The San Diego Chargers have dismissed Marty Schottenheimer (yeah I had to look up the spellings). This despite going 14-2 I think it was last year. I’ve always thought he was a classy guy.

I first met him when I lived in DC and assisted with the head shots of all the Washington Redskins players and coaches when he was head coach there. One quote I remember vividly from that day. The photographer taking the head shots was taking a number of shots, kept saying “Just one more!” and said at one point, “Do you know what they put on a photographer’s tombstone? ‘Just one more.’”

Marty laughed and shot back, “Do you know what they put on the tombstones of coaches and owners? ‘No comment.’”

I don’t know how long this link will be active, but I had to link to this photo gallery of photos by Charlotte Observer photographer Jeff Siner. The photos are from North Carolina’s 79-73 victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The action stuff is great, but the feature (the non-action) work he did is what really impressed me. Check out this great work to see what the rivalry between UNC and Duke is like. Also good toning to get rid of the terrible color cast typically of photos taken in Cameron Indoor. (sorry, only a photographer like me would note this)

**Update 3/15/08**

Well sadly, the gallery has been archived and is no longer up.

Heard this while I was photographing the UNC - Wake Forest game. Actually, all the photographers in my corner and the first 5 rows of fans heard this. I know this because I heard a throng of laughs behind me afterwards.

“I mean come on, Tyler’s riding him like he’s Secretariat!”

Skip Prosser to an official on Tyler Hansbrough’s defense on Kyle Visser.

Didn’t do much today with Andrew. He didn’t pitch today and I spent most of my time getting photos of players in the field. With him pitching Friday, Brack had today and Saturday off. But below are couple pictures. I won’t be getting to Doak again until Friday. I mean, I do have a life outside Brack which seems unthinkable right now.

Oh man, you know the day is getting slow when you’re taking a photo of a shadow…

Andrew and catcher Caleb Mangum…

High Dynamic Range Imaging, or HDR, is an interesting concept that has come with the advent of Photoshop and digital imaging, specifically when Adobe released it’s built in “merge to HDR” function in 2005 with Photoshop CS2. Explaining what Dynamic Range is would take a long time. But basically, it is a scene’s range in brightness from completely black to the completely bright. For Ansel Adams fans, it’s Zone 0 to Zone 9. HDR imagine could roughly be translated to the traditional B+W photography and printing techniques of dodging and burning although there are some differences. Read the rest of this entry »

Today was opening day for NC State Baseball. For someone who is anal-retentive about time and is never late, I was really late today. I thought the game was at 3pm so I arrived at 2:10 thinking I would be early and could get some photos of the warm-up. However, the game had been moved to 2pm and I arrived at the bottom of the 1st missing Andrew Brackman’s opening pitch. That was something I wanted so I’m already messing this project up. Thankfully Brack’s pitching was better than my luck as the Wolfpack took out the William & Mary Tribe 9-4. I didn’t spend much time getting action photos; instead I spent most of the time in the dugout and clubhouse getting pics of the players.

When the game was over, I rode with Brack to the weight-room where he took the initiative on his own to get some running in before going to dinner. I guess it is going this extra mile (literally) that makes one MLB-caliber.

Had to get at least one action photo in here…

Since the weather was cold and the wind chill colder, the pitchers stayed in the clubhouse between innings to stay warm…

Coach Avent congratulates Brack on a good game…

On the treadmill…

Shutter Actuations

• Pictures taken today: 541 (not including ‘action photos’; only non-action)
• Previous total: 1,233
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 1,774

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 4.5 hrs
• Post production: 3 hr
• Previous Hours: 16 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 23.5 hrs (11.75% of 200 hr estimate)

**Update (2/10 9:45pm): The News and Observer has posted an article about Brack’s start. Also, Tim Peeler from gopack.com also posted an article on Friday that I neglected to link to. There is one photo up there that I took from the basketball game.

Fairly light day today as the only thing I did was photograph a photo shoot being held by USA Baseball to get photos of Brack in the USA Baseball uniform. The photographer for USA Baseball was my buddy Brian Fleming. I was going to stay through the practice which occurred after the shoot. But between Brack saying he wasn’t lifting afterward and me realizing I should really get back to work, I left after the shoot. Anyway, Brack looks sharp in the USA uniform don’t ya think?

Shutter Actuations (a fancy smancy way to say the number of pictures taken)

• Pictures taken today: 65
• Previous total: 1,168
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 1,233

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 30 min
• Post production: 1 hr
• Previous Hours: 14.5 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 16 hrs (8% of 200 hr estimate)

I don’t care what people want to think or say about Dickie V; he is a cool guy. Working sporting events, I have interactions with him “backstage” when he is working the games for ESPN. People think that the friendly disposition he has on camera doesn’t carry over to “real life”. Well I can tell you it does. He is one of the most genuinely nice TV personalities that I know. There are some (insert sound of my clearing my throat) who aren’t. Yesterday at the Duke/UNC game he mingled with fans and had fun with them. He volunteered to have his picture taken with them. (see the picture that I took of him last night with fans) Whenever I pass him backstage he gives his always enthusiastic “Hey how you doin’?”.So Dick, you are one cool dude in my book.Anyway, here are some pictures from the UNC Duke Basketball Game.photo by Peyton Williams/US Presswire

For those interested, the audio from the press conference (in the photos from day 3) has been posted to the website for the local sports radio station, 850 The Buzz. Here is a link to the mp3.

One thing that is cool is he talks about rushing the floor after the men’s basketball team beat North Carolina in an upset. By the grace of God I was able to get an awesome picture of Andrew running on the court with fans. I mean I was in the right place at the right time like I’ve never been before. Of course, that picture is so good that it’s going in the final product and I’m not releasing it to the public; only the athletic dept and Brack himself (and maybe my mom) will see that one beforehand.

Tonight is phase 1 of one of America’s biggest and most watched rivalries in college basketball as Duke will host UNC at Cameron Indoor Stadium at 9pm tonight. Phase 2 is of course with UNC will host Dook in March at the Dean Smith Center.

UNC has history on their side. When both teams enter the game having lost their prior game, UNC has a 9-4 record over Duke. Of course, UNC owns the overall record at 125-96 so I’m not sure how much that record is really meaningful.

Last Saturday I was at the UNC - NC State game at RBC Center in one of the loudest environments I have ever heard there. Tonight I will enter what will probably be an even louder environment at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Look for me on TV! I sit on the court by the Duke bench. I’m easy to recognize because Coach K will often come by to talk with me during timeouts to talk basketball strategy with my just insane amount of knowledge and all. OK, maybe not. But you can recognize when {insert name of Duke player but usually Josh McRoberts} plows me over going for a loose ball. That seems to happen too often these days.