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.

Steve walks warily down the street, With the brim pulled way down low

Nicholls crowned its king and queen this past Saturday. And yours truly was there to capture all the excitement behind a 1-AA football homecoming game.

As you've probably guessed, I made an audio slideshow to go along with the evenings events.

Today been a long day filled with sub-par assignments and a trip to the Doctors office. (They took me off one of my meds... so now I'm down to 10 pills a day) I'm pooped. But I hope you all got as much of a laugh out of those treadmill guys as I did.

I promise the Change Contest results will be posted soon.

take a quick break...

This is what I've been watching instead of working this afternoon. It's a solid 3 minutes of good viewing.

Gimmie a tripple shot of that stuff

I busted out another Trifecta weekend.

High School:
H.L. Bourgeios vs South Terrebonne. Phillip Livas (3) ran for 308 yards. Holy cow! What sucks is he did most of his damage in the second half, I had to leave at halftime to go shoot another game. And during that second game the announcer got on the mic and said "It happened tonight, but read all about it in tomorrows Houma Courier. The Vandebilt Terriers welcome courier sports writer Chris Singelton to the game." HELLO!!!! Nevermind the guy sweating buckets and swatting mosquitoes on the sideline while the writer sits in the AC'd press box with free drinks and foot rubs. (Ok, maybe not the foot rubs.)


College:
Nicholls State versus Southeastern Louisiana. NSU homecoming game. I've got some good audio and some better photos that hopefully I can put together in a slide show by the end of the week. NSU won. I had to transmit back to the office after halftime. Except NSU's wireless system doesn't quite cover all of campus. (stupid if you ask me) So I had to leave, drive to the center of campus, transmit from my car, and drive back. I got back with three minutes to go in the game. (Photos are of the newly crowned queen getting a hug from her best friend and a SLU dude scoring a TD.... or was it? Look at that knee)





Pro:
New Orleans versus Tampa Bay. Saints won and Reggie Bush scored is first NFL touchdown. He returned a punt 65-yards for the winning score. I saw him catch the ball and run to the opposite side of the field from me. "Not that big of a deal, good shots can still be made cross-field." I thought. I fire one frame, re-compose, fire another frame, re-focus, try to fire another frame but it won't take a picture. I look at my camera and it says "CARD FULL" The crowd is going nuts, and Reggie holds up his hand as he crosses the goal line. And I'm just standing there watching it all. So all I got was some celebration on the sideline. Live and learn... to change out my cards even if there are a few frames left.

Who was Michael, and why should he row his boat ashore?

I'll be wearing my red and white KC Monarchs throwback hat all day today in honor of Buck O'Neil who died last night.

The change results are in... I think you'll be surprised.

I'm heading off to the Nicholls State University Homecoming game. Should be a doozy.

The church behind me is playing "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" again. Every hour.... every hour. Same song. "Oh lord koom-by-ya"

It's time for a change

I know I know... I started the guess the change contest about a month ago. (Sept 7th to be exact).

I know I know... I said I'd leave the guessing open for about a week.

I know I know... You all have been dyeing to know.

But, I think you'll agree that I've had some important things to take care of since then. And those things have kept me from the bank during business hours to get my change counted.

For example...
Those stupid JBJ dorks decided to invade my blog. I had to deal with that. (Still haven't seen any of their guesses ether)
The One Year of Hurricane Rita project.
The Saints' return to the dome project.
The playing with the puppies.
The surprise hospital visit I had to give blood this morning when I had planned to cash in the change.

But I think I've got all the guesses I'm going to get.

2 parents
2 KSU photographers I worked with in school
1 good friend from high school
1 former MHS wrestling manager and Blue M staff member.
1 friend that I was the best man for in his wedding.
1 girlfriend
1 co-worker
1 elementary school friend
1 LSU fan.

I guess I know who my real friends are hu? (if I've missed anyone, just let me know)

The guesses ranged from $46.27 to $3,332.

If all goes well, I'll take my overflowing jar to the bank Friday morning. And hopefully I'll post the results sometime this weekend.

I don't have any ideas what the winner gets. Probably just a mention on this blog of some sort. I'm cheap like that. But if you have any ideas, shout em out.

Anyway, it's been a long day, and I kind of felt like this guy after work today. (see photo) I shot a high school homecoming football game tonight. I saw the best high school band ever at the game. McDonough 35 High School has an amazing band. They never stopped playing. There was always a drummer doing something, or a horn doing something... really fun to listen to.

Oh, Ms. Dana Solet won Homecoming Queen in case you were wondering. For whatever reason, they didn't have a King. I guess she'll rein by herself.

Which team to you refer to as "we"

What makes a die-hard fan of a specific team always see the green side when that team sucks?

Royals: My first memory of baseball was the 1985 world series when KC beat St. Louis. Ever since then, I've loved the Royals. And they've pretty much sucked that entire time. But each year I have that hope they'll do well. And when they're eliminated from play-off contention before June, for some reason, I force myself to believe they're not a bad team. I hear it on ESPN, the jokes about how embarrassing it is to lose to the Royals, and I take offence to those comments.

The Green Side: It sure was fun watching them beat the Tigers three games in a row. Giving the Twins the AL central title and forcing the Tigers to play the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs. Yea, KC didn't come close to making the post-season, but I couldn't be happier that we played a big part in the MLB play-off bracket. If we can't win, at least we can screw things up.

K-State: I don't really need to explain this one. I grew up at K-State. I graduated from K-State. They're my team. And they're the first Big 12 team to NOT score a touchdown against Baylor. K-State losing to Baylor is like Orlando Wilson losing to me in a Bass Fishing tournament. (We lost to Baylor on Saturday)

The Green Side: New coaching staff. And, we can still win the Big 12 North and play for the Big 12 Championship. We haven't lost to a North team yet.

But are these "green sides" just excuses to trick my mind in thinking that these teams really aren't bad? Probably so... But that's what makes having a team so much fun. I can talk about them as if I were part of the team. If they ever win a big game I can say "I was with them through the tough years."

Anyway... I shot some volleyball today. By the third game, I got a little bored and started playing around. It's the times of playing around that photographers make the best images. I thought these were fun.