My wife Diane and I were invited to the recent Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy end-of-the-year awards ceremony under the guise that one of our children (Zach or Kelle) would be receiving an award. Imagine my surprise when they announced the recipient of a special State Award — Mike Wise! I turned to my wife and said, “I think they said my name!”

Throughout the school year, I photograph school sports events and make the pictures available for students, families, and friends on smugmug. It is great fun and I truly enjoy doing it — and best of all, it’s very low cost. What the heck — I’m there anyways, might as well take some pictures and post them to the Web site, right?. [If you want to know the "rest of the story", the hobby stems from a tendency I have of yelling exhortations from the sidelines -- good stuff (most of the time), but my son especially much prefers me taking pictures. :-) ]

A baseball player shot through the fence behind home plate (click to enlarge)

When I went up for the award, the athletic director asked all the people who had their picture taken by me during the year to stand up. It was awesome. I turned and clicked a picture just for fun — it almost came out pretty good!!! Crazy.