I updated my gallery of some of my favorite lacrosse photos.  This gallery is a work on progress and I’ve really neglected updating it.

I deleted a good number of the photos as well.  I was posting some photos because they contained some of the greats of lacrosse like Brodie Merrill, and less because the photos were good.  So I had a “Come to Jesus” meeting with myself, and hit the delete key a few times.  Here is my updated gallery of lacrosse favorites.

Show some love for the ACC or your favorite school by voting for seniors for the 2008 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Below are the contestants, and where they stand as of 1pm ET on 4/16.  You get 3 votes and can vote once per day.  I obviously voted for Fletcher Gregory at UNC for my first pick.  I was showing some love for Brad Ross but now that he is ahead, I have to be a UNC partisan and not vote for Duke.  My 2nd pick was for the man, the legend, Paul Rabil at Hopkins.  After that, I was neutral for my third vote.

—>> VOTE HERE for Fletcher <<—

I worked for the good folks at Inside Carolina for the Spring Football game.  The head photographer for Inside Carolina, Jim Hawkins, was stuck in San Antonio still after photographing the Final Four, so I got tried to be Jim for day (I didn’t have the bluetooth earpiece so I couldn’t pull it off.)

Linked are some photos from the game posted on Inside Carolina. [Gallery 1]  [Gallery 2]

Interesting note from after the game.  I had to photograph the post-game press conference in the football facility (which is amazing for those who have not been lucky enough to go in there).  When I left, I was only only the 2nd floor but had to go to 1st to get out.  I was lost and had no idea how to get to the first floor without taking the elevator.  So I hit the down button and prayed that no one would be on the elevator going doing, lest I feel like a lazy oaf.  I hear the elevator slow down to 2nd, the doors fly open, and no one is there but head UNC football coach Butch Davis himself.  ”Crap!” I thought, but he quickly said in a friendly tone “You going down?  Well come on man”.  So whew, embarassment avoided.  In the 10 seconds I was with him in the elevator, plus what I heard of him on the field and in the post-game press conference, I can see why this guy is so well respected.  He’s the kind of coach that players would run through walls for.  They love him, you can tell.

BTW, I’ve lately had close encounters with all three local football coaches in the last two months.  In February, I was in Duke football coach David Cutcliffe’s office photographing him and the Manning brothers.  Last month, I was at the residence of NC State head football coach Tom O’Brien, photographing him and his family for NC State.  Then this encounter with coach Davis.

I don’t care who you are (unless you are a Patriots fan) this is funny stuff. Watch both of them.

[via 850 the Buzz]

Art Chase at Duke University sent me an ominous instant message of just “call my cell”. I thought at first I was in trouble, but Art asked me if I could photograph some “guests” that would be with the new Duke Football coach, David Cutcliffe. I wasn’t jumping at the chance to do it, because the shoot was going to be at 8pm Saturday, just one hour before the 9pm tip-off for the Duke vs. North Carolina basketball game that I was also photographing. Usually its a stressful game to set-up for and shoot, and I thought I would be a basket case around 8pm. But Art has helped me a lot in the past so I said “sure”. As for who the “guests” were, I assumed it was rich alumni and donors and didn’t give it a second thought.

Before every game there is a press meal, and during the meal, Bob Rosato from sports illustrated mentioned that both Eli and Peyton Manning played for coach Cutcliff and that one of them had been spotted. I may not have gone to Duke, but I can put two and two together. So I walk over to Art and ask him, “Does one of the guests that I’m photographing tonight happen to have the same first name as I do?” He laughed, said “yes”, and I said I was now an even bigger basket case now.In the end, it was fine. I was even able to slip to the other side of the lens and get a picture of me with the Manning brothers. They are pretty nice guys. It was a room full of only a few people, so it wasn’t like they had to put on a show. I think it reflected who they really are — pretty down to earth.Also walking around was a guy whose voice seemed very familiar, but I could not place it. I turned around to see that Matthew McConaughey was also there in the coach’s office. So man, I never thought I would be meeting the Manning brothers and Matthew McConaughey before this game. Crazy how things happen. (btw, Matthew, also a very nice guy)

Side note, if you are a photographer, and sports information director asks you to take a photo of an event, but is vague about who will be there, take the assignment. Two years ago Bruce Winkworth at NC State asked me to photograph an event at a NC State baseball game. He said there would be a special guest there, but could not say who it would be. I couldn’t do the event though as I was booked for another assignment. I found out later that the guest was none other than Alex Rodriguez.

I’ve been truly overwhelmed by my workload and have not yet had a chance to post the photos from the games I photographed recently.  The following are on the way:

• Duke W Lacrosse vs. Maryland (not posting unless special request)
• Duke M Lacrosse vs. Maryland
• North Carolina M Lacrosse v. Cornell
• UNC M Basketball v. Wake Forest
• UNC M Basketball v. FSU

Pardon the non-sports posting, but I got some warm fuzzies after reading this story.

