Pastor Eddie Gallegos prays with a member of the congregation at his church in south Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

When he was 13, a friend put a tattoo of a spider web on Eddie Gallegos’s left hand. Back then, he was a member of Gran Barrio Central (GBC), and went by the name ‘Spider.’ Today, Pastor Eddie has a small, but devoted congregation in a borrowed sanctuary in south Oklahoma City. Eddie, who leads emotional, song-filled services, delivers his sermons in Spanish and English as paces at the front of the church. He’s the son of a preacher, a husband and a father who says that he accepted God’s plan for his life while sitting in prison.

Pastor Eddie Gallegos at his church in south Oklahoma City. Gallegos is a former member of the GBC and the son of a preacher. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Pastor Eddie Gallegos delivers an emotional sermon at La Roca Community Church at his church in south Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

These are a few of my favorite pictures of Pastor Eddie and his church. I was slow to get these pictures into Merlin, which I regret, but I wanted to publish them before I leave The Oklahoman. After six years of taking pictures, making slideshows and videos and writing for Alternate Crop, I’m leaving the newspaper after today. I’ll continue to work in multimedia, just in a different place.

In six years I’ve put a modest 10,657 pictures into merlin. I’ve written about a few of my favorites before. So, I’ll sign off of Alternate Crop by reminding both of you that you can click on any image featured on this blog to see a larger view. You can always see photo galleries by clicking here or you can watch some of the slideshows by clicking here.

-John Clanton…

Ron Millican stands under an umbrella near the door of the maintenance barn at C.B. Speegle Stadium in Oklahoma City before the high school football game between Del City and U.S. Grant on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Here are a couple of pictures from Thursday night’s rain-soaked football games. In addition to high school football,  the Bronchos from the University of Central Oklahoma played Black Hills State at UCO in Edmond.
You can see more pictures from Thursday night’s game by clicking here.

UCO's Terrance Davis (1) is tackled by Black Hills' Joey Brown during the college game between the University of Central Oklahoma and Black Hills State at Wantland Stadium in Edmond, Okla., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton

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J.D. Sims (center) of Lawton, Gaylan Towle (right), of Edmond, and other fans watch Kevin Durant walk onto the court during the US Fleet Tracking Basketball Invitational at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Kevin Durant, a few of his Thunder teammates and other locked-out NBA players, put on an exhibition game at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City on Sunday night. Here are a few of the pictures from the game that ended with Kevin Durant and the White Team ahead of Carmelo Anthony and the Blue team by a score of 176-171.

You can see more pictures from the game or read stories by Darnell Mayberry and John Rohde.

Russell Westbrook slams the ball during the US Fleet Tracking Basketball Invitational at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Michael Beasley (right) puts up a shot in front of Kevin Durant during the US Fleet Tracking Basketball Invitational at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. The White Team defeated the Blue Team 176-171. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton…

Clarence "Bud" Stark, of Norman, wipes tears from his face as he walks away from the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. Stark, a Marine during WWII, was on Iwo Jima when the flag was raised. Stark and other veterans from WWII visited memorials in Washington D.C. and Virginia during an Oklahoma Honor Flight on Wednesday. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

When we were kids, my brother and I looked forward to hearing war stories. They didn’t happen all that often, but when my grandfather would tell us something that happened in the South Pacific or my father would tell us a story about Vietnam, we both listened carefully. Most of the stories we heard weren’t really war-related. By that I mean that nobody talked about people killed or battles won and lost. My grandfather, Fred Cox, who operated cranes for most of his life, was a Sea Bee in the Navy. He told us about poker games on long nights at sea, or the time he got stranded for a few days on an island in the South Pacific. There were stories about friends he met, equipment he operated and he’d tell us the names of islands where he’d help build a base or a runway. Mostly, they were interesting stories that just happened to take place during a war.
One of the greatest stories we grew up hearing about, of course, is how Fred Cox married his war-time pen pal, Dorothy Curtis. They were married for 59 years, until she died in 2005.

Fred Cox looks around in the National WWII Memorial during an Honor Flight in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

My grandfather is one of the younger veterans of WWII. At 17, he got his father to sign a consent form, drove to California and joined the Navy in 1943. Last week, I joined him on an Honor flight that he’d been looking forward to since his daughter signed him up for it last year.

The Honor Flight staff called the trip ‘One last mission.’ Even though my grandfather and the other veterans on the Honor flight returned from their service more than 65 years ago, I looked at this trip as one last war story that we can share.

Seen from a tour bus window, Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington Virginia, was one of the sites during a tour of some of the memorials in the Washington D.C. area on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. Veterans from Oklahoma visited the National WWII Memorial and other memorials during an Oklahoma Honor Flight to Virginia and Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

I was assigned to be a Guardian on the trip, which meant I was responsible for helping out my grandfather and a man named Charles Austin, an Army veteran who lives in Norman. I knew just a few minutes into the required Guardian Training class, that I was going to be busy helping the veterans get around during the hectic travel schedule.

As a photographer, I adjusted my approach to the Honor Flight as an assignment. I didn’t want special access that members of the media are sometimes granted. I didn’t take much equipment either, just two cameras, a 35mm lens and a 50 mm lens. I rode the bus with the veterans and walked through the memorials with them. It rained in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, so much of the trip was what they called a ‘windshield tour.’ I concentrated on photographing the …

Kingfisher students and a customized golf cart called "The Helmet," lead the high school football team onto the field before the YellowJackets play Bethany during their high school football game in Kingfisher, Oklahoma on Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

The Helmet has been a tradition at Kingfisher High School football games since it was built in 1995. Steve Sanders and a group of his friends and Kingfisher residents built the customized golf cart out of a defective liquid fertilizer tank they bought from a manufacturer in Louisiana. Equipped with horns and flashing lights, The Helmet leads the high school football team onto the field and circles the endzone after each touchdown.

