Hotel Hartsfield

My travels through Atlanta were delayed twice this week. Sunday afternoon I was flying back to Mississippi from Hartford, Conn. We were hit with a 90-minute ground hold in Hartford because of weather. Once the plane touched down in Atlanta, we sat on a taxiway for an additional 90 minutes until a gate became available. My connecting flight to GTR was delayed until 11:30 p.m. (original scheduled for an 8:15 departure) and then ultimately cancelled.

I spent the night in Terminal E with thousands of other stranded passengers. It was neat to see what occurs in an airport overnight, but sleeping on the floor at Hotel Hartfield was not enjoyable!

The second delay of the week happened yesterday. We were slapped with an hour-long ground hold at GTR because of traffic in Atlanta. The flight from Atlanta to Orlando was delayed because the law had to perform a security sweep of the aircraft. (All incoming international flights are swept before new passengers board.)

Finding Frames in Mississippi

I've been in Mississippi for two weeks now, but if you take away the seven days I was in Salt Lake with ALMS, I've only been in town for about 10 days. Last night I headed to the Columbus Speedway to check out dirt track racing. The place just screams photo story, but we'll see how things turn out over the next few months.

Sometime back I swore I wouldn't go to a race like this just to be a fan. Though I really enjoy my work, I spend enough time at the track as it is. But it was pretty neat - the crashes reminded me of an ASA race in Lakeland I once attended. I went to the "Baddest Bullring in the South" not really expecting to stay until 11 p.m. or to make a picture I liked. I did both.

Just Another Saturday

I was scheduled to shoot the Central Florida Home Show and UF Softball today. I was told that if the home show was not very visual, I needed to find a stand-alone centerpiece as well. Needless to say, the show was bland. But lucky for me, the Gator Swim Club was practicing in the O'Dome natatorium. I climbed to the catwalk to find this picture.
Softball and baseball aren't my favorite sports to shoot. Sensing that I didn't have a great frame from the first game of a double-header, I stuck around for the first few innings of game two. Florida beat Ole Miss twice today. The score was 4-3 at the end of both games.

This Week's A to Z

Today I shot a portrait of Buchholz catcher Brett Bozeman for The Sun's A to Z feature. I shoot a lot of these, and they have to be verticals. That might explain why many of the portraits on my Web site are vertical images.

I had a hard time deciding where to shoot this picture. Once I saw the "field closed" sign behind the dug out, I knew what the picture would be.

State Final Blues

P.K. Yonge lost in the state final for the second consecutive year. Tricia Coyne (shooting video) and I got to Lakeland extra early so that I could hang a remote on the hoop.
I think my pictures are solid, but I wish they were better. Since hoops season is over, it's time for baseball, spring football and a little bit of track and field. After several months of working in gyms, I'm ready to be outdoors!

Light. Lots of Light.

I've been planning this portrait for about a month, so I was really happy the day finally came to shoot the image.
I brought a whole lot of extra gear that I don't normally use on a shoot. Namely, that extra gear was a giant boom and large octabox. I knew that I would be shooting the group of five straight on, and I needed to get a large light source directly in front of and above the team members. So I used the boom and octabox.

There were two rim lights behind the team at 45-degree angles to add definition. I used a fourth light to light the basket.

But here's where I need your help: Which crop do you prefer?

What A Day It Has Been

I thought it would be a good idea to borrow my brother's bike to use while covering the marathon this morning. Half the city is blocked off because of the race, but on a bike, I don't have to worry about that.
I scouted the half marathon route yesterday and found a few places to shoot from. After the start, I went to the 34th Street wall and shot from there. Then, I left the race route and continued north on 34th Street to the intersection with SW 16th Boulevard/SW 16th Avenue. There's a great hill there with a wonderful line through the frame. And there's a hydration station nearby.

I followed the route for a bit, then headed south towards another location I had scouted near the UF Campus. About a third of the way there, the rear tire blew. Awesome. I had to walk back to the finish line before the marathon runners got there.
After the marathon, I headed to the UF Golf Course to shoot the final round of the Lady Gator Invitational. Since it was almost noon, the light was pretty crappy. But Florida won, and senior Tiffany Chudy won her first individual title. Pretty cool.

Gator Invitational

I haven't shot golf in a few years, so I was excited to shoot the last round of the Gator Invitational on Sunday afternoon at the University Golf Club. I tried to shoot a mixture of clean golf action and sense-of-place shots.  My skill level is very low, so I hope to continue shooting the sport and eventually make some really nice images.

