The Duke Men’s Lacrosse had their home opener yesterday, defeating Dartmouth 17-11. It was their well deserved start at normalcy after having their season cancelled last year. Originally I was not going to photograph the event (originally I planned on doing UNC’s home opener) but I received a call from Inside Lacrosse to photograph the game for them and well, money is a motivator. In any case, it was great to be back photographing my favorite sport to photograph. Forget ACC basketball; I forgot how much I loved this sport until today.

The media was not as intense as I originally expected. But it was certainly more than one would find at a typical lacrosse game. Even the AP covered the event; I don’t know if the AP has ever covered a lacrosse game except maybe NCAA title games. There were some TV crews but really not many. After doing NFL this to me was low key. Fortunately, there were no protesters. Just a good friendly crowd. I felt bad for the Duke kids really. During pregame warm-up, we were taking pictures of everything they did. Like another photographer said, “If they fart, we take a picture”. That’s just part of our job. I feel bad doing it at times but I am there to do a job and paid to do it. In the end, however, I think all the media attention was good. It showed the team returning to normal life after all the craziness they have been through. Today was the first day of their return to being just regular college student athletes.

Even though I am a UNC grad, I found myself pulling for the Duke team. I wanted them to win it after all that has happened to them. Just don’t tell the folks at UNC; I might have my diploma revoked.

Here are pictures of Duke Lacrosse vs. Dartmouth.

Forget the score. That wasn’t the most interesting part of North Carolina’s win over North Carolina State basketball in the Dean Dome Wednesday night.

Because of the ACC Men’s Swimming tournament going on in Koury Natatorium (which is adjacent and connected by an underground tunnel to the Dean Dome) the photographers were unable to use our normal workroom. Instead, we had to work in the hallway outside the vistor’s locker room. At halftime, we could tell something strange was happening as security guards and finally an EMS crew began to converge on the vistor’s locker room. Initially we did not think too much about it; we thought a player was just a little dehydrated. An easy fix for a 19 year old.

Once halftime was over and I was sitting on the court watching UNC head coach Roy Williams and NCSU assistant coach Monty Towe conversing with officials near the scorers’ table. All the photographers thought this was strange as we expected it would be Coach Sidney Lowe having this meeting. But we looked over to the vistor’s bench, and, well, no coach!. It then became apparent to us all that it was not a player but Coach Lowe who the EMS came for. As we came to the realization, photographers from the Raleigh News and Observer and the Associated Press hit the phones immediately to call in what was happening and await further orders. Some had to go back and cover anything that was worth covering. Fortunately I did not have to as I’m shooting mainly stock imagery and don’t have to photograph events like these.

In the end Coach Lowe was okay. He was taken to the hospital but that was only about 1 mile away. He probably didn’t expect to be at UNC Hospital that night.

One of my PocketWizards however didn’t fare as well that night though. Once of the NCSU student managers was kind enough to knock over $7,000 in camera gear and break the foot off my PocketWizard MultiMax. Even better, they looked at my camera they knocked over and kept walking without giving an apology. Sheessh. The repair is going to be about $40 so it could have been much worse.

Here are pictures of UNC Basketball v. NC State from Wednesday night that I took.

I’m a sucker for good sports photography books. This includes both action and non-action work. Three or four years ago I was in Powell’s Bookstore in beautiful Portland, Oregon where I found shelves full of excellent sports photography books. One that caught my eye was “Prospects: A Portrait of Minor League Baseball” by David Deal. I bought the book and looked at the it years ago but forgot I had it. Little did I know I was imbued by Deal when I came up with the Andrew Brackman photo project. When I looked at his work I loved what he did and made a mental note that I would want to do something like this in the future. When I first saw this book I lived in Washington, DC long before I joined NC State and long before I knew who Andrew Brackman was.

About a week ago I was about to fall asleep when I jumped out of bed remembering that Deal’s book was on my bookshelf. I ran downstairs to check out the book again to see what kind of photos he had and measure them against my work so far on the Brackman project. Read the rest of this entry »

First, could anyone have written a better story for the night that the Reynolds Coliseum court would be dedicated to Coach Yow? If you missed it, NC State beat the North Carolina Tar Heels, then ranked #2, on the newly christened “Kay Yow Court”.

In N.C. Coach a Shining Light, the Charlotte Observer has a wonderful story that is a must read.

Kay Yow has cancer.

The worst kind. Stage 4. Metastasized. The kind that doesn’t go away.

But Wednesday when Yow — in her 32nd season as N.C. State’s women’s basketball coach — walked into her office, she made it seem like any other day.

She admired the three vases of fresh flowers decorating the reception area, chit-chatted with members of her staff, then went back to her office, the swishing of her nylon warm-up pants rubbing, escorting her down the hall.

Yow, 64, hadn’t come from home but from another round of chemotherapy, a weekly ritual that can’t cure the cancer but can, perhaps, prolong her life.

An afternoon practice session approached as Yow sat in a black leather chair in her office, holding a tissue to wipe her runny nose.

“I want to live,” Yow said, pausing. “There are things I want to do.”

The Gardner-Webb game was suppose to be a three-game series but Friday’s game was cancelled due to cold weather. I wasn’t complaining as it gave me a free Friday for the first time in a long time. So instead of Friday, Andrew Brackman pitched on Saturday. This worked out well as I wanted to spend some time with him on a game day. So I met him at his apartment at 9:45am and had every intention of getting photos of him in his “crib” (as the cool people on would MTV say). But I was we were so sleepy that I didn’t even want to pick up the camera so I never did. I’ll have to put that on my to do list I guess.

