Merry Christmas

This doesn't look OSHA certified to me.


I finally downloaded a bunch of photos from Steph's camera. I shot this picture months ago, but still have yet to download it, edit it or post it.

I just thought it looked really neat when I passed by it one day and against the bricks it looked even cooler.

So that's my Christmas present to you. Speaking of Christmas...I got an iPod Touch for my big Christmas present from Steph and her parents. I'm trying to get everything organized so I can get my contacts and calendars in order. Maybe I'll finally get a .mac account, but we're trying to save money not spend it.

I also got a few light stands from my parents with swivel umbrella heads. I'm pretty stoked about being able to use them. I also bought a bunch of cords from Lundgrens while I was back to use my flash units.

Portraits Round 2

I make her look good.



So instead of sitting on our butts tonight I decided I'd like to go back to the office and play with the lights a little more. I've had these portrait obsessions lately. I know she doesn't find it nearly as fun as I do to go do this, but at least she brings a book with when I'm fiddling with lights or my camera.

I did successfully get some Rembrandt lighting done. It took me a little bit of testing, but I'm pretty happy with it. I guess it could be a bit more low-key, but not everything has to be. I'm starting to realize more and more that light is not always about where it is, sometimes it's where it's not. I know that so many lighting guys say this over and over, but you don't truly understand it until you're not getting what you want.

The other thing I'm finding is that you don't need a super-fancy studio to do really nice work. Something Scott told me today is that if you spend a long time on any project you can make it look great. "Heck, if you spent enough time in this lobby you could make a great photo story out of it," he said about the lobby of the Community Building today.

I know he was being a tad bit facetious, but in another way I know he was absolutely right. A New Year's Resolution of mine is to do at least one photo story by the end of May. That gives me six months from now. I already have an idea of what I want to do for it. It's perfect. It's close to work and I enjoy the people there. What better way of working. My plan is to spend at least one day a week there until the end of my time period or until I feel I have what I'm looking for.

I'd also like to find a shorter term story to do as well. Well, enough motivation for the night. Time for bed. Time to put words into action tomorrow.

Headshots

She's a good sport.



Steph's letting me use her as a model for the headshot tests. Maybe I'll get to shoot a few tonight when she's done with dinner. I've got two more techniques to try for the basics. Then I'm going to start playing with some creative things.

I saw Scott Strazante at the FutureGen announcement this morning. I've seen Scott before, but never got a chance to talk with him. He's a very nice guy and very intuitive. I guess you kind of have to be in order to be Illinois Photographer of the Year.

We talked a little bit about his "The Season" project and he told me about how he finds time to be a photographer, a husband and a dad. Most importantly, he told me how important it is to work hard. And he's right.

Oh, and congratulations to Mattoon on getting FutureGen. I'm sad for Tuscola, but happy to see it here in Illinois.

Wedding photos

Thank you Noise Ninja and Raw files....oh and thanks Stephen and Eric.


I've been editing a ton of wedding photos lately. I do have to say thanks again to Stephen and Eric for all the photos. You've definitely kept me busy the past few days. I actually felt productive this weekend. I got over 100 of our photos done. I got to read a little bit, read both the Saturday and Sunday papers and even played in my "studio" a bit.
I'm trying to teach myself class lighting techniques so I know the absolute basics of portrait lighting. I'm going to start bringing people in for headshots to just to play around.
I've got a business idea that I may try this spring just to get myself a little extra cash.
I'm also gearing up for the FutureGen announcement this week. It's going to be a long week at work, but it'll pay off when I get to see my parents this weekend and see Steph's family next week.

I love this game?!

Shooting a lot of basketball lately. I really need a second light, but I liked the way this photo turned out.



I've been quite busy lately. Not really an excuse for not posting, just letting you know. I've been in full basketball mode lately. It's actually kind of nice b/c I don't have to switch from football mode to volleyball mode or anything, but I did shoot boys basketball the other night for the first time this year and boy was it different than girls.

So much faster than girls. I was going to try the Strobist light setup tonight for gyms, but forgot I need another pc to pc cord before I do that. I really need to buy like another five of them, but Xmas is coming up so we'll see.

I've got a few photos I'll throw up from work the other night in a day or so. I actually made prints. My next order of business is to get my wedding photos completely done. Hopefully I can do it before Christmas so the family can see.

In rememberance

Flags are refelected in a war memorial at the Douglas County Courthouse Sunday during a Veterans Day ceremony.



Today was the government's observance of Veterans Day or as it was originally known as Armistice Day.

Likely to say that the past two days have been filled with flags and people clad in red, white and blue.

This is probably the first time I've ever really thought about Veterans Day and what the true meaning is. There's this sinking feeling I get when I think about how many World War II veterans are left.

Tom Brokaw wrote the book "The Greatest Generation" because he saw that many of these veterans were dieing off. I'm wondering if he had the same feelings I've been getting.

It would be cool if I could do a project with these veterans, but I need to finish some other things I've started first.

Football

Zack Martin watches his Warriors defeat Mount Olive on Saturday during the quarterfinals.



I love covering state football. Truth be told, I hate working Saturdays, but I have no ideas what I'm going to do when football is over with in two weeks. Basketball is right around the corner, but unfortunately it's really no comparison to the excitement of football.

I've had a blast covering TCHS all year long too. I think next year I'm going to try and cover it a little different. Stephen's been posting about Scott Strazante's coverage of a volleyball team and I'd love to do that as well, but I want to really make it my own next year.

As soon as I figure out how I want to do it I'll let all of you know.

As you can tell, I've fallen in love with hard burning the edges of my photos too. It's kind of the style that everyone has right now and I guess it's always been a style of photographers, but I'm just now getting into it. It makes photos look a lot nicer most of the time and can really draw your attention to something you normally wouldn't have. I think I'm going to make a print of this photo for his parents because I like it so much.

Foot graffiti

I wish I could still get away with writing on my shoe, but I think my wife would get mad.




I saw this when I shooting photos of Atwood High School's assembly with Rupert from "Survivor:Paradise Island" and "Survivor: All-stars." I wasn't sure what to expect from him when I got there. I assumed it would be a lame speech about practically nothing and mostly just promoting himself, but I was proved incredibly wrong.

Rupert ended up being a very nice guy and one of the few speakers or people I've met in awhile who really cares about children. He cares what happens to them and can really relate to those who need attention the most.

I may actually write him a letter. He said anyone who writes him gets a handwritten response guaranteed.

It's not like I should expect anything less though. He's just another person, but I'm glad a person like him has got some fame and turned it into something positive.

As for the shoe, it just reminded me of something I woudl have done. I wouldn't have chose to put a big heart on my shoe, but I do remember writing "Erin Hurley sucks" on the side of my shoe during class in college one time and turning to Erin to show her when it was dead silent in class. She immediately burst open laughing getting dirty looks from the teacher and the rest of the class. God, everyone in that sociology class hated us. I think they were just jealous because of how much fun we had. Or it could have been how annoying and obnoxious we were, but either way I know I had a lot of fun.

Sweet Thursdays

Matt Meyer claims his coworkers are to blame for his hard hat, but I think he's just a super Illini fan.


Today was a pretty nice day. Got to shoot a lot of photos. It seemed like each time I showed up for an assignment I kept feeling like I was lost and didn't know what to shoot. As soon as I just started shooting I slipped into the groove. I'd step back after a little while, reanalyze what I had and shoot for something new and creative.

I think one of the biggest things I need to do is to realize when I already have a certain kind of shot and not shoot that one again. I find myself shooting a lot of the same image just a little bit different. I guess in a way it's because I always think the next frame will be better than the next, but I end up missing shots I'd be much happier with if I wouldn't concentrate on one particular angle.

Here's a few shots from a couple of assignments I did today. Mostly had a lot of fun doing my assignments. As soon as some of the other shots run I'll post them, but that won't be until at least next Friday.

This weekend Lucas and I are in for the long haul down to Mount Olive to watch the Warriors move to another round in the playoffs. Let's just hope Arcola can win theirs and we can see the return of the Cola Wars.

