Holding... on the Offense... 10 Yard penalty... repeat second down

Oops... been a while since I posted anything. My bad. I've had a lot of ideas, I usually think of cool or funny things to blog while I'm running. I've good cool topics too... like the week I was involved in about 6 games that went into overtime. Or the series of photos Misty took of me at the Christmas celebration thing at City Park in New Orleans last weekend. (I will probably get to that... it's pretty funny)

But I've got a little bit of time this morning so I thought I'd share some photos from yesterday's Saints game against the Arizona Cardinals.

The coolest part of the game was watching Martin Gramatica play. I watched him play in college, in fact, I watched him kick the longest field goal in NCAA and Pro history with out a tee (65 Yards). But the Saints signed him this week and he made four extra points and a field goal on Sunday. Stud.

After the game, I went up to him, shook his hand and told him I watched him in college and wished him luck with the Saints. He kind of looked at me funny and said "Thanks." So I pointed at my KSU hat and he said "Ohhhhh...Thanks, Thanks a lot." That's about it.



I got a nice shot during the first half of Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitsgerald diving for the endzone... but the play was called back for holding. It's still a cool shot, but it's a non-play and doesn't really count. At least he didn't make the touchdown and at least Arizona didn't go on to win. So it's not an important picture for the game, it's just a cool picture.



Early in the Second half, Gumbo (The Mascot) came next to me during a play and acted like he was taking pictures. After the play, I gave him my camera and asked if wanted to give it a try. He played around for a little bit and gave me the camera back. I told him we should switch jobs for the rest of the game. He leaned in and said "You don't want this job son."



Here are a couple more shots from the game.... Pre-Game intros... The defensive starters are announced and run out of this inflatable tunnel thing. I set up shop behind the tunnel and got some cool shots. And the other pic is of a nice pass break up in the first half.





That's all for now. I'll do a better job about posting stuff. Well, I say that but who knows if I will or not.

Big Uneasy

I've been a subscriber of Sports Illustrated since 1998. And every week I make it a point to look through the magazine.

Each week I have a little ceremony so to say to flip through the magazine and look at every photo. I might read a thing or two, but the first thing I do is look at each photo. Then, I go back and read the stories.

My thoughts on the photos have really progressed since I first started to subscribe. At first they were just out of reach. After a while, I learned to appreciate the images because I learned what it takes to make those pictures.

A while later, after shooting many of the events that Sports Illustrated photographers were also at, I would think "Man, I got a picture of the same play, but I didn't get a picture like THAT of the play."

And recently, I've felt that I can at least hang in there with the best sports shooters. Don't get me wrong, I'm no where near the level of a Sports Illustrated shooter... But think of it like this...The Royals get base hits and home runs against the Yankees and Red Sox each year. They might not win the game or have a better record at the end of the season, but they do have some success against the best of the best.

My "New Sports Illustrated" routine didn't change when I got the latest issue on Friday (one day late btw). I came home from shooting a basketball game and stood in my room flipping through the pages looking at each photo. This issue is the College Basketball Preview issue, so it's a little larger than normal. When I turned to page 128, two pages from the end, for some reason I went right to the photo credits before looking at the photos.

Matt Stamey/US PRESSWIRE

I had to do a double take... I had a photo published in Sports Illustrated. I talked a little about this photo in my last post... Reggie getting knocked out at the one yard line against St. Louis.



A side story about this photo... I actually liked the frame before this shot a lot better. Reggie was reaching out a little more towards the endzone and it had the moment of the impact that knocked him out. But it was a little soft (out of focus). So I transmitted this image instead.

I've been freelancing for US PRESSWIRE for the past few years. They're a photo wire service for sports images. An A.P. for sports photos if you will. When I shoot a game, I send them a bunch of my best photos from the game. From there, an editor posts the majority of those photos on their website (www.uspresswire.com) for clients to purchase. (Clients include USA Today, Sports Illustrated, ESPN... etc)

So, Friday night I went out to find more copies. I hit up five places... nothing. But I had a funny encounter at the Walgreens. While searching the the S.I. on the magazine rack, I saw a Runners World and thought I'd check one of those out since I've been running. So I went to the counter with my Runners World and a thing of Tic-Tac's. The lady scanned the magazine, then the Tic-Tac's, looked at me and said "Wow, you must be really bored tonight." What's that mean? So I asked her "what?" to see if I heard her correctly. "You must be really bored tonight uh?"

How in the world does a Runners World magazine and some white Tic-Tac's translate into me being bored on a Friday night? Oh well.

And, as of Sunday afternoon, Books-a-Million has no more copies of Sports Illustrated.

Get to Know Jake Owen

Who is Jake Owen? I'll get to that.

But lets start with a little KSU basketball. Freshman Michael Beasley is amazing. In his first game Friday night, broke the record for most rebounds for a freshman... in the first 19 minutes. Also he's the first KSU player to have at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game since Bob Boozer in 1957. Wow. See you in March!

On Saturday, I did something I haven't done since the 1998 St. Patricks day celebration in Manhattan. I ran in a 5k Road Race in downtown Houma. It was a blast. My goal was to finish under 30 minutes. No problem. Here's the chart for the race, and a picture of me a few steps after the finish line. (Misty left her cousins wedding early to be there... Thanks Misty!)





Not quite at the pace I ran in High School... but I don't care. It was fun.

On Sunday, Misty and shot the Saints game... against St. Louis. The winless Rams bead the Saints 37-29. Oops. Here are some shots.

Couple of Rams players celebrate a touchdown.



Rams running back Steven Jackson... he's good.



