MOMENTS 2006

Monday, Dec. 25, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Sometimes photographers struggle with technical issues and don't even know if they got the shot. Sometimes it's just a matter of waiting for the shot to come to them. And sometimes we just wait.

As Mike Metzger did a back flip on his motorcycle over the fountains at Caesars Palace, what struck me was how very little time he was actually in the air. It went so quickly, I had no idea what I had captured until I downloaded the pictures. This picture got a lot of attention because Metzger was updating Evel Knievel's failed jump on New Year's Day 1968.

Shooting a contortionists' convention, I was really struggling to find clean compositions. It was a challenge because there was very little light, and I had to shoot at very slow shutter speeds (1/20th of a second). It would take very little movement to make a blurry, unusable photo. I knew he wouldn't be able to hold this pose for very long, so I had to catch him at the very top - the only time he would be completely still, if only for a second. But then I decided I really liked this odd leg sticking into the side of the picture of Bobby Lemaire, 9.

For a story on ground water pumping, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with the Bakers, who've been ranching in northeastern Nevada since 1962. So, I drove up the night before and slept in my car. During my tour of the ranch with Dean Baker, we ended up joining his son Tom and granddaughter Kayli, 3. The ranchers and farmers in White Pine County are concerned about a plan to pump water to Las Vegas. For them, it's not only about losing the water resource but also a potential threat to their way of life. I felt that this fun moment between grandfather and granddaughter captured the lifestyle that they want so much to preserve.

I like to take pictures like this to send to my friends; it's part of what makes my job so fun.

I went to Nicole McGeary's home in Henderson to shoot a story about a zoning issue - and she turned the camera on me. She said she plans to put in a swimming pool and landscaping in the back yard but she is waiting for blasting on a nearby ridge to be completed because she is afraid the vibrations would crack the concrete.

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