Ep. 8 - Coaching to Camera: Bigg Zigg on Capturing the Moments That Matter

In this episode of Waiting Tables, John Bruscato sits down with Bigg Zigg to talk about his journey from coaching football to becoming one of the most recognizable sports photographers in the area. They get into the power of photography in helping athletes get noticed, the importance of mentorship, the culture around youth and high school sports, and the life lessons competition can teach. It’s a real conversation about sports, community, purpose, and the people behind the moments we all remember. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Wedding Temple Play. Will we share stories of people in our community living circle? Welcome, man. Thanks for coming on and doing this.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Man, I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about this.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Well, I gotta be uh we'll sort it out. I've gotta get it for you. Nice for your uh generosity with your whoa. Oh, it's not this heavy.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Ooh, look at that. What do we got here? Oh, heck yeah. What we got here, John? What'd you get me? Ooh, definitely need that. Definitely need that. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

That'll be old school Briscato logo on it.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Got the old school bruscado logo on it. It'd be hydrating on the on the ball field.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

And you can clip it. You get if you get a carabiner, you can just clip that onto your oh, I got one already.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Got one already. Got koozy and all the stress when I miss the shots. When somebody walks in my way.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

We we ordered a bunch of those and we threw them out at the crew janus uh motorgirl parade. At least if it hits somebody, it don't hurt them. You know what? A few years ago, there was a local uh injury attorney who threw some cups, and apparently he had somebody on there that had quite an arm. Uh oh. And it and it hit this young lady in the face. And I don't think I don't think there was like a significant injury, but well, I say that I don't really know. I mean, I nobody ever called me about it or anything after the fact, but well, thank you, dude.

unknown 1:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

What's up with you, man? Man, it's crossover season. The crossover season for me with the business is you got track going on, you have baseball, softball that's rampant and going, then you have basketball playoffs going. So there's so much going on that it's almost impossible to cover.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

So, for people that don't know, what are you trying to cover? What are you doing? What are you talking about, Doug?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So I am Washtal Citizens sports photographer, uh, you know, as far as a whole. I help Jake Martin out covering um with my images and the photography side of things. We cover the the games, the high school sports within Washtal Parish. But not just that, on the weekends or when I'm not covering sports, I'm big zig photography. Um, we go and I go off and I go shoot. Let's say last night I was at East Washtaw Middle School and Sterlington Middle School softball game. Um, East Washtal won a giveaway gallery through Facebook and everything. It was fantastic. And I went and fulfilled that obligation because they had the most votes. You know, they they had like like 150 votes. Okay. So they won some kind of contest. Yeah, they won like a little, you know, go share, go like, go follow contest that I did on social media, you know, and you know, type of thing. I go cover. I don't I don't discriminate on sports at all.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

So how does it like when you're not covering for a Washtall Citizen, are you do you do like flip freelance work or I do freelance work?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Um I do a lot of work with booster clubs. Um when it comes like senior nights, um, they want photographer to come in and you know the parents don't have to worry about getting photos or anything like that. I do a lot of freelance work that I just basically make my own schedule. Um basically just trying to trying to give exposures to programs in our area because I've had college recruiters tell me, you know, definitely like on the softball level, Zig, your photo is what got her noticed.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

You know, her making this dive and catch, or this kid's um had a great night pitching. You know, we wanted to see how he looked on you know on camera. Well, stick, you know, frame by frame looks a little bit different and more detail than you can be just by video. Or, you know, a coach told me one time we wanted to see what swing, how his swing just looked at contact you know, on the ball, and they were able to do that based off of an image I took. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Well, how I mean, how how did you ever get the idea to get into this or to do this?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

It's a long story, man. Um, started off coaching. I was a football coach, coached at several different high schools, uh, one junior high, and just got tired of it. But I fell in love with a picture back when I played that a guy, I don't even remember his name. I think it was uh Matt Sanchez with Hammerhead. Um, I don't know if you know Matt. Also, he shoots, he used to shoot for the new star, and he does K uh shots with K-104 and everything, where Matt took a photo of me at Neville, and I'm pulling and kicking out um a defender, and it just how he was able to freeze it, just intrigued me, even at a high school level. And excuse me. And I didn't think about it, but I got done with coaching and I was getting my master's in educational leadership at LSUS. I said, I want to find something I can still get closer, stay as close to the game. Well, I was doing graphics for West Washington still, and I I had bought my wife a camera to use and it was like during COVID or right after COVID. It really just sat. It didn't we we really didn't do much with it. So I started taking it to to football games. And I said, okay. Then I ran into a uh a gentleman, Tom Morris, the area knows him as Timo. Love you, Timo. Um yeah, definitely gonna give him the plug on on Big Zig. If it wasn't for him, it would have never existed the way or is blown up the way it has. I'm shooting a scrimmage game at West Washtall, and he walks over there to me, and he's got this super nice camera, super nice lens, and I'm just like, oh, just in awe. Well, I just start asking him questions. And if anybody who knows how Timo is behind a camera, it's a Moxie. It's a persona that he he has and he deserves every bit of it. Yeah, and he uh he he says something to me about well, you just gotta do your homework. I said, Well, I got a notebook and I can go get a pen if I need to. And man, he poured into me. Week after week, he would give me his assignments, you know, basically, hey, try this out, tell me the difference between this and this. And I just kept, you know, he kept pouring into me. And it just took off. And it's crazy. Took off like hell. It just I immediately saw my images get better. And when that happened, people wanted them. And that's when I made a decision, okay, I gotta I got something that nobody's really doing to the extent that I want to do it at. Um, because I just don't want to be just parish wide. I don't want to be statewide, I want to be regional, uh, you know, wide. Or, you know, regionally um basically noticed. Um and with Timo, he was able to open that door with me with the Washita citizen. Um, because I mean he's he's I know he's a private guy, but it's out there. I mean, he's he's had some health issues that's prevented him from picking up a camera. I mean, he hadn't picked up a camera since November since a while. He's almost been 12, he's almost been a full year of uh since his transplant. So it was like six months before that. Um so he hadn't picked up a camera in like 18 months. And that left Jake in a bind. You know, Jake Martin with the Washed out citizen left him in a bind. And Timo's timeline and my timeline met, you know, at with I'm going up and he's you know coming down slope. And it was just the timing, you know, talk about God's timing and how things happen in life that you can't explain or you didn't foresee happening, but yet it did, you know, at the time it did. It was just one of those kind of things that you look back and you go, okay, this is why. You know, and I I enjoy it so much.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

You know, it's it's uh it's been fun to watch your you know, your images, honestly. I mean, we you know, we really enjoyed when every time you've covered one of our kids' games, like we've really enjoyed getting those photos, and you know, and some of those photos are like kind of like, and then there's one photo, and I think you took it. It's not of my one of my kids, it's of Owen O'Neill.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

And he's like, Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know. I got my favorite one is of Owen, my favorite one of Owen. I don't know if I could ever publish it. It's oh, and I it's oh, and I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yeah, and he's like reaching like reaching across the oh yeah like to get more yardage, and or and then no, he's laying sitting down. No, he's sitting down. This is what it is. Because I've seen one where he's reaching across to get more yardage. He's sitting down and he's pointing first down. And he's pointing first down. Yep. Did you do that? Yep, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, that was a lot of stuff. I think that was after I let Cassie uh play with the camera.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Maybe Cassie did that.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Maybe Cassie did that. Hear that, Cassie? Maybe that was your shot. I'm sorry I took credit for it.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

No, but that was a cool like he was like, you know, sitting, he was like sitting down, about to get up.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, that was an uh Cedar Creek game.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

When they played Cedar Creek.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Yeah, that's uh yeah, Owen had an incredible season, man. I mean, that was just fun watching him like with that elbow injury in the surgery that he had, and then in the uh was it was the what what team were we playing? I don't know if you were there covering that game. It was a district game. Uh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

He was sitting out and he dressed out.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

He was sitting out and he was not going to dress out. And Delta Charter, I think. Delta Charter, that's it. But yeah, I'm glad you remembered that. Yeah, we were playing Delta Charter, and Owen sitting out, he just had this surgery like two, three weeks ago, and we knew he was gonna be out, and I think the surgery ended up being a little bit more uh involved than what they expected, and he was having some like not mobility issues, it was just I think he was having more pain than he expected. Yeah, and um and he had like a and it happened the injury happened in like a seven on seven like deal.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, because I remember seeing him in body jam.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, um it happened before body jam. It happened, I think, in a seven-on-seven uh thing in the summer or maybe in the late spring or something. And he like fractured part of his elbow and a bone fragment came off of his elbow, but it didn't affect his the, I guess, the his ability or whatever, but he had this little bitty bone fragment in his elbow that they had to like cut out, and I think it ended up being a little bit more involved than they anticipated. And so he was gonna sit out that Delta Charter game, and uh Delta Charter was tough, man, and they were it they were I mean, it was a neck and neck thing, you know. And Owen's watching this from the sidelines, and he goes and dresses out. He tell well he had his Will Campbell moment. Well, he goes to T coach T.O. I uh now only reason why I know this is because I've heard Coach T.O. give a speech about it, or actually a couple of speeches about it. But he goes to Coach TO and he's like, Coach, I want to get in, I want to dress out. And coach said, Hey, that's between you and your dad and your family. And you need to, that's between y'all, and then coach went back to coaching the game. Like, wasn't like a yeah, it that's between y'all. And I don't, you know, I'm not I'm not yay or nay on that deal, is what he was trying to say. And uh, because I mean he didn't want to see something happen and him have some kind of because he's a great baseball player, obviously, and have some sort of downstream uh problem with baseball or or even with the football. And uh so he goes and talks to his dad, and then he goes into the field house, gets in his locker room, gets dressed out, comes back out, apparently does like sprints on the sideline to warm up and stretching and all that stuff does like a normal warm-up routine. I don't know, with the trainer, I don't know who he was, who he's working out with, but he worked out and warmed up right there on the sidelines, and then coach sends him in like the first play, gives him the ball, and runs for a touchdown.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