APAD

Ted Dibiase, the Million Dollar Man, speaks to Arcola students about premarital sex, drugs, alcohol and abuse in their gym on Friday. Dibiase joined the ministry after his professional wrestling career ended.


2 posts in a day??? What, what, what??? I know, crazy huh? Mostly because I feel I neglected my blog for so long and partly because I'm bored. I'm home alone waiting for Steph to get back from a wedding. I just finished a book and I'm not in the mood for television, so this is the next best thing I guess.

I'm trying to start shooting a photo a day right now. It's difficult because I don't get out of the office every single day to shoot now, but I should stop making excuses and just do.

This photo is one I shot on Friday, but didn't get to post until today. This is a link to Saturday's shot, and I don't have one from today mostly because it's my day off and partly because I spent most the day cleaning, exercising and lounging. Felt pretty good all in all. Exactly what I needed to get me up and running for the week.

I try to send in a photo each day to the "A photo a day" Google group, but not always successful. Good thing they don't pay me. I'm mostly hoping this will just help me start seeing things differently as there are a lot of really good photographers on there.

The last thing to plug today is Strobist. I plugged this a lot on this site, but John Dixon, a News-Gazette photographer sent out a group email about this article. He's definitely right in saying this is what we do. It got me really thinking about my minimum level of quality. So Stephen, you'll be happy to know that found something to break me out of that slump we talked about. I knew if I looked for something it would help.

Return to home

Watching a sunset from a plane is quite awesome.


I'm finally getting to posting the last part about our honeymoon. It's been a few weeks, but here it goes.

Saturday we wake up and roll out of bed. We go down to eat breakfast because we're going to make sure we don't miss it.

We sit out near the beach for a little while to enjoy our last few hours before we have to return to our everyday life. We both have this odd feeling of wanting to see our friends and family, but part of us is depressed we can't stay. Over the past week the two of us learned how to use the bus system, how to barter with the merchants and how to try new and exciting things.

In a way, some of the people and things we saw we're beginning to become normal and to have to fly back felt like we were being up rooted all over again.

We both knew the feeling wouldn't last, but there was still a feeling of hesitation to leave.

We went back to the hotel room and picked up all of our stuff in the room. We checked, rechecked and then checked one last time to make sure we had everything. Steph's pretty adamant about doing that.

The only thing that sucks about having all this done early is that now it's only 10 a.m., our ride to get to the airport doesn't show until noon. We decide the best thing to do now would be go sit at the hotel bar. I mean seriously, what would you do?

While we're down there we run into our British/Scottish friends again. We talk with them for a little while and Steph finally finds a drink that she actually likes from the hotel bar. The guy bartending that day made her his homemade bloody mary and a I drink a few pina coladas.

Our transportation gets there right at noon and we take off. We get to the airport only to find out our flight has been delayed 2-and-a-half hours.

We get some food, look at the duty-free shop and wander around until sitting by our gate and waiting very impatiently. Finally we get on the plane, take off and start heading back to Chicago.

We get into Chicago around 8:30 and get through customs at 9. Luckily we never get checked by customs either on the way there or on the way home. It saves us a ton of time. Krissi picks us up and takes us to Steph's car. Of course Steph falls asleep on the way home and I end up calling Stephen and my parents to check up on what's going on.

We make it back to Steph's parents and fall asleep pretty quickly. Next day means a lot of packing and another long drive home.

One of the coolest things at Chichen Itza was the arena that they played a crude form of basketball and soccer combined. The walls were acoustically perfect to determine whether the ball was in play or out of bounds simply hearing the echoes.


So finally we make our way to Chichen Itza. I'm pumped because it's something I've wanted to go there all week long. I wouldn't call myself a history buff, but I'm really interested in most of it. Stephanie's been fed so she's calmed down and I'm just admiring all the small villages we've been going through. They're pretty awesome.

We finally make our way into the city. One of the coolest things I notice on the way in is a worn out baseball field off to our right in a school yard. Something about made me feel nostalgic. I could almost imagine that it was a ball field that some latino player got his big start on. Chances are not because of the condition of the field, but I like to imagine it that way.

We finally arrive. It's a fairly typical tourist trap. Gates, tickets and vendors. We wind our way through the turnstiles and find our way to our English speaking tour guide. His English is maso menos (s0-so).

As we said before Stephanie and I didn't really plan too well for this trip so when we got there we realized we forgot sunscreen for the two of us. Not too bad for me, but not so good for Steph. I'm wearing a thin white shirt and she has on a strapless top exposing her shoulders and back.

We start the tour and of course everything is in the open sun. Barely any trees. Our guide doesn't make a ton of sense so Steph decides she's just going hang out under a tree to minimize the sun.

The most disappointing thing though is that I find out I won't get to climb to the top of the most famous ruin there. They closed it down two years ago after two people died from falling down the steps. Probably a good thing.

The guide knows his information really well he just doesn't do a good job of conveying it. He tried to explain way too much symbolism that didn't make any sense. After awhile I just kind of quit listening to him and looking at things on my own.

Between every new stop inside the park we're approached by more vendors. "One dollar. Almost free. One-dollar, Mayan souvenir."

It was brutal. Finally they just release us on our own. We get to climb on one of the ruins and look around. They called it the observatory, but no one's for sure if it really was an observatory. Few records were left by the Mayans here because the Spanish explorers never found it until 200 years after it had already been abandoned. It starts to get a little cloudy and begins to rain so we take cover under shelter and wait for it to subside. On the way back I find a silver bracelet I really like so I barter with the vendor for a bit and end up paying about $20 for it.

After we go out front Steph gets bling envy because now I have a ring and a bracelet so we find her a neat little ring for her thumb that has the Mayan symbol for the God of Rain on it.

The bus loads up about 10 minutes later and we head back home. We relax and enjoy the drive back. It's all I can do from keeping to look out the window constantly. I think it's the photographer/journalist in me. Always looking, never wanting to miss anything.

After we get back to the hotel, we eat dinner and make our way back to our hotel. Make it an early night because of how early we got up in the morning.

Ik Kil

I wish I could have spent a couple of days running around Mexican villages to photograph the old architecture.


Friday started early. We had to be up at 6 a.m. in order to be ready for the bus that was going to pick us up by 7 a.m.

We decided Friday would be our tourist day where we went and saw some of the countryside and some of the villages.

We bought an all-day trip to Chichen Itza, which is the Mayan ruins located southwest of Cancun in Yucatan.

Unfortunately breakfast didn't start until 7:30 so we didn't have anything to eat. As we hadn't asked too many questions about the trip we weren't sure about breakfast. Nor did we pack our books for a long bus trip. We thought the trip might only be a half hour, but it ended up being several hours.

So with no food and no entertainment we set off for a long bus trip with few people who speak English. If anyone knows Steph, they know the 'no food' part is a recipe for disaster.

Luckily she's trying to be as cheery as possible. Luckily the guide on the bus tells us about all the interesting facts about Mexico.
It was really interesting to hear him say everything in Spanish and
English. I actually picked up on many of the things he was saying in Spanish.

On the way he tells us we will be stopping by a little place called Ik Kil. It's a natural cenote before you get to Chichen Itza. The drop from the top is about 60 meters and the water depth is about 40 meters once you get to the bottom. There's a cool stairwell that leads to the bottom where you can take a dip if you like. I was all about it. I actually took a leap off the top stairwell that is about 20 feet up.

It was kind of scary, but really no higher than a high dive. It was really thrilling to jump into a pool and know there was nothing below you to keep your body up. The closes thing to the bottom was 120 feet.

Steph did get a blurry photo of me jumping in.

I climbed up out, dried off and got Steph a small snack to tide her over until lunch.
After a quick stop here we all loaded back up and headed to our lunch destination in a small village between.

Lunch was a pretty nice spread and everything except drinks were paid for already. It was cool that they actually had dancers/entertainers during the dessert of our lunch.
I snapped a few shots within the block we were in, but I would have loved to been able to spend a whole day in the villages. Stuff like that is really interesting to me. It was absolutely nuts to see people in huts made of sticks watching televisions and on computers. Another thing I noticed was a multitude of internet cafes. I guess if not many people in town had computers this would make sense to have a common place for them to be used.

