Something From Nothing

So the next two weeks here are going to be nothing but Breeders' Cup coverage. We've already covered the renovations being done at Monmouth Park, the local food merchants involved in feeding 40,000 visitors, and press conferences galore. Problem is, until the weekend of the Breeders' Cup, there's really not too much going on. So today I was sent to a press conference at the track, where they announced the pre-entries for the 11 races. (I don't even really know what that means. All I needed was the talking heads at the podium.) After the press conference, I also needed to explore the track, shooting any people, preparation, renovation, or detail. Sure, there were new bleachers erected, but how exciting could I make a photo of chairs?

I got lucky. These are some of the new chairs, along with someone actually doing something!




That's all I've got for now. Check back soon!

More About Yesterday

If it sounds like I was in a bad mood following yesterday's game, it's because I was. I was frequently on the wrong side of the field, or blocked from the big plays by TV guys, NFL Films guys, referees, and players. I missed all of the "big" plays. (Can there really be big plays in a game between a 1-3 team and a 1-4 team?)

So now that I've cooled down a bit, and had some time today to play with Evan, I'll give a little more level-headed recap. First of all, both teams were, as I stated, awful. Neither team could do anything inside the 20-yard-lines, and both were missing field goals left and right. (What was I thinking picking a Giants Stadium kicker, Nugent, for my fantasy team??)

The light on the field was literally black-and-white. For most of the game, half the field was in bright sunlight while the other half was in complete shadow. Opportunities abounded for creative, artsy-fartsy images that would never run (see below), but trying to cover the game was very difficult.




The in-camera meter was constantly being fooled by the extreme contrast, and completely underexposed everything that happened in the shadow areas. (This is nothing new.) So I basically had to pick an exposure manually and hope the majority of the plays happened within that area. Since the sun was on its way down, I chose to expose for the shadows, as more and more of the field would be in shadow as the afternoon went on. The image below is what happens when you're exposed for the shadows and the player steps into the sunlight. Everything gets completely blown out.




Anyway, the play of the game did happen in the shadow area, and I would've been in perfect position to nail it, but I was blocked by a referee. And not just a little blocked, where his hand was in my way, no, he was 3 feet in front of me, so his butt filled my entire frame. (The play was a Jets fourth-and-goal pass from Philly's 4-yard-line late in the game that would've tied the game (pending the PAT), and Laveranues Coles dropped it in the end-zone. And I had a perfect angle on it, but a view of the ref's rear.) What're you gonna do? Sometimes it's just not meant to be.

Finally, after the game, there was ungodly traffic. (Which I mentioned yesterday). Nothing like sitting on the NJ Turnpike for an hour to exacerbate an already cruddy mood. So there you have it, a quick recap of my day yesterday.

The good news is that there's no way I will get blocked quite as much next time. It would be impossible. :)

Now I've got two days off, and then Wednesday it's back to work. If you can really call this work.

Eagles 16, Jets 9.

It was a lousy game featuring two teams that really couldn't move the ball. The Eagles plays just a little less badly, and won. Oh yeah, and the Jets wore these stupid throwback jerseys. Save for the blue helmets in place of gold, the Jets looked like Notre Dame... and played like them, too. There's really not all that much more to say.

Oh yeah, and the Turnpike was a disaster on my way home, congested with all the Eagles fans leaving the Meadowlands. A perfect end to a perfectly crappy game.

Some New Photos

Not really much to say, just some tennis from yesterday and Monmouth University football from today. MU was crushed on their homecoming day by Wagner College, 45-16. Yikes!

Three Songs with Bruce

Shot Springsteen at the Continental Airlines Arena tonight, and as usual the three-songs-and-out rule applied to media photographers... which is fine since I was on deadline and would've had to leave around then anyway. This is what I came back with.

Daily Work

Some of today's shots:

First, I shot a Boy Scout "Camporee," where over 10,000 scouts from over 400 troops across NJ converged on the National Guard Training Base in Sea Girt for a weekend of fun, demonstrations and merit badging.






Then it was off to a football game, Keansburg at Asbury Park. The game was close while I was there (the first three quarters) but it ended with Asbury winning big.







And finally I had what essentially amounted to a PR shoot for the city of Asbury Park. Their police department recently acquired two horses to start a mounted police unit, and they paraded them out for me and my camera. (Along with two horses from the Newark mounted squad, I think they were training the AP horses/officers.) I tried my best to make it at least appear candid, but personally I think it all looks pretty staged. Especially this first one.







OK, it's late and I'm tired. Until next time, thanks for looking!

Giants 16, Eagles 3.