Reggie gets knocked out at the one yard line.



Misty and I left the superdome and headed to Biloxi for a concert. Misty won tickets to Little Big Town and Sugarland from a radio station contest. (A picture of Misty and a dog she was taking care of was online with a bunch of other photos, and her picture got enough votes to win her tickets to the show.)

The seats were on the floor, 10 rows back. Not to shabby. I don't really know ether of the groups, I've heard a couple of songs, but I don't know them well enough to sing along.

Here's where Jake Owen comes in. Jake Owen was the opening act for Sugarland and Little Big Town. Jake Owen is the guy that gets on stage and sings a few songs before the main acts come on. Well, for one of his songs, Jake Owen decided to come to the corner of the statge (in front of us) and play his guitar solo. After the solo, Jake Owen tossed his guitar pick into the crowd. I saw it comming right at us, but it was dark and with all the crazy lights I lost it. But I know it was heading right towards us. Misty said that she felt it hit her. So we were looking all over for this thing.... a long with everybody around us. Misty was got on the floor, I started checking on the seats. I even pulled out my cell phone to use as a light. Then, the lady sitting next to me said I should check my pockets. And sure enough, the darn thing landed in my sweatshirt pocket. Now Misty has a Jake Owen guitar pick.

So get to know Jake Owen, he's going to become famous and that guitar pick is going to be worth millions.

Don't eat the Cheese

During the press conference after the Saints game today, Reggie Bush said that Coach Payton has been telling the team "Don't eat the cheese."

Someone asked what that means... and all I heard (well, all I listened to really) was when he listed off a bunch of cheeses, including Gouda. And when I heard that I started silently cheering to Misty because Reggie Bush talked about Gouda cheese. Yea, I know he was talking about not eating it, but he still said "Gouda Cheese"

But yea, the Saints beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 41-24 today. It was a great way to finish off a crappy weekend of football for me.

Friday:
The high school game I covered on Friday sucked, it was really boring.

Saturday:
Kansas Sate lost to a one-win Iowa State.
Wake Forest lost (I picked them to win in the Jimmy C contest)
and LSU won. (Yea, sorry any LSU fans out there, but I've kind of become anti-LSU recently, I think I'll dive into that in another post)

Sunday:
I got some good shots at the Saints game, and they won.
I also won my Fantasy game against Ben... but he just so happened to have three players on bye weeks on his active roster. (wink wink)

But other than the crappy sports on Friday and Saturday... the weekend was great.

here are a few from the Saints game today.

Intros before the game...



A tackle in the first half...



Reggie doing his best karate kick...



And Tom Benson, the Saints' owner, celebrating after the win.

Nine Nine Seven One

My Bad on not posting sooner after my trip back to Kansas. But I jumped into a moving train my first day back and it's finally stopped long enough for me to get off.

The wedding was great. Better than I could have imagined. My only responsibilities were to usher people to their seats before the ceremony, pass out the packets of bird seed after the ceremony and have fun at the reception. I was flawless.

Here are a few shots I grabbed during the day. I only carried my point and shoot with me during the day, so I don't have much.

This is the Firetruck outside the church before the ceremony.



Here's Michelle making her way down the isle at the start of the ceremony. Notice how crowded it is? Must have taken some mighty fine ushers to make sure all those people had a place to sit.



The newlyweds arrived at the Reception in style... on the Firetruck.



Cake Cutting.



You couldn't ask for a better day. I got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while, the weather was perfect and the best part... now I have in-laws. I've never really had in-laws before. I'm just so happy for John and Michelle. It was pretty special to have all the Stamey's together for something like this. Then add our new "other side" of the family and all the friends and it was an amazing weekend.

Now, fast forward to this afternoon.... I finally did something something I've probably been needing to do for about three years. Register my car in Louisiana.

Yep, the ole' Alero is now a Louisianaian (if that's even a word). Right after I graduated High School, I worked for the Manhattan Mercury. One afternoon I watched one of the reporters take her California plate off her car and put on her Kansas Plate. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I remember thinking "I wonder if I'll ever move out of state and have to change my plate?" Well, I did move out of state, but just never got around to swapping plates.

So now if I do something stupid while driving, I can't think to myself "Well, the person I just pissed off will forgive me when they see that I'm not from here"

I guess it means I'm a little more local now.

I went with the Environmental plate. I had the choice between the normal Louisiana Plate, the "Save the Louisiana Black Bear" plate and the Envromental plate. I thought the Brown Pelican was pretty cool. I think it cost me a little extra but the lady said it goes towards a good cause.

So say goodbye to VAP 039 and say Hello to 9971

First Shower in Two Days

Well, my vacation to Kansas started great, but then went downhill... but it's alright now. Here's the rundown.

Friday: I had lunch with Misty (mom's spaghetti) and said goodbye. She thought I was leaving that evening. But nope, my flight was Saturday morning so I was able to go to the first night of the Voice of the Wetlands Festival... that Misty had been working on for the past few months. I suprised her at the festival that night.

Saturday: Thanks to Misty for driving me to the Airport REALLY early in the morning. Got into KC just fine. Went to my brothers new house. Had lunch at Arby's (not Hardee's). Drove back to Manhattan. Met up with Kelly and went to the Stadium to tail gate before the Colorado game.

The game was awesome. I saw some friends and family I haven't seen in a while and was able to sit with my mom. I've never done that before. We had a great time. Near the end of the third quarter, Colorado lined up to punt. I leaned over to mom and said "Five bucks if they block it." And sure enough.. they did, and recovered it for a touchdown. We both went crazy (well, the entire stadium went crazy, but I'm sure we went the most crazy). Kansas State won by 27

Here's a shot of the stadium before the game.