Everything was loaded backup and we headed for Chichen Itza. More to come tomorrow.

Day 4: Hard Rock rocks

My first trip to Hard Rock Cafe was awesome and so was my meal.


I missed posting yesterday because the football game ran late and I didn't get a chance to edit Thursday's photos from Cancun. Tomorrow may be a 2 part blog because Friday was just so cool and we took so many photos. I had to struggle to decide which photo to lead with today, but then I remembered this blog is supposed to be concentrating on detail so I lead with this one. Look at this photo anyway.

On Wednesday we decided to go on a snorkeling trip through the marina, but Steph was feeling sick so we decided to wait until Thursday. The trip was supposed to be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., so when we woke up at 9:55 a.m. that was kind of out of the question. We didn't even make it out of the hotel until 10:35 a.m. so we missed breakfast at the hotel.

We made a quick trip to the super deli next door and headed to the beach. Today was another relaxation day of not doing a whole lot.

In the afternoon we did take the paddle boat out in the middle of the lagoon for awhile. I hadn't used one of those for a long time. The funniest part of that whole trip was Steph freaking out when we nearly hit one of the posts that was about 200 yards out in the water. Normally, nearly crashing into something wouldn't be funny, but when you're going to hit a wooden post with a plastic leg-powered boat at about 3 mph while you're floating it's actually pretty funny.

After that we showered up and headed downtown for dinner again. Tonight's restaurant, Hard Rock Cafe. I've never been to one and have always wanted to go. Dinner was great as usual. The restaurant was amazing. It was almost like heaven for me. All the music memorabilia and the video playing were great.

I loved that the server kept calling me 'boy' and calling Steph 'girl.'

"Are you ready to order boy?"
"Do you want another drink girl?"

She didn't mean any disrespect. I had kind of noticed it all week with other people too.

Anyway, she did let us know there would be a band playing later on which was great. As we were getting ready to ask for our check it somehow came up that it was our honeymoon. And she goes, "Oh, why didn't you tell me before boy? I'll be right back."

Next thing we know all the servers are coming out there with her to our table. I see two full shots of some unknown black liquid and I think, "Oh, great."

They made each of us take a shot in what I'll call a less than appropriate way in front of everyone in the restaurant. I guess I'd call it PG-13. Funny and entertaining to most people. Shot didn't taste horrible, but didn't taste great either.

We walked around for awhile after that to burn off our food, but then went back to Hard Rock for the concert.

Band is amazing. I'm pretty sure they're called Sombra, but not 100 percent sure. Great guitar players and just put on a great show. Wide variety of covers.

We then head back to the hotel bar for a bit and hang out with our British friends again. Steph's turn to get drunk. I get a little buzzed, but not bad. Steph starts repeating some song line of "A Be be be." Which to me sounds like she's trying to sound like Yogi the Bear. "Hey Boo boo."

Despite missing the boat on snorkeling, literally, we had another great day.

Day 3: Best/Worst/Best Day Ever

It can't be all beaches and fun in the sun.


Wednesday starts off a bit slow. Steph doesn't feel the greatest. She's got a pretty bad cold. Can't hardly breathe. I'm in great spirits. Still riding high off Tuesday's fumes. We go down for a little bite to eat and some R&R.

Breakfast is good and we go to lay on the beach. About an hour or two after laying out I reach in the bag for th camera to take a picture when I notice sand bits in the bag we're carrying the camera in. I freak out because I'm a parannoy with the new camera. After a year working in a camera store I've seen way too many sand cameras come back.

I tell Steph I'm going to shake the bag out and tell her to hang on to eveyrthing in the bag. Here's where things get good. I grab the bag and start shaking. Seems like no big deal. But those who have been married before know that after you get married your wedding ring might not be the tightest as it hasn't been sized for your finger.

On the fourth shake of the bag I feel my brand new ring fly off. My heart drops. I'm freaking. The 10 seconds it takes me to tell Steph seems like an eternity of misery. I quickly say, "Steph, my ring just fell off." Her reply, "So get down and find it," in a not really paying attention manner.

She thinks I lost my new Mexican ring I bought. Then comes the bombshell, "No Steph, my wedding ring."

"What!!??!!? Oh my god, start looking."

Natural reaction. We start looking. People on the beach think we're playing a game until they ask us what we're doing. Wives begin searching frantically as us. Guys pretend to care. I feel dumb. No metal detectors in sight and apparently none to rent in Cancun.

After 15 minutes 15-20 people help us search. Another 5 minutes of searching leads me to a little spot of uncovered sand where I dig my hand like a shovel into the extremely fine sand where middle finger lightly taps a piece of silver band as well as picks up my heart.
Exuberance. The cool part is we meet a few couples while we're searching. Everyone's really nice. The ring stays in the hotel room from now on.

I get a few drinks with one of the British couples we met. Nice people. Very funny people. She's Scottish, he's English. Makes for a lot of jokes. 4 or 5 vodka tonics later I'm buzzing....okay a little drunk. Steph still isn't feeling well so we go back upstairs to the room. I try to take care of her, but quickly pass out on the bed. I wake up 3 hours later. It's only 4 p.m. I feel fantastic though.

We decide to head down to get some food at 5:30. While Steph gets ready I get to watch part of the NLCS game which gets me pumped. We actually decide on going to Hooters for dinner. Steph thinks the hotwings will open up her congestion and I'm just excited to go in general. The best part, the Redsox game will be on.

When we get to Hooters we're the only people in there practically. I ask which tv will be showing the game. They direct me towards the 20 foot cinematic screen right in front of the bar. I'm ecstatic. While eating I realize Stephanie is the coolest wife ever. Honestly, tell me what wife would let there husband go to Hooters and watch a baseball game with them while letting them consume more alcohol after already being drunk once in the day. Let alone on their honeymoon. Luckily I didn't just marry my wife, but my best friend too. Forty hotwings and a Redsox victory later we head back to the hotel.

We go down to the hotel bar for a few more drinks where I get drunk with our British friends again. The night ends as good as it began.

Day 2: A fresh beginning

How can you have complaints when your day starts like this!



Day 2. We wake up. I slowly drag my bruised body out of the rock hard bed. My sleepy eyes focus in and out of the curtain hanging on the slideing glass window. The dark color of the curtain lets little light through. By the looks I assume it's a rainy day.

I go over to the curtain and pull it back. I'm pleasantly surprised to find it's a beautfiul day with the sun shining brightly across the lagoon behind our hotel. Today's going to be good.

We head down for breakfast. I'm a bit worried ti's going to be as bad as lunch. Luckily it's omelettes. You can't screw up omelettes. They end up being delicious.

Time for a little R&R. We relax and peruse the list of marina activities. We finally decide on parasailing for our first activity. It's a life goal of ours so we're pumped. The guys running it speak very little English and I'm pretty sure make fun of my little extra weight in the front, but that's okay. I've got a beautiful wife with me and they only have a couple of smelly guys on a boat.

The 12-minute ride is awesome. 45 feet above the water flying behind a boat is phenomenal.
Next we decide on the wave runner. I've been on one, but Steph hasn't. It's amazing as well. Nothing but pure throttle on that thing. "Have you ever tried not smiling on a wave runner?"

Next back to the beach for a little lunch. Lunch is just okay again. A little disappointed by the food again we decide to go back downtown for dinner later on, but still a little more time for sunbathing. Luckily after two days of fun in the sun Stephanie is still not burnt.

We ride the bus back to the downtown area. Rainforest Cafe for dinner; Mexicani style. Food is great, waiter is very good and I get to see a monkey crawling around on some guys head. It was awesome. We run around the downtown area for a bit. We decide to get our souvenir shopping out of the way. It takes about an hour and a half of running around a place called the Mexican Depot.

Finally it's time to head back to the hotel for a little her and me time.