As photographers, we depend on licensing our work to pay bills. I think most non-photographers would be stunned to know how much it costs to be in this business. The equipment we have to purchase is astronomically high. I have a set of strobes in the Dean Smith Center at UNC-Chapel Hill that alone cost me over $7,000.

Often, I get requests for people to use a photo of mine for xyz (where xyz could be anything from a poster to a website). I say sure, but we need to discuss licensing. I often get a stunned response. They wonder why would I charge for a photo. After all, it doesn’t cost me anything to email a photo, right? What they don’t consider is the amount of money and time I had to invest to produce a particular photo in the first place. Here is just a short list of investments I’ve made:

• Digital cameras that have to be replaced every 2 years and cost $4K each.
• Professional quality lens. You’d be stunned by how much these cost.
• Insurance.
• The time I spent as a student photographer learning the trade. While in DC, I spent many of my nights and weekends working for my mentor, Mitchell Layton, typically for free. This was a four year stint.
• The time it took me to go out to a particular game where a person sees a photo they want.
• The gas it took me to get to the event.
• The time it took me to edit the entire take from that day.

I could go on ad nauseum frankly. The point I want to make is that I spend more money and time producing images than the casual observer understands. I went into photography to be a good photographer - not a half-ass photographer (or “guy with a camera” as pejoratively known in the industry). As such, I require income to invest in top-of-the-line gear as well as repair it. I have one lens than easily costs $500 for simple repairs. For a camera, Canon charges me $150 just to open the box if I send one in for repair.

So I get obviously frustrated when people ask for my photos for free, unless it is for a legitimate charity. Worse though, is when someone tries to download an image from my website and print it. That is flat out theft. I would imagine that those who steal my images have jobs — don’t they expect to be compensated by their supervisor for the work they do? Shouldn’t I also expect to be compensated for my work?

Well, getting back to the story I wanted to link to. A photographer in Minneapolis was victim to a very overt form of image theft, when a real estate and financial services firm stole an image from his website, and used it in a advertisement. The photographer tried amicable solutions, but when put off by the company that stole the image, pursued the case in court, represented himself, and won almost $20,000 in a copyright infringement case. You go Chris. Glad to know that copyright still means something.

I finally have posted photos from the Duke vs. UNC basketball game. This is a game full of emotions and, as you can see above, body paint!That turned out to be a long night for me, as is typical when Duke and UNC clash in either in Chapel Hill or Durham. The game was at 9pm, but I arrived at 5pm to start setting up remote cameras, laying out various cords that I would need and other set-up. I left the Smith Center around 2am. So it turned out to be about a 8-9 hour day for me and many other photographers.

After the game, Bob Rosato (Sports Illustrated), Jeffery Camaratti (UNC) and Kevin Cox (Getty Images) went for a late night snack at Hector’s just off Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. The UNC vs. Duke game is always a huge basketball game in America. It was of course broadcasted live on ESPN nationwide. Steve Kirshner, athletic communications contact for UNC basketball, said that there were 64 photographers covering the game! That is an amazing number, even if we were talking about the National Championships, and reflects the great interest in this match-up. I’m a pretty lucky guy to be able to sit on the floor for that game.

Wanted to link to a post by James Schaffer, art director at Inside Lacrosse Magazine. On it, he describes some of the post-production necessary to prep a photo for cover on their in the most recent issue. Pictured is Paul Rabil of Hopkins and Ben Rubeor of UVA.

I post the link for two reasons: One, I think it’s pretty interesting from both the photographer and fan perspective. But two, I freelance for Inside Lacrosse and it’s always great to suck up to the boss by linking to his work. Click here to view the post.

To any of you out there with a blog run by the Wordpress platform, here’s a warning to all of you: Keep your Wordpress software updated. I was taking the “it works fine” mentality on my software and not updating for at least 6 months. Big mistake. One of the fixes that I did not install was a vulnerability in the database. This vulnerability allowed a hacker to hack into my blog, create a new user account, and create about 40 spam postings. Not comments, but actual postings. The postings were posted-dated and did not show up on the “front” of the blog so I never noticed them.

My only clue to their existence came in the form of an email from Google saying my site had been removed from their index because of spam. I thought it was spam comments that slipped through the spam catcher but was horrified to see the damage that was done. It took sometime to sift through my blog and delete the offending posts.

Worse though, was that after being removed from Google index, it took about 2 months to get back in. The old adage “A website not in Google’s index practically does not exist” is very true: Removal from the index all but makes your site invisible. Traffic from keyword searches was cut by more than half.

But alas, a happy ending. Last week I finally got back in the index, this time with updated Wordpress software and a changed password in my court. As a soapbox moment, I can’t help but to point out the absence of ethics of spammers who hack into people’s blog, and get the blog banned from a search index. That is pretty damaging. Thankfully I don’t make money off this blog. If I did, it would have done serious financial harm to me. My guess is if this done to a bigger cat in the blogosphere, like one of the many blogs owned by Time-Warner, these spammers could be facing litigation seeking damages. That said, the offenders are probably in Africa, Russia, or other place outside of US government reach.