Sportscenter and wall of lebron

This is Nabils living room. Where sportscenter is almost always on and
the "LeBron Wall" is always being updated.

One of the more recent updates... A photo by misty from the all star
game.

Steel City, round two

I'm back in Pittsburgh for another weekend of Pirates baseball and whatever else we do.

We're getting ready to head out, but I just wanted to let you know to keep checking back because I figured out a way to post to this blog from my phone. So I'll be posting photos on the go.

First stop today... Lunch.

Second stop... The old Forbes Filed wall.

so stay tuned for the adventures of Nabs and Matt

18 Ten Ten

The Mannings were in town this last weekend for the annual Manning Passing Academy. A camp geared towards high school quarterbacks and receivers. (but Tight Ends and Running Backs can go too)

This years camp had a little more meat behind it because Peyton and Eli are both Super Bowl MVP's now.

Anyway, here are a couple shots and a video I made from the event.






A cool thing happened on Friday while I was shooting the camp. I saw three little kids all wearing Manning jerseys. Two Eli's and a Peyton. I followed them around trying to get a cool shot of all three. I asked their grandpa for their names. He was really nice and told me he was Peyton Manning's high school football coach. I told him that I had taken a picture of him and Peyton last year at this camp.

And he went "OOHHH yea!!! that was you? I loved that picture. They've got it hanging in that restaurant. And it's autographed by Peyton. That was a great shot."

I had forgot that the picture ran in the Times Picayune. And his son owns a pizza place in New Orleans. They had printed the picture, got it autographed and hung it in the pizza place.

So on Saturday, after feeding ducks and playing Frisbee, Misty, Taylor and I went there for dinner. Pretty cool I thought.

here's the three kids...


And here's the picture from the pizza joint.

Sparks Flew, Emtions ran high

I can't quite back this fact up, but I'm pretty sure Friday was the first time since before college I haven't worked on the 4th of July. With the exception of the summer I spent in North Carolina and didn't have a job, I think I've had to work on every fourth of July.

But that didn't stop me from taking pictures.

So Friday afternoon Misty, Taylor and I picked up some fireworks at a local stand, grabbed some lunch, then hit up a Dollar General store for some cheap toys.

We headed over to Val and Dustins place and slid on the homemade slip-n-slide (huge piece of plastic, dishwasher soap and water). After drying off, we ate some crawfish and started popping fireworks.

In past years, I've ether had to not pop fireworks because I've been working, or had to leave the party early to go work.

After a few hours of smoke bombs, waterproof firecrackers in the bayou and other random fireworks, we busted out the cheap Dollar General toys.

Misty got some plastic boats that we strapped fireworks too and pushed them into the bayou.



After the toys were destroyed and the night came to an end, Misty and Taylor went on a sparkler marathon. I don't know how many they went through, but it was a bunch.



I didn't shoot many pictures throughout the night, but Misty did. I know she got some really cool stuff during sunset and me jumping by the light of one of those strobe things. So check with her to see some better photos. But here are a few I did shoot during the sparkler marathon at the end of the night.


We had a bunch of stuff left over, so now we're ready for New Years Eve.

If I'd only had a BIg Mac

Tuesday night, Misty and I decided to go on a healthy kick and have grilled chicken and corn for dinner. Looking back, having a Big Mac with fries would have been better for me.

Wednesday night I tried to go to bed around 10:00 p.m. (Very early for me) I was starting to have some stomach pains and hoped that getting a good nights sleep would do the trick.

Not so much... I tossed and turned all night and didn't get any sleep. Around 6 a.m. I "tossed my cookies" and hoped that'd be the end of it. I called Mom to see what I should do. I ended up talking with mom and dad for close to an hour. We decided that I should call my Doctor and see what he had to say. At this point, I was feeling much better.

I called the Doctor and they didn't open for another hour, the nurse said I could go to the E.R. or wait an hour and come in when they open at 8. Since I was feeling fine, I thought I'd catch an hour of sleep then go to the Doctor.

again... not so much.

I laid back down and the stomach pain came back, just as bad as before. I called Misty, she came and took me to the ER.

Before I could leave my house, I "tossed more cookies." We made it to the ER and I had to use a wheel chair to get inside. After checking in, we looked for a spot for me to lie down. But I felt that more "cookies" needed to be "tossed" so I directed misty to "Go that way... fast" and pointed to the bathroom. And thank God... because that was the last of my "cookie tossing"

They put me into a little room and two Nicholls State Student Nurses came to draw blood and hook me up to the IV.

I don't quite remember the specifics, but at one point, I had a nurse on one arm injecting drugs (for pain and nausea) and one nurse on the other arm trying to get take blood for tests. The drugs went in just fine... but the other nurse had quite a bit of trouble getting the needle in. So a nurse from "the lab" came to help. She had trouble too. Then another student nurse came in to watch, and some other lady came in to check on everybody. Then some other lady came in for me to sign some papers.

I think at one point there were five nurses a Doctor plus me plus Misty in this tiny ER room. I just started laughing.


