Plays, Portraits, Pools, Kids, Trees...

Exhausted. That’s exactly what I am after a 12+ hour day.

I woke up nice an early and was to school by around 9:30AM. Started my day with a portrait shoot followed up by a tree removal type deal. Came back to the office and edited them and did some other editing and scanning, etc.

I got dumped with some other assignments, so I passed one to another shooter. Than I went to do a restaurant shoot, where I ended up having some choice words to an arrogant, snooty Towson mom who thought it didn’t matter that she slammed her huge SUV door on my brand new car.

Came back and before I could finish eating my free wings I had to scoot over to Burdick to shoot kids swimming. Then I trekked back to the office, again, for maybe 5 minutes, only to run and shoot the (above) play, Urine Town.

I was looking at another local shooters page and I thought what he said was appropriate for today. “Attention all shooters: Remember, your job is fun! I think we get so bogged down sometimes with too many assignments or a last minute assignment when we're ready to call it a night. But wow. We still get paid for this.” – [Chris Ammann], The Examiner.

Maybe the payment thing isn’t huge with The Towerlight,but I’d take it any day. The experience I am getting with real world assignments is great. Way better than shooting for some freelance company who wants to pay me pennies on the dollar to shoot for hours only to turn around and make big bucks on each image they sell.

Well, the semester is almost over, and although these days are long, I love shooting and I’ll miss the TL for the month we have break. I however won’t miss class.

I really need to order my lap top… I need to run, time to finish some homework.

Joey's Last Feature.

Today was Joey's last "official" day as The Towerlight's Sports Editor; he graduates in December and tomorrow is elections.

Above, is the photo that I did of Eric Yancey to compliment Joey's last feature he wrote. Joey is still sticking around until he is officially gone, but he will be missed; this semester has flown by.

Of course, I had to have me and him pose in the same Yancey shot. It's a bit blown out...what else can I say, Kiel is no photographer (he can’t make the last touches the photo needs...haha)

[Joey and Me Posing]
[Yancey Inside Shot]

Turkey Break Comes to an End.

My lazy week has come to an end... back to work in the AM; then back to class on Monday.

Today was our Thanksgiving and I just feel lazy after eating so much.
Above is one of my two nephews, Tyler (5). He is rocking out on my Uncle Jim's new bicycle company [Mirra Co Bikes] that he formed with Dave Mirra after they both resigned from Haro Bikes early this year. My brother got him the bike about a month ago and it is one of the first in Maryland.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I had a nice quiet, peaceful Thanksgiving yesterday. My real Thanksgiving is not until tomorrow, since my parents both had to work. So, all the relatives and brothers kids get to come invade the house bright and early in the morning.

Today, I continued my laziness. My brother's dog (above: Midnight) is insane. The dog is the fastest dog I've ever seen, plus he has the stamina of a horse; he can run all day long.

UMBC/Traffic.

Since I have nothing else to share, I have to cut down on two things in this post…UMBC and traffic.

After class, I went to UMBC to shoot some file photos for the Towson Women’s Basketball team (they will be away for awhile). Well, I’ve been to UMBC 100-times. However, never from the 695 way. So, of course, I get slammed with traffic, miss an exit, and end up lost a bit. I did, however, eventually find it. Remarkably I was only 15 minutes late and the game started late, too. I was in the clear.

But, let me say, UMBC is hurting. I felt like I was at a high school basketball game. The gym was smaller than my high schools; the gym was darker than my high schools; and the cheerleaders were uglier than my high schools. That says something, doesn’t it? Not to mention their student team support, “The Dog Cage” or whatever they were called consisted of approximately 6 ½ kids. Makes me appreciate “T-Unit” a bit more.

Anyways, after struggling to get 1/250 all game (doh! Forgot my light stands to light!) I packed up and headed home @ 7PM. Luckily I got to max of my car on the highway (30mph) for an hour and a half just to get to Towson! It took me almost two hours to get home. Thank goodness I have off for at least two days. I’ll be sleeping in til 3PM.

