Missed me?

As you can see from the surrounding photos, headway has been made in the “camera situation” at the newspaper.

By hook or by crook, I’m back to making the best photos I’m capable of, my hands untied and camera gear ready to rock after a prolonged hibernation.

You can view all of my photos from yesterday’s Bandera Bulldogs vs. Ingleside Mustangs varsity football playoff game over at the Bulletin’s DotPhoto.com account or in the Bandera.net Photo Gallery (pro tip: Bandera.net is faster, the images are bigger and higher quality and you don’t need a degree in Computer Science just to look at them).

Below are some of my personal picks from the gallery. Let me know what you think: comment below, hit me up on Twitter @BanderaOutlaw, e-mail me at James@team-outlaw.net, or call/text me at 830-688-1564.

My friends, it is so good to be back.

(UPDATE: Check out Spencer Smith’s gallery of photos from the Bandera-Ingleside game at www.Bandera-ABC.com)

You can read snippets of all my latest adventures and news via the Twitter feed on the right side of this page, or by visiting www.twitter.com/banderaoutlaw. Daily doses of community journalism delights from all across Bandera County!

I’m getting my gear ready to head out for Castroville for the Medina Lady Cats varsity volleyball bi-district playoff game versus D’Hanis, tonight at 7 p.m. at Medina Valley High School.

See you guys there!

I’ll see you fine folks at tonight’s Bandera Lady Bulldogs vs. Fredericksburg volleyball match. Looking at the Bandera ISD Google Calendar, varsity plays at 5 p.m. Should be a fun match.

I’ll be off to Fort Worth tomorrow and Thursday for a web journalism workshop at Texas Christian University. Wish me luck as I point my Chevy north for five straight hours up I-35. The TCU campus is just beautiful and I always enjoy cussing and discussing the industry with fellow community journalists from across the Texas Press Association membership.

Friday I’ll head south to Hondo for the Bulldogs’ match-up against the Owls. Hard to believe football season is already drawing toward a close. Here’s hoping I stay busy with playoff games into the distant future!

As always you can follow my travels via Twitter @BanderaOutlaw or simply by visiting Bandera.net and admiring the sweet Twitter feed to your right.

Before I was on Twitter, I joked with people that I should join so I could post game scores for the other two Bandera County tweeple. I have since humbly realized that we have a huge local Twitter representation and that I’m apparently the one way late to the scene.

Thanks for being my tweep.

😀

You can check out video of Bandera Bulldogs starting quarterback Cole Hubble’s 105-yard punt return against the Lago Vista Vikings on YouTube courtesy of TexasPreps.net.

In January National Prep Network posted a junior-year highlight reel of Hubble from his 2008 season – to the tune of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” no less! You can see me on the sidelines with camera in hand in at least half the included clips. And of course Mrs. Sandy Jennings jumping and waving with every touchdown.

We need more video of Bulldog, Bobcat and Buffalo sports online!

Local freelancers Ken Lane and Rick Mender have posted fresh albums of photos from the Bandera Bulldogs vs. Crystal City Javelinas homecoming game of Friday, Oct. 2.

Lane also has photos from the Bandera Lady Bulldogs vs. Boerne volleyball games.

Enjoy!

I’m a week behind, but I just came across the Austin American-Statesman’s coverage of the Bandera-Wimberley football game from Sept. 18.

Great write-up and a set of 10 very nice photos from Statesman intern Jordan Smothermon. He was working the sidelines hard throughout the game to get a set of 10 top-quality shots. I got to chat with him briefly and he said he has been a sports shooter since he first took up professional photography.

Where do you guys get your Bandera, Medina and Utopia sports story and photo fix? In the papers or online? Where? Leave a comment below on this blog post, hit me up on Twitter @banderaoutlaw, e-mail James@team-outlaw.net, or call/text me at 830-688-1564.

I’m really enjoying what Jimmy Monroe, Emily King, and the Bulldog Times staff are putting out with their online edition. Lots of video content and the freshness that student journalism has to offer.

Multimedia is the future of journalism whether or not us ink-stained wretches are happy about it. I’ve always been a tech- and net-friendly guy, so I for one am excited about the new opportunities unfolding for delivering news and storytelling in new and important ways.

I’ve long advised the journalism classes at Bandera and Medina both on camera gear purchases, and have even given presentations to the Bandera class. It’s always great to see how students new to the game of journalism interpret and present their news.

I’m a journalism junkie and just finished watching the entire first season of The Paper on iTunes. If you want to see what high school journalism is like at the largest high school in the country, it’s a great documentary put on by MTV.

Some other favorite TV and movie interpretations of journalism include State of Play with Russel Crowe (which I rented recently over at Video Outlet), The Wire’s final season, and of course the old TV show Lou Grant.

The dead-tree newspapers of Bandera County have anything but multimedia or social media on their minds, so at this point, the Bulldog Times is leading the local path toward Journalism 2.0.

(Bulldog Cheerleader Senior Co-Captain Holly Garwood’s response to reporter Randi Thomas’ question about what the cheer team has learned “after a hard year” is priceless: “Our team has learned what not to do.” Love it!)

I apologize for the lack of photo updates here on Bandera.net. If you’ve spoken with me in person, you know why this is. If you haven’t, I’m not really at liberty to be candid with the details here on the Net.

As vaguely as I can explain it, I am no longer subsidizing the Bulletin’s photography budget with my professional equipment, and the newspaper has given me a broken point-and-shoot camera with which to shoot Bandera County sports for the foreseeable future.

If you want to know my feelings on this, don’t hesitate to ask.

I hope that the situation will change for the better in the near future, but from what I’ve been told, it’s highly unlikely. I think this is quite unfortunate.

Luckily there is some light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a number of very good local photographers who are shooting Bandera County sports as freelancers this year. Check out the work of Spencer Smith, Ken Lane and Rick Mender to get your sports photo fix.

And what of Bandera.net? Many good things are on the horizon. Bookmark away and come back often; what you’ll see here in the near future is unlike anything that’s graced the Internet landscape of Bandera County. Those of you who know me well know I don’t make such boasts without warrant.

Stay tuned – it’s about to get good!

The Medina Bobcats fell to the TMI Panthers 53-14 in varsity football action last night, Sept. 4.

You can see all of my photos from the game at BanderaBulletin.dotphoto.com.