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.