Ah well...

I was on the Rutgers bandwagon all season too. So I can't be to upset that we lost. What sucks is how bad we lost.

BUT... Freshman QB, Freshman RB. We're back in the bowl club so we've got a lot to look forward too.

It was a fun game (other than the score) I'd guess about 65/35 purple/red in the stadium.

here are a couple shots from the before and after the game. I really don't like anything I got during the game.

The Stars at Night...

I'm deep in the heart of Texas now. A few hours before kickoff of the Texas Bowl.

We (the group of photographers I'm with) got here really early. The stadium is HUGE.

It's a standard procedure to take a self portrait on the field. So here you go.

Houston is crawling with purple. The huge Mall in town has K-State fans everywhere. I even managed to get onto the local NBC TV station's morning show. We were walking back to the hotel last night and were stopped by a TV camera guy. Being the KSU dork that I am, I ended up on TV doing a KSU chant with a bunch of other fans. check it out here

My segment is at about the 3:15 mark of the this clip... so fast forward unless you want to watch some local Houston news.

To quote my brother... "You looked like a moron"

I'll take a crown and coke with a splash of guilt

Tonight was the annual Courier newsroom Christmas Party. A pot-luck gathering of journalists where the conversation always turns to the big headlines of the past few weeks.

Included in the evening is a dirty Santa gift exchange, And each year I've been the one who brings the one gift that nobody wants to end up with. Two years ago it was bottled water, pop-tarts and film. Last year it was a crow bar and a traffic cone. I don't think I let anybody down this year with my package of diapers for cabbage patch kids and a book... "Barbra Bush, A Biography"

Yes, I'm "that" guy at the gift exchange.

One of the other gifts was a bottle Crown Royal. Of course, it was a hot item and was stolen multiple times. Started with Joel, stolen by Keith, Stolen by Mika then stolen by me. And that happened to be the end of the exchange. Jackpot! I walk in with a bag of fake diapers and Barbra Bush Book and leave with a bottle of Crown Royal.

I felt a little guilty about taking the bottle from Mika knowing how much she wanted it, but, like I said, "Don't hate the player, Hate the Game" Plus, she ended up with a gift card to Starbucks so it's not like she ended up with what Jeremy gave... stuffed animal and his 11th grade report card. (He got an A- in his Newspaper class)

On the Fence

Man, I've got a bunch of stuff to talk about. It's been a while since I've posted.

I guess lets start with a shameless plug. If you get a chance, go check out MSNBC year in pictures. And after watching the slide show, feel free to vote for your favorite lady bug photo of the year.

Last Friday, my brother John and his friend Audry passed through Houma on his way back to Kansas from Tampa. He got another fire truck and flew to Tampa to buy it and was driving it back home. It was a short visit but we had enough time to eat some crawfish for lunch. As I told John, it was a great little tease of family, but it's cool because all the Stamies plan to be down here for Mardi Gras.





The other photog at my newspaper is on vacation until Dec. 27. The second she gets back, I'm taking off for Houston to photograph KSU in the Texas Bowl. I'm meeting my boy Kelly and some of the other KSU student photographers.

Have a Merry Christmas and some happy holidays in case I don't get around to posting again before the 25th.

Lift the yellow tape, it's Domino's

Quite an afternoon today. A 24 year old dude decided to break into a house. Someone saw him, called the cops, the cops came and he decided to shot at them with a hand gun.

I stood about a block away from the house he was in. In the three hours I was there, I heard at least 4 gun shots. It was pretty crazy.

He gave him self up after a while and nobody was hurt. So that's good.

About half way though the standoff, a nice little lady drove up to the yellow tape (where I was standing) to deliver some pizza. Yes, SWAT team guys get hungry during a three hour standoff. I saw guys tossing bottles of water to each other (so they didn't have to walk in the "line of fire") but I don't know exactly how they got the pizza to each other. But seeing officers in full SWAT gear picking up pizza was pretty funny.

