Pies and Pudding Wrestling – 4.10.08

This was definitely one of the more entertaining events I attended for the year! The 13th annual Pi-Athlon was co-sponsored by Alpha Omega Pi sorority and Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, benefiting arthritis research and children with terminal illnesses. Also, both photos made CP the next day so that was exciting! Photos property of the Kentucky Kernel and Kristin Sherrard.

Jason Bridges, sophomore public service and leadership development major; Lambda Chi Alpha

Kate Hughes, left, a freshman education major and member of Kappa Delta

vs.

Ellie Victor, right, a sophomore accounting major and member of Kappa Alpha Theta

As the Semester Winds Down…

At last, finals week is here!!!  While this does mean stress, tests, stress and papers, it also means the end of another semester and time for a break!  And I am ready for the break!  I am really excited about the summer because it means I will be returning to my job/internship at Six Flags- to my friends and to a steady income to pay off my expensive career!  

Summer also means less stress and, not necessarily more time to shoot, but a change of scenary.  Rather than walking around campus looking for features, I will be going to various events around Louisville and looking for features which is exciting, but also a little nerveracking.  While I have definitely become more comfortable shooting and introducing myself to people in order to take their picture or get their name for a caption, I am still not absolutely comfortable with it.  But, hopefully by doing it a lot over the summer, it will become easier.

The summer also means the end.  The end to my junior year at UK.  I have been here for three years now, and when I return in the fall, I will only have one year left of school.  One more year to work for the Kernel and The Kentuckian and improve my skills as a photojournalist before going out into the “real world.”  One more year to learn how to be a better writer.  One more year to make and maintain friendships before everyone goes their separate ways.  One more year to leave my mark on this university and for it to leave its mark on me. 

I’m scared.  I’m not going to lie to you.  I thought that by finally deciding on photography as my career path, everything else would fall into place.  And maybe it will.  But until then, until I know that I have a job and a way to provide for myself and my future family, I will stress out about it like I do about everything else. 

I will try my best to update my blog over the summer.  I know that I am still a few weeks behind in my updating from the semester, so I will try my best to get everything up to date.  However, I still don’t know how I am going to do it once I get home, since my newer computer with my pictures will be on dial-up, while the old computer at home will be on high-speed…. very slowly I suppose. 

I hope that those of you who have kept up with my blog since it morphed into mostly a photo blog will see the progress I have made over the last semester.  I worked hard to “catch up” with everyone else at the Kernel, and I hope that you can see that through my work.  Even though I will not have a full-time photo internship over the summer, I am going to try my best to continue to improve and to hit the ground running next year. 

I hope you will keep checking back throughout the summer and give me feedback on my work because I really do take everyone’s comments to heart and try my best to improve the next time out.  Thanks for visiting!

UK Shaolin-Do Karate Club

UK’s Shaolin-Do Karate Club is an official student organization that meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights in the Alumni Gym. It is the second oldest martial arts club on campus. This was a feature assignment on April 8, which unfortunately did not make it into the paper. However, I will definitely be going back at some point next year to try again.

Brandon Laracuente, UK Alum ‘06 in computer science; 1st black belt

Laracuente, left, John Calhoun, middle, sophomore mechanical engineering major and green belt, and Matt McConnell, masters student in pharmaceutical science and a 1st black belt

Calhoun and Laracuente

McConnell, left, and Laracuente, right, Calhoun in mirror

Laracuente, Calhoun, McConnell

Laracuente

Laracuente and Calhoun

Laracuente, McConnell and Calhoun

McConnell, Laracuente and Calhoun

These photos are the property of the Kentucky Kernel and Kristin Sherrard.  Please contact me if you would like a copy at Kristin.Sherrard@gmail.com

UK Track and Field

These photos were shot for my assignment on the track and field athletes who are training for the Olympic trials. Because of this, they are property of The Kentuckian and myself.

Grant Lindsey, freshman

Jose Acevedo, junior

Rashaud Scott, junior

Ashley Muffet, junior

Getting Ready…

The Beaux Arts ball is, apparently, a huge deal around here. It is basically a huge costume/dress crazy dance party that happens once a year, and the proceeds benefit a charity of some sorts. I have never gone before, but I hear it is pretty insane. My friend Leah went, and here are some pictures of her getting ready.

4.7.08 Stand Alones

Double CP Today!!!

We interrupt this non-regularly scheduled (but at least in order) posting for a special announcement: I made center piece today with two photos and an article!!!   This is the first time that I have done double-duty with photo and a little writing.  It was exciting to see, so I just wanted to let you guys know and to post it.  I will put up more photos of the Ag 180 event later.

Daniel Meadows, an agriculture engineering senior, transplants flowers and bushes at the Old Episcopal Burying Ground near Third and Elm streets Saturday as part of the Ag 180 service project.

Ag 180 participants Savannah Speed, left, an animal science sophomore, and Tabitha Graham, a biosystems and agriculture engineering freshman, clean windows at the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge near Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday.

(The article)

About 40 students from the College of Agriculture participated Saturday in the first annual Ag 180: Turning Students into Leaders through Service.

Samuel Evans, a Student Government senator for the College of Agriculture, said he created the service event to compliment the Ag Bash, which draws many agriculture students out each fall.

“This is definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done – organize this event from the ground up,” said Evans, an agriculture education junior.

Volunteers signed up to work at one of seven locations around Lexington, including the Arboretum, the Lexington Senior Citizens Center, the Old Episcopal Burying Ground and the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. Tasks varied from landscaping to indoor cleaning projects.

“It’s basically the whole reason I joined Student Government,” he said.

Evans planned and coordinated the event with the College of Agriculture Student Council. Participants received free T-shirts and lunch.

