The Way I See It

Curt Youngblood, our old intern, came back from Austin just in time for Centaur.

The first major Mardi Gras parade of the season rolled through Shreveport today. I was in Shreve City, which is where most of the crazy stuff usually happens. I think I was the only sober person there.

…snow! We got a few flurries last week, and people started freaking out. It didn’t last very long and was nowhere close to sticking. These Louisiana folks need to spend a few weeks up north.

A book about LSU’s national championship season has been published by Gannett. There is a chapter in there for each game. All of the photos from the home games were taken by our staff - I did the ones against South Carolina and Louisiana Tech. I’ve definitely never had any of my shots used in a book before, and when you consider what bad reproduction we have at the paper, they look really good.

I had to take posed pictures of these kids at the Shreveport Convention Center today, and when I was done they started messing around with their top hats despite the pleas of their chaperons.

This Air Force guy from Wisconsin is doing the Cupid Shuffle at Baby Huey’s on Sligo Road just outside of Bossier City.

This officer didn’t like me taking pictures of a man on a stretcher being wheeled from the scene of a shooting even though I was more than out of the way. I didn’t even realize I was still hitting the shutter while he was getting in my face until I got back to the office and found these.

This is my Grandpa Horvath. He died a few weeks ago. The day after Christmas. He was 93.

Mike Silva, the photo editor at The Times.

My dad gets corn for his corn-burning stove at a feed store in tiny Kipton, Ohio. The stove provides most of the heat for his house.

I was back home in Ohio a few weeks ago, and I was hoping to get a really good snowstorm while I was there since I hadn’t seen the white stuff for about five years. I got what I wished for - on the very day that my mom had to catch a plane back to Arizona. After trying to clean the car off, I realized I’m glad I live in the south.

My yard is full of pine needles. I’ve raked them up twice since the end of summer, but they keep coming back and taking over my life.

My name is Val Horvath and I’m a staff photographer at The Times in Shreveport, Louisiana. I’ve been here for two years, and before that I worked at The Facts newspaper in Clute, Texas. I’ve also interned at The Morning News in Florence, South Carolina, and The Lima News in Lima, Ohio. I graduated from Ohio University in 2003 and I’m originally from Lorain, Ohio.