That's that's 010. And speaking of his dad, speaking of his dad, I I absolutely love working St. Fred's games when his dad's on the sideline because you're not gonna get a better supporter. You're not gonna get somebody one who knows to run a camera just like I do. You know, I don't want you know, he don't want to give himself his own credit, but you know, Mr. Kenny, you can take good photos. And um, you know, just it's he's always a blast to be around. Yeah. Always a blast.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

He's funny, man. That guy's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

I love I you know, I somebody asked me the other day, what's your favorite place to go photograph? Oh, okay. I went I went the next game. I don't I don't have I don't have a favorite place. Yeah. Because, you know, we talked about earlier about you know how I got into this. I have zero photography education, zero formal training.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Right. No. You didn't take like a photography class in college. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

YouTube, if I had questions, I went to YouTube or Timo. Um, and that's all this which you see. I have people that came up to me this past weekend at the junior high polar bear, you know, that was held at ULM. Um they go, Zig, how how do you get your picture so clear? I went, I don't know. I really don't. It's just I know what I want my images to look like. I know how to do it inside the camera. So I don't have to do it in post. You can ask any videographer, any photographer, if you can get it right in camera, you're saving yourself time and you're saving yourself quality of the image. Because you can you can overcook an image or a video quick. When I mean by overcooked, I mean it's over-edit.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

You can lose too polished. Yeah, too polished, or it's too grainy, too choppy. Your frame rate doesn't match up with your shutter speed. There's so many variables that go on, which I know it could be very overwhelming for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Well, it's funny, like you know, I yeah, most people the only thing they know about taking a photo. Oh, they just use a cell phone. Just right here. I mean, they use their cell phone, and that's all that that's all they got.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Oh, yeah. I I run into it. I hear comments all the time. Yeah, I'm not paying how much he he wants for reservations. I could just do it on my camera. Go ahead, you're fine.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

I mean, there's no knock to it.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Well, you know, the problem, the problem that I see with that, and I mean, as a as a parent, like I want to watch the game and experience it myself. And I would love it if somebody would take some great photos. I I feel that way about like pretty much everything. I hate taking photos because I feel like I'm like stepping out of the experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

That's there's a hundred percent truth behind that. Um I could say this, you know, it's I saw a meme the other day on social media that when you're a photographer, you're expect to always have your camera on you. Always. And with me being a dad of three, there's and I'm already gone so you know, many nights as far as covering games. And in the summer, I'm regional. I'm going to Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Mobile, I'm going to Dallas area.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

And in the fall, you're going wherever ULM's going, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

ULM. Um, then Friday nights, I'm wherever where Jake is the game of the week. And, you know, so when I get that time with my kids and we go to an event, I don't have a camera. People look at me sideways like, well, where's your camera? I'm being a dad. It's it's that camera can stay in the case a little bit. I said, because I want to soak up those memories. I want to be a part of it. And with me taking the camera out of the case is like what you said, you step out of the moment. Yeah. But a job of a photographer is to seal up that moment that you can put on your wall or put on your desk. When you see it, your emotions immediately put you back in that place. Yeah. And I feel like my photos do that when Owen pointed for the first down, or when That's an iconic photo. Um, I try to think other iconic photos. I know there's more, I know there's more. Or the Benji Lewis getting the water dunked on him after beating Neville to go to the dome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Or the shot of the that story. Oh my god. Um and you're right, you're like in the front seat, like you're riding the shotgun of that whole dude.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

I'm I'm right in front, I'm from me to you with him, and I'm with my wide angle lens, and I had water that just went around me. Uh not a single drop of water got on me. If it did, it would have been worth, you know, that shot would have been worth it either way.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Um, it's insured, my gear is insured. So um, but that that photo right there is probably my number one. Wow. Um, because it the the shot of the water, and I would have to post it on my Facebook, or I'll let y'all post it with the with the podcast or anything like that, so people could actually see it. Um it's him with his hands up, and it's got the lights around him that are shining bright, and the guys are coming over him with the water, and all you see, and I have my shutter speed, which Nolan would like this. I had my shutter speed up enough that you can see the the droplets hitting him, and it was cold and steamy, and I mean it was just it's up for photo of the year for the entire state.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Really?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, we're gonna put it up. Jay, Jake wants to put it up. So how who votes on that? Um, I this is my first year entering it, and I have to do it. It's we still got a little time left because there's so many categories.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Well, if there's something that like we can do to promote it, like let it snow.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

It's like the board, the uh Louisiana Sports Writers Association board votes on it. And I'm going against you know, the Rustin Papers, I'm going against um the advocate, I'm going against um the papers of New Orleans and Lafayette. So it's it's a big deal. It's a big deal. But I think the storyline with Washitao, how Washtaw was not supposed to win the state championship. Not a chance. But as the guys say over there, God did. God gave them a chance and they executed. Um, I mean, it's an absolutely story. An absolute story that makes high school sports absolutely special.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah. It's thrilling. It was thrilling. I was I was unable to go watch, but we were watching um, we were watching the game. I think I don't remember how that worked. I remember we were trying to watch it, and uh there's like some sort of new streaming thing, and we were trying to figure it out and just say network and all that. At first we were just watching like kind of like, you know, a a play-by-play uh graphic, like which showed where they were on the field and who had the ball and how much time and all that stuff. And then we were, I think then we were able to pull up the actual game. Uh like I don't know if we paid to subscribe or what I don't I'm not sure exactly how that all went down. But I remember sitting there watching that game, and I was just like, this is absolutely thrilling. I mean, it was one of the best finishes to any high school game. And then for it to be the state championship when Washtal was not supposed to even be in that game.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, they were every team that they beat, every team they beat within the playoffs, excluding Desrahan and Parkway. In St. Lamont, where I mean it beat them in in district.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

I mean, they they were the the underdog on every game almost. Well it might have been every game after the season. They won one game in district. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

One game in district. That tells you how, you know, folks that know, that's District 25A. Um, and I know some people around the state just got a nightmare, you know, because of her district two five A, because it's it's Rustin. It's Neville, which Neville's dropping down.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

And Neville's going to four, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah, that's going to be an interesting matchup. West and Rose stay in. West Rose stay in. Peabody magnet, though, is coming up. Where's West Washaw doing though? West Washtaw's four. Oh, they're four? Yeah. Okay. So they're lower, they're they're not at the top classification anymore. They're down. Down. And you know, I think it's it's competitive. It's competitive. Well, it moved.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

It moves some like whenever I was in school, West Washaw was 3A. Yeah. You know, I don't didn't you go to West Washtaw? I did. Okay. It was 4A. You were 4A when you were in school. What year did you graduate? 2007. Yeah, okay. So I was I graduated in 04. And I remember we used to St. Fred, I went to St. Fred's, and we would play y'all in football, and y'all crushed us every year. But I understand that we were the only team that y'all could reliably beat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

West Washtal struggled at that time. West Washtal's um West Washtow did struggle. Um had some good coaches come through, though. Real good coaches.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Y'all's trainer just got a big uh the West Washton trainer just got a big uh award, didn't he?

SPEAKER_00 23:30

He's well deserved. Yeah. Well deserved. Doc May is yeah, Jameson May. He is he's worked on me. He uh he there's no telling how many rolls of tape he uh put around my ankles and thumbs, you know, playing online. You're as only good as your feet and hands. Well, he made sure I was taped up because I sure enough had my problems with them. Yeah, you know, and that that's that's so deserving for him.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

So deserving. That's cool that he was there whenever you were there.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Oh yeah, he's used to used to work on me.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

So when you're in in the lead up to the Washtal uh winning the State Championship, like did you I mean, were you going like were you covering their games and it like leading up to that in the playoffs?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Um it it really depend well they traveled the first week the first week um I was at St. Frederick's in Cedar Creek for the game because one um the storyline with Owen was just it was good. And the story with Coach TO um was was was what Jake needed. So we we went to you know that game or I went to that game, he went to Washtal St. Amont. So that was first round, and then second round, Washtog traveled all the way up until the semifinals when they went to Parkway and uh that Parkway, I'm sorry, they went semifinals when they went to Neville. Okay. So of course we went to that one. You know, we got a chance to see Washthog go to the dome and first time in how many years? Yeah. And to beat Neville doing so, yeah, we're going to that. And it lived up to every bit of the hype.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Every bit of the hype.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Oh, it was it was unbelievable. Um, but yeah, that that cedar that well, that going back to that Cedar Creek game, that was that was a a good game too. And we didn't know, I mean, like, it wasn't like thrill like it wasn't like there was no like surprise ending or anything the way the wash tall was. Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