You can see more images from tonight’s high school football games by clicking here.

-John Clanton…

A resident of Slapout, Oklahoma poses outside his home in the Oklahoma panhandle in August, 2007. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

I cleaned out my desk and 5 small lockers that I’ve used for storage over the last 6 years. It’s about time. I found printed assignment requests with names scrawled on them dating back to February of 2006, which is just four months after I started here. Those lockers held a random assortment of junk including $1.09 in loose change, a piece of a mini blind from the first house I bought in Oklahoma City and an old delayed baggage claim form.

Cleaning up a six-year stack of assignments, newspaper clippings and equipment brought back some memories too. It was fun to think about the pictures behind some of those assignments. For example, I found a couple of rolls of film that I used in my Holga camera and a picture that I shouldn’t have passed on four years ago (above). I took the Holga on a road trip to the panhandle with former staff writer Ron Jackson back in 2007. He wrote a story about the Northwest Passage, which runs from Oklahoma City to Boise City, Oklahoma.

To see more recent pictures from The Oklahoman’s photo staff, click here.

-John Clanton…

Chalk artist Bobby Marsee creates a work of art, as Rose State College hosts a cultural fair as part of the 23rd annual Global Oklahoma festival at the Rose State College campus in Midwest City, OK, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. By Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman

In addition to the OU game against Ball State, photographers at The Oklahoman also staffed the Head of the Oklahoma Regatta, the 23rd annual Global Oklahoma Festival, a Czech Festival in Yukon, and the Homecoming festivities at the University of Central Oklahoma.

You can see all our photo galleries by clicking here.

Oliver Salowna, of the Dallas Rowing Club, shows off his "live to row, row to live," tattoo during the 2011 Head of the Oklahoma Regatta at the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City on Sunday, October 2, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

A rower carries his boat toward the Devon Boathouse after the 2011 Head of the Oklahoma Regatta at the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City on Sunday, October 2, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton…

Secretary of Military and Veterans Affairs, Gen. (Ret) Rita Aragon stands on a chair and applauds while a song is played during a "Salute the Troops" event at First Southern Baptist Church in Del City on Monday, September 26, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Staff photographers at The Oklahoman are getting ready to start another weekend of photographing high school and college football. Before that, though, here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that I think deserve another look. You can see all of our photo galleries by clicking here.

The sun sets behind Bethany High School freshman David Noriega as he plays with the high school band before Bethany and Washington played their high school football game in Bethany, Okla., on Friday, September 16, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Freshman Angela Vargas gets a hug from student Kasra Kaidan (left) and Challenge Day staff member Romeo Marquez after Angela spoke to students during Challenge Day at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. Challenge Day is a group building exercise to end bullying and other discipline issues. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton…

Oklahoma's Tom Wort (21) reacts after hitting Florida's Clint Trickett (9) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Florida State (FSU) at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

I learned more than I thought possible about  blimps and zeppelins during an assignment earlier this week with Staff Writer Matt Dinger. We got a close look at the Farmers Airship as it visited Oklahoma City as part of history’s longest zeppelin tour. You can read Matt’s story by clicking here.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t seen some of the other photo galleries we’ve publish in the last week, follow some of these links. Bryan Terry turned in some nice pictures from the OU Sooners’ game against Florida State. We’ve been out to the Oklahoma State Fair a few times and if you still haven’t seen pictures from Oklahoma State’s game against Tulsa then click here.

A crew member walks toward The Farmers Airship after it landed at Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City on Monday, September 19, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

OSU's Justin Blackmon (81) is stopped after a catch by Alan Dock (11) and Marco Nelson (20) of TU in the first quarter during a college football game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) and the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane (TU) at H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Okla., Sunday morning, Sept. 18, 2011. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

Nita Haynie, a client at the Oklahoma Foundation for the Disabled, laughs as she is wheeled under a limbo stick by Joy Woods during a Luau for clients and their parents or care-givers at the Oklahoma Oklahoma Foundation for the Disabled in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

The Coalgate band marches during band day at the 2011 Oklahoma State Fair at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City, OK, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. By Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton

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Rides light up the Midway at the Oklahoma State Fair at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City on Thursday, September 15, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

There are plenty of pictures and stories to catch up on if you haven’t been to our photo galleries page lately. The Oklahoma State Fair is underway at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. We have photo galleries of Leon Russell’s concert and pictures from the fair on Friday. High school and college football continues as well. You can see images from Thursday night’s high school games or Friday night’s games in the metro.

Earlier this week I photographed the Goodwill Games at The Children’s Center in Bethany. Staff Writer Scott Wright wrote a story about some of the residents and patients at the Children’s Center and the obstacle course competition between Washington High School and Bethany High School. You can read Scott’s story by clicking here.

Chris Schatz reacts as he is pushed onto the field by nurse Sydney Stell (right) and music therapist Rachel Nowels at halftime of the high school football game between Bethany and Washington in Bethany, Okla., on Friday, September 16, 2011. Residents of The Children's Center played drums with the high school bands from Washington and Bethany. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

Ada's Dillon Holder (28) breaks away from a Grant defender during a high school football game between Ada and U.S. Grant at C.B. Speegle Stadium in Oklahoma City, Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

-John Clanton…