Sorry UMBC readers, nothing personal. I won't be back until lacrosse season.

Towerlight hits The Sun.

(The Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Mind you that I am still half asleep (Monday is my off day until 5PM). But, my father decided to call me and let me know that the story on college newspapers and us at [The Towerlight] hit the front page of [The Baltimore Sun] Today section, today.

Read it online while you can.
[ARTICLE HERE]

Is it 11PM?

I am sitting here in the office finishing up my work for the day wondering why it feels like 11PM. This whole getting dark at 4PM thing bothers me.

My real reason for posting is that the Men's soccer team lost to second-seeded Wake Forest, 2-1. This ends a tremendous season for the Tigers; it was a blast covering the best men's soccer team in the Tigers 85 year history.

Two Seasons Finished, One Remains Hopeful.

Towson is not having a good weekend in sports.

Seventh-ranked James Madison University ruined Towson’s last hope of reaching the playoffs as they were defeated today, 38-3. With the lost, it marks the last game of the season for the Tigers and the loss of 15 seniors: Carlos Allen, Andrae Brown, Jermon Bushrod, Marcus Edwards, Marcus Frisby, Dave Kahl, Zach Knapp, Tony Lumpkin, Ryan Meehan, Kerry Miles, George Mitchell, Stephan Toth, Adjete Wilson and Eric Yancey.

The women's volleyball team also lost this weekend as the Tigers fell to VCU in the CAA Tournament, 3-1. This also marks the end of volleyball season and the loss of two seniors: Christina Grempler and Vanessa Happel.

However, one Towson fall sports team season remains optimistic as the 15th-seeded men’s soccer team faces second-seeded Wake Forest in the third round of the NCAA tournament at 2:00 p.m. Good luck guys!

Turkey Run Wakes Me.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do things you don't want to do.

In this case, getting up at 7a.m. to shoot Towson's 24th Annual 5K Turkey Run wasn't something I had planned. This week has been a bit rough, no sleep, long days, and no sleep. But, that’s the life of a photo/journalism student. I was planning on sleeping in today, but I couldn't find anyone else to shoot.

I made the best of it however. I bumped into an old friend, Mike Pfarr, who was a beast in high school on the track. Apparently, he just transferred to Towson from West Point and continues to dominate the running game. He blew out the rest of the competition in the race today winning in 16:04.

I am just burning time now, I have to cover the football game at 1PM. Hopefully they can pull off a win and clinch a spot in the playoffs.

But back to things I don't want to do, I have a feature due Tuesday, no topic, don't know what to do, and yea, I don't want to do it.

NCAA Round-Two Win.

What a game! I was talking to Joey before the match and I was telling him how pumped I was. I love covering all the Towson games, but there was something in the air. Towson Center field was packed for the NCAA round-two game against visiting Fairfield. As the match started, I knew it was going to be a good one.

In the 40th minute, on their third corner kick in a row, [Kevin Ruck] put a sketchy header into the net as it slipped through the hands of Fairfield keeper, Jon Paul Francini.

In the second half, a cross from the right hit [Pat Healy's] feet as he delivered a rocket to the chest of Jon Paul Francini; the ball ricocheted off his chest and to the head of diving Nino Mangione who drove the goal home.

Just when I thought the game was sealed, a penalty kick was issued for Fairfield. [Billy Chiles]made one of his biggest saves of season blocking it and then recovering his own rebound. The Tigers sealed the victory with that save.

The Tigers now 7-0-1 at home face Wake Forest in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Good luck!

Tigers Win Opener with a Sore Back.

Tonight the season opened for the Men’s Basketball team as they defeated visiting Hartford, 78-64.

All I can say is, now I realize why basketball has never been my favorite sport to shoot.