Sunday: I decided to be lazy and just watch some football in the TV room at my parents house. They have nice leather comfey chairs, HD TV and wireless internet. So I just kicked back and watched the games... and watched my Fantasy team.

Sunday evening my stomach started to act up... and that night things took a turn for the worse. I didn't sleep at all because my chrones decided to flare up. I finally dozed off for a few hours around 6 a.m.

Monday: My stomach still hurt... all day. I spent the entire day in the leather comfey chairs in pain. It was cool to be lazy and do nothing, but it sucked being sick. I called my Doctor in Houma and they hooked me up with some Steiroids. And they did the trick.

Tuesday: I woke up able to bench press 325lbs and then beat up my dog. Not really... but I did feel great. I played with my dog for a while, took a shower for the first time in two days, went to lunch and did some shopping.

Plans for the rest of the week include... A trip to Wichita so see Kelly and meet Lili, A visit with the grandparents and then the wedding festivities. (That's actually why I'm here, my brother John is getting married on Saturday)

I'll post more later

Kicking the Beggar

How about them Cats! Knocking off Texas for the second year in a row. My fantasy football team sucked this week, I made a bad Jimmy C pick... but I could care less because I know all of Texas nation is still upset for losing to Kansas State.... Twice. I love it. Bring on KU!

And if you would please... just ignore my most recent run. It's pretty embarassing. It goes to show that eating is pretty important when it comes to working out on a regular basis.

I had a nice lunch and I even saved some of it to eat for dinner. But I got caught up at work and all I had to eat for dinner was a Red Bull and a Snickers.

Well, when it comes time to work out and all you have in your system is nothing, it makes it a little difficult to do anyhing... and you can plainly see by how quicly I dropped down to a near walking pace tonight.

I bet I looked a lot like these guys... I think I was most like Oliver.



Oh well, at least I did something.

And did anybody catch that Rockies vs San Diego game tonight? Holy Cow what a finish uh? And the dude who scored the game winning run didn't even touch home! I predict that we'll see instant replay in Major League Baseball soon. Maybe not next year, but that play will be talked about a bunch during the Playoffs and the off season. Some rule will be made or changed because of that play.

That's about all I know right now. No photo this time, haven't really shot anything interesting in a few days. I did start a new project about off-shore oil wokers. But I want to get a little deeper into the projcet before showing anything.

Serena Williams Kicked My Butt

I worked out with Serena Williams tonight. Yep, I ran 2.88 miles with her in my ear the entire time. And she whooped me pretty good too.

iTunes sells these workouts for that Nike+ shoe thing I have. When you buy a workout, you get all the songs plus a coach type person telling you what to do and when to do it. They have all sorts of workouts. Yoga, treadmill, speed increase... etc. I got the Serena Williams Interval workout.

This work out is supposed to increase your overall speed and increase your endurance. You start off with a five minute warm up jog. Serena tells you at the start what's going to happen in the next 30 minutes. After five minutues she tells you go get moving and pick up the pace for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes you jog "not as slow as your warm up, but a steady pace." And you repeat that three times.

It's awesome because Serena chimes in about every two minutes to tell you something like "I want you to be turning heads with your speed right now." or "If I saw you running right now, would I be impressed?" or "Don't embarass yourself and slow down to much. You want to look good when you run. Remember, you're working out your mind as well as your body."

It works on my Fast-Twitch muscles to increase my speed. Quick lesson: You have two different types of muscles in you... Fast and Slow twitch. Fast twich are musles used in short bursts like a sprinter or baseball player. Whereas slow twitch are the long-term type muslses. Marathon runners for example. And depending on what you want or need, determans how you work each type of musle. A marathon runner needs to last longer than a sprinter. So they'll work out the Slow-twitch more than the Fast. (Thanks Mrs. Morgan and the Principals of Coaching class I took in college!)

So this work out helps build up those fast twich muscles that will bring my mile time down.

Here's the chart that shows what tonights workout looked like.



You can see how I started slow, got faster, slowed down, got faster... etc.

You've probably already noticed that I added that chart thing on the right column over there. That will show my last five work-outs and it will update everytime I update my runs. So check it out if you're interested in seeing how I'm doing.

And I'll leave you with a photo of a dog I met tonight. Coco is her name and she was the unoffical mascot of the YMCA Chiefs. A 7-11 year old flag football team I hung out with this evening.

GO CHIEFS!



(PS. The spell check didn't want to work tonight so just ignore all my mistakes.)

The Trifecta

I got a little message from Lance Armstrong after I ran the other day. After I finished my run, I pushed stop on my iPod. The lady said my stats (time, distance, pace/mile) like she always does. But then Lance chimed in and said "Hi, this is Lance Armstrong. Congratulations, you just ran your fastest mile yet."

Ha! How cool is that!?

Then, the next day, I got another message from Lance telling me contratulations for running my farthest distance yet.

Thanks Lance!

I just finished my seventh run with the nike+ iPod deal. And it works out that i've been running every other day. Not to shabby. And I just found out I can share my last 5 runs with everybody. Below is my pace chart for my last five runs. It's shows my time and distance. So when the line drops, I slowed down, when the line goes up, I ran a little faster. Just click on the little black arrows to see the different runs.



My high school coach used to give us these charts after each race. They were a great tool to see how well we kept our pace during a run. A good runners line went straight across, or went up. (Stayed the same speed, or sped up) Mine pretty much went straight down. The charts were on these half sheets of paper with a grid of time intervals on them. He'd use a highlighter to draw a line from the half-mile, mile, mile and half... etc points. It wasn't until my senior year that I had a three-mile time that existed on that chart. Yea, I was pretty slow.