On the bus ride back we run into this Mexican musician playing for tips on the busy. He starts with a Spanish tune and switches to Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger." It's beautiful. Not only is he a great player, but his voice is awesome too. It makes me want to do a photo story on him. I start imagining the multitude of available photos from a story. I even makeup my own little story about him. Where he's been, what his parents do, why he has to ride the bus. All of these things pass my mind as we wait to be dropped off. I tip him a few dollars which seems to be more than most people, but I really loved it.

Sadly I don't talk to him. I never ask him his name, I leave everything to my imagination. In some ways I hate this and in a wierd way I'm glad I'm letting my imagination run wild. Chances are his real story isn't as cool as the one I've made up.

We get back to the hotel. We go get a few drinks from the hotel bar and head back to the hotel room. Day 2 ends up being a huge success.

Day 1

Luckily the blisters on my feet have healed.


It's been awhile. I apologize. I've been busy. You know, marriage stuff. I'm going to update once a day with a photo from each day of the honeymoon. Each day has a photo to go with the stories. Without further ado....

So let me first off tell you that anyone who says going to Cancun is just like being in the U.S. must have a really distorted view of the States. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure it's the most Americanized place there, but still quite a ways. Many people are fairly bilingual there, but not as much as most people think.

We arrived around 1 p.m. on Monday. It's raining. Immediately get out of the plane and go through customs. Thank god customs was a breeze. Didn't get searched or anything. We leave through the gates and get a van to our hotel.

I have to say the hotel was a little unimpressive when we showed up. I think the both of us were expecting a little bit more out of the resort, but being wore out from the flight, the lack of sleep and being pretty hungry gave us a bit of a negative attitude.
We go to eat in the hotel restaurant why they finish cleaning up our room.

The food ends up being horrible. Strike 2. The only way to describe the food was American food gone bad. Finally, we get all checked in. The room is even less impressive.

No remote for the tv, all tile on the floor and the beds are hard as a rock. And apparently they don't believe in rags for bathing in Mexico.

We still try to make the best of things. Get changed, head down to the beach. Luckily after 30 minutes on the beach the weather gets beautiful. Around 4:30 we start to get a bit hungry and want to go to dinner, but since we already discovered the hotel food sucks we head to the downtown area.

We're unsure how far it actually is, but we're up for a walk. Should've brought walking shoes. I made the mistake of wearing flip flops. We end up walking 8.5 km until we get to what they call the hotel zone with all the shops and restaurants.

We finally get settled in at a restaurant called the Mexican Pub. We're the only people there at 5:30 p.m. which seems wierd. Waiter speaks little English. I order a Bud Light, but get a Modelo Light, which is essentially there version of it. We get a stroke of luck though. The owner is sitting there and speaks very good English. We end up finding out everyone in Mexico eats 2 hours later than in the states becuase of their siestas.

We eat our meal which is fantastic. Try to pay with a traveler's check, but we mess it up and he can't accept it. Luckily he lets us pay with US dollars. He then explains to us how use the bus system and exchange our money. We ride the bus back which is kind of cool. If it's one thing Cancun has, it's a very good transit system.

We get back to the hotel and nearly pass out. I've had a few drinks for the day, my feet are pounding with blisters from walking and we're exhausted.

Luckily we're both positive tomorrow will be better.

I'll update the flickr section each day with new photos. Eventually I'll have all them up. Hopefully in a week or so.

Mr. Bigshot

Who’s Mr. Bigshot now?



Stephen likes to refer to me as Mr. Bigshot now since I’m managing editor for my paper, but I saw his photos all over the front page today, so who’s the real Mr. Bigshot?

Tonight’s probably my last post as a single man. I don’t know if that’s really true or not. Knowing my absolute nerdiness I’ll be posting one tomorrow night. I’m sure I’ll have photos from the bar and the rehearsal dinner.

I actually do have a lot of photos to upload, but haven’t had the time. Hopefully I can do a better job, but don’t count on it.

Bored on a Thursday night

Transformers were so much cooler in the 1980s.



I just had to add this photo really quick. I saw this transformer logo on the back of a car in the parking lot of IHOP during Stephen's wedding day. It's crazy how all the shows I watched as a little kid have become movies. I'm still boycotting the transformer movie because Michael Bay produced it.
I'll hopefully have some more detail shots coming. I've been struggling to come up with creative ones, but the more I look for them the easier it gets. Tomorrow I'm shooting more football and loving it. Saturday is my bachelor party in Chicago. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the guys, but I'm not looking forward to the feeling on Sunday I'll have.

A look back

The look of excitement or the look of fear?



Stephen got married this weekend. I don't think I've ever been to a wedding with so many photographers and with so much coverage. It shouldn't have come to a shock to me that a news station was at his wedding. After all, he is THE Stephen Haas and now Mallory is THE Mrs. Haas. She has a pretty big shadow to stand in. And not just because of his enourmous chest and bear like qualities.

In all seriousness though I had one of the funnest times of my life and I really didn't do that much. It makes a huge difference when you're surrounded by the best group of journalist/friends a college education could buy.

I realized after this week how much I missed out on in college. Not to say I didn't make my own memories and that my friends weren't awesome in college. I just wish I would have spent more time with the DEN crew as well.

Despite the fact that I didn't really hang out with everyone a lot during college I still felt like a key piece to the group Saturday night. Chances are everyone would have gone about their business as usual without me being there and everyone would have still had a blast, but I like to think I contributed to the good times and maybe, just maybe had I not been there someone's night wouldn't have been complete. I feel incredibly vain saying that, but that's not how I mean it.

Either way, Stephen and Mallory looked radiant Saturday. Kevin German, their photographer extraordinaire gave a very nice and endearing description on his blog, but I got to hang out with Stephen for a good part of the day and want to describe what I saw.

I've never met a man on his wedding day that was so anxious. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean it in the best possible way. Not that he wanted it over with, but he wanted to be part of the rest of her life more than words can explain.

The night before he barely slept. He told me he only got 30 minutes of actual sleep which I originally thought was really odd. I didn't know if he was nervous or worried or scared. From the time we hit IHOP for the groomsmen/usher breakfast I could tell it was going to be a long day for him.

Mal had already told him no caffeine, so when he tried to order coffee and a coke the groomsmen, in their so not so subtle way, reminded him 'no.'

Luckily the guys kept him busy mostly through breakfast with an onslaught of jokes and stories that were funny only to us. As breakfast trudged along I could tell he was starting to get a little antsy so luckily everyone finished up and out the door we went.

The car ride to the church was a bit of a stretch. Here was my second indication of Stephen's anxiousness. He was speeding. Shhhh!!! Don't tell anyone. He wouldn't want it to get out. In the past couple of months since he moved her I've never seen the man speed. He actually brags that he doesn't. But on the way to Fithian his foot must have grown lead because even though rain was pouring down Stephen pushed the needle up and around 65 on a main highway. Never dangerously speeding, but enough to let other drivers know he meant business.

The next few hours were a little less intense. He calmed down a little. We wandered the church after getting dressed and found Stephen in the basement cooling himself with a turbine-like fan doing his best Darth Vader impression.

Pretty soon we were on our way to the photo shoot in a park. Stephen looked so happy to just be standing next to her. As corny as it sounds I've also never seen someone be so unabashedly sincere with their significant other in front of their friends. The way Stephen touched her face and her hands was like he was touching a expensive porcelain vase. Utter gentleness. At times it made sick and other times I was incredibly jealous that I don't have the self confidence to do it myself. Mostly the latter.

Once we were back to the church the pressure started building for him again. I tried to stay clear as much as I could and do what I could to help. I'm not good with being part of wedding parties because I never really know my role. I never have that comfortable feeling. I always feel like I'm either not doing enough or doing way too much and stepping over my boundaries.

This was no different as I had missed the rehearsal dinner because of work and felt out of the loop. It wasn't anyone's fault. The guys didn't make me feel like that at all. In fact, they only helped to include me and without Josh's help I would have been really lost.

Once all the guests were sat it was Stephen's turn to stand at the front with his groomsmen. Josh and I opened the doors for Mallory's grand entrance.

I could tell Stephen was holding back tears. In some ways him and I are a lot alike. I have a feeling I'll be fighting them back all day when I get married. Especially if Steph can't control the waterworks herself.

