Bill Clinton speaks while campaigning for his wife, Hillary, at the University of South Dakota Friday, March 30, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

If you read any of my blog entries during the Iowa caucuses, you already know what a pain I think most politicians are and that one of my pet peeves is that they are rarely on time. Tonight I photographed Bill Clinton speaking outdoors at the University of South Dakota, scheduled to start at 7:15. A sudden rain hit shortly after 7:00 delaying the event until the rain stopped.

OK, rain, good excuse for running late. But when I was looking at my photos I was able to read his notes where it clearly stated “University of South Dakota 7:45-8:30 PM.”

7:45? It’s printed on his schedule, 7:45. Not 7:15 like they announced to everyone else, but 7:45. I just don’t get it. If they’re not even planning to be on time, then why don’t they just schedule the event for the time they actually intend to be there?

In a few more hours I’ll be on vacation. But don’t worry, I’ll be back.

I don’t have any big plans for this vacation, just trying to use up part of the four weeks I get each year. Actually, it kinda scares me to think that I’ve been someplace long enough to earn four weeks of vacation each year.

But anyway, for the next week I’ll be going to a lot of movies, maybe make a couple of daytrips and looking for frivolous ways to spend my money. I’ll be back to work again on the 30th. See ya then!

Storm Lake’s Cassie Meylor hugs teammate Amy Kessler after winning the 3A shuttle hurdle relay during the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field meet Saturday, May 17, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

It’s not even noon yet and Storm Lake has already captured two state championships, winning the 3A shuttle hurdle relay and the Sprint Medley relay. Their photos are already posted in the gallery. There are still several events left to go, so I’ll be adding photos to the galleries as the day goes on.

Storm Lake’s Michaela Brungardt takes the hand-off from Katie Blum in the Sprint Medley relay during the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field meet Saturday, May 17, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

West’s Rae Twohig takes the hand-off from Gabriel Williams in the 4×200 during the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field meet Friday, May 16, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal) Click here for more photos.

The first two days of the state track meet can be challenging. If you saw the list of Siouxland qualifiers in the paper earlier this week, you know we have hundreds of athletes from our coverage at the state meet. During the first two days, the field events run non-stop. There are 4 classes of boys and four classes of girls, and they all rotate doing the shot put, discus, long jump and high jump. Plus there are the running events. So at all times there are five events going on at the same time.

Since there is only one of me, there is no way to photograph all of our area athletes. To make it easier for me, I go through the schedule and highlight area athletes who are seeded in the top 3 or 4 in their event and concentrate on them. But even when I narrow it down that much, there are still plenty of conflicts. Plus there is the occasional kid who has a great day and pulls off an unexpected win. I do my best and try to get what I can.

Saturday is much easier. All of the field events are done and so are the prelims, so it’s all finals and all running events. There is still the possibility that I could occasionally get blocked out of a shot by an official, athlete or another photographer, but chances are much better of getting a good shot of our area winners.

Storm Lake’s Katie Blum competes in the long jump during the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field meet Friday, May 16, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Sgt. Bluff-Luton’s Megan Glisar competes in the high jump during the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field meet Thursday, May 15, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Major surprise for me when I arrived at Drake Stadium for the first day of the state track meet…. They built a new media workroom. The old one was just an empty space beneath the stands. It was small, dirty, and smelled funny. The new one is huge, air conditioned and, this is a major bonus, has a restroom! Oh yea, we’re living in style at Drake.

And for you track fans out there, I started a photo gallery from the track meet. I’ll be adding more photos to it all weekend long.

The new and improved workroom!

I’ll be off on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and then I’ll be at the state track meet in Des Moines for the rest of the week. Checked the long range forecast, looks like temperatures in the 60’s all weekend long. Shouldn’t be too bad as long as the rain stays away. But we all know how accurate the weather forecasts are. So to be safe I think I’ll have sunscreen and a winter coat in my car, just in case. Check back later this week for photos from the meet.

Sioux City’s Juan Camacho throws to first for an out against Wichita during Explorers baseball action at Lewis and Clark Park Sunday, May 11, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

It’s going to take me some time to get used to some of the team names in the new league that the Explorers are playing in…. Diablos, Wingnuts, AirHogs…. I still think “Wingnuts” sounds like a good name for a breakfast cereal. Anyway, you can see more photos from the Explorers home opener in my galleries.

Emily Payer, 6, rides her bike along the riverfront in Sioux City Sunday, May 11, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

It’s not unusual for people to see my cameras while I’m working and start asking me questions about my equipment. I’m usually more than willing to talk shop with people when I can, but sometimes people start asking me questions and rather inopportune times. Like at ball games, I’m much more likely to chat with you between quarters or innings, not when the action is going on. One time I had a woman who kept pestering me to shoot photos of her kids when I was trying to shoot fireworks. Sorry, but the fireworks display only lasts for a few minutes and it’s a shot I have to have.

And then there was today. One of my three assignment this afternoon was to find people riding bikes for a story about the start of bicycling season. I also had to shoot the Explorers first home game of the season and a Mother’s Day program at the Betty Strong Encounter Center, so I didn’t have the whole afternoon to cruise around looking for people on bikes.

I went down to the Riverfront where all the trees were flowering. I waited for some time before I saw a family of five heading my way and I picked a spot where I could frame them with the trees as they rode past. They were about 30 yards away when a man driving a car stopped right in the spot I picked for the photo. He hops out of the car and yells “Hey, what kind of cameras are you using.” I yelled back “Canon,” hoping he would get back in his car and keep driving before I missed the shot.

Then he takes a few steps closer and asks “What models?” I kept watching the bikes getting closer and replied “40D’s.” Three of the bicyclists went past and I’m trying to bite my tongue and not tell this guy that he just blew my photo. I saw one of the children straggling behind to I quickly try to recompose and get a quick grab shot as this guy is going into his whole photographic background.

I really don’t know what all he said after that. I was more concerned about catching up with the bicyclists so I could get their names to go with the photos and I was wishing he was more concerned about his car that was still running and blocking traffic. Five minutes earlier or five minutes later, I would have been more than happy to chat about cameras with this guy until he was bored, but at the moment getting the shot was more important.

Sioux City’s O.J. Simpson is tackled by Omaha’s Reicko Jones during Bandits arena football action at the Tyson Events Center Saturday, May 10, 2008. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal) Click here for more photos

I know it’s Saturday. I know the bank is closed. But the folks at Liberty National Bank don’t want you parking in their lot. They have signs up warning people. On more than one occasion I’ve seen cars being towed from their lot as I’ve been leaving a Bandits game.

I know their parking lot looks convenient since it’s right across the street from the back entrance to the Tyson Events Center (which is the same entrance where the media signs in at when going to the games.) But if you don’t want to park in the main lot, do like I do, park in the street.

I was sent to the post office today to shoot photos for a story about postage rates going up. I got to thinking that we always cover increases in postage rates, we do several stories about gas prices each year, but what about the other stuff?

A really important price increase happened last week. Canon raised the prices of most of their lenses. It didn’t make the headlines in the Journal, but it was a hot topic on many photography forums on the web.

Most lenses went up 3 to 5% in price. But overall I don’t think photographers can complain too much. Yes, we may have to pay an extra 30 to 50 bucks for a lens, but the last camera I bought cost $1139.95. It wasn’t all that long ago that a digital SLR cost more than $10,000.