Canon 11-24mm f/4

on

The View At The Top Of The Ryman Auditorium

One of the highlights of my trip to Nashville was touring the Ryman Auditorium. There is so much history there that it really is an amazing place. I nearly bought tickets to a show just to see something in there. I didn’t know the artist, but I thought anything would sound good in there. Even a seat all the way at the top would not be a bad one as you can see by the photo.

Waiting For An Empty Space

In a photo like this one you would either want the building full of people or completely empty. Of course here I tried to wait it out for an empty seating area, but after a few minutes I realized that these people were watching a nonexistent show. They were not showing any signs of moving. If I am somewhere with a tripod I will just wait until parts of the photo are clean. If you don’t move the tripod you can Frankenstein a clean image that way. Here though I was handheld with no signs of movement. With all of that said I still like the photo. I was infatuated with those windows, and I kept thinking of ways to get them in my photos.

The Week In Photos

My time in Nashville was pretty amazing. When NCAA sites were being talked about this was the site that I was rooting for. There was a reason for that. I wanted to explore a bit more than I was able to the last time that I was down there. My week in photos from that time was pretty fun to put together as it was a fun week to be a photographer. You can see my favorite photos from a fun week here on my Exposure site.

Advertisements

on

The Moon Rises Over The Neil Armstrong Statue At Purdue University

A couple of weeks ago while waiting for the ISS flyover I made some images of the campus during the blue hour. The last of those places that I visited was the Neil Armstrong statue and the Armstrong Hall of Engineering. The stars had just come out, and the clouds were moving quickly, but it still was a fun little shoot. No matter how you photograph it this is a very cool building.

Finally Getting To The Purdue Campus

In 2017 I set a goal to photograph the campus of Purdue more. For some reason that did not carry over into 2018. This was my first chance to get out and photograph anything on campus, and it was at the end of March. My photography has taken me away from Purdue, and I guess I just haven’t made the time to visit in my spare time.

on

Getting The Rust Off Of My Track And Field Photography

I usually shoot a lot more track and field than I have this past year and a half. The jobs have been few and far between though. That is a shame as it is really something to watch these kids doing what they are doing. Each different event shows off an amazing talent. I wish that I had more time to spend with each of them as I feel like I can’t be everywhere at once during a meet.

Getting Into The Pack

When your athletes are in the middle of the pack it can be a difficult situation to get a clean photo of them. You are not going to get any stuff that can be cut out, but you can capture moments. Here my athlete popped into the right spot at the right time so that I could make a cleaner photo of them. It doesn’t always work out this well, but this time it did.

Feeling Blue

Man there is a lot of blue at Gibson. It makes sense that there would be with the team being blue and all, but it really is everywhere. With the blue skies overhead it seemed like I had blue all over my shots during the day. It does beat the grey skies that were in the forecast for much of the week.

The Week In Photos

Man last week was a weird week for me. Much of my midweek stuff was cancelled, and then the Marathon Saturday finished it off. This was another fun collection of photos to put together. You can see my favorite photos from last week here on my Exposure page.

Getting Down Low

Near the end of the meet I was getting bored with my photography. I was not bored of the event, but rather how I was capturing it. I started to experiment a little to make some ‘pretty pictures’. I use the camera on the ground technique a little too much probably, but I love the results. The photo at the top of this post as well as the one above this paragraph was made that way. It makes the athletes look even better as they are higher in the air. In the photo above I tried to just add the sun in to bring something else cool into the photo.

on

The 2018 Indiana State Football Campaign Starts Now

Man it was good to be around football again. Football is so unlike any other sport that I cover in the way that it feels. The pads were on for the first time in 2018 yesterday, and the players were loving it. The temperature felt more like a late fall day, but with all of that equipment on it probably was not too bad for the players. Early on things are just about getting into the flow of practice and the plays again. The real fun begins when they go live with full pads on.

Photographing Practice

I have never been one who is big on photographing a practice. Things are so chaotic that I often cannot predict where I need to be to make the shot. A couple of practices a year though are nice to get some photos that can be used for the entire season for practices. The real fun will start in August a couple of days after my birthday when this team starts hitting against another opponent.

A Busy Day

Yesterday was a fun filled day for me. It started early at football practice on the campus of Rose-Hulman. Then it was off to photograph the Gibson Invitational. Normally photographing an entire track meet solo is enough to get you tired, but as soon as the final  race was ran I threw everything into my car and sped off to track. I made it to the game in the first inning, and covered the rest of that. At the end of the day on the drive home I was pretty tired, but it is all worth it when you look at all of the photos that I was able to make. I also covered three sports that I had not yet covered in 2018. Later tonight I will put out my Exposure page with my favorite photos of the week. You can bet that yesterday factors in pretty heavily into that will all of the weather cancellations earlier in the week.

on

Seeing Behind The Scenes At The Ryman

I spent a little extra money while in Nashville and took the guided tour of the Ryman. It was well worth the money. Seeing all of the backstage areas with all of that history was pretty cool. The one drawback at least for me was that I couldn’t take any pictures. That is too bad because there were some photos to be made back there. I made this photo during the self guided tour where you can make photos. I loved the light and the way that it played with the scene here. I had a color version of this that I liked, but this black and white just worked for me a little better.