The reporter asked her if she had ever delivered to a SWAT team during standoff before. She hadn't.

I've photographed a few standoff's like this before, but this was the first one where I actually heard gun shots. I was far enough away and behind enough cars and trees and things that I felt pretty safe. But a bullet is a bullet.

I think journalism is the only profession where someone can be a block away from a crazy dude shooting at police one minute, and a high school basketball game the next. Who knows what I'll do tomorrow.

Stop what ya doing, cause I'm about to rouin, the image and the style that you're used to.

The night of unfortunate events: Dec. 8, 2006.

1:

Misty, Taylor and I were on our way to go check out some of the Christmas lights in the fancy neighborhoods, we piled into Misty's car, only to find out Misty had a flat tire. So we took my car instead. No biggie. Taylor decided she didn't want to go see Christmas lights and would rather go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We drop her off and head out to get something to eat.

2: (probably the dumbest thing I've ever done)

As we left Misty's parents house, I grabbed a white plastic tie wrap thing to piddle around with. And for whatever reason, I put it around my middle finger and zipped it as tight as it could go.... completely forgetting that I couldn't un-zip it.



So, in the parking lot of Taco Bell, I used the wire cutters on a pair of pliers I had in my back seat to snip the plastic wrap thing.



3:

After eating, we went back to my house to fix the flat tire on Misty's car. I parked behind her to give some light. After putting on the spare tire, I got in my car to go park in the driveway... except i had killed my battery. Lesson: if using your headlights to light something, leave your engine running.

4:

Now I had a dead car, Misty gave me a quick jump and I parked in my driveway as Misty drove home.

I thought the worst was behind me...

5:

... Until I went inside, visited the restroom, and found out that we had no water pressure in the house. I grabbed a Kool-Aid pitcher type thing and did a bucket brigade from the sink to fill the thing. It finally flushed. It's all good now.

(No pictures of that.)

All those events happened after the annual Houma Christmas Parade through downtown. No problems from the parade. It's a Mardi Gras warm up it you will. Lots of floats, but instead of beads and toys, it's mostly candy that gets thrown. Misty and Taylor caught a duffel bag full of candy. I didn't contribute much because I ate most everything I caught.

Before the parade, we took a walk through Courthouse Square to look at the lights.



I think maybe the fun surrounding the parade made all those other events seem comical. A great start to my weekend of for sure.

I don't want my Wheaties, Give 'em to the needy, Feeling kind of greedy, I keep em for my self

I came home from work last night with plans to post about all this Serial Killer stuff that going on around here. But I'm getting sick of it already and didn't feel like working with the photos I've made in the past few days anymore.

But a quick rundown... Ronald Dominique was arrested on Friday for the killing of two guys. On Monday officials announced that he confessed to the killing of 21 more men. (23 total killings). It's not pretty what he did so I won't get into it. But I've spent a lot of time with the victims families the last few days.

Now then, onto some fun stuff... The Saints beat the 49ers on Sunday. Misty and I were there to shoot it. Misty even pulled of a great self portrait with Jimmy Buffett. (He sang the national anthem)

For the sports fans out there, I'm sure you heard that Reggie Bush tore it up with 4 touchdowns. And I didn't get a single picture of any of them. But I got some cool reaction from one of the TD's. And a 49ers dude tried to bring him down by his face mask one play.

Bush tried to run outside and turn up field, but this 49ers dude had other plans. I love these plays because their relatively slow, have lots of action, and I can get a bunch of photos from them. And I got lucky with the face mask.






and here's another shot I thought was fun... This dude had two interceptions, this was after his second.



Oh, and it's cold down here now. And by cold, I mean 35-55 degrees. But long sleeves for sure. I love it.