“By doing service events, you look at things totally differently then you usually do,” Evans said. “It’s a lot different, leading and serving.”

Anna Hormann, a pre-veterinary sophomore and site leader, said she hopes the event keeps growing each year.

“We hope we can serve as a role model for the other colleges on campus to start their own service projects,” Hormann said. “College students do care.”
The article and photos are the property of the Kentucky Kernel and Kristin Sherrard so please do not steal them!!!

2008 Spring Football Practice

This was my very first football experience as a photog! I went to UK’s spring football practice to take pictures and to watch the scrimmage game that would take place after the initial drills. I got up at 8 a.m. for the 9:40 practice (early for a Saturday morning!), borrowed Brad’s 70-200 and headed out to Commonwealth. After circling the stadium trying to find the open gate and ending up virtually where I started if only I had taken a left instead of a right, I went in and took it all in.

I absolutely LOVE football! It is my favorite sport to play, and I love watching UK and the pros play, especially the Cowboys! I watch college games too sometimes, but I’m not as attached to those except Kentucky, probably because I don’t know many of the players. ANYWAY, I walked down to the front row and hung out there for a little while. Then I began noticing people coming in through the tunnel, and some were standing on the sidelines. So, I decided to be a little proactive and walked around to that side and went in the tunnel as well. I walked up to one of the student trainers and said that I was with the Kentucky Kernel, and I wanted to know where I could stand. She directed me to a lady with public relations, who said I could stand on the sidelines or in the end zone during the practice, but I couldn’t take any pictures once the scrimmage began.

Let me tell you, I was really excited to be there! Immediately, I tried to focus on, mainly, the quarterbacks and some on the receivers because those are the “question mark” positions.

I think that I got some pretty good shots, but I know that I also could have done a whole lot better! The real downer though was that I didn’t see the two Kernel sports writers until well into the scrimmage. I wish that I had known they were there before or I would have asked them who they were focusing their stories on. Honestly, I’m not sure if they were there for the practice beforehand or they just made it in time for the scrimmage, but next time, I’ll have to keep a better look out. Unfortunately, they were focusing on Locke (RB), Lanxter (WR) and Lyons, Jr (WR). I had a few shots of them, but I definitely would have concentrated more on them and less on the quarterbacks if I had known.

Overall, I had a great time, and I wish that I could have made it out to more practices! I went to the Blue/White game today though, so keep a look out for that post in hopefully the next few days!

QB Mike Hartline hands the ball off to RB Derrick Locke

QB Curtis Pulley throws a pass to Locke

Pulley passing in a drill

Hartline passing in a drill

After the scrimmage, I followed the camera guys and reporters out to meet head coach Rich Brooks for his reaction to the practice. I also took pictures of the players that were interviewed and of offensive coordinator Joker Phillips.

Sophomore WR Lanxter

Junior FB John Conner

Sophomore TB Locke

Senior FS Marcus McClinton, left, and Senior CB David Jones, right.

Offensive Coordinator Joker Phillips

Opening Day, Spring Meet 2008 at Keeneland

For the second time in my collegiate career, I ventured out to Keeneland on College Day.  Unfortunately, I didn’t win one of the $1,000 scholarships, but I did win money on four of nine races!  I thought that was pretty impressive!    However, I bet on a lot of horses to “show,” so I didn’t win very much.  I actually ended up down, but not by much.  I went with $25 and came home with $23.40, so not bad for an afternoon.

I went to the track with Rebecca and her dad and brother, but they couldn’t stay very long, so I ended up leaving with Autumn.  She was taking pictures for Jill, who was doing a story on one of the trainers, Pam Ritter, who had two horses racing that day.

Here are some of my pictures.  I wish I would have had a long lens, but I still got a few good ones.  The last photo was on the front page of the Kernel.  Therefore, these pictures are property of Kristin Sherrard and the Kentucky Kernel.

“And they’re off…”

The stables

Jockey Edgar Prado getting a boost onto his horse Vanquished.  Vanquished is one of the horses trained by Ritter and ran in the 6th race.

April 2: Stomp-A-Palooza and Tour of the University Health Services

I know, I know this was a long time ago! I’m sorry, but I am slammed with schoolwork right now! I will try to do a larger update this weekend. Until then, here are some “sorta oldies, but goodies…”

I was eating dinner at Ovid’s with Autumn and Emily when Elliott called, wanting someone to go shoot the Stomp-A-Palooza event over at Memorial Hall. Autumn and I headed over, but we missed the majority of the program. Hopefully, next year I will catch the entire show because it looked like a lot of fun (and a really good opportunity to take pictures!).

The event was presented by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Fraternity brothers teach each of the participating sororities and fraternities a stomp routine, which they perform at Stomp-A-Palooza. Delta Zeta was the winning sorority and Phi Gamma Delta the winning fraternity.

Kappa Delta

Alpha Delta Pi (Ky Kernel’s and Kristin Sherrard’s property!)

Earlier in the day, Erica, a Kernel reporter, and I took an exclusive tour of the new four-story University Health Services building. The 73,000 square-foot building is the first building devoted entirely to student health, and it will open on May 19.

Sherry Holmes, left, director of Children’s Services listens to Karen W. Clancy, right, associate director of University Health Service give a tour of the new building.

(Left-Right)

Clancy; Val Owens, Employee Health nurse; Alice Wilson, Director of Nursing for University Health Services; Holmes; Jessica Richard, Employee Health nurse and Joey Papst, Employee Health nurse manager

Wilson

Karen W. Clancy, left, associate director of University Health Service, gave a tour of the new facility to Miranda Lyons, right, a first year graduate student in the physician assistant program, and other coworkers on Wednesday.

These photos are also property of the Kentucky Kernel and Kristin Sherrard.