Play Magic and Cast Spells.... What?

Last week I shot seven graduations in 6 days. Quite a marathon.

To make this years graduation season different (and more fun for me) I did a couple things to entertain myself.

First, I set up a remote camera in the cat walk of the Civic Center. On Monday, Misty helped me set up the lights and camera. She donated her brand new pocket wizards for me to use. (thanks!) Of the four graduations where I used the remote camera, it only worked on two of them. And, of those two graduations, I only got one picture I liked. It could be better, but I learned a lot, so next year... watch out.


But my major project during these graduations were the videos. Before each ceremony, I set up the camera backstage and just let the graduates do whatever they wanted on the Microphone. It was a blast. The reporter, also named Matt, would go round up people to talk, then send them my way. I'd tell the graduates that they could talk about whatever they waned. And what came out was pretty crazy. We had a blast editing down all the quotes after each ceremony. It made for some late nights, but it was well worth it.

So if you get a few extra minutes, check out these videos. I know you won't know anybody, but they're still fun to watch.









Now... everybody say Hi to Misty and Taylor who are at Disney World right now. The last update I got said Taylor was walking around with a goat named Luke at Animal Kingdom. Can't wait to hear the full story with that.

Graduations for Shins

The other staff photographer at The Courier, Emily Schwarze, photographed the 5k Run last Saturday. She grabbed a couple shots of me near the finish.

Here's a quick rundown of what I'm thinking during this point in the race.

• "I should have done a better job of keeping up with the guy in blue" (Who I later found out was named Gerald)
• "I got nothing left"
• "Only a block to go and there are a bunch of people cheering and watching, don't embarrass yourself."
• "Don't let that kid who's been walking/running/walking/running for the last mile pass you again." (You can see him in the far right of the first photo... and he didn't pass me again)
• "They better have some water for me."
• "Dang it! I'm not going to break 28 minutes. Oh well." (I just looked at the giant clock at the finish line)
• "Come on Bob and T shirt... Don't fail me now!"
  

After the race, my shins hurt like CRAZY. I iced them down really good and decided to take a little break from running for a while. The best thing for Shin Splints is rest, and I'm never going to argue with rest. So no running for me... probably through graduation season which starts tomorrow.

But, that leaves my Nike+ goal for this month wide open. I went with trying to run 11 times in May, but it looks like that won't happen now. So unless any of you have a problem with me skipping May to recover from stupid shin splints, I'm just not going to worry about it.

And to substitute for no running, I'll try to post some awesome graduation images and videos. Yes, I'm going to shoot some video. I've got an idea I think might be kind of fun. So we'll see how it goes.

Now for a quick weight update... I went to the Doctor on Wednesday for my bi-annual checkup and they always weigh me. And the past four times, I've turned around on the scale because I didn't want to see. Well yesterday I sucked it up and watched as the nurse slid that little weight thing across the scale. She didn't stop it exactly where the scale was level, but it was close enough to 186 that I can safely say that I'm 186. So I asked her to go back in my charts to see if I've made any progress since I have no clue what I weighed in the past. She said a year ago this month I weighed 206. Sweet!

Dry Bones and Red Turtle Shells

I said to Misty on Friday that I'd think about aspects of the racing video game MarioKart during the 5k Race I ran on Saturday... but I completely forgot. There's a item you can get in the game that will turn you into a rocket and fly you at almost twice the speed of everybody else. I really could have used that around the second mile on Saturday.

I instead focused on the runners in front of me and finished the 3.1 miles in 28:09. I really wanted to finish under 28, but I was pretty happy with this time. Considering how the race started...

There were about 2000 runners and walkers entered. Everybody gathered near the starting line like cattle for the 6:00 p.m. start. We were all packed in on Main Street ready to start. We stood there for about a half hour. So all the warming up I did was pretty much wasted. Come to find out, the lady who was supposed to start the race was just looking for someone to sing the National Anthem. When she said that, everyone groaned and someone just started saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we finally started. So yea, that kind of sucked and I'm using that as my excuse for not finishing under 28 minutes.