Anyway, I'm feel like a million bucks and misty said I was dissapearing. So that's good.

Right now, I'm 2/3 the way through a football weekend trifecta. After Monday night, I'll have shot three levels of football. Friday night I shot Vandebilt beat Holy Cross. Saturday I shot LSU beat South Carolina and Monday, I'm shooting the Saints versus Titans game in the Dome.

I had a couple of these trifectas last year, and one when I worked in Topeka. Makes for a long, but fun weekend. And if the Saint win, All three home teams will have won.

The High School game this week was pretty uneventful. Pretty average game. Vandebilt won big in a game that was supposed to be close. One funny thing happened during this game though... During the thrid quarter at Vandebilt games, the announcer dude will say something along the lines of... "It happend today, but read about it tomorrow in the Houma Courier. Vandebilt welcomes (insert sports writers name) to the stadium." No love for the photographer. None. This week however, one of the parent photogs on the sideline noticed that they didn't say my name and said "That's an outrage, I'll take care of that... Hey Bill! Come over here!" (not sure of the guys name, so I just used Bill)

Oh Geeze... really, it's not that big of a deal I told him. But he introduced me to Bill who's an administrator a the school. The photog told Bill what was up and Bill said "Well, that's crazy, I'll take care of that for you."

I just laughed and said "it's really not that big of a deal."

So we'll see what happens next Vandebilt game.

Saturday morning, I woke up and started to get ready for the LSU game. Misty was coming over at 9:30 and were were going to head to Baton Rouge. That sub-tropical whatever storm thing was supposed to dump some rain on us during the day so I packed a little bag with my rain gear (for both me and my cameras)


Misty was right on time, we loaded everything into her new car (A silver Dodge Magnum) and took off. We finally found a parking space after sitting in non-moving traffic forever. I was already frustrated because of the traffic and having to park a mile away, but we had plenty of time. I grabbed everything then noticed that I had forgot my little bag with all my rain gear.

Just Awesome... Fricken Awesome.

I won't say what I did or said for the next few minutes, If you really want to know, misty might tell you. But I wont.

But Misty had some trashbags and I had tape and rubber bands, so at least I could protect my camera gear. I could handle getting wet, but I have to protect my cameras.

During the walk to the stadium, Misty lost her Debit card and Drivers liscense. So I felt like a total bafoon for getting so upset for leaving something at home.

So I got a little wet... ok, a lot wet... but my cameras were dry, I made some nice pictures and Misty and I even got a little face time on CBS.

Here's Misty and I mid 1st quarter when a play went out of bounds a few feet from Misty. She's in the bottom center in black. I'm in white on the left.



And here's me and the South Carolina punter late in the second quarter.



I haven't looked at the second half yet. I was on the other side of the field for the second half and Misty stayed on that side. SO I'm sure there are a couple more Misty sightings.

Here are a few other shots from the game. A pass break up in the second half. A celebration after a fake field goal for a touchdown by #6. And a diving touchdown.

Stamey by the Numbers

If you read Sports Illustrated, you've seen the "by the numbers" section. So this post will be a random list of numbers that have something to do with me.

In no particular order...

3.06
Miles I ran tonight.
33:20
Minutes and seconds it took me to run the 3.06 miles tonight. Little embarrassed about that, but that time will come down soon enough.

10:58
My average mile time during tonight's run. Even more embarrassed about this time. But like I said, that time will come down.

(The above numbers were figured out via my iPod. I hooked myself up with the Nike+ running thing... and tonight was my first night to try it out)

3.70
The most miles I've run on one night. Did that last week after taking a wrong turn in some neighborhood near my house.

6
Challenges I've joined on nikeplus.com. I'm competing against other runners all over the world. Challenges include: Fastest 5k run for beginners, Most miles run in a month for beginners, Big XII team challenge-Team with most miles at end of season wins (Kansas State is currently in 8th place), NFL team challenge - Same as Big XII challenge except I'm a member of the Saints team, United States Challenge - I'm on the 47th place Louisiana team.

40
Miles I've got to run in 4 weeks to reach the goal I set.

2
Drivers who have stopped me to tell me something during one of my runs. The first came a couple weeks ago when I was running a timed half-mile by playing a song that was exactly 4:30 long. I try to finish the half-mile before the song ends. (Welcome to the Jungle by Guns in Roses, Limelight by Rush and Walking by Widespread Panic are all 4:30 long)

A lady pulled up beside me and said something. All I heard was "blah blah blah blah terriers" My first thought was she was a Vandebilt fan since their mascot is the Terriers. So i took my head phones out and said "WHAT?!" And she replied "blah blah blah blah Terriers" I still didn't understand what she said, so I again asked "WHAT?!" And she replied "Oh, I guess not because if you had, they'd be nipping at your heels right now." And she drove off.

I missed finishing the half-mile run by about 5 seconds because of her.

The second random driver encounter came last Friday when i was running around 4:00 p.m. That was the only time I'd be able to run that day because I was shooting a football game, then Misty and I were driving to Auburn that night.

So about a half mile in, this guy waves out his window for me to come over. As I get closer he yells "Early in the Morning or late and night!" And I thought he was going to fuss me for not running on the sidewalk and that if was going to run on the road it should be early morning or late night. Before I could say anything he said "You're metabolism is higher Early in the Morning or Late at night, those are the best times to run. It's too god damn hot right now to be running anyway." I told him "I have to work tonight." And as he's driving off he yells out his window "I admire... the Determination!"