Stephen wasn't overly fidgety, but I could hear the "Let's hurry up and get to the 'I do' part" in his voice.

Some may attribute it to his ADHD like qualities that are no stranger to Stephen. He openly admits that he may have it. This is the man that started cleaning our hotel room after the bachelor party because us bums wouldn't get up.

But after seeing the look in his eyes as Mallory was walking down the aisle with her father I understood his excitability all day.

It's rare you get to see that look. I know people say it all the time at weddings, but I think most of them are over exaggerations. He let down all of his tough guy persona for everyone to see at that moment and just soaked his bride-to-be in. Sadly there are few words to describe it.

The rest of the day was obviously a success. I'm sure the two of them were incredbily relieved at the end of the day. As stressful as weddings are they're only truly worth it if you end the day with your one true soul mate.

It seems a little naive to think there's one person out there for each individual, but this weekend solidified my belief in that.

So with that, I say congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Haas. Thank you for the great time this weekend and I look forward to bugging the two of you as my neighbor. I only hope my wedding day is just as special as the two of yours.

When in Memphis...

Why does beer in Memphis taste so much better?


I love Memphis. Anyone that has ever talked to me about their favorite cities knows this. I can't think of a single better city that I've visited. Chicago is a close second followed by Nashville in a distant third. My first visit to Memphis came with my fraternity a few years ago and this weekend marked my emphatical return. My favorite bar on Beale Street is Silky O'Sullivan's. It's a dueling piano bar playing live requests of all your favorite tunes. I know they probably get a request for Mark Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" at least five times a night, but I had to do it. I mean how could you not. Anyway, I think I made a believer out of the guys for the most part. Maybe we could make a yearly trip with just the guys to go down for a weekend. I don't know if my body can handle more than a whole weekend.

I just hope Stephen had as good of a time as I did. After all, it was his bachelor party. Check out some more photos from the weekend here.

I watch too much television

I saw this commercial on tv the other day an couldn't pass up posting it. There's so many things making this commercial funny for me. Some of them are inside jokes, but funny none the less.

Bridging the Gap

A chainlink from a decaying bridge is wrapped around a steel beam.



I shot my first AP assigment today. I got a call out of the blue and they said they needed a shot of this decaying bridge west of town. I'm really interested to see what the full story is about. The best part about the assigment was I was in the mood to shoot detail shots. I have one shot from volleyball the other night I'll post later, but for now I'll leave you with you a few of these. The chain links one is my favorite.

I really liked the way the spray paint textured with the rusted steel looked. I could probably come up with some really artsy/political name for this photo, but I'll spare all of you.

It's hard to believe that in exactly one month from today I'll be married. I'll just be happy to have Stephanie down here. It's not fun being here by myself all the time.

Detailing

Amish buggy wheel.


I've decided I'm going to try and shoot a detail shots from almost everything I can and take this blog in a slightly new direction. I'll have minor updates on what's going on in my life, but I want to try and get as creative with detail shots as I can think. This wasn't the most creative shot in the world, but I only had a few minutes to shoot it, so I just cropped it a little differently. The crop creates tension in my opinion because most people would have left wheel centered. I'm not sure if it works on anyone, but it's a start.

Horseshoes and hand grenades

Caption goes here


Over the weekend I shot some photos of horseshoes. I could see myself playing horseshoes later in life. For now I'll stick to bags since I'm still too close to college age.

I think you should be at least 30 before you start playing horseshoes. I'll start practicing now so I'm a master when my time comes.

Speaking of bags, I'm going to make set for for Stephanie and I. (Read Stephen and I.)

A night of power tools, beer and minor injuries may be just what I need.

Here we go again

Caption goes here


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1414/1186302443_9900b0ffdb.jpg?v=0

I have to watch what I say from now on because people insist on taking this blog and trying to get me in trouble. I don't put anything on here that can't be learned just by asking me. If someone in town asked me what I thought about something I would tell them the god honest truth.

As for photos on other blogs of me, I can't control what other people post nor would I want to. Plus, making a joking gesture toward a friend shouldn't be something that anyone finds interesting. If I decide to do that I know full and well that someone else could see it. I wasn't at work, I wasn't doing it to someone in the community and it wasn't done maliciously.

I was pretty angry at first when I found out about the situation, but I've since let that go. If someone or some people think it's their job to tear me down and try to get me fired or pit people against me then so be it. I can think of hundreds of things that might be more important than worrying about what they will do next. I can only be myself and hope people like me for who I am.

Possible career change?

No, I'm not changing careers yet.


The ad guys at work thought this would be funny to ad my name to this flyer. I guess if this whole editor thing doesn't pan out I could always change careers. Hell, I'd already have flyers made up. Then I'd just need to get a new cellphone number.

This week is going pretty good so far. I feel a little more confident and I think the staff is appreciating my planning and organization. Or they're doing the same thing I would have done. (Nodding yes to everything I say and then talking smack behind my back.) Either way, there's been no controversy.

I have become incredibly jacked up on coffee all day long though. I completely understand why some editors get ulcers at an early age.

Chimps

2 chimps are better than 1!



Last week at the Coles County Fair, Kevin Kilhoffer and I used the spray and prey method during the Donkey Races. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's essentially putting your camera on drive mode and shooting anything that moves.

After shooting you wait for your camera to load the images and then quickly see what people you need to get ids from before they run away. Ken Rufener, another photographer got this shot quickly after the first race. He said he couldn't help himself even though he had the same urge.

This was my last big Coles County Fair photo page since now I work primarily for the Tuscola and Regional papers. And for those of you who don't know I got promoted to editor this past week. I put out my first Regional paper today and put out my first Review paper on Wednesday.

Erin Update

Erin as a naughty Brit.




For those VH1 watchers and EIU students not keeping up with Rock of Love, Erin is still on the show. Her enourmous breasts are still taking up most of the screen each Sunday. I've heard rumors she doesn't win and I'm pretty sure Brandi, another girl on there doesn't win either as other sites have been talking about her being a porn star and Brett missing out on a 3-some.

It'd be nice if Erin won, but I see it unlikely as she will most likely be sabotaged by other girls on the show and Brett is already questioning her loyalty because she was once engaged. I think he'll keep her on until she at least lets him see the two watermelons she's concealing and then he'll make up some excuse like they just don't have a connection.

The one thing I think this show has going for it is that B.M. knows how to keep conflict in the show to boost ratings. It's working on me. I'm so trapped in the show because of Erin right now I'll probably have to watch it all the way through.

Sunbathing

This kitten caught my softer side last night as it sunbathed in the evening light at the fair.



I happen to see this cat hiding behind a wheel of a buggy used for harness racing at the Coles County Fair Wednesday. Normally I don't shoot pictures of ordinary animals, but this cat had a little soft spot in me because my mom just had to put the family cat down.

I guess Pepper couldn't even lift her head anymore so it was better for her. I'm not much of a cat person, but i never like to see animals in general suffer. It was a bit wierd just seeing this kitten hanging out at the fair.

I guess it was an animal theme all the way around as you can see from my previous post. Stephen had a few bird shots up as well, but his was a little morbid with a dead bird hanging on a wire.

Takin' a break in Charleston

There are a barrage of jokes I could come up with for this photo about you, your mom, or your girlfriend...I'll leave it to your imagination.



I love wide-angled shots. I think I like my 17-40 lens more than I like myself sometime. This is one of the few shots I really liked from the other night at the Coles County Fair.

I seem to be in a slump right now. Little motivation and even less creativity. Part of my problem is I'm not looking at enough photos by other good photographers and part of it is I've been worrying about something. I'll explain that one later though. The details aren't concrete and I don't want to jinx anything.

Sorry for not updating in awhile for the 1 person that cares, but let's face it. You live 4 doors down from me now and anything going on in my life you probably already know about. If by chance you're reading this and you don't live 4 doors down from me then you should look at this more often and post comments.

Stephanie is having her bridal showers this weekend. One at my parent's house and one at her parent's house. I'm just excited because this means free shit for us. The wedding is t-minus 58 days.

Time to head back into the hot sun and get some more feature fair photos.