Afterwards we headed to the North Carolina Farmer’s Market for breakfast where I had the opportunity to meet his family. That was a lot of fun and they were nice folks (even though they don’t like grits). I brought with me some 11×16 B+W prints I had made from the project so far; photos that are embargoed until the final project is released to the public. So they got a sneak peek before anyone else did of how the project is coming along. I did break into a little bit of a sweat when Brack’s mom asked where I went to school and I said (very softly) “UNC”. But they didn’t throw me out so its all good. haha

The weather today was again cold and cloud cover became thicker as the game progressed. I had to keep adjusting my camera’s setting to adjust to the darkening conditions. This heavy cloud cover and windy weather made the game a chilly one. I had to go to the dugouts heater to warm my hands up so I could operate the camera. The Wolfpack also chilled (nice segue huh?) the batters of Gardner-Webb easily winning 8-0. By the top of the 9th they looked spent.

Looking at the schedule, I’m not sure when I’ll get more photos of Brack done. The team is in Myrtle Beach next weekend and are only playing single games in mid-week stands until the ACC opener vs. Maryland on March 9th. Hopefully I will get some time in though even if its only going to the weight room.

Breakfast with the Bracks…

Red waits for Brack to finish putting down comp ticket names…

Wheeling and dealing pregame…

Teammate Drew Martin tries on one of Drew’s jersey. This gives you sense of how long Drew’s jersey’s are. They are made a even longer than someone his height needs, but a longer one was ordered because his shirt tail kept coming untucked when he pitched. I tried the jersey out too and it comes down below my knees!

Pregame…

Scouts check out Brack while he warms up. Looks like a warm-fuzzy bunch doesn’t it?

Shutter Actuations

• Pictures taken today: 190 (not including ‘action photos’; only non-action)
• Pictures taken on Day 6: 55 (I was too lazy to add these to the last entry)
• Previous total: 1,774
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 2,019

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 7 hrs
• Today’s Post production: 2 hrs
• Day 6 hours: 1.25 (again, too lazy to add last time; includes shooting and post-production)
• Previous Hours: 23.5 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 33.75 hrs (16.88% of 200 hr estimate)

The university announced that the floor at storied Reynolds Coliseum would be named the “Kay Yow Court”, in honor or their women’s basketball coach. The formal ceremony will be tonight as the Pack take on the number 2 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels at 7pm.

[From gopack.com story]

I am finally caught up on captioning and have posted galleries from UNC’s win over Wake Forest and the upset loss to Virginia Tech. The Wake Forest game was special because players from the 1957 and 1982 teams were there to celebrate their 50th and 25th anniversary of their respective NCAA title. The 1957 team was “McGuire’s Miracle” where the team went 32-0, beating Wilt Chamerline’s team in the NCAA championship. The ’82 was headlined by head coach Dean Smith, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan.

The VA Tech game wasn’t as special for Tar Heel fans as the Hokies upset the Heels in overtime. I have to say though that game was fun to photograph. There were so many photo opportunities that it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Here is the gallery of Wake Forest v. North Carolina Basketball and here is the gallery of Virginia Tech v. North Carolina Basketball.

Sometimes I feel like I missed the “golden era” of photojournalism. It seems every time I turn around my colleagues are loosing their jobs as newspapers seek to become more profitable.

So imagine my surprise and relief when I read this article from Reuters.

U.S. newspapers that spend more money on their newsrooms will make more money, according to a study released on Wednesday, which questioned the wisdom of the media industry’s trend of cutting jobs to save costs.

The authors of the University of Missouri-Columbia study, which was based on 10 years of financial data, said news quality affects profit more than spending on circulation, advertising and other parts of the business.

The study was done by a school of journalism which has a vested interest in people getting jobs in the industry. So take this as you will.

Wanted to link to an blog entry on Andrew Brackman’s home opener.

The two dozen or so scouts on hand Friday saw plenty–a fastball that Brackman used to pound the strike zone with consistent velocity. Our gun had him consistently at 89-92 mph, touching 93, but when we checked with scouts, we learned our gun was off (at least we caught it early), and Brackman sat in the 92-95 range, touching 97 and a reported 98, according to a local media member.

If you missed it, here is a link to photos of Andrew Brackman that I took from that day.

With college football signing day in the rear view mirror, fans have had a chance to see how they did compared to other school. “Hey, I got three 5-star recruits and you only got one 4-star!” Such exchanges are fine as I’m all for school sprit and competition.

But there has been a more insidious side to this competition. I don’t know why I do it but I do it; I confess that I read fan blogs and message boards. In these blogs and boards has been a festering ill-will to those recruits who choose another school over their’s. It has become down right personal at times. I’m not going to name blogs, but one was particularly troubling. While high on one recruit before signing day, a blog trashed the recruit the next when it became apparent he had chosen another school. Crazy; one day a kid is the second coming of Christ and the next day he’s a box of rocks QB who couldn’t pass seeds to starving birds as Coach Steve Logan would say. What gives?

Fans take the recruitment process way too personally. The kids have to choose the school they feel meets their best interest; fans don’t get to choose the recruits that fill the fan’s best interest. Sorry folks, it is as simple as that. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t mean the recruit has ill-will toward your school. It just means, they were more comfortable elsewhere. Maybe they liked the weight-room better; maybe they liked their position coach better; or maybe it’s as simple as Aunt Margaret lived near the other school.

Whatever the reason, the decision is their’s, so respect it. I don’t understand why anyone would wish ill-will to a kid who choose another school. These athletes have worked their butts off to no end to accomplish what they have. So how about we give them the respect they deserve? Instead of personal attacks, just pray your team whoops his next season.