2
Dogs not on a leash who have chased me while running. I ran towards a car to hop on the roof but finally just turned around, clapped really loud and yelled "HEY!" they both stopped and went back to their house. I won't be running down that street again. One of the dogs I probably could have just stepped on, but the other one was pretty big.

2x
The amount of laundry I have since starting to run.

1
Times Kansas State should have beaten Auburn this season.

3
Photographers who will be working at the Courier by the end of the week. Me, the new staff photog Emily and an intern, Cole who starts on Thursday.

1
Photographers who worked at the Courier 2 weeks ago. Me.

0
Jimmy C games I'll pick correctly if I continue on my current path. (My buddy Jeremy has a "pick-em" contest where we pick a college football game each week. I'm 0-2 so far this year)

16
Games the Saints and Chiefs will lose this year if they play like they did in week 1.

26
Fantasy Football Points Eli Manning got for Ben's Bench this week. Had he put Eli in his lineup, he would have beat me. Bummer man.

3
Really cool dogs I played with while I was waiting to take a picture of a guy named Ace this afternoon. Ace, a race car driver, went inside to get some trophies so I could take his portrait next to his race car, so I played with these three dogs for about 5 minutes. The one with his mouth open was jealous that I was playing with the other two. So he came over and started making a howling/whining nose. So he's not barking here, just making a "play with me" noise instead.


That's all for now...

1000 miles later...

Misty and I took one heck of a road trip.

Here's the rundown.

Friday Night: Left Houma around midnight and headed towards Auburn Alabama for the KSU vs AU game. Made it it Mobile around 3:00 a.m. Crashed in cheap hotel.

Saturday Morning: Drove the rest of the way into Auburn.

Saturday Afternoon: Found a free parking spot about a mile from the stadium. Perfect! hiked through what seemed like every greek house on campus. We talked with some Auburn fans and learned what War Eagle! means. Something about a Civil War soldier rescuing an Eagle during some battle. A nice group of Auburn fans hooked us up with a couple chicken sandwiches and some brownies.

Here's a shot of me doing the Wabash outside the stadium while listening to the song on my phone.



Side Note: The Auburn fans were great. I must have heard "Welcome to Auburn" about a hundred times. And the AU fans that I talked to said the same about KSU fans.

Saturday Evening: I ran into a High School buddy of mine before the game. We were standing by the concession stand and Misty said "Ha... look at that jersey. It says Fat Damon" And with out looking I knew exactly who she was talking about. Damon Parker. It was cool to see him, and it turned out that we were sitting a few seats away from each other.

The game was awesome... Except for the last 3 minutes. But I'm not too disappointed, if we can hang with Auburn on the road, we can hang with anybody. I'm still sore from clapping, yelling, jumping and all that stuff fans get to do at games. (I'm usually on the sidelines shooting, so it was fun to get crazy)

Us at the game.... We were 53 rows up in the corner with a bunch of other KSU fans.



Saturday Night: Left the game and drove an hour to Montgomery. We checked with every hotel they had... No Vacancy anywhere. One guy suggested we drive about 15 more minutes off our path and check there. Jackpot. We got a nice room, for pretty cheap, and were only about 10 miles out of our way.

Sunday Morning: Slept in a little past checkout time. Oops.

Sunday Afternoon: Ate at a Hardees' I had two hot ham and cheese sandwiches. I love those things and I can't get them anywhere around here.

Me and one of my Hot Ham and Cheese sandwiches.


Next to the Hardees' was a Bass Pro Shop. A huge outdoors store. We spent three hours in there. We got electric bug zappers. They look like small tennis rackets, but when you push a button, the "net" becomes charged and you can zap bugs. Really cool.

The fishing gear at the Bass Pro Shop.


After the Bass Pro Shop, we hit up a Target for a bathroom and some snacks. Misty craved some Cereal so she got a little thing of milk, a spoon and fork set (for a spoon) and a little tub of Pops and sat outside Target to eat. We didn't want to risk eating milk and cereal in a moving car. She also found a singing tooth brush for Taylor. The brush plays a song for the length of time you're supposed to brush. I wanted her to get Queen "We Will Rock You." But she got Hannah Montana instead.


Sunday Night: We drove about three hours from Montgomery to Biloxi Miss. and found a room across from the beach. Then we hit up a couple casinos. I think I only lost about 5 bucks. I was down about 60 then I hit a nice jackpot on the penny slots and won 55 bucks. I called it quits right after that. We left the casino and hung out on the beach for a little bit. Didn't swim, just chilled in the sand for a while.

Here's a shot of a nice spin by Misty... $48.50 spin to be exact. Those coyotes are all "Wild" so that's an amazing spin right there.


And here's a shot of me in front of the Hard Rock casino. The blue light was pretty cool... I look like I'm about to kill someone. This place easily had the best music of any casino I've been too.



Side Note: Biloxi is a mess. The casinos and a few hotels are up and running, but everything else is still pretty much destroyed. I put it like this... If you had no idea that Katrina happened and you drove to Biloxi you'd say "what just happened here?" I've never been there so it was hard for me to compare, but from what Misty told me and what I could see, the main strip along the beach used to be a hopping place. Shops, restaurants, hotels... etc. And now there's nothing. A hotel or two, maybe one souvenir shop and the only place to eat I saw was a Waffle House.

Monday Afternoon: (No Monday Morning because we slept through it all) We got something to eat and hit the road. About 15 minutes later we see one of those Factory Outlet mall things. We checked out the Nike Store.