I know Misty has some pictures of me from the race, but I don't have them... but... we did find some photos of me on the Bayou Runners Association web site. Here's a gallery from the Over and Under Tunnel Run. And here's a gallery from the Panda Meander. I only ran in one of those races.... So think "where would the photog be" when looking at the second gallery.

Now then... allow me to catch you up on a few things from the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, Houma brought home another State Championship. The Vandebilt Softball team won the Class 4A State Championship. They won 1-0 in ten innings. It was a marathon of scoreless softball. Here are a couple jube shots from after the game.



Here are a couple Houma Sports tid-bits you might be interested in knowing.

1: The starting pitcher for Vandebilt didn't give up a run in the playoffs and had a ridiculous amount of strike outs.

2: Another Vandebilt athlete was mentioned in last weeks sports illustrated. Rachel Laurent has the nations second best female pole vault this year. (and she also racked up the most photo awards in the schools annual art contest judged by me and Misty)

3: For a collection of celebration photos all taken in the course of one week, take a look at my sportsshooter.com member page here.

Now... how about some music?

Misty and I hit up Jazz Fest again this year, and aside from a little mud and a few (thousand) lovebugs, we couldn't have asked for a better two weekends of music.

It was pretty hot on Saturday. Thank god for these tents.



And a photo of me in front of a giant fan blowing mist.


And I think every music festival has one of these guys. We found him during the Amanda Shaw show. (He's holding a fly swatter in case you were wondering)



I've got a couple more videos I'd like to share, but YouTube is down right now so they'll have to wait. So enjoy these photos for now.

After the final show on Sunday, we were walking out of the festival area... You can't expect a photographer to pass up light like this can you? (On a side note, I ordered a Crawfish Pie soon after taking this image. I didn't really need it, but figured since I only get Jazz Fest food one a year I better make the best of it.)

While walking back to our car, we had to pass through a neighborhood. A couple of local residents hooked up a bubble machine from their second story balcony. So of course misty and I played in the bubbles for a while. Here's Misty taking a photo with her new Leica point and shoot camera.


As you'll notice, Misty is supporting a new Jazz Fest chair. I too am the proud owner of a Jazz Fest chair. I know what you're thinking... "Wow Matt, you guys must have dropped an arm and a leg for a Jazz Fest lawn chair like that." Wrong. They were free. It's amazing what you'll find scattered across the ground after everybody has left a concert. One of the Stage Managers said he combs through the grounds each year looking for stuff that would just get thrown away otherwise. And we've already put them to good use, they make perfect chairs for playing video games in the living room.

Another fun filled Jazz Fest. And here's an early invite to anybody interested in next years Jazz Fest.

I'll leave you with a bit of bragging if you don't mind... I recently found out the results of the Louisiana Press Asso. annual contest. There are 4 photo categories (News, Feature, Sports and Multi-Picture). They give first, second and thirds in each category for a total of 12 awards. And the awards are presented during a banquet that concludes a weekend of meetings and speakers.

Well, I took home 10 awards. I swept Sports, Muli-Picture and Feature. And I got First in News.

But, I've got to add that I only competed against 4 other newspapers in the state. We get divided up by circulation size. And don't get me started on the contest rules and judging. So I'm happy to have eared all the awards, but this contest really isn't a fair judge of newspaper photography in Louisiana.

What I'm probably most proud of is the fact that one of my photos was voted as Best of Show in the entire contest. All the winning images are displayed through out the weekend and the people attending can cast their vote for what they think is the best of the best from every winning photo in the contest. Not just in a particular circulation size, but everybody. So that was pretty cool winning that. I don't know how many people voted, but I know the voting box was completely full of ballots when I cast mine. Easily over 100.

Anyway, here's that image. It's a local kid practicing before going to a national cheer leading competition. Cool Side Note: I used a little piece of equipment that Misty had just gotten me to take this picture. I was lying on the ground with my camera in the grass. And Misty had just got me an Angle View Finder thing that attaches to the eye piece on my camera. It allows me to look down into my viewfinder rather than have to crank my head in awkward positions to be able to see through my camera. So thanks Misty!

I think that's it for now. Go Hornets!