tuesday, officials called in search and rescue volunteers from all over the state to expand the search zone. My colleague and I went out with a search team to document the ongoing process. Each group (and there were many volunteers along with police and fire crews) had a grid they would walk and scour for any trace.

Unfortunately, this past Sunday the man's body was discovered in a heavily wooded ditch in Carrollton Township, about five miles away from his home.