No doubt. And and you know, high school sports you have your teams that are just pretty dominant. Okay. But when I don't know, it just speaks about the game itself and the spirit of competition and how high school kids act. I mean, these one things I I I do not miss about coaching football is relying on a 13 to 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old kid for my livelihood. Yeah. You know, and they said, oh, coaches can't get fired because of their jobs. Yeah, there's there's there's ways around it. Yeah. Um, I mean, and now it's just a matter of time before NIL gets into high school. I mean, uh, it's probably already there. I hadn't really kept up with it too much.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Um They're talking about uh creating a one-time transfer rule, L H SAA. So do you know anything about that?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I can I could tell my opinion about it. Um don't know necessarily the tune, you know, I can see I can see where schools are gonna benefit. Um I'm sure there's gonna be some kind of stipulations behind it. Now I can see where an athlete that's in a in a program that's very much struggling, or he's in a situation where he's getting treated unfairly, um can get out and his parents can better his situation or better their situation. But I just think it's gonna turn into a basically, you know, a mini version of what you see in college football. You know, you look up in this, you know, you basically see it anyway. I mean, just take a look at basketball. How many kids left Carroll and went to different spots? How many kids left Washita, you know, or how many kids I mean you you see you see so many things happen within within sports, and then there's always sort of like a retrospect kind of reaction to it. Well, we're gonna do this now. Well, it's already been it's already been going on. Yeah, you know, like paying players in college, shoot, just the handshakes didn't have to go hidden. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

Well, I mean, you know, here and what do you think about paying players? I think it's perfect. I do too, man.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

They're putting their bodies on lines. Yes. You know, they're putting their bodies on the line. Yeah, they they give them a little cut.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

You know, and like, and I guess in high school, you know, it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like we're talking about like junior high is to high school or varsity. Junior high football is to varsity football as varsity football is to D1. Yeah. Okay. Speed. I mean, so I mean, we're talking about two way different things on the high school level versus the college level. But particularly you take some of these kids in D1 who some of them have kids, okay? A lot of them have kids. Uh, and and or and married, you know, whatever, not married, whatever. They got kids, they got obligations, they got financial responsibilities that they need to be able to address. And to like back end everything on the roll of the dice of a professional career whenever they could have you know been earning at on the way on the come up. And on the come up, you know, they might have been able to earn more than what they might end up earning. Are you seeing that?

SPEAKER_00 29:18

You're seeing that. I mean, what was the average age of Indiana's players? Twenty, it was the it was the highest, the oldest bunch of football players in of Division I. Really? Oh yeah. I don't remember the exact number, but I just know this that some of them guys could have been in the NFL playing.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

They were old enough. I mean, what gets me is the amount of money these universities are throwing at these athletes when they haven't even stepped foot on campus. Yeah. Or even produced anything. That's how wild, that's how wild the recruiting is. Um, I mean, we've had we've had local athletes, you know, like schools have a bidding war with them. And it's it's wild.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

And they've got their agent, and that agent knows what he thinks this deal's worth or what he can get. And then they all have, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

And what's crazy though is John, is they can get offered $300,000, not even play it down, and then transfer to another college.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

I heard a story about a kid, I don't know his name, I don't even know at school. Uh, but I heard it in the context of uh a college coach dealing with this issue. And he was like, the kid's agent wouldn't even talk to us without a certain minimum offer. Yep. Like that's crazy. Wasn't even like, we're not gonna talk to you unless you at least offer this amount. If you offer this amount, we'll entertain a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yep. Without even stepping foot on campus. Yeah. That's wild.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

And and on some level, like maybe some of that's like appropriate or whatever. I'm not I'm not here to criticize the the negotiation strategy. I mean, like, there's all sorts of negotiation strategies that you can you can employ and like your agent can employ, and you know, the player may have not even had any input on that. He might have just the agent might have just said, this is what I think we should do. You want to do that? And he's like, okay. You know, I mean, like, I want to follow the advice of somebody that's knowledgeable and skilled and understands how to negotiate a contract such as this, which is probably what's in his best interest to follow somebody's, you know, guidance in that situation. Um, but I mean, it's a business. And but to well, going back to what we're saying, these kids are putting their lives on the line. This is probably for a lot of these kids, it's gonna be the most productive athletic uh part of their athletic career, um, as far as what their earning capabilities are. Because whenever this is over, you know, they may be, you know, they may make it to the show, but they may be like uh whatever the league minimum is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

You know, you know, rookie contracts never you're not, it's not as much as people, you know, make out. They make their money on their signing bonuses for for rookies. You know, but what hurts, what hurts who hurts the most with how college athletics are right now are the kids who those borderline, those borderline kids that are in high school that want to go play college football, who are very good, but they just don't have that that star power or they don't have that that elite because recruiting has now changed so much that I mean it goes back to this. Would I want a lawyer who has 20 years of experience fighting injury cases, or a kid, you know, a kid basically that just got out of law school? Which one? Which one what would you rather a veteran um heart surgeon or a guy just came out of medical school? Let's see his hand. Yeah, let's see that were hand tail. Let's see how that ended. So the thing of it is, is these college coaches, they want guys that have college experience. So they're gonna hit that portal first. And they're gonna hit that portal first, and then they're gonna go, okay, these are the spots I have. Well, those spots are very minimum now, because how the transfer portal is in NCAA, that these kids, you're seeing more and more kids in our areas. While 10 years ago they were signing with tech, or you know, not being real specific, but like tech and the you know, the not a big college, but a big college, if that makes sense. Not your LSUs or but but your techs and your ULMs, and you maybe your uh Mississippi College or you know, everything like that. Now they're signing more with the smaller schools because of how the portal is, because you just basically have to do your time to get and noticed. Yeah, get some reps. Because like like you said earlier, the the game is junior high in high school and college is so different. And it's the speed of the game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

I mean, and it's yeah, like the JUCOs and the the you know, the what do they call the FS the FBS FBS schools, like those schools are taking kids that are playing, like I would I would I compare that to like junior varsity. Yeah. And then, you know, graduate to D one, and then you know, and then you take a guy that's third string or fourth string in D one.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

I mean, you know But practice reps are still fast reps. Yeah. I mean, that's and that's what's the crazy thing is you look, you know, you look at all these JUCOs and all these division twos guys that are getting signed by Division I schools, well, they've gotten time and it goes back to experience. You know, it goes back to what we were talking about. What kind of doctor would you have? A fresh one that coming out of high school, or somebody that's already had two years of playing time and has enough tape, you know, and has played in a system they can just plug in and go.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Yeah, that understands the schemes, that understands the problems.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Well, because I mean, just like with anything, these coaches are, you know, their their livelihood is based off the success of the you know, the season. So are they going to be invested in a kid that's gonna take three years to develop, or are they gonna get a kid that takes six months, you know, to develop?

SPEAKER_02 35:30

23 and a half years old. 23 and a half and a half for Indiana for Indiana. What was the average age? What was the kid's name? Uh was it Ahmad Hardy that was at ULM that transferred to Mizzou? One of my favorite ULM photos last year was of Ahmad Hardy. Well, he transferred to Mizoo before it was before the season last year. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

And now that's that right there. That's a that's a Rags of the Richard story, or whatever you want to call it. Wasn't getting recruited at all. Coach Vincent took a shot at him, and man, the rest is history. We're gonna see that man play for a long time. Fingers crossed. God wish him the best of luck.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

So, did you hear about his NIDL NIL package? So I don't know the exact number as far as like what his comp was for the season, but part of what he wanted was he wanted a horse. Because he grew up riding horses, and he wanted he wanted to ride some horses, man. And so they got him a horse. I'll be darned. They got him a horse. I love it. I love it. Because Vincent told me that. You know, we got a horse. We can't ride a horse wherever you want, man.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

William's got their own farm.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

I love it. And you know what? And I've I've talked to him on social media before because they actually like used some of the pictures I took of him for graphics and everything like that. And we got the talking, such a humble man.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Um, a very, very gracious and a very, very thankful father to who's reached out to me on social media thanking me.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Oh, his like his Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Wow, that's like people on his side, you know, his folks have reached out to me before, you know, thanking him, thanking me.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Well, and I don't know, I don't know him personally. Ahmad Hardy, I don't, I've never met him in person. I don't I don't believe I may have seen him, you know, at a game or whatever, but uh everybody I've heard talk about him that's had any interactions with him has said that he is like genuinely one of the nicest down to earth. He is not flamboyant or like he's like just you know Stephen Keel just what you see is what you get. You're not, you know, you're not you know, he's not gonna, he's not about to go to the club and act a fool or anything like that. Like he's just uh he's a good dude and he's you know a good teammate.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah, man. That's and that's very important. Very, very important. And that's gonna help him, you know, once it comes to NFL combine time for him, that those owners are gonna look back at that and go, okay, it's this is a good investment because he's not a liability.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Yeah. And he's got the ability to deliver, and we're not having to worry about all the extracurricular BS that comes with, you know, probably a huge percentage of these guys.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

He's gonna make the headlines for the good reasons, not you know, TMZ. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Hopefully. Hopefully not.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Uh well, uh, so right now you're doing what sports? Doing baseball, softball.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

I'm sorry, I'm moving that back. Doing baseball, softball, what do you say basketball?

SPEAKER_02 38:54

What do you see as like the powerhouse baseball and softball programs in our in our region?

