horizon.

convenience.

southside little league.

Covering parades are fun simply because there’s so much going on all at once.  This parade went south on Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. in Chicago for the start of the Little League season.  As the band marched down the urban city streets, I ducked and dove between houses and on lookers taking pictures.

branch out.

I was part of a special group of students to attend a workshop with the Associated Press.  We all were given photography stories to work for two weeks, along with a AP photographer as a mentor.  I was assigned to cover the neonatal unit at the Atlantic City Regional Medical Center.  I’ll be honest with you and say that I had never been so scared to take a picture.  Why you ask?  Well, taking pictures in a hospital was new to me.  It didn’t help that I had to have the hospitals PR person follow me around and watch every picture I took.  It was just nerve-racking.  Plus the emotional impact of just looking at these delicate babies with tubes coming in and out of every part of their bodies.  I shot a few pictures here and there, but ended up with this picture being the signature moment of the story.

groom duties.

The evolving crush.  As a favor to the bride and the lone photographer she hired, I agreed to take pictures of the groomsmen getting ready. When I arrived in the room, I thought the groom was knocked out sleep on the bed, but a light ring from his cell phone woke him up.  It had been going off non stop most of the day.  The rest of the groomsmen arrived and I took pictures of them getting ready.

motivation.

ROCK HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT

Click HERE for more on my documentary on the Findlay College Prep basketball team.

dismiss.

VS. CANYON SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL

If you want to punish a basketball player, keep him from getting to the court.  Forward Victor Rudd was kept out of the game against Canyon Springs High School this past Saturday, a disciplinary move placed on him by Coach Peck.  This picture was taken in the visitors locker room as Coach Peck was giving his pre-game talk.  When I took this picture I didn’t know Victor wasn’t going to play.    I just assumed he was tired from the daily grind of being a student athlete.  Later on at tip off I saw that Victor, a starter, was on the bench.

huddle.

VS. EL DORADO HIGH SCHOOL

Luck.  All luck.  I stuck my camera in the middle of the huddle and fired off about ten shots.  That’s all I can say about this picture.  A flash would have helped, but I wasn’t trying to blind anyone.  I know there’s a way I can do it without burning the teams retna.  We’ll see how it works out next time.

crown.

HOLIDAY ROCK TOURNAMENT IN LAS VEGAS, NV

I have a system that I use for covering games for my documentary on the Findlay College Prep team.  Since I’m by myself, and I’m responsible for getting video, audio and still images, I break the game up in to quarters.  Usually I spend the entire first half shooting video.  Findlay hasn’t lost a game this season, and when they win it’s usually by a large margin.  So by the 3rd quarter the game is over, and the passion that was present in the first half is gone.  I’m not saying they don’t play hard in the second half, because they do.  But by the end of the 3rd quarter, Findlay has put their opponent away and the game is basically over.  SO, I like to get all the emotion that’s present when the game is relatively close on video in the first half.  This picture was taken in the championship match of the Rock Holiday Tournament against Rice (NY).  I stood behind the trophies they had set up in the corner and waited for someone to take a jumpshot.  It took a few frames, but I finally got one that resembeled the model on the trophy.

junction.

SAN FRANCISCO GRAFFITI

It was raining in San Francisco, CA a few weeks back.  I was riding with some friends when we saw a huge Christmas mural at the corner of 6th & Howard.  I said out loud like a lot of people, “Man, that would make a good picture.”  I think that a lot but I don’t always say it.  Next thing I knew my friend Monica pulled the car over.   Everyone in the car was just looking at me, so I guess that was my cue to get out of the car to take pictures.  This is one of the shots I got.  This is graffiti artist king157.  Click HERE to see some more of his work.