Caption Contest #3

But first, I'll tell you about the caption contest #2



It was at a volleyball game during a time-out. One of the cheerleaders did some flips across the floor, when she got to the sideline, she stopped flipping and yelled at the crowd. In the meantime, another cheerleader did some flips and crashed right into the first girl. I'm kicking myself b/c I had my camera up and ready but for whatever reason put it down. But I saw the collision right before impact and just pointed my camera in the direction and this is what I got. (the blurry blob in the front is the collision, I was focused on the back wall) And to make matters worse, a third girl flipped across the floor and almost crashed into a Ref. After that time-out, there was no more flipping the rest of the night.

Now then, onto this contest... errr... how about we call it "caption suggestion" because it's really not a contest at all. Here's a little something from the Vandebilt Catholic High School girls basketball game tonight.



So there you go... caption away.

One of my favorite aspects of sports photography is stopping the action of a play. A photograph captures a split second of time... which allows the viewer to see details of the action they might have missed at full speed or on video. For example:



She didn't stay like that for long... and the crowd acted like "did we just see her make a pass while doing the splits?"

To be honest, I just thought it was a funny photo and wanted to sound smart by putting some photo talk in front of it.

Have a great weekend.

Potentially Dangerous Shocker

I'd like to congratulate myself for successfully installing a new dimmer switch in my bedroom. I got fed up with that big dial thing that took three or four pushes and turns to finally get the light on. After an hour of multiple combinations of wires in holes and one minor shock on the finger, my new dimmer switch is working like a charm. (Yes, I turned off the breaker to my room while messing with the wires)



However, if I brag about this, I must also say that my dad successfully installed a wireless doorbell in his house. It's now set to play "When the Saints go Marching in" every time the button is pushed.

I've posted about my neighbors dog before, but I grabbed some photos of him jumping on Misty the other day and thought it was funny enough to post again. This is Gus, a Boxer who lives below me. He's about a year old and is strong as an Ox. He'll sit and watch you until you get close then he'll jump around like crazy. He'll jump out towards you, but will go past the length of his rope and get pulled back. It's kind of funny. But if you step inside the radius of his rope, you will get knocked down, or at least have the wind knocked out of you by the force of his paws hitting your gut.

Hope you don't mind me barging the door In the middle of the night

I was one of them today... I was in the mob of shoppers at Best Buy and Target... and I wanted to shoot them all. (and take their picture too)

Best Buy had people wrapped around the store, the first person in line arrived at 9 o'clock... Thanksgiving morning. "Sorry mom, can't spend Thanksgiving with the family this year, Best Buy has cheap blank DVD's"

Others arrived a little later than that dude, say maybe, 2:30 a.m. with an infant and two toddlers. What in the world do you need that badly? Is an $80 digital camera worth keeping three young children entertained in a parking lot in 32 degree weather?

Target had customers smashed against the door minutes before the opening. Once the doors opened, the mob ran towards the Electronics and/or the Toy departments. I saw one lady T-Bone another lady with her shopping cart. "Get out of my way!" she yelled. Is an electronic picture frame really worth that mess?

I think I'll just wait a few weeks, walk into the store on my own time, and buy what I need after the shelves have been re-stocked. I might not get the big deal, but at least I didn't spend my Thanksgiving in a parking lot.

If I were to do something like this, I'd do it the way Misty did. She, her two brothers and some other friends all went to Wal-Mart late last night stocked with Slim-Jims, Squeeze Cheese, Ritz Crackers, Red Bull and Coke. They stayed up all night in the Layaway Dept. just hanging out and enjoying each others company. They were inside and had a great time... and walked away with there big screen, High-Def TV's.

So here's a sample of what I saw this morning. I arrived at Best Buy around 4:30 a.m. and then hit up Target.

While standing in line outside Best Buy, the people lit small fires using baking pans and newspaper inserts. The Eagle Scout in me just went nuts. Never use paper when starting a fire, paper holds moisture and won't burn well. Small twigs or tree bark then work your way up to larger pieces of wood.



Anybody ever seen the "stampede" before the Country Stampede at Tuttle Creek? People rushing in to find their spots for that day's concerts. That's what happened at Target. Here the first two girls rush past me to find whatever it was they were looking for. I'm guessing an iPod or some sort of trendy electronic gadget.