SPEAKER_00 39:01

I mean, I would say region. Now I'll I'll extend that region down to Alexandria for softball. Um, what Coach Fry's doing down there in Pineville. Sinline softball this year is going to be pretty good because Menard's good. Ash is a lot better than what they've been in the past. Pineville's constantly at a at a very constant at a high constant level in what they're doing. Um up here in our area.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

I mean, I can't West Monroe has a new softball coach. How can you count out West? But I mean, but I I don't know how you can I mean, how can you know? I mean, I that that new coaches they almost beat North DeSoto. Okay, so there's a there's some there's some stats out there.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

They almost beat out, they almost beat North DeSoto. Okay. And um, you know, Sterlington's gonna be good. They got five girls, they got five girls that are out on um back that are still playing basketball. Coach Tannehill told me the other day. Um but when I used to umpire, when I used to umpire softball, um coach West, he he would never make the umpires feel like a fool. Even if they deserved it. Even if we deserve it.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

There's a reason why you said that.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Yeah, there's a reason why you said that because I see how he talked to the girls. He was never demeaning. Yeah, it's not about an ego, it's it's about let's do your job at the highest ability possible, yeah. You know, and be a good teammate and have fun. Have fun doing it.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

And I've I see the best coaches that to, in my opinion, the best coaches are the ones that almost never make it about, well, and probably never make it about what the umpires or the refs do. Yeah. And I'm not saying I've seen a lot of coaches make it about what the umpires or the refs do. Because sometimes I'll watch a game. There's a few games that I watch football games that I watched last year that I was like, dude, that the referee changed the outcome of the game. For sure. And uh, but but the co our coach, Coach TO never he never, he wouldn't acknowledge it if people said things like that. I may have been one of the ones that said something about it. That end zone can get zone.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

I'll tell you what, it's one of my favorite end zones to work.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Tell them about it. But like Coach TO, man, that dude was like, nah. Like we're not even, he didn't even, he didn't give that any, I didn't he didn't even respond. He was just like, you know. And uh you can only control talking about what the you know, you know, the penalties, talking about the turnovers, you know. I mean, that's you know, we could have got a call here or there, maybe, but I mean, it's irrelevant if you don't have the turnovers and the penalties.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Exactly. You can only control what you can control. And, you know, human error with me umpiring since I was 13 up until about 32. So were you calling balls and strikes? Balls and strikes. I mean, I I did it, I did it all.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

I'm sure everybody that does it has to play both in the field.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Yeah, you got you wonder, you have your elites that oh well, I'm I'm just gonna do the plate, or you get your guys that I'm only a base on player. No, you gotta do both. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta be doing that. Do you have a preference? I'd rather be behind plate. Yeah. Because my my mind gets wandering.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Did you just do softball or did you do softball and baseball?

SPEAKER_00 42:43

I did baseball. I never crossed over. Um, did both. What I did was I did baseball majority up until a point where I didn't do it. It took I didn't do it for like three years, three or four years after my mom passed away. Um and then after COVID, I saw, okay, there's gonna be a massive need of sports officials, and they're still struggling as far as getting their numbers. Yeah. And but I absolutely loved doing softball. So once COVID came out, well, COVID, the quarantine ended, yeah. Um I did softball and absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Just hearing you talk about sports, it sounds like to me softball is your favorite thing to watch. It's pretty fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

It's pretty fun. The community, it's the community is so tightly knit because of travel ball so strong in North and just uh the nation in softball. Um I mean, I could talk softball all day. Yeah. As far as who, programs, coaches, you know, rules, you know, baseball. It's it's there. Mm-hmm. Um, I love it too. I mean, just uh just Saturday that Um, I put some images out on my social media that I was able to catch just the very last inning of Sterlington and Halton. And they had a three three-game series. I think Halton took game one. Game two, Sterlington was down quite a few runs and came back and won it. Game three, Sterlington was down and then came back and walked it off to win. And it was absolutely, you know, we talked about programs in softball, you know, North DeSoto, Pineville, West Washtaw's gonna be good. St. Fred. I mean, coin flip. There's so many good softball programs in, you know, and in Sterlington's baseball program with those guys that they have. Um, one of my favorites. Who's their head coach? Mark Sims. Okay. You know, he he coached at Washtaw. Um, he coached at West Monroe, and um, I think yeah, he's he's from Westmore, he went to Sterlington. Yeah, I know they have Adam Deerman is Adam Deerman. I mean, it always helps though when you got Ben Sheets in the dugout. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, he got major leaguer in there and his son.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

I mean, he may know a thing or two, but he may know his way to the call on the pitch. Oh yeah, he might be able to help with the swinging and stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Like he uh one of my favorite, one of my favorite stories is when I was coaching at Calhoun Middle School. Um, I think it was uh Shiver that said uh that's it, you that's playing at ULM, was playing basketball for Sterlington Middle School. I'm doing the book. Trying, you know, I was terrible at doing the book in basketball. Terrible. One, this is not a sport that I grew up playing. Two, I'm like, what's the difference? It's just a timeout. You know, what's the difference between a half and a fool? You know, so every every timeout was a half. We try to get out there as quick as we can. But um, but this guy plops down right beside me on the scoring table with a massive box of popcorn. So, you want some of this? It's gonna be a long day. And it's been so we just get to talking, you know, and getting to learn about him, and he's learning about me. And it's it's a funny story that we still tell. That's funny, you know. That I go to uh our chiropractor that I go to, he also works on Miller, which is a senior who's going to go to Baylor. And man, when I saw the going back to Saturday, I looked up and it's Miller Sheets is at second. The game is tied because Miller hit a shot that tied it. Miller's standing on second. Devin Downs, which is you know LSU, you know, guy, he he's it's at first, and I'm going, oh, this is gonna be interesting that the ball gets to the infield. And sure enough, Miller makes that turnaround third base, and he's already got a finger up in the air going crazy. He throws his helmet, he gets the guy that hits the walk, you know, the walk-off, jumps on him, hair going. It's posted on my Facebook. It's some awesome shots. That just one of those kind of deals that I put my camera together, getting ready for the game I was about to shoot on the softball field. I said, you know what? Just walk over here and check this out. I'm just gonna walk off and check this out. I said, okay, I see Miller at second tideball game. I know who my money's on right there. Give me that matchup any day. That's awesome. But you know, I love one thing about baseball and softball is you get to hear the dugout. You get to hear the coach's coach. In football, you don't get that chance because they're in a headset. You know, you don't you it's a different kind of flow to the game. Baseball's a lot slower than softball, yes. But one of my favorite dugouts to go work in is West Monroe. It's because how their dugout is set up at West Monroe is they have the Coach Semino sits in a cutout that's on field level. Well, the best angle to get for photos of the hitter in all the positions in the field is right beside him, but there's a ledge that you stand on. So you're about your camera's about hip level with him. So he's sitting above you. He doesn't necessarily see you. No, I mean he sees me because I always introduce this coach. I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

I'm not saying, no, I'm not saying that he doesn't know you're that like he doesn't know you got permission or whatever to be there, but like he's watching the game. Oh, yeah, he's coaching. And he's coaching.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

And with he's not monitoring the no, no, he don't need to. See, because I mean they go, Zig, why you always wear black when you shoot where? I don't want to be noticed.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

You know, people know that I'm gonna be there, but I don't want to be a distraction. Um, I don't want to be part of the game. And I love just I come in the dugout, the kids will, you know, say something. Zig, I just give them a little fist bump and walk on. I don't communicate, you know, I got a job to do. They have the job to do. My job is to, you know, get the shots. Their job is to produce the shots. And um I'll come in and in in between innings, he'll say something. What's up, Zig? You know, Coach Simono will. But what's funny though, he'll he'll bump me every now and then. He goes, Zig, watch this call. He said, This is what's about to happen. And sure enough, I mean, just he he's coached so many ball games and he's you know, heck, he coached at tech for all those years. That just baseball is such a uh a chess match, you know, it's such a chess match. And at the high level of Westminro, Barb, Sam Houston's Sterlington, those moves that those coaches are able to see two or three innings down is is it's it's I don't know, it's poetic. It's really how it's it's I heard a uh read of sports writer talk about one time how baseball is like you know, poetry emotion mixed in with the chaos of a fire drill at times. You know, you really don't know really what's gonna go on, but when it pans out, it's absolutely beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

You know. Well, when do when will they do like signing day for the well, I guess they've already done some. Some have already done, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Like Westbrook had a signing day today. Okay, Richwood had one today. Um it's really just we're in that signing period.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

You you think there's anybody out there that's like mulling over stuff that like could be interesting to watch, see what they do?

