Rejected
Last night Miami came to Charlottesville for a late season ACC game. This shot is of Tunji Soroye blocking Miami’s James Dews as he was headed towards the hoop – Dews literally didn’t see what was coming and this was a pretty monster block. Tunji followed it minutes later with yet another block — this time the head on version, blocking Jimmy Graham (see below):
Pretty standard game for me — one backboard remote, one remote on the padding, floor remote, crowd remote, and one catwalk remote. All worked pretty well, and I got some okay stuff. Miami went on a late 7-0 run to close out the game and win 62-55 — UVA seemed pretty dejected by the loss, especially Jeff Jones who had a stellar game with 16 points. 2 more home games for the season, and then it’s down to Atlanta in March for the ACC Tournament — as long as Virginia keeps winning, I get to keep shooting — the last two years have been of the one and done variety… hoping that isn’t the case this year.
Night Lacrosse in February… brrrr
I usually avoid wearing my winter coat to any sporting event — mainly because it makes switching between camera bodies cumbersome if not down right impossible. This is particularly true for lacrosse which is extremely fast paced. By the end of tonight’s NCAA Lacrosse game between #2 Virginia and Mount Saint Mary’s, the temperature dropped to a balmy 26 degrees — and dudes on both teams were running around in shorts. Even though UVA is ranked #2 in the nation, I quickly began to realize why I was the only (still) photographer there — it was a night game in middle of the week and it was downright cold. Virginia seems to always play Mt. St. Mary’s this time of year… in 2007, there was a night game against MSM and it was actually quite nice — “71 degrees, somewhat overcast, and breezy“… heck, 10 days earlier the official weather for the game was listed as “50 degrees, Sunny, Glorious“… yeah, umm, not tonight.
I actually had a great time covering this game — Virginia dominated with 60+ shots and won the game 10-2. Mt. Saint Mary’s goalie deserves a lot a praise — even though he let in 10 goals, he stopped a bunch of others and was under constant pressure. Virginia dominated the entire game and it looked as if they were headed towards a shutout, but in the 4th quarter MSM scored on a 2-man advantage… they then scored again at even strength a few minutes later.
This shot (above) is of Danny Glading (9) running past Ryan Shewell (14)… I’m particularly pleased with how my post-production is ending up — thanks to fellow photog Andrew Shurtleff and a lot of tweaking, the color is getting very close (I was having a bunch of issues with colors fading — particularly oranges and reds — in the conversion from CR2/RAW to JPEG) and with the help of a few tricks (aka Noise Ninja and a 1DM3) I’m able to shoot at much higher ISOs that I would have been able to in the past. Below is an example from the March 13, 2007 UVA/MSM game:
Hopefully, I’ve improved in the last two years 
UVA WBB Senior Day vs Boston College
This shot is of Carolyn Swords from Boston College — she dominated the interior with a game-high 31 points, but that wasn’t enough for BC as they fell 90-70 to Virginia on senior day. This was taken with a remote on the backboard — I usually shoot these remotes in a horizontal position and crop vertically, but this particular remote was vertical and then cropped horizontally… just mixing things up. This was pretty much one of two usable images from my 4 remotes that I placed for this game. Kind of a bummer, but that’s the way it goes — either there’s a ton of stuff or there isn’t. Also have noticed much more consistent firing of the strobes now that the flash tubes have been replaced – fewer misfires and it seems the remotes are synced much better and are hitting the light when they’re supposed to.
The past couple of games I’ve been using the 15mm fisheye on a 20D as a floor remote (the cropping of the 1.6x sensor takes out a lot of the distortion) and when working produces some sweet images. This frees up my Mark IIN to use either with the 70-200mm in the stands or with the 24-70mm on the back of the goal padding (I’d just really rather put a 20D on the court than a IIN, plus the 15mm fisheye is much more distorted at 1.3x vs 1.6x). Only problem is that the 20D only sometimes works with lagging with the fisheye — sometimes it’s either half on half off, or all the way off, or like 2 games ago, always working. Strange things possess these cameras sometimes.