Here's the intersection between the DVD's and the Electronics at Target. Complete mad house. I was standing at the end of the isle with the 27-inch flat screen TV's.... Bad place to stand as you can see the lady who pushed me out of the way in the bottom right of the frame.



So now I have to decide if I should go home and take a nap before my 1:00 assignment or just push through and crash later until sometime next week.

Enjoy your Black Friday and the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend.

(Oh, to see more photos... www.houmatoday.com... I put up a little gallery)

Pre Flight Check

It's only 12:37 but I've had quite the day of work so far.

As I'm leaving my house to go to work, I see some water out in the street. I think it's a little odd because it's clear and hasn't rained in days. So I figured it was someone watering their lawn. Not quite.



I see my neighbor outside and ask her if she knew what was up. She had already called the city and had no clue what had happened. Everybody still had running water so we didn't know what was going on.

Another funny thing, on my way to my first assignment (see below) I drove by this flood to see if anybody was out there working. Nobody was around but someone had spray painted a blue box around the area where the water was coming out. So they found the problem just hadn't done anything yet. Maybe not that funny, but it made me laugh a little.

So, we get a call from a local pilot that some guy came to his hanger to see the old NAVY plane he flew back in the day. He got bored a few weeks ago and started looking through his old flight log books from when he flew. He google searched the planes number thing and tracked down the exact plane he used to qualify for something that's a big deal for navy pilots.

So of course I played in and around the plane. They let me walk out on the wing, sit in the cockpit and everything. It was great. So just imagine that I'm not in a hanger and the canopy thing is closed and you'll see what I would have looked like if I were a fighter jet pilot in the mid 50's.



Have a great Thanksgiving.

tip

I grabbed this shot from the Saints game today. I was pretty happy with it... Even though it's a dropped pass and has nothing to do with the story of the game.

Quick weekend football thoughts: No more high school football in Terrebonne Parish (this season). KSU will still go to a bowl game even with a loss. I hate the Jimmy C contest. Welcome back Trent Green. Maybe the Colts will win the superbowl now that they have an "early season" loss. Chad Johnson scored a TD today and came up grabbing his hammy... it wasn't until he was on the table getting looked at by the trainers that I realized it wasn't a touchdown celebration.

Anyway, I'm really tired and think I've got a cold coming on so I'm going to cut this short.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving week.

45-42

Holy Cow what a weekend!

(I know I'm a little late in getting these thoughts out)

Thursday night I spoke at the Community Readyness Workshop at Kansas State.... And a few hours earlier, Donald Rumsfeld spoke just a couple blocks away. But my speech went well, and even had a few people give me a standing O after I showed some work from after Katrina.

After the speech, the weekend was all about KSU sports. Three games. Women's Basketball, men's Basketball and Football. All three came away with wins. And if you would have told me that I'd be in Manhattan and see three KSU victories in one weekend, I would have called you crazy.

Both basketball teams opened their season with victories. The men's game having a little more meat behind it... being the first win for new coach Bob Huggins. (while wearing a very tacky purple suit)

Then the biggie, KSU vs #4 Texas. I got a pass and shoot the game and Misty was able to be a fan and watch the game with my mom. I haven't been on that field since the 2002 season, so it felt good to be back. And then to top it off with a win... I couldn't ask for anything better. A freshman QB, a freshman RB and a rookie head coach whooping up on the fourth ranked team in the country... I ranked it the second biggest win in KSU football. (behind the win over #1 OU in the 2003 Big 12 Championship)

Anyway, it was the first time I've had the chance to photograph fans rushing the field... I've rushed the field before, but never photographed it. A little scary but fun for sure. (see the photos) My dad recorded the game so on Sunday we watched most of it again... and saw me on ABC yelling at Yamon Figurs after he scored a touchdown in my lap. Pretty funny.

