March was a great month for me to focus on my personal life, something we oftentimes forget to do as photojournalists. It was nice to have a full month without booked weekends and simply enjoy hanging out in East Texas.

Workwise, the highlight of my month was meeting and photographing Larry Terkleson, a double amputee who lost both of his legs to complications with surgery but continues to live a full life doing what he loves. Larry's always been a handyman and has built many things on his property. His current projects focus on barbecue pits, and I got to spend a morning with him as he worked on one. There was something about Larry's resilient and humble demeanor coupled with his attitude that you can do anything you put your mind to that stuck with me.

Overall, it was a sports-heavy month with lots of opportunities to shoot baseball, softball, even dog agility trials and some track and field, the latter of which was a new-to-me sport to cover. Somehow I never shot relays at UT or a meet in Michigan. Given this fact and how little I knew about track and field, I was pretty nervous to go shoot what seemed to be somewhat organized chaos with a bunch of events happening at once. By the end of my first meet though, the anxiety had worn off and I was enjoying finding the action in the nice golden hour light. I've since shot a few more track and field meets this month and am enjoying the new challenge.

I also shot Mud Nationals this month and got a little too close to the action for a wide angle shot, causing me to get hit by a wave of muddy water. You gotta do what you gotta do to get those pictures though, and it sure was worth it, though I now know that East Texas red dirt in mud form stains just about everything.

At any rate, here's my month in photos -- enjoy!