It was senior day for the women’s team at JPJ, and it looks like there won’t be home post season action (a la NIT) for the ladies as the #21 ranked team is headed to the NCAA tournament after the ACC tournament. That leaves three regular season ACC games for the men’s team before wrapping up the 08-09 hoops season at the arena.
Pink Unis – for a good cause
The UVA women’s basketball team came out on the court against Miami on Thursday wearing all pink uniforms… everything, including their shoes was pink. This was all part of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Pink Zone campaign for breast cancer awareness. Last year they just wore the shoes and shoelaces, but this year was pretty cool with the entire pink unis.
The game was pretty awesome as well — first half was really ugly with UVA at point hitting only 2 of 22 from the field (9%). Fouls by Miami kept the ‘Hoos in it and they made a nice run down the stretch — Lyndra Littles hit a circus shot in the final seconds of the game to force overtime. Then, UVA dominated the OT session to pull out the home win.
All is well in Hooville…
…at least for right now. It’s been a long season for the Wahoo faithful with respect to men’s basketball. The last two games, however, have erased some of the bitter feelings with fans, first with a win over #12 Clemson then defeating in-state rival Virginia Tech 75-61.
Photographically, there was nothing special about this game compared to others other than it was a packed baseline and I had some issues with a couple remotes. Apparently, a fellow photog thought it was a good idea to move my floor remote out of position and turn it off for me, without saying anything. Not cool. I still managed to get a nice couple of frames from that remote, once I discovered it was out of place and reoriented it during a timeout.
The shot above is of the student section at the end of the game — they’re singing the Good Ol’ Song. Nothing special, other than having to lean over two rows of floor seats to get the shot… I like the score/graphics in the back drop.
Some new changes for the blog today as well — I’ve integrated my website look/feel and have abandoned the previous photoblog/monotone theme… it was too restrictive and would only allow one image per post and wouldn’t allow cool things like the embedded PhotoShelter slideshow like I’m including below. PhotoShelter has also added some sweet new upgrades to their Personal Archive product (which is the back end that powers my entire website archive of 31,000+ images). Favorites include 100 thumbnails per page (instead of the previous 25), user customizable displays (if you really liked 25 thumbs instead of 100, you can set your own personal preferences via the Display Options link), and mouseover previews of all thumbnail images. Rock on!
Watching the party from above… #12 Clemson at Virginia
UVA’s men’s basketball team had a pretty rough stretch before the #12 ranked Clemson Tigers came to town — losing eight games in a row. Clemson entered the game as heavy favorites over the Wahoos — I remember last year’s 82-51 blowout and was hoping that the game would at least be close. Much to my surprise Virginia took a solid first half lead into the locker room. In the second half, Clemson went on a 14-0 run to retake the lead and it looked like the game was over. UVA didn’t give up, and pulled back and the last 10 minutes of the game was about as exciting as it gets with back and forth lead changes all the way to the wire. UVA freshman Sylven Landesberg hit this floater in the lane with 13.4 seconds to go to even the score at 74-74… overtime.
Since Clemson was a highly ranked opponent, there was a chance, if UVA won that the students would rush the court. I was hoping that they would, as this usually makes for pretty sweet photos, so I headed up to the catwalk in hopes of a repeat from the 2007 Duke at UVA game where an amazing Sean Singletary one-handed fade away won the game for Virginia. The appropriate magic was in place, as Sean Singletary, now with the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, was on hand as he became only the 7th player in UVA men’s basketball history to have his number (44) retired. While the celebration was somewhat muted by security folks and ushers doing their job, a few students did manage to make in the court after Virginia finished off the Tigers 85-81 in OT. This image worked for me because it had the scoreboard, the stats of the game, center court, the UVA V-sabres flag, happy players/students, and Cav Man… lots of elements that just came together at once.
