Images from 2022: Herald photographer Tracy Kimball highlights some of her photos.
Editor’s note: Herald photographer Tracy Kimball gets a view of the Rock Hill region, as part of her job, that few people get to appreciate. She sees beauty, tragedy, and emotion. This year she has seen rodeos, water rapids being created, deer freely playing in residential areas and a host of other sites.
As we end 2022, Tracy has compiled a few of her favorite images and videos and captions with insights about the events. Take time to look at some of her most striking images from 2022. Click on the photos and read the captions.
This is what Tracy had to say:
Bull riders, bucking horses and calf ropers drew thousands of spectators to a Rock Hill, S.C. ranch for the first rodeo held there in more than two decades.
Nearly 4,500 people gathered Oct. 14, and Oct. 15 at the Blackhawk Ranch in Rock Hill, S.C. for a championship rodeo that featured bull and bronc riding, calf roping and clown entertainment.
The rodeo at the Blackhawk Ranch is the first one in 26 years, said Kirstan Lee, who runs the rodeo with her fiance Scott Lee on the leased property off S.C. 324.
The Lees plan to hold a rodeo at the ranch in the spring and fall each year, Kirsten Lee said. The next rodeo will be in late May.
Eighty-four-year-old Wali Cathcart’s great-grandmother Lila was enslaved at Historic Brattonsville. Cathcart is shown here at Brattonsville with a photo of his grandmother Fannie, who was born shortly after the slaves were freed. Brattonsville, not far from Rock Hill, S.C., was a plantation owned by the Bratton family from the 1760s to the late 19th century.
Cathcart is an educator at Carroll Rosenwald School, which is owned by the Rock Hill School District. He teaches fifth-graders about life during the Great Depression. He also gives presentations to visitors at Brattonsville. Cathcart also played professional baseball in the 1950s in what was known as the “Negro Leagues.”
Christy Churchill, recreation planner for Duke Energy, right, and Michael Brissie, manager of generation project engineering stand on a platform over the Catawba River near Great Falls, S.C. where crews are bringing water back to two channels. The channels will provide new recreation opportunities for kayakers. The channels were diverted more than 100 years ago as damns were built to provide water to the small town in Chester County. The massive-scale project also includes building a new state park on a river island and creating hiking trails.
I took this photo after walking down a very steep set of stairs. I stayed part of the way up the staircase to get an wide shot of the fast-flowing water and the structure crews are building. I also wanted to show how massive the structure is with the perspective of how small Churchill and Brissie are in the photo.
Fort Mill High School’s Carter Blankinship dives into home plate last spring at Fort Mill High School as the team takes on Blythewood High School. The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets went on to win the Upper State championship.
Photographing sports takes lots of practice, and is always challenging. Even though baseball does not have constant high action, when an important play happens, you have to be on your toes — your aim has to be spot on and you have to anticipate what will happen.
I always get excited during games when an important play happens and emotions are high. The sheer elation from these boys as Blakinship slid into home plate was magical and you could see the pride in their parents’ faces. I honestly had to wipe away a tear.
Interpreter Kenya Lane works on a quilt she is making last February at Historic Brattonsville near Rock Hill, S.C. The site held its “By Way of the Back Door” event to show what life was like for enslaved people during the 18th and 19th century.
Photographing events at Historic Brattonsville, honestly, is quite emotional for me. There’s a quietness that is attached to people who were enslaved there and what they endured. I shot a video of Lane as she knitted and talked about visitors’ reactions to the way enslaved people lived.
Vernon Robinson, right, hugs Elliot Middleton of Middleton’s Village to Village Foundation after Robinson receives a free car.
Elliot Middleton, co-founder of the foundation, gifted Robinson a red 2006 Chevy Traverse after his wife, 63-year-old Linda Robinson was murdered. The suspects in the murder are a man and woman who she had picked along the side of the road.
The Robinson family car had been impounded as evidence and had not been returned. Middleton’s Village to Village Foundation fixes up old cars and donates them to people in need.
Deer hang out in a yard in Tega Cay last October. The city has seen a population surge in deer on the peninsula and residents have asked town leaders to take control and find a solution.
Even though I shoot high-action sports, this particular assignment was more than challenging. I drove to Tega Cay in the middle of the afternoon and remembered deer come out later in the day. I went back around 4 p.m., still thinking I wouldn’t see any. I felt very much like a stalker, circling the block over and over, sending up red flags to residents as I got out of the car and slowly looked around and squinted into shaded yards. This game lasted about an hour.
This story was originally published December 31, 2022 at 4:02 PM.
