Missouri linebacker Zaviar Gooden, right, snares the ball as it rolls off the back of North Carolina receiver Dwight Jones (83) for an interception during the Tigers’ 41-24 victory in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

MU quarterback James Franklin (1) — who accounted for 142 of the Tigers’ 337 rushing yards in Monday’s 41-24 victory over North Carolina — works his way past Charles Brown during the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

Be sure to check out the rest of the photos at ColumbiaTribune.com.

Ruth Payton, 82, of Macon, in red, watches Watson, a 5-year-old American bald eagle, take flight yesterday in Long Branch State Park. Payton, who is terminally ill with hemolytic anemia — a disease that prematurely destroys red blood cells — said she had always wanted to see a bald eagle. Her hospice worker, Randi Petre, contacted the University of Missouri’s Raptor Rehabilitation Project, which arranged for Payton to come see Watson be released back into the wild. The eagle was brought to MU’s Raptor Rehabilitation Project last month after being found in Randolph County with severe lead poisoning, likely the result of ingesting contaminated fish or deer.

Watson takes to the sky after being released over Long Branch Lake on Sunday afternoon.

I covered last year’s race as well and stretched myself a little thin trying to cover the entire course while carrying gear I didn’t need. So this year I packed light and hung around the starting and finishing areas for the most part. I was really pleased with the result. It would have been nice to effectively cover the course and do a slideshow like I did last year, but with runners ranging from very competitive to people just taking a stroll, I focused instead on a few key shots that I knew would summarize the event effectively.

I showed up early and got some pretty goofy shots of some women ‘break dancing’ during a warm up session. Hiked up the steps of Memorial Stadium to get a nice overall of the start of the race, followed the crowd for the first quarter mile trying to find some characters in the fray, and hung around the finish to get the overall male and female finishers.

I feel like I had a really good flow this year, and if I get the chance to cover the race again I’ll use what I learned over the last two years to finally get broad comprehensive look at the race without compromising the quality and visual storytelling of my photos.

Here’s a frame from this year with the first overall female finisher, Hannah Hassemer,

University of Missouri cheerleaders support Hannah Hassemer, the first overall female finisher, Sunday as she nears the finish line at the Race for the Cure.

I ended up taking a different road on my way back to Columbia than I did when I drove up to Omaha. On the way up I took I-29 to Rock Port then got onto Highway 136 going east until I met up with Highway 59 North until I reached Highway 34, taking that back to I-29. Coming back to Columbia, I simply took Highway 34 to Highway 275 and followed that all the way back to Rock Port.

As much as I like driving interstates, it was a nice change of scenery and only added about a half hour to my usual drive time.

I-29 Northbound just before Rock Port, Mo.

Along Highway 59 in Iowa I came across a good sized wind farm.

A flooded farm just outside of Council Bluffs, Ia. along I-29.

A panoramic overlooking Rock Port, Mo. Essentially everything west of the interstate was covered by water.

Of course I saw a whole lot of this stuff both ways.

A few days before Parker, the photo editor, and I went down to the Trib’s studio and worked out some setups for the portraits. There is a basic look that we’ve gone with for the First and Ten and we wanted to stick to that while still visually alluding to the stories the photos would go with.

For quarterback James Franklin the premise was pretty simple. Franklin was raised in a relatively sheltered home and ended up becoming a pretty modest, well mannered, and nice guy because of it. So the light set up was pretty simple. Two speedlights set off to the side about even with his head. The rest was letting Franklin be the guy he was and getting that All-American smile out of him. Which wasn’t hard. The conversation when I gave him directions went like this:

Me: “Let’s see that smile you give all the ladies.” Franklin: “Nah, just the one.”

The second portrait of the day involved three of Missouri’s linebackers, which the sports department had nicknamed the God Squad. The gist of the story was these three guys have strong Christian beliefs that they believe help them to succeed not only off the field, but on it as well. This quote from the story pretty much sums it up:

“The fusion between faith and football is not unique in college or pro locker rooms, but there’s a particularly strong thread tying together the 2011 Missouri defense, a collection of mild-mannered, devout Christians who would like nothing more than to rip off your head.”

The concept for this shot wasn’t too much of a stretch. I wanted to do something with god light and Parker suggested grouping them for a single portrait. We were also trying to streamline things as much as possible since we weren’t sure who I would get access to first, so we didn’t want to make the portraits radically different. The result, in my opinion, kind of combines god light with a little bit of Bohemian Rhapsody.

There are a few things I would have done different, but overall I was pleased with the outcome.

Check out the stories on columbiatribune.com:

Strict upbringing shapes Missouri’s new quarterback

MU defense weaved together with strong thread of faith, ferocity

Nothing kept Black from finishing the tournament this time around. He entered into the final round in third place, but fell back and ended up finishing fifth. Coolest thing though, if you didn’t know who he was, you would have never been able to tell he was any different from any other golfer out there. And I think he likes it that way.

Actor Lucas Black attempts to encourage his ball to alter course after a tee shot during the Kiwanis Columbia Golf Championship on Sunday, August 14.

Anyway, I know from my own golf outing experience that golfers can do some pretty funny things when the ball doesn’t do what they want it to. This kind of reminded me of a Broadway performance.

Olive prepared about five dishes for us to eat including three appetizers, a main course, and some dessert. All of it was delicious. Nikki and Jarrod’s five month old, Parker, experience not only his first fireworks show, but he got some time in a kiddie pool too.

Once it started getting dark we all headed over to campus to catch the fireworks show where I learned that a filter on your lens isn’t the greatest thing for shooting fireworks. I shot some video too, not sure yet if its any good since it was all hand held, but I might try to edit some of it together later.

Just one of the three appetizers Olive prepared for our 4th of July barbeque.

Adam shows off his "man belt". We tried to give him crap for this, but truth be told, its pretty sweet.

Parker gets some fun time in the kiddie pool Olive bought.

Adam basting the pork chops with a roasted raspberry chipoltle sauce I picked up in Eureka Springs.

After some time in the kiddie pool Parker was a little more agreeable than he had been.

A woman watches fireworks from the parking lot of the Hearnes Center during Columbia's "Fire in the Sky" show.

Spectators watch fireworks from the top of their SUV during the "Fire in the Sky" show in Columbia, Mo.

Fireworks reflect off of cars parked behind the Hearnes Center during Columbia's "Fire in the Sky" Fourth of July show.