Monday Evening: We get back into Houma around 9:00. Misty went to give Taylor the Musical Toothbrush, I went home to unpack. But, as we found out through texts, the first thing we both did after getting home was play with our bug zappers.

If it aint broke...

I shot the first high school football scrimmage of the year this afternoon... and got soaked. But my camera stayed dry. It never fails, if I get totally decked out in all my rain gear, nothing happens. But when I go half-assed, it pours. I got the camera and lens protected with a new "camera rain coat" I got a few months ago, and I put my rain coat on. But I decided against the rain pants. And you guessed it, my pants got soaked.

No big deal, I always tell people that I'll dry off, but it's harder for 10 grand worth of camera equipment to dry off. So in the rain, camera gear comes first.

I guess the rain was what's leftover from Tropical Storm Erin.

Today also makes three days in a row I've been running. I went out and got one of those arm band things that holds an iPod. Now I can listen to music instead of myself breathing hard. It really helps me run because it takes my mind off how tired and out of shape I am. I listen to quite the mix too... everything from The Cranberries to 50-Cent to Guns-n-Roses to Insane Clown Posse to the KSU Fight Song.

anyway, here's a shot I took today at the scrimmage. Hey, it worked, and when you're nine, you don't really care that your umbrella looks like this.

The Tiny Cheeseburgers were a big hit

Well, over a month of work all came together Friday night during the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina Gallery. It was pretty neat to see everything displayed in one place.

I'd guess that about 30 people showed up, but I'm the worst at guessing the amount of people in an area.

About an hour before the start of the show, I ran to the store and picked up some treats to eat. Including: Cheese cubes, Squeeze Cheese, Tiny Cheeseburgers, crackers, soft batch chocolate chip cookies, a veggie tray and Three Blind Moose red wine. (the label looked really cool).

People started to show up around 6.

After about an hour of hanging out and chatting with everybody, I played the DVD I made. A few people told me after the video that they were fighting back tears. I took that as a good thing.

Here are a few shots taken by Valerie Parkhill (friend of Misty's). I gave her my point and shoot camera for the night and let her document everything. Misty also took some shots and they can be seen here. So thanks to Val and Misty for taking photos of the evening.

Here's a shot of the outside of the Museum. It's also a museum about Terrebonne Parish. They have stuff about everything that goes on in Terrebonne Parish. Alligators, Oil, Shrimping, Crabbing, Oysters, Hurricanes... etc. But they have a section of the building open to Art Galleries. That's where my stuff was.


Left to Right: Chris Forrest, Keith Magill, Me, Miles Forest.

Miles is the Publisher of the Courier and Comet. (My bosses bosses boss) and that's his wife talking with Keith, the Executive Editor of The Courier and Comet. (My bosses boss).

A highlight of the evening is when Miles said to me "Wow Matt, I really liked how they set everything up. The frames look good, they're hung very nicely. The video looked good and the food... The Museum did a good job."

"I did all that Miles. I did everything. They just gave me the space to do it"

Then a few minutes later Keith asked "Hey Matt, who did your writing for the video? Because what you said was very well written."

"I did all that Keith, I just talked into the camera about what I did during the storm."

"Did you have a giant poster behind the camera and you read what was on the poster?"

"Nope, I just talked."

I can do more than just take pictures.


Here's the setup of the Gallery. The table of food was right in the middle. The TV that shows the DVD is in the back and the prints are on the walls. There were 21 prints of the Faces, and 18 prints of other photos from Katrina. (I have 21 prints of other stuff... but I bought Hobby Lobby out of 8x10 frames)


I couldn't have hoped for anything better. It was a great night. Misty's dad took some video, and maybe someday I'll get around to posting that.

The ladies who gave me the opportunity to display my work asked if my video could become a permanent piece in the museum. And they want to help this show travel to other museums in the Region.

It's always been a dream of mine to have my own show where people show up, drink wine, eat cheese and talk about whatever. And that's exactly what happened. Soon after shooting these photos in 2005, I was told "these photos are gallery quality." I guess Susan Kille in New York was right.

Crazy Three Days

Pretty wild three days... even for a photojournalist at a daily newspaper... in South Louisiana.

Quick Rundown.

Tuesday:

• -First Day of School (got to school at 6:30 a.m.)
• -House Fire (claimed the lives of two poodles.)
• -Car Wreck (I had a REALLY interesting journalism ethics situations rise from this... but that will be it's own post in the future.)
• Night Out Against Crime (Neighbors marched through the streets... I soaked an entire shirt with sweat)

Wednesday:

• Went down the Bayou to photograph oak trees cracking tombs in a cemetery
• Fatal Wreck... Truck vs Cop Car (Had another interesting journalism ethics situation come from this)
• Murder in Bayou Blue (Get eaten up by mosquitoes while photographing a trailer where the woman lived and talking with neighbors)

Thursday: (My day off because it was my three year anniversary of my first day at The Courier)

• Huge house fire in Dularge. (I think it's safe to say that it's the largest fire I've seen)

And of course Friday is the opening of my Faces of Katrina Gallery. When I wasn't at the house fire on Thursday, I was at the Museum hanging photos. Big thanks to Misty for helping out with that. She has a better eye for seeing if the frames are in line.

Anyway, here are a couple photos from the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire. I've also put photo galleries on The Couriers website. One from the First Day of School, the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire.

First the Cop Car crash. The passenger in the truck died... wasn't wearing a seat belt. The drivers in both vehicles were wearing seat belts. They both had mild injuries. I'll let you make the connection there.