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Oh yeah. Yeah, it's over there at Rustin. He's over at Rustin too, with the mod um Hudson.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

And um with Chuck, as I call him, as I know his family calls him Chuck. Everybody, he, you know, he does a very good job of not saying one thing and another. Um, they do a very good job with that. I'm anxious to see where where he lands, but he's still got one more year. Okay. You know, so it's that that just hold off.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

I guess he could hold off until uh Oh yeah, he don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Yeah. You know, pop, you know, Pop Houston over at Evangel, he announced where he's he's where he's gonna sign his his commitment is to LSU. You know, and I think I think Hudson has he has his five, I think, but I don't think he's really ever made it public. You know. So he he's gonna be next year when it comes to the signing period for him, it's gonna be it's gonna be nationally televised, I'm sure. You know. Almost like what Berryman had at Washita when he s decided to sign with uh Nebraska. Wow. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

It's fun watching these kids like, you know, like, you know, it's like you know, you kind of it's like this like part of you envies like that what they get to go do, but it's like in it, but not in uh maybe not in a un you know, you know, in a way that's wholesome, like uh for me at least. Like I think it's amazing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

Yeah, it's it's one of those kind of deals like watching watching some of these kids make the plays, you go, that was a big league play. Boy, you just 16. You know, how in the world are you making that play? How in the world are you able to do it? And what's the beautiful thing is is if I get the shot of them doing it, the whole world can see it and it's frozen. Yeah. You know, I my the whole world, the whole world could has a potential, you know, can potentially see it. And you know, I have my my catchphrase, my slogan for my business is capturing fast memories to last a lifetime. And your job as a photographer, you definitely see with the Winter Olympics, you know, look at all the amazing photos that are frozen. You know, that that emotion, that athleticism, that memory is frozen. And I'm I'm just lucky I get that chance.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

The commitment that those Olympians have. I mean, you know, it's it's you almost can't fathom it.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

You know? You know, I I I read a story and they were talking about what does the Olympians do away from their sports. You have some that are lawyers, you got one of them that's a doctor, one of them's a construction worker, one of them's a uh they lay tile or sheet rot worker, you know, you got one of them that's a mechanic. I mean, this it just shows you that I don't know, just the sport is pure, in my opinion, and that athleticism and and and athletics can can take can take a community with so many different backgrounds, so many different ethnicities, so many different uh races, and you can compete and you're all one. It's beautiful. It's absolutely you know, it's it's it's beautiful. And that I hate that you know, you have some folks that are trying to politicize uh sports, you know, have a you know certain hidden agendas between sports and because it takes away from that the purity of you know athletics.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

Pure competition. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Competition is an amazing thing. It creates makes everybody better. You know, whether you win or lose. Maybe you don't want to hear it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

You know, because losing sucks. It sure does. There's shots that there's times that I don't have good, you know, a good session, a good game behind the camera. I mean, but you gotta just grit your teeth and get better.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

I mean, there's there's things that, you know, we yeah, we want to be the best of best and get everything that we can, but at the end of the day, you can only get what you got.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Well, and you know, like I've I've heard some, you know, like junior high sports, you know, it's it's always hard to find coaches. And you know, it's like, you know, we're kind of entering this phase, you know, Dash is uh he's uh 13 and he's uh going going to be a rising seventh grader. And so we're about to enter this junior high situation. And you know, and I and I we kind of have heard some things like people can you know expressing concerns about the junior highs. Like the main thing is like not winning and losing. Yeah, like I for me as a parent, I'm saying this, I want to see a coach that wants to try to teach the kids to not only the the the technique, but also sportsmanship and also how to work with other people on your team. Yes. Because in life, that's what you end up in. You end up being in a big team, and maybe you're the quarterback of the team. Maybe some plays you're you know the the person that has the towel or the or the cup of water or whatever. And you know, working toward a common goal is something that you're gonna do for the rest of your life, whether you're, you know, playing a sport or if you're working for a business or working for a school or whatever, you know. And I think it's important life lessons that these kids are getting to learn while they're doing this, while they're in junior high, while they're in high school. And you know what? I would love to see everybody get a chance to win first place every single time. But that just ain't the way life is now, you know?

SPEAKER_00 57:03

No, because you can look around real quick and life can kick you in the throat, you know, and you gotta be able to pick yourself up just like you got picked up after getting pancaked, you know, or getting ran over or striking out or, you know, get caught, picked, you know, get picked off or something like that. It's the same philosophy, you know, and it's it's you see so many kids that are starting to bow out of that. I'm anxious to s I'm nervous to see what what society you know will will I'm nervous to see what society's gonna do to those kids. I just give up. You know, because you know, when the numbers of the numbers of athletics or athletes are dropping. Um I saw a statistic the other day that like in female sports, it is drastically like the amount of teams that play to how many girls are on the rosters are shrinking incredibly fast.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Like you don't see a what do you attribute that to? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

Like I can get I can get the boys, but maybe just you know, we talked, you know, um this the time sacrificed to getting better to play.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

I mean, like uh where the else what else they have to do?

SPEAKER_00 58:23

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

I mean they have to have something else that's taking up that time. Like I can imagine the boys like playing video games and not playing sports or going outside and playing sports.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Um, I maybe it's the pressure. Um I know I've talked to social media. Social media. I've talked to several um former athletes that stopped playing that were really good. And they basically said the pressure got to them that they they were getting so overwhelmed by it because so much added pressure was put on them.

SPEAKER_03 59:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

It was it wasn't just the game. Like, are they doing too much too young, you think? I I think it's the it's outside sources um to be the absolutely best at nine.

SPEAKER_01 59:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

Or to be the best pitcher at 12, or why isn't you're you're able to hit it out by, you know, but it it that goes back to okay, how much parents are investing in these travel ball tournaments, how much money is tied up with it, how much do lessons cost, and how much, how many times are they going to these lessons? Yeah um, and so parents, I think the pressure that comes from the parents is based off of an investment. They know how much time and money they're on their third mortgage. Well, do you think it's the parents making the decision, or you think it's the I think I think it's I think you see it in high school with a girl basically or or the athlete in general, not just not just a female, that the athlete just basically says it's enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

And they get to that age level where they can actually vocalize that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

You know, I get that, especially with the kids that play a lot of travel ball and whatever sport they're in.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Yeah, the the biggest excuse that I would find it's no longer fun for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Yeah. Well, you know, it's like it's like this. And I recently uh we kind of dealt deal with this a little bit at home. Colby grew up playing baseball, doing travel ball, and um, you know, this year he decided to to step away from baseball. Wow. And uh, and I'm not here to say like what Colby thinks or what Colby said, because honestly, I have kind of stayed like Switzerland. Like I was in favor of him making a decision before the season started, and if he had decided to play, he was gonna finish the season as far as I was concerned. And but uh, but I didn't want to put any pressure on him either way, you know, and I didn't. I just let him make a decision. And uh, but what I and what I'm observing, and this isn't me quote like not repeating what he said or you know what his feelings are or whatever, and I don't think it was the coach, I don't think it was his teammates, I don't think it's the school, I think he made a business decision.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

And I think he ultimately, and I'm not saying that because he told me that. Yeah, I'm saying that because he made a decision, and I'm familiar with what goes into making such decisions. Yeah. He looked at what it cost for him to play, how much time, how much effort, uh, how much practice and all that, and looked at what he gained from that experience, and I think the profit wasn't there. Yeah. Um, and I, you know, it's kind of hard to fault a kid for making that call. Yep. You know, and uh he decided to do something else, and I think that he was looking at that other thing, and he said, I know what it's gonna take to as far as practice, as far as time commitment, I know what the reward is, and I think there's gonna be a profit in that in that decision. Yeah. So I ultimately I think, you know, he made a decision based on what he needed, what he needed to for him for himself to enjoy, you know, sophomore year of high school.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:31

Now, do you think that if you if you were being persuasive about a decision as far as him playing, do you think he as a teenager, you think he would be like, I feel like I'm I'm obligated? Well, that's what that's what I've I've run into as a coach before, and I get to hear about it, and I saw it as an umpire, and I saw it as I could immediately identify based off of the mannerisms of a kid and a dugout if they're really there for themselves or they're there for the parents and the stance.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's an interesting question. Um, I feel like I feel like I I could have tried to persuade him one way or another, um, and uh he might have listened to me and he might have not. Uh what is terrifying to me is the idea that I could have tried to talk him into playing baseball and him absolutely regret it. And in the same token, I I didn't want to try. I mean, I like to play golf myself. Matter of fact, I've had a lot of great memories with me and Colby playing golf, and uh he decided to play golf. And I didn't want to try to sell him on golf either, you know, because uh frankly, I mean he's a he's a good golfer, but he's he's got more talent on the baseball field, yeah, as far as now he could improve. I'm not saying that he can't, he's stuck where he's at with golf. Like he he's got a lot of room for improvement, and he probably will improve a lot, and I've seen him improve a lot in just a very short period of time. But like he's he plays baseball at a high level, yeah. Like whenever he wants to play. And if he didn't want to do that, if he's willing to give this up to do something else, like I said, I the only thing I think he think he made a business decision. Yeah. And uh, that's why I mean, but he didn't tell, like, he's not telling me this. I mean, disclaimer, like he didn't like share that he didn't bear his harm, just making the situation.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

Yeah, you're observing, you know, as you said, Switzerland. Yeah, you know, as far as what's going on. Yeah. You know, I I just I I cringe at hearing the the stories where like the family dynamic is absolutely ruined because the kid makes a decision, you know, and it it's wow. And it it guys, it's just sports. Yeah. It's just sports. Yeah, just have fun. It's not it's not a a major life decision, life or death. It's not the, oh, do I go do drugs or do I not go do drugs? No, do I go play basically play a game?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:24

And there's a lot of virtues in this game. And that's a massive thing that I'm seeing in youth sports. Because I travel all over the South during the summer to different youth organizations. And so I get to see the good, the bad, and the absolutely ugliness that goes on at the youth level, and my heart breaks when I see an athlete just is overcomed with emotions because of the added pressures that have they have no business dealing with. And it breaks my heart. More when I hear about okay, hey, this picture was really good. Well, how's she doing? She's gotta be a junior or senior in high school. She getting recruited? No, she quit her sophomore year. What? What? Well, what happened? She just she had had anxiety and all the emotions and everything like that. She just the pressure got to her, you know. And you you see it, you see it so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Well, and I you know, and I hope hopefully the coaches are sensitive to that. I mean, whenever I was in school, I played, you know, I played football and I also was on the golf team. Um, and uh, you know, I and I was not any kind of like you know, athlete. Like I definitely was he's humble. No, I'm definitely not. I didn't, I didn't, you know, there's no there's no uh NIL deal waiting in the wings for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

