The images I get from the mock accidents held at Bandera High School are always disturbingly realistic. I’ve covered spot news, which often means fires and wrecks, for 11 years in Bandera County. The photos I get from these mock accidents, held at the school in front of an assemblage of all BHS students, don’t differ much from my usual coverage of a wreck.

At an actual wreck, I am usually further back, staying out of the way of fire, EMS, and law enforcement doing their jobs. And being as the Bulletin is a small community paper, we also don’t shoot victims or anything particularly graphic. So these images are a bit closer, and definitely more vivid, than the types of images I make at an actual wreck scene.

Hopefully this exercise today, which shut down Old San Antonio Hwy. in front of the school, will give students pause and reason to slow down, pay attention, and stay sharp on the roads, especially leading up to prom.

You can find my full set of images from today’s mock accident in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Mock Accident at Bandera High School – May 11, 2010

Bandera County Relay For Life 2010 marked another great year for a purposeful and fun-filled event last night and this morning, May 1-2. The Bandera High School stadium was filled with teams of walkers who kept moving forward from 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday.

You can find the large copy of my panorama image from this year’s event at this link. Just right-click and Save As to download. You’re welcome to share it freely.

If you would like a copy of the full-size image, which reaches over four feet wide, just drop me an e-mail.

You can view my nighttime panorama of the luminaria ceremony from the 2009 Relay For Life in this Bandera.net post.

I’ll post a full album of my images from this year’s Relay early this week.

Donkey basketball is always a hoot of a fundraiser, and this one was well attended at Bandera High School to benefit Project Graduation. It’s great to see the combination of community leaders, school faculty, and students all on equally unstable and humbling grounds.

The image of Bandera Police Chief Jim Eigner sailing off his steed made the front page of the newspaper. I wrote up a variety of humorous cutlines featuring colorful synonyms for “donkey,” but the hierarchy proclaimed they weren’t fit to print!

You can find the complete album chock full of donkey basketball goodness in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Donkey Basketball Bandera Project Graduation Fundraiser – March 8, 2010

From what little I got to see during their practice, the BHS One Act Play troupe has a great play to perform this year.

The full album of photos can be found in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Bandera High School One Act Play Practice – March 5, 2010

The Bandera Lady Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the Devine Arabians in the first round of varsity girls basketball playoffs this evening. The game was played at the Paul Taylor Field House in San Antonio.

Photos from the game can be viewed in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Bandera Lady Bulldogs playoffs vs. Devine Arabians – Feb. 15, 2010

The Bandera Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs took on San Antonio Memorial in varsity soccer action on Feb. 12, 2010, at the Bandera Middle School Field.

I didn’t catch the final score from the boys game, but the girls picked up a big 6-2 win.

You can view all of my photos from the game in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Bandera Bulldogs soccer vs. San Antonio Memorial – Feb. 12, 2010

Bandera Lady Bulldogs soccer vs. San Antonio Memorial – Feb. 12, 2010

Comedy hypnotist Tim Castleman left the Bandera High School auditorium in stitches after his performance with some of Bandera’s finest young minds last Thursday.

Castleman’s show was to benefit the BHS senior class.

As always, you can view photos from the event in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Comedy Hypnotist Fundraiser at Bandera High School – Feb. 11, 2010

Bulldog Times writer and Outlaw Intern Megan Greebon’s article “Life in a war zone after Bandera High School” was published this week in the Bandera Bulletin, bringing Greebon’s excellent reporting and writing to thousands of new readers.

You can read her story online on the Bulletin’s web site.

Congratulations, Megan!

I’m working with Megan to hopefully do some exclusive content for here on Bandera.net – what would you like to read about?

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!)