Smartypants

Today begins my seventh year that I'm working with Bill on the Spelling Bee. It's been a job we started doing back when we both worked at Scripps, and even though we both left that place years ago, we've found a nice little sidejob taking photos for all these newspapers across the country (and world, even). It's always been a fun time and we see some of the same people year after year.

It's been wild seeing how much the Bee has become this little phenomenon in the last seven years. When I first started working it, there was hardly anyone there outside of the kids' parents and the workers. Sure, ESPN2 showed the finals and stuff, but it was on mainly in the afternoon and it was no big shake. We just sat back, took pictures and got wowed by how these kids knew the spellings to words I've never heard of and that they'll never use in real life ever.

About four years ago Mike&Mike showed up and did some bits. Then three years ago they moved the finals to live in primetime on ABC and Laura Bush was supposed to show up. She never did (typical for a Bush), but that was when we knew things had changed. Now Erin Andrews does live interviews, the schmuck from Dancing with the Stars does the commentary and there are tons of photogs and TV people who all act like they know how the Bee runs but they don't know. Not like we know. We're the pros around here folks, the seasoned vets who know all the tricks of the trade.

So if you have some spare time Thursday or Friday, flip on over to ESPN or ABC and look for me down in the photographer's pit. It's one of those few times in my life I can claim to be on national television. So that makes me cool. Plus, I get to be in the room for some of the fun, crazy things that happen when you put a 12-year-old on national TV and put an entire family's pressure on him/her. Sometimes they can't handle it. Sometimes they are just unfiltered and give you great laughs.

On this one, if you look when they cut to the photogs, that's me on the right. Yeah, baby, 1.5 million people have seen me. Score.



This was just a surreal moment and still to this day sets off debate amongst us insiders on whether he faked the fainting or not.