My NIL was uh Chiefs Hathaway and Calhoun and the old burger joint in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

But uh, but you know, like I think if I would have quit playing football, I felt like I'm not trying to call out anybody in particular, but I feel like the coaches would have been like pressuring me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:18

Yeah. Um I've seen I've seen that too, where there's some kind of like a resentment. Um which I would have never quit playing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:27

Um, you know, is is a I probably just said that because I'm afraid that they're gonna get onto me for even suggesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

Well, I know this, you know, with me coaching, I've had several players decide to step away. And one thing we would do, we would pray about it. Two, I would hug them and tell them, I love I love you as a player, but I love you even more as an individual. That just because you no longer play for me doesn't mean I'm not gonna just I'm not gonna turn my head when I see you walking down the street. Yeah. You know, um I would I wouldn't say I wasn't necessarily a player's coach, um, but I invested into the kids. Right. And that that was the way I coached, and it it just I see it. So what it what remind me what sports you coached? I coached football. Okay. Dabbled in baseball a little bit, dabbled in golf a little bit, um, but because because umpiring the spring. So I was always tied up into doing that. I gotcha. Um because I would stay busy just about like doing the camera work. I was staying busy just about every day during the week, yeah, and even on the weekends, you know, calling baseball or softball.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

You ever see yourself going back out there as a coach?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

I tell I people ask me that all the time. And as much fun as I had coaching, being able to cover multiple sports or multiple schools, not being tethered to not being tethered to one, and I say that and it's hard for me because I I teach at Washington, I teach digital media, but being able to learn about the programs, learn about the kids and the coaches, and being welcomed on any campus, I've I've never had a bad experience with a school.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:42

I mean, you've got a tremendous network of people. Yes. And I mean, it's kind of you probably are like, if I was a recruiter or something, I would probably call you up and be like, hey, Big Zig, what who do I need to go look at? Two guys have.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:57

Two guys have. Um, and it goes back to my connections with coaching. Because I coached from when I was 18, the student coach, all the way up until four years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

And that needs to be your side gig. Like, I can I tell you consultant. Yeah. Or like being I can be your consultant, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:22

Basically, what the coach is asked was how do they act after what did you see? Because they're not trying to, you know, I I try to stay in the shadows as much as I can when I'm working a game, but I'm amongst them.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:38

But I'm not interacting with them, but I'm always listening. And one thing about that is they asked me, how do they talk in the dugout? What do they do when they're, you know, in the dugout, you know, which is a pretty cool, pretty cool thing being asked, you know, as far as a recruiter about a kid that's gonna go play, you know, hopefully play at the next level.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

Yeah. Well, if I was, you know, if I was a recruiter, I mean, I'm imagining that they can pretty much spot the physical raw talent, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:10

Pretty easily. Yeah, that's uh softball. I had a uh coach speak at a softball camp that I was uh working, and they told the players we can spot who can hit, who can throw, who can catch easily. That's not a question.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:27

But we do the visits. We do the visits, we do when we are recruiting at these massive tournaments. So there's like you go to Colorado during Fourth of July weekend, there's thousands of softball teams. And these massive recruiters, all these college coaches are there. They're not necessarily looking at how fast she's throwing. That's that's common knowledge. Yeah, they're looking how the daddy acts, they're looking at how the mama acts, they're looking at how she reacts when the umpire misses a call. How does she act? Or how does this act? How does he act when the second baseman boots a easy ground ball that he had an amazing pitch? What happens whenever she misses the play? Yeah, exactly. Whatever happens when things aren't going her way. You know, we talked about life, it's not always gonna go your way. So they're looking at those reactions that say, okay, she's a good fit for you know, for our school.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

Yeah. That's really cool. That's cool that you get to kind of be in the front seat on. Get to hear it. On that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

It's it's it's pretty getting into the photography. I never would have thought, you know, I get to experience what I've experienced as far as listening to coaches talk on a sideline, listening to just sitting up in the stands. I love when I get to just sit up in the stands and you know, shoot a couple innings because I get to hear what's going on. Um, I love, I love, you know, we just got done with the uh Coach O'Neill, Coach Tim O'Neill just got done hosting yet another successful uh Traaltic tournament. You know, they had 50-something, 60-something, you know, baseball teams that played all over North Louisiana or our area. And one of my favorite things about being a photographer with that is getting to learn these teams without necessarily talking to them. You know, you are you got the how the kids interact before the game, how the kids interact in the dugout. Um, this is good. I've got like a whole line of questions. Oh my gosh, I I can't repeat some of the things I hear. But but hearing the dads talk, you know, about the scouting report, you know, and getting to learn these teams, these out of uh these out-of-town teams just based off of just minding my own business inside of a camera. And then watching watching a kid's personality, you know. What's funny though, we talked earlier before this podcast started, you know, Kobe in soccer. But, you know, Kobe in football, you didn't really get to see his personality. One, he's masked up, yeah. You know, and it's football. It's not really catch the facial soccer.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:30

Did you get to see Kobe make some facial expressions?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:33

Oh, facial expressions, him being goofy, being a teenager. Yeah. Um him bundled up in everything possible to start. That was the first game. Yeah, I remember that. The first game he played in. What was that at? That was at Sterlington, but you know the wind always blows its comments.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:49

Sterlington's field is the coldest field I think I've ever been on.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:55

Yeah, like even after wind just like even after the bike storm moved through, they were supposed to play OCS, I think, for like senior night or for OCS senior games, stuff like that. And that those two fields along I-65 stayed frozen for so long.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:14

You know, dude, that wind just rips through there. I mean, it could be 60 degrees, but it feels like it's like 40. Yeah, you know, exactly right. I mean, just crazy. I remember that that one game we were up there and it was not like super cold day, and the wind's blowing, and I'm like just frigid. Oh, yeah. But they have a beautiful facility, you know, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:37

We are blessed in North Louisiana for some beautiful campuses. I just can't wait for what West Washtaw looks like.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

All right, here's my questions. Okay. Let's talk rivalries. Okay. What do you think? Like, give me like the top five school rivalries in in this region.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

OCS St. Fred's. I well, I'm not gonna list them in particular order, but I just know this. OCS St. Fred's, you know. Dude, it's so bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

We had a JGS game. Really? We dashed at OCS, dude. I'm gonna tell you, man, like those kids were fighting for their life. I mean, it was intense. And like OCS, to their credit, they got up like 16 to 2 in the first quarter or second, it might have been in the middle of the second quarter. And uh, and this is like sixth grade basketball, okay? Wow. And Jason Cossack, okay, I don't remember what exactly the score was at the half, but it was like uh, I think it was it might have been like 18 to 4 or something like that, or 18 to 6. And Jason Cossack like gave them like this, like, you know, like fiery, just fiery talk. Y'all gotta like it, you know. I mean, he could he could have freaking won an election or something after that, you know? And uh he pumps them up, dude. They come back to and they get at 22-22, tied it up, and then OCS hit like a three-pointer right at the end, and it was, you know, it was actually an and one, and he got it fouled, and he made the free throw. So they got four points right there at the end, and then they beat us. But dude, that sixth grade basketball game was ridiculous. I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous how like everybody in that whole place was just like, you know, it was like mini St. Fred's versus OCS.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:45

Yeah. Um, you can't go out without saying anything. And I know Carol has sort of had a downer, you know, sort of declined a little bit over the past couple years, but anytime you get Wassman and Carol together, um, it's it's it's fun. Who's the better one? As far as right here, right here now is Wassman. Is Wassman. I mean, girls basketball speaks for itself. They're going for number five this year. Yeah. Wow. I mean, Coach Otis and them, yeah, he's had a good I talked early about, you know, working at schools and absolutely loving it. Wassman is one of my favorite places to go work. Because I'm always greeted, you know, always greeted at a level that makes me feel so appreciated. You know, I'm so appreciated by them. And um, like when the principal shows up, shakes your hand, asks you, how you doing, how's the kids doing, and they hand you a bottle of water, you know, before a basketball game, you go, okay, I love this place. You know, and and Neville, Neville Rustin, you can't get away from Neville Rustin, Neville Westmonroe. Um, it seems like everything, every time I talk to somebody, it's like everybody just does not like Neville. It's always a rival when they play Neville. Arstall Neville, Westro Neville, Rustin Neville. Like, man, Neville's catching all the strays, you know, catching all the strays. Poor old Neville. Oh, Neville. Um I'll tell you what, you guys, some of them guys over there just poor old Neville. Poor old Neville. Yeah, Neville.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:18

Well, if you had to, if you had to cover like, well, if you had to say like, what was your favorite high school besides the state championship? Because that's gotta be. I mean, I can't imagine. Yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm just gonna take that off the table as where you're not what was your what was your favorite game that you covered? That's not a state final, either sport. It can be anything. It could be anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:43