All in all, it was a great trip home. Misty got to see what it's like to be a die-hard KSU fan in Manhattan (I think she owns more KSU clothes than me now) and I got to cheer for Kansas State in person again. And to top it off, my dog is on Prozac so he's now the calmest, coolest dog in Kansas.

It was great to be home and see all my family but now it's back to the Houma way of life. It wasn't easy to get into my work routine today, but it all came together when I watched Ellender win on a last second three point shot to open the High School Basketball season. Fun stuff.

So here are two of the photos from the KSU win over Texas on Saturday night.

(I know there are more and funnier things that happend this weekend, but for whatever reason, I can't think of them)

The Eyes of Texas...

...Are in Manhattan Kansas!

We just upset #4 Texas 45-42... I was there to shoot it, and Misty was there to see it. Amazing.

Photos of the mob on the field (and other photos) will be posted soon.

I might have missed both Jimmy C games by a mile, but I don't care. The wildcats knocked off a top 10 team on National TV.

Caption Contest #2

Seth dropped the hint that this photo should be a caption contest. I agree and am ashamed that I didn't think to do that myself.

I had planned on posting this photo sooner or later b/c I think it's funny. Some of you might already know the story behind it. But I'm not going to say anything about what's going on in this image. After a few captions, I'll fill in the blanks for everybody.

Next post will be from (or about) Manhattan depending on if I get the urge to post while on vacation this weekend. Misty and I are heading to Kansas on Wednesday and will come back south on Monday. I'm speaking at a workshop on Thursday and we are both attending the KSU vs Texas game on Saturday. (Misty as a fan, Matt as a shooter... don't worry, she's sitting with my mom.)

I'm looking forward to the cold, although I've heard it's been nice recently so I might miss out on the sub freezing temps.

So with out further A-Doo... here's the caption contest photo.

It Ain't My Birthday But I Got My Name On My Cake.

7.97 seconds... not a world record, but pretty darn good if you ask me. Today I covered a class learning how to play Cup Stacking. Ever heard of this sport? It's great! You get 12 cups and see how fast you can stack these cups in a variety of formations. I did the 3-6-3. A little pyramid of three, a pyramid of 6, then a third stack of 3. You stack them up and tear them down. There's a little timer pad thing that you smack when you're done to stop the clock.

I didn't try the cycle stacking where you do the 3-6-3, 6-6, and a stack of 10. I'm not that advanced yet. But all the 7th graders were sure excited to show me how fast they could do it.

Fun times.

So here's a shot of me doing the 3-6-3 and then another shot of me and my fans celebrating my sub 8 second time. (The girl on the right is in my Girl Scout slide show from this summer)





Also, this weekend I took a trip to Fifi Island. Some volunteers spent the day planting native marsh grass on the island. Kind of crazy because I drove to an island (Grand Isle) just to hop on a boat to another island.

The boat driver gave me a good idea, While taking me to the island, he said "I've got nothing to do except drive people to and from the island, so after I drop you off, I'm going to grab my rod and reel and do some fishing."

GENIUS!

So after I took some photos, I too grabbed my rod and reel (kept in my trunk) and did some fishing along the side of the road on my way back to town.

Of course my plan was to post a blog with me and my HUGE fish. But all I got was a sun burn. But I did have something HUGE break my line. And for someone with zero bayou fishing knowledge, I'd say that's pretty good.

It was great because it was sweatshirt weather, clear skies and I had the KSU vs Colorado game on the radio in my car. I couldn't ask for anything better than to be fishing and listening to the Cats become bowl eligible.

So here are a couple photos from Saturday. Me on the boat and a few of the volunteers working to plant the grass.

A quick lesson... this is what barrier islands look like when not protected. Pretty much worthless.





One more thing... Sunday was great. Some buddies and I went to New Orleans to watch the Saints game at a bar. We had the Saints on one TV and the Chiefs on another. And both won. After the football game, we all went and watched Mr. Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets lose to the Hornets in their first home game of the season. So it was a perfect Sunday if you will.