I know it's a bit late, but it ended something like 11:30PM and I've been really busy ever since. Here are a few shots I liked from the Giants/Eagles game on Sunday night. The Giants sacked Donovan McNabb 12 times, with Osi Umenyiora collecting 6 of them. Six!






And since it was a nationally televised game, the sidelines weren't without celebrities. You might recognize these folks as Ashton, Demi and Cameron, though why Diaz wasn't at her "boyfriend's" game... you know her boyfriend, Brett? He plays football... (That afternoon Brett Fav-ruh eclipsed Dan Marino's all-time touchdown record... If I have to explain any further, just forget it...)

High School Football ... Finally Into a Rhythm.

From last night's Wall/Middletown South game. Wall had a 20-7 lead at halftime, but lost 35-34. Of course I missed the comeback because my deadline forced me to leave at halftime.







In the last shot, to the far right, you can see APP's master videographer Tom Costello following along with his video camera. Gotta love RallyCast!

And now some pics from today's game, Asbury Park at Keyport. Neither team held onto the ball particularly well, which made for some lousy football, but some pretty good photo opportunities. Asbury Park won 14-13.













And of course now that I have my high school football timing down pretty well, I get to go embarrass myself with NFL football tomorrow night. Eagles at Giants. Really looking forward to that. Obviously, I'll post some shots here once I'm all done.

Vineyard Hands

For a food feature yesterday on a vineyard/winery in Colts Neck.

Last Call

Another Asbury Park landmark, the Wonderbar, has been forced to close. I'm not really the bar type, but the seizure and forced closing of any popular landmark so that developers and politicians can pad their pockets is sad...

From their website: http://www.thewonderbarnj.com

Regrettably, The Wonder Bar will officially be closing on the weekend of September 28, 29, and 30. As you may or may not know, the building was taken by the developers over the winter, and they were "kind" enough to give us a 6-month leaseback so that we could stay open for our last summer. Well, now it is over, officially, and the historic Wonder Bar, which has sat on the corner of Ocean and Fifth Avenues since 1949, will be boarded up, and eventually torn down for future "development."

Anyway, that was one of my assignments today. The other two were a ribbon cutting and a field hockey game, so this was by far my best image of the day.

Finally!

Some daytime football!! I'm still a bit rusty, but I did like this frame...

More Video!

I guess I'm getting better. At least this time I got the video onto the website without a hitch. (I was still at the office until 2AM though.) It's another football "Rally Cast," and a lot of the action shots are shaky, at best. Still, I definitely see some improvement over last time, and that's all I can ask for, right? Anyway, here's the link, and please, let me know what you think! That's what the comments area is for!!

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/VIDEO03/309210010
(Note: I don't know if app.com is still having compatibility issues, but your best bet for seeing the video is on a MAC using FIREFOX. Good luck!)

Been a While...

It's been a while since my last post here... I've been doing lots of stuff that's been keeping me extremely busy. Last week I shot Fashion Week in NY, then did a ton of work on a personal project I'm working on... you'll see the results of that as soon as they run in the paper, but until then, I'm really not allowed to publish the work.

Finally, this past weekend my good friends Alex and Eleanor got married, so the entire weekend was consumed by their wedding. Rehearsal Friday, wedding Saturday and Brunch on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, but left me with little time for anything else, including blogging.

So what I've got for you today is a shot of me and Staci, my beautiful wife, from the wedding. Not even sure who took the pic, but it came out nicely. I guess I clean up OK.

PETA and the Fashion Police

Two PETA models hand out literature while conversing with a real member of New York's Finest.

Fashion Week (9/5)

Y & Kei fashion show, NYC Public Library.

Labor Day, Fun With Water

Evan has some fun with our garden hose! :)

Here They Come

For the next three days, the period known as Labor Day weekend which signifies the unofficial end of summer, the Jersey Shore will be inundated with vacationers looking for that one last taste of summer before fall creeps in, their children return to school, and weekends are spent watching pennant race baseball and gridiron goonery. Today I was asked to get photos of those who've arrived at the beaches early to get a head start on ushering out yet another vacation season. In stead, what I found was desolation. Practically no one had made it to the beaches yet, as they were all still stuck in traffic. Besides, today was overcast, anyway.

Preparation for the Jewish High Holy Days

This was a shofar instructional class for youngsters at a temple in Long Branch, in preparation for the Jewish high holy days, which will begin with Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 12. The children took turns sounding the shofar, and I just waited and waited and waited until the boy sitting in front of the stained-glass window got his shot.

Unrelated

During a job in Asbury Park today I came across this scene that had nothing to do with the assignment I was shooting. Enjoy!

Sadie, a Schnauzer, looks out at the Asbury Park boardwalk.