Normally I try to make this column witty and sarcastic but today I am still saddened by the death of Standard Democrat photographer Tim Jaynes. Only 38, Tim leaves behind a wife, two small children along with many family and friends.

If you haven't met Tim then you have just moved to the area or never leave your house. For 19 years Tim was everywhere, taking pictures of everyone and everything. He seemed to know everybody and everyone knew him.

I had the privilege of working with Tim for almost 10 years. We shared a love for photography and for sports which helped us get along from the start.

As a matter of fact, one of the first things I remember when I came to work at the Standard Democrat was Tim taking me to take pictures at a prisoner walk in Benton. He showed me where to stand and what angles to look for. When we went back to the office, he looked at my photos and told me how to improve them.

This went on for years. Tim was always there to discuss different ideas and to give me pointers on how to improve this and that. Together we worked on many special sections, front page layouts and photo pages and, not to be too arrogant, but we put out some really good stuff. We spent hours together at police standoffs with Tim introducing me to DPS officers so they knew who I was in case I ever needed to shoot pictures at an accident or fire.

As the years rolled by Tim and I went on less and less assignments together and he had fewer pointers to give. I always thought it was because I had learned well and he was letting me branch out on my own. Sometimes he would even ask for my opinion on how to shoot this or that. While I never said anything, I felt proud when he would ask me what settings I would use in a gym or when he would go with an idea I had for Calendar Girl.

I will probably miss him most when high school football rolls around. We would spend hours at the office on Friday nights, going through our photos from high school football games, all the while talking football, baseball or whatever came up. Nights that we could have been home by midnight stretched to 1:30 or 2 in the morning with us telling each other how we would fix the problems of this team or that team. Not to mention the grief we would give the sports writers.

And Tim could give some grief. There isn't one person in our office he hasn't made fun of at one time or another. Often it was a daily thing. He was always on somebody for something and would enlist others of us to help in the making fun of a co-worker. But nobody ever got mad at Tim because they all knew that poking fun was his way of letting you know he liked you. And Tim liked a lot of people.

I won't forget the couple of times Tim and I were asked to barbecue for the entire newspaper. Together we made some awfully tasty beer brats, chicken and pork chops, but while we spent hours cooking, we also spent hours talking. Tim never missed an opportunity to talk about his wife and kids and I enjoyed listening to him tell the stories of how smart his daughter was or how his son was hard-headed like his old man.

Tim had many qualities but I always thought his best quality was how loving a husband and father he was. He would often ask me to take this photo or that photo for him so he could "spend some time with his kids." Unfortunately, it wasn't enough time.

It wasn't enough time for his family and it wasn't enough time for his co-workers either. I will always be indebted to him for the time he spent teaching me. Every time someone compliments me on a picture I take I will know it was Tim who taught me to do it and I will always wonder if he would have liked it. Somehow I feel he will be looking down watching and I only hope I do him proud.