Scrambled

A scramble of lights blur together Friday night during Bagelfest in Matoon.


I absolutely loved this shot from the other night. I'm going to play with it more at the Coles County Fair. I'd like to try it at dusk to get a better looking night sky, but this worked very nicely. And I'm going to try and light paint with a flash light rather than my strobes. I have another one from the Octopus that I'll post in the next day or two.

I'm just hoping for good weather tomorrow and a clear night sky for more star trail shots with Stephen.

More Strobing

Light falloff was this weeks lesson. Well technically last week's, but like clothes, life and everything else I'm a week behind.



The coolest part of today was setting up my studio upstairs in the Review building. It's technically the morgue for all the dead publications, but since ours isn't filled and nowhere close to being so I took it upon myself to relocate a small studio up there. The drawback, a very low ceiling. About 6.5 feet. The good news, my camera equipment all fits up there much nicer than in my house. Plus I get to play around all I want whenever I want with no one bothering me. I did lesson 1.2 up there tonight. Just one more thing to draw me into the paper at night. I'm sure this will be completely fine until Stephanie moves in with me.

On the flip-side, if she ever kicks me out for the night there is a cot up there. Could come in handy for those midday siestas as well. If she did kick me out for the night it would be like a kid getting punished by being sent to his bedroom where all his toys are.

Anyway, I have to say I'm starting to understand the inverse square law a little bit. To most photographers that's near blasphemy. If you're not a photographer than my apologies for this senseless rambling about stuff you don't care about. Scroll down to see some big boobs while I talk to the rest.

Basically the inverse square law says that light falloff is much greater when the light source is much closer and much less when it is further away. Hence the really light background on the right and the darker background on the left. I could have used this at an assignment today as I would have really liked to cut the background down significantly more to eliminate a distracting sign. A very oversimplified explanation, but good for most people to at least get them started.

I'm really getting the hang of this off camera lighting stuff. Now I just need to buy a set of pocket wizards. If you know anyone wanting to sell some off let me know. I'd love to pick up a set of used ones, but not many people get rid of them because of how handy and reliable they are. If I can find a new remote trigger for the Quantum Slave II's Stephen gave me I'd use them too. They actually work very nicely, but either the cords Stephen had were bad or the connection inside the trigger is faulty. I'm going to try my hand at trying to fix it tomorrow, but I don't have a solder gun nor am I very good at it. Well enough for tonight. I'm tired from so many different things it would take too long to post them.

EIU, Can we get any more popular?

I'm betting it's not just Erin's personality that moved her to round 2 of the reality show.

Stephen sent me the link to this photo. In Urlacher's defense, somebody yelled 'fumble' right before this photo and he grabbed the first inflated thing he saw.


Chris DeRosa told me at work today that he was watching the new reality television show Rock of Love with Brett Michaels last night and realized one of the girls was an Eastern grad. The girl Erin is a former Delta Zeta. Sure enough I look it up on the website and he was right. It doesn't list her as an Eastern grad, but doe say she's from Bloomington, Ill., and a former Miss Hooters Illinois 2002.

I also recognized her as I used to see her in the gym with her former boyfriend Greg Collier all the time. *Secret confession* I used to try and choose the elliptical machine behind the stair stepper when she was in there.

It's crazy how EIU keeps breeding more and more quasi-celebrities. Check Erin and all the other lovely ladies out on VH1.

I'll add more info if I can find her facebook or myspace, but I don't know how to spell her last name right now. It's something like Chaddock or Shaddock. If you find out let me know.

*Update*
Her myspace is set to private and she only accepts friends she knows. I'm truly disappointed. She's going to have to start a new myspace page for fans.

Star Trails

Stars streak the rural Tuscola night sky Sunday night.


Stephen and I headed out southeast of town last night to shoot star trails. We needed an area with little or no light pollution. This was nearly impossible as Charleston gives off a decent amount of light, Champaign gives off a ton and all the plants west of Tuscola give off a ton of light. The photos still turned out pretty cool. This photo took 1024 seconds or roughly 17 minutes. The long exposure is how you get the star trails. The downside is that you get a lot of grain from doing a long exposure. I still like the effect. We're going to try it next time we go fishing out at Lake Charleston. There's really not much until you hit Effingham, south of Charleston and nothing east until you hit Indianapolis, so maybe the light pollution will be significantly less out at the lake. I've got a few more photos I'll post on my flickr page when I get them edited.

I have to admit though. There's something a little creepy about sitting in the middle of country road late on a Sunday night. Especially with another dude. The way stars reflect into his eyes....did I say that out loud?

Silhouettes

The North Star shines brightly as the sun sets west of Arthur Friday night.


I had to go shoot the fair for the last night Friday. I haven't been very excited about the fair event though it could breed a whole bunch of good photos. In fact, I had some really good ideas for photos, but no motivation to shoot them.
Steph, Dana and Patti came down this week so the last thing I've wanted to be doing the past couple of nights is working.
Plus I put in a ton of hours last week. Hopefully this weekend will give me some rest so I'm motivated for the next week.
I think I'll start a silhouette collection on here. I shoot shots of these far too much, but I guess as long as I make it part of a collection I can see how different I can make them.

Strobist+Time+Insomnia=This Post

This was the closest I could find to a life-like subject.


I haven't been following Strobist's newest lessons as much as I would like to, so I decided to go ahead and start following a bit closer. These are my shots from section 1.1 about angles. The lesson revolves around moving the camera rather than the light source and how it affects the dimensionality of the object. In this case a keepsake ornament. (Because I don't have a live subject.)

It's an easy, basic, but very knowledgable lesson. I'll try to work on lesson 1.2 dealing with distance in the coming days. Steph will be here tomorrow with her sister Dana and friend Patty. Should be a good time this weekend.

I'm getting severely pissed at my ebay slaves. They won't sync any higher than 1/125 and most the time no higher than 1/30. I need the 20D back severely. It should be here late next week I'm hoping barring no setbacks.

Then it's time to get serious about shooting. I'm going to emphasize portrait personalities. It may seem a bit different than what I do on a normal basis, but it's something I love doing. I did another one with John Wienke, the Tuscola quarter back who verbally committed to Michigan the other day. I'll post it after Friday when it runs in the paper.

Paper's getting a bit of a shakeup in the next couple of weeks. My editor resigned Monday. We'll be looking for a new one soon and I can only hope we can get a fresh face with some serious newspaper design experience. I think that's the only thing lacking from our paper right now is the design aspect. It may take time to transform it, but it will get there. If you know anyone interested let me know. I'll try to get the word to the right people. And they have to promise to run absolutely no more than 3 photos on the front page and one of those must be at least 4 columns wide and above the fold. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying...

Oh and if you didn't notice I redesigned. I'll probably be tweeking stuff for the next few days trying to give a different look. I'm not entirely happy with this, but it something new and more appealing than my last template.

He's Going the Distance

Nike+iPod continues to change my life.
Do you have what it takes? When you hit the point of wanting to quit or pushing on will you choose to grit your teeth and accept the blisters you knew you were going to have or will you quit, giving excuses as to why things didn't workout for you? Today I taught myself just how mental running is.

In celebration of the 10th of July I decided to run a record breaking 10 miles today. Farthest I've ever run. Actually it's purely coincidence I ran it on the 10th. In fact I didn't realize until about 10 minutes ago. My previous record is 7 miles, so ya, I blew that one out of the water. I'm not looking forward to the aches tonight when I try to go to bed or the blisters I'll have in the morning, but I feel very accomplished. I wanted to know if I could do the 15k EIU will be holding at the end of the month and I can. I'm a bit of a slow runner when it comes to very long distances, but at least I can do them.

I've always held the belief that running was purely physical until today. I understand why long distance runners typically go through deep psychological hypnotisms each week to prepare for incredibly long distances.

You hit a point where you say to yourself, "Well, I think this is far enough," but you have to push beyond. Then comes the stage where you start to ache. It could be lack of oxygen, blisters on your feet, in my case my hip. I favor one side over the other so at about mile 5 my hip was trying to tell me to just give up. But I didn't. I knew I would have felt unaccomplished if I did.

