I stumbled across a box of newspaper clippings from my high school basketball days.

What odd timing. I say this because I've been photographing basketball all season for the Santa Rosa yearbook. So to compare the photos I'm taking now to those of me from the past is quite an experience.

For one thing, mine today are better. They should be. We have so many advantages now that reporters couldn't even dream of in the past. Last night I shot at ISO 3200, f/1.8, at 1/400th of a second.

When I was a reporter in those olden days, I shot Tri-X film, pushed to ASA 800 in Acufine developer. Maybe I could muster 1/125th of a second in those dank high school gyms. And I can tell you, I wasn't firing off 9 frames a second like I am with my OM-D E-M5.

Yes, I was both a player and a reporter in those days. Basketball was fun; journalism was my future. The local newspaper nicknamed me "Million Moves." As you can guess, it was somewhat tongue in cheek. At 6'7" in high school, I had a knack for getting to the basket. I was my team's leading scorer my senior year, an All League selection, and team MVP.

But it wasn't always pretty.

Come to think of it, it's still not that pretty. In many senses, I'm still that gangly teenager trying to score a bucket for my team. I don't think I would have thought about all of this had it not been for those preserved newspaper clippings.

Thanks Dad.

-Derrick