Sports! Lots of Sports!

My video training is finally over and I'm back to shooting mostly stills. The next time I pick up a video camera will be my first real video job. I really have no problems using the camera or the microphones or the software, but what I am concerned about is my ability to use video to tell a good story. That part you can't really get from training. Only time will tell.

Anyway, now that my video training is, in fact, over, I spent the last three days of my week (Thursday-Saturday) shooting sports. Actually, Thursday and Saturday I shot sports. Both of my Friday sports assignments were canceled by lousy weather. That was disappointing.

Man am I still rusty. Shot lacrosse on Thursday and high school baseball (in a minor league ballpark, First Energy Park) on Saturday. I got one shot that I liked on Thursday, and nothing Saturday. Hopefully there's more baseball coming my way. I love the sport so damn much, and it kills me that it's my worst to shoot.

On Friday night, a group of us from the Press got together to send off one of our photographers, who decided to jump ship for PhotoShelter.com after 15 years of shooting. Our loss is PhotoShelter's gain. The gathering was somewhat of a downer, too. Aside from the fact that we're losing a great shooter, to hear the stories of how the Press used to operate, especially with regards to their sports coverage, really made me realize that I got into this business ten years too late. The year before I signed on there was the last season they covered any MLB, and of course, it culminated in the Mets/Yankees World Series. Now, the Mets could be playing the Yankees at First Energy Park and we wouldn't bother sending anyone. "That's what the AP's for, right?" ...sigh... We do (for now) still cover the NFL, so I can only hope that if one of our teams (Jets/Giants) reaches the Super Bowl, we'd send someone. It wouldn't even have to be me. I'm just holding out hope that it could still happen. (Though while I am holding out hope, I'm not holding my breath.)

Anyway, it's late and I'm tired (and I could rant like this until the sun comes up) so I'm gonna call it a night. Now that my video training is over and I'm back to shooting mostly stills, I'm gonna try and update more often. For the whole two of you who are actually reading this. Until next time...

Vigil

Last night (4/20) I shot the candlelight vigil for a young woman from our area, Julia Pryde, who was killed in the VaTech shooting. These are never fun, although I will say that her friends really tried to keep positive even through their tears, remembering all the good times and funny moments they shared together. Even her closest friends and family couldn't help but laugh at some of the funny stories that were told. "She's probably looking down at us right now and laughing," one of her friends said. I've gotta give them credit. I don't know how positive I'd be if this affected me so closely.

I've shot a lot of vigils already this year. Three separate car accidents involving teenage fatalities, and now this. It never gets any easier. Very, very sad.

The rest of today's post will be images from last night.

Evan's Audition...

So yesterday Staci took Evan into the city for a look-see (apparently this is modeling industry lingo for "audition") for Fisher-Price, and they called us back last night and said that Evan made it into "round two" of the auditions. So today, back into New York we went, this time all three of us, for his call-back, or second audition. Evan had a blast. While we were waiting for them to call us in, he ran around the waiting room, played with other babies, and with me and Staci, and with anything else in the room that looked like fun.

Once we got called in, we couldn't have been in there for longer than five minutes. They had him sit and smile into a video camera, then walk from left to right for the video camera, and then finally play with a toy, you guessed it, also in front of the video camera. The woman running the thing was very nice, and said that Evan was a pleasure to work with, though I bet she says that to all of the parents whose babies don't spend the entire time screaming. Oh, and of course, being the photographer that I am, I had to snap a frame or two of the whole process with our point-and-shoot camera.


Anyway, they haven't called us back yet... and probably won't. The important thing is that Evan (and Staci and I) had a great time in New York. Would we do this again? Absolutely.

Finally, Some Sports...

The first week back at work following a vacation is always difficult to get through. But two of my jobs were high school sports, so that made it a bit easier. Boys lacrosse is fun to shoot. It's very fast, with lots of hitting and lots of scoring. That was the game I shot on Tuesday. Today, I shot a softball game. Man was it cold. My car's thermometer said it was 50 degrees, but it felt more like 35 because there was a strong, steady wind blowing the entire game. I also set up a remote for the softball game. That was pretty neat. (An image from the remote is below.) I'm gonna try to do that for all baseball/softball games this season, weather permitting.

Oh, by the way, you guys didn't try hard enough for me. (I say that tongue-in-cheek, since I know that nobody actually reads this.) I only finished second in the Asbury Park Press Battle of the Pet Photographers. A coworker of mine (who finished third) suggested that I demand a recount, but I'm not a sore loser. Besides, the photographer who won simply photographed a cuter pet.

Oh, last week I also received my first major photography award. I won first place in the Sports Action Photography category in the 2006 NJPA (www.njpa.org) Better Newspaper Contest for a high school football image I shot last season. That's always a good feeling. I also took second place in the SportsShooter monthly clip contest (news category) for a February storm photo. Hopefully, the first two of many...

My contest winners:









NJPA







SportsShooter




That's all for now. Now that I'm home and back in the swing of things, I'll try to write more often.

I'm back!

Didja miss me? (Of course not, no one reads this anyway!)

So we were on vacation for a week and a half, 5 days in California visiting my brother, then 4 more in Arizona with extended family. Here's a really quick synopsis of the events I remember, anyway.

In LAX we were approached by a woman who found our son Evan so cute she just had to come over and tell us so. The familiar-looking woman turned out to be comedian Brett Butler. Go figure.

We drove from LA to Santa Barbara in the rain, that was fun.

Alan (my brother) bowled his highest series ever, and credits it all to Evan being there to cheer him on.

We took Evan to his first zoo, the Santa Barbara Zoo! That was fun! He called all the animals "Mocha," which is the name of our dog, and one of three words he says right now. (The other two words are "dada," which can mean dada, dirty or diaper, and "aa-aaa," which means Alan.)

Evan really likes pinball.

Walking around Solvang was nice.

LAX keeping their rental car providers off-premises is very inconvenient.

Watching my relatives run back and forth to the TV to watch the NCAA championship game during family dinners is funny. Running back and forth to the TV to watch the Mets' opener during dinner is necessary. After all, the other is only college basketball.

Evan really enjoys the pool at the Arizona Inn.

We love the Arizona Inn.

Celebrity sighting #2. Though we didn't engage in any conversation, Spin City "star" Richard Kind was on our jetBlue flight from Tucson back to JFK.

Taking the red-eye home from Tucson really screwed with all of us, though Evan seems to be the least affected.

Vacations are never long enough, and unpacking is depressing.

So now that we're back, it's back to business as usual. The Mets are now 4-0, and even more impressive is their pitching. In four games (and yes, I know it's only four games) they've outscored their opponents (Three against the Cards and one against the Braves) by a count of 31-3. Seeing the World Championship banner raised in St. Louis probably got them fired up. Let's hope it lasts.

I guess that's about it for now. I know, that was a pretty crappy description of our vacation, but hey, at least the photo's cute. :)

Until next time...