My next step is a half marathon. I think I'll try to improve by a mile each week until I make it to 13.1 miles. That way I could do the San Francisco Half-Marathon sponsored by Nike in October. All you have to do is pay a nominal fee to participate and complete your run on I think October 21. One of my life goals is to finish a marathon. I'm clearly not going to break any records, but how many can ever say they completed a marathon? Not many.

Rock Stardom

What a way to celebrate your freedom.



I got to hang out with Tony the other day for the first time in a long time. Apparently he's had an idea for a photo he's wanted to do for a long time so when I showed up the other day he wanted to go ahead and try it. I shot this with the umbrella off to the left trying to underexpose the background slightly. I should have tried to underexpose even more, but I was pretty happy with the slight blur effect I got here too. I would have liked to been a bit closer, but Tony was nervous he might hit me with a piece of debris or the strings would ricochet off and hit me or him. Either way I had a lot of fun.

One thing I realized I need to do is hack my camera's sync speed. By doing this it allows me to overpower the ambient light for extremely bright days. This wasn't necessarily one of the days that I would need it, but I had an instance this week it would have been really helpful. Or I could just buy a portable ac power supply for my white lightning. I should probably buy a lightbulb for it first though. Well back to more Sesquicentennial photos. I can't wait until I don't have to say that word ever again.

Rally Cap Hope

The rally cap. A sure sign of hope.




I'm getting ready to hit the festival circuit tonight so I'm going to be busy for the next few days. Updates probably won't come until after the 8th. I had to post the above photo. There's something about this kid and his hat that reminds me of my younger days of little league and t-ball.

When I showed up for this game on Saturday I pulled into my parking spot west of the ball field. When I shot off my car I couldn't help over hear a conversation between two older gentlemen and this boy. At first I didn't think anything of it, but I noticed the boy was wearing a uniform for the team I was supposed to be covering. The conversation looked as if it was pretty serious and my natural curiosity got the best of me so I pretended to be fiddling with my iPod.

During the conversation I realized they were explaining to the kid why they couldn't allow him to start the day's game as the pitcher. At first I thought it might be a situation where he was a fill-in pitcher who led them to the tournament, but now the real starter was back and he felt wronged. After a minute or so I realized this wasn't the case at all. In fact, he was the normal starter for the team. The kid was the ace arm of the little league team and they were telling him he couldn't start. I thought how strange this was since this was a do-or-die situation, not just an exhibition game. The boy had apparently acted inappropriately towards his coaches and had an overall bad attitude. If I understood the conversation correctly, the coaches had asked him to do something and he had a temper tantrum.

This astounded me. I realized the two coaches were actually doing something I don't think 90% of coaches would have done. They were giving the boy a lesson on the importance of sportsmanship.

Over the years I've noticed an ever increasing drive to push kids to win at all costs necessary. This probably isn't new to anyone, but I see it as a major problem among our coaches. This isn't a problem with out children, it's primarily the fault of our coaches. Sure kids want to win, but there's more important things in life than winning.

Either way, these two guys were sacrificing a win and further advancement in the playoffs to teach their team a lesson. I think the whole team learned from the experience, not just the boy.

Call it cheesy, call it reading too much into a situation, or call it whatever you want, but I was profoundly affected by the situation. It made me realize there are good coaches out there who are teaching today's youth the way they should all be taught. I think the other reason it affected me so much was because they actually took the time to explain to him like an adult, why he wasn't starting. They didn't just punish him and say so long. They made him understand why this was important and how he could do better in the future. So many people just punish a kid and never take the time to tell him/her why it was wrong and what can be done better.

By the end of the game the kid was cheering for his team, telling each of his teammates what they did right and never once focused on the negative aspects even though they lost the game. He congratulated the entire team on a job well done and a great season. When other kids hung their heads he was there trying to cheer them up. I just couldn't believe how much the conversation had affected him. It just goes to show how important explanations are. I have no doubt in my mind he would have been one of the kids moping had they not talked to him before hand.

I'd like to thank them for doing this, but at the same time I think this should be something everyone who coaches or is a parent should do.

Coming to the end and an end to a new beginning

The greatest part of this picture is this is after I watched Justin, left, walk in the reception triple fisting Jack and Cokes. They were devoured in minutes.




Justin was a groomsman at Chad's wedding. I spoke with him briefly at the head table as I was shooting photos. He reminded me of a cross between Scott Parino and Grumpy Bear/Kevbot. Shortly after which he claims to his whole table that him and I are "boys." (This was the first time him and I ever met.)We are boys though!

I've been holding off on posting any of Chad and Monica's photos until they're all available. I'm 90% done. I have a bout 20 photos left to edit, but I just did about 30 so I'm done for the day. I couldn't resist posting this one for two reasons. I really like the black and white look of it for some reason. I'm not sure if it's tone, the expression or something else. I just know that it works for me.

I do have some bad news. My Canon 20D died last night. Well I shouldn't say die as much as it went berserk. I shot a few photos at a meeting for work last night and all the sudden it goes into rapid fire mode. It wouldn't quit. I took the batteries out and tried everything short of throwing it against the wall, but it wouldn't quit doing it. Come to find out 20D's have this issue when the shutter wears out. I thought the shutter was actually firing, but upon a little more inspection found it wasn't opening at all, the mirror mechanism was just going up and down repeatedly. I knew something was up as my lenses were coming up "00" in the apperture field. And no, those aren't boobs.

Luckily because I was using it for work so all repairs are going to be covered under the paper. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be within $200 of the purchase of a new camera and I can just buy a 30D. That would make my day. (Probably wouldn't make the accountant's day at work, but that's why I'm in editorial.)

For the time being Eric's going to let me borrow his rebel so major kudos for him. I sent my camera off today and I should have it back within 2 weeks. I just wish it would have waited for after festival season, but that's okay too. No major complaints about it because it does have probably close to 60,000 actuations on it.

Now that I've bored the one non-photographer who reads this and reiterated everything I already told to the one photographer who reads this I'll get back to editing more images or watching tv until Steph gets off work.

You're Face is Going to Stick Like That

Caption goes here



I never miss a chance to make fun of Stephanie. Today is no different. I was editing my photos from Chad and Monica's wedding from the 9th and found this little gem. I'm going to make a whole collection of photos with Stephanie making faces such as these. Why? Mostly because I can and it's funny to me. Stay tuned for more funny photos as I come across them.

My Crazy Life

Hey there gypsy. You can't have me.


This is by far the most random lady I have ever met. After covering a meeting in Charleston Wednesday I left the Panther Paw to head back to Tuscola. While walking out I see this lady starting at me as she's pulling into a parking space. The conversation goes a little like this:

Lady: He..He...Hey!
Me: Uhhhh...ya???
Lady: Is it...Is it..busy in there?
Me: MMM....not really, sort of, I guess it depends on your idea of busy.
Lady: They're really nice to me in there. The kids give me cigarettes and beer.
Me: Oh yeah? Well that's nice of....{cutoff by lady}
Lady: I'm 64.
Me: Cool!!??
Lady: My landlord broke my leg today. This is my daughter.
Me: {awkward silence}
Lady: My birthday's July 17.
Me: That's pretty soon.
Lady: Take a picture of me.
Me: {Beginning to laugh as I take a picture} Sweet!
Lady: You're kind of cute. I'm hitting on you.
Me: Thanks, I don't think my fiance would like that.
Lady: Bye!

Apparently because I have a fiance she was done talking. I called Kevbot to tell him about this lady and of course during our discussion he realizes he and Peaches have run into this lady before too. The whole time I was talking with her I kept thinking how great it would be to run into her with those two. Peaches would have definitely found a new best friend. This is just another incident to prove my life is a series of random episodes spiraling out of control.

5 mojitos later

You're an animal Chris!



I had a real tough day at the office Friday as I was golfing 18 holes with my regional manager, Chris, and the head of advertising Dean. We we're playing in the Charleston Chamber of Commerce tournament. I had a blast out there. I was introduced to the mojito which is fantastic. Though Katie, Derek's wife told me is out of style. I've always been just a little behind the times I guess. No real news to report that most of you aren't aware of. So I'll say so long for now.

