On Monday, I covered the annual Quo Vadis Days camp at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. A lot of high school boys — more than 100 — took part in five days of prayer, Mass and recreational activities.

It’s the recreational goings-on that historically make for memorable photos. Boys playing football, soccer, table tennis, tug-of-war and the water-balloon fight make interesting pictures of grimacing faces, high-fives and smashing water balloons.

The tug-of-war is always a good action shot event. Unfortunately for me, Catholic Herald reporter Katie Bahr had a fabulous tug-of-war shot on the front page of the last issue from her coverage of the girl’s Fiat Days camp at Mount St. Mary’s, so I needed another photo op.

The water-balloon fights showed promise. How can you top water-filled balloons potentially smashing in to Fathers Brian G. Bashista, diocesan vocations director, and J.D. Jaffe, parochial vicar of St. Luke Church in McLean. There were also seminarians and deacons who volunteered as targets.

All of these men stood on chairs as teams of teenage boys loaded large rubber-tubed sling shots with water-balloons — what could go wrong?

Not many of the clerical targets were hit throughout the three heats. They expertly dodged the balloons and many of the shots were just not close.
I diligently tried to get that shot of a balloon busting on Fathers Bashista or Jaffe, but I was also careful to avoid incoming projectiles.

It was the third and final heat and I was desperately trying to get an award-winning action shot. Maybe I was too diligent, because suddenly I felt a sting and wetness on my left side.

“They got the cameraman,” I heard one camper say.

I shook it off, laughed a bit to put everyone at ease and got back to shooting the action.

I pulled out the telephoto lens and stood away from the action for the rest of competition.

You can’t be too careful.

For the full story, go here.