Anyway, I started feeling much better, and I was able to take a couple naps on that uncomfortable bed. They did some X-rays and a CT Scan and determined that something had blocked my colon.

My doctor finally came down to the ER to check on me (he was waiting for the test results, it's not like he was just really late). And asked me what I had for dinner Tuesday night. I couldn't remember, but Misty did. "We had chicken and corn"

And the Doctor said... Corn doesn't digest very well, and therefore can get caught in the colon pretty easily. So that's probably what caused your blockage since you said the symptoms started After you ate that dinner. So see... if I'd only had a Big Mac and Fries.

So there you have it. A blocked colon plus some inflammation from my Chrones made for a pretty miserable 12 hours. The Doc said I could check into the hospital and stay there over night. I thought that might be kind of cool, but since I was feeling much better, I figured my own bed would be better for the night.

But I'm feeling much better now, still a little sore, but pretty much back to normal. I'm on a pretty specific diet for the next few days. NO FRESH FRUITS and NO FRESH VEGGIES the doctor said. No whole grains or any milk product. And best of all... No Pickles. That one won't be a problem.

A big thanks goes to Misty for spending the day with me in the ER. Our room was about 58 Degrees and the chair she had was like sitting on bricks. But a new Dodge hoodie and some bowling socks kept her warm and she pulled up a foot stool and was able to get comfortable.

Oh, and when I got home from the hospital, I got a call from my publisher (who has never called me) asking if knew about the fire. I had heard some sirens but hadn't heard about any fire. I looked out my bedroom window and saw a HUGE thing of black smoke about two blocks away. So I walked over there and grabbed a few pictures. Not sure what happened, but it was some old warehouse that caught fire.

1.21 Jiggawatts!

First, a quick story....

A while ago, I misplaced a couple items that I wish I hadn't. My money clip and my 2GB flash card.

I tend to lose these guys quite a bit because they're fairly small. But most of the time, I leave them in a shirt or pants pocket and I'll find them in a day or two.

Well, I went about a month with out my money clip and a good two weeks without my 2GB flash card. I was past the "oh, it'll turn up" point.

The flash card is worth about 40 bucks, so it's not a huge deal, but still... and the money clip was a college graduation gift, so I was a little more worried about that.

Last Saturday night, I get an email from Misty at 10:30 p.m. asking if I want to meet her in New Orleans (She's shooting a wedding and was going to be done around midnight)

So I take a quick shower and get dressed. I put my hands in my jean pockets and... MONEY CLIP!!! with about 12 bucks. I forgot that I wore those jeans a while back.

I was feeling lucky for having found my money clip so I started searching (some more) for my flash card. I look inside the little pockets of my backpack because I was using that bag the last time I used the card. And.... no flash card... but I did find 40 bucks!

I figured since the flash card is worth about 40 bucks, I'm about even.

Until I go to the casino... stupid penny slots.

Then yesterday, I notice that the lapel pin I got at the 2004 fiesta bowl is missing from my car. I had it pinned up between the visors. And in my search for that pin, I find my flash card.

SO... now, I've got my flash card, I've got my money clip. (still up about 10 bucks from that 40 I had not idea existed) But I'm out a free pin from the KSU vs Ohio State fiesta bowl.

eh... it'll turn up.

Now then, on Tuesday night, I was driving home after some BBQ at Val's house for her birthday (everybody say Happy Birthday Val!!). During the drive, I kept seeing a bunch of lightning.

For me, seeing lightning is like seeing a pretty snowfall, or an amazing sunset, or sweet light.... I just get this urge to photograph. It's a feeling like "I can't waste this chance to use what nature is giving me to make photographs." It's an anxious feeling.

I decided I wanted to go to the Downtown Marina and try to get some lightning pics from under the bridges. I couldn't get there fast enough. Each red light seemed to take twice as long and everybody went 5 mph under the speed limit.

I cross over the bridge to the West side (the side with the marina) and make the u-turn to get to the Marina.

But stupid me was in the wrong lane... so I was forced to cross back over the bridge to the east side.

At this point, I was so frustrated, I just knew all the lighting would be over by the time I got back to the West side, so I said "Screw it, I'll shoot the lightning from the East side."

Kind of glad it happened that way now...


And, if you get a chance... I've made a slight change to my website. With my very limited web design skills, I created a multimedia page. There's only one thing up there right now. But there will be more soon.

Oh... and I started back running again today. I felt like a million bucks during my 2-mile jog tonight. It's going to take a small miracle for me to reach my goal for this month... so if anybody has some KU gear they don't need, I'm taking donations. Will wearing a Paul Pierce Finals MVP shirt count as KU gear?

Something to fill the gap

Yea, I know, it's been a while.

I have to go find a feature right now, but I thought I'd fill this gap between posts with a little multimedia thing I made yesterday.

A group of dancers from New Zealand performed at the Library. It was pretty cool.

And using the built-in microphone on my camera (usually used to record notes when I don't want to write things down) I made this slideshow.

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!