Only 15

Hannah Yun is a 15-year-old golf phenom and she's majoring in psychology at UF. We had to reschedule the portrait shoot several times, but the results were worth the wait.

Originally we were going to shoot early in the day, and I planned to set up on the 18th green. There's a large oak tree that cast a great shadow over half of the green. My plan was to have Hannah sitting in shadow on the green with the sun-lit hole in the background.

When the shoot was moved to late afternoon, I scouted a few locations. I decided to use the putting green because it was in the shade and I liked the repetition of the shorter flags.

No. 75

A few weeks ago I was at the UF-UGA gymnastics meet. I had a great time, even though the Gators lost. When I heard there was another meet tonight, I volunteered to shoot it for The Gainesville Sun. I'm glad I did.
I photographed the Gators on vault and uneven bars from the floor. For the balance beam and floor exercise rotations, I climbed to the top row of the O'Dome with a long lens. When I'm shooting in a place with busy backgrounds, one of the things I try to do is get above the scene to clean up the shot.
For floor, my 400 was a bit too tight, and the 200 was a bit too loose. I'll try a 300 next time. But for the beam, I had just the right lens.

The Regular Season

Hamilton County's regular season ended on Tuesday night with a win at Fort White.

More HC Hoops

The hoops team at Hamilton County High has to share the school gym with several other teams. Some days, they head into downtown Jasper and practice in the gym at the school board building. Such was the case yesterday.

Somehow, a fire extinguisher had been discharged in the gym the night before - leaving a powder on the surface of the court. The team ended up practicing outside.

Coach Murphy had to act quickly and improvise a practice. "Just kinda makin' stuff up as we go," he said.

Josh Jones

Josh Jones is one of Hamilton County's best players, and I photographed him for The Sun's A to Z feature before a game last Thursday.

It was misting that night. I thought it would be neat to work the weather and the outside lights into the shot. I shot with a very slow shutter speed and jiggled the camera to provide the halo look.

Overtime Thriller

Nick Calathes scored 24 points and Marreese Speights added 20 more in Florida's 81-70 overtime win against Kentucky. Since the game started so late, I had a 10 p.m.-ish deadline. I shot the first half, edited and transmitted pictures, and then shot the remainder of the second half and overtime for file art. It was a good win for the Gators. Their streak over the Wildcats now stands at seven.

Hamilton Co. Hoops

I should have posted a few of these last Friday, after my visit to Coach Murphy's home on Thursday night. He's had a few players at a time come spend the night at his house this season. They eat dinner, play Wii, hang out, and ultimately bond as a team. It was pretty cool.

High School Weightlifter

I tried to shoot this differently, but I think it turned out well this way.

SFCC Construction Success

This has been a busy week. I only have school on Tuesday and Thursday, but I'm either working or studying the other days of the week.

Last night I ran up to Hamilton County to work on my basketball story. I got to bed a little past 2 a.m., and was up at 7:25 to photograph two stories at Santa Fe Community College. This picture is for a story on the success SFCC's building construction program is having at placing graduates in jobs, even though the housing market is in a slump.

Baby With(out) a Bottle

This morning I photographed the worship service at Fountain of Life Church of God in Christ for the Gainesville Guardian. While I was there, I saw this 8-month-old boy sitting off to the side. At first he was just staring at me, so I made a few frames and went on to something else. I walked by him again a few minutes later, and he was holding his bottle. Once it fell to the ground I waited for him to turn back towards me. I knew he would stare at the camera and make the frame.

It's been a while since I shot a religion piece for the newspaper, so I was excited to see what images would come out of it. As I drove to the location I realized that two of the pictures on my Web site came from Guardian assignments. One shot is of a woman crying, the other is of a mother touching her son on the shoulder.

It took several tries to find the church once I arrived at the address. Apparently, there are four small churches in the strip mall. The first church I walked into was holding a Haitian service. They seemed surprised that I showed up, and I thought it was odd the newspaper would send us to a service we couldn't understand. But if they had done that, it wouldn't surprise me.

I realized I was at the wrong church, so I went to a second church. After a few minutes, someone from the church I was supposed to be at found me and took me to the right location.

Saturday Hoops

Today I shot a few games of the inaugural Dante Anderson Memorial Invitational. Dante played hoops at Eastside High School and was killed in a car accident last spring. This shot, from my remote floor camera, was one of my favorites. Ironically, it came near the very end of the game (within the last minute of regulation). Eastside won in overtime, 50-47.