I guess I would have enjoyed myself a bit more if it wasn’t the home opener. I know I will be sore all day tomorrow after sitting for 40+ minutes on the hard floor. Second, this is my first game in over a year, so my work is a bit rough, but then again, I am very hard on myself. Last, the strobes…

I got permission from Pete and Rhew to use the raft/ceiling mounted strobes when Scott is not there. These would make my work look incredibly nice; however, we couldn’t get them to work. The pocket wizard was working, the strobes were on, but something was missing. Hopefully we can figure it out on Thursday.

With that, I am beat, good night.
(No Vatz tomorrow, kind of happy-sad, but I need to finish my EMF project).

Welcome to Basketball Season.

The basketball season will officially begin Monday night for the Tigers at the Towson Center with the Men taking on Hartford @ 7PM.

With that said, I shot the basketball preview cover today, as well as features for Gary Neal and Jamell Beasley.

Neal is the starting shooting guard and is entering his senior year as the highest returning scorer in the nation.

The cover shot can be [SEEN HERE]

O’Malley wins MD gubernatorial race.

It's 2:00AM, it's been a long day, I'll be back tomorrow to talk about it more..

EDIT: I wanted to update this with a couple more shots from the Maryland gubernatorial election parties.

We started out at the O'Malley party around 9PM, then went over to Ehrlich's party for a while, but it was pretty dead, nothing compared to the amount of people @ O'Malley. We then got a tip that O'Malley had the lead, so we rushed back over. We waited at least an hour, then slowly one by one his office, family, and friends came onto the stage before O'Malley marched up @ about 12:30AM.

Here is just a couple more shots:
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 1]
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 2]
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 3]
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 4]
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 5]
[O'MALLEY CAMPAIGN PARTY 6]

Stunned. Late FG upsets Tigers.

I should have mentioned, we lost on Saturday.

"The visiting William & Mary Tribe put up 630 yards of total offense, the most ever allowed by Towson, and place kicker Blair Pritchard kicked a 34-yard field goal with five seconds left to overcome an 11-point fourth quarter deficit and give the Tribe (3-6, 1-5) its first win in the Atlantic 10 this season." The Towerlight, Terence Flyntz.

In Action...

The nice thing about photography is that you will rarely ever encounter a non-friendly shooter. Ninety-nine percent of the time, other shooters are very helpful and friendly, and always remember who you are or who you are shooting for. It's almost like when people who drive jeeps always wave to each other, there is no hatred.

Shooting events, especially sporting events, you also find that you often bump into the same shooters. It's always nice to share new ideas, learn something from them, or just catch up and chat.

Two shooters I have been bumping into a lot lately, Dave Hoffmann (Harford Sports) and Kanji Takeno (Towson DP),(you can see their work on the links to the right) got some shots of me in action.

The above shot was taken by Dave at the William and Mary game today. He caught me chimping on the sidelines. I thought it was fitting with The Towerlight banner in the background. He also took [THIS SHOT].

And Kanji got [THIS SHOT] of me @ the capital campaign (post below) laughing as I walked through the doors of the dining hall, striking a pose for him and his shooters.

Thanks again guys!

Unleashed.

(Three Dog Night)

Tonight, I went with Brian and Sharon to cover and shoot the capital campaign, which was a private fundraiser hosted by [Robert Caret] , Towson's president.

A transformed Towson Center, plates bursting with sushi, enormous shrimp, delicious crabcake balls, top-shelf open bar, and “that band” that sings “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog” basically sums up the night from my stand point. But what do I know, I am just a photog.

Hopefully they hit their ultimate goal of 50-millon dollars. Now I am off to bed, I got to get ready for “My name-a Borat!” tomorrow night.

November.

It's November already. That means more football, more cold weather, turkey, and the start of snow.

I really have nothing to talk about today, nothing new, so I figured Brian was the only one worth mentioning, since I took a picture of him today. He is the editor in chief for the TL, one of my 12 1/2 readers and is the owner of TV Newser.

There you go, Brian. Free publicity. No need to thank me, maybe just link my blog to all the CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN/FOX people. haha