Sacred Heart Church Multicultural Festival

 

Z'Braylen Gibson, 2, right, peeks at volunteer Stephanie Ganter from the entrance to a bounce house on Saturday during the annual Sacred Heart Church Multicultural Festival on the church grounds in Nacogdoches, Texas

Serendipity
1. An aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. 

2. Good fortune; Luck.

(Source: Dictionary.com)


Sometimes, good photography is serendipity. There's an old axiom in photojournalism: "F8 and be there." Simply put, it means being at the right place at the right time with camera in hand.

In other words, it's luck.

I've always believed a good photojournalist makes his or her own luck. Yeah, serendipity strikes once in a while. But finding that peak, story-telling moment transcends pure luck.

In the image above, I sat and watched Z'Braylen and Stephanie for about 10 minutes as he played in the bounce house. I had a few other images, including the one below, I thought were close. But they just didn't quite make it.

So I stuck around, waiting. Z'Braylen would climb out of the bounce house, then climb right back inside. He peaked out of the entrance flap once, then immediately rolled back with a laugh and continued playing.

Finally, the top image happened. Stephanie said something to him and he opened the flap to peek out at her. And I had my image.

As I've said before, I love small-town festivals. The annual Multicultural Festival at Sacred Heart Church in Nacogdoches is no exception. The members of the parish throw a pretty good party, with all variety of food representing a wide cultural heritage.

But food isn't the only thing going for it. The Multicultural Festival boasts games and entertainment as well.

And it's usually a wealth of good photographic opportunities. You can see more images from the opening day of the two-day event here:

Sacred Heart Multicultural Festival

Thanks for looking.