When you score so many points in an inning that the scoreboard is unable to display the total number of runs scored, you know a team is getting walloped. In this case, NC State scored 13 points in the fifth inning. The scoreboard, only able to display a single digit for each inning, just alternated flashing “1″ and “3″.

Today I did get a few photos from the Brackman project, but for the most part, I shot the game and afterwards photographed other team members post-game when they went to lift.

Here is a link to my photos of NCSU baseball vs Maryland from Sunday that I took. It has some game photos, random photos of Brack and photos in Weisiger-Brown’s weight room. I also hope to soon be able to make a game that Eric Surkamp is pitching. Every time he starts I have been booked at another location.

Coming soon I hope to get post photos of UNC men’s lacrosse upset win over Notre Dame on Saturday.

Note: This was posted on Monday, March 12th, but refers to the game on Sunday, March 11th.

Updated 3/12 at 11:21pm: Added Jeremy Synan photo

After today’s NCSU game vs. Maryland, while the team met in the locker room, I ventured to the dug out to take some random photos to test out my new 50mm 1.2L lens. I was blown away at the depth-of-field of the lens and how shallow I could make the photos. Here are some photos of NC State Baseball vs Maryland. The last 4 are with the new lens. The photo of the bats really shows off this lens’ incredible ability to blur backgrounds smoothly.

While posted on March 8^th, these photos are actually from March 7^th. Last night I had to play catch-up on editing and sending photos off to clients. So I didn’t get time to write in this journal, blog or whatever it should be called.

After a two-week hiatus on the project, I returned back to Doak Field to get back to work on the project. The Pack was playing North Carolina A&T in a mid-week stand. I didn’t arrive until about the 4^th inning and didn’t even bother bringing my longer focal length lenses (that is, a lens that ‘zooms in far’) to photograph the game; instead opting for wider lenses instead.

I brought with me a brand new lens I bought a week ago – the Canon 50mm 1.2L. I have been eyeing this lens for some time and thought this project would provide an excuse to finally buy it. It was about $1,500 but has proved its worth so far. At f/1.2 it really “opens up” and lets me shoot in darker situations. Plus, it’s sharp and with its circular aperture has excellent background blur. All the pictures taken below were taken with the new lens.

I didn’t take that many photos today and really did not get anything too striking. I was pretty disappointed in the take. Part of that is because I’m starting to run dry on ideas of good photos to take when we are always in the same environment: club house, weight room, etc. I am going to have to figure out some new locations to shoot to mix it up; or rather, go with him to other places which can be tough because I don’t want to get in his way. But, even when shooting in the same environment, sometimes fun things do happen. For example, last pic below has Brack and Andrew Taylor trying to pull in Joey Cutler into the pool at Weisiger-Brown. Unfortunately this happened so fast and the lens I had on the camera at the time was my new 50mm when what I needed was a wider lens. So it’s a little too cropped.

Shutter Actuations

• Pictures taken today: 133
• Previous total: 2,019
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 2,152
  

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 3.25 hrs
• Today’s Post production: 1.5 hrs
• Previous Hours: 33.75 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 38.5 hrs (19.25% of 200 hr estimate)

CBS Sportsline listed Jimmy V’s celebration after winning the NCAA Tournament, now 24 years ago, as the number 2 most memorable moment in college basketball.

… [O]ne day you look up, see the date and realize Jim Valvano hasn’t coached in 17 years, hasn’t been alive in nearly 14.

Maybe it seems strange because we still see him on TV every once in a while telling us not to give up, not to ever give up, a visibly sick man who would succumb to cancer less than two months after delivering his legendary speech. Either way, 14 years feels like a long time, particularly because it means it has been 24 years since Valvano made the most famous jog by a coach ever.

If that was #2, I can’t wait to see what #1 will be.

You can read more here.

Between the team traveling and my schedule being tight, I haven’t had a chance to get out to Doak since they played Gardner Webb on Feb 17th. Hopefully the photo project will get back into gear again as they have a home stance against Maryland this weekend. If I have time, I might also get out today for some of the game they are playing against NC A&T.

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]