And since the basketball game, I've heard ESPN radio say twice that Sundays game was "The Hornets first game since Hurricane Katrina." Uhhhh... so I guess the Hornets vs Clippers game I went to last year wasn't a Hornets Home game.

And Lil Wayne and Deviant Kane were at the Hornets game. I guess they're pretty famous, but I wouldn't know b/c I've never heard of ether of them.

O-74

"All I need is O-74 to get a bingo." I said

"She just called it, you have a BINGO. " The lady across from me yelled.

"What do I do now?" I said.

It took me a couple tries, but I finally yelled BINGO loud enough for someone to hear.

Yep, Misty and I went and played some Bingo tonight. In fact, it was Super Bingo with about 1,000 players. I have never played Bingo for money before. All the proceeds went to the Krewe of Aphrodite (A women's Mardi Gras club)

And here I am, as green as a can be, winning the first game of the night while surrounded by Bingo "pros" if you will.

The only down side of the win is that 18 other people also won that game so we had to divide up the pot... but I got enough for me to come out on top a few bucks for the night.

So here's a shot of my winning card (folded up to just the winning board) and you better believe that misty and I had our "Lucky Dab's" to mark our cards with.

The next photo is me holding the little sign they gave me while they took my card up front to get my cash. The lady in the background is the one who told me I had a Bingo.

I think we'll hit up some more Bingo halls soon.

Caption Contest

First of all, lets all wish Misty a happy birthday.

I don't know when she'll read this, so all I can say about her gift is that we'll be spending at least an hour at the Arcade in the mall. (I'm sure she's assumed that gift already). Our goal is to get another giant bouncy ball. This thing is amazing, it's between a softball and cantaloupe size of solid rubber. I've never seen anything like it. And it costs 2000 tickets. I have a few more things in store for her but don't want to give them away.

Misty and I both shot the Saints game on Sunday. (a 35-22 loss to the Ravens). A sold out Superdome is always a good time.

Now the Caption Contest... I thought this was a funny shot.

So if you come up with good caption or fake quote to go along with this image, post a comment for everybody to read. You won't win anything, I just thought since I take silly photos every now and then, I'd open the floor up to creative cutlines.

Hard Hat and Spikes

I've got a couple things to talk about...

First: The Republican candidate for Congress, Craig Romero, sent a press release saying that he's going to speak at "The Post Office" about how to give South Louisiana a better future. So this morning Jeremy and I went to the downtown Houma bar to cover this speech.

Craig got up on his Soap Box and started to talk. Except the 10 people there (including the 5 members of the media) couldn't hear a word he said because of all the road construction going on behind him. The TV station didn't even try to get any audio. One of those huge machines that tears up the road and dumps it into a truck went by... I'm guessing the name of that machine is not "The Whisper 2000" He had one of his "people" go tell the crew to stop working so he could finish his talk. So they just sat there with the engines still running, still just as loud.

I'm not taking sides or arguing any of the items I think he talked about. I just thought it was silly to have this speech 10 feet from major road work. His "people" even suggested to move it inside where it was quiet. He wasn't having it.

And to make it worse, he handed out a packet of information regarding his speech. He read the entire packet word for word. He hardly ever looked up and made eye contact. He just had his head buried in his personal copy of the packet. That's a photographers nightmare.

I've photographed political speeches in front of construction before, but the work has been related to their platform. Like a levee being built or something like that. But just some random road repair that's been going on for about a week? I think they can come up with a better background than that.



Two: Tonight, I photographed the most entertaining match of volleyball I've ever seen. H.L. Bourgeois High School at Terrebonne High. These two teams don't like each other. It took place in a small gym filled with fans from both teams.

Best of five, each game goes to 25 points via rally scoring. Game five goes to 15, also by rally scoring.

It went into game five with the other four games being decided by no more than five points.

There were rallies that seemed to last for hours. Both teams had to come from behind to win their games.

I've photographed enough high school sports that I don't get excited that much... but I was yelling and clapping along with the best of them tonight. I didn't care who won, I just got caught up in the action.

