Oh when the saints go marching in

One win away from the super bowl. Hard to believe.

I couldn't really relate to how big of a deal this is until I talked with my roommate Will... a lifelong Saints fan. He couldn't speak about it because he couldn't think of any words to describe how he feels. It's that big of a deal. The diehards can't grasp that their team is playing for the NFC championship.... and a trip to the Super Bowl. The only thing I can compare it to is when KSU beat Oklahoma to win the Big 12 title. I couldn't believe that we had done that.

Also, the folks who aren't football fans... now are. People are wearing Saints gear, every body's talking about it. Until now, when you started up casual conversations with people, the conversation would drift to hurricane talk. "You get any damage?" "How are things now after the storms?" ... etc.

But now, the talk everywhere is "Can you believe the Saints?"

The words "Saints" and "Super Bowl" are now in the same sentence and it's not the punchline of some lame football joke.

And it's not just about a football team having a great season, it's SOOO much more than that. It's the rebirth of a way of life, a culture. Sure, people have moved back, rebuilt and started life again down here. But the Saints have brought the fun, relaxed and amazing way of life back to this area. Events like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest have helped, but those were annual, expected events that have happened for years. This is the Saints' first trip EVER to the NFC championship.

And it's cool to be in the thick of it all.

Anyway... I thought I'd pass along a few more photos from the game.

1. Reggie Bush jumping over a tackle... with QB Drew Brees making a block. Misty and I are in contact with Reggie Bushes personal photographer. She's making a book of his Rookie season and needs photos. How cool would it be to be published in a book that only Reggie Bush has?



2. Drew Brees celebrating after the final snap on Saturday. The photo agency I shoot for during the games picked up this photo... and Sports Illustrated often picks up images from that agency. So here's my dream... This photo on the cover of this weeks Sports Illustrated. It's ideal. Plenty of room for a headline and teases. A nice spot in the corner of the photo for the mailing label. "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" would look great going behind the players. It's perfect. But that's just me dreaming.



3. Eagles quarterback Jeff Garcia walks off the field after shaking hands with Drew Brees. I think this is about the time I was on TV. I've been told by a few people that they saw me on TV after the game. Also, this shows how crazy it is on the field after the game. I didn't get in there close, so I took a "look at how much media is on the field after the game" photo.



4. It's a must... last game in the dome this season. Funny Story: When we checked in at the media table to get our passes, the guy said "lets see, the Houma Courier, two writers and one Photographer. Is that right?" and we said it was. Then he asked of the three of us, who was in charge. The two writers looked me and said "I guess Matt's in charge." I nodded and agreed thinking I'd have to sign something or that we were in trouble. But he tossed a black Saints hat at me. It had the Saints logo on the front and says 2007 NFC divisional playoffs on the back. It's good to be in charge sometimes.

27-24

The Saints are in the NFC championship game! Everybody cheer for the Seahawks to beat the Bears on Sunday so next weeks game can be in New Orleans.

anyway, I'm still at the Dome... I'm tired... I'm hungry... and I'm ready to go home. But if you want to see more photos from the game, check out the gallery I posted on the Couriers website.

WHO DAT!

Pour Some Sugar On Me

(Pretty easy title to use on this post, but it was the best I could come up with)

I just finished up a slideshow from the Sugar Bowl. Check it out here if you get the chance.

Not much else new to report, Carnival season is underway, and I've started my shopping for stuff to throw off the float. Hopfully by the end of the week, I'll have my bouncy balls ordered.

So here's a shot from the game that didn't make the cut into the slideshow. Brady Quinn getting sacked by some LSU dude.

Ah well...

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

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

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

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

The Stars at Night...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the Fence

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

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

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





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

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

Lift the yellow tape, it's Domino's

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1:

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

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

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



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



3:

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

4:

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

I thought the worst was behind me...

5:

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

(No pictures of that.)

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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






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



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