flash

flash, originally uploaded by jnix43125.

A fan standing up in the stands blocked part of one of my speedlights, putting some nice light on umber #22.

rebound

reboundblog, originally uploaded by jnix43125.

Marching through history ...

I followed a small-town marching band from China Grove up to the raleigh as they marched in the governor's inaugural parade. The 60-member band, nearly half the size of the other bands in the parade, played the Doobie Brother's "China Grove" for the newly elected governor and the state-wide audience watching. One parent with the kids noted "that's the closest I've ever been to a governor."

Bowl Week

Here we are at the end of 2008 and the new year is right around the corner. Devoted sports fans refer to this magical time of the year as Bowl Week. Over my three years as a daily shooter I have covered my share of football, but the style of pigskin I'm used to covering is preps with a little bit of NFL thrown in. 

Last weekend, I had the privilege to photograph my first college bowl game ... the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte. The ACC was represented by North Carolina and the Big East sent West Virginia. 

It was a foggy, overcast day and I had on my Mountaineer ball cap (Appalachian State, not those impostors from WVU). The first quarter was a shoot-out and I was happy to be in position to grab a frame of a one-handed touchdown catch by West Virginia.

After three consecutive touchdown throws, I knew the place to be was down field from the Offense. Late in the game North Carolina was driving to regain the lead, so I headed toward the WVU end zone to wait. I had a funny feeling that I should shoot wide, but that lens was on my D100, which is in no way capable of keeping up with fast-paced sports action like my D2h. Still, something told me to shoot wide, so I pre-focused on the orange pylon in the end zone. Some how my gut feeling was right, because the next thing I know, UNC quarterback T.J. Yates is scrambling my way and dives right for the pylon I'm pre-focused on. The D100 gives me only a few frames a second, but this is what I walked away with.

West Virginia took a 31-30 lead late in the game and North Carolina was starting to drive. It looked to me at the time like it might come down to a field goal, so I was on the side of the WVU end zone near the UNC bench hoping to catch the kick and reaction from the kicker as he turned to his teammates in victory or defeat. For those of you who saw this game on ESPN, you know I was in the wrong spot as Yates was intercepted on the other side of the field to end the game. 

I was happy with my take though and hope I get plenty of other opportunities to shoot college football in the future. 

Cover Jinx?

I've always heard of the cover jinx on athletes, be it the eerily coincidental string of injuries suffered by NFL players after they appear on the cover on the Madden video game box, or the supposed SI cover jinx. But those all happen after publication right? (At least the ones we know about)
Last week I made went out to make a photo of a promising young quarterback and his new head coach for the cover of our prep football tab. The story was focusing on the quarterback, so I made him prominent in the photo and then designed the cover around that. I had a simple design in mind and was happy with how it came out.
Two days later, I get a call from the office telling me our talented young cover model had blown out his knee in a scrimmage and was out for the season. Probably not the best idea to keep him on our cover. The other problem is this happened on a Saturday and our tab was going to print on Monday, leaving no time to come up with another feature. I pulled several photos from football season last year and designed a generic cover to go out instead.

Grounded

This week I was supposed to get a media flight on the Liberty Belle, a World War II B-17 bomber, as it made a stop in Concord. Monday morning I got a call from the plane's PR guy telling me ground fog where the plane was kept it from taking off in time to make it for our flight. The rescheduled time was set for Friday (a day before the public flights) and I show up with my reporter ready to go. As soon as we get there, we find out the engine is not working, so no media flight ... all we get to do is go out and see it sitting there on the runway. Ben, my reporter, climbs up in the cockpit and I made this frame of him (we might as well have some fun right?)

it's been a while ...

Legion baseball ended over the weekend ... this image is from a couple of weeks ago when I had some nice light to play with ... a stark difference from last week where every legion game was cancelled or started at 8:45, meaning no sunlight and no photos for me and my D2h ... 1600 ISO at 1/60th of a second at second base is rough to shoot in (don't ask me how bad it was at home plate) ... I am happy when I have the sun working on my side. I can't with until we upgrade and get D300s (with a slightly better high ISO rating)