Now the huge house fire. Nobody was injured. A few firemen were treated for heat, but are just fine. Oh, the heat index at the time of the fire was about 110. Nasty.

I know what you won't be doing Aug. 10....

.... And that's watching the Saints play the Bills in the Superdome.

Why?

Because you're going to be at the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina photo gallery at the Terrebonne Waterlife Museum from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. Duh.

But if football is more your thing, that's cool. The show will be up all month.

It's crunch time for me right now to get everything finished. But it's coming along smoothly. And by smoothly I mean spending any second of free time to work on this gallery. I've only taken breaks for work, eat, sleep and watching Bonds whenever he's up to bat.

The museum is supposed to be mailing out post cards to help spread the word. But I haven't seen anything yet.

I've got 42 images I need to get framed... and right now I'm nine frames short. But the Manager at Hobby Lobby said the frames I need will be re-stocked Friday evening. (I purchased all they had in stock last week.... they were on sale)

And I'm working on a DVD that will be played in the back of the gallery. It's a quick video type thing of me talking about how I covered the storm and all that good stuff.

But the reception should be pretty cool. I get to serve food and drinks. Any suggestions on what to serve at something like this are welcome.

There really isn't much else to report. No cool photos really. So this post will be photo-less.

Hope to see everybody on Aug. 10th.

Steel City, Stamey. Stamey, Steel City

I needed a break.

So this past weekend, I took a trip to Pittsburgh PA to visit Nabil, my friend from college. The plan of the trip was to have a good time and not think about anything that might be close to work. I thought about posting from Pittsburgh, but decided to go do things rather than sit at my computer.

Should be noted that this was my first trip anywhere since college that I didn't take my camera gear with me. I only took along my new, little point and shoot camera. It fit great in my pocket and not once did I get a "Wow, what kind of camera is that?" or "That sure is a big camera..."

Anyway I figured I better get something posted about this trip or I might never get around to posting anything. The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy.

So here we go....

Pittsburgh PA; Home of the first Big Mac. The only town in PA whose name ends in "gh" and the only city with pro sports teams that all share the same colors. (You know you knew that but just never put it together until now uh?)

Here's downtown Pittsburgh. There are two rivers that join to make the Ohio River smack in the middle of this town. I'm not even going to try an name those two rivers... but they make a point that's home to a state park called... you guessed it.. Point Park. And it just so happens that Nabil is getting his masters from Point Park University. So there you go.



And yes, we rode that little thing up to the top of the big hill. The "lifts" were built in 1877 I believe... two years before the Pittsburgh Pirates became a pro team. They were used to transport steel workers back home. They still serve the same purpose, But now they're a little more touristy.

Speaking of the Pirates. Nabs and I took in the Pirates vs Astros series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With Nabil being a student, he hooked us up with "College Cove" tickets for 20 bucks on the first night. And for that 20 bucks we got a ticket to the game, a t-shirt, and a $10 coupon to the concession stand. So basically we got stuck in deep right field, got a new "work out" shirt, and my first hot dog and beer were free. I'll take that any day.

Here's the view from those seats. Yea, that window thing was kind of annoying, but made for a cool pic.



Houston won game one.

Quick funny story... Houston has a pitcher named Roy Oswalt. He's pretty good. And the Houston fans at the game would shout "Go Roy Ols! Go Roy Ols" I felt like I was back home at the K watching Mike Sweeney again.

I decided to splurge a little bit for game two. When I went to the ticket booth I told the dude "two seats as close as you can get." We were in prime foul ball location ... but no luck. (Side Note: It's been a life long dream to catch a major league foul ball.... or home run)

Before the game, the Pirates retired a jersey of some dude who played for them in the 20's. They had a nice little ceremony before the game where Hall of Fame member Bill Mazeroski made an appearance. As you know, Bill hit a home run to win the 1960 world series. I think it's safe to say that he's a baseball legend.

So here's Bill walking onto the field... and this will also show you our view.

Oh, this was also 1980's Pirates Logo bobble head night.


Pirates won an exciting game two... 21 total hits I believe. Home runs by Carlos Lee and Freddie Sanchez.

For the Rubber Match, we decided on left field. Figured we should try as many vantage points as possible in the ball park that ESPN/USA Today calls "the best major league ball park." So we got pretty close to the field out in Left and watched the Astros win 1-0. Highlights from game three include. 1: Me watching every pitch of the game because I was keeping score on the score card.... was my first time doing that. It helps that Nabil has been a sports writer for some time now. 2: A closeup visit from the mascot.


So after three days of expensive beer I think we were pretty baseballed out. But it was very much worth it.

In college, I took a history of baseball class my senior year. By far one of my favorite classes. But our final project was to write a 10-page paper on who I thought was the greatest baseball player of all time. Very cool assignment. Most people in the class picked Ruth or Mays or Mantle... but I picked Roberto Clemente. He was a solid ball player... but a better man off the field.

On the final game of the 1972 season, he hit his 3,000th hit. And during the off season, he was killed while on a plane to deliver supplies to an area hit with an earthquake.

He was a Pittsburgh Pirate and there was a statue of him outside PNC Park. So it was pretty cool to be in the city where he used to play. (The Ball Park he played in has been torn down). We even had to walk across the "Roberto Clemente Bridge" to get to the stadium.

So here's me in my #21 jersey by the statue.


On Monday, Nabil and I took a little drive to the Zoo. Yep, two 26-year-olds chilln' at the Zoo. (he got free passes so why not?)