On the advice from fellow photog Andrew Shurtleff I swapped out the bulbs in my strobes as they were becoming extremely dull. What a difference this made — 2 stops improvement and *all* of my remotes, etc worked flawlessly. It was a good game to shoot… finally.
O! Say can you see?
Here’s another remote shot taken from the United States v. Mexico Men’s Soccer game in Columbus, OH on February 11, 2009. This image was taken with a Canon 40D and a 15mm fisheye at f/2.8. Like my shot of a similar image from a different camera/angle this remote was set to go off every 30 seconds through the entire game — the result was several crowd shots that could be combined to form a time-lapse video… it also made a couple of nice single stills, especially when Sam’s Army and the American Outlaws fan groups pulled out their very large American Flags (usually in celebration of a goal, or a Mexican red card).
Don’t Tread on Me… USA v Mexico Men’s Soccer
I headed to Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday afternoon to shoot a pretty big soccer game on Wednesday night. My major focus for the assignment was to really cover the game action on the field and with remote cameras while fellow photog Eric Kelley shot crazed fans, pre-game festivities, etc. We mixed it up a little bit and got a batch of images that I’m really pleased with. This shot is instantly one of my all-time favorite remote camera shots — and it took a lot of work and a good amount of luck to make happen. This is the first goal of the game, where Michael Bradley (4) put away a pin-ball series of headers/volleys inside the 6-yard line to put the U.S. up 1-0… America ended up defeating Mexico 2-0, with the second goal also coming from Bradley in the 92nd minute.
Getting this image required setting up a remote camera (actually did three) up in the catwalk on the north end of Columbus Crew Stadium… getting gear up a narrow ladder onto the structure was a challenge itself. Another issue was the fact that major storms were approaching with heavy rain, heavy winds (gusts in excess of 60mph). So, the remotes had to be secure enough not to move in really strong winds. I used my standard magic arm/super clamp set up with safety cables… this image was shot with a Canon 20D with a 50mm lens at f/2.8.
I’m really glad that I got up there early to set everything up because by the time for others to place remotes behind the goal came about, US Soccer decided because of the weather/field conditions to not allow goal remotes… so these were the only remote shots I was going to be able to get.
Gallery of photos from the game…
My images from the game on NikeSoccer.com
Getting some lucky light… Death Valley National Park
I left Lake Tahoe earlier than originally planned because of a series of snow storms that were headed that way. Given my propensity to find disaster with snow, I decided to head south via US 395 and make it down to Death Valley National Park, one of three NPs in CA that I had yet to visit (Joshua Tree and Channel Is. being the other two).
I really hauled it in the morning to get past the mountains in and around Mammouth Lakes, and relaxed a little bit once I hit Bishop, CA. I made a planned stop at Manzanar National Historical Site just south of Independence and got some pretty nice images (forthcoming at a later date). Then down to Lone Pine for a Black Rock Burger (chili + bbq and some other good things), and I stopped in the interagency visitor center to see if I could purchase my 2009 interagency public lands pass (national parks, etc.) — they didn’t have any, but the lady suggested I might want to visit the nearby Alabama Hills before heading to DVNP. I’m glad I did — pretty neat landscapes, including a couple of famous arches (photos also forthcoming).
Then I headed down towards the national park and was treated with some really nice light. The image above is from Father Crowley Point, just inside the park near Panamint Springs. Storms were rolling between the mountains and provided rainbows and some pretty dramatic late afternoon light. More from DVNP in the coming days…
The Long and Lonesome Road
January 31, 2009 was one of the more challenging days of my life. It started out perfectly with a pre-dawn drive up to Pyramid Lake in Nevada. I caught the first glimpses of sunlight coming across the southeast side of the lake which made for some nice images. Then, I decided to drive north up NV route 447 to find and photograph the Black Rock Desert, site of the annual Burning Man festival as well as the place where folks do things like break land speed records.