Terrebonne was the favorite, and they won.




But it's still a tough loss when you get so close to an upset.



It's what high school sports are all about.

Random Baseball Stat: St. Louis is up 3-1 over Detroit in the World Series. The last time St. Louis was leading 3-1 in the World Series... They lost to Kansas City 4-3. Nice.

There's no CHANGE... she just keeps winning.

I first noticed her nack for winning when we were in a casino in New Orleans. We both sat down to play some slots. We both had twenty bucks. In five minutes time, I had zero, and she had 40.

Her team, the "nineteen 79 ers" are tied for first in the Central Division of "You wanna see my what." Fantasy Football league.

We have a friend who sends out an email each week with a college football game to pick the winner and score. Then he has a formula to rank each person playing. (40 total) She's only got one game wrong so far this year and is in second place. That's amazing.

She bowled over a 200 the other week in her bowling league. And in my book, that's a winner.

And to top it off, she won my "guess the change" contest.

Somebody buy her a lottery ticket now.

With a guess of $158.42, Misty is the winner.

I took the jar into the bank where they have one of those machines that counts it as you dump it. After it was done sorting out the change, it printed out a receipt with the break down of the amount of each coin. Then, at the bottom it said "10 percent convenience fee" I wasn't too happy about that, because it knocked about 20 bucks off the total.

But the nice lady at the bank gave me the full amount.

Here's the break down.

$20.00 - 1
$1.00 (bill)- 2
$1.00 (coin)- 4
$0.25 - 480
$0.10 - 249
$0.05 - 178
$0.01 - 460

Total: $184.40.

I was a little amazed myself at how much I had in there. It actually works out rather well because Misty's birthday is next week. (oct. 30) And, we're both going back to Kansas in November for a long weekend. So if you're wondering what the money will go towards... there you go.

I know it looks a little skewed that my girlfriend won the contest. But rest assured that she has tested negative for all meaningless contest performance enhancing drugs. Unless those Halloween candy corn pumpkin things have some sort of guessing boosting element inside that boost ones power to correctly guess at meaningless contests.

Now here's a breakdown of everybody's guess. (In no particular order)

Jana: $46.27 (I think the Broncos recent success over KC played a part in her picking so poorly)

Kelly: $62.37 (who has been with me all the other times I've taken my change jar to the bank)

Dad: $76.58 (who probably had some sort of math formula to come up with that amount)

Shep: $47.23 (I think getting married and getting a new dog influenced his pick)

Erica: $67.43 (was probably predicting the score of the KSU vs Mizzou game with this pick)

Joel: $73.50 (again... probably had something to do with Mizzou being better than KSU)

Chirs: $3,332 (Just his old address in Manhattan from back in the day)

Nicole: $88.99 (Cole always has a cute reason for everything)

Mom: $67.67 (Probably asked Dad to come up with another formula for her pick)

Seth: $52.23 (street address? Old locker combo? I'm sure there's something behind this number)

So congrats to Misty for winning something else. Now give the rest of us a chance.

He squirts free, still running up field and then gets SANDWICHED

Man, I've been slacking with this blog thing. It just boils down to when I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is sit at a computer and work with photos.

anyway, I've spent about 30 bucks of my change jar cash so far. I dropped five bucks on video poker last week. 10 bucks on parking in New Orleans yesterday. And who knows what else, probably just snacks from gas stations. (Sprees, Red Bull, Gatoraid...) But the change jar stats will be here whenever I feel like it. (I'm going to stop saying "soon" and just say "whenever")

I doubt any of them are still reading my blog, but last week, a Reggie Bush Blog on NOLA.com posted a link to my blog with the photo Bush and Joe Horn celebrating against the Eagles. But, welcome any NOLA.com readers.