Sterlington baseball, Sterlington baseball last year at for the state championships. So in baseball in LHSAA, they're they've gone to a three-game series. So it's not just relying on your one big arm to get you through. No, it's you gotta have a you gotta win the series. And Erath was legit, and it still is legit. And um, so you know, we talked about favorite photos. My second one is when Miller runs to Ben and they basically just jump on each other and hug each other after a game. Well, Miller Sheets and Ben Sheets. Yeah, so the father-son moment there. I didn't get to witness the um the the Coach Sims father and son hug after winning a you know a semifinal game. Um, but that was my as close as I could get to that shot. Yeah. And I say that because Timo has that that's one of his favorite shots. Oh, really? Yeah, is of of Coach Sims and his son hugging down in sulfur. I think it was in the semifinal game. Wow. Um, so that that game right there itself, um, but my favorite game probably would have to be West Washita and when they beat Destrahan, not Destrahan, excuse me, they beat Denham Springs last year. Well, not last year, but the year before. Um, West Washita had an unbelievable senior group, kids that I've coached since they were sixth graders. Um a loaded team going against an unloaded opponent who plays a very tough district. It's a first home game, uh first home playoff game they've hosted in quite some time. And it comes down to the last little bit of the game. Um just, you know, with me, with the photography and being in the media, you gotta be as unbiased as you can be. You know, but that meant a little bit more to me because I was a West Washtow alum. You know, I taught there at the time, you know, just like the the Washtal deal. There was some some I had some, you know, unfortunately, I had some scan in the game a little bit, I guess you can say that. I mean, uh, it's just the relationships.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:04

I mean, I don't know how you can take it out of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

I mean, and that was so hard with me with with It's like Mike Downhour calling it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:10

You know, I mean, what's he gonna do? Not root for Washtal?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:13

Yeah, that. I mean, and the fact of it is, is like the week before when they played Neville in the semifinals, well, I got great relationships with both teams. I'm not rooting for anybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:26

I just want good football. I want a good baseball game, I want a good softball game.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:31

You know, and when the when the final out's made or when the final horn blows, it's a game. You know, it's a game and it is what it is. I'm not gonna my I've built my brand on social media and with Big Zig photography, not necessarily being a sports caster. I want to bring exposure with the images I take of things that are good happening on the court or on the field. Like, you know, St. Fred's played Block the other day, and Block had a little person playing. And it didn't it didn't slow him down. Yeah. I mean, he got basketball, playing basketball, and he was getting it, and he deserved to be on that court based off of his ability. Yeah, had nothing to do with his physical stature, right? But and I posted it on social media and it is taken off. I think I'm up to like 380,000 views on on Instagram, and he messaged me. Kay messaged me on Instagram thanking me for that because people have reached out to him. That's gonna be great for him. Yeah. Regardless of what he does. You know, in life. You know, and they were the the how social media is, saw of what who he, you know, what frame he he has and tried to be negative about it, and he never responded to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:06

You know, I didn't respond because I just always let that ride its course. Let them be the ones that makes them look like self, like them, excuse me, let them be the ones that make themselves look like a fool. But he responded, says, you know, folks have contacted him. You know, he didn't really go into too much detail, but I didn't. You probably could get an NIL deal. Well, one thing that I I did notice when going back and looking at all the comments is somebody tagged Harlem Globetrotters, and they and Harlem Globetrotters actually liked the post. What? So I don't know. Holy smokes. I don't know. That's a big deal, man. So I don't know if that was now I've turned off comments so nobody could see them because it was getting it was getting ridiculous out there as far as some of the negativity. Yeah. But I've always wanted to build my brand. If I go to a game and I see a kid, or if I'm at a Riverfield Academy in Ravel, yeah. And the one of the thick neat things is that they do at the home basketball games is the junior class is responsible for cleaning the gym. Now the the thought process of it is it is they're earning their money for prom. So they take that money and they do it for decorations and venues and stuff like that. But it's just something, and I took a couple photos and posted it, and just going, that's that's pretty fun to look at. That's pretty, you know. I asked and Coach Alan Wise, I said, What's going on? What's these I love these kids? And he told me the story. I said, that is awesome. He says, Yep, junior classes is there, that every junior class that comes through is responsible for that. I went, that's amazing. You know, and you see kids that are just very dedicated to it. You know, that's what I want. I want to show people the sport in a different light that's not always going to get it to the main details or the main focus.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:06

You know, I like one of the best shots, one of my favorite shots that I like to get with softball is if I notice the parent on the sidelines. Okay. If I notice the parent on the sideline, or if I notice the parent uh in the stands and then the son or daughter's hitting, I try to get the angle where they're all three in the same frame. And I and I they I don't tell them, but when I deliver them, that's usually the first thing that gets brought up is how'd you know? Well, because you got a camera up and filming, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. You know, that's the that's the fun part about this job is the is getting the shots that's away from away from the sport, but it's still the sport. Well, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:57

As one of your clients or whatever our relationship is, whenever you take photos of Colby, or you know, it's like I feel like you put a tremendous amount of effort into the detail of the shots. And I feel like what we end up getting whenever we've like engaged you to get shots for Colby, it's like, I feel like this is like because I don't want to be doing that. I don't want to be doing this during the game. Yeah. You know, like I don't want to do that. I want to be in the moment. And and like you give us that ability to be in the moment. And the other part is I if I had all of your equipment, I'd never be able to take the shots that you know how to take. Yeah. Uh and it's because you care, and it's because you care so much about it. And I'm hearing like listening to you, and I'm hearing you say that. And the only thing I can gotta think is like, man, thank you for doing what you do. Uh and uh I can't wait to see what next what comes next.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:58

Don't know really what's next. Next, um, I've this journey was basically a blessing in disguise. Um stepping away from coaching was scary. It still shocks a lot of people that I'm no longer coaching, um, more or less even not even umpiring. And they go, so you quit coaching and umpiring to take pictures? Yeah, I did. And um I'm excited and I'm I'm thankful for for y'all um for the relationship we've built, the friendship that we've built. Um I'm very thankful for all the clients I've had. Um you've taken care of a lot of people. I did the numbers, I did the numbers of reservations and the amount of people that I've had the privilege to cover. Um, I know just in one event that we had last summer, we were able to cover 728 athletes. Wow. In in in in a five four-day athlete event. That's unbelievable. Now we worked our rear ends off. But just to bring those memories, um to bring those memories is is just I don't know, it's humbling. And hopefully my photos speak speak of that. Um it's not ego for me. It's not uh, you know, you get some people photography, photography is like a wild, wild west scene at times because you have you have competition and you got some parents who don't quite understand now or at the moment that when you book with me or you reserve with me that you're gonna get your money's worth. I mean, like when a parent reserves for me, my average reservation fee at football games or games in general is like 50 or 60 bucks. But you know, tournament ball, I'll go 80 because it's multiple days, you know. Yeah, but like when I price my stuff out, I always try to be customer conscientious. I don't know if that's a business term or what, but yeah, I always try to think about okay, if I had kids playing, what would I think is fair?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:14

And what would you want out of it? Exactly. And then that's why my pricing has always been based about that. Um but I had to learn early in the business that you got to under you got to understand what self-worth is. If you're a photographer and you give yourself your stuff away for free, one, you're not getting anything in you know, return. And our society is is basically the way it they won't is if I can if I can get it free, you know, it's like off of uh what's it the bedtime stories with Adam Sandler? Free, you know, when they got Rob Snyder talking about with the gumballs and everything like that. And um it's when you give yourself up for free, you gotta you gotta factor in, okay, is my time away from my family worth free? Is the amount of money that I've invested in my equipment worth free? You know, is it free? Um but it's a process a photographer has to take.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:20

And you know, but and to that point, like, yeah, no, it shouldn't be. The answer is obviously not. But I would say too though, like, you know, you do like it, it's always worth it. It's always worth it, because you know, like I said, you to do to try to uh recreate what you're doing, I mean, it's impossible. You can't even if you have the equipment, you don't have the knowledge or skill the or the ability to enjoy your kids' game and take that photo. Yeah, you know, and it's it's a matter of you get the images that a professional like you can take versus you know, maybe a grainy cell phone photo with Zoom at 36. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:05

And it's like well, it goes off, you know, and and I'm all she's gonna blush if she ever hears this, but Miss Susan Taylor, you know, that that works with the Warrior Foundation. Yeah. So she's that camera and lens is actually my old camera and lens that got me started. Wow. And that um I I first got to meet Miss Susan well when I was on Pirate Softball. And I just she was borrowing a camera and I walked around and I said, Miss Susan, can you give me a couple pictures? She got a couple pictures of me. I said, Okay, cool. Well, now the crew the paths meet with us, you know, both being in, you know, the photography. And, you know, it's she would they she made it a point to make sure I was booked for softball senior night for her daughter's senior night because she can actually put the camera down.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:02

I got approached at West Washita last week by a mom that was walking out, and she quickly she went, Oh gosh, thank goodness that you're here. I said, Why is that? She says, Because I don't have to go back home and get the camera because my son's pitching tonight and we didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:19

I went, I got you.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:21

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:21

You know, and she booked. I mean, it's one of those kind of deals that you hear those, but then again, you also hear the parents who don't quite get the understanding yet of what I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:34

It's not, I'm not just trying out there to make as much money as possible.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:38

Right. Well, you should.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:39

You know, why wouldn't you? I mean, I try to, but I don't I don't want that to be my I don't want to be the snake.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:46