The desert and much of the surrounding mountainous wilderness is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is accessed by heading on Rt 34 north of Gerlach, NV. There are several access points to the desert playa off of Rt. 34 (which is flat cracked dirt that’s fun to drive on). Before hitting Gerlach, there is a small town called Empire, NV — there’s a store and a closed up gas station there. The sign on the station reads “Welcome to Nowhere“. This was an omen. After visiting and photographing the playa, I decided to head north on Rt 34 to county road 200 (Soldier Meadows Road) and head up to Soldier Meadows Ranch and Lodge where the BLM map indicated was a restaurant/place to eat.
Thus began a trek of 50 miles on a dirt road to the ranch. I passed some of the most amazing landscapes I’ve ever scene. A truly beautiful drive. So, I arrived at the ranch at about 10 minutes past noon, only to find nobody around except a couple of cute dogs. I was getting pretty hungry and the diet coke from breakfast (6 hours previous) was about empty. After examining the BLM map, I decided my best bet was to head north on Soldier Meadows Road and pick up Summit Lake Road over to NV Route 140 past Summit Lake. From there, I could head down Rt 140 to I-80 where there would definitely be food.
About 10 miles past the ranch the road started getting a little hairy. This was now a muddy dirt road that was starting to show signs of snow, especially as I increased elevation (not indicated on my map). I was driving a two wheel drive (front wheel) rental car and was starting to get worried. As I was driving, I decided to keep momentum until there was a place where I could turn around and then follow my tracks back. Five white-knuckled miles later, the snow started to get deeper and I ended up getting stuck in a rut that a previous vehicle had left in the snow. Not one of my more brilliant moments.
It was 1PM and I was now screwed. I was on the Summit Lake Indian Reservation and there was nothing around me except sagebrush, snow, and mountains for as far as I could see. I tried to push the car out of the snow, no luck. Then I tried to put the floor mats under the stuck tires. No luck. I then tried to dig out the part of the car that was stuck on the snow… nope. I used the car’s jack to lift it up and put more dirt/snow under the tires and then the floor mats and further clear snow… same outcome. In the meantime, when I needed a rest break from digging, I would honk the horn of the car for a while in hopes that somebody could hear me and maybe even help me out. Thankfully, during the day the temperature was in the 40s and despite having to work in the snow, I was staying warm. About 2 hours had passed and I needed to make a decision. My options were keep working on the car and hope I could clear it out by sundown or to start hiking back to the lodge I passed earlier. If I stayed with the car and was unable to free it, I would be spending the night in the wilderness with no food, no water, and the only shelter being my car. Option B required hiking 15 miles through less than easy terrain (even on the road).
I decided that I would hike to the lodge and hope that someone there could help me. Before leaving my car, I moved my valuables into the trunk, including all of my camera gear (except for the Canon G9 which took this blog photo) and wrote a note that I placed on the dashboard. The note gave my name, the phone number of the people I was staying with in Lake Tahoe, and the direction I was headed. Before I left that morning, the very kind folks that I was staying with in Lake Tahoe loaned me a pair of snow shoes and poles in case I needed them while out exploring. Boy did I need them. I also brought along my winter coat, sock hat, gloves, map, iPhone (which didn’t work because the nearest cell tower was 140 miles away but did have a very useful feature: built in GPS), G9, Canon 580ex flash with extra AA batteries (to signal at night if need be).
Thus began one of the toughest journeys of my life.
For the first couple of miles, I kept wondering to myself “Am I doing the right thing?,” “Did I make the right decision?” I’ve seen several survival stories on tv where people were in similar situations and left their car and ended up in a world of hurt. I’ve also seen several tv shows (aka Surviorman and Man vs. Wild) where the key to survival is finding a road (check) and heading towards civilization. I knew exactly where I was in the world and exactly how far I had to go. I’ve run 40 miles before (2003) and many many runs in the 10-15 mile range when I was in HS and college. The gamble of finding help/shelter at the ranch was easily offset by the very real prospect of spending the night in 10 degree weather in the middle of nowhere.