What Does That Look Like In Black and White?

Some photos just look better in black and white for some reason. The question above is one that I ask a lot when I see photos. Sometimes the black and white just takes the color out so that you can focus on what is important. Here it makes for a simple image.

The Week In Photos

My time in Nashville was pretty amazing. When NCAA sites were being talked about this was the site that I was rooting for. There was a reason for that. I wanted to explore a bit more than I was able to the last time that I was down there. My week in photos from that time was pretty fun to put together as it was a fun week to be a photographer. You can see my favorite photos from a fun week here on my Exposure site.

on

Blue Hour At The Hulman Center

Last night I was back in Terre Haute to photograph the SAMY’S for Indiana State. As I was leaving the Hulman Center I realized that there was a picture to be made. I parked again and grabbed my camera for one last photo on the night. The blue hour on a campus known for their blue had to be cool. The Larry Bird statue out front of the Hulman Center seemed like the obvious choice. I wanted to work this scene more, but the front element of my 11-24mm lens started getting pummeled by rain on the first picture so I could only get a couple in. It still was worth pulling over to make this picture.

Photographing the SAMY’s Again

This is the second year in a row that I have photographed the SAMY’S. As I said last year it fills me with pride to see my photos being used the way that they are there. What filled me with even more pride was being able to show it all to my daughter. She may only be four, but she wants to go on every photo adventure I go on. This was one that she could attend as it was a fairly easy event. It was fun showing her the people and the places that I call home down in Terre Haute. Someday soon hopefully she can help me out a little more with her camera.

on

Watching The Space Station With Neil Armstrong

Last night I went up to the Purdue campus with my friend Trevor Mahlmann to photograph the International Space Station as it flew over campus. I will be the first to admit that I don’t know what the heck I am doing when it comes to planning these events. Trevor just invites me and tells me where to point my camera. Check out his website here to see more of his photos of the space station. No matter how many times that I watch the space station fly over it never gets old. This was a cool opportunity to watch it again.

The Week In Photos

Last week was a week that was supposed to be action packed, but the rain and snow cut it short. This week looks like it could be the same way. I still had a fun week though, and you can check out my favorite photos from the week here.

on

Indiana State Walks It Off To Finish Off A Doubleheader Sweep

I want to start with game two yesterday first because it was the most fun to shoot. Both teams had success, and moments that seemed to seal the game. In the end Indiana State scored three in the bottom of the ninth to win their ninth straight game. This team is hot right now, and the temperatures dropping at the end of the game were not enough to cool them off. There were great moments on both sides here, and that is important when covering both teams.

Indiana State Wins Game One Of The Doubleheader

In game one of the doubleheader Indiana State was down two early before punching four runs across to take a lead that it would not relinquish. Baseball is a funny game, and sometimes being on a roll is the thing that keeps you on a roll. That little extra confidence is all that you need in a sport decided by inches at times.

A Beautiful Day At Bob Warn Field

With the weather that everyone said was coming down on us I would have expected to be colder yesterday. As it turned out it was nearly a perfect day for baseball. The weather was great especially early on. The blue skies always look good against the Sycamore blue.

A Great Matchup

When I saw this game on the schedule I was instantly excited. These are the two schools that have kept this experiment alive. Without their support over the last two years this whole thing would be over by now. If you don’t know the story it is that I used to make soup cans, but I thought that there had to be more out there. I fell in love with photography, and realized that I could do some cool things with it. With no opportunities where I live both Indiana State and Xavier have stepped up to help keep this dream alive. Besides the monetary standpoint it is also great to have a purpose for my photos. You can make the best photos in the world, but without a purpose they are sort of pointless when it comes to sports. Just the fact that the photos have an audience gives you the little extra kick to do a little more. Okay instead of rambling on even more let me just say that I owe both of these schools an awful lot. They have kept this dream alive.

on

My Eighteen Favorite Photos From the 2017-2018 Xavier Men’s Basketball Season

This was the first year that I was able to photograph the Xavier men’s basketball season for the team. It started with their Musketeer Madness pre season event, and then ended in the NCAA Tournament. This was a fun team to photograph, and I was lucky enough to be at a couple of very cool moments. Here are my eighteen favorite images from a fun season.

18. We will start the countdown where the season did. Musketeer Madness was a fun event where the team got to meet the fans, and then play an exhibition. It was here where I first learned just how much of a personality Tyrike Jones. had. Here his aviators give me a glimpse at the young man getting his autograph. This was a fun picture from a fun day.

17. During March Madness I was able to photograph Bill Murray. What a cool bucket list item to check off. I had some closer shots of him from pregame, but I liked this one because is just illustrates the fact that he always seems to stand out from the crowd.

16. At the end of 2017 I travelled up to Milwaukee to see Xavier open their Big East season against Marquette. They got the first of what would be many Big East wins on the season on their way to the Big East title. Here was one of the punctuation marks of that game.

15. One player that I wish that I could have photographed more was J.P. Macura. He plays the game hard, but that translates to amazing photographs. He was the kind of guy that would will his team to the win.

14. This is the tip off of the final game of the season. I liked the idea of getting the tip with the logo on the court. Being the second shooter allowed me the freedom to break away to make the picture.  Continue reading “Top 18 Photos From the 2017-2018 Xavier Basketball Season”