I got some good football photos this weekend. (at least I like them). On Friday, I shot Terrebonne High vs. Ellender Memorial High. With one second left in the half, Terrebonne High tossed a 30-yard Hail Mary and scored a Touchdown to tie the game. This photo goes to show how important it is to understand the game inorder to photograph it well. I knew they were going to do that and I knew where to stand to get this image. Lucky for me, Terrebonne won so this shot ran in Saturday's paper.



I spent a rainy Saturday in Thibodaux shooting Nicholls lose 9-0. (yep, three field goals). But I was more interested in KSU vs Mizzou... until I stopped getting text updates from Ben. I've figured out if I don't get text updates during a KSU game, we don't have a chance to win. And we didn't... We got smoked.

But, I got a photo during the NSU game that reminded me of a KSU vs KU play a few years ago. Two guys Sam'iched KU's quarterback during a scramble and knocked him out of the game. But this hit on the Northwestern State quarterback knocked him out for a few series. It was one of those hits where the 7,000 fans at the game all went "oooohhhh"





Now, I'm no Defense coach, but I'm guessing you can't make a tackle while sitting on your duff. I just thought this was funny.

In the easy chair with my boots on, Melted whiskey in my hand, I couldn't have been asleep for more than three hours, Time to go to work again

Holy cow I'm pooped. I've got nothing left so I'll make this quick.

You all know about the Saints game on Sunday.

Well, on Saturday, I shot a wedding. (those things are pretty much a full day of work... at least 8 hours, sometimes more)

And today, Terrebonne Parish decided to flood again. No storm or anything. Just some SE Winds combined with high tide put water in houses south of Houma. And get this... Just last week, Terrebonne Parish residents voted AGAINST improving their levees. Sure, they'd have a small increase of sales tax, but one cent is a small price to pay to not have the Gulf of Mexico in your front yard of you ask me. But I'm not registered and I didn't vote so I won't say anything else.

I met a guy today that just kept shouting "I quit! I quit! I give up... you win! I'm moving!" And he had already started packing. I got yelled at quite a bit today... not at me personally, but as part of the media. They just want to be heard, and I can't blame them.

But, if you'd like to see what Misty is doing to help prevent Americas Wetland from dissolving into the Gulf, check this out. It's got some good information on what's going on down here.

anyway, I guess that wasn't to quick hu? Oh well.


-Groom slurping his drink after the plastic cup broke



-Another Saints photo.... Big D this time... breaking up a pass.



-A baby getting pulled to higher ground. The family went to the store to get some food and when they came back, the water was too high to drive through. So they floated everything to the house.

McNabb made me do it.

"Hey, Look at that photographer right there. I wonder if he knows I'm going to pitch the ball to number 86 and he's going to run for a touchdown. HEY BUDDY... Can you grab a photo of that for me please?"



"Sure, no problem Mr. McNabb."



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Another awesome game in the Dome on Sunday. Here are a few shots from the day.

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Reggie Bush and Joe Horn celebrate after a Horn touchdown in the first half. During this play, I was standing next to Bill Frakes (an amazing sports illustrated photographer). I looked on the back of my camera after the play was over and really didn't like what I had. And the first thing I thought was "Man, I bet Bill got something amazing."



After the game, I call my brother Ben to talk about Sunday's games. I told him if he gets a chance to look on some websites to see if my photos were used anywhere. I really didn't think any would be used. (I was shooting for a wire service called USPRESSWIRE). Boy was I wrong. Ben sent me a text that said "usatoday.com and si.com." Sports Illustrated had two of their top shooters at this game and my photo is on the front of SI.com. oops. :)




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The Saints won on a last second field goal by John Carney.



(The celebration after the kick wasn't all that great... or that's what I told myself when I edited my photos after the game. So that's why you're seeing a boring photo of a guy kicking a ball. But I promise, it's the game wining kick.)

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Misty came and shot the game as well. I gave her the assignment of shooting the little boy who got to go out on the field during the coin toss. (He's from Thibodaux and we're doing a story on him) So Misty was on mid-field before the start of the game photographing the kid. At one point, Misty and the boy filled the Jumbotron.