Their newest (and best) exhibit is a tunnel where their Polar Bear swims over your head as you walk through. We saw the bear, but it wasn't in the tunnel area. So we pretty much just walked through this giant blue tube. But, not all was lost because they have another tunnel where the sea otters swim all around you.


And that pretty much wraps up the major highlights of the trip. Or at least the high lights that I felt like working up photos for.

Other points of interest during the trip include.

-Stupid Airlines. My Ticket says US Airways. So I go to their counter and they can't find my information. Turns out, they're partners with United and that's who I'm flying on. But it doesn't say that anywhere. So on the Return flight I go to United and they don't have my information b/c I'm supposed to be on US Airways. Frustrating.

-Lunch at the place Jerome Bettis owns.... right next to Heinz field.

-A tour of PNC Park. We got to sit in the home dugout. (which is on the third base line btw)

-Fireworks show against the Skyline after game one.

-Waiting in line with Nabil at Barnes and Noble to buy the Harry Potter book... only to walk to Wal-Mart and get it there. I did pull a funny joke there though... there was a group of teenage kids behind us in line, so when Nabil got the book, I opened it up to the last page and said "alright, I'm going to read the last page out loud... ready?" And they all started to scream for me to stop. I thought that was funny.

- Trying to catch home run balls during batting practice of game two.

-An interesting conversation with Nabil's neighbor on Saturday night.

-Ordering food from the kids concession stand at PNC park. Smaller portion sizes, but... a pretzel, nachos and a Mt. Dew for 4 bucks... that's less than a beer.

-Lunch at this local downtown Pittsburgh place that serves it's hamburgers with the french fries between the bread. Yep, it's heart stopping (clogging). It goes like this Bread, meat, cheese, fries, cole slaw, bread. There's also a tomato in there, but not for me.

I'm sure I'm missing something... so Nabil, feel free to add anything I might have left out.

It was a great trip and it got topped off with a surprise birthday cake from Misty on my day off. I came home from getting my oil changed to find Misty in my kitchen with a cake.

Up next, the Grand Isle International Tarpon Fishing Rodeo. Yep, be jealous that I'll be there. It's the summer version of Mardi Gras with out the parades.

Weird feeling that I Leica lot

I had a weird feeling today. I got off work around 7:00 p.m. and had nothing to do. Sure, there were things I could do. But it felt weird to be done with work and be at home with daylight left and no plans.

So I took a jog.

I zig-zagged through my neighborhood for almost 2 miles. (1.9 according to my post-run drive to see exactly how far I ran) My goal is to get into the routine of running enough to warrant buying that Nike/iPod combo where the iPod plays songs according to how you're running. It'll keep track of how far and long you've run. Then you just come back to the computer, sync it up and you can keep a tab of your workouts. Right now, I'm one of those runners who just goes out and jogs every now an then. But if I can get into a routine of running 3-4 days a week, I think it might be worth it to drop some cash on new shoes and an iPod.

So maybe getting my running thoughts out in the open will force me to run more. We'll see.

Now moving back to photography... I got a new camera the other day. I got a Leica point and shoot. It's small and black and perfect for just carrying around with me when I don't want to lug my work camera with me.

I think it's kind of funny how people always comment to me about how much they'd love to have my camera when they see me on assignments. It's opposite for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my work camera. But there are just sometimes I don't want to look like a photographer. I like to blend in a little bit.

That's why I got this little guy. It can fit in my pockets and the quality is darn close to the quality of my work camera.

So that's fun.

Here's a shot of me from the new Hobby Lobby sore in Houma. And a shot of a wine tasting Misty and I went to a couple weeks ago. I like my wine to have a deep woodsy taste... whatever that means.

Friday the 13th

Alright.. it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm not finished with work yet.

So yea, I'm tired. Here's a time line of my Friday the 13th.

6:30 a.m. - Wake up call from work

7:00 - 8:00 a.m. - At work searching for archived photo for that days paper.

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Outside in the sauna of South Louisiana taking pictures of the Manning Passing Academy. Peyton, Eli and the other Manning guys are in town hosting a camp for high school football players. Pretty cool... but very hot.

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - At home for lunch. But I came home to find that the leftover Hamburger Helper from the night before had been thrown away. I know it wasn't eaten because nobody was at home near the hours you'd might eat Hamburger Helper. Unless they had it for breakfast.

1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - At the office working on my photos from the Manning Passing Academy.

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - Standing under the Twin Spans (bridges in downtown Houma) while local law enforcement drag the bottom of the bayou looking for a man who drowned while trying to swim. It was still hot.

5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Back at the office making sure the sports guys had their photos, the news guys had their photos, the A.P. had their photos, our photo galleries had their photos and Keith had his photos from everything I'd shot so far. (had 8oz RedBull at 6:00 p.m.)

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - In Chauvin attending a surprise party for a guy who's lived 20 years after having a liver transplant. Friday marked exactly 20 years since his surgery.

8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Back at the office finishing up everything before heading to my last assignment.

9: 15 p.m - Had 12oz RedBull

9:30 p.m. - 1:30 a.m. - Rode along with the Terrebonne Parish Narcotics Task Force while they catch bad guys with drugs. We caught one dude with a little bit of crack.

1:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. - After getting dropped off at my car to come home and sleep, I get a call about a shooting on Main Street. There were two people shot outside a downtown Houma night club. One of them killed.

Now - I'm back at the office putting a photo of the shooting online and typing this blog.

And Tomorrow during my day off I'll be back at the Manning Passing Academy (in just a few hours)... then back in the office editing video from the Passing Camp.

And after all that, I'm only showing you one photo... because it's really the only photo I like. It's of the Crackhead getting arrested.

:)