The End of an Era

Well folks, my youngest is in his last year of high school and track season has come to end; the City Meet has taken place a few weeks back and for my two boys, Christien and Brandon, it will not be repeated. It is an end to era that in some ways will be sorely missed.

Yes, it involved long drives, a great deal of expenditure in expenses for gas, food, even admission and gear, it will not replace the joy, experience and pride in seeing the evolution, stride and accomplishments both as individuals and a team as a whole.

I was glas I was a part of it and was able to capture a life time of memories for both them, their team and others to see and shares for years to come in both photographs and video footage.

Below are the last photos that will ever be taken of Christien in a Central High School track uniform but hopefully may not be the last time running. This image where taken at the Gatsas City Meet Championship at Memorial High School where he won several medals. He is only wearing one of many in the shot. There is also an image of his older brother, Brandon, volunteering at the event to help out his former coach and team at the event.

There are many more images from the event on the Central High School fan page on Facebook; a link is below the images. You can also see footage of past event involving the boys with their team mates also on YouTube on Estello's Best Channel as well.

On the behalf my boys and along with myself, I would like to say thanks to the Central Track & Field team member both past and present for all the memories. You will be sorely missed.
                                 
                                                                                                                       ~The Johnsons

Inspiration Found in a Suprising Place

As you may have seen in previous post; both the boys run track. They have a great coach but who knew how wonderful and inspirations he really was both as an individual and coach to them.

Well, Dick's Sporting Good found out just how much and featured him (and the entire track team; including my boys whom I am also very proud of) in their online promotion. It is a story that will bring one to tears and can inspire anyone no matter who they are or what they do..."You will be moved."

The link is posted on the a page I posted for their school's with other accomplishments for the school's sport teams and performance including photos from last year when the football team did an All Star expedition game against other high school football team to raise money for medical program.

Go to check out the inspirational story and stay to look around other photos and videos as well...and do not forget to like us on Facebook, please.

Thanks

This past weekend on Friday, my son's high track and field team had their annual City Meet where young adults from different local schools come together for not just the last chance to qualify for the state meet, later in the year, but also for the one last chance of seeing friends from other school district and good fun; sorta. Everyone "is" competitive and still want to win in their individual events and have their group take home the big cup trophy. There is also a trophy for the two gender groups as well.

There are too many images to upload here but follow the link below the page I created for them to see all the photos I take and also other images donated to site from other photographs taken at the event.

They all did a wonderful job! Congratulations to Central High track & field team member and their coaches along with the parent who make the many sacrifices for their children to participate in the many event spread out ALL over the state each and every year and even twice a year, if they do indoor track too (maybe more often if their child(ren) also do other sports as well. Here's to the parent!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-High-School-Fan-Page/126350740778989?ref=hl

Getting Involved, Will This Be It?

BlackBerry 10 is sponsoring a unique opportunity for people like myself to get involved projects. The current one is staring in a movie featuring director, Robert Rodriquez. I have submitted my photo in a contest to be an extra and my artwork in the contest for monster/villian. It is a character design dawn some time ago; still in development (storyline and background). What better way to bring attention to her! You can see her in the gallery among some of other submissions in the link below.

Will this be the break through moment for me as an artist?

Wish me luck!

Keep Moving BlackBerry Contest gallery

Prayers for Boston!

I just want to take this time to send out prayers for people of Boston, MA and any visitors to the area who may have been affected directly or indirectly in any way by the two blast that went off this afternoon. It is very disturbing news to hear that someone had placed multiple bombs in different locations not far from each other near the finish line that has two people so far and critically injured others.

Cellular phone service has been suspended to prevent detonations of any other bomb. As a result, many people  are not able to check on their family or friends who may have run in the race and/or in the area including those who just work or volunteer near the area.

It is a disturbing day. A mother lost her leg from the blast and even children have been hurt as a result.
What is this world coming too!

I am still trying to make sure family and friends that I know are okay...

Lazy Day Panda

I use to work at a non-profit that sadly had to close but while it was open, it was my duty to go through many small storage containers to throw out stationary items. Among them were some very beautiful postcards with photographs of animals. I kept them all. One of them was taken by photographer Richard Stack. It was the inspiration for the watercolor seen below. Animals, landscapes and natures inhabitants are wonderful inspiration for art. Look for more work featuring them in the future.

In the meantime, you can see more of my work and my own photographs at EsBest.DeviantArt.com

Charcoal Duck, a work in progress

During my charcoal drawing class last year, I had begun doing a drawing involving little baby geese or duck, I do not remember which, but being new to doing charcoal and time allot to complete the assignment, I knew I had to make a conscience decision to pick another subject in order to get my homework turned in on time. It has always been my intention to go back and finish it but I actually forgot about it until I found this photo I took of it; oddly enough, you get a great non-bias perspective of your work to check how it is coming along, if you take a photo of it. So a quick tip, if you are working on painting or drawing and do not have someone to give you a second opinion (or honest one) how it is coming along; take a picture. It really works.

Here is how far I have gotten with it. It is all charcoal on color paper. However, I will point out, this image is only a segment of a much larger sheet of paper, as you can see by the white line on the right.

If you like to see more of charcoal work like the Siberian Husky I did turn for the class assignment, other watercolor work and photograph, swing over to EsBest.DeviantArt.com website too see even more of work.