About 4:30PM clouds started rolling in and blocking the sun. The temperature also started to drop a bit and my winter coat and sock hat were welcome companions. Just before dark, I cleared the snowy portion of my hike and was now on dirt, mud, and rocks with the snow shoes hanging on ski poles, off my back, hobo style. I started getting pretty thirsty, and knowing that I was probably dehydrated before I left, I seriously considered eating some snow. I decided against it and put my mind towards the next landmark that I remembered ahead of me (a random wrecked old car in the middle of the sagebrush).
Every 30 minutes or so, I’d fire up my iPhone and check my progress via the GPS app that I installed. I had the rough coordinates of the ranch stored because of the historical marker that was out front (a major project of mine is to photograph and document GPS coordinates of historical markers across the country). When I got to approximately 11 miles traveled on my hike (about 4 miles to go), I came across the BLM boundary sign (photo taken in the day on my way out) and shortly thereafter saw a light shining in the distance. I knew this was the ranch and that really lifted my spirits.
The clouds in the photo above eventually created a very nice pink, purple, and blue sunset. The temperature was dropping noticeably and I buttoned up my coat, put on my hood and started a mini-jog to stay warm. Thankfully, shortly after sunset, the clouds cleared and there was a crescent moon that provided a decent amount of light — enough so that I could see a couple of feet in front of me. I have never seen the stars with such clarity as I did that night. I fully appreciated just how much light pollution is effecting the night sky — even in “remote” areas back home in Virginia, one could not see the stars as well as I did out in the Nevada wilderness.
As I neared the lodge, previously dull pain in my feet began to really get my attention. I stopped, took off my boots, found my blood soaked socks, put the boots back on and really tightened the laces and kept moving forward, albeit at a much slower and hobbled pace. Finally, I approached the outer fence of the Soldier Meadows Lodge and knew it wouldn’t be long. Lights were on in the various buildings which was a good sign. About 1/2 a mile down the road, I came across the historical marker I photographed earlier in the day, and then had about another mile to walk to the entrance and down the long driveway to the buildings. As I approached, I saw several people on a porch smoking cigarettes and laughing.
This is where I met the ranch crew — they were surprised to see me and immediately took me inside. The folks that live and work on the ranch are some of the nicest people I have ever come across. Without any questions, they took me in, got me warm, gave me water, and later a wonderful dinner (steak, potatoes, salad, pasta), gave me a change of clothes while they washed my filthy and wet clothes that I came in with, a warm shower, and gave me a very comfortable and warm place to spend the night. I was happy to pay their lodging rate for the evening — their prices were very reasonable (at that point I would’ve given an arm and a leg for the treatment they gave me). I woke up to clean clothes, a wonderful breakfast and a ride back to my car from one of the ranch workers, a 24 year-old Minnesotan named Thon.
It took a good while to get back to my car, and as we drove in the 4-wheel drive pick up, I kept thinking to myself, “what a stupid idea it was to keep driving on this road.” We finally reached my car, and hooked the body up to the back of his truck and he easily pulled me out. I turned around and headed back down the road — thankfully without further event. Interestingly enough, looking at the Soldier Meadows website, the lodge was due to be closed for all of February 2009. Good thing I got there before midnight on the 31st of January! (The folks were so nice, that I’m sure they’d still help me out even if the lodge was closed).
The lessons learned through this ordeal are pretty obvious. I really screwed up in the preparation part of things — which I normally don’t do, and hopefully won’t ever do again. That said, I’m thankful that I was able to come up with a plan to get out and that I was able to fully execute it. My legs and feet will remind me for the next several days of each of the 15 miles I hiked, but I’d like to think that I’m hopefully a little wiser for the experience. I certainly intend to head back out to Soldier Meadows later in my life — this time with a plan, supplies, 4-wheel drive, and better weather.