Daniel Williams Tent for Those Who Can't Fish Well and Want to Do Other Things Well Too

I can only imagine the person who designed this model of a tent got the repsponse, "How are the children going to read if they can't even fit in the tent? It's going to have to be at least.....3 times this size."



I got my fishing license for the season today. Stephen and I spent most of Sunday at Lake Charleston. I forgot how much I love to go fishing. I'm going to try and do it more often. I found out the Embarass River runs about 5-6 miles outside of town. Maybe I'll try catfishing out there. I'm going to pick most of my equipment up from home when I go to shoot the wedding this weekend. I need to do a little research on river fishing this week too because Stephen and I both realized we know nothing about river fishing. When it comes to lakes I think I know how to catch pan fish, but I'm still not that experienced with bass or anything large. I did catch the only bass out of the two of us in the river today. Too bad it was about 6 in. long. I did manage to catch my own shoe as well. I'm sure Stephen will share the picture.

A Day at the Track

How long do you think his hair took to cut?



I spent the day at IHSA Boys Track Finals today. I love this shot. I like finding interesting things to shoot other than the actual action. I have to cover graduation tonight, select two of my best photos, send them to the N-G and then head to Steph’s. It’s going to be a late night.

I got to hang with Stephen for a little bit and saw a few more photographers I haven’t seen in awhile. I can’t wait to see Poulter’s updates on what he was shooting today. He says I outshot him last week, but I think he definitely took it this week. I’ve been horribly unmotivated lately.

I hit that burn out mode every few weeks now because of all the reporting mostly. If I was just doing photos it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but both things combined wears me out. I’m sure I’ll find a permanent photo position somewhere eventually. I’m just happy to be in journalism for now.

I’ll probably have a few photos from Dana’s graduation this weekend. I’ll update if I get anything good.

Pugilism, the Greatest Sport Ever

Hoey is awesome


*Edit* *This was written last Tuesday. *Edit* Work has got me stressed out. I typically don't get like this, but I'm just busy and feel unappreciated at the moment. I probably won't feel that way tomorrow, but I definitely do now. If you're really interested I'll tell you about it over the phone. So there's my little complaint blurb. Now that we've got that out of the way I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way a couple of my photos turned out this week.

This was one to go along with a Kelsi Hoey story that we did about her being a multi-sport athlete. We ended up using a different one so I don't mind putting this one up. I imagined this photo as a bit better, but with as big as it was going to run and the time constraint I was under I chose one with a closer view and a different angle.

I also have to say that boxing is probably the best sport ever. As I sit here watching USA vs. UK on ESPN, I got wondering a bit about boxing history. I didn't realize how old of a sport it really was. I assumed it started in the 10th or 11th century for some reason, but Wikipedia says it could have begun as early as 3000 BC. I'm not sure what I love about boxing. Maybe it's my pure animal instinct of watching someone kick someone else's ass that's so awesome about it. I'm really going to try to watch more boxing and learn a little more about it.

I've actually done a pretty good job at learning how to score. I could probable be a judge for a match sometime. So far, watching the last round of this show I've scored all the rounds correctly accept one round.

By the way, USA wins.

(cont. today)

Work has gotten better. More photos, less writing. I can't wait to see Stephanie again. I may see her Sunday if I drive all the way to Rochelle. It's going to be a long day on Saturday if I do. Boys track finals all day long and then a 3 hour drive up to Rochelle is not my idea of fun. Plus I'd have to come back the next day because I need to be here for Memorial Day events.

I've gotten to read a bit more as well so that's got me happy. I just need to write in my journal more often. it's so hard to balance everything.

The Red Sox are doing awesome right now in the season so that's got me excited, but I realize it's still very early in the season.

Good Weekend

Name that bird.



I finally put up the 2 pictures of birds from this past week that I have. One is red breasted Robin and the other I'm not quite sure on. I'm sure Stephen will know as soon as he sees it, so I'll update the info in the picture as soon as he gets it. I need to get myself a field guide.

I went home for a weekend. It was really nice to have a weekend off since starting my new job. I've put in a ton of hours over the past couple of weeks and this was exactly what I needed to recharge.

We had an editorial meeting the other day and I just felt very underachieved after it. I don't think that was the purpose and nothing was aimed specifically at me, but it felt like none of us were getting the job done that we needed to be doing. Things like taht usually work as a motivational tool for me, but for some reason I left this one negatively. Maybe this week I'll start to hit a groove and it won't be such a big thing.

I'm almost done with my Margaret Bourke White book. I should be considering it's only 120 pages, but I haven't had much time to read it. I read half the book on Thursday night and then 20 pages over the past two days.

The brightside is that I got to visit with my parents and Stephanie this weekend. I haven't seen Steph in about 2 weeks now and it's really wierd not having her around all the time. I'm excited for summer to come and go so she'll be down here with me.

Before I leave I need to take a picture of the necklace Stephanie and I gave Mom for Mother's Day. It's perfect because now all the women have heart jewelry for the wedding.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the 3 hour drive home today. Maybe I'll stop in at Borders on my way home, even though I know I shouldn't.

I'm a Big Let Down

I think it's pretty safe to say Stephen is a walking multimedia communication center.



So Post 100 will not be a cataclysmic event revealing the meaning behind life as some may have thought it would be. And by 'some' I mean all 1 of you that reads this (Stephen). Because it's been so long since I've written in this thing I'll recap the past month for all of you.

-Interviewed for a job in Tuscola in early April
-Accepted job with East Central Communications in Tuscola for the Tuscola Review and Coles County Leader in Mid-Aprill
- Found out I'm partially colorblind. Felt like the kid in "Little Miss Sunshine" when he finds out he'll never be a pilot. I literally threw the book that had the test in it and said "Fuck this thing, it was published in 1986 anyway!"
-Quit Lundgren's.
-Moved to Tuscola.
-Started my job in Tuscola.
-Joined the Tuscola Chamber of Commerce board
-Worked non-stop for the past 2.5 weeks.
-Bought a washer and dryer.

So that's the past month to 2 months in brief. I know I always say I'll write in this more so I won't say that this time. I will however say I'll make every effort to keep this more updated in order to attract new readers and show off some of my photos. I have some bird photos to put up soon too. Hopefully tonight. *Sigh* Never enough time in the day for everything I want to do. I am however getting to running a lot more which is awesome. I ran 6.2 miles (a 10K for those metrically inclined.) I'll probably do 4 miles tonight. The last thing to comment on is I may be reactivating my other blog of "Musictopia Reviews." I think now would be a good time to do it since I live alone and need to find something to do. I want to concentrate on local music acts. I need to get a hold of the music teacher at TCHS and find out if there are any cool younger bands to do a story on them.

I'm All Over the Place With This One

T-mount ring and a Pentax Bellows = Macro



As you can see I've started experimenting with Macro work. It's all part of my upcoming Spider series I want to do this Spring/Summer. I'm excited about creating a series. I've never tried to do a photo series before and this one should be interesting. Plus it's all my own idea. I shot a few more the other night, but nothing too big. I'll definitely be doing a lot more detail shots in the future.

I'm waiting to hear what the News-Gazette is going to tell me soon. I should hear back from them either tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll update all 1 of you that looks at this when I get the call. Besides, you'll probably get a phone call from me before you read this anyway.

MLB's opening day is today. Cardinals vs. Mets. I typically don't watch these games, but I generally make a point to watch the opening day game no matter who it is.

I came up with what I consider a brilliant idea for a screen play this morning. My idea is loosely based off of "This is Spinal Tap" combined with the ever popular reality television theme. No full ideas, but I'd actually like to do research for it and write a really funny script making fun of everything from Music videos to bands outrageous backstage requests.

My next post will put me at the Century Club of blogging. I don't know if that's sad or an accoplishment. Either way I'll make it a good post. I have a little news, but I think I'm going to let it wait for the next post. It's nothing extremely exciting, but something that really freaked me out when I discovered it....is that enough of a cliff hanger for ya?