I don't want to be the no, no, no. Uh here's what I tell you. You shouldn't feel like some kind of uh self-loathing because you're trying to make a profit. Yeah. You know, I mean, I'm just telling you what I'm as a friend, you know. Yes, sir. Like you gotta like, oh you gotta make it worth your time and worth your family's time for you not being there. Because you are you are working oftentimes when you could be spending time with your family.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:11

I I need 28 hours in a day, really. Um, there's some times where the only time I get to to you know, love on the kids is when they're asleep. I just lay my head right beside them and, you know, basically just say a prayer over them, kiss their foreheads, and you know, get back, you know, get gotta go back to work. Um my baby girl, Georgia, um she she'll always say, Daddy, don't go to work. Take me to Target. Can you take me to Target? I just want to go to Target. She's four.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:45

That's what Vanessa does.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:46

She's four. It's uh uh I I don't know. My wife tells me all the time, I just don't go to Target. Target calls me. You know, you just you just don't go. It's an experience. Can you relate?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:04

Oh yeah. Matter of fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna take that. I'm gonna be like, no, we can't. I'm waiting on Target to call me back so we can go. Yeah, this call me in it.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:12

It's just it's just really that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:14

That's a great move. That's a great pivot. If there ever was a great pivot, there we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:19

That's a good one. There we go. But I mean, but but my you know, talking about the kids and with this business, you know, my my middle child, Addy Kate, she loves it. She loves photography. She wants to go back because she gets to interact with the cheer and the dance line. I get her a little camera with a little lens on it. She goes off and she takes pictures with all the cheer. And, you know, there may be two decent ones out of that bunch. You know, she's, you know, she's like seven. So she, but she's understanding she's spending time with dad. Yeah. You know, and I want to I spend more time doing this than I do when I did coaching.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:05

Um, the biggest thing is I'm just not near as stressed and, you know, not as cranky all the time. Yeah. You know, when I was when I coached.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:14

My blood pressure is a lot lower. You didn't have any meet disgruntled parents, probably.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:18

Um, definitely with the umpire and somebody goes, Zig, you're you just you never, it's like it's like you never left. I said, Yep. But I deal with parents when they want something now, not when they're ticked off.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:29

It's much better position.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:30

Much better position as far as livelihood. Yeah. You know, standard of live is a lot better at the ball fields. Well, how can people reach you? Man, they can go to my Instagram, Big Zig Photography. It's B-I-G-G, Z-I-G-G photography. If you just, you know, spell it, you know, correctly, you're gonna get some guy in South Dakota up north who has gotten a lot of likes and a lot of follows based off of because of my because he's messaged me. He's messaged me saying who you are, but my followers have gone up exponential, you know, X amount of percentage. I thank you for it. But they can follow me on Instagram, Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:10

They book with you through Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:12

Well, on when they go through Instagram and Facebook, they'll see these graphics that have a link. Um, I have a certain system that I use for registration. Um, it's GF Crew. Um basically it has all the events. It's so streamlined now where if you or Cassie wants to get on there, you want to reserve, um, but I have to like have it put in where I'm going. So one of the major things that I'm learning with this business is the advertisement part, getting the word out, being up front, telling people where I'm going, how much I'm charging, what are the deliverables. So they scan the QR code or they go to the link, put in their information. They note, okay, they're playing at this time on this field, they're wearing the yellow shoes. I get the text message, I can pull it up, okay. This is where I need to be at this time, you know, and everything like that. Then I make the schedule out because I'm not just gonna go shoot one. Yeah. Or I say, okay, be careful. I can't go just shoot one person. I gotta go photograph. I gotta be careful. I can't, I gotta, I can't use the buzzwords that can get me arrested. You know, I gotta photograph. Okay. Um, when I photograph, I've I wanna make, you know, I want to let's say on the average weekend, let's say this past weekend, I had 15 reservations. So the fun part is scheduling it all out, making sure everybody has nobody to me. When you reserve, if you get $15.20, that's very because I do the price, I go back and do the price per picture.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:46

Based off of what it would be on my my website if I was shooting what they call spec off of speculation to my reservation price. And it's always gonna be a lot cheaper if you reserve than if you were to buy all those photos on my gallery. Yeah, okay. And that's what I've put it out to be. That's what I've built my brand around that, is you're not just gonna get three to five images. No. Uh you're gonna I delivered images today through my well through my GF crew that averaged around 38. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:20

I had one of them go 90. I was gonna say, I think whenever we booked with you for Colby, uh the last time we booked with you, uh I think we got like 40 something images.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:30

Well, and you do the math per the reservation price, you're going, that's you know, five dollars, four dollars, you know, an image. Yeah, no, I thought it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:40

Oh, yeah. And that's and I mean mom loves it, you know. Oh yeah. She's like, she's a customer for life. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:47

I know she tells me all the time, she tells me all the time, you know, I can't wait till the young buck comes up there, you know, starts wearing that St. Fred's garb. So it's gonna be fun. Oh doubt. It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:01

You're gonna, you're gonna have us, you're gonna have us in your queue for like the next 14 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:08

Hey, that's that that you know that brings up a great point. Because I got people that ask me all the time about basically what I want for my business. I want to be, you know, little Johnny's photographer from when he started playing T ball until he takes his last pitch or his last, you know, play in football or whatever. Yeah. I want to be that guy. I want to be the one where they're you know, it's all big zig photography.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:42

Maybe like like at you know, at Superdome or something. Yeah, like Yeah, I mean, I want to be the guy that playing for the Saints or you know, I that'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:51

You know, I talked about Timo earlier, my mentor. You know, he's got some iconic shots, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:59

How long how many years was he doing it?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:01

Oh, he was he was doing tech, he was he was f photographing tech back in the 70s, okay early 80s, and all the way to the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:10

So he's got he's got like probably big wit and like high school.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:16

Was he doing high school? Yeah. I mean, and he did a lot of time with with Louisiana Tech. I mean, so the uh the iconic shot of LSU and then tech where they're on the line of scrimmage, that's his photograph. Oh wow, yeah. Um I mean, so it's crazy. Last year, last year um somebody had some images of tech football on sale on Facebook Marketplace, and I got this I zoomed in really big. I said, that looks like a signature, I know. So basically there was a restaurant in Rustin that was tech based. They had shut down where they were sort of basically liquidating items, decorations, and everything like that. And they had some of Timo's photos. I got them hanging up in my office at school. So it's pretty neat that you know, I got photos my mentor took, you know, that has his sharpie signature on it. Wow. So it's it's this journey has absolutely bl been a blessing. Um and I'm forever thankful for every step that is taken for every client who who's booked with me. I got um, you know, going back and doing taxes on my website, you can see who is a multiple, you know, who did there's families that book every single time at a I'm at a certain school. And that right there is just so, so remarkable and humbling, you know, on my end, because they're investing not necessarily in me, they're investing in my product because you can give a sports image, I can give you the camera and all the knowledge about a camera, say, okay, this shot's about to happen. And we take the picture at the same time, and it's gonna look different when it's all said and over, said and done. Um, one of our fun things that we do as far as local photographers is we send somebody, we send each other a shot, says edit, and they edit however they see fit. And what's fun when you get them back together, the differences amongst it, amongst the same exact image. Nobody has changed the shot, but they edited it a little bit different. And that's the signature of my images, is how I edit. And it took a little bit to get going with that. Um just like you got to find your purpose, you gotta find what works for you, you gotta find out. I was trying early on in the in the side of things, I was trying too much. I was, you know, I want to do this one black and white, do this one blurred, like the motion blur that you see on Instagram and all. No, I want to be, I want that individual that's inside that shot, inside that image, to feel comfortable showing that to their grandkids. Because ideally, what we're doing, and what I do definitely with the Washtaw Citizen is we're documenting a historical event.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:17

And it's our job is to make it as real and relatable as possible. And that's basically the background as far as big zig photography and the style and everything like that. I don't, if I get crazy, it's black and white. And it's not a, you know, it's it's true black and white. I put one out last week with Gavin Polk, who's at uh at OCS, who's a first baseman and pitcher, and he's a heck of a kicker. Um glad he's gonna go here locally to ULM to go kick footballs. Um I did a black and white and it had like a Nike, a Nike ad uh feel to it. And so I put just do it behind him and edited it where he's in front of the font. It looks so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:02

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:03

It's so awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:03

I can hear the passion in your voice when you talk about this thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:06

You know, it's amazing that I I never knew that my dad says, Bubba, I never knew I would have a son in the arts. I said, Well, I didn't know either. I didn't know either. I said, but it's been a blessing. You get some like rose tinted glasses. No, no, I'm trying to rose-colored glasses. With my big white head, it looked like little bitty, little bitty frames on me stretched out.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:45

Dude, thank you for coming in, man. I've enjoyed it. This has been uh this has been a great conversation, and I've definitely learned a lot more about you than I expected. Uh, but I think in a good way. But you know, it was really fun was just talking about all the sports. Yeah. We need to do it more often.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:00

Yeah, this is great. You can have like a sports episode, you know, break things up a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:05

This is it right here.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:05

Yeah, we need to have it more.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:07

Yeah, maybe help me get a preview. Get Coach Lewis in here.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:10

Coach Lewis, have some coaches in here, have a little season preview as far as local sports.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:16

I would love to get Coach Lewis in here and talk to him about that game. I'll tell you what, he would absolutely love it too. Okay, well, let's make it happen, man. Yes, sir. All right, let's do it. It's good seeing you. Yes, sir. You too.